By that logic it's older people's fault for expecting more money than they are worth to the company, resulting in them getting laid off.
You still have to be worth something to the company. The concept of the older worker being lazy both intellectually and physically is a meme more suited for imgur than real life.
The real issue is that there is no progression any more. All you can do is keep switching jobs, and if you fail to switch for too long you become too expensive and get laid off.
I suppose it depends on the value you bring. The extremely simplified situation you build here doesn't account for value added and increasing skills and usefulness. Using my case as an example, in over thrity years of my career, I could add many skills the young pups simply hadn't had time to gain. Coupled with efficiency and work ethic that few of them had yet developed, I was simply worth more. As well, my employer and I knew that, and we both knew I could find another employer in a day or two.
If you have a problem with the reporter assuming the rest of America isn't quite as smart as you claim to be, you can contact her here.
If you go through the links in her story that she uses in reference, you will see that all of the volume units are in gallons. Your specious idea that everyone involved conspired to dumb it down is cute at best, but reading your unbalanced replies, I think you might just be a bot.
How can I explain something that isn't true? I just got finished with replying to another person and went down a list of just things in my office. Everything but one had both standard and metric volume or weight on it. We work in both. Is there some sort of block you are having with this truth? My vehicle is almost totally metric - for some reason Spark plugs and wheel lug nuts are in standard. I don't know where you live, but I'd invite you over to 'Murrica to see that we indeed use both systems, and everyone but the abysmally stupid works in both. You might even see that your prejudicial attitude about us is incorrect. Whatever, its fun to toy with prejudiced people.
If you think it is so ridiculously easy to be proficient in both systems, why change it for them?
I have no idea what you mean - I certainly have no issue working in both. Eventually it will all be metric, but it is hard to get vewry concerned.
Where did I say metric wasn't arbitrary?
Where did I say you did? Or does everything in a conversation have to be pre approved? You have to admit that your unit of measure, the metre, is defined by a fraction. Couldn't make that stuff up.
I said it was used in 95% of the world, and that means it's much more common.
So? We use it here as well. Everything comes out in metric and standard. But since you apparently don't believe that, your argument of how many use what is specious. There is an old saying among the more rustic 'Murricans, "Eat shit, because 50 billion flies cannot be wrong." But I digress, because we simply use it here.
You do understand percentages right? You don't need them dumbed down too do you?
You seem to believe that America doesn't use metric, and doesn't use it every day. Serously Sparky, when you start off with a completely wrong "truth" based on a prejudiced and rather bigoted assumption, there is absolutely no way you can massage it into the truth.
You are simply and completely and unchangeably wrong
As to why the article was written using standard units rather than metric - I have no idea. The auther is an indie journalist living in Pakistan, so if they are metric only, she should have used Metric measurements. I'll bet it really piss you off that they also used Acre-feet as well as gallons. Hell, if they used litres, for the amount of water, the numbers would be even larger. But fear not, Sparky, we dumb ol' 'Murricans would know how much they were talking about.
As for the problem itself, that has nothing ot do with any measurement system. It might be a good idea to get a curb on the population explosion that they are having. That 4.5 percent per year population rate will end up causing famine no matter how wrong you are about your hated 'Murricans and their two measurement systems.
Salary tends to be higher as one ages, and they can pay younger hires much less.
Much
Much
Less.
Oh, wait, that's age discrimination on both sides.
From my experience, there is a reason for paying the younger people less - they are worth less.
I do know it was shocking for the millenials who had just graduated to find out I knew a lot more then they did. They usually had one aspect they were semi competent in while I could work every position in the department. Which by the way is hella good job security.
The Gallon is a standard for the USA and for it's territories. But if the USA wants to export products to the world, or manufacture cars, or airplanes or any critical equipment such as space ships for example, it is definitely not American measure. Neither is the weather tracked in around the World in American Standard. The world's standard applies and so America is once again not great. The non American world standard is the metric system.
I understand that American congressmen and educators felt that it is too difficult to teach the metric system, or to increase the size of a football field from 100 yards to 100 meters.
You have the citations that it is considered too difficult? I learned the metric system in High School in the late 60's and I lived in a town that refused to teach evolution - we were that backward.
At my desk, I have some containers of stuff. Let's take a look.........
Equate Hand lotion - net weight 14 Oz, then 397 grams
Polar Seltzer Water 12 fl Oz then 355 ml
Palmers Cocoa Butter skin cream 250 ml then8.5 fl oz
Armor All Air Freshening plastic protectant 1 Pt (16 Fl Oz ) then 473 ml
Friskies Cat treats weight 2.1 oz then 60 g
90 percent Isopropyl alcohol fo rremoving flux from circuit boards 32 fl oz (1 qt) 946 ml
Clobetasol topical solution 50 ml.
Blaster teflon infused Multi-purpose lubricant spray - 8 oz then 227 grams
Everything in the house is in both standard and metric, and those things that have one only are metric only. This is why the meme that 'Murrica is standard only is BS
Your 2x4x8 lumber and 4x8 gyproc etc. is standard,
Minor quibble, the cheeps who do lumber have been making 2x4 lumber skinnier over the years, now you have to specifiy "dimensional limber if you want actual 2x4, and good luck once you find it.
but we use a metric equivalent for the 4x8 panels of gyproc
Some countries use both in some cases Eg. Canada.
Canada even uses two languages!
We buy some fruit and vegetables by the pound, But USA suppliers provide the quantities in metric measure. Officially Canada is a metric country.
And it is perfectly fine to be a one unit only country. We just have two. My major issue is the people who have the ideas that the US does not use metric, and that metric is some sort of non-arbitrary standard. Powers of ten are nice and all, but it has been revised many times, and now the official base of the metric length of measure is............ a fraction! Which is priceless - that they revert to the bad old way to define it
Being that neither party actually changed much in 3 decades with both trade and immigration (despite lip service), his aggressive focus on those issues effectively makes him anti-establishment.
However, I have always found that actions are more reliable as indicators than words. HIs Republican party has done nothing to stop him. Since after Newt Gingrich's Contract on America, where it was not only necessary to elect Republicans but a purge of moderates was needed to walk in lockstep, his party doctrine is the de-facto policy of his party.
Didn't use to be that way, when we could blame a disastrous decision on one or another wing of the party, but given the silence of his lambs, they support everything he does.
That's right, Another fine honest Republican, the honorable Richard Nixon.
On Aug. 15, 1971, in a nationally televised address, Nixon announced, “I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States.”
Wow...... Wage and price freezes. Hey - how'd that work out? Probably as good as what will hapen with the tarriffs on Chinese tech, and then the US working to make certain that the jobs of the Cell phone mfgr we kicked out are saved.
Funny how the Demoncrats are called the party of socialism, when the Republicans actually implement it.
Interesting, but totally irrelevant. I really couldn't give 2 shits what measurement system you use, or 5/8ths of a shit, or however you measure them. I'm sure you have your reasons.
The point is it was originally in metric, but dumbed down for Americans to understand.
Oh bullshit. And quit being such a quasi-racist Euro-bigot. It is so ridiculously easy to be proficient in multiple measuring systems at the same time, you really have no right at all to claim that the article was dumbed down for the 'Murricans.
Because anyone who can pull off that ridiculously minor feat of thinking isn't going to complain. The metric system is but one system that we use. We use it every day. Along with any other system we need to use. Which pretty much puts the lie to your whole premise. You might as well whine and moan about people who are proficient in multple languages. The metric system is at base, no less arbitrary than measuring in barleycorns of handbreadths. Get over yourself, Spanky.
The thing is 95% of the world use something better.
And we do too. We just don't take a hissy fit if someone says something else.But it is fun to troll ya.
Now to really piss y off, I have a socket set....... in Whitworth. It's from back in the day I worked on vintage british motorcycles.
They already know what big numbers are in that system. They have to convert it from your silly system to understand and compare it to what they already know.
And? So what? We convert measurements all the. time. decimals, fractions, percentages, standard, metric, that old school whitworth.
I have a metric Mill and lathe that has no problem to make fractional standard measurement parts on. I've even made the occasional part that is standard on one side and metric on the other.
It's not like the scientists/engineers who did the calculations used your silly system anyway. It was already converted for you to understand, because you little snowflakes just have to be different..
Have a seat sweetheart, and let uncle Ol explain sumpin for ya.
A goodly few years ago, 'Murrica was drawn into one of the world's occasional attempts at exterminating itself. We were mostly content sitting in a corner and gazing at our navels, but old Tojo and then Adolph couldn't resist tickling the dragon's tail. So player three entered the game. Next thing ya know, we have to make tanks and planes and shit like that. Well, ont thing Uncle Ol knows is that those buildy machines you make your killy machines with have gotta be doggone good and precise kind of machines.
So we built them. And we saw that they were good. They were built in the units that were in use at the time. And we saw that they remained good. I've used WW2 vintage milling machines and lathes as late as three years ago.
So we have a lot of eally good long lasting machines that make other machines out there.
Bot lo and behold, there are other measurement systems, should we throw away millions of metric tons (see what I did there?) of very precise machinery? Sounds like a terrible waste of a lot of good work. So we stuck with Standard.
Then along comes Computer aided machining. So cool, much accurate very excellent. And it can take that bad old standard machine and turn it into metric, or even Whitworth or biblical measurements if ya wanna.
So now those old machines have a new and versatile life after being retrofitted to enter the computer age. And despite the whining and moaning of the people who have a shittin hemorrhage every time a non metric unit is mentioned, we 'Murricans actually produce a lot of metric stuff. Y'all are simply repeating talking points that show your hatred of 'Murrica with no more thought than Aunt Trudy's mynah bird saying "Pretty bird, go eat a turd!"
Just use the original measurements. If whiny little Americans only understand gallons or whatnot, let them convert it.
Weird, but y'all are the ones doing the whining. I'm enjoying y'all's outrage and limited worldview and ability to understand how to do mental conversions. Do it metric, or do it standard, I got it. I might have to whip out the calculator if someone wants to use the Maris as a unit of volume. But at 30.3 litres, we can do a rough calculation of their water needs in Maris as well.
But perhaps I am giving y'all more credit for 'rithmatic cypherin' than I should.
Except that youâ(TM)re using those feeble US quarts that are smaller than the genuine, original, accept no substitutes Imperial quarts, which weigh in at 80oz.
Bet you didnâ(TM)t know about them.
Bah, I prefer the biblical units of measure, as they come direct from Gawd.
Actually, me showing restraint in not throwing some well deserved insults at ya was based more on your superior tone coupled with a weird sort of profanity, more or less based on some bizzare projection of engaging in sexual intercourse with a pizza, I mean, I've heard that Germans have some interesting kinks, but I never knew it extended to pizza delivery. But I guess theres'a a rule 34 for everything.
Are you assuming that once something is made of plastic, it automagically ends up in the ocean?
No, it's what we're observing.
Then you stop the path from the factory to the ocean, not ban plastics. So are you responsible and civilized Germans going to wash people's utensils off for them, or do they get to carry now decaying food with them?
prop - if a convenicence store or fast food place gives out plastic forks, collect them to keep them from entering the trash stream.
There are many more dangerous and not easily recycled plastics like the microspheres use in exfoliating creams that are a present and serious problem, entering the bodies of fish. But I don't see that anywhere on civilized Germany's list of things to be made illegal.
I am an environmentalist, and this is simply eco-theater. Keep things out of the waste stream i nthe first place.
Like so many 'self-made' people you exaggerate the value of your work and ignore or are blind to the circumstances, situations and plain luck that contributed.
Thank you for your patronising tone, it's certainly been instructive.
So - what are you going to do? Curl up in a ball and weep? Your whining and bawling has also been instructive, and entertaining. Enjoy your inability to cope with reality, I'll enjoy my refusal to accept that I cannot be a success.
Yes but is it half the water they need in gallons? We Americans don't understand metric fractions.
No, the superiors only understand litres, and metricand once you don't use those, you are incapable of using antything else, and must resort to moaning and crying.
And your vaunted metric system is just as arbitrary at base as anything else. Otherwise, did you know this well thopught out and flalwees metric system, th emetre is exactly 1/299792458 of the distance that light travels in a second.
So no need to run around brandishing the big metric cock like it is the end all and be all of measurements.
I mean, unless it is the length that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299792458 of a second - then you have bragging rights.
And why not present figures in metric values so that people in the rest of the world would be able to understand how big the issue is?
Now I understand. A litre is.946 quart, A gallon is around 3.8 litres, and the rest of the world is supposed to be so much smarter than us, but can't do the really simple math involved. For a not very specific number like this, just multiply the gallons by 4 and you are in the ballpark. You only know 1 method, and can't use anything else at all. I can do several, and gallons to litres is among the simplest that a child can do.
Yeah, lets make the oceans into a big soup of crap instead so you can have your plastic, for the sake of convenience.
Are you assuming that once something is made of plastic, it automagically ends up in the ocean?
Recycling is the answer, not banning. If plastic forks spoons and knoves are always going to find their way into the ocean, and there is no stopping them, then we need to ban all plastic everywhere. Then start a war on drugs like action to stop the inevitable black market that will spring up.
I can see it now........ EU Anti-plastic czar, Adolpho Romano poses with 500 pounds of McDonald's Happy meal toys confistcated in a raid last night. Only two people were arrested because the other ten people running the organized crime plastic facility were killed in the action. The price of EU solidarity requires such harsh actions.
They used to do something similar to parts of of the UK, but I don't know if they still do. I think satellite coverage fixed most of it.
These days communal broadband is more common. Laying in fibre optic connections because British Telecom wants silly money to do it. Using wifi for some of the gaps and last mile stuff.
Over here, we have miles and miles of fiber strung on poles that was put in in the early oughts going through some pretty rural places. My county is just about saturated with fiber, but Its never been lit, and rural people are still using dial-up.
I don't know how things are in your part of the world, but in europe there is a sginificant percentage of millenials who cannot afford a house because they 'need' a fully furnished modern house with a luxurious bathroom and quality kitchen. And of course they also 'need' a summer holiday and at least a skiing weekend trip. There are a good number of millenials who have grown up with a level of luxury that they immediately seek to step into when moving out.
Exactly. It is the always sure to fail concept of starting at the top. Probably part of the self esteem movement, where high self esteem and the good life is not encumbered by silly things like achievements or the work required to achieve success.
The world doesn't, but society owes you an opportunity. That's part of the 'social contract'.
What the hell is that supposed to even mean?
The Millennials have an even clearer view of just how lopsided the contract has become and are even more disconnected. Social mobility has been crap for generations and it's getting harder to pretend otherwise.
Do go on. I've heard that from every generation, and every one after so far. The common thread is that you are somehow fixed in your social class. It's also a fine excuse for people. I rose several stations above my so called class - we were rather poor when I was a young boy. But no one is going to do it for you. It takes work and dedication.
As well, it takes time. and discipline. I lived in a mobile home for ten years while I saved money for a house, I worked a lot extra nights and weekends to advance myself professionally. I concentrated first on professional networking, then as that solidified, the social networking. Point is, altogether too many people think that simply showing up to work on time should entitle you to the world of rapid promotions and upward mobility, and you have ot have it all, the moment you graduate from college.
Corporations own rights to cultural works and are making a pretty successful attempt at making sure nothing returns to the public if there's a cent to be made from it. Wages are stagnant, the 'gig' economy makes working less secure than ever and the idea that education was the way to better yourself has created a generation burdened by an all new form of debt.
I cried a little while reading that. Perhaps that philosophy degree or gender studies degree wasn't worth the 100 kilobucks it took to get it? Hella fun though punishing the liver those 4 years while the dumbass engineering majors were in the library studying.
Hard work used to have a pretty strong correlation to success, but it's increasingly just the table stakes.
Interesting. Yet I'm excoriated because I regularly worked a lot of extra hours at work by people bragging about how they simply won't do more than 40, and their company can go fuck itself if it thinks they'll do any extra.
But if a generation is being characterised by rejecting the social contract as offered, maybe it's not just bad parenting and unrealistic expectations.
Well friend, if you think you can' t do it, you are certainly correct. If you were sold any bill of goods, it wasn't me. Enjoy wallowing in your self pity, It isn't much of a substitute for hard work and financial acumen, but it's an easy and ready excuse.
Slashdot Mirror
By that logic it's older people's fault for expecting more money than they are worth to the company, resulting in them getting laid off.
You still have to be worth something to the company. The concept of the older worker being lazy both intellectually and physically is a meme more suited for imgur than real life.
The real issue is that there is no progression any more. All you can do is keep switching jobs, and if you fail to switch for too long you become too expensive and get laid off.
I suppose it depends on the value you bring. The extremely simplified situation you build here doesn't account for value added and increasing skills and usefulness. Using my case as an example, in over thrity years of my career, I could add many skills the young pups simply hadn't had time to gain. Coupled with efficiency and work ethic that few of them had yet developed, I was simply worth more. As well, my employer and I knew that, and we both knew I could find another employer in a day or two.
If you have a problem with the reporter assuming the rest of America isn't quite as smart as you claim to be, you can contact her here.
If you go through the links in her story that she uses in reference, you will see that all of the volume units are in gallons. Your specious idea that everyone involved conspired to dumb it down is cute at best, but reading your unbalanced replies, I think you might just be a bot.
Seems like a great way to pre filter any Lawyer that I won't do business with. Law offices thast would do that should be defending Trump.
You added a space in worthless
Brutal! Well played sir - well played indeed!
Explain why it was dumbed down for Americans.
How can I explain something that isn't true? I just got finished with replying to another person and went down a list of just things in my office. Everything but one had both standard and metric volume or weight on it. We work in both. Is there some sort of block you are having with this truth? My vehicle is almost totally metric - for some reason Spark plugs and wheel lug nuts are in standard. I don't know where you live, but I'd invite you over to 'Murrica to see that we indeed use both systems, and everyone but the abysmally stupid works in both. You might even see that your prejudicial attitude about us is incorrect. Whatever, its fun to toy with prejudiced people.
If you think it is so ridiculously easy to be proficient in both systems, why change it for them?
I have no idea what you mean - I certainly have no issue working in both. Eventually it will all be metric, but it is hard to get vewry concerned.
Where did I say metric wasn't arbitrary?
Where did I say you did? Or does everything in a conversation have to be pre approved? You have to admit that your unit of measure, the metre, is defined by a fraction. Couldn't make that stuff up.
I said it was used in 95% of the world, and that means it's much more common.
So? We use it here as well. Everything comes out in metric and standard. But since you apparently don't believe that, your argument of how many use what is specious. There is an old saying among the more rustic 'Murricans, "Eat shit, because 50 billion flies cannot be wrong." But I digress, because we simply use it here.
You do understand percentages right? You don't need them dumbed down too do you?
You seem to believe that America doesn't use metric, and doesn't use it every day. Serously Sparky, when you start off with a completely wrong "truth" based on a prejudiced and rather bigoted assumption, there is absolutely no way you can massage it into the truth.
You are simply and completely and unchangeably wrong
As to why the article was written using standard units rather than metric - I have no idea. The auther is an indie journalist living in Pakistan, so if they are metric only, she should have used Metric measurements. I'll bet it really piss you off that they also used Acre-feet as well as gallons. Hell, if they used litres, for the amount of water, the numbers would be even larger. But fear not, Sparky, we dumb ol' 'Murricans would know how much they were talking about.
As for the problem itself, that has nothing ot do with any measurement system. It might be a good idea to get a curb on the population explosion that they are having. That 4.5 percent per year population rate will end up causing famine no matter how wrong you are about your hated 'Murricans and their two measurement systems.
Salary tends to be higher as one ages, and they can pay younger hires much less.
Much Much Less.
Oh, wait, that's age discrimination on both sides.
From my experience, there is a reason for paying the younger people less - they are worth less.
I do know it was shocking for the millenials who had just graduated to find out I knew a lot more then they did. They usually had one aspect they were semi competent in while I could work every position in the department. Which by the way is hella good job security.
The millenials claim they can't get jobs while the companies are laying off only the older employees.
The Gallon is a standard for the USA and for it's territories. But if the USA wants to export products to the world, or manufacture cars, or airplanes or any critical equipment such as space ships for example, it is definitely not American measure. Neither is the weather tracked in around the World in American Standard. The world's standard applies and so America is once again not great. The non American world standard is the metric system.
I understand that American congressmen and educators felt that it is too difficult to teach the metric system, or to increase the size of a football field from 100 yards to 100 meters.
You have the citations that it is considered too difficult? I learned the metric system in High School in the late 60's and I lived in a town that refused to teach evolution - we were that backward.
At my desk, I have some containers of stuff. Let's take a look.........
Equate Hand lotion - net weight 14 Oz, then 397 grams
Polar Seltzer Water 12 fl Oz then 355 ml
Palmers Cocoa Butter skin cream 250 ml then8.5 fl oz
Armor All Air Freshening plastic protectant 1 Pt (16 Fl Oz ) then 473 ml
Friskies Cat treats weight 2.1 oz then 60 g
90 percent Isopropyl alcohol fo rremoving flux from circuit boards 32 fl oz (1 qt) 946 ml
Clobetasol topical solution 50 ml.
Blaster teflon infused Multi-purpose lubricant spray - 8 oz then 227 grams
Everything in the house is in both standard and metric, and those things that have one only are metric only. This is why the meme that 'Murrica is standard only is BS
Your 2x4x8 lumber and 4x8 gyproc etc. is standard,
Minor quibble, the cheeps who do lumber have been making 2x4 lumber skinnier over the years, now you have to specifiy "dimensional limber if you want actual 2x4, and good luck once you find it.
but we use a metric equivalent for the 4x8 panels of gyproc
Some countries use both in some cases Eg. Canada.
Canada even uses two languages!
We buy some fruit and vegetables by the pound, But USA suppliers provide the quantities in metric measure. Officially Canada is a metric country.
Re building supplies. https://www.gypsum.org/wp-cont...
And it is perfectly fine to be a one unit only country. We just have two. My major issue is the people who have the ideas that the US does not use metric, and that metric is some sort of non-arbitrary standard. Powers of ten are nice and all, but it has been revised many times, and now the official base of the metric length of measure is............ a fraction! Which is priceless - that they revert to the bad old way to define it
Being that neither party actually changed much in 3 decades with both trade and immigration (despite lip service), his aggressive focus on those issues effectively makes him anti-establishment.
However, I have always found that actions are more reliable as indicators than words. HIs Republican party has done nothing to stop him. Since after Newt Gingrich's Contract on America, where it was not only necessary to elect Republicans but a purge of moderates was needed to walk in lockstep, his party doctrine is the de-facto policy of his party.
Didn't use to be that way, when we could blame a disastrous decision on one or another wing of the party, but given the silence of his lambs, they support everything he does.
A lot of tech people and engineers tend to actually lean conservative and "law-and-order" vs being freewheeling liberals.
The liberals tend to be the scientists, professors, and artists for some reason.
And since the conservatives give us the tarriffs and wage and price controls, who is the liberal in the end?
Quick quiz - Who was the president that put in wage and price controls?
https://www.cato.org/publicati...
That's right, Another fine honest Republican, the honorable Richard Nixon.
On Aug. 15, 1971, in a nationally televised address, Nixon announced, “I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States.”
Wow...... Wage and price freezes. Hey - how'd that work out? Probably as good as what will hapen with the tarriffs on Chinese tech, and then the US working to make certain that the jobs of the Cell phone mfgr we kicked out are saved.
Funny how the Demoncrats are called the party of socialism, when the Republicans actually implement it.
Interesting, but totally irrelevant. I really couldn't give 2 shits what measurement system you use, or 5/8ths of a shit, or however you measure them. I'm sure you have your reasons. The point is it was originally in metric, but dumbed down for Americans to understand.
Oh bullshit. And quit being such a quasi-racist Euro-bigot. It is so ridiculously easy to be proficient in multiple measuring systems at the same time, you really have no right at all to claim that the article was dumbed down for the 'Murricans. Because anyone who can pull off that ridiculously minor feat of thinking isn't going to complain. The metric system is but one system that we use. We use it every day. Along with any other system we need to use. Which pretty much puts the lie to your whole premise. You might as well whine and moan about people who are proficient in multple languages. The metric system is at base, no less arbitrary than measuring in barleycorns of handbreadths. Get over yourself, Spanky.
The thing is 95% of the world use something better.
And we do too. We just don't take a hissy fit if someone says something else.But it is fun to troll ya.
Now to really piss y off, I have a socket set ....... in Whitworth. It's from back in the day I worked on vintage british motorcycles.
They already know what big numbers are in that system. They have to convert it from your silly system to understand and compare it to what they already know.
And? So what? We convert measurements all the. time. decimals, fractions, percentages, standard, metric, that old school whitworth.
I have a metric Mill and lathe that has no problem to make fractional standard measurement parts on. I've even made the occasional part that is standard on one side and metric on the other.
It's not like the scientists/engineers who did the calculations used your silly system anyway. It was already converted for you to understand, because you little snowflakes just have to be different..
Have a seat sweetheart, and let uncle Ol explain sumpin for ya.
A goodly few years ago, 'Murrica was drawn into one of the world's occasional attempts at exterminating itself. We were mostly content sitting in a corner and gazing at our navels, but old Tojo and then Adolph couldn't resist tickling the dragon's tail. So player three entered the game. Next thing ya know, we have to make tanks and planes and shit like that. Well, ont thing Uncle Ol knows is that those buildy machines you make your killy machines with have gotta be doggone good and precise kind of machines.
So we built them. And we saw that they were good. They were built in the units that were in use at the time. And we saw that they remained good. I've used WW2 vintage milling machines and lathes as late as three years ago.
So we have a lot of eally good long lasting machines that make other machines out there.
Bot lo and behold, there are other measurement systems, should we throw away millions of metric tons (see what I did there?) of very precise machinery? Sounds like a terrible waste of a lot of good work. So we stuck with Standard.
Then along comes Computer aided machining. So cool, much accurate very excellent. And it can take that bad old standard machine and turn it into metric, or even Whitworth or biblical measurements if ya wanna.
So now those old machines have a new and versatile life after being retrofitted to enter the computer age. And despite the whining and moaning of the people who have a shittin hemorrhage every time a non metric unit is mentioned, we 'Murricans actually produce a lot of metric stuff. Y'all are simply repeating talking points that show your hatred of 'Murrica with no more thought than Aunt Trudy's mynah bird saying "Pretty bird, go eat a turd!"
Just use the original measurements. If whiny little Americans only understand gallons or whatnot, let them convert it.
Weird, but y'all are the ones doing the whining. I'm enjoying y'all's outrage and limited worldview and ability to understand how to do mental conversions. Do it metric, or do it standard, I got it. I might have to whip out the calculator if someone wants to use the Maris as a unit of volume. But at 30.3 litres, we can do a rough calculation of their water needs in Maris as well.
But perhaps I am giving y'all more credit for 'rithmatic cypherin' than I should.
Except that youâ(TM)re using those feeble US quarts that are smaller than the genuine, original, accept no substitutes Imperial quarts, which weigh in at 80oz. Bet you didnâ(TM)t know about them.
Bah, I prefer the biblical units of measure, as they come direct from Gawd.
ie. You had no real come-back, only insults.
Actually, me showing restraint in not throwing some well deserved insults at ya was based more on your superior tone coupled with a weird sort of profanity, more or less based on some bizzare projection of engaging in sexual intercourse with a pizza, I mean, I've heard that Germans have some interesting kinks, but I never knew it extended to pizza delivery. But I guess theres'a a rule 34 for everything.
Are you assuming that once something is made of plastic, it automagically ends up in the ocean?
No, it's what we're observing.
Then you stop the path from the factory to the ocean, not ban plastics. So are you responsible and civilized Germans going to wash people's utensils off for them, or do they get to carry now decaying food with them?
prop - if a convenicence store or fast food place gives out plastic forks, collect them to keep them from entering the trash stream.
There are many more dangerous and not easily recycled plastics like the microspheres use in exfoliating creams that are a present and serious problem, entering the bodies of fish. But I don't see that anywhere on civilized Germany's list of things to be made illegal.
I am an environmentalist, and this is simply eco-theater. Keep things out of the waste stream i nthe first place.
Recycling is the answer, not banning.
No, re-using is the answer. Like they already do in civilized countries where the people have an ounce of personal responsibility in their bodies.
eg. Germany.
I typed up several replies, but threw them all away because they were too insulting. True, but insulting.
Like so many 'self-made' people you exaggerate the value of your work and ignore or are blind to the circumstances, situations and plain luck that contributed.
Thank you for your patronising tone, it's certainly been instructive.
So - what are you going to do? Curl up in a ball and weep? Your whining and bawling has also been instructive, and entertaining. Enjoy your inability to cope with reality, I'll enjoy my refusal to accept that I cannot be a success.
So - I suppose you have won, eh?
Fools - you pikers are not using the ultimate in superiority - the metric minute. All else is foolishness.
Yes but is it half the water they need in gallons? We Americans don't understand metric fractions.
No, the superiors only understand litres, and metricand once you don't use those, you are incapable of using antything else, and must resort to moaning and crying.
And your vaunted metric system is just as arbitrary at base as anything else. Otherwise, did you know this well thopught out and flalwees metric system, th emetre is exactly 1/299792458 of the distance that light travels in a second.
So no need to run around brandishing the big metric cock like it is the end all and be all of measurements.
I mean, unless it is the length that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299792458 of a second - then you have bragging rights.
And why not present figures in metric values so that people in the rest of the world would be able to understand how big the issue is?
Now I understand. A litre is .946 quart, A gallon is around 3.8 litres, and the rest of the world is supposed to be so much smarter than us, but can't do the really simple math involved. For a not very specific number like this, just multiply the gallons by 4 and you are in the ballpark. You only know 1 method, and can't use anything else at all. I can do several, and gallons to litres is among the simplest that a child can do.
Yeah, lets make the oceans into a big soup of crap instead so you can have your plastic, for the sake of convenience.
Are you assuming that once something is made of plastic, it automagically ends up in the ocean?
Recycling is the answer, not banning. If plastic forks spoons and knoves are always going to find their way into the ocean, and there is no stopping them, then we need to ban all plastic everywhere. Then start a war on drugs like action to stop the inevitable black market that will spring up.
I can see it now........ EU Anti-plastic czar, Adolpho Romano poses with 500 pounds of McDonald's Happy meal toys confistcated in a raid last night. Only two people were arrested because the other ten people running the organized crime plastic facility were killed in the action. The price of EU solidarity requires such harsh actions.
They used to do something similar to parts of of the UK, but I don't know if they still do. I think satellite coverage fixed most of it.
These days communal broadband is more common. Laying in fibre optic connections because British Telecom wants silly money to do it. Using wifi for some of the gaps and last mile stuff.
Over here, we have miles and miles of fiber strung on poles that was put in in the early oughts going through some pretty rural places. My county is just about saturated with fiber, but Its never been lit, and rural people are still using dial-up.
I don't know how things are in your part of the world, but in europe there is a sginificant percentage of millenials who cannot afford a house because they 'need' a fully furnished modern house with a luxurious bathroom and quality kitchen. And of course they also 'need' a summer holiday and at least a skiing weekend trip. There are a good number of millenials who have grown up with a level of luxury that they immediately seek to step into when moving out.
Exactly. It is the always sure to fail concept of starting at the top. Probably part of the self esteem movement, where high self esteem and the good life is not encumbered by silly things like achievements or the work required to achieve success.
The world doesn't, but society owes you an opportunity. That's part of the 'social contract'.
What the hell is that supposed to even mean?
The Millennials have an even clearer view of just how lopsided the contract has become and are even more disconnected. Social mobility has been crap for generations and it's getting harder to pretend otherwise.
Do go on. I've heard that from every generation, and every one after so far. The common thread is that you are somehow fixed in your social class. It's also a fine excuse for people. I rose several stations above my so called class - we were rather poor when I was a young boy. But no one is going to do it for you. It takes work and dedication.
As well, it takes time. and discipline. I lived in a mobile home for ten years while I saved money for a house, I worked a lot extra nights and weekends to advance myself professionally. I concentrated first on professional networking, then as that solidified, the social networking. Point is, altogether too many people think that simply showing up to work on time should entitle you to the world of rapid promotions and upward mobility, and you have ot have it all, the moment you graduate from college.
Corporations own rights to cultural works and are making a pretty successful attempt at making sure nothing returns to the public if there's a cent to be made from it. Wages are stagnant, the 'gig' economy makes working less secure than ever and the idea that education was the way to better yourself has created a generation burdened by an all new form of debt.
I cried a little while reading that. Perhaps that philosophy degree or gender studies degree wasn't worth the 100 kilobucks it took to get it? Hella fun though punishing the liver those 4 years while the dumbass engineering majors were in the library studying.
Hard work used to have a pretty strong correlation to success, but it's increasingly just the table stakes.
Interesting. Yet I'm excoriated because I regularly worked a lot of extra hours at work by people bragging about how they simply won't do more than 40, and their company can go fuck itself if it thinks they'll do any extra.
But if a generation is being characterised by rejecting the social contract as offered, maybe it's not just bad parenting and unrealistic expectations.
Well friend, if you think you can' t do it, you are certainly correct. If you were sold any bill of goods, it wasn't me. Enjoy wallowing in your self pity, It isn't much of a substitute for hard work and financial acumen, but it's an easy and ready excuse.