The moaning old git thread

[Gassoon]

I agree glider, 'Lessons Learned' reports are laughable in the sense that they never get looked at again and should really be called 'Lessons to be Forgotten' and they happen in both public and private sectors. I can imagine folder upon folder of them being forklifted through a giant warehouse to be deposited alongside the Ark of the Covenant, to lie dormant, while the same mistakes are repeated outside....over and again.
And we get another re-organisation of the health service, education, military procurements  etc -which all go horribly wrong....GRRRRRR (and - I admit it - some gnashing of teeth)

I bet there are historical documents detailing attempts to standardise tools for chariots in Boudiceas time!

[Fatbelly]

I am pleased to report that I have never heard a British man use the word "pants" when he actually meant "trousers". This is one part of Webster's Disease which has not yet infected the British male.

[Andy M]

I'm starting to be a tad miffed with the fact that the Wee is white. The number of cretins who can't tell the difference between a white and black Wee ridden by someone in a jacket with a splash of orange and a grey lid against a white Bavarian Tractor with big blue lights on the front, ridden by a bloke dressed like a lego man is pretty large IMHO, but maybe I'm wrong. They have this lemming like need to draw attention to themselves though. OK, you were doing 47 in the 40 zone, but the solution is not to do an emergency stop the second you enter the 30 limit   . I've been breaking the traffic laws to varying degrees for years. When you spot the fuzz you show control and experience and ease into advanced riding assesment mode, not attempt to decapitate them with your number plate

I think some sort of anti-plodalike markings are required, but I don't really want to reduce the visibility. I suppose I could just add some lime green stripes, buy a white Shuberth and join the IAM and P&S club  

Andy

[frez]

I found the same problem years ago when I used to commute into London although that was on a dark blue BMW R1100RT. The problem was I wore a white helmet and flourescent bib. In the end I changed the helmet to a black one and stopped wearing the bib and drivers stopped behaving like that. I didn't notice any difference in the liklihood of someone not seeing me based on the bib and helmet colour.

[Nix]

Can I join in?

- greedy, smug bankers who know they're too big and we'll keep bailing them out  :angry-steamingears:

- lying, sleezy, self serving, hypocritical politicians :angry-cussingblack:

- overpaid footballers :angry-teeth:

- people who can't drive properly :banghead:

- hormonally charged teenage daughters  :angry-screaming:

[Firestorm]

Can't resist the urge any longer!

When will the bl**dy BBC realise that the 'Napoleon' system of measurements HAS NOT been adopted here in the good old UK? what's '2cm of rain or snow'? Centimetres don't even exist as a useful measure of length anywhere!

Distance for traffic jams is not in Kilometres - if it was, the queue would stretch from Jct 26 on the M6 for example to somewhere where they do measure in Km - over the Channel. That'd be a traffic jam worthy of a news item!

And don't even get me started on 'Common Era' instead of Anno Domini.....

[hookie]

Agree to a point with the imperial Vs Metric systems but how would you fancy trying to teach today's kids the joys of inches/feet (12x table), feet/yards (3x table), increments of miles (440 and 880yards) and of course you must include sixteenths, eights, quarters, halfs (or is it halves?) and all the other fractions, plus of course decimal equivalents? At least the metric system is all in factors of 10. More daft though is the use of Centimetres in the UK, which are rarely used in mainland Europe, where they go from millimetres straight to metres. I used to have great fun teaching (or attempting to!) the use of millimetres to engineering and technology high school kids. Those tiddley tiny lines on steel rules sir?... All they'd ever used were centimetres and that's what the maths department taught. Getting these kids to think in any kind of engineering way was next to impossible and woe betide asking them to actually get their hands dirty. They'd be rushing off for the anti-bacterial sterilising spray at the mere suggestion of anything mucky. Most of them flatly refused to wear barrier cream as it didn't smell nice! Really glad I'm out of it. It's easy to see why the Chinese and Indians will take over the world.

[Piglumps]

I'm quite happy to use millimetres and metres when I want to make something - but when I comes to how far it is from my house to the pub or how tall I am it's good old miles, feet and inches.

One more: Buzzwords as they are known and unnecessary phrases. Radio 2 at lunchtime today they were discussing the latest banking shenanigans When asked about investigations the interviewee said "We'll have to get the drains up and have a look through." Is that supposed to make him sound more interesting?


Oh and teach the yards and fractions thing to today's kids - it'll give them something to actually make them work at, take their calculators away too...

[Firestorm]

Oh and teach the yards and fractions thing to today's kids - it'll give them something to actually make them work at, take their calculators away too...

Couldn't agree more - the powers that be are moaning about declining standards in Maths so get them on long division without calculators. Get them started on £133.14s 6d divided by £4 8s 4d. That should do it!

I too am happy working in either when making something but I HATE the BBC talking to me in Foreign!!!

[Fatbelly]

Now that IS something that really pisses me off!

When did they start calling Arithmetic "Maths"? If they don't know the difference no wonder they can't feckin' count!

[Orinoco]

I am pleased to report that I have never heard a British man use the word "pants" when he actually meant "trousers". This is one part of Webster's Disease which has not yet infected the British male.

Unless trying to order bike trousers from Hein Gericke  

[Andy M]

Agree to a point with the imperial Vs Metric systems .....

I give you the one decisive argument against the Imperial system: British Thermal Units.

Carrying the gallon of water and measuring the temperatures and pressures, all nice and handy sized units. Put them together in a calculation and the advantage evaporates (Yes, this is possibly some sort of engineering joke).

Best bet is to covert to metric, do the calculations then go back into the named human sized units where appropriate (A pint glass you'll notice is entirely familiar in Euroland, as are 4-inch nails, but you could just as well call them medium/size 2 etc. the marketing department get stuck at blue vs red regardless).

Andy

[Strombone]

Why can't we go fully metric? We now have metric measures in everyday use in many areas yet we still have MPH. Why?
The sooner we go fully metric, the better as far as I am concerned. What could be simpler than a base10 measurement system?

Why don't we use LSD anymore? Because decimalisation is easier to use.
 What about allotments? They are still measured in rods, poles and perches. Ridiculous! It might make one well up with nostalgic feelings of days of yore, but it is incomprehensible to most of us.

There. That's my two farthings worth. I now expect to be debarred from this site imminently.

[Mad Phil]

All over the world wheel sizes are in inches diameter & width on the rims....

I.E. WORLDWIDE...

[Fatbelly]

I found it quite useful in Euroland recently to be able to press a button on my new Wee and all the numbers switch to Km - saved me an awful lot of mental arithmetic. I'm quite happy thinking in metric or imperial. (except of course for US gallons which are flippin' impossible)

[Fat Rat]

Why can't we go fully metric

Because we are British and we don't need to sell our souls to the fecking EU  

For me, many of these discussions are more about giving up identity than dividing by ten.

[Fatbelly]

For me, Metric measurement has nothing to do with the EU, which is only part of Europe and a small part of the world. This is not a political argument - and there aren't many things you can say that about!

We don't need to sell our souls to the EU, but we do need to sell our goods & services to the whole world.

[Gassoon]

Why can't we go fully metric?
 What about allotments? They are still measured in rods, poles and perches. Ridiculous! It might make one well up with nostalgic feelings of days of yore, but it is incomprehensible to most of us.

Because they connect us with our past and therefore our culture: without such things we would be adrift, culturally, and have no 'Britishness'. We should cherish allotments, pubs, and trousers, and some old-fashioned things such as measurements...

Cherish your trousers! Bring back the florin!

[Locky]

What about allotments? They are still measured in rods, poles and perches.

what's wrong with metre's ?

How long are rods, poles , and perches then ?

[Fat Rat]

We don't need to sell our souls to the EU, but we do need to sell our goods & services to the whole world.

Which we have done successfully for hundreds of years whilst being at war with certain parts of Europe  

For me it is entirely political.