Fast parcel delivery
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Most deities that humans have believed in throughout history have been pretty shitty, especially in polytheistic religions. In many cases the gods were fighting among themselves and generally displaying the worst of human character defects
OH MY GOD, @blakeyrat really is a deity!
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I would be amused if the game being gifted to everyone was just Bad Rats.
Yeah, I don't know why people are so excited about a random, unannounced Steam game, given that it's a total crapshoot.
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Believing that African countries are still at tribal civilization stage? Check.
It seems like they're more at the military dictatorship stage.
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I want my vid gamezzzzz
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Except for beer which comes in pints.
Real pints (568mL), not the small US pints (437mL). Of course a metric pint is 570mL.
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Real pints (568mL), not the small US pints (437mL). Of course a metric pint is 570mL.
Every time I learn something new about the (many) Imperial measurement systems it gets better and better.
By which I of course mean worse and worse.
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adoption of metric
The UK is mostly metric. The main things which aren't are distances and speeds on roads, and servings of beer and spirits in bars (wine is metric pretty much everywhere). Technically, lots of other goods can still be sold in imperial quantities too, provided the measurements are done in metric; other measurement markings can be displayed as well. It's not really that big a deal.
Weather measurements? Mostly metric (except for wind-speeds). Shoe sizes? Not connected really with anything else anyway. Medicine? Definitely metric. Land measurements? A complicated mess when it comes to the deeds :D (not as bad as Louisiana, which has its own special breed of crazy) but metric for taxation purposes. Fuel volumes? Metric. Things for DIY? Mostly metric (though the older sizes are available, and necessary if dealing with some older properties, which the UK has masses of).
In short, almost all metric. There are bits and pieces that hang on here and there, but the big ones are definitely to do with roads and alcohol. Note that things like bridge clearances are virtually always in metres; the use of the yard as a distance measurement is now rare.
IOW, find something else to go on about. It's too easy to call you on this.
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servings of beer and spirits in bars
Beer is sold in pints, but spirits are sold in millilitres (check the optics). Normally 25ml per shot, though some places do 30ml shots.
@dkf said:Note that things like bridge clearances are virtually always in metres; the use of the yard as a distance measurement is now rare.
I'm fairly sure it's still a legal requirement for Imperial to be on the sign…
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I'm fairly sure it's still a legal requirement for Imperial to be on the sign…
No. I'm pretty sure that there's quite a lot of bridge clearances now marked only in metres (useful because of all the non-UK hauliers about now). The regulations probably were only changed not that long ago, and nobody's rushing to replace all those signs. It'll happen eventually as part of the normal sign replacement programme.
It's one of the more obscure parts of the regs, as nobody who isn't looking after a low bridge over a road needs to care.
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But everything you mentioned, except for the temperatures in weather reports, is true of the US also.
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But everything you mentioned, except for the temperatures in weather reports, is true of the US also.
Truck loads aren't measured in pounds? Bridge heights in feet? Houses in feet and inches?
I think you're telling porkies.
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Beer is sold in pints,
Is this still really true? I know around here many pubs have gotten rid of pint glasses for smaller ones. It wasn't that long ago I'd get a pint of XXXX but now I drink better beer
Also, I'm always reminded of the scene in the book 1984 where Winston goes to a pub (that only serves beer in half-litre glasses) and he has a conversation with someone that kept saying that a pint was the perfect amount of beer and that half a litre isn't enough. Doesn't seem to me that ~70 mL would make a massive difference to quenching thirst.
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the (many) Imperial measurement systems
This is my main argument against non-metric measuring systems: there are many terms that a different depending where you are out what you are measuring. Like, which is heavier: an ounce of rock or an ounce of gold? The gold of course since a (troy) ounce of gold is ~31g compared to the rock ~28g.
The only argument with metric is the spelling, which I don't really care either way (metre vs meter, etc) but the symbol (m) is always the same even in different languages.
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The US cannot, by definition, be a third world country. Just like Russia has to be a second-world country.
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The US cannot, by one particular definition, be a third world country. Just like Russia has to be a second-world country.
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Flagged for whoosh. You missed the joke. I even said it was a joke. Like the social services in your third-world country.
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Blue are the first world countries, red are the second world countries, green are the third world countries. Any other "definition" of first world is wrong.
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Congratulations on correctly ascertaining the definition to which I referred.
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Hey, who are you calling a ?
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Culturally, we're a weird mix though. I'm 6 feet tall and I know what that looks like. If someone told me they were 1.8m tall I'd have no idea if they were tall or not. In terms of estimating how far away something is, I'll use metres or feet fairly interchangeably. If something's measured in kilometres I'll convert to miles in my head.
My weight is in stone and pounds, unless I'm getting my BMI checked at a doctors, but I have to think hard about what's bigger between pounds and ounces. If a recipe is in imperial weight measurements I have to convert it
So yeah, officially we're metric but it'll take at least another generation before a lot of the imperial stuff goes out of common usage
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I wonder how many generations it will take to switch to the right side of the road...
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If you're on the left then your sword arm is ready to attack a passing bandit. Napoleon insisted on using the right hand side in France because he was left handed [citation needed]
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But this was relevant 200 years ago. Nowadays it's mostly just a matter of preference, backward compatibility and interoperability. The last one is the only reason UK should switch, but it's damn important one.
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Why is it important? We're an island. Switching would cost shitloads in redoing signage, road markings etc. across the whole country; probably cause crashes as millions of people get confused about where they should be on roundabouts and junctions, and instantly make almost all cars in the country have the steering wheel on the wrong side. The benefits would be... we don't get as confused when coming out of the Channel Tunnel, and the people talking about being in the left lane on the Driving Anti patterns thread would make more sense to us
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half the time, it seems the entirety of the UK population wants to be American.
Not exactly unique to the UK, unless perhaps (which I doubt) British people are actually aware that they want this instead of doing it subconsciously.
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I wonder how many generations it will take to switch to the right side of the road...
Long time, probably effectively never. Too much road infrastructure (traffic lights, junction ramps, etc.) is specific to left-side driving now. The only country that I'm aware of that ever switched was Sweden, and that was before they had most of that stuff.
(It doesn't matter which side you're on so long as everyone else immediately around you agrees.)
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we don't get as confused when coming out of the Channel Tunnel
If you’re driving on the wrong side when coming out of the Channel Tunnel, there’s preciously little you can do about it anyway. Not to mention that in most of France, they drive on the left as well with all vehicles that are supposed to enter that tunnel under their own power.
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The only country that I'm aware of that ever switched was Sweden, and that was before they had most of that stuff.
Samoa was the last country to switch and they switched to driving on the left. Left side is the safest side to drive on because most people are "right eyed" and driving you keep you right hand on the wheel, using the left for accessories!
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Any other "definition" of first world is wrong.
I never knew Papua New Guinea was a "first world country".
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Being right-eyed can't have such impact on safety - the cars coming from the opposite side drive on another lane, and there at least half a meter between you. If anything, eyed-ness should be an argument for right-hand side, because the hardest to spot are ninja-colored pedestrians in the night walking along or crossing the road in random places.
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I never knew Papua New Guinea was a "first world country".
It doesn't mean what you think it means. It has to do with the geopolitical alignments during the first part of the cold war, not with their economic capabilities. (Note that Iran is also marked as First World, which is “interesting” given post-1979 history…)
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The UK is mostly metric. The main things which aren't are distances and speeds on roads, and servings of beer and spirits in bars (wine is metric pretty much everywhere).
Where are you where spirits are still being served in gils or floz?
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Doesn't answer my question...
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I never knew Papua New Guinea was a "first world country".
The map in that wikipedia article specifically refers to April-August 1975, thus predating PNG's independence from Australia (Sept 1975).
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If anything, eyed-ness should be an argument for right-hand side, because the hardest to spot are ninja-colored pedestrians in the night walking along or crossing the road in random places.
QFT, though in my experience bikes are the main offenders.
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predating PNG's independence from Australia
An image format had to declare political independence?
Sorry; I just cannot resist making bad jokes sometimes
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An image format had to declare political independence?
And why not? Many a software project has declared independence from common sense…
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So yeah, officially we're metric but it'll take at least another generation before a lot of the imperial stuff goes out of common usage
Hah! You guys didn't even have sane money until the 1970s. I think you're being a bit optimistic here.
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I never knew Papua New Guinea was a "first world country".
At some point people started using the term "first-world" to refer to other stuff, completely unrelated to the original definition.
I honestly have no idea what the current definition is.
The map in that wikipedia article specifically refers to April-August 1975, thus predating PNG's independence from Australia (Sept 1975).
... also that.
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I honestly have no idea what the current definition is.
Rich countries, more or less.
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So is Japan a first-world country? What about South Korea?
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So is Japan a first-world country?
Yes.
@blakeyrat said:What about South Korea?
Also them.I'm not saying it's a foolproof definition, but it does seem to follow that sort of trend.
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I'm not saying it's a foolproof definition, but it does seem to follow that sort of trend.
And while second world has mostly fallen out of use, I've seen it used for both "poorish, but not really really poor" and as a replacement for the more common "developing".