Idea for new section
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I have an idea for a new section which all the readers would adore. It's called "Offline with Katja". She could be our main European correspondent, giving us insight into all that is Europe, from programming trends to daily life. How about it Katja?
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Wow. One girl joins this forum and all geeks start behaving funny... [6] This forum needs more women, I guess. [H]
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C# stole my idea..[:D] although it's a pretty obvious one, as our tall skinny
blonde Dutch correspondent is warping the threads wherever she goes
[;)].
I was going to suggest "Flirt with Katja" as the
title. [6]
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@sas said:
C# stole my idea..
although it's a pretty obvious one, as our tall skinny blonde Dutch correspondent is warping the threads wherever she goes 
.
I was going to suggest "Flirt with Katja" as the title.
How tall are you Katja? (in U.S. terms and not some weird European metric system)
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@CPound said:
sas wrote:C# stole my idea.. although it's a pretty obvious one, as our tall skinny blonde Dutch correspondent is warping the threads wherever she goes .
I was going to suggest "Flirt with Katja" as the title.How tall are you Katja? (in U.S. terms and not some weird European metric system)
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omg this forum sucks. I cba to type all what I did, it's too early in the morning. Just ignore me...
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Length: 186 CM. 6.10 feet. 73 inches. 4.07 Cubits. 1.02 Fathom. 0.01
Furlong. 0.09 Chains. 18.31 Hands. 2.44 Paces. 441 Picas. 2.03 Yards.
Weight: 61 Kg. 9.61 stones. 134 Pounds. 34427 Drams. 2152 Ounces.
Did I mention your favorite non-metric system here, or do you prefer another one? [8-|]
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That's the first time I've ever seen someone give their height in
picas. I believe you left out "points", "mils", "rods", "chains",
"Angstroms", "AUs" and "parsecs". Admittedly, none of them are
especially appropriate for describing the height of a woman, but then
one could argue that the only appropriate measurements are:
- too short -- needs assistance to reach things and finds standard furniture uncomfortable;
- too tall -- finds domestic ceilings too low, does not fit in many
motor vehicles and has a constant forehead bruise from door openings,
pipes and/or lighting fixtures; and - just about right.
- too short -- needs assistance to reach things and finds standard furniture uncomfortable;
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Metric System
@Katja said:
Did I mention your favorite non-metric system here, or do you prefer another one?
![[8-|]](/emoticons/emotion-15.gif)
I don't like the European metric system. It's complicated. What is a kilometer anyways? (rhetorical question)
I wonder why Europe never converted to the American system.
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Complicated, eh? How about these:
How many gills in a hogshead? (No, not that gill. Or that hogshead. Guess again.)
A pound of feathers is heavier than a pound of gold. Discuss.
If a gallon of water weighs ten pounds by definition, why are American
children taught that "a pint's a pound the world around?"
Finally, ask yourself seriously what it is about you that makes
trolling thrilling for you, and see if you can get professional help
for that.
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@Stan Rogers said:
Complicated, eh? How about these:
How many gills in a hogshead? (No, not that gill. Or that hogshead. Guess again.)
A pound of feathers is heavier than a pound of gold. Discuss.
If a gallon of water weighs ten pounds by definition, why are American children taught that "a pint's a pound the world around?"
Finally, ask yourself seriously what it is about you that makes trolling thrilling for you, and see if you can get professional help for that.First of all, it's orcing and not trolling.
Secondly, I don't take advice from Canadians.
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Perhaps you should -- we, at least, know what "trolling" means. (And it
has nothing to do with goat-eating things living under bridges or
large, stupid humanoid critters in Tolkein's Middle Earth.)
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That would be
744000 Mils (1 Mil is 0.03 mm)
0,369 Rods (1 rod is 5.5 Yards)
2834,64 Points (1 point is 0,0003527 Meters)
18600000000 Angstroms (1 Angstrom is 100.000.000 Meters)
1,2433321301086912926643404323587e-11 AU's (Astronomical Units, 1 AU is
defined as the mean distance between the earth and the sun is
149.597.870.691 Meters)
6,0278442654581595095603311457822e-25 Parsecs (1 parsec is 3085680250000000000000000 Meters).
There ya go. I'd just simply say she's too tall, 186 is 10cm bigger
than me, and that makes feel tiny. Wich doesn't do very much for my
already small self-esteem[;)]
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@CPound said:
Katja wrote:Did I mention your favorite non-metric system here, or do you prefer another one? <IMG alt= src="/emoticons/emotion-15.gif">I don't like the European metric system. It's complicated. What is a kilometer anyways? (rhetorical question)
I wonder why Europe never converted to the American system.
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wow, 2nd time in 1 thread the evil quote bug has caught me! Anyway...
< I wonder why Europe never converted to the American system. >
American system??! I think you'll find Europe were using
imperial measurements long before Christopher Columbus was even born.
So it's hardly an American system.
(History lesson...)
The imperial system has its origins
in the mists of time. The ancient Egyptians certainly used a version to
build the pyramids. It is based upon human quantities, ie. an inch is a
"thumb", a foot is a ... er.. foot! Another standard for an inch
was three barleycorns. A yard is the distance between your outstretched
hand and nose, etc. A cupful is the amount of water you can hold in your
cupped hands. A hundredweight is the most a person can carry. A handy
sized throwing stone weighs a pound.
Imperial measures are usually based
on 12's or 16's because these can be divided into fractions.
[Source: http://www.bwmaonline.com/Imperial Origins.htm]
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@CPound said:
Katja wrote:Did I mention your favorite non-metric system here, or do you prefer another one? <IMG alt= src="/emoticons/emotion-15.gif">I don't like the European metric system. It's complicated. What is a kilometer anyways? (rhetorical question)
I wonder why Europe never converted to the American system.
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Don't you people realize how amazingly convenient the metric system is? We can easily determine that Katja is .00186 kilometers tall, and weighs in at 61,000,000 milligrams. To do those messy English/Imperial system conversions, you might have to use a slide rule or something. [6]
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@F8less said:
That would be
744000 Mils (1 Mil is 0.03 mm)
0,369 Rods (1 rod is 5.5 Yards)
2834,64 Points (1 point is 0,0003527 Meters)
18600000000 Angstroms (1 Angstrom is 100.000.000 Meters)
1,2433321301086912926643404323587e-11 AU's (Astronomical Units, 1 AU is defined as the mean distance between the earth and the sun is 149.597.870.691 Meters)
6,0278442654581595095603311457822e-25 Parsecs (1 parsec is 3085680250000000000000000 Meters).
There ya go. I'd just simply say she's too tall, 186 is 10cm bigger than me, and that makes feel tiny. Wich doesn't do very much for my already small self-esteem I have to disappoint you if you're ever going to the Netherlands to find a girl. Here, I'm about slightly above average length for a girl. Apparantly, people from the Netherlands are the tallest people in the world. This is probably because we live below sea level so we need to keep our heads above water all the time... [:$]
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@Katja said:
I have to disappoint you if you're ever going to the Netherlands to find a girl. Here, I'm about slightly above average length for a girl. Apparantly, people from the Netherlands are the tallest people in the world. This is probably because we live below sea level so we need to keep our heads above water all the time...
If what you say is true, then I probably wouldn't want to visit the Netherlands. It would be very intimidating to us shorter people. It would be scary walking around in a land of giants.
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... not nearly as walking around with your nostrils perpetually underwater, I'd venture to say.
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Katja: this is a serious question. What does it mean to live "below sea level"? Is that like living in a basin? At the bottom of a deep pit? It is difficult to imagine such a thing. Please explain.
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@CPound said:
Katja: this is a serious question. What does it mean to live "below sea level"? Is that like living in a basin? At the bottom of a deep pit? It is difficult to imagine such a thing. Please explain.
Well, we have a dyke around our country. If we would remove it, some of us would be lucky if their heads are still above the water level when they just stand around but most people would have to swim between the seals if that would happen. In a way, we live in a deep pit.
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@Katja said:
most people would have to swim between the seals if that would happen
Now that's a scary thought. I hope those seals aren't hungry.
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Speaking of seals...
You know how when you were a toddler and they would ask you, "What sound do cows make?" and you would respond with "Moo"?
Well, in the Netherlands, do they ask children "What sound do seals make?" and they respond with "Ark Ark"?
Just curious.
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Actually, seals don't make that much sounds to begin with. Young seals
make some crying sounds when abandoned and hungry but most adults are
silent. I think you're confused with sealions again...
You do know the difference between sealions and seals, do you? A
sealion can stand on his front flippers and even use them to manipulate
objects. They can also bend theit back flippers below their body to sit
on them. Seals have shorter front flippers and their back flippers are
a bit stiff and directed to the back. They can't do much with them,
except in the water. In the water, seals are better swimmers than
sealions because their flippers are more streamlined and more stable.
Seals have a better stamina too.
Another difference is the amount of fat layers that they have. Sealions
tend to have less fat layers than seals. Not suprising, since sealions
live in more tropical and warmer areas while seals are found in the
most coldest places in this world. Which is why the flippers of seals
are also smaller because smaller extremities help to keep body heat
inside.
And if a seal does make a sound, it's more like a bark of a small dog
with the flu than the sound of a sealion. Or a growl if you're in their
way... And did I say already that they have a very mean bite? If a seal
bites you, you'll have to get a tetanus-shot because the bite will be
infectious. Seals are carnivores and wild seals can have pieces of
rotten fish between their teeth, which causes their bites to be
slightly poisonous...
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Okay, I have to know the truth. And Katja, be honest.
A movie where you had attacking seals would be cool.
Admit it. That would be awesome. I would pay good money to see that.
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Attacking seals? Would be a bit like Jaws but with smaller teeth. On land you can easily outrun the average seal, unless you need a rollator while walking. In the water it would be a bit more dangerous but while seals have sharp teeth, they don't have much strength in their jaws. They can't bite off chunks of meat like sharks do. They just use their jaws to grab a slippery fish and then will swallow the fish whole.
Dutch people are more dangerous than Dutch seals. People here do bite pieces off our raw fish, seals just swallow...
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Can seals be domesticated? I know you said something about it being illegal in the Netherlands to have one as a pet, but in theory could you tame one? Could you pet it and would it be your friend?
<FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">Remember, Americans are under the impression that seals are friendly and fun-loving. We know what we know about seals from going to the zoo and to SeaWorld. So take that into consideration when you respond.</FONT>
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Yeah, they can be domesticated but they will stay away from humans if
possible. Then again, a human with a bucket full fish is something some
of them recognize as dinner-time.
They're not very nice pets, btw. They will try to avoid you as much as
possible, don't always like to be petted, have a mean bite and if you
keep them in your pool, your pool will soon be full with some smelly,
floating stuff that make you think "Oh, crap..."
It takes a lot of water to keep seals clean... Which is why most of
them just crap around in the sea. You just can't train them to go
nicely to the toilet...
But they are cute animals once you get to know them. Playful too, when healthy.
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I don't know if you know this Katja, but each US state has a "state bird" or some sort of "state animal".
Is the seal Netherlands' "state animal"?
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@CPound said:
I don't know if you know this Katja, but each US state has a "state bird" or some sort of "state animal".
Is the seal Netherlands' "state animal"?
I thought a lion is the Dutch state animal... [:)] Actually, if you look at the map of the Netherlands at this site:
Then you'll see that the country almost has the shape of a lion, according to the person who has drawn that image...
Btw. I googled and found http://www.ngw.nl/provwap.htm which shows Provincial arms for the Netherlands. Lots of lions, an eagle, a sealion and more lions. Flevoland, out newest province, is the one with the sealion. Then again, thise province is located in a place where there used to be mostly water about half a century ago. And only water about one centuries ago. Flevoland is an area taken away from the sea, so the sealion is quite symbolic here.
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<FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">If I was a king of a country I would make the seal the country's animal because it could be symbolic of toughness (the mean bite), friendliness (seals are by definition "cute-and-cuddly"), and pride (seals look very regal when they "stand" at attention - esp. for fish)...</FONT>
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@Katja said:
Length: 186 CM. 6.10 feet. 73 inches. 4.07 Cubits. 1.02 Fathom. 0.01
Furlong. 0.09 Chains. 18.31 Hands. 2.44 Paces. 441 Picas. 2.03 Yards.
Weight: 61 Kg. 9.61 stones. 134 Pounds. 34427 Drams. 2152 Ounces.
Did I mention your favorite non-metric system here, or do you prefer another one?
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Swell, the HTML formatting spoilt (or hid) my line. Here's a re-post:
Length? You quadpedal? [:)]
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My length in pixels? Well, I'm 73 inches. So on a monitor resolution of
72 DPI I would be 5256 pixels long. But on a 300 DPI printer I'd be
21.900 pixels long...[:$] So in which resolution do you want to know my length in pixels?
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Here's an idea for a new section...The Katja Photo Gallery (in pixels).
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A pound of feathers is heavier than a pound of gold. Discuss.
I know it's old, but that deserves a
.If a gallon of water weighs ten pounds by definition,
why are American children taught that "a pint's a pound the world around?"Actually, that 10 pound gallon definition only holds true for Imperial gallons, but not US gallons. US gallons only weigh 8.34 pounds, which means a US pint weighs about 1.04 pounds. Thus the ryhme is a useful mnemonic device for remembering this relation in US units.
Some of these old thread are fun.
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Are you seriously that stupid? The point of my post was that the Imperial measure accounts for approximately 1/4 of the globe (before metrification) while the US measures applied to a single country with a piddling few teeny-tiny possessions. And yes, a pound of feathers actually is heavier than a pound of gold (since avoirdupois and troy weights are quite different things). You might want to give some consideration to what it is you're smart-arsing off about before you engage with the keyboard.
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Why is this thread in R/W
General?
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Are you seriously that stupid? The point of my post ... You might want to give some consideration to what it is you're smart-arsing off about before you engage with the keyboard.
I don't give a flying belgium about the purpose of your post. I was just having fun after a long day signing lots of paperwork. If you can't tell by my title and badges, I have quite a bit of fun with pedantry. I am an equal opportunist when it comes to pedantry and purposes don't enter into the equation.
And yes, a pound of feathers actually is heavier than a pound of gold (since avoirdupois and troy weights are quite different things).
While true, precious metals are not required to be weighed in troy units, except for purposes of evaluating value. If you were evaluating how much gold you had in order to do some physics based calculations, or to compare amounts of say gold and feathers, it would be perfectly cromulent to use avoirdupois units. Though in the physics scenario it would probably be more useful to measure the gold in metric.
the Imperial measure accounts for approximately 1/4 of the globe (before metrification) while the US measures applied to a single country with a piddling few teeny-tiny possessions.
The point you claim makes no sense, given that you were comparing a unit the US doesn't use to a mnemonic device taught in the US. That's all it is, a mnemonic device. Which is something I mentioned in my last post:
Thus the ryhme is a useful mnemonic device for remembering this relation in US units.
And if some US students don't realize that it isn't fully related to reality, that's no big deal. Why? A few reasons:
- Most of them won't be in professions that require them to know the weight of a pint.
- Most won't leave the US, and thus will not be exposed to the Imperial Gallon, quart, or pint.
- The relationship isn't all that useful in the real world.
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And yes, a pound of feathers actually is heavier than a pound of gold (since avoirdupois and troy weights are quite different things)
OK Mr Smartypants...but what if we were using @CPounds?
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Fuck you all, Metric Master Race! All however many milliards... billions... mil... 109 of us!
Filed under: I'm never going to get this long- versus short-billion war going, but I'll keep trying!
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No matter if Discourse has 10^9 or 10^12 bugs, a billion bugs will always be a bad thing.
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Hold on... NO! I am not letting this off on a Discourse joke! I just got a new sturdier soapbox, and I'm climbing on top of it, right now! Because people are wrong On the Internet. And wider!
The short systems is provably wrong! It's an order of magnitude worse than
kilovskibithing, and unmeasurably worse than metric vs imperial, and we were able to talk about that for ages! Withkiloandkibiat least it's close. 1000 vs 1024, eh, same order of magnitude. With metric and imperial you get a warning: nobody says something is long "3". It's either "3 feet" or "3 meters". You can convert that shit.But with billions it's a freaking mess! 10 billion of something. Good, great, now I have to find out who wrote that and where they are from, and then what system their country uses. Because 10×109 and 10×1012 is not even close!
I said I can demonstrate the short system is wrong, and I can. Linguistics, COMPLAINs!
Relevant: One million (1,000,000) or one thousand thousand: 103×103 = 106
The word billion comes from bi-million. Trillion comes from tri-million. Now, obviously, it's not 2×million – it refers to powers.
Hence:
Billion: (106)2 = 1012
Trillion: (106)3 = 1018Oh noes, you say, what about 109 and 1012? We need those! No worries, we have these beautiful words: milliard and billiard. Now isn't that nice? How can you argue with that? Instead of a boring old billionare you get a milliardaire (French, I'd imagine English spelling being milliardeur, but the Internet is not helpful). Come on. read it out loud. Milliardaire. Isn't that an aboslutely fantastic word? Use it!
Mod - PJH: Pendantry.
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Apparently, the English terms billion, trillion, etc., originated from French. Since the terms in French have varied between long scale and short scale over the years, the use of long scale and short scale in adopting countries likely depended on how the terms were used in France at the time. Basically, it appears that French was using long count when England adopted billion and trillion, but French was using short scale when the US adopted the terms.[1] France has since reverted to the long scale.
Interestingly, and I will defer to any contradictions from our resident Brits on this, it appears that the UK has switched to using the short scale in most cases in as of the 1970s.[2]
Regarding your proposal of using milliardaire, that would be stupid to invent a new term. The English language already has a long count term for 109: milliard.[1] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=billion&allowed_in_frame=0
[2] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales
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Regarding your proposal of using milliardaire, that would be stupid to invent a new term. The English language already has
No worries, we have these beautiful words: milliard and billiard.
Instead of a boring old billionare you get a milliardaire (French, I'd imagine English spelling being milliardeur, but the Internet is not helpful)
Care to retract your objection, sir?
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Touché.
I apologize. My brain is short circuting at my inlaws' house.
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Oh snap!
Make a passing idle quip about a 10-year-old post, get burned by the original poster no less. Brillant!
1,000,000 - Wikipedia
