Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Swoop on September 11, 2007, 07:19:52 AM
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Finally those ******* will leave us alone on this one.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/11/britannia_triumphant/
The EU will abandon all pretentions to enforce its filthy metric system on Britain, thereby guaranteeing once-and-for-all an Englishman's right to sup ale in pints, buy spuds by the pound, and measure the distance between the greengrocer and the boozer in miles, or yards if you're lucky.
That's according to the BBC, which says the European Commission will, in future, leave all decisions regarding weights and measures to the British Government, which "had been due to set a date for phasing out all its imperial measurements within three years".
The decision is a triumph for the so-called "metric martyrs", inspired by late Sunderland grocer Steve Thorburn, who refused point-blank to sell goods in garlic-tainted kilograms, in the process earning himself a criminal conviction for flogging bananas by the pound.
The surrender was offered by European Commission's industry commissioner Gunter Verheugen, who admited to the Beeb "the EU had been making itself unpopular on an issue that didn't really matter".
A humiliated Verheugen offered: "I organised a huge consultation, and the result was that industry told us there was no problem with the existing system. I want to bring to an end a bitter, bitter battle that has lasted for decades and which, in my view, is completely pointless. We're bringing this battle to an end."
While the EU's backdown will preserve for future generations the ounce, the quart and the furlong, it also opens the door for the adoption of Vulture Central's own standards, including the grapefuit (gf), linguine (lg), the nanoWales (nWa) and, of course, the maximum speed of a sheep in a vacuum, viz: 2997.5 km/sec for those of you still measuring these things in old money.
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-8/48257/Swoop2.gif)
Edit: :D
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It's more Britain -1.7/33 Europe 0.
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Originally posted by straffo
It's more Britain -1.7/33 Europe 0.
lol
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Originally posted by straffo
It's more Britain -1.7/33 Europe 0.
:rofl :rofl
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That's pretty witty for a Frenchie type. :D
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Wh0t ? I screwed up my conversion to imperial unit ? :D
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A victory for common sense but I when I first heard this story I laughed because of course the EU won the battle years ago. As the man quoted says:
"the EU had been making itself unpopular on an issue that didn't really matter".
In reality apart from the few diehards and old men who want to sell their bananas in pounds and ounces everyone else has moved on and is working in metrics. The use of imperial measures will die out with the old guard anyway.
If you don't believe me, go to a supermarket and buy something in pounds and ounces. Or go buy petrol in gallons. Schoolkids are taught metric. They won't be using imperial in the long term. I think in reality the only imperial measures in constant daily use are speed limits and distances on road signs in Britain. Here in Ireland we went to Kilometre speed limits a couple of years ago. In the end even the UK will change to KPH probably long after the time it becomes the right thing to do.
In fact the real score is Britain 1 / Europe 1 at half time with Britains star players off the pitch.
I'll always think in MPH and pounds etc. My son won't and he will laugh at me for the dinosaur I am.
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I didn't.
But yeah I get what you mean.
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-8/48257/Swoop2.gif)
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In reality apart from the few diehards and old men who want to sell their bananas in pounds and ounces everyone else has moved on and is working in metrics. The use of imperial measures will die out with the old guard anyway.
Now if they would only switch to driving on the correct side of the road like most of the world. ;) The rest will follow like sheep.
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metrics is far simpler but I love getting a new guy from south america applying for a position who says he's a good fitter drawing two points on a work table handing him an american tape measure and asking what that measurement is to the closest 1/16th of an inch.
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Originally posted by MiloMorai
Now if they would only switch to driving on the correct side of the road like most of the world. ;) The rest will follow like sheep.
You realise that the decision to drive on the right was made by Napoloean don't you?
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-8/48257/Swoop2.gif)
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Originally posted by Swoop
You realise that the decision to drive on the right was made by Napoloean don't you?
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-8/48257/Swoop2.gif)
WRONG!
Everyone knows it was Al Gore.
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I am learning the metric system inch by inch. :rolleyes:
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Here's a whacky one for you... I work for a company who's home base is Taiwan. All their official reports are in Metric Tons, but the sales people sell everything based on pounds, shipping department uses pounds for their reports, our inventory system reports in pounds. So it's up to me and the rest of the production planning department to basically run everything with two columns. Pounds for all of our departments and Metric Tons for all the reports back to HQ.
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Originally posted by straffo
It's more Britain -1.7/33 Europe 0.
:lol
good one.
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"Congratulations" In the US we kicked the arse of the abomination know as the metric system back in the 70’s…Way to go UK.:aok
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Originally posted by JBA
"Congratulations" In the US we kicked the arse of the abomination know as the metric system back in the 70’s…Way to go UK.:aok
metrics make sense.
but who could blame us for not using that.
:rolleyes:
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Originally posted by straffo
It's more Britain -1.7/33 Europe 0.
:rofl :rofl :rofl :aok
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Originally posted by straffo
It's more Britain -1.7/33 Europe 0.
:aok :aok :rofl :rofl awesome !
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Long live the metric sys.... I mean the imperial system!!!!
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Originally posted by JBA
"Congratulations" In the US we kicked the arse of the abomination know as the metric system back in the 70’s…Way to go UK.:aok
Yeah... we noticed that when your Mars probes piled into mars at full speed :aok
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Originally posted by straffo
It's more Britain -1.7/33 Europe 0.
:rofl
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I think in reality the only imperial measures in constant daily use are speed limits and distances on road signs in Britain.
yeah i agree, anyway off to the pub for a pint of guiness i think ;-)
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Personally, I am a genius - a fact proven by my ability to handle both systems. This must be true as its a feat that has stubbornly eluded 95% of the British population during the 30 year metric experiment.
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one day you will join Europe anyway, and then you all will be "metric martyrs" :D