The Secret Lives Of Slim People

[dave50]

Did anyone see this on channel 4 last night? It was interesting but what I found annoying was the fact that their weight and height was given in kilograms and centimetres. There wasnt even
an imperial equivalent. I found it meaningless. When anyone discusses their weight and height, it's given in stones and pounds and feet and inches. They are as bad as the BBC, obsessed with metric measurements.

[Zacs-Master]

Shocking. You’d think with metrication happening so recently they’d at least give both.

[TheChair]

Yeah, it's only 54 years since the UK went metric. Barely enough time for people to get the hang of it.

[Zacs-Master]

;-)

[SparklyKid]

The UK is not metric For Funks Sake.

[Zacs-Master]

I’m afraid it is. Under The treaty of accession to the European Economic Community (EEC), which the United Kingdom joined in 1973, we were obliged to incorporate into domestic law all EEC directives, including the use of a prescribed SI-based set of units for many purposes within five years.

[SparklyKid]

It still says MILES on motorways so the EU can *** off !

[ummmm]

And babies are still weighed in lbs and ounces. My weighing scales still tell me how many stones I weigh.

[Zacs-Master]

[ludwig]

I didn't see it, but I'm guessing the gist of it was that slim people don't eat as much as non-slim people?

[Khandro]

//Yeah, it's only 54 years since the UK went metric.//

Did anyone see that wonderful bit of film on TV the other night taken from b/w archive footage at the time of metrification?
With true British spirit and defiance, a lady on the market said we should not change to kilometres because they were more of them than miles, and you'd have to drive farther!

[Prudie]

The UK did not go all metric 54 years ago at all, the sale of grocery items for example only changed in 2000, petrol and road distances have not transferred at all. Nearly everybody measures their weight in stones and pounds, however young they are.

[Cloverjo]

Babies are weighed in grams, and have been for at least 27 years. No one understands grams though, so it’s converted to pounds and ounces.

[ummmm]

Ludwig - years back I watched an experiment. They locked a range of people in a house, all had the same food to see at what rate people put weight on and they studied the cctv. The people who put on less weight tended to fidget.

[puzzled54]

I saw it. One of the ladies was the same height as me, 160cm or 5 ft 3 in old money, weighed a few kilos less and was a size 6. I am a size 12, how unfair is that?

[Rosie29]

I noticed that years ago BBC weather forecasts took a long time to give us the information in Centigrade and Fahrenheit - now with rainfall measurement we have been thrown in at the deep end - ! - with wretched millimetres.

[gingejbee]

....ah yes, rain in millimetres, snow in centimetres and windspeed in miles per hour. If only there was some consistency....all metric please and ditch Fahrenheit.

[lucas10]

grww wgr g

[ToraToraTora]

TBF the EU directive says that all weights and measures have to be quoted with the metric equivalent available it not say that other measurements cannot also be used. They sell Pints in Irish pubs all over the EU, they quote the unit as 568ml but it says pints on the black board. I'm at home with either really, metric works well when doing sciencey things but imperial is also good fun to wind up the metric mafia.

[Bazile]

I prefer miles because there are less of them than kilometres , so i don't have to driver farther .

[ToraToraTora]

a Mile = 1000 (Mille) paces of a roman soldier doubling so that is metric too!