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ChrisGreaves
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Snail mail

Post by ChrisGreaves »

My colleague in Traralgon Victoria has capitalized on my enthusiasm for the West Australian flag and has sent me a Canadian Flag. Once again by post.

But this time he paid extra for (a) seven-day delivery and (b) Tracking.
Idiot! (grin)

So we have been tracking progress by our nation's Flag Carriers.
At 3:49 next Monday afternoon I shall toddle down the hill to the PO and ask Corrina or Thelma if there is a parcel waiting for me.
Close to 25 days later!

My pal claims that the flag is traveling at the speed of a snail, but I doubted that and whipped out my trusty copy of Excel2003 with whatever rounding errors come with it (attached Book1.xls).
Snails (at least, Snails in Bonavista) do not travel at 30KM/hr, thank heavens. That's faster then I can freewheel down Highway 230 to The Foodland, even with a tail wind!

The pet theory is that a virtual shutdown of international flights has hit the parcels business, but I don't quite see that. My understanding is that cabins can be rolled-out and rolled-in to reconfigure a passenger jet in hours, if not minutes, so I wonder if there is a reason for not converting a half-dozen used-to-be-Jumbo jets from passenger to freight configuration.

Cheers
Chris
P.S. I note with increasing concern that for over eighteen months I have been thinking that down at Swyers i was staring across the Atlantic Ocean when, on closer inspection, it turns out to be The Labrador Sea. I know that the Atlantic Ocean is quite young by global standards, but you'd've thought that by now they could have updated their maps! I might have to move house. Again!
C
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BobH
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Re: Snail mail

Post by BobH »

AHA! I found the problem!

You're using those infernal kilometers and not the good old miles. No wonder it's taking so long.

You're welcome. :laugh:
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Re: Snail mail

Post by GeoffW »

Hmm... let's see what the rest of the world thinks...
Screenshot_2020-10-16-07-07-10-33_copy_723x530.jpg
A few countries use the odd imperial measurement (say pounds or gallons) mixed with.mostly metric measurements.

Australia changed many years ago (about 1970s), because it was sensible. Which is interesting, because we followed the US in currency conversion (from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars) in 1966. So the US realised the practicality of decimal currency very early, but not metric measurements.
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Snail mail

Post by ChrisGreaves »

BobH wrote:
15 Oct 2020, 19:19
AHA! I found the problem! You're using those infernal kilometers and not the good old miles. No wonder it's taking so long. You're welcome. :laugh:
So, Bob, what else are Texans good at excepting thinking that the most important part of cattle is the length of their horn?
I went to great educational lengths to modify the workbook (attached) to accommodate those nations which have not yet entered the nineteenth century. (I was going to use the adjective "unenlightened" until I noticed that Wikipedia did it for me)

Now Australians and Canadians, English and every Newfoundlander knows that the units of measurement don't affect the time taken for a parcel to sit at Tullamarine for eight days.
Nonetheless, the truth is there for all to see.

In the metric system the flag flies at nearly 507,000 things per wossit, whereas under the Imperial Yoke you get just a tiddle about 20K.
Who's :laugh: now?


Of course you Texans will need a practical example, so first thing tomorrow (to marrow?) I'm off down the hill to the P.O. and will have Corrina, or Thelma, carefully stamp my parcel to you. I have selected a mature (but not yet over-ripe) zucchini from my dwindling stash in the back porch.

Let me know when it gets to you, and also when you will be allowed back in your house.

Cheers
Chris
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Snail mail

Post by ChrisGreaves »

GeoffW wrote:
15 Oct 2020, 20:11
...So the US realised the practicality of decimal currency very early, but not metric measurements.
It's just too bad that we aren't allowed to use "stupid", "mad", "dopey", "idiotic", and other pejoratives at the national level, isn't it Geoff? :sad: :weep:
Cheers :laugh: :rofl:
Chris
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Post by ChrisGreaves »

GeoffW wrote:
15 Oct 2020, 20:11
Australia changed many years ago (about 1970s), because it was sensible. Which is interesting, because we followed the US in currency conversion (from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars) in 1966.
As I recall, the currency went metric, and then two years later everything else.
Miles of barren highways had to have the old mileposts replaced with eight-fifths of a kilometre post.
I was young then, but still was impressed that we got a trial run, sort of, of whingeing about how many Cost-Price and Selling Price sums we had had to do in primary school using guineas, pounds, half-crowns, florins, shillings, thruppeny pieces, pennies, halfpennies and farthings, and then toss it all once we got to Uni.

Penny-sticks which used to be twelve per shilling suddenly rose in price to be ten for ten-cents. And so began my (so far) 54-year distrust of pollies.

Little did I know that perches, acres, roods, furlongs, chains, fathoms, links and rods, not to mention (which we always say just before we mention them) gills, pints and quarts (once I arrived at the legal drinking age I found that there were different units of liquid measure, "pony", "schooner", "middy", "butcher" etc, and worse - that NSW was different from WA, and SA was different yet again) and pecks and bushels were all tossed aside like so much chaff.

Actually, bushels were back in vogue once I started harvesting and trucking wheat for 6 weeks each summer.

Then in 1970 my second boss was named "Marita Bushell", so I gave up.

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be, except in Texas where they still use Years, Months, Days etc. which, sadly, deprives them of even honest nostalgia. :yep:

Cheers
Chris
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GeoffW
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Re: Snail mail

Post by GeoffW »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
15 Oct 2020, 20:51
It's just too bad that we aren't allowed to use "stupid", "mad", "dopey", "idiotic", and other pejoratives at the national level, isn't it Geoff? :sad: :weep:
Cheers :laugh: :rofl:
Chris
I don't like to make fun of the less fortunate, so I wouldn't be inclined to use any such label.

Ten minutes of having to do arithmetic with any imperial system of measurement should really be enough to give an idea of which system is preferable.

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Re: Snail mail

Post by PJ_in_FL »

The US of A has great patience and will continue to wait for the rest of the world to understand the superiority of inches, and 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 5280 feet or 1760 yards to a mile, and other lovely numbers to memorize. I mean, who really likes just moving that silly decimal point to change units. It's just, well, un-American!
PJ in (usually sunny) FL

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Re: Snail mail

Post by ChrisGreaves »

PJ_in_FL wrote:
16 Oct 2020, 01:58
The US of A has great patience and will continue to wait for the rest of the world to understand the superiority of inches, and 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 5280 feet or 1760 yards to a mile, and other lovely numbers to memorize. I mean, who really likes just moving that silly decimal point to change units. It's just, well, un-American!
Absolutely Correct, PJ.
You sound like someone who has listened to Episode 114: The Craft of Numbering and can understand why a one-thousand-pace mile (from mille-) is actually 5,280 feet rather than 5,000 feet, at five-feet to the pace. Excel rounding errors notwithstanding (but undoubtedly with walking!)

(later) My colleague has an explanation for errors in his calculation of a snail's speed: "I realised I had only talked about a meter, so was out by a thousand, but as it is a common error, the final answer is reasonable". And he doesn't work for the government!

Cheers
Chris
Last edited by ChrisGreaves on 16 Oct 2020, 08:02, edited 1 time in total.
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HansV
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Re: Snail mail

Post by HansV »

Or lay 63,360 thumbs edge-to-edge.
Best wishes,
Hans

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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Snail mail

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
16 Oct 2020, 08:00
Or lay 63,360 thumbs edge-to-edge.
:laugh: :rofl:
For some reason I have this image of a Roman Centurion demanding "PASSWORD?" and 63,360 peasants patting their pockets and muttering 'It's in here somewhere .....".
Cheers
Chtis
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BobH
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Re: Snail mail

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The Texas branch of the USPS inspects all packages from The Great White North - especially those from the New Found Land - and discards them if they contain anything that resembles or DNA tests as zucchini; but thank you for the kind thoughts. I'll refrain from dancing in your direction for a week or a fortnight whichever comes first.
:grin:
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Re: Snail mail

Post by ChrisGreaves »

BobH wrote:
16 Oct 2020, 17:45
The Texas branch of the USPS inspects all packages from The Great White North - especially those from the New Found Land - and discards them if they contain anything that resembles or DNA tests as zucchini
Thanks, Bob, but I have already found this out :stop: :flee:
I'll refrain from dancing in your direction for a week or a fortnight whichever comes first. :grin:
Whatever. :shrug:
The way I see it, you and John Gray can slug it out until you are both exhausted.
We never get rain and fog at the same time :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Cheers
Chris
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Re: Snail mail

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BobH wrote:
15 Oct 2020, 19:19
AHA! I found the problem!
Bob? You are the problem (huge grin)
Yesterday I ploughed in to "The Third Reich at War" by Richard Evans. As I have been trained, I checked the publication page and found the copyright - 2008 - so a fairly recent book, OK.
And started to read ... Got as far as page 13 and found that "borders ... were extended some 150 to 200 kilometres eastwards".
Huh?
Back to the publication page: "First American edition published in 2009 ..." and "printed in The United States of America".
To the dust jacket: "Richard Evans ... Cambridge University ... lives near Cambridge ...".

So what are "kilometres" (I checked - not "kilometers") doing in what I take to be an American edition of a book written by ostensibly an English Chap?

And will I ever get past page 13 of 764 (not counting about 150 pages of notes, index etc).
My life is ruined. Ruined, ...

Cheers
Chris
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LisaGreen
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Re: Snail mail

Post by LisaGreen »

Going back up the thread to measurements....

After trying to understand pixels and points, I was under the impression that a US inch was actually different to a UK inch at one time causing even more confusion!

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Post by StuartR »

LisaGreen wrote:
17 Oct 2020, 11:39
After trying to understand pixels and points, I was under the impression that a US inch was actually different to a UK inch at one time causing even more confusion!
BUT, US pints and gallons are 20% smaller than UK pints and gallons
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Re: Snail mail

Post by ChrisGreaves »

LisaGreen wrote:
17 Oct 2020, 11:39
... was under the impression that a US inch was actually different to a UK inch at one time ...
Hi Lisa; I'd not heard of that.
In a related issue I checked Wikipedia and found "In 1824, Great Britain officially reformed their system of units in legislation that established what came to be known as the Imperial system, but the standard of the yard remained the length of the artifact. The last replacement imperial artifact was made in bronze in 1845, and the most accurate measurement ever made of its length (much later) was 0.914 398 416 meters. In the U.S., the Mendenhall Order of 1893 tied the length of the U.S. yard to the meter, with the equivalence 39.37 inches = 1 meter, or approximately 0.914 401 828 803 658 meters per yard. In 1959, the international yard and pound agreement established the "international" yard length of 0.9144 meters, upon which both the customary U.S. and imperial units of length have since been based. "

I suspect that with occasional legislative events ion both countries, they inched (sorry!) closer and closer to an understanding, but that at different times there were slightly different absolute measurements.

Towards the end, of course, the whole lot of space and time gets dumped into the lap of scientists who have embraced the caesium atom, until something better comes along.

This may take your mind of the worrisome issue of inches.

Cheers
Chris
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Post by LisaGreen »

It's interesting reading about the history of the inch. Apparently until very recently, 2020, the wiki only gives the year, the US used a different inch when doing surveys which led to a difference of 1/8 inch per mile.

And this is from https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com ... difference
The 'point' (pt) on the other hand is a unit of length, commonly used to measure the height of a font, but technically capable of measuring any length. In applications, 1pt is equal to exactly 1/72th of an inch; in traditional print technically 72pt is 0.996264 inches, although I think you'll be forgiven for rounding it up!

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Re: Snail mail

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LisaGreen wrote:
17 Oct 2020, 14:05
It's interesting reading about the history of the inch.
Even better to sing about the inch!
Cheers :sing:
Chris
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Re: Snail mail

Post by LisaGreen »

I used to sing that when I was a little girl!