The delicious irony in this is that in 1904, Parliament voted on whether to go metric or not. The "not" vote won, but not by much ...
I was amazed when SWMBO did a refresher GCSE 5 years ago, and encountered imoerial units, which I never did when I did my O-Level. I was taught entirely in metric (1971-1984).
J.
This is the fault of the education system, whose job it is to train people for real life.
I have read that the ultimate exercise in futility is arguing with someone on usenet. I am starting to believe that is true :o) however I will attempt to reply as I feel you are badly missing my point.
Hopefully I will be able to show you that I am correct by backing up my arguments with facts and figures rather than hand waving statements based on emotion and "gut instinct". Unfortunately this will only work if you read the whole post, think about it and then reply. Anyone can take one line out of context and make it sound bad or twist it to mean something it wasn't intended to mean. It is, I believe, common practice in journalism but not necessary here.
You seem to have a particular problem with the line "To use an analogy: everyone (ok not quite everyone but we'll pretend) speeds on motorways." claiming that it is both not true and that it is an excuse for speeding. In no way, shape or form was it every supposed to be true or an excuse. It was simply held up as a model situation that could be used to better understand the real argument. In order to simplify that model slightly I added the constraint that everyone speeds. I know, as well as everyone else, that not everyone speeds but that is not the point. It is a _model_ not reality. If you study science you will find that models are used extensively in order to understand all natural processes. Newtons "laws", for instance, describe nothing more than a model for the Universe and have been proven to be wrong but they are still a useful model.
I feel that you have put me in the "speeder apologist" box which I think is unjustified as I haven't actually given you my opinion on speeding and am unlikely to do so.
In answer to point a, perhaps it is open to debate but I will debate with statistics. I draw your attention to the following Government report from 2003 (I was unable to find the 2004 report but I doubt much has changed in the last year).
In answer to point b I will say this: I didn't say that the current system will work. In fact, I offered no solution as without studying the problem I don't feel that I could offer a solution that worked any better than the current one. If you feel that you have a solution please offer it up for debate.
What I ask is that when there is widespread belief that the law (or other regulations as they are equally important) is wrong we have the courage to question why and that when, or in fact if, we change the law we do so based on fact.
I wasn't attempting to compare the death rates as figures clearly show that the roads are far more dangerous. I also wasn't attempting to justify part p legislation and again I haven't given my opinion on it. What I was attempting to do was show the logical fallacy of the argument that legislation should be scrapped if it isn't working.
It makes them comparable in so much as we should be asking why they are being breached. I happily admit that the reasons they are being breached a likely to different but my point was never to offer up reasons for the breach.
I feel sorry that you believe that I am "decidedly optimistic" for believing that I can better our lot. I may not be able to change the world but if I can show you that through reasoned debate and the collection and examination of facts we can improve our legislation I will feel that I have bettered the world in some small way.
It is easy to give up and say "I can't change that so why bother trying" but that just makes you a sheep controlled by the Shepard. You will not win every battle you fight but that is not a reason to not fight. You simply must choose the battles that you are most likely to win or that you feel most strongly about.
I checked the thesaurus and was surprised to see that crap actually is listed as a synonym for fiction however bullshit was notable by its absence.
Non-fictional works certainly do have their place and I will not deny that, however, fictional works are equally important as teaching tools. Fictional works open the mind to ideas in a way that non-fictional works can never do. How, for instance, would you teach love with a purely non-fictional work? Empathy is not something that can be measured with any device therefore now do you write a non-fictional work about it? These are equally important things to teach as they hold society together.
Don't you feel that this is a little draconian? I will take it you said this in haste as I find it hard to believe that anyone would truly stand by this statement. We can certainly teach our children by force but I would argue that it is wiser to teach using respect and encouragement.
As you believe that engaging in debates is a good way to learn I look forward to your reply. I believe that you are probably my senior and as such should have more worldly knowledge than I and perhaps a view on these points that can only be gained with more time. If I am wrong I look forward to learning. If I am right however I would hope you would feel the same. This is, of course, predicated on you believing that we are never to old to learn.
Graham
snipped-for-privacy@meeow.co.uk wrote:
I was in the last year at my primary school which was taught to do long division in £sd.
Personally, for motorways, I'd favour an extension of the variable speed limit scheme. In heavy traffic, rain or other adverse conditions, the speed limit could be dropped _and enforced_ to a safe value. If the road were clear, and conditions good, the limit could be raised to a higher (90?) _rigidly enforced_ speed. You get to go faster when its safe, but you must stick to the rules!
do Merkins use "British Thermal Units" ?
;-)
That's just complete b0llix!! I really wish it wasn't, but the truth is the education system's job is to get kids to pass as many exams as possible. To improve the pass-rate, the exams ARE being dumbed down.
My teaching colleagues are increasingly depressed by the constraints of syllabuses that prevent them going off on tangents that just might be interesting...
policing
assorted,
invaded.
letter. And
I took it as obvious there would have to be room made within the law for such a process to lead to successful prosecution.
NT
"Andrew Chesters" wrote | Personally, for motorways, I'd favour an extension of the | variable speed limit scheme.
One speed limit for politicians and another for everyone else?
Owain
Yes.
Regards Capitol
Many automatics need to be held back with the brakes at this speed. Also cars like the Impreza cough and pop making you sound like you're about to do something silly even if you're not. And that's in first. Top would stall it.
Which is what I said - but they would be more respected if they varied with the time of day.
Then go and read up on this. Several groups have indeed done what you propose but all the police can do is send them a nasty warning letter. And then a second ... a third ... and so on.
Quite surprising. But once Reagun banned metrification in the US, everybody else had to at least understand it if they wan't to work for/with US companies. Even most French understand miles and inches nowadays which they didn't pre-84.
And this would be a far bigger change in the fundamental basis of our law than the holding of terrorist subjects. It runs counter to everything since the Normans arrived and fortunately our judges would throw it out even if the Lords weren't allowed to.
I doubt if even the Yanks understand those :-)
Though I notice quite a few French plumbing items have BSP threads.
I learned both units at school, which is just as well when I am sent off to find ' a couple of 4m lengths of 4 by 2 ' or 'I need something about
25mm thick and about 2 ft long and about 100mm wide' It doesn't help with 'well, a biggish bit, you'll know yourself' though :-)-- Holly, in France. Holiday home in the Dordogne, website:
Their structural calculations are even more interesting. They do their loads in pounds and distances in feet and inches, but then to keep the numbers within manageable limits have the wondrous kip (kilopound) and ksi (kilopounds per square inch). Sort of metricated imperial
Are there other growers you could get together with to share the workload of compliance?
I've a feeling that Waitose olive oil tastes better than Tescos, but maybe I'm being snobbish...
Is your produce sold in the UK anywhere or, failing that is there any olive oil you would recommend?
cheers, Pete.
If that's the case, how is good olive oil different from bad?
Indeed.
I'm still left wondering at this point quite how to approach this with our (hopefully) new house. It will end up with a lot of electrical work in the longer term, as well as some stuff to do in the short term. (new lighting circuit in at least one room, some RCD provision as it's TT earthed with none at the moment) Unless the BCO will accept some sort of all encompassing request for say an effective rewire over the next 5 years then forgetting it and just doing the work seems to be the only sensible option.
I'm happy for my work to be inspected by a sparks at some point, but I'm wondering about potential problems in the future if we came to sell the house (not planning to for maybe 20+ years, but who knows) when the solicitor asks for building regs approval for the works.
>HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.