The Vent and Rant Thread

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I think you may have discovered a secret of animal behavior...their humor has a bit of a cruel streak!

Yes, I think that's somewhat true. After all, they're critters, and aren't encumbered by consciences. Bless their hearts. I loves 'em, anyway.

Hitch

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

The problem with a broken toe is that it sticks out at least 30 cms in front of where the shoe ends. I don't quite know HOW it does that, but it does.

Would that be 30 mms? Or is it some form of metric humor vouchsafed to one of an imperial bent? A play on the word foot, perhaps? Since by my calculations, 30 cms is about a foot long and even exaggerating for effect, I can't picture a broken toe extending for a foot if you're not Sideshow Bob.

[CRussel]

Yes, it was deliberately a metric "foot". My idea of humour, which I admit is sometimes a triffle odd.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Lol.

I think the joke works best on those of us in fractured (pun not intended) metric countries like Canada. Ask me how far Calgary is away and I'll say about 700km, but ask me how tall I am and I am five foot ten inches, although I've taught myself to know 178cm now.

Todays rant: Websites, especially stores that ask for an email address prior to letting you browse. Instant no sale or interest from me.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I know science is fun and all, but wasting salt and a destroying a 2 litre bottle of Coke in order to half blow up a balloon is pretty wasteful. I can blow up a balloon without my mouth: it's called a bicycle pump with a ball-inflation adapter.

Blow Balloon without ever using...

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

^Lol.

I think the joke works best on those of us in fractured (pun not intended) metric countries like Canada. Ask me how far Calgary is away and I'll say about 700km, but ask me how tall I am and I am five foot ten inches, although I've taught myself to know 178cm now.

Yup. It's 9 degrees outside, but my oven is baking cookies at 400 degrees. And I have no idea how tall I am in cm. Except that I'm 5' 9 1/2". And when I make sausage, I measure the meat in pounds but everything else in grams. The butcher charges me $4.49/Lb. for pork bellies, but my flour comes in 10Kg bags. That's Canada, for you - totally fractured metric.

[Stitchawl]

Thailand is completely metric... except for fabric.
Everything is measured in kilo, grams, centimeters, milliliters, etc., except cloth, which is sold by the yard.

Coming from the US, I had no clue as to metric usage before I moved to Japan. Took me a while to come to terms with buying meat in the supermarket priced by 100gm units. Kilometers were easier to deal with when driving, horizontal meters pretty easy too, as were vertical distances 'down' when scuba diving. But like many of you, I still have difficulty (after 25 years in Asia) of dealing with small vertical distances up, such as my height.

Stitchawl

[kindlekitten]

In Germany I did quite well with distances in klicks. Weight was only so so. When buying meat I was usually pretty far under what I wanted, but increasing was usually fairly easy

[Bilbo1967]

Does anybody else use "stones" to measure weight?

If you tell me you weigh 140lbs, I wouldn't immediately know what that meant. Tell me you weigh 10 stone though and I know immediately.

[kindlekitten]

I don't think so, and the stones have always been confusing to me

[PeterT]

I still think in stones (for personal weigh). Now why on earth didn't we measure weight in Stones AND Pebbles?

[pdurrant]

Is it too late to have a rant about Mr Heath (as he was then) slowing metrication and Mrs Thatcher abolishing the UK Metrication Board?

We could have been properly moved over by 1975, or 1980, instead of having very slowly moved to metric over the past thirty years, and still not being completely there. What a waste!

(On a personal level, I'm 1.8m tall and weigh 74kg. I do understand heights in feet and inches, and weights in stones. But I confess I have to convert weights in pounds to kilograms before I have any grasp on what they mean.)

(BTW, Kilos to pounds is easy - double and add 10%. 74kg = 148+14.8 = (rounding) 173lb. or about 11.5 stone)

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

(BTW, Kilos to pounds is easy - double and add 10%. 74kg = 148+14.8 = (rounding) 173lb. or about 11.5 stone)

Like Celsius to Fahrenheit which also is a doddle. Double, subtract 10% and add 32°. 15°C = 30-3+32 = 59°F. It's the other direction that takes more figuring.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

(BTW, Kilos to pounds is easy - double and add 10%. 74kg = 148+14.8 = (rounding) 173lb. or about 11.5 stone)

Originally Posted by issybird

Like Celsius to Fahrenheit which also is a doddle. Double, subtract 10% and add 32°. 15°C = 30-3+32 = 59°F. It's the other direction that takes more figuring.

It's a whole lot easier than that. Just estimate. After all, unless you are talking about someone's illness and fever, or baking a quiche, being off by a degree or three doesn't amount to anything.

I know that if it's 35°C I'll wear a T-shirt. If it's 35°F I'll wear a sweater. Don't need much more accuracy than that. And at our ages, we can certainly estimate the temperature without a thermometer, right?


Stitchawl

[kindlekitten]

Well there you are!

I got really good with kilometers while I was in Germany. I still struggle with everything else. I thought Britain had been on the metric system since forever. Didn't we, here in the states pass a law to go metric back in the 70s?