People who reject the metric system
...as though it's some kind of evil foreign black magic. Somebody not much older than me asked me how I made my (rather good) flapjacks the other day, so I replied "Oh, it's dead easy - you just need 500 grams of oats..."

"Oh, I don't do grams!"

"...250 grams of butter..."

"I DON'T DO GRAMS!! TELL ME PROPERLY!!"

Well, forget it then. If you have a religious objection to flicking a switch or reading from a different scale, or can't simply approximate, given that I use four ingredients in the ratio 10:5:3:3, then I'm not going to pander to your phobia.

Proponents of Imperial helpfully point out that you can't divide 10 by 3 without getting fractions. Woop-de-do. What's a third of a mile? Or a stone? Or a pound?

Actually, I find it really embarrassing the way the UK is stuck in a kind of shitty half-way house - all medical examination is done in SI units, but people still weigh themselves in stones and pounds, road and railway specifications are all in metres and kilometres, but signage is in yards and miles and Eurostar adverts boast about "186 mph", new buildings are planned in metric, but the number of square feet used to advertise their office space, everything's sold in "metric sizes", but people like my work colleague can only cook using Imperial etc. etc.

Hmmm, I'm ranting now.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:20, 21 replies)

So true
It's even worse in the States.

You can also add to that driving on the left when the rest of Europe drives on the right - and people still refer to it as driving on the 'wrong side of the road'.
(Milo Minderbinder, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:26, closed)

I agree,
we need to change over, rather than retaining these ridiculous measures.

Ironically, I work entirely in Metric, but I know how long a mile is, or how heavy a pound is, or the quantity of a pint. I know all these in terms of their metric equivalents, and how many of each makes up each of everything, in metric and imperial units and so on.

And yet ask any of these metric-rejecters how many yards in a mile, how many ounces in a pound, how many fluid ounces in a pint, or whatever, and most of them haven't got a clue.

I think they're afraid of understanding, because SI makes so much sense.
( Thinker, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:27, closed)

Flapjacks...
So what is the recipe?

I like flapjacks.
(The Kwyjibo A big, dumb, balding North American ape., Wed 7 May 2008, 11:35, closed)

Metrication
What's really pathetic is that it was originally intended for the UK to be fully metric by 1978. What are the chances of us getting there by 2078?
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:37, closed)

Flapjacks
Slowly heat 250g butter/margarine, 150g brown sugar and 150g golden syrup until melted and mixed.

Stir in 500g rolled oats.

Put mixture on a greased baking tray and put in oven at 180°C / Gas Mark 4 for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

Leave to cool and cut into flapjacks.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:39, closed)

^^ Nice!
I'll be trying that.
( Cawl, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:44, closed)

When building my koi pond
I used to buy 3 metres of 2 inch pipe. And it actually WAS 2", the metric version was a completely different thing (one was measured internally, one externally, and they both had different wall thicknesses.)
(turtles head is touching cloth poked a dwarf on the forehead at, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:45, closed)

Re: driving on the left
Actually, driving on the left is the "correct" side and was the original side that everyone in the whole of europe would use due to the ease of twatting an approaching person with your sword if he had evil on his mind (in a similar way to there being a "correct" way for a spiral staircase to turn). When Napoleon conquered lots of europe, he decided to change the sides in order to demonstrate that he was different.
(Bazongaloid, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:45, closed)

Vaguely interesting observation
The main line trains in France drive on the left.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:48, closed)

Flapjacks / Pancakes
Nice recipe, but I've always thought a flapjack was another name for a pancake?
( Ken Oath, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:53, closed)

Nope.
Two different things!
Flapjacks are made of oats and sugar.
Pancakes are... Floppy things made of flour.
( Cawl, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:56, closed)

Flapjack != Pancake
(unless you're a Merkin)
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:57, closed)

Driving on the left makes sense
In a panic situation, most people will swerve to the left. That's why aircraft carriers always have their control towers to the right of the landing cables, so that when pilots abort landings they don't slam into the tower. IMO it's usually better to leave the road in an emergency than to swerve into oncoming traffic.
(Axeman Jim, Wed 7 May 2008, 11:58, closed)

So reactionary I am listed as one of Newton's Laws of Motion
Screw the metric system. I'm one of those awkward buggers who asks for everything in pounds and ounces and am happy to watch a 18 year old assistant floundering while I wait. Mwa ha ha.
(Audax Victor, Wed 7 May 2008, 12:06, closed)

also known as
Pancakes - crepes
Flapjack - Chipboard (it is when i make them)
(turtles head is touching cloth poked a dwarf on the forehead at, Wed 7 May 2008, 12:11, closed)

I so agree
I am 29 years old.
I use metric for most things - except road distances and speeds, which are of course measured in miles because that's how the signs are.

At school in the early '80s I learned metres and kilograms. I did not learn pounds and inches.

I can understand people in their 50s still using mainly imperial measurements, as that's what they grew up with. But what drives me nuts is to hear people YOUNGER than me using them. At which backward schools did they learn these antiquated and non-senseical measurements?
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Wed 7 May 2008, 12:32, closed)

EuroSong
They didn't. They just heard their parents/grandparents/people on TV talking about them, which is why they mostly have no idea at all about how they're all related.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 7 May 2008, 12:38, closed)

Trains
Trains all over the world drive on the left actually, unless of course the track is single line or around junctions and suchlike.
(Horgy, Wed 7 May 2008, 12:52, closed)

Trains
Not in Germany they don't.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 7 May 2008, 12:57, closed)

Buying Cheese
Me: I'd Like 500g of that cheese
Idiot in Safeway* (cutting block of cheese): That's 340g, will that do?
Me: No try 500g
IiSW: How about 600g
Me: close enough.

Jesus, If they'd asked for a fiver and I gave them £3.40 would they be happy?

* Yup, this happened a few years back
(GoodLord doesn't have time for sigs., Wed 7 May 2008, 13:03, closed)

Absoloutely
Funny thing is I think in miles and metres, as ironically there are about 1600 metres in a mile, compared to 1760 yards. So metres actually work better with miles than yards do.
(Cuthbert Annihilator, Wed 7 May 2008, 21:20, closed)