Metric vs. other measurement systems - chart

[DIYSwede]

-It's just a joke, man!
For all you Kleptomaniacs here (who take things literally), some explanation of the joke could be found here:
https://xkcd.wtf/2073/

Now I won't touch this thread with a 3.048 m pole (neither N & S ditto).

[MeJasonT]

Think of an event in history around 1861 - US civil war perhaps - just as a time line refference

then consider that the standard weights and measures were lost in a fire in 1834 and wasnt until 1855 that the standards were recreated - who know if they were the same as the old ones of not hard to tell exactly as they were destroyed.

1866, the U.S. Congress passed a law that allowed, but did not require, the use of the metric system in trade and commerce

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intern...yard_and_pound

Around the same time France went metric

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16245391

Followed by the UK in 1962

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric...United_Kingdom

We have to accept that the EU has a huge influence this debate. (Mr DIYSwede will be thinking im having another dig, no my friend thats not the case at all. We like European countries just not the EU central government). So we may be switching to Imperial by Christmas just as the US goes Metric.

[mklotz]

... So we may be switching to Imperial by Christmas just as the US goes Metric.

If the UK is so devoted to antique, overly-complicated systems, why did it decimalize its currency? Now that you're out of the EU, will you be going back to £/s/d ?

[DIYSwede]

(Mr DIYSwede will be thinking im having another dig, no my friend thats not the case at all.
We like European countries just not the EU central government).

AFAIK: The European countries within the EU do not seem overly happy being treated the way your politicians have negotiated your Brexit.
Lately there seems to be "some concern" (in the UK and abroad) for yet another special law of yours efficiently violating International Law,
i. e. Boris' own suggested Brexit deal, accepted by both the UK and the EU.
Now: UK-proclaimed non-compliance to the Northern Ireland part of the deal (as I understood it).
Will there now be "The Troubles" 2.0 up there, apart from a darned hard Brexit?

-Well, good luck in your upcoming trade deal negotiations in 2021 with the other countries of the World,
who've seen the ongoing Brexit show and probably already drawn their own conclusions regarding UK's reliability as a trade partner.

OTOH: I can really understand your tiredness of EU central government:
Seems like you've got your own fair share of government inefficiency and incompetence to be tired of and handle yourselves,
so resist any further urge to export them all to Brussels & Strasbourg, please.



Note: I didn't even touch "the Duke of York subject".

[MeJasonT]

This is my opinion and may not be totally accurate in everyone’s opinion - probably best this post comment ends here. no point giving a rebuttal as I’m just going to ignore it - its a subject which gets needlessly overheated.

Its always a pleasure my friend to be on the receiving end of your confusion with our mental state (that being the political one). I ask this simple question, why is it so hard for a country who wishes to leave to do so - i thought it was such a friendly union who respected each other.
The Irish situation, the Good Friday agreement was in 1998 the same year the border was dismantled, Ireland joined the EU in 1973. i wish people would see the wood for the trees. The Irish were still pagering long after they joined the EU. The EU was not the miracle which brought about peace.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...exit-1.3769423

The EU Irish border back stop is actually a brilliant thing by the sounds of it for Northern Ireland and North West UK. if the EU wants to keep a zero tariff zone in northern Ireland then surely Northern Ireland gets the best of both worlds - free trade with the UK and free trade with the EU. The North West of the UK is the supply route so basically the dock yard gate.

i can see why out so called leaders don’t want the back stop or at least want to be in charge of deciding when the backstop ends so it can be in charge of its own territory and not have other nations having control over it. The argument being fuelled by the republic actually has nothing to do with us. Their leadership is the EU take your argument up with them. Why because we are leaving must wen be faced with installing a border and controls - its the EU which doesn’t want trade bouncing backwards and forwards over their border not the UK. Emperor Hadrian didn’t get the Scots to build the wall to keep them out and Trump isn’t doing a much of a job to get Mexico to pay for his wall. It could be a fantastic thing if the EU representatives sat back and just thought for a moment, you know what that means we would get free trade access to the UK through the back door. So who is to blame for all the confusion?

Incidentally we are the third country that wanted to leave the UK, The republic of Ireland was the first, Greece was the second. Both were manipulated or dare i say it bullied into staying in. If you really wish to have a relationship with a friend in future you don’t go to the extremes of making sure you attempt to destroy them in the process. Our friends in the US should know very well how it feels to have your country ran by another nation, they might have kicked the crap out of the British and sent them home. And yet they are our closest allies and friends.
We wanted to leave as we were being used as a cash cow to support the EU whilst it took more and more control and attempted to expand its domain into further countries which would be looking for financial help and re-structuring. Our own nation was becoming deprived and thanks in no part to the fact that we are separated by water whilst the rest of Europe enjoys land connection. We were always at disadvantage. Germany and France always over powering any decision in their favour for the so called good of Europe . Throughout history many unions/dynasty’s have been formed and every single one has come to an end. Even in our lifetime e.g. the USSR.

What does the EU want, for us to say ok sorry we are staying – I don’t think we would get an easy ride getting a remain agreement now either. Rock and hard place springs to mind. The best thing that could have happened was for the EU to sort its crap out and said ok how we can manage this separation rather than blaming and hiding. What’s going to happen with the next country that wants to leave. Probably something entirely different – like a well managed and friendly separation.
So you think we are paranoid, its hard to be paranoid when you know people are actually talking about you behind your back.

I fought for my country and try to stay neutral but now im made to feel like a third class citizen, some of which i can directly blame on EU interference and pointless legislation. Their behaviour has only confirmed my decision.

[MeJasonT]

Its very interesting where this thread has gone. It seems the link to Metric system has dragged us into the EU debate, i wonder how that happened.
Im very mindful of not hijacking a thread - Jon will be itching to hit the big red button and delete our arses.

With regards the Duke id swap him for Anne Sacoolas, both are answerable.
I read yesterday that Jonny Rotten of the sex pistols had been banned from being on the BBC as he called Jimmy Savile a paedophile, ten years before any suspicion was raised regarding Savile

[MeJasonT]

Hemmjo, agreed
I find it degusting how so much of our redundant machinery and tooling end up scrapped or shipped abroad.
This can only lead to a skills shortage and a further lack of services. Company owners on the whole are only interested in maximising profit and preventing any competition from new startups. In reality it is the opposite of what they envisage.

Take a small machine shop which sets up, gets bigger, changes machines for cnc, prices go up. Smaller customers drop by the way and if there is no smaller companies buying up their old equipment and picking up the slack then some products/repairs just don’t get done. If the big company reaches out a bit too far and needs a smaller shop to offer backup, its not there. The whole human/social aspect of work needs to be seriously addressed. Google and Microsoft already control our lives and our governments are insisting on everything going online and necessitating the need for IT in every home. To me PC = work, when im not working i want it the hell out of my life.

So back on point, i have a workshop full of useful items i purchased for projects which have now expired, their true value is a dollar on ebay. I have been listening to Jon Saunders and John Grimsmos business of machining pod cast https://www.nyccnc.com/business-machining-podcast/ In one post Jon Saunders discusses the hoarding of old pipe threading tools. He states his business does not require Pipe threading at this time and does not see any need for it in the future, however his grandfather handed the tools down to him so he is now stuck with a dilemma.

My workshop is a 1/3rd the size of a typical US garage or at least my Uncle Tony's was upstate NYC.
Do i really need the electronic Piano i never learnt to use, 2 old Allen Bradley plcs or the telescope. Not to mention the miss match of screwdrivers and spanners going back to childhood. There are 8 x mt3 dead centres and just other stuff. does JT Engineering have a need of such stuff in its future - no.
Do i have the time to put it on ebay, is ebay straight forward and stress free no. The toss up between skip and ebay is a very fine line, Lettered and numbered drills have no place in my life but when i started out i would have been immensely grateful for them. I never imagined i would own an imperial set of tap and dies and yet i do and use/need them fairly regularly. No machine or tools should ever go in a skip or for scrap and if you care about your countries future development consider handing down your old equipment. Developing countries need our help but to what extent do we risk our own development.

If the great Victorian inventors lived in Africa then we would now be the developing country looking to the rich nation of Africa. The creation and invention wasn’t free, it took time to develop and it takes an organised state to nurture that development. We get a huge amount of blame for the condition and way of life of developing countries but perhaps the need encouragement or just good old grit to succeed. Its easy looking at someone else’s success and wanting it yourself but putting your head against the grind stone and aiming for that ability/knowledge can only come from hard work and effort.

[Toolmaker51]

re MeJasonT and post 106.
That might be the best short essay on such affairs I can recall, and find myself in total agreement.

[Jon]

A little profane, but still very funny. Red Solo cups are American-manufactured, and a classic piece of Americana.

[mklotz]

Some of these ridiculous sizings (they're not measurements) may arise because average adults and their children can't read a ruler or a tape measure. The dumbing down is well into the third generation.