Brexit

[Suranis]

I think this doesn't go far enough. I want to be able to measure wine (or other fruit beverage) production in hogshead to the hectare.

Hectare's are a Metric measurement you Euro loving quisling! You want a good English Acre! Anyone who is patriotic can remember 43,560 Square feet is an Acre! Much easier than 10,000 square meters to a Hectare!

[Chilidog]

I think this doesn't go far enough. I want to be able to measure wine (or other fruit beverage) production in hogshead to the hectare.

Hectare's are a Metric measurement you Euro loving quisling! You want a good English Acre! Anyone who is patriotic can remember 43,560 Square feet is an Acre! Much easier than 10,000 square meters to a Hectare!

Hogsheads to roods

[johnpcapitalist]

I think this doesn't go far enough. I want to be able to measure wine (or other fruit beverage) production in hogshead to the hectare.

And speeds in furlongs per fortnight.

My high school physics teacher required us to convert a number of measurements such as the speed of light into furlongs per fortnight on the final.

[raison de arizona]

[jcolvin2]

I think this doesn't go far enough. I want to be able to measure wine (or other fruit beverage) production in hogshead to the hectare.

And speeds in furlongs per fortnight.

My high school physics teacher required us to convert a number of measurements such as the speed of light into furlongs per fortnight on the final.

Despite living in the US, I endeavor to convert all measurements to metric. You never know when you will be asked to provide an answer in Newtons.

[Volkonski]

Before retirement I worked for one of the most multinational of petrochemical companies. Much of the equipment we used was only available from companies in Europe or east Asia. So even our US plants were designed and operated using the metric system.

Speaking of the metric system, in the USA we sell milk by the US gallon but we sell Coca Cola by the liter.

[tek]

Despite living in the US, I endeavor to convert all measurements to metric. You never know when you will be asked to provide an answer in Newtons.

Off Topic

The first printed-circuit board I designed in 1987 had all-inch components.
By 1993 parts were a mix of metric and inch, and the layout systems were having a heck of a time dealing with that. Today they are somewhat better, but it is still a pain in the butt.. typically you have a "routing grid" for the whole board, and that is either in mm or mils.. when you're trying to connect to a pin, or worse trying to route between pins, this gets to be an IQ test.. many/most tools allow you to do local grids or temporary grids, but that just causes other heartache..

also

newtons.jpg (183.67 KiB) Viewed 962 times

[jcolvin2]

While I was never a big fan of Fig Newtons, in the late 1980s, I discovered a somewhat similar Taiwanese pastry (鳳梨酥 - fenglisu) that used pineapple, rather than fig, for the filling. Much better.

[Chilidog]

I think this doesn't go far enough. I want to be able to measure wine (or other fruit beverage) production in hogshead to the hectare.

And speeds in furlongs per fortnight.

My high school physics teacher required us to convert a number of measurements such as the speed of light into furlongs per fortnight on the final.

me too.

[Chilidog]

I think this doesn't go far enough. I want to be able to measure wine (or other fruit beverage) production in hogshead to the hectare.

And speeds in furlongs per fortnight.

My high school physics teacher required us to convert a number of measurements such as the speed of light into furlongs per fortnight on the final.

me too.

[noblepa]

Before retirement I worked for one of the most multinational of petrochemical companies. Much of the equipment we used was only available from companies in Europe or east Asia. So even our US plants were designed and operated using the metric system.

Speaking of the metric system, in the USA we sell milk by the US gallon but we sell Coca Cola by the liter.

And you haven't been able to buy a fifth of whiskey in decades. All alcohol is sold (I believe, by law) in metric measurements. What used to be called a fifth is now 750ml.

Most American-made cars use metric nuts and bolts. I know that I need to use metric wrenches to work on my Chevrolet.

I imagine that the same is true in the UK, and I doubt it is going to change. The car companies aren't going to go back to imperial measurement any time soon.

What Johnson could do, that would cause chaos, is to order that all road signs in the country be changed to miles and miles per hour, rather than kilometers and kilometers per hour.

Do cars in the UK have speedometers that are capable of showing speeds in mph, rather than kph? That could be a disaster when a lot of drivers see a speed limit sign of, say, 60mph, and they can't do the mental arithmetic to know what their kph speedometer is telling them.

[Uninformed]

For safety reasons UK speed limits are still (!) shown in mph as on speedometers (etc). Most, if not all, non-digital display speedometers have a primary scale in mph and secondary markings in kph. Now digital displays are becoming the standard most/all displays can be set to imperial or metric.

I suspect that proposed(?) “reversion” to imperial measurements is the same nonsense that the media has been spreading for years. Although (almost all) measurements are legally required to be shown as metric there has never been a requirement to not show imperial measurements alongside them if a “little-englander” really wanted too, just as there has never been a prohibition on putting the crown symbol on a pint glass.

It’s really just a continuation of the Brexit misinformation such as the EU requirement for “straight” bananas. Sadly a large number of people believe Boris and chums just like the Americans who appear to trust your DFO and his minions.

[Sam the Centipede]

For safety reasons UK speed limits are still (!) shown in mph as on speedometers (etc).

For safety reasons? I doubt that, I suspect it is because there is/was little pressure to change from anybody and it would require a courageous government to propose the huge expense of the changes on road signs against many people either wholly against the plan or merely not seeing any positive aspect to the change worthy of the price.

The republic of Ireland has changed to km and km/h - according to Wikipedia (peace be upon its omniscience) they amended speed limits in 2005. I suspect that this is because Ireland is far more pro-EU and internationalist than the UK, and, of course, lacks sentimental affection to measures imposed by the country's former masters.

As in the UK, old measures remain in traditional areas, such as pints of beer, and halves ("a glass" in a bar in Ireland but "a half" in England, there's language in play for you!). And I'm fairly sure some packaged commodities (e.g. butter) are sold in 227 g and 454 g packs, the old ½ lb and 1 lb packs even if pounds and ounces appear nowhere on the label.

What some Brits appear to not understand is that mandating metric measures for labels does not criminalise talking about them, it is not mind control. In France, birthplace of the metric system two centuries ago, a shopper can still request "une livre de pommes" (a pound of apples) and expect half a kilo. It gets confusing (in that quatre-vingt dix-huit way of the French tongue) if the shopper demands "une livre un quart" (one pound and one quarter) because the quart is a quarter of a kilo, not of a pound, so it's ¾ kg. But I doubt anybody does that!

The proposal in the UK appears to be what Boris Johnson describes as "throwing a dead cat on the table". It conjures the image of him asking "is the stink of this ridiculous dead cat of an idea strong enough to distract from the rancid stench of my and my party's lies, corruption and incompetence?"

[Suranis]

The republic of Ireland has changed to km and km/h - according to Wikipedia (peace be upon its omniscience) they amended speed limits in 2005. I suspect that this is because Ireland is far more pro-EU and internationalist than the UK, and, of course, lacks sentimental affection to measures imposed by the country's former masters.

Yep. I remember when the signs were converted over. Officially the conversion period was a month, and of course some very loud people started saying that they shouldn't do it becasue during the conversion people might get confused and think the speed limit was 100 Miles an hour. Rather than tell these people that they were effing stupid, the solution was to order that the signs be covered up till the last day, when council workers would have to run around to every sign in the country to remove the covering.

Because not having any number visible at all is better than seeing 100. You see.

Naturally, I never saw a single sign covered over. They probably all went to the Pub that final day, and I don't blame them.

[Sam the Centipede]

I dimly remember "H Day" (Dagen H) in Sweden in 1967. Overnight, Sweden changed from driving on the left (albeit mainly in left-hand drive cars) to driving on the right, to match its neighbors and all of continental Europe. (H is the initial of the word for "right" in Swedish.)

"What, overnight?!?" some people explaim on hearing this. Errrr … yes. There are obvious reasons why it is more problematic to please in the transition from driving on the right to driving on the left compared with updating the numbers on road signs!

I don't know how Ireland tried to familiarize its population with the change but I use 50 km/h = 30 mph, 80 km/h = 50 mph and those are good enough for having a feel for how I should be driving. There's always the speedo if precision is needed, and conversions for autobahn / autostrada / autoroute / motorway / highway speeds are difficult to remember so it's best to use the speedo always.

Converting between Beaufort Scale and wind speeds in knots or metres per second is much more of a trial.

[Suranis]

To be honest Ireland had been selling cars where the dials had both Kphs and Mph for a while. and a few years before they had swapped them over so the KPH was the prominenet one, and those are still bieng sold. People were just bieng asses, and I think trying to throw roadblocks to resist "the change."

[northland10]

Speedometers in the US have had KPH alongside MPH since at least the early 80's when I started driving and probably earlier (70's which would follow the change in Canada). I suppose this could have been a regional thing as having KPH is helpful in Michigan should you happen to take trips into Canada.

With the digital ones now, I can just set it for either one. There's no option to change to furlong per fortnight, however.

Edit: I thought I remembered our 1978 Chevy Nova having KPH available on the speedometer. I checked only photos and yes, it did.

[RTH10260]

UK risks car manufacturing collapse and guess what is to blame?
"To see Britain getting shut out is depressing."

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2022-05-28 09:07in News

The rapid decline of the UK electric car industry means Britain could become a footnote in the auto industry’s shift to electric cars.

If investment is not increased in the sector then carmakers are set to leave what was once the world’s second-biggest auto manufacturing area, reports Bloomberg.

Jaguar Land Rover, is in talks with Northvolt AB and SVolt Energy Technology Co. about supplying batteries for a range of EVs it may assemble in Slovakia they claim.

Sadly, Brexit has been mentioned as a major factor in this steep decline.

It comes as the UK fell outside to top 15 places in the world to build the next generation of cars.

Britain is also facing a lack of raw materials, government investment and rising energy costs.

EU investment

European governments are lining up huge support packages that have made them more attractive for investment. EU countries have collectively pledged more than 6 billion euros in public spending to build up the industry.



https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/ ... me-324352/

[RTH10260]

Disaster charity drafted in to rescue lorry drivers stuck in post-Brexit queues
RE:ACT Disaster Response has agreed a £180,000 six-month contract with Kent County Council to ease stuck truckers’ nightmare waits to board ferries and Eurotunnel shuttles

ByAndrew Buckwell
19:11, 21 May 2022 UPDATED13:50, 23 May 2022

Post-Brexit Dover lorry queues are now so bad a charity specialising in earthquakes aid and helping war refugees has been drafted in to care for suffering drivers.

RE:ACT Disaster Response has agreed a £180,000 six-month contract with Kent County Council to ease stuck truckers’ nightmare waits to board ferries and Eurotunnel shuttles.

The charity was brought in as the council warned pandemic lockdowns had masked the true severity of hold-ups caused by Brexit – with up to 50 days of gridlock now expected every year on motorways leading to Dover.

It means truckers stuck for hours on the M20 and M2 without access to toilets, food or drink.

At Easter one angry driver – Vittorio Gismondi, of Staines, Surrey – tweeted Transport Secretary Grant Shapps saying: “No loos, nothing. They don’t provide you with food or water. Drivers here are considered like animals. What about human rights?”

The council said it had a “duty to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need under certain circumstances”.

On its website the charity says it “specialises in complex emergencies and crises, deploying highly trained RE:ACT Response Teams in the field”.




https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/t-27028421

[keith]

Speedometers in the US have had KPH alongside MPH since at least the early 80's when I started driving and probably earlier (70's which would follow the change in Canada). I suppose this could have been a regional thing as having KPH is helpful in Michigan should you happen to take trips into Canada.

With the digital ones now, I can just set it for either one. There's no option to change to furlong per fortnight, however.

Edit: I thought I remembered our 1978 Chevy Nova having KPH available on the speedometer. I checked only photos and yes, it did.

Yes. This did happen in the mid to late 70's. There was a concerted effort to familiarize the public with metric measurements called the Metric Conversion Act of 1975.

Metric has been allowed as a USA standard for many years, and the assumption was that as industry changed over, the population would gradually follow. But with no incentive to do so, nobody bothered to change, so they started a more positive push to get people moving. The 1975 act made it the PRIMARY standard and Ämerican Customary Units (i.e. Imperial) continued to be allowed so as not to confuse people or disadvantage industry. The changeover was to be gradual.

One of the most visible results of this push was the road signage on Interstate 19 between Tucson and Nogales, Arizona. Distance signs were in metric, and speed limit signs were originally intended to be in both kph and mph, but apart from a couple of 'samples' the speed signs remained in mph. Distance signs on I19 are in kilometers to this day and it is the only highway in America that is so signed.



Reagan abolished the Metric Conversion Board in 1982 in order to own the libs and the push stalled.

But then, (according to Wikipedia)

Executive Order 12770, signed by President George H.W. Bush on July 25, 1991, citing the Metric Conversion Act, directed departments and agencies within the executive branch of the United States Government to "take all appropriate measures within their authority" to use the metric system "as the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce" and authorized the Secretary of Commerce "to charter an Interagency Council on Metric Policy ("ICMP"), which will assist the Secretary in coordinating Federal Government-wide implementation of this order."

So the conversion continues to progress, but slowly.

[Frater I*I]

I used to have a hat that said "Drugs! Teaching the youth of America the metric system."

[keith]

[RTH10260]

who voted to leave?

source is proBrexit tabloid

‘Nasty, arrogant, English haters!’ Britons furious at French over causing UK travel chaos
BRITONS have reacted with fury against French authorities following yet another weekend of travel chaos between the UK and France.

By JAMES LEE
09:35, Mon, May 30, 2022 | UPDATED: 10:08, Mon, May 30, 2022

Huge queues were reported at Dover this weekend as reports emerged the French had only opened two passport control booths, causing carnage for holidaymakers. P&O Ferries described the delays as “out of control” with the Port of Dover officials claiming the delays were taking hours to clear.

A busy weekend also saw disruption elsewhere, with hundreds of flights cancelled across the UK, with EasyJet and TUI both suffering from issues.

London St Pancras also saw queues spiralling around the building as many headed for Paris as part of the half-term holidays, coupled with the Champions League Final between Liverpool and Real Madrid at Stade de France.

Yet for many, the chaos came as an opportunity to vent their anger at the French.

Express.co.uk readers were most vocal over the French authority's lack of personnel, with some claiming it was almost done on purpose.

Alan Mason said: “The me, me, me Francophiles will never learn.

“The French are nasty, arrogant, English haters.”

Bigzap added: “It is the French being the French again...Nothing changes...”

Donnumnum joined many others in advising people not to travel to France.

He said: “When oh when will people learn the French loathe and detest British people.

“Don’t go there.”

This was reflected by others.

Herb said: “Quite simply, don’t visit France.”




https://express.co.uk.trem.media/news/u ... ar-flights

[RTH10260]

now a third party although very sovereign nation needs passports for the EU

UK passport delays force families to cancel half-term trips
Processing times remain lengthy, despite ministers pledging 700 more staff to deal with backlog

Jess Clark
Sun 29 May 2022 11.00 BST

Families are suffering a nailbiting, up-to-the wire wait this weekend as they face the prospect of having to cancel their half-term holiday plans as ongoing Passport Office delays put trips abroad at risk.

The summer half-term break starts on Monday for much of the UK but a backlog of passport applications has caused months of delays, with some people now set to miss their holiday bookings.

The Passport Office’s most recent advice is to allow 10 weeks to process forms because of a surge in applications after lockdown restrictions were lifted – but many people are still waiting for passports they ordered when the estimated processing period was much shorter.

Thomas Singlehurst, 44, from west London, applied on 8 April for new passports for sons Rex, 15, and Bron, 9, when the estimated processing time was five weeks.

Their half-term trip to France is now in jeopardy.

His younger son’s passport was sent within a month but his eldest son’s was only printed on Friday, with no chance of it arriving for their flight this weekend .

He said the Passport Office had been “impossible to get hold of”. “I would get the train up to Durham to pick it up but it is impossible to contact them,” he said.




https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... term-trips

[raison de arizona]

Eh, the UK passport office probably has English hating French folks staffing it, oui?