Eero Ahonen <aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid> wrote:
> > I want to know 
> > whether it's t-shirt, long sleeve, or sweater weather. :-)

> If it's <0, it's pretty much no-t-shirt -weather ;).

  Except in northern Finland.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
> Eero Ahonen <aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid> wrote:
>>> I want to know 
>>> whether it's t-shirt, long sleeve, or sweater weather. :-)
> 
>> If it's <0, it's pretty much no-t-shirt -weather ;).
> 
>   Except in northern Finland.
> 
I assume that this is a joke along the lines of:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~simona/temperaturi.html

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andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> > Eero Ahonen <aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid> wrote:
> >>> I want to know 
> >>> whether it's t-shirt, long sleeve, or sweater weather. :-)
> > 
> >> If it's <0, it's pretty much no-t-shirt -weather ;).
> > 
> >   Except in northern Finland.
> > 
> I assume that this is a joke along the lines of:
> http://www.cs.tut.fi/~simona/temperaturi.html

  That's inaccurate. It gets much warmer than 15 degrees in summer here.
Sometimes *way* too much.

  As for the t-shirt, you are not going to be in one when the temperature
is -1 degrees for long periods of time, but something like 5 minutes may
be just ok. It can actually be quite refreshing.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Eero Ahonen wrote:
> If it's <0, it's pretty much no-t-shirt -weather ;).

http://www.dennydavis.net/poemfiles/trvl2.htm
Scroll down to "Multiple Locations."

> But actually for knowing that you don't want to know the temperature, 
> you'll want to know the wind index (which is what the air feels like and 
> is calculated from temperature and wind speed). +15C is warm for 
> t-shirt, if the sun shines and there's no wind, +20C is freaking cold, 
> if the sun doesn't shine on you and there's one hell of a wind.

I froze my butt off in San Francisco last weekend. It was 65F (call it 
18C) except it was windy and humid enough to almost be foggy. So, yeah, 
I know. :-)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

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Warp wrote:
> andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> Warp wrote:
>>> Eero Ahonen <aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid> wrote:
>>>>> I want to know 
>>>>> whether it's t-shirt, long sleeve, or sweater weather. :-)
>>>> If it's <0, it's pretty much no-t-shirt -weather ;).
>>>   Except in northern Finland.
>>>
>> I assume that this is a joke along the lines of:
>> http://www.cs.tut.fi/~simona/temperaturi.html
> 
>   That's inaccurate. It gets much warmer than 15 degrees in summer here.
> Sometimes *way* too much.
> 
>   As for the t-shirt, you are not going to be in one when the temperature
> is -1 degrees for long periods of time, but something like 5 minutes may
> be just ok. It can actually be quite refreshing.
> 
I agree. Anyway the joke was of course that at this moment the 
eurovision contest is broadcasted and we are not watching, apparently.

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On Sat, 24 May 2008 20:21:04 +0200, andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom>
wrote:

>Stephen wrote:
>> On Sat, 24 May 2008 17:26:36 +0200, andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Stephen wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 24 May 2008 16:36:07 +0200, andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> You might. Probably my mistake, I should also have mentioned that we 
>>>>> almost always abbreviate kilogram to kilo.
>>>> As do we in the UK
>>> So, how would you call a device to measure kilos?
>> 
>> Scales, kitchen scales for up to 1.5 kilos, bathroom scales for
>> people. Vehicles are weighed on a weighbridge. Sometime scales are
>> called a balance if they are very accurate.
>
>Well, IMHO they should be called kilometers. ;)

Of course they should ;)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On 24 May 2008 14:55:15 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>Kilo = abbreviation of kilogram (as Andrel said), but the funnier part is 
>if you read "meter" not as a distance, but rather a device for measuring 
>something (think water meter or gas meter).

Oh! The shame needing an American to explain English what will Phil C
think of me :-)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Sat, 24 May 2008 21:04:31 +0200, andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom>
wrote:

>
>I still am not sure if Stephen really did not understand that, that he 
>pretended not to, or that it was just a very bad joke.

No I did not understand. It was lost on me. I read Kilometer as
Kilometre but as an excuse I am dyslectic and easily confused.
And it is a good joke.
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Sat, 24 May 2008 13:27:50 -0700, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom>
wrote:

>I froze my butt off in San Francisco last weekend. It was 65F (call it 
>18C) except it was windy and humid enough to almost be foggy. So, yeah, 
>I know. :-)

I remember when I worked in Jamaica for a while I thought that 21 °C
was cold.
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Sat, 24 May 2008 21:18:05 +0200, andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom>
wrote:

>
>I am afraid I got that one. BTW I had never seen the expression vulgar 
>fraction before. If I look at wikipedia I would assume from the context 
>that improper fraction may be what you intended.

Right I got it wrong but it has been many years since I thought of it.

Ten four, out. :-)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Sat, 24 May 2008 11:21:59 -0700, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom>
wrote:

>I never saw one that was that complex, except an architectural ruler. 
>Maybe I don't do the sort of work that sort of ruler helps with.
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architect's_scale

Lordy, I remember those but what I described was a ruler we bought for
school.
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Sat, 24 May 2008 22:01:40 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 24 May 2008 14:55:15 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
>>Kilo = abbreviation of kilogram (as Andrel said), but the funnier part
>>is if you read "meter" not as a distance, but rather a device for
>>measuring something (think water meter or gas meter).
> 
> Oh! The shame needing an American to explain English what will Phil C
> think of me :-)

;-)  Some Americans actually do speak English, though - I find myself 
actually having to correct my spelling often because I tend to use 
British spelling conventions rather than American.  When I send out a 
newsletter, I often have to read it a second time to 'Americanise' the 
spellings just to avoid having half my audience tell me I can't spell. ;-)

Jim

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Warp wrote:
> 
>   That's inaccurate. It gets much warmer than 15 degrees in summer here.
> Sometimes *way* too much.

Also, who the heck stops grilling at -5C?

Ah, that was only hotdogs, they're not so famous here anyway.

>   As for the t-shirt, you are not going to be in one when the temperature
> is -1 degrees for long periods of time, but something like 5 minutes may
> be just ok. It can actually be quite refreshing.

Yes, even with -30C :p. That why I wrote "pretty much" instead of 
"definedly".

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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On 24 May 2008 20:40:10 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>;-)  Some Americans actually do speak English, though - I find myself 
>actually having to correct my spelling often because I tend to use 
>British spelling conventions rather than American.  When I send out a 
>newsletter, I often have to read it a second time to 'Americanise' the 
>spellings just to avoid having half my audience tell me I can't spell. ;-)

LOL :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Sun, 25 May 2008 17:36:03 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 24 May 2008 20:40:10 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
>>;-)  Some Americans actually do speak English, though - I find myself
>>actually having to correct my spelling often because I tend to use
>>British spelling conventions rather than American.  When I send out a
>>newsletter, I often have to read it a second time to 'Americanise' the
>>spellings just to avoid having half my audience tell me I can't spell.
>>;-)
> 
> LOL :)

I honestly don't know when or why I started writing that way.  One of the 
more bizarre things that's happened to me in my life, though, was that 
during the 2002 winter games here in Salt Lake, we got out of town and 
stayed with friends in Bucks.  Shaun was preparing for a trip to the US a 
few weeks later, so he decided to practice his American on us, and we 
were speaking English while we were there.  I had to tell him to stop 
speaking American to us because it was confusing us, and he said he 
figured it was a good time to practice for his upcoming trip. :-)

We've been seriously talking about moving over there, but with the recent 
changes in immigration there, when we get to the point we can, we will 
probably start in Scotland (we've got friends both in Edinburough as well 
as about halfway between Edinburough and Glasgow).  Ireland was another 
possibility, though we don't know anyone directly who lives there (I have 
a former coworker whom I'm good friends with who is from Dundalk, just 
outside of Dublin) and he's got family still there.  But if we were to 
start in Ireland, we really like Galway (though haven't been there, so 
we'd want to visit first <g>).

The move may never happen, but it's something we'd like to do at least 
for a while.  My job is such that I could do it pretty much anywhere in 
the world, so that's not an issue (though that does mean I can't get paid 
relocation if I stay where I am).

Jim

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> Screws here go down to 1/32nd or 1/64th of an inch,

Oh god that just reminded me of working on old stuff when I was younger.  OK 
so the 1/2" socket is too small, ermm what comes next, this one looks 
bigger, 5/8", nope too big, hmmm, ummm, 5/8, that's 10/16, ok so let's try 
9/16", ah yes cool that fits.

>> What if you need 5 foot 3 point 85 divided into 2?  Dividing 158.3 cm 
>> into 2 is much easier.
>
> You'd cast everything to inches. That's how construction work is done. 
> Studs are 16 inches apart, for example. I went to the store and bought 
> 20-inch hoses to connect wall to sink.

So the length of a support beam is measured as something like 475 inches? 
Do you have any idea how long something that is 475 inches actually looks 
like?  Or do you have to convert roughly into feet/yards first?

Or like the example you gave earlier, if something is 50 thousand feet away, 
do you know how far that is? Or do you have to do a rough conversion to 
miles first?

In metric it's far easier, you buy a piece of wood that is 1200x600x28, you 
know straight away how big it is without needing to any sums in your head. 
Ditto if something is 50 thousand metres away, I know it's going to take me 
about 30 mins to get there straight away - no tricky conversions needed.

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>> Yeh I was thinking of just on the multi-lane-per-direction roads, as they 
>> are the ones mostly used for long distances where a higher speed limit 
>> might be an incentive for people to buy greener cars.
>>
>
> Well yes, in some countries. Germany's highways are pretty great 
> infrastructure, for example,

I think it would also work well in the UK, France and Italy from what I've 
personally experienced.  In Germany they could simply say that all cars 
above a certain pollution level are always limited to a maximum of 120 
km/hr, even if there is no limit at that point.  If they fixed it so that 
that "certain level" meant around 50% of new cars sold before were either 
side of the limit, then I suspect it would significantly reduce pollution 
(due both to people buying greener cars, and people going slower with the 
more polluting cars).

> but ie. in Finland there's rarely over 200km of highway/multi-lane on 
> 500km trip.

Well yes (I experienced a crazy 3-lane road once in Finland where the middle 
lane was for both directions!), but at least on those single-lane roads 
there isn't so much traffic that you never get an opportunity to overtake!

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scott wrote:
> 
> I think it would also work well in the UK, France and Italy from what 
> I've personally experienced.  In Germany they could simply say that all 

I haven't driven in those countries, so I can't say yes or no. But 
basically: multiple lanes are needed to make different speed limits work.

>> but ie. in Finland there's rarely over 200km of highway/multi-lane on 
>> 500km trip.
> 
> Well yes (I experienced a crazy 3-lane road once in Finland where the 
> middle lane was for both directions!)

No, you haven't ;). You might have experienced a 3-lane road where 2 
lanes are for one direction and 1 for another and the single-lane 
direction going cars are allowed to overtake on the middle lane *IF* 
there's no cars going another direction and using the middle lane.

That experiment was canceled 7-8 years ago, since people didn't get the 
priorisation of the middle lane. Since then all 3-lane roads have been 
2-lane for one direction and 1 for the other, with no allowed exceptions 
(which is nasty, 'cause they usually are good places to overtake on 
other direction too, if there's no cars coming towards from the other 
direction).

> , but at least on those single-lane 
> roads there isn't so much traffic that you never get an opportunity to 
> overtake!

One might think so, but that's not true. You don't need a traffic jam to 
render all overtaking-places unusable. Waiting for a realistic and safe 
place to overtake a 80km/g going car on 100km/h limit might easily take 
20+km. One car can be enough to render overtaking-place unusable.

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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scott wrote:
> So the length of a support beam is measured as something like 475 
> inches? 

Honestly, I dunno. I haven't built anything requiring "support beams". :-)

> Do you have any idea how long something that is 475 inches 
> actually looks like?  Or do you have to convert roughly into feet/yards 
> first?

I would have to convert it in my head. 480 inches is about 40 feet, so I 
know what that looks like.  Yeah, it's math, but it's trivial math, on 
the order of reducing fractions to common denominators.

> Or like the example you gave earlier, if something is 50 thousand feet 
> away, do you know how far that is? Or do you have to do a rough 
> conversion to miles first?

Mentally, I'd do a rough conversion. For something like that, I'd say 
"50000 feet is about 10 miles" and I'd leave off the "280 feet per mile" 
I was missing.

> In metric it's far easier, you buy a piece of wood that is 1200x600x28, 

Right. And why do they sell it at 1200x600, rather than 1000x500? 
Because you can divide it in thirds and quarters. :-)

> you know straight away how big it is without needing to any sums in your 
> head. Ditto if something is 50 thousand metres away, I know it's going 
> to take me about 30 mins to get there straight away - no tricky 
> conversions needed.

Yeah. But again, unless you're actually doing science, I don't think it 
comes up all that often. I can't remember the last time outside an 
academic context (like this) where I needed to convert feet to miles. It 
might come up once every three or four years.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

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Eero Ahonen wrote:
> 2-lane for one direction and 1 for the other, with no allowed exceptions 

This is done in the US ever so often (mostly over bridges), with the 
change that the middle lane switches back and forth depending on the 
time of day. So weekday mornings, there are more lanes going into the 
city, and weekday afternoons, there are more lanes coming out of the 
city, for example. But it's marked really well, and often even has a 
concrete barrier that gets moved back and forth so you physically can't 
cross to the wrong side.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> Screws here go down to 1/32nd or 1/64th of an inch,
> 
> Oh god that just reminded me of working on old stuff when I was 
> younger.  OK so the 1/2" socket is too small, ermm what comes next, this 
> one looks bigger, 5/8", nope too big, hmmm, ummm, 5/8, that's 10/16, ok 
> so let's try 9/16", ah yes cool that fits.
> 
>>> What if you need 5 foot 3 point 85 divided into 2?  Dividing 158.3 cm 
>>> into 2 is much easier.
>>
>> You'd cast everything to inches. That's how construction work is done. 
>> Studs are 16 inches apart, for example. I went to the store and bought 
>> 20-inch hoses to connect wall to sink.
> 
> So the length of a support beam is measured as something like 475 
> inches? Do you have any idea how long something that is 475 inches 
> actually looks like?  Or do you have to convert roughly into feet/yards 
> first?
> 
> Or like the example you gave earlier, if something is 50 thousand feet 
> away, do you know how far that is? Or do you have to do a rough 
> conversion to miles first?
> 
> In metric it's far easier, you buy a piece of wood that is 1200x600x28, 
> you know straight away how big it is without needing to any sums in your 
> head. Ditto if something is 50 thousand metres away, I know it's going 
> to take me about 30 mins to get there straight away - no tricky 
> conversions needed.
> 
And as a bonus I can see that you will use a car and not go by foot, 
bike, boat, or public transport.

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On 25 May 2008 13:49:09 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>
>We've been seriously talking about moving over there, but with the recent 
>changes in immigration there, when we get to the point we can, we will 
>probably start in Scotland (we've got friends both in Edinburough as well 
>as about halfway between Edinburough and Glasgow).  Ireland was another 
>possibility, though we don't know anyone directly who lives there (I have 
>a former coworker whom I'm good friends with who is from Dundalk, just 
>outside of Dublin) and he's got family still there.  But if we were to 
>start in Ireland, we really like Galway (though haven't been there, so 
>we'd want to visit first <g>).

Do you mean that you will live in different parts of the country for
periods then move on?
Halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow? Not Cumbernauld? I lived there
for about four years.
Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going to
the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Mon, 26 May 2008 20:10:40 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 25 May 2008 13:49:09 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
> 
>>We've been seriously talking about moving over there, but with the
>>recent changes in immigration there, when we get to the point we can, we
>>will probably start in Scotland (we've got friends both in Edinburough
>>as well as about halfway between Edinburough and Glasgow).  Ireland was
>>another possibility, though we don't know anyone directly who lives
>>there (I have a former coworker whom I'm good friends with who is from
>>Dundalk, just outside of Dublin) and he's got family still there.  But
>>if we were to start in Ireland, we really like Galway (though haven't
>>been there, so we'd want to visit first <g>).
> 
> Do you mean that you will live in different parts of the country for
> periods then move on?

Possibly - though the single biggest inhibitor is the lack of a college 
degree - that has implications in immigration in England, but not 
necessarily Scotland.

> Halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow? Not Cumbernauld? I lived there
> for about four years.

Do you know where Shots is?  It's near there.

> Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going to
> the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)

LOL, it's all relative. ;-)

Jim

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On 26 May 2008 18:24:39 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>> Do you mean that you will live in different parts of the country for
>> periods then move on?
>
>Possibly - though the single biggest inhibitor is the lack of a college 
>degree - that has implications in immigration in England, but not 
>necessarily Scotland.

Skin colour and origin has probably more implications for immigration
in the UK, I would imagine :-) As for work I have never found the lack
of a degree to be a show stopper, experience counts for more here than
it does in the US (I believe). Anyway if you were working for and
being paid by a US company it would be irrelevant, I assume.

>> Halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow? Not Cumbernauld? I lived there
>> for about four years.
>
>Do you know where Shots is?  It's near there.

I do, my father in law worked there at the distillery and it is word
famous in Scotland for the Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band.

>> Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going to
>> the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)
>
>LOL, it's all relative. ;-)

True, that is what my auntie said :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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>> In metric it's far easier, you buy a piece of wood that is 1200x600x28,
>
> Right. And why do they sell it at 1200x600, rather than 1000x500? Because 
> you can divide it in thirds and quarters. :-)

Maybe.

Actually they had 1000x500 too, and a whole range of other sizes.  I got the 
1200x600 because I'm making a stand for my TV and other equipment to go 
underneath.  After I worked out the required dimensions it came pretty close 
to 1200x600 so I fixed the design to that.  When I got to the shop it was a 
coincidence that the exact size was available, I was expecting to have to 
ask them to cut it for me.

Post a reply to this message

>> Well yes (I experienced a crazy 3-lane road once in Finland where the 
>> middle lane was for both directions!)
>
> No, you haven't ;). You might have experienced a 3-lane road where 2 lanes 
> are for one direction and 1 for another and the single-lane direction 
> going cars are allowed to overtake on the middle lane *IF* there's no cars 
> going another direction and using the middle lane.

Yeh sounds about right - it was a blizzard so you couldn't see very far, but 
it still didn't stop our taxi driver using the middle lane at 120 km/h and 
swerving back and to when approaching cars were also using the same lane!

> One might think so, but that's not true. You don't need a traffic jam to 
> render all overtaking-places unusable. Waiting for a realistic and safe 
> place to overtake a 80km/g going car on 100km/h limit might easily take 
> 20+km.

I guess it depends how much power your car has and whether you are happy to 
go over the speed while overtaking.

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Fri, 23 May 2008 22:45:29 +0100, andrel  
<a_l### [at] hotmailcom> did spake, saying:

> Stephen wrote:
>> On Thu, 22 May 2008 15:40:07 +0100, "Phil Cook"
>> <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote:
>>
>>> That's so we can have a meter that measures in metres and not get   
>>> ourselves confused.
>>  I've worked on meters that measured cubic metres. The spelling saves
>> confusion as you say.
>
> We don't have that distinction. That is one of the reasons that I try to  
> convince people that the scales they use to measure their weight should  
> be called kilometers. Up till now with very minor success.

[groan] :-) We'd probably hyphenate it though.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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And lo on Sun, 25 May 2008 01:40:10 +0100, Jim Henderson  
<nos### [at] nospamcom> did spake, saying:

> I often have to read it a second time to 'Americanise' the
> spellings just to avoid having half my audience tell me I can't spell.  
> ;-)

Shouldn't that be Americanize :-P

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Sat, 24 May 2008 00:08:48 +0100, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> did  
spake, saying:

> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> A cm is about right. You need something about a foot, tho. Otherwise you
>> get things like "he was 197 cm tall".

or "just under 2 metres"

>> Kilograms are too heavy and grams are too light.
>
>   Too heavy and light for what? It's very common to buy eg. "400 grams of
> meat", etc.

And nothing to stop you asking for 4 hectograms of meat, well except the  
fact that nobody would understand you :-)

>> Liters are too big and centiliters are too small.
>
>   For what? And in cooking a deciliter is a very common measure.
>
>> Basically, the factor of 1000 in common units
>> is the problem. :-)
>
> There are 10 millimeters in a centimeter, and 100 centimeter in a meter,  
> and 10 deciliters in a liter.

Important not to be confused with a decalitre.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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On Tue, 27 May 2008 07:53:14 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 26 May 2008 18:24:39 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
>>> Do you mean that you will live in different parts of the country for
>>> periods then move on?
>>
>>Possibly - though the single biggest inhibitor is the lack of a college
>>degree - that has implications in immigration in England, but not
>>necessarily Scotland.
>
> Skin colour and origin has probably more implications for immigration in
> the UK, I would imagine :-) As for work I have never found the lack of a
> degree to be a show stopper, experience counts for more here than it
> does in the US (I believe). Anyway if you were working for and being
> paid by a US company it would be irrelevant, I assume.

Well, I know the recent changes in UK immigration state three criteria - 
money (to invest), age (lower is better - and I'm over the rather 
arbitrary age threshold), and a college degree.  In the old points 
system, I was good to go, but they changed all that within the last 
year.  (My wife follows it fairly closely.)

Possibly coming over while employed by a US company would work (it does 
here in the US - my last boss was a Canadian immigrant, and my current 
boss lives in Canada).

>>> Halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow? Not Cumbernauld? I lived there
>>> for about four years.
>>
>>Do you know where Shots is?  It's near there.
> 
> I do, my father in law worked there at the distillery and it is word
> famous in Scotland for the Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band.

Wow, small world, isn't it?  Almost makes me wonder if you know the guy I 
know there.  That'd be weird.  IIRC, he said the population was fairly 
low there...

>>> Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going to
>>> the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)
>>
>>LOL, it's all relative. ;-)
> 
> True, that is what my auntie said :)

<groan>!

Jim

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On Tue, 27 May 2008 10:45:06 +0100, Phil Cook wrote:

> And lo on Sun, 25 May 2008 01:40:10 +0100, Jim Henderson
> <nos### [at] nospamcom> did spake, saying:
> 
>> I often have to read it a second time to 'Americanise' the spellings
>> just to avoid having half my audience tell me I can't spell. ;-)
> 
> Shouldn't that be Americanize :-P

I wondered if someone would pick up on that - thing is, it was 
automatic. ;-)

Jim

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On 27 May 2008 11:33:54 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:


>Well, I know the recent changes in UK immigration state three criteria - 
>money (to invest), age (lower is better - and I'm over the rather 
>arbitrary age threshold), and a college degree.  In the old points 
>system, I was good to go, but they changed all that within the last 
>year.  (My wife follows it fairly closely.)

There is a lot of pressure on the politicians to be seen to be doing
something. Halfwits!

>Possibly coming over while employed by a US company would work (it does 
>here in the US - my last boss was a Canadian immigrant, and my current 
>boss lives in Canada).

That's what gave me the thought.


>Wow, small world, isn't it?  Almost makes me wonder if you know the guy I 
>know there.  That'd be weird.  IIRC, he said the population was fairly 
>low there...

Well I left the area nearly thirty years ago. If he worked at
Burroughs there is a chance.
I was the long haired girlie looking one :)

>>>> Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going to
>>>> the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)
>>>
>>>LOL, it's all relative. ;-)
>> 
>> True, that is what my auntie said :)
>
><groan>!
>
We aim to please :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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scott wrote:
> 
> Yeh sounds about right - it was a blizzard so you couldn't see very far, 
> but it still didn't stop our taxi driver using the middle lane at 120 
> km/h and swerving back and to when approaching cars were also using the 
> same lane!

Well yes, some taxi-drivers are crazy around here :(. Luckily even them 
pretty well know theier car and how it handles in different weathers.

Sidenote: in blizzard it's hard to see further than the headlights, 
since the snow makes a "lightwall" to where the front bumper is, but 
you'll get used to it and learn to see through the lightwall.

> I guess it depends how much power your car has and whether you are happy 
> to go over the speed while overtaking.

Surely yes. ~250bhp/~350Nm haven't made me to overtake like your taxi 
driver :p.

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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On Tue, 27 May 2008 16:46:21 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 27 May 2008 11:33:54 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Well, I know the recent changes in UK immigration state three criteria -
>>money (to invest), age (lower is better - and I'm over the rather
>>arbitrary age threshold), and a college degree.  In the old points
>>system, I was good to go, but they changed all that within the last
>>year.  (My wife follows it fairly closely.)
> 
> There is a lot of pressure on the politicians to be seen to be doing
> something. Halfwits!

Well, no different than over here, then. ;-)

>>Possibly coming over while employed by a US company would work (it does
>>here in the US - my last boss was a Canadian immigrant, and my current
>>boss lives in Canada).
> 
> That's what gave me the thought.

What, you know my boss? ;-)

>>Wow, small world, isn't it?  Almost makes me wonder if you know the guy
>>I know there.  That'd be weird.  IIRC, he said the population was fairly
>>low there...
> 
> Well I left the area nearly thirty years ago. If he worked at Burroughs
> there is a chance.
> I was the long haired girlie looking one :)

I'm trying to remember if he did or not - does the name Cloughley ring a 
bell?

>>>>> Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going
>>>>> to the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)
>>>>
>>>>LOL, it's all relative. ;-)
>>> 
>>> True, that is what my auntie said :)
>>
>><groan>!
>>
> We aim to please :)

You need to aim better, then. ;-)

Jim

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On Tue, 27 May 2008 13:51:31 -0400, Jim Henderson wrote:

>> Well I left the area nearly thirty years ago. If he worked at Burroughs
>> there is a chance.
>> I was the long haired girlie looking one
> 
> I'm trying to remember if he did or not - does the name Cloughley ring a
> bell?

Then again, you might not have known him - he's only around 40 right 
now.  But maybe his father...

Jim

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scott wrote:
> but it still didn't stop our taxi driver using the middle lane at 120 
> km/h and swerving back and to when approaching cars were also using the 
> same lane!

"See? There's our hotel over there on the left."
    "Then why did the driver just pull into the right-turn-only lane?"
"The line's shorter."
    "Ah, welcome to China."

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

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On 27 May 2008 13:51:31 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>
>What, you know my boss? ;-)

I've never met your wife :-)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On 27 May 2008 13:52:18 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>
>Then again, you might not have known him - he's only around 40 right 
>now.  But maybe his father...

He would have been at primary school when I lived there so I guess
not. And I was not the sort of person fathers admitted to knowing, in
those days. In fact my own father did not like to admit to me ;-)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Tue, 27 May 2008 21:22:55 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 27 May 2008 13:52:18 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Then again, you might not have known him - he's only around 40 right
>>now.  But maybe his father...
> 
> He would have been at primary school when I lived there so I guess not.
> And I was not the sort of person fathers admitted to knowing, in those
> days. In fact my own father did not like to admit to me ;-)

LOL, I know what you mean....

Jim

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On Tue, 27 May 2008 21:19:45 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 27 May 2008 13:51:31 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
> 
>>What, you know my boss? ;-)
> 
> I've never met your wife :-)

Well, she'd be the first to say that she's not the boss of me. ;-)

Then again, she is sitting in the next room watching episodes of 
Gardners' World from 2007 that I've burned to disc for her.  I think 
she's got 5 DVDs at the moment with that on it.

(And if my boss were out here reading, she'd want to know why I'm doing 
this instead of that mailing I said I'd get done today).

Jim

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On 27 May 2008 16:46:40 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>
>LOL, I know what you mean....

Poor we ;)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On 27 May 2008 16:48:32 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>Gardners' World from 2007 that I've burned to disc for her.  I think 
>she's got 5 DVDs at the moment with that on it.

Ooo! I listen to Gardeners Question time on Radio 4 and I live in an
apartment. Try the podcast ,brownie points :-)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Tue, 27 May 2008 23:55:21 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 27 May 2008 16:48:32 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
>>Gardners' World from 2007 that I've burned to disc for her.  I think
>>she's got 5 DVDs at the moment with that on it.
> 
> Ooo! I listen to Gardeners Question time on Radio 4 and I live in an
> apartment. Try the podcast ,brownie points :-)

Already got two of 'em for her on her iPod. :-)

Jim

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On Tue, 27 May 2008 23:53:35 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 27 May 2008 16:46:40 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
> 
>>LOL, I know what you mean....
> 
> Poor we ;)

Yeah, well, at least we've identified each other. ;-)

Jim

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> "See? There's our hotel over there on the left."
>    "Then why did the driver just pull into the right-turn-only lane?"
> "The line's shorter."
>    "Ah, welcome to China."

Hehe, sounds about right.  I remember a similar situation coming up to a big 
intersection that was at red.  The 3 lanes in our direction were already 
pretty full, so people started to use the lanes that go the opposite way! 
Cars coming from the other direction did the same.  When the lights went 
green everyone somehow managed so squeeze back into the correct number of 
lanes.

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Btw, given that Americans love so much their non-decimal based
sub-units, I honestly wonder why they haven't done so with their
money: 1 dollar is divided into 100 cents. That sounds so metric!
That sounds like heresy or something. How come? :)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On Wed, 28 May 2008 09:03:10 +0200, "scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:

>> "See? There's our hotel over there on the left."
>>    "Then why did the driver just pull into the right-turn-only lane?"
>> "The line's shorter."
>>    "Ah, welcome to China."
>
>Hehe, sounds about right.  I remember a similar situation coming up to a big 
>intersection that was at red.  The 3 lanes in our direction were already 
>pretty full, so people started to use the lanes that go the opposite way! 
>Cars coming from the other direction did the same.  When the lights went 
>green everyone somehow managed so squeeze back into the correct number of 
>lanes.
> 

Q.	What side of the road do they drive on in Nigeria?
A.	Whatever side is emptiest. 
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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Warp wrote:
> That sounds like heresy or something. How come? :)

Because the Brits used Pounds and Shillings and Pence, and the founding 
fathers said "F**k that, that's way too messy." :-)  Seriously, that one 
they figured was just too ugly.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

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Warp wrote:
>   As andrel pointed out, measuring those ranges is less intuitive using
> feet and inches because a foot is not a handy multiple of an inch.

I think to summarize a lot of this, ones problems tend to be either

1) stated in one unit of measure and rounded off to that unit, such as 
saying "I want 3 gallons of milk" rather than "I want three gallons and 
2 ounces of milk", so you're not doing conversions but your measurements 
are precise, or

2) you wind up with math anyway: "You have a plot of land 17 meters by 5 
meters. Each plot needs twelve metal support spikes, each 93 cm long. 
How much metal do you buy?" :-)  Once you get into real-world stuff like 
that, using base 12 instead of base 10 to convert feet to inches doesn't 
really add much complication.

That's why the imperial system doesn't really bother us much here.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

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On Wed, 28 May 2008 08:46:14 -0700, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom>
wrote:

>Warp wrote:
>> That sounds like heresy or something. How come? :)
>
>Because the Brits used Pounds and Shillings and Pence, and the founding 
>fathers said "F**k that, that's way too messy." :-)  Seriously, that one 
>they figured was just too ugly.

Well we did make an attempt at decimalation in the 19th Cent. We got
as far as the florin, worth one tenth of a pound.
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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