"How the EU works: In Germany, they make the rules, in Britain, theyobey the rules, in France, they bend the rules, in Spain, they break therules, and in Italy they have no rules at all."

On 2011-11-21 04:12:42 -0600, Surreyman said:

Yep, UK prices have gone haywire. I started work in 1959 at £6 a
week ....... more significantly, the first home I bought when getting
married (1967) cost just our combined annual income - the same home is
now priced at some £340,000!

Prices have climbed in the USA, too, however, did the UK suffer some
peculiar bout of inflation some time in the past?

--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

How many more questions ?


"Dan Stephenson" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
2011112122151931562-stephedanospam@maccom...

On 2011-11-21 04:12:42 -0600, Surreyman said:

Yep, UK prices have gone haywire. I started work in 1959 at £6 a
week ....... more significantly, the first home I bought when getting
married (1967) cost just our combined annual income - the same home is
now priced at some £340,000!

Prices have climbed in the USA, too, however, did the UK suffer some
peculiar bout of inflation some time in the past?

--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

Noooo, really ?


"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
...

On Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:29:42 +0100, Wolfgang Schwanke
wrote:

Jesper Lauridsen wrote
in
:

On 20 Nov., 16:17, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-11-20 03:54:22 -0600, Wolfgang Schwanke said:

Dan Stephenson wrote
innews:201111181919293211-stephedanospam@maccom:

The fly-ways on American interstate
highways are far superior than the mega-roundabouts on the British
four-lane carriageways,

What are fly-ways?

They are ramps and elevated roads that merge and separate traffic, so
that there is no slowing down at all.

This is the interchange nearest to my house:

http://g.co/maps/3kvfx

How does that differ from say: http://g.co/maps/957mj ?

Of course roundabouts are only useful in two-lane roads. For multi lane
roads such as motorways you need "fly ways". That's true in all
countries.

Roundabouts work just as well on multilane roads. The road from the
west along the Humber leading into Hull is two lanes each way. There
are roundabouts on it that work.
--

Martin

who cares, poor old man


"Dan Stephenson" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
2011112121464991566-stephedanospam@maccom...

On 2011-11-21 04:42:47 -0600, Jesper Lauridsen said:

On 20 Nov., 16:17, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-11-20 03:54:22 -0600, Wolfgang Schwanke said:

Dan Stephenson wrote
innews:201111181919293211-stephedanospam@maccom:

The fly-ways on American interstate
highways are far superior than the mega-roundabouts on the British
four-lane carriageways,

What are fly-ways?

They are ramps and elevated roads that merge and separate traffic, so
that there is no slowing down at all.

This is the interchange nearest to my house:

http://g.co/maps/3kvfx

How does that differ from say: http://g.co/maps/957mj ?

That looks really interesting! Actually, most of the interchanges on
the motorways in Britain involve huge roundabouts that have traffic
lights on them. There was one particularly crazy roundabout, in
Swindon, iirc, that had planetary roundabouts on the perimeters of an
anti-clockwide central roundabout.

You link above looks like a roundaboutish variation on the "clover
leaf" method of traffic control. The downside on it, however, is that
traffic has crossing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloverleaf_interchange

The "fly-ways" or "fly overs" only have one-direction merging.

Here is a somewhat famous interchange on the other side of Dallas:

http://g.co/maps/2pbg8

It is called the High 5 because it has five levels of traffic.

What do you know, there is a wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Five_Interchange



--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

and you only get this group to answer your questions ?
Duh.

"Dan Stephenson" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
2011112121342686248-stephedanospam@maccom...

On 2011-11-21 04:44:11 -0600, Terry Richards said:

"S Viemeister" wrote in message
...
There were ha'pennies (half pennies), and farthings (quarter pennies).

There was a 1/3 farthing (1/12 of a penny) in Victorian times.

See? Britons cannot help themselves, talking about pre-decimal money.

And it is cool from a historical perspective.

new question: which of these old coins were made of gold? I'm thinking
from the perspective of both collection and investment.
--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

hohohho funny martin !


"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
...

On Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:20:34 -0000, "JohnT"
wrote:


"Martin" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:44:11 +0100, "Terry Richards"
wrote:


"S Viemeister" wrote in message
...
There were ha'pennies (half pennies), and farthings (quarter pennies).

There was a 1/3 farthing (1/12 of a penny) in Victorian times.


a groat.

I think that we should bring back the aureus (gold), the denarius (silver),
the sestertius (brass), the dupondius (brass), and the as (copper).

and 9/- notes for aviating Americans?
--

Martin

On 11/22/2011 04:53 AM, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-11-21 08:07:03 -0600, James Silverton said:

I suspect this may be true in many countries in Europe.



I know that "pfund" and "livre" are still used meaning 500g but what
other pre-metric names, apart from "tonne", are still in use and for
what? Are the plumbing and lathing fittings mentioned measured in
actual inches or are they close metric equivalents, say 12mm and 18mm,
for half and three quarters of an inch?

I haven't tested it, but I believe they are interchangeable with UK
parts. And they are called 1/2 Zoll (inch), 3/4 inch etc.

Is there any kind of heritage use of the "mile"? Which at least in the
USA is 5280 feet.

Meile = mile also exists in German, although it's now simply understood
as the translation of English mile. The word itself used to denote a
quite different distance. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile

I seem to recall it harkens back to "mille" meaning
1000.. something, strides, revolutions of a standard wagon wheel. Hmm...
a'googling I will go: aha, 1000 'paces' or 5,000 Roman feet, with
national variations. It's like metric is esperanto for metrology. Nobod
wants to adopt anyone else's measures, so something new and different
from everything else was invented. yay french revolution, from the
people who brought you Napoleon, let me introduce you to the meter, like
a yard, but different enought to be inconvenient.



The Nautical Mile is at least universal - one minute of arc along a
meridian of the Earth.

On 11/21/2011 03:30 PM, William Black wrote:
On 21/11/11 11:06, Tom P wrote:
On 11/20/2011 04:32 PM, Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
Dan wrote
in news:2011112009132350813-stephedanospam@maccom:

On 2011-11-20 04:18:19 -0600, Wolfgang Schwanke said:

Or plough a hectare. Oh wait, is that a measure in System
Internationale?

Yes it is. An are is 10x10 meters. A hectare is 100 of those.

Actually, no, it is not. It is a division derived from the metric
system but it is an artificial construct so people could have a unit
that was something of a suitable size for farm land sizing, a purpose
previously served by the acre.

Nobody denies that some common metric units are deliberately tailored
to be close to ancient ones. I'm not sure about your acre theory
though, the hectare is also used in countries who never had the acre
unit.


However, the acre (Morgen) was used in Germany, and is apparently the
same size as the imperial acre. The word has not completely died out,
any more than the words for foot, inch, pound, ton and so on, which are
regularly used in everyday speech.

Incidentally, plumbing fittings in Germany are sold in imperial units -
half-inch. three-quarter inch etc.

I suspect this may be true in many countries in Europe.

Of course they are, in much the same way that almost all firearms and
artillery use imperial measurements transferred to metric.

7.62mm = .30 (the almost universal rifle calibre)

9mm = .36 (Which actually started with the old 'cap and ball' Colt pistol)

37mm = inch and a half (Maxim's 'light pompom' calibre)

55mm = two inches (Maxim's 'heavy pompom' calibre)

155mm = six inches (British naval gun size)

But everyone pretends they're not really imperial measurements...

What's really interesting is that British medium naval guns were 4.7
inches, which is 120mm...


and .303 is presumably 8mm?

On Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:01:12 +0100, Tom P wrote:

On 11/22/2011 04:53 AM, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-11-21 08:07:03 -0600, James Silverton said:

I suspect this may be true in many countries in Europe.



I know that "pfund" and "livre" are still used meaning 500g but what
other pre-metric names, apart from "tonne", are still in use and for
what? Are the plumbing and lathing fittings mentioned measured in
actual inches or are they close metric equivalents, say 12mm and 18mm,
for half and three quarters of an inch?

I haven't tested it, but I believe they are interchangeable with UK
parts. And they are called 1/2 Zoll (inch), 3/4 inch etc.

Is there any kind of heritage use of the "mile"? Which at least in the
USA is 5280 feet.

Meile = mile also exists in German, although it's now simply understood
as the translation of English mile. The word itself used to denote a
quite different distance. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile

I seem to recall it harkens back to "mille" meaning
1000.. something, strides, revolutions of a standard wagon wheel. Hmm...
a'googling I will go: aha, 1000 'paces' or 5,000 Roman feet, with
national variations. It's like metric is esperanto for metrology. Nobod
wants to adopt anyone else's measures, so something new and different
from everything else was invented. yay french revolution, from the
people who brought you Napoleon, let me introduce you to the meter, like
a yard, but different enought to be inconvenient.



The Nautical Mile is at least universal - one minute of arc along a
meridian of the Earth.

The Mille Miglia (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmille ˈmiʎʎa], Thousand Miles)
was an open-road endurance race which took place in Italy twenty-four times
from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before the war, eleven from 1947).
Wikipedia entry.

On 22/11/11 15:52, Tom P wrote:
On 11/21/2011 03:30 PM, William Black wrote:
On 21/11/11 11:06, Tom P wrote:
On 11/20/2011 04:32 PM, Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
Dan wrote
in news:2011112009132350813-stephedanospam@maccom:

On 2011-11-20 04:18:19 -0600, Wolfgang Schwanke said:

Or plough a hectare. Oh wait, is that a measure in System
Internationale?

Yes it is. An are is 10x10 meters. A hectare is 100 of those.

Actually, no, it is not. It is a division derived from the metric
system but it is an artificial construct so people could have a unit
that was something of a suitable size for farm land sizing, a purpose
previously served by the acre.

Nobody denies that some common metric units are deliberately tailored
to be close to ancient ones. I'm not sure about your acre theory
though, the hectare is also used in countries who never had the acre
unit.


However, the acre (Morgen) was used in Germany, and is apparently the
same size as the imperial acre. The word has not completely died out,
any more than the words for foot, inch, pound, ton and so on, which are
regularly used in everyday speech.

Incidentally, plumbing fittings in Germany are sold in imperial units -
half-inch. three-quarter inch etc.

I suspect this may be true in many countries in Europe.

Of course they are, in much the same way that almost all firearms and
artillery use imperial measurements transferred to metric.

7.62mm = .30 (the almost universal rifle calibre)

9mm = .36 (Which actually started with the old 'cap and ball' Colt
pistol)

37mm = inch and a half (Maxim's 'light pompom' calibre)

55mm = two inches (Maxim's 'heavy pompom' calibre)

155mm = six inches (British naval gun size)

But everyone pretends they're not really imperial measurements...

What's really interesting is that British medium naval guns were 4.7
inches, which is 120mm...


and .303 is presumably 8mm?


Nope.

Still 7.92mm...

What the US calls '8mm Mauser' everyone else calls 7.92...


--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, buy a dog...