General Chat

And fractions too.

A thou means something to me which a millimetre doesn't.

Our old money was so practical.A pound divided so well.

240d

20/-

3x 6/8

6x 3/4

8 x 2/6

4 x 5/-

5 x 4/-

12 x 1/8

You just can't do that with 100p.

I am quite used to the metric systems now - but you know the great virtue of the old measuring tables was its training in mental arithmetic! All you need now is to understand the decimal point. But we had to do sums with uneven proportions of pennies, shillings, pounds - and then with inches, feet, and ounces, pounds and stones. And no calculators, even in written work you had to wrestle them in your head! I see m to remember that "mental" was an important part of arithmetic lessons for years.

Bad loser comes to mind.

The majority voted leave, so get used to it. We voted the way we felt was best for Great Britain.
The fact that other EU members are thinking the same way must say something.


Getting back to the subject...
I still use pounds & ounces when baking. Feet /inches/yards when measuring my needlework.

BTW .............


IGP .....

..... in case it slipped by you, my comments about what happened 200 or so years ago were in response to Rollo's unwanted, ignorant and off topic remarks about Canada and Australia, both countries that he claims to know all about on the absis of a few visits and comments by relatives..

IGP

They'll come round ........... they have to ............... and make the best of it.

That's the point of being in a democracy, having votes and referenda so that the "public" has a say in what happens.

Someone always loses because a majority vote for the other option.

To do otherwise would be a dictatorship, where the public is called the ignorant dirty unwashed and have to be ruled

Do you, or they, really want that???

I thought not!

They just wanted their own way ................. but it turned out they were on the minority side


I'm disgusted by some of the vitriol I've seen expressed on social media by those who lost.

THAT is what is driving away other countries.

There is little pointy in dwelling on what might and might not have happened 200 years ago, or even 50 years ago.

The world has moved on.

The problem with the EU referendum is that that the final vote was tipped by those who lived in the past. Those who have to live and manage the result, who incidentally mainly voted to stay in Europe are devastated.

Rollo

you have no idea what I am talking about have you????????

Yes, there are slum areas in the US and parts of Canada that Brits have never seen before

Much of it due to acts by British and other foreginers back in the day. Now Canadians are trying to right the wrongs that self righteous missionaries did beginning 150-200 years ago.

Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is, and help out???

Thought not!

However, what I meant when talking about planes and conditions was the geographical features found in the US and Canada, the reason why the major cities are found within 100 miles of the border ................

long stretches of uninhabitable land

high mountains

deep cold and ice covered areas

thousands of miles where there is no cell phone reception ........... :-0 :-0 :-0


Australia also has miles and miles of land that is uninhabitable, except by First Nations people, and similar harsh conditions although in reverse .... ie heat where we have cold, sand deserts where we have ice


Remember one thing please ..................

you cannot truly know a country, its people, its problems, etc unless you have lived there for at least 5 years.

I'll find you a job in Inuvik if you wish ............... THEN you can make the sort of comments that you insist on making, but only after 2021.

But please no more parroting of what you relations have told you

Allan Report 25 Jun 2016 11:34

I rest my case :-D :-D

------------

I agree :-D :-D :-D :-D

Let's raise flagon of ale (about 2 pints) to that!

This is what we like to see!

One of our local butchers have just this morning are using both imperial and metric weight. Good for them :-D :-D :-D

There may have been a big surprise had we been balloted upon whether we wanted that change as well.

Yes yes yes yes yes

"Canada and the US are both much larger than the UK, and have much worse conditions that you'll ever see."

how do you think that ?
I have worked all over the USA and seen all sorts of things which as you say have not existed ub the UK in modern times. South LA, old people living in cars in Florida unable to pay for their meds, slum housing in Ontario ...

UK population: 65 million Canada population: 35 million
empty space will never make you rich especially if has been colonised by mosquitos and oil companies. Canada is one of the few countries 3 000 miles long and 100 miles wide ( inhabited bits that is ).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r92FRKD4axw

Despite the size of the USA the outlook of most people is incredibly parochial. Maybe that is why democracy is so strong there.

:-) :-)

ps Graham would not get his a level physics still less a job at NASA. Naughty corner for you
The imperial or US pound is also defined as a unit of force or mass.

One of my distant ancestors lived in a village nr Grantham, Lincs. He had very strong views about this sort of thing and so far nobody has proved him wrong. An apple a day ...

I daresay that Gove's brexit may involve converting England & Wales into an ersatz of Australia rather than Norway. Brexit should have been clearer and those who wanted that could have been given, say, £ 5 000 or whatever Oz points demands and a one way ticket. It would have been far cheaper than the billion dollar hit taken by the City (i.e. UK pensions) and more to come.

As it is now the exit side from Hanning and Boris downwards are backtracking on their promises such as loadsa money for the NHS, ongoing agricultural support and significant cuts in immigration. Apparently their "promises" have been "misunderstood" or even "not made". I guess the big red battle bus was a mirage then.

Now the nasty closet fascists such as Junkers and Schulz are pressing to eject the UK ASAP. a BIG ROW is brewing as our mop headed PM in waiting sees no hurry and neither does Frau Merkel. Merkel wants a UK "Association Agreement". Over time E&W could become more and more associated ...

In any case a big chunk of those who voted brexit or were at Glastonbury now want their money back and have launched a petition for that. It looks set to pretty well match the leave majority lol.

Given the leave vote was razor thin (2%) and that the economic weight was solidly behind Remain the new UK govt is going to be in an extremely tricky position.

Its enemies (many) in Europe and Edinburgh are already putting the boot in.
The real time majority for brexit has probably already gone.
Implementing brexit will involve a lot of pain and trouble over the next few years for which support will rapidly ebb away. The pain and trouble will be greatest in those places which most voted for it such as Wigan and Boston. There are no sunlit uplands of trade with NZ and Oz on the other side either - both are far too small and don't need made in the UK Nissans. China has said the vote is stupid and has no plans for a special UK trade deal.

No wonder Boris and Gove have already said that there is no rush. The near future looks like being a Mexican stand off.

Indeed many serious pundits are wondering if brexit will ever really happen or if it does will de facto be a morphed version of what we had before.

Nothing much will happen anytime soon however much Junkers stamps his feet before the Tories have crowned Boris AND he has held a snap general election which will bury what's left of the Labour Party. Boris will of course want the votes of the millions of Tory remain voters. Quite how that may influence govt policy Q1 2017 work out for yourselves.

heh heh

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Did you know that kilograms aren't even a unit of weight? If you have a kilo bag of sugar; that wieghs 2.2lbs, right? Take that sugar to the Moon and it only weighs about 4oz; but is still a kilogram of sugar. Kilograms are a unit of mass (the amount of matter something is made of). Pounds are a unit of weight, which is the force a mass exerts on the ground upon which it stands. ;-)

I rest my case :-D :-D

Nah, not at all. I am against the idiotic imperial weights and measures system.

Here is the what happened when a Canadian got his sums wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider
It is a very well known event in the aircraft industry ( which is now universally metric )

NASA decided to go metric and there were several non lethal but expensive accidents before they got it right.

http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/weekly/6Page53.pdf

I like the little I have seen of Canada - rellies in Calgary (yes, did go to the stampede), Newfoundland ( I am a fan of "The Shipping News" ), Montreal ( wish I had moved there when I had the chance). less thrilled with Ontario (biz) and Vancouver. Huge fan of many Canadian musicians of whom best known Joni Mitchell, K D Lang, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, BareNakedLadies, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, ... yeah they go back a bit but then so do I.
"On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE

I have lots and lots of close rellies in NZ & Oz who have ended up down under since the C19 and go on doing so. Some are quite prominent in Australian life. I dislike being incarcerated in long distance jets and even more the time and discomfort involved and the inordinate cost if a halfway comfortable seat. Quite how people manage the cheap flights I know not. My niece seems not to care. I have never really taken to the Australian way of life it is true but for those who like it, fine. All I can say is that if it is so beaut why are there "more and more of us" in London? The travel is worthwhile all the same (a) to see rellies - Oz really knows how to party (b) make money (c) see some of Australia's amazing natural sites of which the Gt Barrier Reef is easily top. Unfortunately it is vanishing 'cos of Oz marine pollution of which more is planned in the shape of a giant coal mine.

Rollo also has a down on Australia, Sylvia, so it's nothing personal :-| :-D :-D :-D