Post #3817493

2026-04-05 09:27 UTC

@cflynnbooks@mastodonapp.uk @mrundkvist@archaeo.social "Does the fact that the UK still uses MILES on all our roadsigns, and sells beer in PINTS (bigger than a USA pint btw 😉) make us all hicks?" Of course not. Hicks is a US thing. When the UK keeps using archaic, stupid measurements it's because they're all Tea-aboos who refuse to accept the loss of the British Empire and stubbornly cling on to anything that lets them pretend they're still a world power. We're not culturally ignorant, you know. We target our insults.

Replies (1)

@oclsc@mstdn.ca 2026-04-05 17:02

@skjeggtroll@mastodon.online @cflynnbooks@mastodonapp.uk @mrundkvist@archaeo.social But it does make you less advanced and less polite than Canada. Road signs here are in km, temperatures in Celsius. Other than that people tend to be bi-lingual in units. You can ask for 500g of cheese or a pound; the merchant will cheerfully give you what you want. Doctors officially record your weight in kg but automatically offer to translate to pounds. Inter-city train and commuter-rail timetables show 24-hour time, transit schedules where I live use 12-hour time. Young people seem to be much more comfortable with SI than with US units, so we may mostly evolve away from the latter. Some things stick to US units because of international trade. Lumber is measured in feet for length and inches for nominal width and thickness (though the latter have been a name more than a measurement in both countries for decades: go measure a 2 x 4 or a 1-inch thick 8-inch board). Standard sheets of plywood and drywall are 4' x 8'. Maybe that will change later.

Open ##3817495