Jerra
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Posts posted by Jerra
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36 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
Of course it wouldn't work 2.5" is 63.5mm so Hary's 65mm widget wouldn't fit !
My point exactly. There needs to be one system. The government started to think metrication was a good thing over a century ago and finally went metric in the 70s, some people still refuse to accept the government's decision.
Where would society be if everybody argued their idea was what should be used.
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Just now, MtB said:
And the same argument applies to imperial. Anyone should be allowed to use imperial units when it suits them.
Then you end up with the basterdised situation we have now. Follow your idea to its logical conclusion and fred sells 2.5 inch widgets and Harry sell 65 mm. It wouldn't work.
Couple that with why when the rest of the world two minor countries and the USA use a metric system. I have come across people who have no concept of metric sizes. To the extent I know farmers who ring their supplier and ask for a 40 gallon drum of XYZ. I once asked a supplier what they did "Oh we just send him a 200L drum and he is happy".
On a national scale this can't be good for the country not to mention forcing the supplier to break the law (as I understand it you must be supplied with exactly what you order).
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11 hours ago, MtB said:
But but but.... centimetres are a 'non-preferred' unit in SI.
We are supposed to use either millimetres OR metres. And certainly not mix metres and millimetres together e.g. 1 metre and 730 millimetres. You are either 1,730mm tall or 1.73m. Neither seeming as intuitive and 'human' as saying 5 foot 8 inches tall.
I have never said we should measure in SI units I would leave that to engineers and such. The French and the Swiss both asked for the height in cm so they seem to be pragmatic about it.
No reason as far as I can see why the populous shouldn't be pragmatic and those who need to use SI use SI.
Incidentally Non-preferred to me doesn't say you shouldn't use it particularly in everyday life not where preferred units are necessary.
11 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:Having skied a number of times neither myself, friends nor children have the scoobiest idea of height in metres weight in kg or footwear in Europe size or US. It’s a once in a year thing so quickly forgotten.
For growing children it’s best to get height and weight measurements there anyway. We do usually have our feet measured annually by ski shops I suspect they need to be sure for safety sake.
Fortunately every ski rental shop we’ve been in sensibly has a chart to compare and convert stone and feet against metres and Kg.
Some now you order in advance online where it auto converts usually.
Surely there way children are weighed and measured should be the way they will be expected to think, talk, and measure while being educated. I would suggest more than half the problem is that parents want to measure children their way rather than the way the poor kid is going to have to learn to use for passing exams etc. Why confuse them with both systems?
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37 minutes ago, booke23 said:
That's just silly. Practically no-one in the UK knows their height in meters/cm.
When several decades younger I used to take school parties shiing. All knew their height in cm because the ski fitters needed to know their height to supply suitable skis. The ski fitters being continental needed the height in cm. So I suspect anybody who has hired sis abroad probably knows their height in cm.
I certainly do - 173 now I was 2 cm taller but as you age you shrink.
37 minutes ago, booke23 said:I'm sure I've heard Popeye use that word!
LOL a case of fat fingers followed by not proofreading.
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1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:
Saw some of the kids on father's day. We were talking about how fast kids seen to grow lol. I asked nineteen year old grandson how tall he was to which he immediately replied five ten grandad. No mention of millipedes or centipedes.
Of course he didn't mention millipedes or centipedes they are members of the diplopoda and chilopoda respectably.
Also knowing their Granddad was likely to give them silly answers if the used the measurements the rest of the world use the probably knew to have it in feet and inches.
However it is because of dinosaurs like you that we have such a mongrel system when 50 years of modern metrication ought to have obkiterated the outdated. I suppose dinosaurs fighting a desperate rear guard action are bound to slow things up.
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19 hours ago, MtB said:
Not everyone has the manual dexterity to splice.
True. I used to have but not any more.
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16 hours ago, MtB said:
Mind you, we went metric mainly to assuage the French and to smooth our entry into the Common Market, latterly becoming known as the EU.
Hells bells that's a long run in, trading in metric measurements was first allowed in 1864
The florin was introduced around 1849 as a start to metricating money.
16 hours ago, MtB said:Nw we've left again, there is no reason for us not to revert to using proper units of measurement; feet, inches, yards, pints and gallons.
Don't be silly.
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8 hours ago, magpie patrick said:
In my case, canals are a big part of it - they were built to imperial measures and for accuracy I stick with that rather than cinvert it.
For roads I use metric for carriageway width as that's how they're built now..
For Tim @mrsmelly I convert to roods, poles, chains... 😉
Take care Tim - don't overdo it but don't underdo it either
Of course for such things using the original measurement is I would suggest vital. However you don't seem to have the sort of personality that yearns for a long outdated measurement system and tries to deride it by always referring to it as foreign. Yet he always says he isn't a xenophobe.
1 hour ago, MtB said:The answer is obvious. Imperial units are more 'human' and can be easily visualised. Unlike metric measurements.
For example which is the easiest to envisage? An air vent of say 6 square inches open area? Or an air vent of say 14,100 square millimetres open area? Which of the two would you say is the larger?
And how about force. Imagine one pound force. Bigger or smaller than a Newton force?
The first point is such comparisons shouldn't be necessary 50 years after the UK went metric. You wouldn't be visualising the difference between square inches or for that matter inches square (that confused many of my pre 1974 pupils) against square millimetres You would be comparing sq mm to square mm.
In answer to your questions 14,100 sq mm is more than double 6 square inches
A pound force is around 4and a half times a Newton.
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4 minutes ago, booke23 said:
I suppose while the USA still uses imperial measurements, there'll always be a slight cultural creep towards using imperial here for certain things for the foreseeable future. Also I find it's just easier and more natural to visualise some measurements in imperial.....like 'the canal is about 4 foot deep' rather than 'the canal is 1.2 meters deep'....and I'm in my 40s.
I am puzzled. You had to be educated in metric (the regulations and OFSTED) said so yet you think in imperial. How and why?
Old dinosaurs like myself who were educated in imperial and almost middle aged when UK went metric could struggle but somebody educated in metric it seems strange.
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21 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:
Which does not conform to the original metrication rules.
21 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:Which does not conform to the original metrication rules.
I can't understand why after half a century we still have any use of imperial measurements at all. Anyone under about 60 has been educated purely in metric so why faff about with outdated illogical meaurements.
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Why would anybody in their right mind want to handicap UK manufacturers by insisting on non metric measurements. There are currently only three countries in the world that don't use the metric system Liberia, Myanmar and USA. The USA have I suppose an excuse currently in view of the rest of the insane decisions being made.
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50 minutes ago, MtB said:
Disappointing when that happens isn't it?
I find they can vanish in five minutes at an otherwise deserted lock.
More or less exactly what happened. Nobody in sight and I was close enough to run back but it had vanished.
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I made one like that (well telling the truth I don't weld so a mate did the welding). Unfortunately I forgot it at a lock a couple of years ago. By the time I got back it had gone. Somebody somewhere ha one that was originally painted red.
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23 hours ago, Gybe Ho said:
If only my local Constabulary were as predictable in the deployment of their mobile speed camera vans.
Our local ones say on face bokk each morning the rough areas they will be operating on eg by road number or between two named places.
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5 hours ago, magnetman said:
How many swans were there 100 years ago and where were they located?
The population hasn't changed much since official counts began. Distribution is and always has been since studies bagan all of the lowland British Isles only the mountains being unpopulated.
5 hours ago, magnetman said:I didn't say they had all been handled but if they are descendents of birds which had been handled they would know about it.
How? They don't have much of a language.
5 hours ago, magnetman said:I don't know the history of swans in this country but it is plausible they did originate on the Thames or royal estates as some sort of ornamental bird. Then they started breeding.
Sub fossil remains have been found in East Anglia dating back 6,000 years. Mute Swans are native right across europe and parts of Asia. Not really the sort of thing you bring as an exotic always assuming folk 6,000 years ago had the time, money, ability and interest to import exotics.
5 hours ago, magnetman said:I was told by a birder that when the red kites were reintroduced a lot of them were lost on the M40 because they did not understand that it is not appropriate to be on motorways due to fast vehicles. Splat. Over time they learned about it and this knowledge was transmitted to the offspring. These days the M40 is not covered in dead red kites.
Of course birds learn over time. Red Kites have been proved by ringing to be long lived over 25 years in some cases. This means the parents learn from the behaviour of their parents. All the released birds weren't killed so they learned and their offspring learned from them.
This is my whole point. Just like humans birds learn by imitating adults not by some mysterious passing on of information. It is perfectly possible for the population of a species to behave as if domestic while others only a few miles away remain "wild". Birds even develop dialects in their songs.
5 hours ago, magnetman said:Its really interesting to see behaviour of wildfowl and birds. When I approach ducks in the electric canoe they fly away because somewhere in their brain there is a human in a small vessel with a punt gun. Grebes dive because they think I want the feathers. Moorens hide. Coots run on the water. Mandarin ducks climb aboard for a ride as they do not view humans as hazardous. Canada geese fly away or play chess if they have goslings. Swans don't care because they are confident I am not going to kill them.
Anthropomorphism at it best. Birds don't think "oh oh there is a human that might want my feathers. The instinct either makes them take avoiding action as they don't know what the movement is or because the individual is identified by them as a possible predator.
Using your idea of what swans do they should flee from humans as for centuries they were considered a delicacy.
5 hours ago, magnetman said:It is my theory that a bird is able to transmit information genetically to its offspring about basic hazards relating to survival.
There is a certain amount transmitted by instinct which obviously is partly genetic (no research has proved it is totally). Genetics however wouldn't cover the learned behaviour of Blue Tits pecking milk bottle tops in the days when milk was delivered on door steps with foil tops. This was shown to be learned from seeing others doing it.
Some of the most trusting swans I have come across have been ringed.
5 hours ago, GUMPY said:The A361 Nth Devon link road that has been rebuilt over the last few years is covered in dead pheasants, it will take aing time for them to learn😲
Many pheasants have been reared from eggs in an incubator and have had no chance to learn from the behaviour of previous generations. Kites have.
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12 hours ago, magnetman said:
Those birds don't regularly get physically handled by humans. Swans do.
That is the difference I can see. Humans won't know if swans communicate with each other. Just because they don't seem to talk does not mean they are incapable of communicating information.
The point is you think the birds are domesticated and the species I have quoted are as tame or tamer but certainly not domesticated.
When where and how do swans get handled (apart from the tiny few that I think are still part of swan upping on the Thames?
The swan population is is the region of 14-15,000 adults then add in say a couple of cygnets per pair and you have a population of about 30,000 in winter this rises to in the region of 50,000.
Do you honestly feel enough of these swans are regularly handled enough to be domesticated.
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3 hours ago, 5239 said:
no I was right to start with the OP IS the cruiser!In which case I would say just ignore the comment, whoever it was from. Everybody has to start and we all have/do/will make mistakes from time to time.
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12 hours ago, magnetman said:
I am not convinced by that theory..
Obviously I am on the Thames and encounter swans quite a lot. They are definitely not wild birds here. Maybe elsewhere but not on the River. They are domesticated birds who know that humans will not kill them..I do regular experiments on water with swans and geese to.see how they react to a potential predator. Swans know that humans in Boats are not predators. Geese think they.are..
The same is true of almost any bird that regularly comes in contact with people who don't harm them. Are wood pigeons domesticated? I regularly walk through Edinburgh parks and they will sit while I pass with in a yard. Wood pigeons have never been used by man apart from for shooting at. Are gulls domesticated? Go to seaside resorts and they will take food from your hand. Are Red Kites domesticated? I have seen them hovering above a couple of metres above crowds at an agricultural show.
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6 minutes ago, magnetman said:
Yes but if you look at the behaviour you will find that due to the way swans have been handled by humans they are effectively no longer wild animals. They are indirectly domesticated birds.
In general birds do know what they are doing. You only have to watch them to figure out that despite their very small brains they can fly around in the air.
That is a quite an impressive thing to be able to do. Humans tend to not think about this but just look at a bird. Its flying around in the air.
That is clever shit going on there. Humans can only dream of this kind of thing in fantasy worlds..
Incredibly few swans have been handled by man. A small number on the Thames during swan upping and a small number by ringers.
The practice of owning and marking swans died out as a common practice in the 16th century i.e. over 400 years ago they are by all reasonable definitions rewilded.
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7 hours ago, magnetman said:
The swan thing is completely crazy.
when I had the geographical misfortune to occasionally be transiting the Paddington arm in one of my Boats I recall a large colony of swans by a bridge about half a mile from the junction with the mainline GU.
There is a nice old terrace of houses there. Anyway there were loads of swans and there was someone dumping bread.
Then I went past again another time and there were no swans. Nothing. A sign from the CRT pointing out that dumping bread is in fact fly tipping.
Mad.
Swans are effectively not wild animals because of the way humans have handled them. Birds hand down knowledge through the eggs into their offspring so even a new born cygnet will be aware that humans are bad but generally speaking not predators.
They know they are protected and that is why they behave differently to other water birds. I spend a lot of time in my electric canoe getting close to the wildlife it is fascinating to see behaviour and strategies of the different species.
All wild birds are protected. There are a few species that are covered by the general licence but basi cally even those are only under specific circumstances e.g. Health and safety.
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29 minutes ago, LadyG said:
Yes, but howcan you going to find another trader who wants gold and jewellery.
As has already been mentioned. Somebody says they will accept gold you want the item and have the required gold and knowhow.
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59 minutes ago, LadyG said:
But you dont expect to trade for a boat, and not many boaters are in the trade.
You seem to have missed the vital words I wrote "if you know what you are doing".
I have come across many who trade in gold for all sorts of things.
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5 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:
Agree with the comments but it looks a reasonable boat from the images. Do be very careful obviously.
Im sure the comment is tongue in cheek. I’ve never seen so many top end cars anywhere than in the jewellery quarter of Birmingham. Lamborghini that self raise over speed humps- rather handy.
If they had sold the boat for gold in April 2024 when gold was $2230 an ounce they would have done really well. Now at $3349 an ounce- around 30% profit. Not such an idiot after all 😀
Having had two jewellers shops we traded in gold quite a lot. Nothing idiotic provided you know what you are doing.
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Thank you for the heads up and more to the point many thanks for your efforts on our behalf.
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Mrsmelly - is he OK?
in General Boating
Posted
Hence the need for a universal worldwide (well world wide apart from what I have heard described as a couple of banana republics and the USA) agreed system.