h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Currently in the middle of effing nowhere, halfway through a drive around the country.

Now I know why Australia is called the big red country!

and it was such an uncivilised place that you were able to get internet access...... Oh, the depravation of travelling around this big red country.

My thoughts exactly. How far away from civilization could she possibly be if she managed to get internet access?

Oh, right... I forgot...


This is *Australia* we're talking about! She could be in a thriving metropolis and still feel far from civilization!

You say that as if it's a *bad* thing, Lady Scott.

Fukarwi must be a tribal name for Melbournian natives.

Cafram

Have a great adventure. Remember, the nasty stuff makes for the best yarn spinning later. Take notes.

Cafram, when you say you are "halfway through a drive around this country", does it mean that you are currently somewhere in the northern part of Western Australia? And if so, what happened to your gruelling university schedule?

But if she takes notes, there will be physical evidence of the *real* truth, not supportive of her *enhanced* truth.

Destroy the notes, Caf.

ER, let's just say that she was driving from Katherine to Broome in basically a day... and then from there to Horsham in about 3. THat's a lot of driving!! And it's uni holidays now, she doesn't have to force herself to do horrible things like float down rivers in Kayaks, she can occupy herself in much less stressful ways

Have fun frammer

Do you aussies use the metric system?

Yes..... why do you ask?

In my humble opinion (which is all that matters to me ), it's an odd system. I'd have a lot of trouble getting used to it, myself.

Except for liters. Liters I think I could get used to because they're so close in size to a quart.

Oh yes, metric is such an odd system... everything in multiples of 10.. not like trying to remember how many ounces are in a pound, how many pounds are in a stone and how many stones are in a quarry.....

BTW, have you noticed that your currency is decimal?

Yes, I'm well aware that our currency is based on the decimal system.

I'm not talking about the ease with which you can remember the metric system because everything is in multiples of 10 - any nitwit can do that!

What I'm thinking about is that the measurements I'm familiar with - feet, ounces, pounds (we don't do stones in this country - I don't think we ever *did*!), miles - don't even come close to an easy to remember metric equivalent - like an inch is 2.54 cm or some such odd measurement. It's the *amount* that confuses me, in comparison to the measurements I'm *used* to. The liter is about the only one that comes very close to being similar to one of our measurements.

Oh how I wish more people in this country could grasp the simplicity of the metric system. In a short while, we'd all become accustomed to "guesstimating" measurements in metric. Don't you remember how *weird* it seemed to us back in the late Seventies when two liter bottles of Coke came out, Lady Scott? By now, I'm sure you can think in liters because of your familiarity with the mass-market packaging in our stores. I assure you that other measurements would soon follow suit, if we would only give it a try. Our newfound freedom from needless math problems would probably give us time to do something more productive, or (heaven forbid) enjoyable.

At my job, I spend *lots* of time each day converting feet, inches and fractions of inches into numbers that can be manipulated on a calculator or in a computer program. All that fraction sh*t they taught us in school is next to worthless in today's computer age. Ditto for all the conversion of US measurements to metric ... it's all garbage!! If a person wants to measure a meter, have them use a meter ruler for Bob's sake ... not a stinking yard stick. In my (not so) humble opinion, the failure of the US educational system to teach us this simple concept is why whe're still struggling with the outdated monstrosity that is our system based on twelves, thirds, sixteenths, eighths, thirty-seconds and so on ... ad infinitum.

Also, it amazes me how many people have *no* concept that 12'-1-1/2" is *not* the same thing as 120.112 inches. *cringe* I have to fix it somehow when these people give me artwork that can't possibly fit in the area in which it belongs.

Of course, if you check my "precise" figures on a *certain* recent thread involving a simple time problem, you would see that I'm just as much of a math idiot as anyone else out there.

I'm intensely grateful for the invention of the pocket calculator ... it allows me to function as a "nearly-normal" human being.

25 mm is, more often than not, quoted as the equivalent of an inch. So how could this be confusing to a country which has the "quarter" as a coin in its currency?

Plus, when you are using the metric system you shouldn't be thinking in inches, miles or any of the old, completely arbitrary and illogical, imperial measures. You learn to think in the, completely arbitrary but a whole lot more logical, metric measures.

And believe me, not every nitwit remembers that the metric system works in multiples of 10!!

But lets take a look at the imperial system for a moment....

12 inches = 1 foot

Okay, so we're working in 12s then are we? So 12 feet would be????? Actually 12 feet is nothing of importance.

3 feet = 1 yard

Hmmm, so we've changed to 3's now, I can handle that! So 3 yards would be..... unimportant!

5½ yards = 1 rod

Who is Rod, anyway, and why does he need 5½ yards?

40 rods = 1 furlong

So if you line up 40 blokes named Rod, they would constitute a furlong. BTW, how did that multiple of 10 get in there? So far we have 12, 3, 5½ and then they go and confuse us with a multiple of 10!

8 furlongs = 1 mile

Or more precisely, 1 mile is equal to 320 Rods, 1760 yards, 5280 feet or 63360 inches.

3 miles = 1 league

What???? Why did they suddenly revert back to 3? Surely they could have been more creative and said that 2¾ miles is equal to 1 league.

So, if the nitwits can barely remember that the metric system works in multiples of 10, how are they likely to remember all of that lot (for starters)?

Is it not bad enought that I had to listen to AW ranting on the *phone* for an hour about not living in a metric country? I have to come here and read rant after rant too?


Sheesh. All I said was that I'm *used* to our system. I'm sure we'll switch over to metric eventually, but not until my parent's generation is too feeble to complain about it.

I didn't rant for an hour. It was more like ten minutes.

53 minutes and some odd seconds.


Oh, right. That was the total length of the phone call. I'm sure you must have ranted about our stupid system of measurements and the inability of the people you deal with to express fractions in decimals for just a wee bit longer than 10 minutes though.

And all I'm saying is that it would take you very little time to get *used* to the metric system.