Why It Seems Everything We Knew About the Global Economy Is

[ousdahl]

I currently don’t have dental insurance. The only options available on the exchange in my area were like 25-30 bucks a month, so like 300-400 ish hundred a year.

But here’s the thing! The insurance only covered basic cleanings, which would be like 300-400 out of pocket a year anyway. For a filling or a root canal or an emergency, I was SOL either way.

related: I swear I saw an insurance commercial encouraging you to be supplemental insurance for emergencies your health/dental insurance doesn’t cover.

I mean shit, now you gotta buy insurance for your insurance…what stage of capitalism is this?

[KUTradition]

what kind of an idiot designs a system of measure based on 12?

(fahrenheit is another idiotic idea)

I agree about the Fahrenheit scale. But I wouldn’t be so dismissive of the base 12 (and by derivative base 60) convention. It’s mathematically sound but not scalable, like the Roman numeral convention. It was fine to do fast math for a limited number of applications. But it falls apart fast.

One convincing explanation I heard for its origin was how early humans did math using their fingers. Hold your hand with the palm facing up. Now use your thumb to count out the segments of each finger from the base to the top starting with the pinky. You’ll count 12 segments. They could do calculations by folding and adding fingers. My grandfather taught me the process of how you have the entire multiplication tables in your hand, but of course I forgot!! If anyone lived in the UK in the 70s you’ll know how bad non-metric system could be prior to converting their currency to metric!!

I’m still hopeful that we’ll come around on both health care and measurement!

that’s fascinating history - i had no idea

i don’t doubt that there, at least initially and in some circumstances, was/is some utility…my comment was more aimed at comparing standard vs metric

[jfish26]

https://twitter.com/ngrossman81/status/ ... q_-8Yt1KMA

[ousdahl]

Elon Musk is hard evidence, like thee literal embodiment, of an economy that is bad

[TDub]

I hate the metric system....my entire world is centered around inches , fractions of inches and feet. If I had to switch now I'd jump off a 30 meter cliff.


I do have to often do basic conversations for some products....2.54 cm per inch 25.4 mm per inch etc. But trying to layout walls or buildings using metric at this point would kill me.


on the other hand I can deal with fractions probably better than 95 percent of the population without ever having to think about it. Everything I do is some variation of quarters eighths sixteenths and 32nds and all the various calculations that come with onverting, adding, subtracting and multiplying those

[ousdahl]

on the other hand I can deal with fractions probably better than 95 percent of the population without ever having to think about it.

Whoa, that’s like 19/20ths of the population!

[TDub]

20ths is a bad example

how bout you just focus on 1/8th" amd 1/4" per foot Pedro.

[KUTradition]

I hate the metric system....my entire world is centered around inches , fractions of inches and feet. If I had to switch now I'd jump off a 30 meter cliff.


I do have to often do basic conversations for some products....2.54 cm per inch 25.4 mm per inch etc. But trying to layout walls or buildings using metric at this point would kill me.


on the other hand I can deal with fractions probably better than 95 percent of the population without ever having to think about it. Everything I do is some variation of quarters eighths sixteenths and 32nds and all the various calculations that come with onverting, adding, subtracting and multiplying those

and on the other side, folks like myself have their careers built on metric system…i’ve got to be able to at least function in both worlds

the funny thing, is that when i’m building at home (fucking chickens) i’m more comfortable working in feet/inches

i don’t think there’ll be a full transition one way or the other, be it for length/mass or temperature measures

‘murican exceptionalism

[KUTradition]

20ths is a bad example

how bout you just focus on 1/8th" amd 1/4" per foot Pedro.

i see a quality comedy skit here, with a buyer going to the dealer only to be confronted with metric options

[zsn]

I understand the cumbersome conversion in certain entrenched fields like construction. However, the automotive world “happily” coexists. It would be hard to recalibrate lumber sizes. But then again, would 38x90 mm make that much of a difference in house framing from 1.5x3.5 in? Or 244 cm for an 8’ piece? When you mark off 3 mm are you really that far off 1/4” for the most part? I bet your pencil tip sharpness and variation is greater than that uncertainty.

I’ve always wondered why the fractions only go by powers of 2, where the denominators are 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and then suddenly they jump to thousandths! What’s up with not having 17/24th? Or 7/12th for that matter!

I’m can do the x/4, y/8, z/16 conversions fast in my head but I’m a lot more comfortable with mm, cm, m, C, mL, L, mg, g and kg

[defixione]

I hate the metric system....my entire world is centered around inches , fractions of inches and feet. If I had to switch now I'd jump off a 30 meter cliff.


I do have to often do basic conversations for some products....2.54 cm per inch 25.4 mm per inch etc. But trying to layout walls or buildings using metric at this point would kill me.


on the other hand I can deal with fractions probably better than 95 percent of the population without ever having to think about it. Everything I do is some variation of quarters eighths sixteenths and 32nds and all the various calculations that come with onverting, adding, subtracting and multiplying those

I thought the same thing until I was forced to work in millimeters. If I had my way I would never go back to inches and feet.