Domino Quartz's Delightfully Quaint Random Banter Thread #248

[TaiLiu]

Long story short. I have to get paperwork and documents to move forward to get referral at my job. So I'm focusing on one document at a time.

Oh, okay. Makes sense.

Sure it does, if it's your native system, but that's thumbing the scales because it's true of all the temperature systems. Raise someone in Rankine and they'll feel it's more accurate, I'd bet.

This is why I think the switch to metric in the 70s failed in the US. Should have kept US Customary Units but also put metric in side by side. Let an entire generation, maybe two, get through in the meantime, then just phase out US Customary. You'll have a large base that intuitively understands metric and an older population who may or may not but can still readily relate metric to what they grew up with.

The UK is doing this right now, aren’t they? Like weight is in stone but also in kilos.

I know this is photoshopped, but...

Spoiler

Show

The OWO face is cute. I also like UWU. Wonder if there are others. AWA? XWX? NWN?

[Peelee]

The UK is doing this right now, aren’t they? Like weight is in stone but also in kilos.

The UK exists in this weird form of using Metric and Imperial both - like, you get your petrol in liters but go to the pub for a nice pint, and make sure you keep under 35 kilometers per hour as you make a day trip to the next town which is just miles away.

Other commonwealth nations tend to do this as well.

Spoiler: There's even a chart!

Show

[TaiLiu]

The UK exists in this weird form of using Metric and Imperial both - like, you get your petrol in liters but go to the pub for a nice pint, and make sure you keep under 35 kilometers per hour as you make a day trip to the next town which is just miles away.

Other commonwealth nations tend to do this as well.

Spoiler: There's even a chart!

Show

Wow! I know it’s simple for those who grew up with it, but it looks super complicated when laid out like that.

[BisectedBrioche]

Just one four hour shift, and I'm off work until the 17th!

Only downside is that I have to be up at 5 for it.

[TaiLiu]

Just one four hour shift, and I'm off work until the 17th!

Only downside is that I have to be up at 5 for it.

Nice! Enjoy your vacation.

[Rater202]

Just one four hour shift, and I'm off work until the 17th!

Only downside is that I have to be up at 5 for it.

Is it really worth it?

If you must awaken so early, is it truly worth it? Some people don't even go to bed till then.

[Peelee]

Is it really worth it?

If you must awaken so early, is it truly worth it? Some people don't even go to bed till then.

A four hour shift followed by two and a half weeks off is probably worth it.

Also, sure, some people don't even go to bed until then. They tend to be called "the night shift".

[Anonymouswizard]

The UK exists in this weird form of using Metric and Imperial both - like, you get your petrol in liters but go to the pub for a nice pint, and make sure you keep under 35 kilometers per hour as you make a day trip to the next town which is just miles away.

Other commonwealth nations tend to do this as well.

Spoiler: There's even a chart!

Show

The thing that annoys me is that the UK measures speed in m/h. While I prefer SI growing up in the UK has made me all too familiar with diabolical Imperial units.

In fact the government did a survey about 'preferred units to buy stuff in' which courted controversy because it presumed nobody would prefer metric units.

[Peelee]

The thing that annoys me is that the UK measures speed in m/h.

I was misled by Ali G Indahouse, it would seem.

[Anonymouswizard]

I was misled by Ali G Indahouse, it would seem.

Every great documentary gets something wrong

[Form]

The UK exists in this weird form of using Metric and Imperial both - like, you get your petrol in liters but go to the pub for a nice pint, and make sure you keep under 35 kilometers per hour as you make a day trip to the next town which is just miles away.

Other commonwealth nations tend to do this as well.

Spoiler: There's even a chart!

Show

Did... did they do this to themselves or was it inflicted upon them by some malicious external force?

Is it really worth it?

If you must awaken so early, is it truly worth it? Some people don't even go to bed till then.

You don't have to awaken, really, just shuffle out the door all zombie-like and let your subconscious be your auotopilot.

[halfeye]

The UK exists in this weird form of using Metric and Imperial both - like, you get your petrol in liters but go to the pub for a nice pint, and make sure you keep under 35 kilometers per hour as you make a day trip to the next town which is just miles away.

Er, not exactly, and not that Canadian chart.

Wine is in metric, milk is in pints with metric as a translation, 6 pints = 3.408 litres (these are UK pints with 20 fluid ounces in them, I think UK fluid ounces are similar to USA ones, but I couldn't swear they are identical).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_ounce

An imperial fluid ounce is 1⁄20 of an imperial pint, 1⁄160 of an imperial gallon or exactly 28.4130625 mL.

A US customary fluid ounce is 1⁄16 of a US liquid pint and 1⁄128 of a US liquid gallon or exactly 29.5735295625 mL, making it about 4.08% larger than the imperial fluid ounce.

Speed limits are in miles per hour (up to 70 on motorways, recently 20 in some towns, mostly 30 in towns otherwise), chocolate in metric, jam in metric but to pound limits (454 grams).

Body weight is in kilos if it's medical, but my old lcd home scales can do metric, stones and pounds (you don't get decimals of stones, you get pounds up to 13, and quarter pounds or half pounds if there are any of those), or USAian pounds probably because they were made in China.

Brexit has somewhat delayed the spread of metrication.

Science is almost entirely metric, but that's more or less true everywhere.

[Anonymouswizard]

Science is almost entirely metric, but that's more or less true everywhere.

Engineering as well, only an idiot would engineer in Imperial units.

[Peelee]

Er, not exactly, and not that Canadian chart.

Imean, the chart is called "how to measure things like a Canadian", but I suppose I could have been more clear that that specific one is not commonwealth-wide. I imagine each country has its own idiosyncracies about it.

I think UK fluid ounces are similar to USA ones, but I couldn't swear they are identical).

Virtually none of the Imperial units are identical to US Customary. It's ridiculous that we changed every one just ever so slightly!

[Batcathat]

Imean, the chart is called "how to measure things like a Canadian", but I suppose I could have been more clear that that specific one is not commonwealth-wide. I imagine each country has its own idiosyncracies about it.

Yeah, even here in Sweden where we use like 99 percent metric measurements, we have occasional exceptions. Like how recipes usually measure larger amounts in deciliters, but smaller amounts in table spoons, tea spoons, etc.

[BisectedBrioche]

Did... did they do this to themselves or was it inflicted upon them by some malicious external force?

I mean, in Canada's case? Yes!

That chart's pretty similar to here, but I don't think even old people use F for anything (even the very old prefer to use gas marks for their ovens).

[Anonymouswizard]

About four months ago I ordered a copy of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the reprint of course. Today it finally arrived.

It's interesting to see how different the early game was. Space Marines are still very much a secondary faction, with the Inquisition actually getting slightly more prominence.

[Metastachydium]

Engineering as well, only an idiot would engineer in Imperial units.

Right? Their Deaths Stars keep blowing up! I wouldn't touch their units either.

[Peelee]

Right? Their Deaths Stars keep blowing up! I wouldn't touch their units either.

Imean, you make it sound as if they blow up on their own instead of explosives being used to initiate the destruction.

[Rater202]

Have you ever noticed that a lot of kids shows from the 90s and 2000s have really ****ed up "lessons" when you think about them critically?

Like, there's apparently an episode of Doug where he noticed that his bike was missing and, when he saw two other kids with it made the logical conclusion that they stole his bike and reacted as expected, IE, took it back and threatened to get the police involved...

Turns out his parents sold his bike to a thrift shop without telling him. They planned to replace it, but did not do so until after selling it, without telling him, and just seemed to expect that he wouldn't notice or mind that the old one was missing in the interim.

So in other words he um... Was right that it was stolen, just wrong about who stole it and why.

He ends the episode grounded and writing in his journal that he probably deserves it and... Excuse me?

...Then of course you have the complete failure of parenting that are the Reads from Arthur.

[tyckspoon]

Imean, you make it sound as if they blow up on their own instead of explosives being used to initiate the destruction.

Well, the Empire does keep doing things that causes the Force to send people to blow them up, and the Will of the Force is basically just the universe expressing itself, and if the universe is doing something it's basically the same as a self-caused action, right, so.. you know.. from a Certain Point of View.

[Peelee]

Have you ever noticed that a lot of kids shows from the 90s and 2000s have really ****ed up "lessons" when you think about them critically?

Like, there's apparently an episode of Doug where he noticed that his bike was missing and, when he saw two other kids with it made the logical conclusion that they stole his bike and reacted as expected, IE, took it back and threatened to get the police involved...

Turns out his parents sold his bike to a thrift shop without telling him. They planned to replace it, but did not do so until after selling it, without telling him, and just seemed to expect that he wouldn't notice or mind that the old one was missing in the interim.

So in other words he um... Was right that it was stolen, just wrong about who stole it and why.

He ends the episode grounded and writing in his journal that he probably deserves it and... Excuse me?

You browse Reddit, right? You ever read the stories where the writer is describing a situation and the other people come off as completely unhinged with no provocation, like someone malinesnd appointment to see someone at CPS and when they go in the receptionist threatens to call the police on them, and you just have to think there's a huge chance that the writer likely made a big scene beforehand without telling it in the story, and was not actually the paragon of calmness who just walked into a room and had a receptionist go crazy on them out of nowhere?

Anyway. I very vaguely remember that episode, so refresh me memory. Did Doug call the police, which would have resolved rhe situation since they would have (in Doug universe) simply talked to the kid who had the bike, and then talked to Doug's parents, and resolved everything fine? Or did he steal it from someone who bought it (or whose parents bought it for them)?

Because if the latter, then yeah, he deserves it. Like, ignore the law where his parents were absolutely right to sell it and it was never stolen. Just ethically, that's the entire reason you don't get to he a vigilante - because you may not know all the facts.

If he did a third thing, then I'd have to re-evaluate, of course. And that was, what, 90s? I think i rmemeber that's how it shook down but I'm readily admitting I could be wrong, that's some time there.

Well, the Empire does keep doing things that causes the Force to send people to blow them up, and the Will of the Force is basically just the universe expressing itself, and if the universe is doing something it's basically the same as a self-caused action, right, so.. you know.. from a Certain Point of View.

I hate "the will of the Force". Pure hack writing, IMO.

[Rater202]

He's 11.

If you want to invoke "legally" in the argument, legally he can't be held responsible for his actions, as most children that age aren't fully rational, and his parents are held liable for his behavior.

That, combined with the fact that the whole incident was instigated by them selling his bike without telling him means that um...

They're the ones responsible for the events of the episode. Not Doug, who is just a child acting on the information he had available to him to the best of his ability.

Punishing him once the situation is cleared up is... Bad parenting. Good parents would own up to the fact that selling his bike without telling him, even if they ended to replace it with a new bike, was a **** move and that they should have foreseen that he'd be upset to find it missing and/or the possibility that someone in town would purchase his bike from the thrift shop before they told him what happened and he'd see someone around town with it.

....But then again, these are the people who named a baby Cleopatra Dirtbike. They might just be stupid.

Edit: The intended lesson seems to be don't jump to conclusions but in practice, it comes across as "you're wrong for being upset if your possessions go missing and you will be punished for it."

[Keltest]

He's 11.

If you want to invoke "legally" in the argument, legally he can't be held responsible for his actions, as most children that age aren't fully rational, and his parents are held liable for his behavior.

That, combined with the fact that the whole incident was instigated by them selling his bike without telling him means that um...

They're the ones responsible for the events of the episode. Not Doug, who is just a child acting on the information he had available to him to the best of his ability.

Punishing him once the situation is cleared up is... Bad parenting. Good parents would own up to the fact that selling his bike without telling him, even if they ended to replace it with a new bike, was a **** move and that they should have foreseen that he'd be upset to find it missing and/or the possibility that someone in town would purchase his bike from the thrift shop before they told him what happened and he'd see someone around town with it.

....But then again, these are the people who named a baby Cleopatra Dirtbike. They might just be stupid.

Edit: The intended lesson seems to be don't jump to conclusions but in practice, it comes across as "you're wrong for being upset if your possessions go missing and you will be punished for it."

I mean, he could have just talked to his parents about it. Or the kids who had the bike. Or their parents, if he was unusually bold for an 11 year old and knew them.

[Rynjin]

I mean, he could have just talked to his parents about it. Or the kids who had the bike. Or their parents, if he was unusually bold for an 11 year old and knew them.

Or his parents could have talked to him about it, averting the entire situation. This is textbook bad parenting; Doug lacks critical social skills because his parents lack the ability to teach them to him.

[Peelee]

He's 11.

If you want to invoke "legally" in the argument

Yeah, that was my fault. I should have said something like "ignore the law" or "just ethically".

Like, ignore the law

Just ethically,

Hot take: eleven-year-olds shouldn't be stealing and should be made known that it's not ok, even if they think the circumstances made it ok. Because they're eleven.

Or his parents could have talked to him about it, averting the entire situation. This is textbook bad parenting; Doug lacks critical social skills because his parents lack the ability to teach them to him.

Well, his parents were kind of contrived into not having the bike ready to go and waiting for him when they got rid of the old one, but yeah, it's just bad communication all around.

[Rater202]

There was a different episode about stealing.

This one seemed to be about conclusion jumping but... You know, conclusion jumping narratives don't really work when it's a reasonable conclusion.

Maybe I'm just weird int hat I don't like seeing protagonists punished for other characters ****ups or lessons about something being tought in a bad way that punishes reasonable feelings.

---

Now that I think about it, I can think of another example of a similar thing.

Once in elementary school we were read a book about a boy in a small town who one day sees his teacher walking past a market stand, grab an apple, and then walk off with it without paying

And the next day, he stakes it out and sees it happen again.

So he brings his friends the next time and they come to a conclusion: Their teacher is stealing apples.

Upset that their teacher is apparently a criminal, the boy starts telling authority figures of what he and his friends saw.

This leads to a rumor being spread that the teacher steals apples...

Eventually, the teacher goes to the market stand with the kid, talks to the shopkeep, and it's clarified that the teacher has an arrangement with the shopkeep where he pays in advance and picks up an apple on his way home, which leads to a lesson about conclusion jumping and rumor spreading with the boy being punished by being made to cut a pillow in half on a windy day and then collect al the down that blew out to represent how hard it is to "clean up" a bad rumor but...

Mother****er, he saw what looked like his teacher committing a crime, confirmed what he saw was not a fluke, and then told authority figures. Is that not what kids are supposed to do in that situation? What was he supposed to do, go up to what he believes to be a crime in progress and confront the teacher then and there? Are we expected to believe that the teacher never expected someone to see him grabbing an apple form the stand and walking off and come to the logical conclusion?

[Rynjin]

He was supposed to go talk to the shopkeeper and say 'Hey, I saw Mrs./Mr. X take an apple without paying, what's up with that?" to get clarification that the wronged party actually felt wronged before involving a number of other schoolchildren and unrelated authority figures who would need to upend the teacher's life to figure out what was going on and harm their reputation in the process.

The punishment is, of course, ridiculous but the "what was he supposed to do?' is pretty clear here.

[Peelee]

There was a different episode about stealing.

This one seemed to be about conclusion jumping but... You know, conclusion jumping narratives don't really work when it's a reasonable conclusion.

Maybe I'm just weird int hat I don't like seeing protagonists punished for other characters ****ups or lessons about something being tought in a bad way that punishes reasonable feelings.

I thoughts i was previously clear about this, but maybe not. Let me be absolutely, incontrovertibly crystal clear.

As i recall, Doug took the bike back from the kids he thought stole it. Again, it's been decades, if I'm wrong please correct me.

Doug was not punished for believing the bicycle was stolen. Doug was not punished for feeling unsafe regarding that.. Doug was not punished for jumping to conclusions. Doug was punished for stealing the bike from the kids who had it.

Again, to be as clear as possible, the lesson was not "don't jump to conclusions" or "don't have feelings about things". The lesson was "don't take things from others".

[Rater202]

Okay, I looked up a transcript

It's not entirely a good one, lines are mostly unlabeled, but if I'm reading it correctly, what happened is that Doug called the police and reported his bike stolen, his statement was taken but otherwise, the police don't do anything other than say it was probably a kid who stole it since a burglar would have taken something more valuable, and then found the kids who had it, confronted them about stealing it, and threatened to contact the police again if they did not return what he had every reason to believe was his stolen property.

Now, the kids who had it did, in fact, say that they purchased it from a thrift store but, you know, they'd also apprently mutilated the bike so I don't think that Doug just blowing that off as a lie is unreasonable.

Ten minutes later he gets home to his parent with the replacement bike and the explanation that they gave his old bike away to a thrift store and then not a minute after that the police come down in full screaming siren mode to.. Tlk to Doug's parents about how their son has been accused of stealing a bike.

...Which is all kind of bull****. You know. Either the police are incompetent and didn't think to cross-reference the report of a kid's bike getting stolen against the report from the same day of that same kid stealing a bike or the kids he took the bike from left out almost all the details of the encounter when they filed their own report.

It gets cleared up, Doug gives the bike back, explains the situation to his parents, and then they ground him.