Topic: Episode #349

[Pak]

Wait, what?  Left side of the road?  I don't remember that.  Just thinking about limited-access highway interchanges (all those exit/entrance ramps on the right), that seems spectacularly unworkable.

Elderdoofus, you got one, hook, line and sinker - and with a Dad joke.

[AQB24712]

 

[Chew]

The reason the US didn't go metric like everyone else, is that the cowboy for president in 1981 canceled the conversion. Canada (the US's largest trading partner) did switch. The Canadian sky did not fall,

Actually, the Canadian sky did fall, but fortunately there were no fatalities.

[jawmo]

The reason the US didn't go metric like everyone else, is that the cowboy for president in 1981 canceled the conversion. Canada (the US's largest trading partner) did switch. The Canadian sky did not fall, nor was there rioting in the streets.

That is nonsense. The reason the US didn't go metric is because it had done just fine for 150 years on the English imperial units of measure. Canada could more easily make the conversion, having as it did roughly 1/10 the population of the United States. This is not to say that the metric system is not superior to the English unit; but as a practical matter the former has not been proved sufficiently superior to the latter to replace it. Otherwise, it surely would have done so by now.

[Soldier of FORTRAN]

My car gets 127 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I like it.

(25 mpg, 63 gallons per hogshead, 320 rods per mile)

[GodSlayer]

People will change when there is incentive to do so. I want to be an economist when I grow up.

some will wait 'til the costs of not changing become too high. not everyone rushes toward opportunity.

[James]

No wonder the U.S. can't get their act together when even a science podcast with an international audience still feels it has to cater to the lowest common denominator !

If you don't like it then you can always stop listening to it.

Ya, I suppose if I stop liking the podcast I can always stop listening to it?!  Thanx but I already knew that.

Hey, if you stop liking the podcast, by all means, feel free to stop listening to it.

[Trinoc]

Metrication (and other stuff) again) ..

America is suffering from the same syndrome that afflicted Britain a century or more ago: the belief that because (we thought) we ruled the world then to adopt any ideas that were Not Invented Here^TM would be a sign of weakness and an admission that someone somewhere else was doing something better than we did, which was unthinkable.

There's a theory that something similar contributed to the fall of the Roman empire: while their neighbours were innovating new things they rested on their laurels, believing in their invulnerable superiority. Beware the March or Ide(a)s!

[the_alien_among_us]

Can't believe this hasn't been posted

[WeeDavie]

My car gets 127 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I like it.

(25 mpg, 63 gallons per hogshead, 320 rods per mile)

Being a Scot who has just returned from living in the US for a few years I can quite happily say that the US is crazy.

The simple oddness of a sign saying 300 feet rather than the imperial 100 yards is mind blowing. Why decimalise feet rather than metres? Just plain daft.

[GodSlayer]

Can't believe this hasn't been posted

never seen it before.
would be nice if there was a non-humorous one.

plus, isn't 18 considered the ideal temperature? is 'room temperature' different to that?

[Miisanthrope]

18° C is too cold for me, I am comfier at 20-21°C

[James]

With respect to the metric system you all seemed to think it was a good idea for the U.S. to switch but conceded that that easing into it wouldn't work, it would have to be done all at once.  I think Steve referred to pulling off a bandage- just rip it off!

So when the idea for the podcast to go metric only came up, you guys then back tracked and decided to continue to use both so that people could understand you?!

No wonder the U.S. can't get their act together when even a science podcast with an international audience still feels it has to cater to the lowest common denominator !

The U.S. hangs on to those silly units just like they hang on to their silly religions

My mistake, it was James.

I actually never called Americans silly, I said their system of measurements and religions were silly.

As someone posted earlier, their reluctance to converting may be due to the fact that they did not invent the metric system and thus they don't want something foreign.

So, not silly, just very self-centered and generally speaking a weird sense of pride in being ignorant of all things foreign

[GodSlayer]

18° C is too cold for me, I am comfier at 20-21°C

hmm. apparently. 23 is a good average. ...it was 23 here the other day, and it was horrible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_temperature
According to the West Midlands Public Health Observatory (UK),[1] an adequate level of warmth for older people is 21 °C (70 °F) in the living room and 18 °C (64 °F) in other occupied rooms, although most people (at least in the UK) will find this quite warm

wonder why.

[GodSlayer]

I said their system of measurements and religions were silly.

this clause confuses me.