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Thread ID: 53435	2005-01-17 12:35:00	Ireland - welcome to the 21st century	Greg (193)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
315089	2005-01-17 12:35:00	Just noticed on late night BBC that Ireland is going metric in their road signs etc. Yay - maybe England and USA will wake up too ;)	Greg (193)
315090	2005-01-17 18:13:00	I don't think we'll see the US moving anywhere near metrics for a long time. The Americans I talk to absolutely go ballistic when I mention anything about their odd imperial system. As far as they're concerned its the only type in the world thats any good and the rest of the world should follow their example, not vice-versa. Good on Ireland though.	Catweazle (2535)
315091	2005-01-17 18:26:00	I don't think we'll see the US moving anywhere near metrics for a long time. The Americans I talk to absolutely go ballistic when I mention anything about their odd imperial system. As far as they're concerned its the only type in the world thats any good and the rest of the world should follow their example, not vice-versa. Good on Ireland though. For once the Yanks are right. We in NZ have adopted some stupid system that only school kids understand. Whats a kilometer? I have to convert it into miles to understand it. As for kilo whatevers. I still buy a pound of butter. Just some silly system to give shopkeepers a chance to up prices without customers understanding. As for megabytes and kbs and mbps etc . I haven't a clue. Jack	JJJJJ (528)
315092	2005-01-17 18:39:00	I'm intrigued. How do you buy a pound of butter. Do you take a 500g pack and ask the checkout to cut some off.	Dally (6292)
315093	2005-01-17 19:01:00	Metric is definitely a simpler system to teach and understand, but isn't it interesting that whenever we refer to measurements of the body we still refer to them in the imperial. eg - a persons height, 'inches' lost in weight loss, and *ahem* the length of a certain appendage	sam m (517)
315094	2005-01-17 19:27:00	Another amusing point. Aircraft instruments are all calibrated in imperial measurements. I always laugh when I hear some brainless TV announcer tell us an aircraft was flying at 300 and something meters when the pilot will tell you he was at 1000 feet. Likewise wind speed is calibrated in knots. But we are told on TV that we had a 50 kilo gale, when the wind was blowing at about 20 knots. Nowhere near a gale. In athletics there is still worldwide interest in the mile race. Who knows or cares what the 1500 km record is? The whole system is stupid. Jack	JJJJJ (528)
315095	2005-01-17 19:46:00	Another amusing point. Aircraft instruments are all calibrated in imperial measurements. I always laugh when I hear some brainless TV announcer tell us an aircraft was flying at 300 and something meters when the pilot will tell you he was at 1000 feet. Likewise wind speed is calibrated in knots. But we are told on TV that we had a 50 kilo gale, when the wind was blowing at about 20 knots. Nowhere near a gale. In athletics there is still worldwide interest in the mile race. Who knows or cares what the 1500 km record is? The whole system is stupid. Jack So you say 9 and 15/16 is easier than 31mm or whatever it is?	Cicero (40)
315096	2005-01-17 20:22:00	Good on Ireland. We in NZ have adopted some stupid system that only school kids understand. Whats a kilometer? I have to convert it into miles to understand it. As for kilo whatevers. I still buy a pound of butter. What makes you say it's stupid just because you can't understand it. If that's your generalisation, then what do you think other people like me are going to generalise that you are seeing as you can't understand it? In NZ, imperial=past=history=old. Your attitude is just another reflection of your age. Just some silly system to give shopkeepers a chance to up prices without customers understanding. How is that possible? Prices go up because of inflation not because of a change in the system used for measurement Another amusing point. Your humour sure is unique ;) In athletics there is still worldwide interest in the mile race. Who knows or cares what the 1500 km record is? Just because you don't care doesn't mean the rest of us don't care. I'm sure if somebody did a 1500km run, the whole world, except you, would care. Seeing as you can keep up with tweaking/upgrading your computer, I'm sure it'd never be too late for you to keep up with the metric system which 'normal' NZers use. :thumbs:	~sy~ (95)
315097	2005-01-17 20:24:00	Metric is a lot easier to understand than imperial but strangely enough I still mentally convert some distances and lengths into imperial to judge how far or long they are . For instance 10 metres is roughly 30 feet, 100 metres is roughly 300 feet and Dunedin is 300 miles away, not goodness knows how many kilometres . On the other hand the fish I catch are measured in millimetres, never inches and the trail ride courses are in kilometres, never miles . Talk about inconsistent . :D	FoxyMX (5)
315098	2005-01-17 20:34:00	How is that possible? Prices go up because of inflation not because of a change in the system used for measurement Don't be too sure about that, Sy. Just ask some Kiwi grandparents about what happened when New Zealand changed over to decimal currency. Inflation was unheard of until then. ;) Your humour sure is unique And very endearing. :p Seeing as you can keep up with tweaking/upgrading your computer, I'm sure it'd never be too late for you to keep up with the metric system which 'normal' NZers use. Leave poor Jack alone, he's one of our major sources of entertainment. :D	FoxyMX (5)
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