Gasoline

[FUKKU]

This puts me in mind of someone who complained about US money. I think he was from australia, but he threw a huge fit about US money. Because he claimed that money should be different sizes and shapes, and US money is all the same size and shape, therefore US money was stupid. Because in Australia, it's apparently too much trouble to look at the number on a piece of paper to see what it is before handing it over. LOL. Different places, different customs.

(I'm american) different-sized money would be a good thing since it's a lot more accessible to blind people. right now it's pretty easy for a blind person to mix up say, a $5 and a $20, since there's no obvious way to tell them apart if you can't see the print.

[Alessandro17]

I can kinda understand the anti-EU perspective. It's kinda like the different state perspective here in the US. Washingtonians pay taxes that get distributed to other states like Mississippi more than Washington. Etc and so forth. My state is almost entirely self-sufficient, as it produces all the electricity it uses, as much food as is consumed by it's people, etc.

 

With that kind of reasoning, we might as well be against any form of organized society, because society always implies some form of solidarity towards the weaker, including the sick, the elderly...

Heck, even most animal species know solidarity.

[gwprod12]

I agree Alessandro. I am not saying the perspective is the only valid one. Just that it is a perspective and understandable.

[OryHara]

 

:hysterical:

[Alessandro17]

As for Imperial vs Metric... Imperial height measure (E.G. 6'2") seems more elegant to my point of view than Metric height measure (1.9587 meters). I find that inches are much easier to estimate than Meters. When I see someone who's a little bit taller than me, I assume they're 6'1 or 6'2. I don't think maybe they're 1.9465 to 1.9587 meters. Metric measure and Customary measure exist in seperate uses, and very rarely do they need to be converted from one to another. Customary measures are good when you want to estimate something and describe it in an elegant way, such as cooking or speaking. Metric is good for math and science. I can't imagine trying to live daily life by the metric system, but I probably could if I needed to.

 

That depends on how you grew up. In Britain I was never able to understand height in inches. And nobody ever says: "I am 1.9465 meters tall!"

People will say: 194 centimeters, or 1.94, very easy to understand (from my point of view).

 

This puts me in mind of someone who complained about US money. I think he was from australia, but he threw a huge fit about US money. Because he claimed that money should be different sizes and shapes, and US money is all the same size and shape, therefore US money was stupid. Because in Australia, it's apparently too much trouble to look at the number on a piece of paper to see whadifferent sizes and shapest it is before handing it over. LOL. Different places, different customs.

 

Actually I agree with that Australian. What I don't like about the Euro is that it is easy to get mixed up, while previous currencies were/are all in different sizes and shapes.

 

Now, I would agree to an argument in favor of money being metric. Penny, Dime, Dollar, Ten, 100, 1000. Etc. But I don't think the Euro is in metric denomination, and I know Canada doesn't use a metric denomination. (IIRC, Canada uses pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, ones, twos, fives, tens...). or Metric time. If Metric is the ultimate system and should be used for everything, at least start with stuff that matters, and poses problems of calculation in actual life; not how tall someone may or may not be, or how much they weigh, or about how far you walked for exercise. When a recipe calls for one cup of flour, that is easily estimated as I know what one cup of flour looks like. If it calls for 5 deciliters of flour, I'd probably have to measure it. Though I'm sure you metric peeps know what 5 deciliters looks like without needing a measuring scoop ;-p

 

The Euro does use metric. It wouldn't make sense otherwise, everybody in Europe used/uses metric currencies, including Britain.

Besides my understanding is that the Canadian Dollar is also metric:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_dollar#Coins

 

Overall, the vast majority of the World uses metric:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication#N...etric_countries

[gwprod12]

I was thinking more along the lines of 1 cent, 10 cents, 1 dollar, 10 dollars, 100 dollars. You're speaking more generally of decimalization.

 

Maybe currency is a bad example. But time isn't.

 

It just seems pointless to modify a measurement system which you know, to one you may or may not know, for no reason whatsoever. 2 miles or 3.2km is a short distance in a car. 100 miles or 160km is a medium distance in a car, 1000 miles or 1600km is a long distance in a car. It's not necessary to rip up all the road signs in the US, to change all the cookbooks in the US and to teach everyone the new way of lying about their {censored} size. It just isn't.

 

I don't understand why the US system of measurements offends people so deeply. It's totally irrelevant. It's the same attitude that says "Why doesn't everyone learn english? I can't understand spanish/chinese/russian/etc. They should bow down to my convenience."

 

Because a meter is 3ft 3in or thereabouts, someone who is 2m is 6'6. 1.94 meters would be about 6'4 or 6'5. It's not used in any field that requires precision.

 

Would it be easier for everyone if every single person on the face of the earth used the metric system in a cookbook? Eh, maybe. Would it be easier for everyone if every single person on the face of the earth spoke the same language or had the same culture? Most definitely. Why not advocate that instead?

[Alessandro17]

I don't understand why the US system of measurements offends people so deeply.

 

I don't believe it offends people

 

Would it be easier for everyone if every single person on the face of the earth used the metric system in a cookbook? Eh, maybe. Would it be easier for everyone if every single person on the face of the earth spoke the same language or had the same culture? Most definitely. Why not advocate that instead?

 

I am all in favor of everybody speaking English

I wouldn't get so mixed up between English and Italian and, to a lesser extent, Dutch and German.