random thought thread

[!C8Hypela/M!!fN+hj5wFeatured Creator]

So there is this kind of thread on another forum I was in, where people posted their random thoughts, sometimes they post about how their day went (almost like a public diary entry of some kind), or something about a movie they recently watched, a story they read, something they saw on the news etc. And every once in a while, some members responded to those posts and proceed to have a long discussion about that interest of theirs.

I wonder if I can bring something like it over here as well? Let's try shall we? Post random thoought, or whatever thing you find interesting really. Lets Go!

[!C8Hypela/M!!fN+hj5wFeatured Creator]

Today I randomly recalled about how different animals from different evolution line eventually evolved into the same anatomical shape which is crab-shape, there were some videos about it on Youtube.

[johnrAdministrator]

Yes, it's an interesting fact and it appears that 5 different crab species have evolved from different non-crab species. It's called carcinisation - a form of convergent evolution.


However, I did check out the 'Cracked' site that wrote an article on this but found another article about how the measurements of a 'foot' (currently 12 inches) has changed over the years.

Disturbingly, the article ended with this: 

Luckily, today, the entire world uses just one unit of length, the standard foot. All countries use it, particularly all scientists. And everyone uses pounds, miles, Fahrenheit, and bushels; this is only logical.

I really really hope this was a tongue-in-cheek piece of sarcasm of how Americans know nothing about the world outside of the USA.

[!C8Hypela/M!!fN+hj5wFeatured Creator]

Ah of course, the international standard unit of temperature, Fahrenheit.

[rusnakcreativeAdministrator]

I still don't understand why the US joins the rest of the world in using a base-10 system, rather than some off the wall imperial system that made sense because we were told so. 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 5280 feet to a mile . . . wtf?

Also, it sounds like you guys in the UK use both units interchangeably. You measure speed by miles per hour, but distance in kilometers?

[!C8Hypela/M!!fN+hj5wFeatured Creator]

I'm from southeast and as far as I can remember, we use kilometres any time of the day.

When I first saw speedometers in western movies, I thought mph means metre per hour lol which already sounds insane in and of itself.

[johnrAdministrator]

In the UK, we really only work in miles - per hour and distance. It's mainly cyclists who might use kilometers because it's the recognised language of the sport.

The origins of UK / Imperial measurements are bonkers. The traditional story of the yard is that it was the distance between the tip of King Henry 1's nose to the tip of his fingers. A lot of old measurements were taken from body parts - like a foot! and an inch was meant to be the span of a man's thumb. This does all make sense to some degree when you think back to the days before there were any kind of measuring devices like rulers. You stretch out a some cloth between your nose to your fingertips and you've got a yard of cloth.

I worked in Serbia for a year or so and the English-speaking bar I used held a quiz night once a week. One night the question something like this came up: "What sports field has maximum measurements of 23.77m x 10.97m?" The answer was a tennis court. The question master then looked over to us English (who invented the game of course) and said "Why did you English  make the court with such silly dimensions?!" As you might guess, the answer was that in imperial measurements it's 78 x 36 ft.

We do interchange temperatures. It depends on whether the temperature is hot or cold. In the winter people will say "Hey it's cold out there - minus 3!" but in the summer they'll say "Wow it's hot out there - must be close to 90!". If a weather forecaster were to say it's going to be 32 degrees fahrenheit today - not many people would know if it's going to be hot or cold. Having said that, on the hot side, people use celsius a lot more these days "It's 32 out there today!" Then again, if we go down with a fever, or Covid, our temperature will only be recognisable in fahrenheit. "He's got a temperature of 103!"

However, if you really want a wtf moment, you should consider British currency before it went metric in 1971.

I put this spoof image together just after we stupidly left the EU. The message about reverting to 'old money' isn't true, but all the details of the currency denominations are.

[JarekFeatured Creator]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5yCk6Qpuv4&ab_channel=TrevorNoah

The fragment between 4:40 - 6:20 refers to the imperial measurement system in the USA

[johnrAdministrator]

This guy is good!

There's another difference between US and UK, even in Imperial measurements. In the UK someone might weigh 11 stone 6 pounds (lbs). In the US they would weigh 160 lbs. Say what your weight is to someone from the other country and they won't have a clue how heavy you are!

[JarekFeatured Creator]

I always have problems converting units in cooking recipes. American vs British ounces, quarts, cups or gallons are not the same {metric) quantities. Not that I cook gallons of whatever...

[johnrAdministrator]

Many years ago I remember training courses being offered on 'metrication' which led to a lot of running gags relating to our regular shopping for things like:

2 kilometers of beef
6 litres of butter
3 kilograms of curtain material
4 metres of milk
8 centilitres of frozen peas
1 litre of Jack Daniel's (oh yeah - don't change that one!)

[johnrAdministrator]

Here's a picture from Google maps showing that the new South Yorkshire Police Operations Complex in the UK is located on Letsby Avenue. To me, and most Brits, this shows the absolute genius of the person who named the road 'Letsby Avenue' when the development was being built.



I'm just wondering:
a) does anyone who's not British get this?
b) does anyone have anything similar from their own country that's hilarious to them, but that 'foreigners' might not understand in the same way?

[JarekFeatured Creator]

a) I don't get it   
b) of course, but on the most part foreigners don't speak Polish so they won't get it anyway 

[!C8Hypela/M!!fN+hj5wFeatured Creator]

A green screaming guy from the symbolist/expressionist art period, white vehicle.svg behind a single-colored background, a vaguely water droplets-like vector.svg, and a purple anime girl avatar.

Quite an unlikely hangout group, aren't we?

[JarekFeatured Creator]

    

[!C8Hypela/M!!fN+hj5wFeatured Creator]

How do get like Jarek, me been here for 152 years, when will gib me.

[!C8Hypela/M!!fN+hj5wFeatured Creator]

BRO IM JUST KIDDING

[!C8Hypela/M!!fN+hj5wFeatured Creator]

Wow, coming back with no shame after ghosting the site for... wait, its only been 3 months? Feels a lot longer.

Hello folks, sorry for the sudden disappearance. Also am apologizing in advance, but I'm probably gonna be away again with no warnings later.

So what's with that? Well, I am now enrolled in uni, am pursuing informatics if any of you were wondering. They don't have a whole lot of powerpoint assignments over there, more of C++ actually. Does powerpoint support C++? heheh.

The collaborative project been weighing in the back of my mind all this time, every now and then I checked this place and no one has beat me to it lol. Guess I really have to do something about that.

Well then, I'm gonna be hanging around here for a little bit. See you around! Send me messages if you want, that fine as well.

[JarekFeatured Creator]

Does powerpoint support C++? 

More likely C++ might support Powerpoint. If you can write a little .dll in C++ that can add a timer functionality to Powerpoint to overcome the 1 second barrier and start measuring time in much smaller increments like in Excel, then you'll be my Hero for the rest of my life! Make it your quest


Congrats on your Uni enrollment and choice of subject!

[!C8Hypela/M!!fN+hj5wFeatured Creator]

I FORGOT POWERPOINT WAS BUILT IN C++

Definitely will try making that when my skill is sufficient enough haha. Also thanks!

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