21–30 of 106 posts
This is distraction and has no chance whatsoever of happening. It's best to ignore it.
That's what a lot of people said/thought about Brexit! Unfortunately, the more we bury our heads in the sand and ignore things, the more chance they have of actually happening.
But we should have learned by now that absurdities are not impossibilities and should be taken seriously.
It’s a distraction so shocking that it can’t fail to divert media attention.
It’s a favorite technique of Boris Johnson who is even mentioned in the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_strategy
The imperial measurement thing is a dead cat Boris threw on the table during his political descent.
When you see it for what it is, you can take joy in imagining the meeting in which the politicians tried to think up the best dead cats to throw on the table and settled on this.
“Yes, Prime Minister”
is this an out of season april fools joke?
Observation as a Canadian: Until the US decides to finally convert (e.g. never), the rest of the anglo-sphere will be forever stuck in an awkward inbetween zone anyways. We supposedly converted to metric in the 70s but it's only ever been half-hearted, as many trades (especially construction) continue to work in imperial measurements, and most people work in an awkward combination of the two. As Canadians we typicall…
The one exception you could say is height, where in casual speech people sometimes say "6 foot", but if it were a medical situation it would again always be in cm.
This is distraction and has no chance whatsoever of happening. It's best to ignore it.
Shit like this keeps happening and people are not pushing back. Because it’s tiring and more comfortable to just let it happen. Yet the UK is quickly degrading as a result of all this mess.
Observation as a Canadian: Until the US decides to finally convert (e.g. never), the rest of the anglo-sphere will be forever stuck in an awkward inbetween zone anyways. We supposedly converted to metric in the 70s but it's only ever been half-hearted, as many trades (especially construction) continue to work in imperial measurements, and most people work in an awkward combination of the two. As Canadians we typicall…
These statements always amuse me, as someone who grew up in a purely metric culture. I always wondered: do you ever get confused when talking in so many similar but different units, or is it second nature?
Wow, just when you think things couldn't get more stupid. Revert to a clearly inferior and difficult to use measurement system for what? Politics?
Observation as a Canadian: Until the US decides to finally convert (e.g. never), the rest of the anglo-sphere will be forever stuck in an awkward inbetween zone anyways. We supposedly converted to metric in the 70s but it's only ever been half-hearted, as many trades (especially construction) continue to work in imperial measurements, and most people work in an awkward combination of the two. As Canadians we typicall…
Just to put another datapoint out there from the "anglo-sphere", Australia and New Zealand are completely metric. The one exception you could say is height, where in casual speech people sometimes say "6 foot", but if it were a medical situation it would again always be in cm.
In terms of other English-speaking commonwealth countries, it seem South Africa is similar; heights etc. in imperial, everything else metric.
That mostly describes the situation in Canada, but as I said construction trades and recipes really push people to have to have a feel for both systems.
Observation as a Canadian: Until the US decides to finally convert (e.g. never), the rest of the anglo-sphere will be forever stuck in an awkward inbetween zone anyways. We supposedly converted to metric in the 70s but it's only ever been half-hearted, as many trades (especially construction) continue to work in imperial measurements, and most people work in an awkward combination of the two. As Canadians we typicall…
> As Canadians we typically measure our height and weight in ft and lbs. But temperature in celsius and travel distances and speeds in kilometres and km/h. Except for cooking/recipes, where oven temperature is measured in fahrenheit and we have to deal with recipes with cups and ounces and so on. ... But recipes are also often in litres and grams. So... These statements always amuse me, as someone who grew up in a pu…
Especially since we are taught metric exclusively in school. But then get into the real world or deal with "adults" and find so many things in imperial.