"How the EU works: In Germany, they make the rules, in Britain, theyobey the rules, in France, they bend the rules, in Spain, they break therules, and in Italy they have no rules at all."

"Erilar" wrote in message
...
Dan Stephenson wrote:


I must say, in all my extensive travels in Europe, the one place I've had
the greatest trouble understand a European's English, is in England. I
don't mean to denigrate, but the thickness of some rural accents is just
incredible. Way more so than in America, a much bigger place.

Quite simple: several more centuries of isolated communities and language
drift. Here in the US, we diidn't stay that isolated long enough to
develop
mutually incomprensible dialects as was the case in Europe.


It is quite obvious that you have never visited Brooklyn!
--
JohnT

On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:59:44 +0100, Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:

Dan Stephenson wrote in
news:2011111920582317173-stephedanospam@maccom:

That continental Europe needed reform 200 years ago, and the United
Kingdom and the United States did not?

"Need" is the wrong word. We could have kept the old measurements and
we'd have survived. They just make life easier. They help you to pass
physics tests too.

When I was taking high school and college physics in the early 1950s they
were taught in pound-second-feet.

I must say, I feel an affinity for Britain and the Britons.

Same, but not everything they do is right. Besides Britain has been
officially metric (or really SI) for decades.

Officially, the USA has been metric since the last half of the nineteenth
century.

--
Dave Hatunen, Tucson, Baja Arizona

On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:19:37 +0100, Martin wrote:

Few in UK have much feel for the size of an acre or know how many square
feet are in an acre.

so the Hundred Acre Woods is a mystery to people in the UK?

--
Dave Hatunen, Tucson, Baja Arizona

On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:24:43 +0100, Martin wrote:

On Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:36:42 -0600, Dan Stephenson
wrote:

On 2011-11-19 09:36:58 -0600, Johannes Kleese said:

I can easily figure 1200 inches in 100
feet and 173 inches is 10 feet and 53 inches and 53 inches is 4 feet
5 inches. Thus, 114 feet and 5 inches. Simple. There is no such think
as .42 feet for the remainder at 114 feet, the remainder is in
inches.

Same in the metric system:

100 centimeter are 1 meter, so 3487 centimeters are 34.87 meters. You
needed four lines to explain the conversion, I just one.

But you cannot measure .87 meters with a meter gauge. Anything can be
decimalized, but the beauty of the imperial-type measurements, is that
they have natural subdivisions.

Natural in what way?

In what way are inch, foot, yard pole/perch chain furlong mile ounce,
pound, hundred weight, ton
natural?

In what way is a meter natural?

--
Dave Hatunen, Tucson, Baja Arizona

On Nov 20, 3:11*pm, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-11-20 05:22:56 -0600, Martin said:









On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:52:36 -0000, "JohnT"
wrote:

"Dan Stephenson" wrote in message
news:2011111920521050418-stephedanospam@maccom...
On 2011-11-19 15:46:05 -0600, Martin said:

I'm amazed that Americans are using decimal currency.

Back to the topic of Britain, I must say, the best way to get into
conversation with Britons is to ask "so, what is a shilling, anyway". *To
date, no Briton has been able to resist talking up a storm about their
pre-decimal currency. *It's pretty cool, actually, as a historical thing,
plus it is a GREAT way to make introductions.

You really must get out more often!

Not if he is going to drive around wet roundabouts at high speed in UK
in a Porsche.

He hasn't recommended the guinea as a unit of currency yet.

Hey, so what is a guinea, anyway? *I read about them in the old Ian
Fleming novels. *And wat is a crown and a half-crown? *I recall James
Bond spending one of those on a doctor and supposedly it was a large
denomination.
--
Dan Stephensonhttp://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

As one still converting UK decimal prices into 'old money' ... A
guinea was £1/1/0, or one pound and one shilling - £1.05 in today's
stuff. It was largely used in invoicing by professionals (including
myself) and was rather useful in that it gave an extra margin to the
bill! :-))
A crown was 5/- ... five shillings ... 25p in today's stuff. There
were no crown coins in modern times, but they were issued as
commemorative pieces - Jubilees, Churchill etc.
A half-crown was therefore 2/6 ... 12.5p today. The half-crown was a
common coin.

On Nov 20, 4:42*pm, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-11-20 09:35:00 -0600, S Viemeister said:

On 11/20/2011 10:11 AM, Dan Stephenson wrote:

Hey, so what is a guinea, anyway? I read about them in the old Ian
Fleming novels. And wat is a crown and a half-crown? I recall James Bond
spending one of those on a doctor and supposedly it was a large
denomination.

A guinea is 21 shillings.
A crown was 5 shillings
A half-crown was 2/6 *(two-and-six)
A florin was two shillings.
A tanner was a sixpence.

Right, I remember a little now, how a guinea was one pound one
shilling. *Rather, it was 21 shillings because it could be divided into
three sets of seven, iirc what I once knew.

Wasn't there a three-pence and two-pence coin? *I have "thruppence" and
"tuppence" on my tongue for some reason. *I bet the reason the 20-pence
coin is non-round is because the florin or whatever, was also not round.

And I recall a Hapenny bridge in Dublin because the toll was once a
half-penny. *I wonder if there were other sub-penny divisions.

I seem to recall a super-pound coin, too, a sovereign? *Right? *Was
that the only super-pound coin (other than a guinea, technically).

All the harkens to a time when a pound was a LOT of money. * Even in a
film just 40 years ago, from watching one of those George Smiley films
with the title character portrayed by Obi Wan Kenobi, there was an
issue made about an informant and a 'large sum' of something like 6
pounds being referenced.
--
Dan Stephensonhttp://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

My archaeological preferences to the fore again ...

There was a 'thrupenny' coin but I don't remember any 'tupenny' coin,
although there is a modern 2p coin now.
The old florin, 2/-, 10p (not 20p) was normally round.
There was also a quarter penny coin - a farthing.
The sovereign was simply a £1 coin.

Yep, UK prices have gone haywire. I started work in 1959 at £6 a
week ....... more significantly, the first home I bought when getting
married (1967) cost just our combined annual income - the same home is
now priced at some £340,000!

On 11/19/2011 02:19 AM, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-11-14 14:16:48 -0600, Jean said:


in Britain they willingly create confusion (pounds, feets, oz, driving
at the left),


I think driving on the left is really great. I'm right-handed, and I can
use right-hand to steer but shift with my left. And as I love
scenic-driving in Britain and Ireland, it is incredibly helpful to point
my camera out the window with the right hand (my camera of the style
that is meant to be held and 80% operated with the right hand). I just
wish Norway hadn't gone over to driving on the right for my drive up the
fjordlands to the Nordkapp a couple years back.

Norway? Wasn't that Sweden over forty years ago?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H

some interesting history he
http://users.telenet.be/worldstandar...the%20left.htm

On 20 Nov., 16:17, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-11-20 03:54:22 -0600, Wolfgang Schwanke said:

Dan Stephenson wrote
innews:201111181919293211-stephedanospam@maccom:

The fly-ways on American interstate
highways are far superior than the mega-roundabouts on the British
four-lane carriageways,

What are fly-ways?

They are ramps and elevated roads that merge and separate traffic, so
that there is no slowing down at all.

This is the interchange nearest to my house:

http://g.co/maps/3kvfx

How does that differ from say: http://g.co/maps/957mj ?

"S Viemeister" wrote in message
...
There were ha'pennies (half pennies), and farthings (quarter pennies).

There was a 1/3 farthing (1/12 of a penny) in Victorian times.

On 11/20/2011 04:03 PM, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-11-20 04:18:33 -0600, M@gd@ said:

On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:24:43 +0100, in rec.travel.europe, Martin

arranged some electrons, so they looked like this:

... On Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:36:42 -0600, Dan Stephenson
... wrote:
...
... On 2011-11-19 09:36:58 -0600, Johannes Kleese said:
...
... I can easily figure 1200 inches in 100
... feet and 173 inches is 10 feet and 53 inches and 53 inches is
4 feet 5
... inches. Thus, 114 feet and 5 inches. Simple. There is no such
think as
... .42 feet for the remainder at 114 feet, the remainder is in
inches.
...
... Same in the metric system:
...
... 100 centimeter are 1 meter, so 3487 centimeters are 34.87 meters.
... You needed four lines to explain the conversion, I just one.
...
... But you cannot measure .87 meters with a meter gauge. Anything
can be
... decimalized, but the beauty of the imperial-type measurements, is
that
... they have natural subdivisions.
...
... Natural in what way?

No way.

Ten fingers, ten toes. That's natural.

So you count in base 20?

The simple truth is, counting based on 12s or 60s is attractive in
insofar as it is easily divisible into integers.


It didn't help the Maya civilization survive, nor the Hittites.



=====
It sounds much better in French, but then, everything does.