Metre, Steve H, John, et al. How's it been going? It's 3 months today, 27 Oct. 2005, that a technical fault cut me out of the BWMA's boards. You've probably forgotten poor old Uncle Rip by now. I still can't get back in. I've been cursed by the Grand Imperial Gremlin never to enter the BWMA, or any other Network 54, board again. I miss you blokes. You were by far the best and most amusing board posters on the Net. I hope you are all having fun.

Rip

PS: Metre, from what I've read you still have that nasty streak of humanity in you. Still not getting with the program in contemporary Britain. If there's one thing I can't stand it's a principled nonconformist. Can't stand 'em--but can still admire them from a distance. Take care, china. R.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bwma/

This board is going to close down shortly anyway. A new discussion board has opened up at the link above. Go there and apply and you will be able to keep us informed there as to how metric things are in Australia.

Hiya Rip.
Daniel has actually provided some truth for once - he mentions a new form of discusion forum that BWMA have opened - you should join it.

Then read, with utter excitement, stuff about British people sayng things in metric because it says so on an internet search engine.

It's quite rivetting - opened my eyes to a "New Britain" that I've never even visited, let alone heard of.

Metre, Steve H, John, et al. How's it been going? It's 3 months today, 27 Oct. 2005, that a technical fault cut me out of the BWMA's boards. You've probably forgotten poor old Uncle Rip by now. I still can't get back in. I've been cursed by the Grand Imperial Gremlin never to enter the BWMA, or any other Network 54, board again. I miss you blokes. You were by far the best and most amusing board posters on the Net. I hope you are all having fun.

Rip

PS: Metre, from what I've read you still have that nasty streak of humanity in you. Still not getting with the program in contemporary Britain. If there's one thing I can't stand it's a principled nonconformist. Can't stand 'em--but can still admire

metre
Gee man, what a nice surprise! How have you been keeping? Thought you gave up completely. Are you still interested to contribute your witty and to the point posts to breathe some live into the new forum everyone has to migrate to this week? Here is the link, I am sure you will be very welcome. By the way SH experienced the same problem, could not log on to the inner board
Look forward to seeing you on the Yahoo site.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bwma/

New opportunities to further the Great Debate, I read. Excellent news, chaps! I look forward to renewing this thought-provoking and so often amusing discussion. The Great Debate continues!

I've put in my application for the new group on Yahoo! Here's hoping that the Grand Imperial Gremlin misses it and I can be back on deck on the best discussion board to come of the Old Dart in recent times.

Tell me is Tony Bennett still bragging about the size of the British milk bottle or has he seen the light and decided to buy only metric-packaged milk? There's one for us, Metre, we will have to design a metric milk bottle exceeding 6 imperial pints. Can't have Tony for ever boasting about the stupendous 6-pint bottle. The 4.5- or 5-litre milk bottle is on its way!

Think Big! Think Fast! But for God's sake, Think Metric!

Welcome back, Rip. Come join the new board.

Thanks, John. How have you been? Good to see the old crew are still around. Have applied to join the new board and am awaiting approval. I hope that I'm not rejected. Why do I say that? Because everything that could go wrong has gone wrong in the last 3 months. It started when the Grand Imperial Gremlin (GIG) zapped me off the BWMA boards on 27 July, and it's been all downhill since then. Have only been on the Internet intermittently since then, and I can tell you that when I have it's been a mess, i.e. something always went wrong somehow, e.g. mouse breaks up, printed circuit board in hard drive malfunctions, I have abusive messages sent to me from persons unknown, you name it it has happened since 27/7. I hope my luck changes from here on. The BWMA boards are lucky boards. Fingers crossed. I'm praying the GIG has joined the devil in hell and will now leave me alone.

I don't like the way that the new board is "forumless" - it feels a bit like a notice board at work with everyone pinning a new message on it (except Danny who's photocopying stuff and reproducing it on there!)

Yeah, from what I can see it is a bit strange, but no doubt we will get used to it. BTW Metre, belatedly in answer to your question, I've been sort of fine, some minor surgery is on the cards, but otherwise all right. How's it been with you? From what I've seen nothing has slowed you down. The boards are full of your posts. Tell me, how long does approval/rejection take for this new board on Yahoo? I await my approval with bated breath. You were very right, M, when you said these boards are addictive.

Metric is alive and well in Australia. I still maintain that converting to the metric system was one of the best things that ever happened in post-war Australia. It was a success, and is still a success. I am trying to bring back the decimetre/decimeter (dm) as a standard practical unit of metric. At one-tenth of a metre it is a good practical unit and should be more commonly used.

The prefix deci has not been abrogated. You can use decimetres all you want. The wonderful thing about metric is even if you speak in decimetres, we can add a zero in memory to convert to centimetres or two zeros for millimetres. Something you can not do with feet and inches.

<<At one-tenth of a metre it is a good practical unit and should be more commonly used.>>

Since 1 dm^3 = 1 L, it really is quite handy if you wish to compute the volume of a tank, pan, bucket, etc in liters. And it is about "a hand" and easily visualized.

<<
And it is about "a hand" and easily visualized.
>>

Good to see that someone on the pro-metric size finally recognises the importance of having conveniently sized units, something that the French revolutionaries did not think about when designing the metric system.

<<Good to see that someone on the pro-metric size finally recognises the importance of having conveniently sized units, something that the French revolutionaries did not think about when designing the metric system.>>

Well, maybe so. There are still 10000 "metric hands" (dm) in a kilometer. Easier to deal with than the 15,840 "Imperial hands" in a mile.

The meter actually seems a convenient size, being only a few percent larger than a yard.

"Good to see that someone on the pro-metric size finally recognises the importance of having conveniently sized units, something that the French revolutionaries did not think about when designing the metric system."

For a system you say is inconvenient, it sure spread quickly around the world. The billions of people who use it don't find anything inconvenient. sounds like more sour grapse coming from someone whowants the world to play the measurement game by his rules and they refuse to.

What's all this with the "sour grapse"?

You keep on banging out that lame old one -all-the-bleeding-time-.

Care to explain why? At over 50 yrs old? With the US and UK still stuck in the "measurement past"? With the US being the worlds most economically powerful country? With the UK being the biggest home-owning democracy? With Germany trying to get to grips with its economy? With those in your peer group advancing on economically in America? With (etc)?

Come on! Tell us what this fixation you have is with "sour grapse"?

X-D

<<For a system you say is inconvenient, it sure spread quickly around the world. The billions of people who use it don't find anything inconvenient. sounds like more sour grapse coming from someone whowants the world to play the measurement game by his rules and they refuse to.>>

Those countries which were early adopters had more of a measurement mess with local units that varied regionally just within their country. They did not even have a good NATIONAL standard effort. Given that mess, metric looked EXTREMELY attractive.

The US, UK, and the rest of the Commonwealth had the only alternative to metric that was at least well standardized nationally, and to extent within the whole group (recognizing there are both common units and differences in Imperial/Customary).

There are certainly forces for metrication in all those countries, including Australia and South Africa, where they have prevailed. In the other countries, varying degrees of resistance exist. I believe an international standard is far better than a national one, unless you can identify serious shortcomings in the international one. For SI, I can't, and I believe it should prevail. However, I recognize I recognize it has a tougher battle against a well-defined national standard vs a regionally varying mess.

Daniel - the above is a careful, measured, well thought out moderate post by an individual who is obviously pro-metric.

If you took a leaf out of his book you'd be able to advance the cause of metric yourself, in your own way. It would be postitive (for metric and for you).

That would be better than the stuff you post that almost all pro-metrics totally disagree with, mainly due to the daft and extreme method you put your strange arguments across.

I'm pro-metric in the same sense as I am pro-imperial.

I probably fall out with John over the right to retain imperial alongside metric.

But these are measured points of view based upon fact and reality.

See if you can give it a go.....

Care to explain why? At over 50 yrs old? With the US and UK still stuck in the "measurement past"? With the US being the worlds most economically powerful country? With the UK being the biggest home-owning democracy? With Germany trying to get to grips with its economy? With those in your peer group advancing on economically in America? With (etc)?


Deficit spending is a wonderful thing....in the short term. But the long term effects are now starting to be felt. Do the British actually own those homes or does the bank? It isn't really yours until it is paid off. Living in it doesn't make it yours. Stop making the monthly payments and then see who the real owner is, when he gets a court judgment to have you evicted from what you falsely believe is YOUR home.

The Germans don't have easy credit like the US and UK. If they did, they would have the same percentage of home co-ownership (Them and the bank) as the UK or the US.

Most people in my peer group (JohnS-MI) will agree are not advancing economically at all. Not in the US. There personal debt is rising, if that is what you mean by advancing. Most are on the edge. There is a huge number of people who hold two or more jobs and that still doesn't keep them out of debt. Those who co-own homes (them and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac) have seen home values rise substantially over the past few years, but this housing inflation has actually contributed to their woes. Many have been sucked in to loans schemes that encourage them to borrow against the equity of their homes to buy more junk they don't need or to pay off past debts. Now they are in greater debt.

You don't actually believe that the roads are paved in gold and money grows on trees, do you? You really don't have a clue has to how bad off we really are. We keep taking on more debt and more debt and more debt. But for now it is secured by the petrodollar. We spend on an average of 15 % more then we earn. Even an amateur economist will tell you that isn't good.

But you keep telling yourself that everybody is well off and rich and living the American middle-class dream. When you see the soup and bread lines overflowing, then you will wonder how this was possible in the "most economically powerful nation".



http://www.markswatson.com/Depression1.html

The above link is to an article originally written in early 2003. It is still timely as the author posts monthly updates. See for yourself where we are.

"Daniel - the above is a careful, measured, well thought out moderate post by an individual who is obviously pro-metric."

So why can't you post in a careful, measured, and a well thought out manner, instead of just posting useless nonsense? You can't provide any truthful responses to oppose the contents of a post, so you find something else to attack the poster (mostly me) on. I have yet, nor will anyone else for that matter, find one thing you have ever posted that actually was a direct response to the post. Not one!

<<
Well, maybe so. There are still 10000 "metric hands" (dm) in a kilometer. Easier to deal with than the 15,840 "Imperial hands" in a mile.
>>

Who measures mile- and kilometre-length distances with their hands?