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Reply 100 of 222, by Caluser2000

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Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-11-19, 15:29:
Caluser2000 wrote on 2020-11-18, 16:18:
Why? Imperal threads don't work with metric threads and vise versa. […]
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Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-11-18, 09:55:
The Metric and Imperial systems never really line up correctly. It would make more sense to color code label nuts and bolts and […]
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The Metric and Imperial systems never really line up correctly.
It would make more sense to color code label nuts and bolts and products so people don’t confuse the sizes.
A simple color code label would help to organize items so people will know that these item will work together.
Maybe even a bar code or QR code on the items.

Why? Imperal threads don't work with metric threads and vise versa.

Rulers and tape measures are available with metric on opne sidid/edge and imperial on the other side/edge, digital verrnier calipers that can switch units, laser measurement devices that can switch units.

You are imagining problems that do not exist or easy to overcome. Like lot of your posts/threads quite frankly.

And what does this have to do with an english language thread?

Well, this post is about ONE language for the entire world. If there is going to be ONE language then its system of measurement will probably be Metric. It will never happen.

You have absolutely no clue of what will happen in the future and just tried to pull thread off topic. Very predictable behavior.

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Reply 101 of 222, by Tetrium

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Cyberdyne wrote on 2020-11-19, 14:23:

In reality Celsius is more proctical for humans and ecpecyally for heating and traffic. Because te tipping point is water freezing. And everything else it add to the equasion. And American have military time 24h. but yes that AM PM thing is bygone. Yes even in europe the analog mechanical clocks are 12 hour, we add a time of day to it, is it morning, day, afternoon, night.

My guess is that the 12h mechanical clocks were more of a thing because these (mounted in towers like church bell towers etc) clocks were perhaps for a time the only (decently accurate) clocks available to the majority of people and making the clock consist of 12 sets of timepoints instead of 24 would make the clocks easier to read from a distance. Day and night would often make sense anyway from context (unless someone really looked too deep into their glass and got wasted by an overuse of alcohol 🤣).
But I prefer the 24h denotation as it leaves less room for errors. Same reason why I prefer the metric system, even though the inch system made it easier for me to distinguish large naval gun calibers like the ones used on battleships (easier to remember in inches than it is in mm).

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Reply 102 of 222, by Errius

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https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/factors-mu … ples-table.html

The reason we have measurement systems based on scales of 12, 20, 24, 60, 90, etc. is because these numbers have lots of factors, making mental arithmetic easier.

This is irrelevant when calculations are done by machine.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 103 of 222, by jesolo

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Tetrium wrote on 2020-11-08, 23:35:

THE language that sounds most similar to Dutch is unmistakingly Afrikaans.

True, Afrikaans is 90 % related to 17th century Dutch.
Although, these days, Afrikaans is probably much closer to Flemish than to Dutch.
For us native Afrikaans speakers, it's sometimes difficult to follow a person speaking Dutch, at least initially (unless they speak slowly). Apparently, based on what I've been told, the Dutch tend to not have that problem to understand someone speaking Afrikaans.

Reply 104 of 222, by Tetrium

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jesolo wrote on 2020-11-20, 16:14:
True, Afrikaans is 90 % related to 17th century Dutch. Although, these days, Afrikaans is probably much closer to Flemish than […]
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Tetrium wrote on 2020-11-08, 23:35:

THE language that sounds most similar to Dutch is unmistakingly Afrikaans.

True, Afrikaans is 90 % related to 17th century Dutch.
Although, these days, Afrikaans is probably much closer to Flemish than to Dutch.
For us native Afrikaans speakers, it's sometimes difficult to follow a person speaking Dutch, at least initially (unless they speak slowly). Apparently, based on what I've been told, the Dutch tend to not have that problem to understand someone speaking Afrikaans.

It will differ a lot in between speakers, especially if local dialects are used on either side. I have a hard time making out what someone sais in Afrikaans and have to 'tune in' a bit first.
I don't know anyone anymore who's from there, so I can't ask anyone in person. Interesting to know about this though. But the idea that intelligibly is not always mutual, is very much an existing one =)
17th century Dutch is probably also quite different from 21st century Dutch, but Afrikaans has this very distinct sound in its pronounciation that makes it sound very Dutch to someone from The Netherlands which no other language has. Not even French Flemish has this.

Btw, to many people from The Netherlands, Flemish will sounds like sweet honey to the ears 😜

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Reply 105 of 222, by Tetrium

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Errius wrote on 2020-11-20, 14:31:

https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/factors-mu … ples-table.html

The reason we have measurement systems based on scales of 12, 20, 24, 60, 90, etc. is because these numbers have lots of factors, making mental arithmetic easier.

This is irrelevant when calculations are done by machine.

Interesting...

Dunno if this is correct though, but it does sound plausible.

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Reply 106 of 222, by drosse1meyer

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Something I didnt see mentioned - the British Empire reigned over much of the world for a very long time. This surely was a major factor in spreading English around the globe. Then the US took the baton after WW1 and WW2, which enhanced this even more - global economic dominance, cultural dominance (e.g. Hollywood), center of world diplomacy (the U.N.), etc etc.

As a native English speaker, I have no conception of how difficult the language is for foreigners to master, I've heard there are pros and cons. Apparently there are a lot of 'sss' sounds in English? idk. At least we don't have to memorize noun genders.

Errius wrote on 2020-11-20, 14:31:

https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/factors-mu … ples-table.html

The reason we have measurement systems based on scales of 12, 20, 24, 60, 90, etc. is because these numbers have lots of factors, making mental arithmetic easier.

This is irrelevant when calculations are done by machine.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you but there are definite advantages to using Base-2 and Base-16 with respect to how our digital systems and logic were implemented

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Reply 107 of 222, by Jo22

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drosse1meyer wrote on 2020-11-20, 21:22:

As a native English speaker, I have no conception of how difficult the language is for foreigners to master, I've heard there are pros and cons. Apparently there are a lot of 'sss' sounds in English? idk. At least we don't have to memorize noun genders.

This me reminds me of my English teacher from back then.
If I remember correctly, the sad consequence was, that English language degrades animals to objects ("it").
With the exception to pets, which can have a "she" or "he" because they are humanzid when we give them names.

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Reply 110 of 222, by brostenen

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ElBrunzy wrote on 2016-06-04, 18:00:

I was searching stuff on banggood and I read stuff like that "Very popular among the electronic lovers" that made me realise the chineses are making effort to talk in english. I live in french Canada where people would immolate themself for to we speak french. I think many people on this forum must be from the european side and english is not your default language.

What would be your thought about the entire planet earth speak in english?

Nobody need to speak English only, except those that have English as their first language. What people need, is to be able to speak English as a second language. Makes stuff so much more easy. And yet, somebody will always butt-herd over that, and someone did, hence the language called Esparanto.

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Reply 111 of 222, by brostenen

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Errius wrote on 2020-11-21, 12:17:

The advantage of noun gender is that allows you to say things like "put it on it" and be understood.

One can always say it in a different way, and still get the message through. Just use other words for the same message. 😉

Instead of saying it like a British person would, then you can say it in the way an Australian and American would.

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Reply 112 of 222, by brostenen

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drosse1meyer wrote on 2020-11-20, 21:22:

Something I didnt see mentioned - the British Empire reigned over much of the world for a very long time. This surely was a major factor in spreading English around the globe. Then the US took the baton after WW1 and WW2, which enhanced this even more - global economic dominance, cultural dominance (e.g. Hollywood), center of world diplomacy (the U.N.), etc etc.

As a native English speaker, I have no conception of how difficult the language is for foreigners to master, I've heard there are pros and cons. Apparently there are a lot of 'sss' sounds in English? idk. At least we don't have to memorize noun genders.

Both yes and no. America went into isolation politics, after WW1. The US President at that time (Woodrow Wilson), was in the opinion, that is was in the best interrest of the US. However, nobody was able to stop the spread of culture, hence the world took in everything the roaring 20's provided of US culture. The spread of English was cultural and not political driven at that time. It sure did change during the 1940's.

Yup. It is hard to start mastering two different languages, when they are starting to teach you it in school from the age of some 8/10 years. And at the same time. However we pulled through, learning both English and German from scratch. And that was in a time without internet and only one single tv channel that all spoke Danish. English!!! Then we had to watch a movie. Today it is all different as English is everywere, and my children are growing up in a multilingual world. Heck. Lots of children can understand the meaning of what is said in English, even before they start in school. At least they know words like f**k and s**t. 😁 hehe.... Dont worry, we have a different understanding of the word f**k, as it is used and looked at, as just another English word. We dont really have the same understanding and background as Americans have. The same goes for the word s**t, as it is a very naughty word in England.

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Those cakes make you sick....

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Reply 113 of 222, by Cyberdyne

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Cu.t ... c.nt very offensive word in US. But rest on britain and old colonies, it just means that you are an a..hole.

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Reply 114 of 222, by brostenen

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Cyberdyne wrote on 2020-11-22, 10:19:

Cu.t ... c.nt very offensive word in US. But rest on britain and old colonies, it just means that you are an a..hole.

If you really want to piss off people in England and America at the same time, you will have to say:

You f***ing, s**t-c**nt. 😁 😉

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Reply 115 of 222, by Errius

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Oh yes, this is something that people who learn English from movies don't understand. Swearing is bad. Don't drop F-bombs into casual conversation. That's going to get you into trouble in English-speaking countries. Hollywood isn't real.

brostenen wrote on 2020-11-22, 10:12:

Both yes and no. America went into isolation politics, after WW1. The US President at that time (Woodrow Wilson), was in the opinion, that is was in the best interrest of the US. However, nobody was able to stop the spread of culture, hence the world took in everything the roaring 20's provided of US culture. The spread of English was cultural and not political driven at that time. It sure did change during the 1940's.

Wilson actually wanted the U.S. to join the League of Nations and play an active role in the world, but he failed to convince his countrymen of this, and soon died anyway. Most Americans at that time just wanted to go home and forget about Europe and its problems.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 116 of 222, by drosse1meyer

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brostenen wrote on 2020-11-22, 10:12:
drosse1meyer wrote on 2020-11-20, 21:22:

Something I didnt see mentioned - the British Empire reigned over much of the world for a very long time. This surely was a major factor in spreading English around the globe. Then the US took the baton after WW1 and WW2, which enhanced this even more - global economic dominance, cultural dominance (e.g. Hollywood), center of world diplomacy (the U.N.), etc etc.

As a native English speaker, I have no conception of how difficult the language is for foreigners to master, I've heard there are pros and cons. Apparently there are a lot of 'sss' sounds in English? idk. At least we don't have to memorize noun genders.

Both yes and no. America went into isolation politics, after WW1. The US President at that time (Woodrow Wilson), was in the opinion, that is was in the best interrest of the US. However, nobody was able to stop the spread of culture, hence the world took in everything the roaring 20's provided of US culture. The spread of English was cultural and not political driven at that time. It sure did change during the 1940's.

Not to derail the topic, but the USA has generally flip flopped with isolationism, unsurprisingly being used as a political football. The late 1800s and early 1900s were littered with the US intervening in other countries, most notably in the Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti), the Philippines, and don't forget Commodore Perry "opening Japan" to the world. This was furthered via "Wilsonianism."

Woodrow Wilson was one of the worst US presidents ever, who was only elected because Teddy Roosevelt split the Republican votes by running as a third party. Wilson was very imperialistic and authoritarian in his writings and he bought into the Southern 'lost cause revisionism.' This perpetuated much of the racism which eventually institutionalized in the south in the form of Jim Crow laws, and the creation of the KKK. I mean come on, he even had a viewing for "Birth of a Nation" at the White House.

Ironically, Wilson campaigned on neutrality in 1916, despite his earlier imperialistic positions, but you have to remember, he flip flopped on that as well , as shown in 1917. He also pushed through the terrible Espionage and Sedition Acts, smothering free speech and civil liberties, and turned a blind eye to the increased racial bloodbaths in the south as well as terrorizing his own citizens with the 'intelligence agencies' (e.g. the M.I.D.) created during the war years.

Obviously he ended up entering WW1, ostensibly his ultimate goal was the "League of Nations" but that was an utter failure as well, as the US Congress refused to ratify. Perhaps he should have stuck to concentrating on domestic issues.

There was definitely a renewed isolationist mindset in the 30s due to the recent memory of WW1, but again, public sentiments can change, for various reasons.

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Reply 117 of 222, by Errius

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There has always been a strong idealistic streak in the American national character, going all the way back to the Puritans (who incidentally arrived in America exactly 400 years ago yesterday). This has repeatedly manifested itself in U.S. history as a crusading urge to 'do good' in the world. Sometimes this works very well (e.g. WWII). Sometimes not so much.

ETA: No it was the Pilgrims who arrived in 1620, not the Puritans. I always get those two mixed up.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 118 of 222, by drosse1meyer

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Errius wrote on 2020-11-22, 15:58:

There has always been a strong idealistic streak in the American national character, going all the way back to the Puritans (who incidentally arrived in America exactly 400 years ago yesterday). This has repeatedly manifested itself in U.S. history as a crusading urge to 'do good' in the world. Sometimes this works very well (e.g. WWII). Sometimes not so much.

ETA: No it was the Pilgrims who arrived in 1620, not the Puritans. I always get those two mixed up.

The Pilgrims who dropped in on Plymouth were separatist Puritans

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Reply 119 of 222, by Intel486dx33

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Growing up with the Imperial systems of measurement it is easy for me to visualize these units of measurement.
It is not so easy to visualize units of measurement in metric.