Oolite Bulletins

You would not believe the weather we're having! During May long, we had about two inches of rain. Woke up on Monday and there was like two inches of snow on the ground. Melted by noon, though the temperature stayed a bit above freezing. This week, low to mid-twenties!

Only in Manitoba....

Well I first looked for Manitoba on the map. Then I read a couple of articles about how Canada turned to metric 40 years ago. Thank you for triggering that Huntress.
Being so north, what is considered as normal for this period?

Getafix wrote:

Thank you for triggering that Huntress.

Strange where a post can take you, ain't it. I immediately thought of the big lakes, which led to this old song.

Getafix wrote:

I read a couple of articles about how Canada turned to metric 40 years ago.

Not that you'd notice.

Huntress (in Canada) wrote:

...two inches of rain. Woke up on Monday and there was like two inches of snow...

Smivs wrote:

Getafix wrote:

I read a couple of articles about how Canada turned to metric 40 years ago.

Not that you'd notice.

Huntress (in Canada) wrote:

...two inches of rain. Woke up on Monday and there was like two inches of snow...

A blending of the old and new, it is. At least Canada had the progressive insight to adopt the metric system, unlike the USA. I guess our policy makers have decided we are too stupid. Maybe they are right. You would not believe the hate I have aroused with my comments on other boards.

Smivs wrote:

Huntress (in Canada) wrote:

...two inches of rain. Woke up on Monday and there was like two inches of snow...

Whereas in Aussie if you say feet or inches to a teenager you just get a blank look back. They're completely mystified as to why the person they are conversing with has suddenly started emitting Martian words mid-sentence.

That's a cultural loss. Feet and inches are very useful human scale measures that SI has no equivalent of. I don't mind that kids today have no idea of the ratios of feet/chains/furlongs/miles, but they should be taught feet and inches. The centimetre just doesn't suffice as an everyday, human-scale unit of measurement.

P.S. there was one inch, or there were two inches. #kidstoday #wowjustwow

Wildeblood wrote:

Feet and inches are very useful human scale measures that SI has no equivalent of.

Indeed, which is why I tend to use them although I am mostly metric. Mind you it does drive people mad when I describe something as being "an inch and a couple of milimeters long"!

Smivs wrote:

Mind you it does drive people mad when I describe something as being "an inch and a couple of milimeters long"!

Maybe try, "Two centimetres and nine sixteenths of an inch."

then there is the curosity of car tyre sizes....

width in mm and diameter in inches.... lol

IE. my car has 205/50/16 tires..... 205mm wide 50% profile and a 16" diameter......

to be honest 406.4 mm diameter sounds silly.... (16 * 25.4)

@Huntress
You see?...you see what you started?!?

Smivs wrote:

Not that you'd notice.

That was exactly my understanding after reading the articles, that I wouldn't!

@CaptSolo
...reading an article at Toronto Star it seems that

thestar.com wrote:

"the French, hoping to secure some global uniformity, sent a copy of the kilogram and a “copper meter” to the U.S. in 1795. They were never used, and the U.S. was not invited to the talks that formalized the metric system a few years later in Paris"

. We will never know the "politics" behind this I presume.

Getafix wrote:

Being so north, what is considered as normal for this period?

I actually don't live that far north.

Cody wrote:

I immediately thought of the big lakes, which led to this old song.

Actually, I live on the eastern side of Lake Manitoba in a puny town called St. Laurent. Answering Getafix's question, I'd guess the normal weather would be in the high teens to the low twenties. Up in northern Manitoba I guess it'd be the same, unless the wind comes from the bay making it cool down. Contrary to many biases, Canada is NOT snow-covered and cold all year round (only for about 11 months ).

I prefer metric (probably since I grew up with it), but there is one thing I have to convert watching the weather. When the amount of snowfall is shown, I convert it to inches. I know how big an inch is, and how long they are stacked on top of each other. Pretty simple to do, just divide the centimetres by 2.5. Piece of cake. The one thing I hate about it is that rainfall amounts are shown by millimetres. I don't care about millimetres. Give me the amount in centimetres. If we get 2mm of rain, I don't care. That amount is so small it's not even worthwhile. That's not even rain. One raindrop is like a mm. Just doesn't make sense.

Getafix wrote:

thestar.com wrote:

"the French, hoping to secure some global uniformity, sent a copy of the kilogram and a “copper meter” to the U.S. in 1795. They were never used, and the U.S. was not invited to the talks that formalized the metric system a few years later in Paris"

Knowing our governments, I'm not surprised.

Getafix wrote:

@CaptSolo
...reading an article at Toronto Star it seems that

thestar.com wrote:

"the French, hoping to secure some global uniformity, sent a copy of the kilogram and a “copper meter” to the U.S. in 1795. They were never used, and the U.S. was not invited to the talks that formalized the metric system a few years later in Paris"

.

We will never know the "politics" behind this I presume.

I shall only say that the "politics" is still alive and well over 200 years later.

Good news, y'all! Finally managed to download all the OXPs I once had. The temperature is just going crazy here, plus 30 one day and plus 10 the next. Me, I prefer the mid to high teens as I'm not much for heat. The only thing is, I guess I'm going to have to get used to heat. Apparently we're moving this summer to a place called Carman! It's about 100 km to the border, and is usually the hotspot. By the lake, we always were cooler since it took a long while for the lake to warm up. Now, it's going to hot as we're also moving into Carman, and we all know how asphalt heats up (or do we?). So I probably won't be on Oolite much, or on the bulletin boards either. I'll be too busy packing and moving hundreds of my books. Only have three more weeks of school left, and then it's on to bigger and better places.

Great news on the OXPs. Good luck with the move - hopefully see you soon

Closer to the 49th Parallel, eh - good luck with all that moving stuff.