[time-nuts] gravity controlled pendulumn clock?

[Said Jackson]

If the banks here or anywhere should start to fail in the next 6 months or so it is beneficial to know that a Krugerrand is an ounce of gold which should buy more than enough food for a month for a family, and that an MOA is a little more than an inch at 100 yards (or 93 some odd meters if you prefer), and what 150 grains at 2700ft/s can do...

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 14, 2011, at 14:25, Jim Lux <jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:

> On 12/14/11 12:44 PM, Justin Pinnix wrote:
>> Contrary to popular belief, most of us in the U.S. have heard of the metric
>> system and understand how it works.  Personally, I agree that it is a
>> simpler and superior system.
>> 
>> But, English is the system we "think" in.  We know that if a person is 300
>> lbs they need to lose weight, you need to drink 8 cups of water a day, and
>> wish for 70 degree days.  Grandma's cookie recipe uses 1 cup of flour.
>>  Trying to convince 300 million people to re-learn all of that is a tough
>> sell when there is no obvious advantage to them.  Most are not scientists
>> or engineers and aren't likely to do business with a foreign country.
>> 
> 
> 
> Based on practical experience (moving to another country several times over the years), the disruption in day to day life is minimal.  Pretty soon, you ask for a half or third kilo of cheese instead of a pound. You know that 10 degrees is cool, chilly in the shade, 20 degrees is nice, 30 degrees is pleasantly warm, and 40 is hot.  -20 is where spit goes clink.
> 
> A yard and a meter are about the same, so if you're buying fabric or rope or wire that works out pretty well.
> 
> A square meter is about 10 square feet, so if you're looking at apartments, 40 sq m is smallish, 200 is palatial.
> 
> People by gasoline by money amounts (or "fill it up").  Back when gas started to go over $1/gallon, some stations changed their pump to read in liters, and it was only moderately inconvenient, and after a while you get used to it.
> 
> I think if we did the "massive cutover" there would be whining and complaining for about a month or two.
> 
> In a year, all the recipes would be printed in metric, except for books specializing in archaic styles.. but those exist today.. my wife has screwed up more than once using a recipe originating from her (English) mother or grandmother.
> 
> If you buy a graduated measuring cup today it likely has both metric and US Customary units on it.  Yes, you need to know that a teaspoon is 5ml and tablespoon is 15ml, but that's not exactly an ordeal.
> 
> 
> The tricky thing is manufacturing and customary sizes.  That 1/4-20 bolt has a long and enduring history and we'll be making them for decades to come.  But over 10-20 years, instead of bolt bins at the local hardware store having mostly customary units with a smaller section for metric, we'll have more metric, with a smaller section for customary.
> 
> Most folks have both sets of wrenches and hex keys, etc.  (or, they just use the adjustable wrench or those ChannelLok serrated pliers, so they can rip the corners off any nut, metric or US)
> 
> 
>> Those of us who are scientists and engineers likely use metric at work and
>> English at home.  Is that wrong?  Maybe, but we're smart people and we can
>> deal with it :-)
>> 
>> It's not like metric is totally absent.  We drink 2 liter cokes and defend
>> ourselves with 9mm pistols.   Our cars use mostly metric parts.  Even ham
>> radio operators, arguably the most jingoistic and set in the past bunch
>> around, get on the 80, 40, and 20 METER bands.
>> 
>> Furthermore, I've been to some of these countries that supposedly use the
>> metric system.  One of them measured distance between cities in km and
>> speed limits in MPH.  Now THAT was annoying!
>> 
>> "Progressives" tried to force Metric on the U.S. in the 1970s and it didn't
>> catch on.  Besides, we've got bigger standardization problems to deal with
>> these days - getting everyone here to speak English!
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
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