Seemingly trivial things that intrigue you
Comments
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What Samantha Nichols needs to do to get banned0
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I was watching rallying on S4C last night (it was the first non-funeral channel I found) and listening to the interviews was amusing for that - loads of Welsh interspersed with 'upside down', 'sideways' etc.rjsterry said:
It's just occurred to me that this is very similar to bilingual people chatting and shifting between the two languages mid sentence.pinno said:
When I gutted this house, I quickly started using mm and M when I used to almost always use inches. Measuring and ordering became perfectly natural and rarely got it wrong. However (a conversation I had with Rjsterry) there's a common split personality in that:First.Aspect said:
I think we are getting to the nub of the problem.pinno said:
No.First.Aspect said:
Can you visualise 1700 square feet?pinno said:
You're an odd one FA. Can you visualise 170m²?First.Aspect said:
More or less x10 - 3.3^2 is 10.9.pinno said:M² is used far more commonly used in Europe.
When we rented a self catering flat in Lisbon, Catalunya and the Algarve, the size in m² was in the ad. .
It's a yardstick (hee hee) that we aren't used to. If you said that a flat was 170m², I wouldn't have a clue as to how big it is.
It is about the size of a tennis court.
"Can I have 10 sheets of 8 by 4, 12.5mm plasterboard?" or... "6 lengths of 2.4m 3 by 2 cls?" etc and I heard many builders doing exactly the same.0 -
monkimark said:
I'm (just about) young enough that I've never really used imperial measurements but on site we still refer to timber as 3"x2" etc. I treat that like a name, actual measurements are always done in mm.
I worked on a major project which involved stitching into an existing building from the 50s so I had all the original drawings in feet and inches - how anyone can work with imperial measurements is beyond me.
The maths is diabolical, but the human element of being able to easily visualise halves, quarters etc, and the factorial usefulness of 12 I think is one reason it still hasn't died a total death.
Doing half my riding here, and half in France, my head veers between the two systems for distance and speed, though I'm drifting towards km/m... the GPS unit display is set to metric, but Strava set to imperial.0 -
Mine is the opposite, mainly since I started running as I tend to run in KM.
Cycling in KM feels like cheating.0 -
shirley_basso said:
Mine is the opposite, mainly since I started running as I tend to run in KM.
Cycling in KM feels like cheating.
Haha, conversely, quoting climbing in ft seems like cheating.1 -
I cannot say that I am bi-lingual as I am not fluent in either French or Swedish but with gf's of both nationalities, this interspersion between was common.rjsterry said:
It's just occurred to me that this is very similar to bilingual people chatting and shifting between the two languages mid sentence.pinno said:
When I gutted this house, I quickly started using mm and M when I used to almost always use inches. Measuring and ordering became perfectly natural and rarely got it wrong. However (a conversation I had with Rjsterry) there's a common split personality in that:First.Aspect said:
I think we are getting to the nub of the problem.pinno said:
No.First.Aspect said:
Can you visualise 1700 square feet?pinno said:
You're an odd one FA. Can you visualise 170m²?First.Aspect said:
More or less x10 - 3.3^2 is 10.9.pinno said:M² is used far more commonly used in Europe.
When we rented a self catering flat in Lisbon, Catalunya and the Algarve, the size in m² was in the ad. .
It's a yardstick (hee hee) that we aren't used to. If you said that a flat was 170m², I wouldn't have a clue as to how big it is.
It is about the size of a tennis court.
"Can I have 10 sheets of 8 by 4, 12.5mm plasterboard?" or... "6 lengths of 2.4m 3 by 2 cls?" etc and I heard many builders doing exactly the same.
...and I always found it funny with the words and phrases that were better an adjective than the native tongue and so, I adopted them.
We all know 'je ne sais quoi' and there isn't really an English translation nor 'otroligt' (Swedish), which is amazing whilst simultaneously being unbelievable.
You can use otroligt if you are amazed by something but you can also use it if you don't believe it to be true. It's sort of dismissive when used as the latter.
seanoconn - gruagach craic!0 -
...computer/tech speak in any language other than English.The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
UCs and UBs are conversions of imperial measurements (25.4mm to the inch) but all the newer sections like PFCs and RHSs are fully metric. Aluminium sections are available in both imperial and metric but they also quote the wall thickness in SWG to keep you on your toes.pblakeney said:Steel section too. They may be given metric nominations but they are always odd sizes. Can you imagine the cost of retooling a foundry? That's my guess as to why anyway.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Ties in with my theory of foundries. Depends on how new the tooling is.rjsterry said:
UCs and UBs are conversions of imperial measurements (25.4mm to the inch) but all the newer sections like PFCs and RHSs are fully metric. Aluminium sections are available in both imperial and metric but they also quote the wall thickness in SWG to keep you on your toes.pblakeney said:Steel section too. They may be given metric nominations but they are always odd sizes. Can you imagine the cost of retooling a foundry? That's my guess as to why anyway.
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
.
Which brings to mind the Channel 9 sketches.pinno said:
I cannot say that I am bi-lingual as I am not fluent in either French or Swedish but with gf's of both nationalities, this interspersion between was common.rjsterry said:
It's just occurred to me that this is very similar to bilingual people chatting and shifting between the two languages mid sentence.pinno said:
When I gutted this house, I quickly started using mm and M when I used to almost always use inches. Measuring and ordering became perfectly natural and rarely got it wrong. However (a conversation I had with Rjsterry) there's a common split personality in that:First.Aspect said:
I think we are getting to the nub of the problem.pinno said:
No.First.Aspect said:
Can you visualise 1700 square feet?pinno said:
You're an odd one FA. Can you visualise 170m²?First.Aspect said:
More or less x10 - 3.3^2 is 10.9.pinno said:M² is used far more commonly used in Europe.
When we rented a self catering flat in Lisbon, Catalunya and the Algarve, the size in m² was in the ad. .
It's a yardstick (hee hee) that we aren't used to. If you said that a flat was 170m², I wouldn't have a clue as to how big it is.
It is about the size of a tennis court.
"Can I have 10 sheets of 8 by 4, 12.5mm plasterboard?" or... "6 lengths of 2.4m 3 by 2 cls?" etc and I heard many builders doing exactly the same.
...and I always found it funny with the words and phrases that were better an adjective than the native tongue and so, I adopted them.
We all know 'je ne sais quoi' and there isn't really an English translation nor 'otroligt' (Swedish), which is amazing whilst simultaneously being unbelievable.
You can use otroligt if you are amazed by something but you can also use it if you don't believe it to be true. It's sort of dismissive when used as the latter.1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
'Scorchio' should be part of the met office/BBC vernacular.rjsterry said:.
Which brings to mind the Channel 9 sketches.pinno said:
I cannot say that I am bi-lingual as I am not fluent in either French or Swedish but with gf's of both nationalities, this interspersion between was common.rjsterry said:
It's just occurred to me that this is very similar to bilingual people chatting and shifting between the two languages mid sentence.pinno said:
When I gutted this house, I quickly started using mm and M when I used to almost always use inches. Measuring and ordering became perfectly natural and rarely got it wrong. However (a conversation I had with Rjsterry) there's a common split personality in that:First.Aspect said:
I think we are getting to the nub of the problem.pinno said:
No.First.Aspect said:
Can you visualise 1700 square feet?pinno said:
You're an odd one FA. Can you visualise 170m²?First.Aspect said:
More or less x10 - 3.3^2 is 10.9.pinno said:M² is used far more commonly used in Europe.
When we rented a self catering flat in Lisbon, Catalunya and the Algarve, the size in m² was in the ad. .
It's a yardstick (hee hee) that we aren't used to. If you said that a flat was 170m², I wouldn't have a clue as to how big it is.
It is about the size of a tennis court.
"Can I have 10 sheets of 8 by 4, 12.5mm plasterboard?" or... "6 lengths of 2.4m 3 by 2 cls?" etc and I heard many builders doing exactly the same.
...and I always found it funny with the words and phrases that were better an adjective than the native tongue and so, I adopted them.
We all know 'je ne sais quoi' and there isn't really an English translation nor 'otroligt' (Swedish), which is amazing whilst simultaneously being unbelievable.
You can use otroligt if you are amazed by something but you can also use it if you don't believe it to be true. It's sort of dismissive when used as the latter.seanoconn - gruagach craic!0 -
People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.0
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You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a crap one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
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it's great for people like me who forget where they've been.First.Aspect said:
You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a censored one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
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Precisely.TheBigBean said:
it's great for people like me who forget where they've been.First.Aspect said:
You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a censored one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
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TheBigBean said:
it's great for people like me who forget where they've been.First.Aspect said:
You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a censored one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
Glad I'm not the only one. I get annoyed that my memory is so selective... sometimes I remember taking individual photos, but when my late mum was talking about the holiday we'd had in Fowey (at the time, about 20 years previously), most of it was gone... at least the photos she had in the old-fashined album (you know, prints, and photo corners) bought bits of it back. No idea why that's mostly got relegated to my memory's recycle bin.0 -
I'm sure it already has on at least one occasion.pinno said:
'Scorchio' should be part of the met office/BBC vernacular.rjsterry said:.
Which brings to mind the Channel 9 sketches.pinno said:
I cannot say that I am bi-lingual as I am not fluent in either French or Swedish but with gf's of both nationalities, this interspersion between was common.rjsterry said:
It's just occurred to me that this is very similar to bilingual people chatting and shifting between the two languages mid sentence.pinno said:
When I gutted this house, I quickly started using mm and M when I used to almost always use inches. Measuring and ordering became perfectly natural and rarely got it wrong. However (a conversation I had with Rjsterry) there's a common split personality in that:First.Aspect said:
I think we are getting to the nub of the problem.pinno said:
No.First.Aspect said:
Can you visualise 1700 square feet?pinno said:
You're an odd one FA. Can you visualise 170m²?First.Aspect said:
More or less x10 - 3.3^2 is 10.9.pinno said:M² is used far more commonly used in Europe.
When we rented a self catering flat in Lisbon, Catalunya and the Algarve, the size in m² was in the ad. .
It's a yardstick (hee hee) that we aren't used to. If you said that a flat was 170m², I wouldn't have a clue as to how big it is.
It is about the size of a tennis court.
"Can I have 10 sheets of 8 by 4, 12.5mm plasterboard?" or... "6 lengths of 2.4m 3 by 2 cls?" etc and I heard many builders doing exactly the same.
...and I always found it funny with the words and phrases that were better an adjective than the native tongue and so, I adopted them.
We all know 'je ne sais quoi' and there isn't really an English translation nor 'otroligt' (Swedish), which is amazing whilst simultaneously being unbelievable.
You can use otroligt if you are amazed by something but you can also use it if you don't believe it to be true. It's sort of dismissive when used as the latter.1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
I took a photo of the queue.TheBigBean said:
it's great for people like me who forget where they've been.First.Aspect said:
You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a censored one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
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More interestingly, there's a picture of a young Boris in the Louvre.
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He also features in a Bosch painting.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition2 -
That feels like a decent reflection of the experience. Next you'll be telling me that you don't understand the people who queue up at Kings Cross for their Harry Potter photokingstongraham said:
I took a photo of the queue.TheBigBean said:
it's great for people like me who forget where they've been.First.Aspect said:
You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a censored one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
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I don’t recall it being like that when I went there but it was distinctly underwhelming. Even more so as I walked past numerous other paintings I thought were the Mona Lisa before finally finding the actual thing.kingstongraham said:
I took a photo of the queue.TheBigBean said:
it's great for people like me who forget where they've been.First.Aspect said:
You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a censored one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
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During lockdown I digitised and collated all my photos in chronological order.briantrumpet said:TheBigBean said:
it's great for people like me who forget where they've been.First.Aspect said:
You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a censored one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
Glad I'm not the only one. I get annoyed that my memory is so selective... sometimes I remember taking individual photos, but when my late mum was talking about the holiday we'd had in Fowey (at the time, about 20 years previously), most of it was gone... at least the photos she had in the old-fashined album (you know, prints, and photo corners) bought bits of it back. No idea why that's mostly got relegated to my memory's recycle bin.
This means I can now look back at any year in question. There is always more highlights than I remember. It's been a good life, if only I could remember it. 🤣The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.1 -
No, i get that. At least that's a photo of them, not just the most famous picture in the world.TheBigBean said:
That feels like a decent reflection of the experience. Next you'll be telling me that you don't understand the people who queue up at Kings Cross for their Harry Potter photokingstongraham said:
I took a photo of the queue.TheBigBean said:
it's great for people like me who forget where they've been.First.Aspect said:
You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a censored one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
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kingstongraham said:
No, i get that. At least that's a photo of them, not just the most famous picture in the world.TheBigBean said:
That feels like a decent reflection of the experience. Next you'll be telling me that you don't understand the people who queue up at Kings Cross for their Harry Potter photokingstongraham said:
I took a photo of the queue.TheBigBean said:
it's great for people like me who forget where they've been.First.Aspect said:
You can get a studio quality photo of any tourist attraction in the world these days. Taking a censored one yourself is more about recording that you were these. The older you get the more you will value having done so.kingstongraham said:People taking photos of the Mona Lisa.
Not sure I get the Mona Lisa at all.
On the other hand, I remember walking into York Museum, and a painting of an un-named woman staring straight at me from a 400-year-old canvas (I've no idea who the painter was) stopped me dead in my tracks. I'd been bewitched by someone who had been dead for nearly four centuries.0 -
The old simulation theory and the fact everything we perceive from our perspective is just constructed from our thoughts.0
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Something like that.0
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Or not like that.0
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How disposable (product wise) recent generations of humanity has been and the fact that must/will come to and end.0
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Frogs want to escape from your had when caught, while Toads will quietly sit there without struggling.0
