There are plenty of 'tards out there living really kickass lives.
The way I was taught in grade school is the Europeans used 2*10^12 (the latter!) whereas Americans used 2 * 10^9
This page gives a pretty good writeup: Due to pressures of american finance, the British started using nine zeroes instead of twelve in 1974.
I like his proposal. Your bill will be two teradollars.
Best argument for suppressing inflation: People really won’t be able to calculate tip.
I don’t know how you guys keep all the Imperial measurements straight. 12 of this, 14 of that, 4 of them, 2000 of the other, and 16 of these. How many fingers did the people have that came up with this system?
And Robert, I’m Irish and my usage of shall/will agrees entirely with John Merva’s. Maybe people who couldn’t speak it so well led you astray :) It’s fairly typical for native speakers to make egregious errors in their own language (its, it’s and random apostrophe sprinklings come to mind).
US pints are a bit freaky too. Alton Brown constantly keeps repeating his mantra about a pint being a pound the world around, and he really means in the US, as it was one of the George’s changed it as he couldn’t increase tax on beer I think (but he could change a unit of measurement - duh, that makes sense). Regular non-US pints are well over a pound, unless US pounds are heavier than Imperial pounds.
Nice!
Are you in Ireland now? North or South? We’ll have to have a few pints some time.
Yeah, I work in Dublin, but I lived in Portrush for about 10 years. I’m up in Belfast three or four times a year, which might suit you. Ballymena, hey? :)
Yeah, on my way out there on Friday.
Let me know when you’re about.
Wouldn’t mind having a look at Dublin one day as well though.
We can’t, which is why it is frustrating to those who have worked with the metric system. You’ll have to ask Europe about the original reason behind all the crap, we’re just the ones who won’t give it up.
H.
I was also taught this (Hong Kong style UK English). In addition, if you flip the word (will, shall, shall, will, shall, shall), you have added an emphasis that almost implies a “must”.
In Canada (and US?), “shall” is used when someone wants to appear snooty.