Since FantasyLover started posting Lucky Jim III I started re-reading Lucky Jim I and II. I'm probably not the only one so the reader numbers for LJ III will probably lag a little until everyone caught with the re-reading :D
The preface of LJ III has a long list of unit conversions for those unfamiliar with them. To expand upon that I will share a little hidden gadget from the ReaderInfo site:
Calculators
a little hidden gadget from the ReaderInfo site
The focus is on hidden. The average site user will not see a link to the calculator page.
It is an add-on that is being evaluated for addition to the site. If you think it is worthwhile, let us know.
Keet,
What and where is the Reader Info Site? Know the Author Info Link but don't see a way to go from that site to Calculators
Please advise. Thank you, J.W. Spead (long time reader)
As I said in my post. There is no link available at this time on our site.
You have to click Keet's link to get to calculators.
The Author Info Link takes you to the ReaderInfo site.
As REP stated it's a gadget separate from the ReaderInfo site. I created it as a hobby project for my own html library because I had a regular need for it and didn't want to use other sites where I had to go through the process of selecting the from-to units again and again. Now all major units are on a single page. I adapted it for generic use and, for now, it's hosted on the ReaderInfo site. We'll see if more readers find it usefull.
For those of you using Windows 10, the built-in calculator does unit conversions as well. Just click on the three stripe menu icon in the upper left corner, and select the appropriate conversions.
I use this handy little convert programme.
https://joshmadison.com/convert-for-windows/
nice and compact and just sitting on my desktop as an icon
I use this handy little convert programme.
https://joshmadison.com/convert-for-windows/
nice and compact and just sitting on my desktop as an icon
If it works for you than don't stop using it. I don't have windows and what I created I can run locally without install. Or use online of course ;)
The international English spelling is 'litre'. Only the US uses 'liter'.
Actually, the inversion of re->er happens across many words between UK and US English. One other example I am familiar with is centre vs center.
Actually, the inversion of re->er happens across many words between UK and US English. One other example I am familiar with is centre vs center.
The funny thing is that in Dutch it's also 'liter'. But of course that is as a Dutch word, not English.
The funny thing is that in Dutch it's also 'liter'
The really funny thing is its origin is French (litre), but all other germanic languages โ except Icelandic โ use 'liter'.
HM.
but all other germanic languages โ except Icelandic โ use 'liter'.
It's my understanding that British English is mostly germanic, although about a third romance and lots of contributions from other sources.
It's a good thing we didn't adopt the French 'livre' for book - it would be quite funny reading American English stories which had people opening and reading their livers. :)
AJ
although about a third romance
Some of these are remnants from the Roman Empire, others Latin used by learned people and most โ I guess โ from Norman French. The last source caused the different names for the animals (Anglo-Saxon) and their meat: e.g. swine/pork, cattle(cow, ox)/beef, calf/veal. The ruling class didn't bother how their subjects called the animals, but insisted to use the Franco-Norman terms for the meat.
HM.
Typo edited
livre
With the normal (for American) re becoming er, livre becomes liver. A body organ not having much to do with sex. Unless you are a high liver.
Conversions are par the course from an engineers perspective.
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/material-properties-t_24.html
Click on any of the sublinks, and you'll note SI units are more the norm than not. I don't understand the reluctance of the world to cut out imperial units. SI units are cleaner and clearer.
Click on any of the sublinks, and you'll note SI units are more the norm than not. I don't understand the reluctance of the world to cut out imperial units. SI units are cleaner and clearer.
The ones who make the rules, and the ones who will have to implement them, all learned and use Imperial units, and most aren't in a field where everything is done using metric units.
If they even know about them, the Gimli Glider and the failed Mars lander aren't important enough to them to change their minds.
I don't understand the reluctance of the world to cut out imperial units
The world? It's only the USA and Liberia โ see map โ the imperial units are mostly history, but the USA still use their U.S. customary units (not the same as imperial units especially in measuring volumes of liquids and dry goods).
HM.
You might want to check that site. It's more than just the U.S. and Liberia.
Regardless; I spent 2/3 of my adult life outside the US borders. SI units feel normal to me. The standards conversion projects I worked in post Soviet states were a monumental pain in the arse because of this issue. At the time, it had to be SI, Imperial, and USC. The latter two need to be trashed sooner than later imo.
At the time, it had to be SI, Imperial, and USC. The latter two need to be trashed sooner than later imo.
I agree with you but I'm afraid it isn't going to happen any time soon. There's several reasons for that, the first being that human nature is generally against changing long time habits although a change from imperial to SI is much easier than the other way around would be. The second is cost. There's so much equipment (cars, machines) build using the imperial system along with all the tools, knowledge, and experience that changing to SI is only possible for new equipment. The costs are enormous. It's only possible if really new products, not the next version of an existing product, would transit to SI measurements. And than we come back to the first reason I mentioned, the unwillingness to do so.
Hopefully it doesn't take a Soviet Union style crash and burn before the U.S. decides to change.
Hopefully it doesn't take a Soviet Union style crash and burn before the U.S. decides to change.
I wouldn't bet on a crash and burn doing it. The US federal government tried to force a change to SI decades ago. The general public rejected it and eventually the government gave up.
It may happen eventually, but it will take several generations.
The general public rejected it and eventually the government gave up.
No: business rejected it because of the costs. If businesses build everything in SI measurements the public will simply follow, after all they have no choice it that's what is offered.
Hopefully it doesn't take a Soviet Union style crash and burn before the U.S. decides to change.
Without wanting to go into politics it might by sooner than later if the US keeps acting like it is. Just read up on what the US is trying to force upon TSMC in Taiwan. Since the same type of rubbish is happening a lot lately foreign companies are increasingly trying to produce without any link to the US thus removing any possible influence. Just think about what that does to the US economy.
When Australia changed to decimal currency back in 1966 it was all over within a few months and we all handled it well. Then in the early seventies we changed from imperial measurements to the metric system (now often called SI) and it was all over within a few years with everyone handling it well. Although one generation, mine, still don't do the conversions well we can handle things in either imperial or metric as we just have an issue with converting from one to the other. When the change to metric happened there were a lot of people who fought it, but it went well despite their angst at the change. I suspect the same will happen in the US when they finally decide to change. As it is there is a hell of a lot of metric used in the US industries already.
As it is there is a hell of a lot of metric used in the US industries already.
And there is the rub. If it happens in the US, it will happen organically from the bottom up. If the US government tries to force it as it did once before, it will likely fail all over again.
At the time, it had to be SI, Imperial, and USC. The latter two need to be trashed sooner than later imo.
If humanity were truly forward-thinking, it would eliminate anthropocentricity from its weights and measurements systems in favour of binary over decimal.
AJ
Although one generation, mine, still don't do the conversions well we can handle things in either imperial or metric as we just have an issue with converting from one to the other.
If the conversion were easy and could be done by calculating in your head the opposition would be far less. That's what makes the SI system so simple, virtually every unit counts in 1,10,100, etc while the Imperial System has different numbers for each unit. If you didn't grow up with the Imperial System it's very hard to keep track of all the different numbers in each unit. What makes it even more difficult is this example: In a lot of stories rooms in a house are described as x feet by x feet and the story makes it sound as if those are huge rooms. But when I convert them to the meters/centimeters I'm used to there's nothing huge about them at all, sometimes they even seem small to me. That's also why I created the little calculator page mentioned in the first post, I use it with almost every story I read.
I thought I'd read somewhere recently that the US Military uses metric measurements because of all the alliances with NATO etc.
When the Hubble telescope was first launched they found it could hardly see anything and the investigation found that with it being built from parts from all over the world, someone had not converted a metric/imperial distace correctly. The fault was fixed several months later when a new electronic package was installed by hand by astronauts.
When the Hubble telescope was first launched they found it could hardly see anything and the investigation found that with it being built from parts from all over the world, someone had not converted a metric/imperial distace correctly. The fault was fixed several months later when a new electronic package was installed by hand by astronauts.
I don't know where you heard that, but it's BS.
The problem was an aberration in the curvature of the primary mirror. This was a manufacturing defect and had nothing to do with any issues with SI vs imperial or USC units.
The sensor package was replaced with one that compensated for the issue in the mirror because it was impractical to replace the mirror in orbit.
https://www.nasa.gov/content/hubbles-mirror-flaw
In effect, the Hubble got a pair of prescription eyeglasses. :-)
All things considered, more of a prescription monocle than a pair of glasses.
Where it did go wrong because of SI vs Imperial is with the Mars Climate Orbiter.
That's true.
Re. Hubble mirror - the story at the time was that the telescope was designed in the US but the mirror was ground in Europe and the specs for the mirror were mixed up in the conversion. That was the story at the time, so I don't know if it was true or not
1. No, the mirror was not ground in Europe.
From the link I provided above:
Hubble's primary mirror was built by what was then called Perkin-Elmer Corporation, in Danbury, Connecticut.
2. That isn't anything like the story I heard at the time.
Again from the link above.
NASA undertook an investigation to diagnose the problem. Ultimately the problem was traced to miscalibrated equipment during the mirror's manufacture. The result was a mirror with an aberration one-50th the thickness of a human hair, in the grinding of the mirror.
A unit conversion issue would have almost certainly resulted in a much larger aberration.
Corning Glass Works manufactured the core, Perkin-Elmer Corporation performed the grind. Where the metric/SI/imperial confusion came from was in reporting.
Example:
http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/Telescopes/Hubble.html
Take note that everything was in inches until they reported on the flawed work where it switched to nanometers.
Where the ESA contributed to Hubble was in the RSU and gyroscopes.
Remus2
2/19/2020, 7:11:27 PM
@LonelyDad
No SME on hubble here. Five minutes of Google and reading revealed what I stated.
I agree. I knew most of the provided info just from reading articles in various newsletters as they occurred. I didn't know about the 1/50th thickness of a human hair as the amount of the aberration.
But there have been enough times that an SME has popped on a subject under discussion that always amazes me.
You've obliquely struck on a pet peeve of mine.
To my mind, there are no true SME's out there. There are multiple subject matter specialist, but to tag anyone as an expert is wrong in my opinion.
I started life on this earth in 56. I've been learning as much as I can since. My areas of specialization allowed a broad spectrum of basic knowledge, and a few detailed understandings. What you won't see me doing is painting myself as a specialist where I only have a basic general understanding.
Wikipedia does not a specialist make, nor a cousin, brother, or seeing one on TV. Unfortunately, there are some people who do use wiki etcetera, to paint themselves as 'experts' here and elsewhere.
You'll only ever get negative feedback, I.E. silence on the things I've no or little background on from me. Things like advanced computer sciences as a for instance. I know some basics, but that's about it. Therefore I'll ask questions, but usually just shut my mouth.
The internet is full of wikiperts who are fast to tear someone down about, and report on things authoritatively that in reality, they've only ever read on wiki or seen on a TV program.
All that said, it's wise to remember this is the internet. A place where everyone is an astronaut, race car driver, professor, professional sports athlete, war hero, and sexual savant.
All that said, it's wise to remember this is the internet. A place where everyone is an astronaut, race car driver, professor, professional sports athlete, war hero, and sexual savant.
On the internet, nobody knows you are a dog.
God is Dog spelled backwards
Tac is Cat spelled backwards. Cats are a lot more like gods than dogs are. Dogs have masters, Cats have staff.
Cats are a lot more like gods than dogs are.
Dogs are loyal, cats really don't give a fuck.... so yes, you're correct.
Dogs are loyal, cats really don't give a fuck
Dogs try to protect their owners, cats look for an opportunity to eat them ...
AJ
Dogs try to protect their owners, cats look for an opportunity to eat them ...
Cats rarely eat their pets. Lick them after death, possibly, but not eat. You don't eat pets or servants.
Cats rarely eat their pets. Lick them after death, possibly, but not eat. You don't eat pets or servants.
Try telling that to a Siberian tiger. :)
Try telling that to a Siberian tiger. :)
"Tiger, tiger, burning bright,
that'll teach you not to bite."
Said Mr Molotov, as he filled another bottle
I suspect cats eating their dead owners is under-reported. Firstly, it's in their nature to take advantage of a sudden glut of relatively fresh meat. Secondly, it's not something the emergency services would publicise when they find and retrieve the body of the deceased.
Decades ago, I wrote a story in which it happened. The protagonist discovered a way to view out-of-body and came across the body of a dead elderly neighbour being snacked upon by her felines. I must check whether I've still got a copy.
AJ
I suspect cats eating their dead owners is under-reported.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31703159
I'll preface this by saying I know very little about it. That said, it got me curious. From what I could find on the subject, your suspicion appears to be closer to fact than suspicion. There has been a few studies, but even they (such as the one linked) appear to state the subject is under-reported.
Expert
Ex = a has been
Spurt = a drip under pressure
I may be an ex-spurt !!
Expert
"Dictionary
Search for a word
pert
/pษrt/
adjective
1.
(of a girl or young woman) attractively lively or cheeky.
"a pert Belgian actress"
2.
(of a bodily feature or garment) attractive because neat and jaunty.
"she had a pert nose and deep blue eyes"
Of course being expert means that person used to be pert.
