> mm/dd/yy is silly. dd/mm/yy is better, but I use yyyy-mm-dd, which is
> ISO-compatible and sorts nicely.
mm/dd/yy is the natural derivative of how we usually say dates out loud,
e.g., today is October 5th, 2000. Silly in a mathematical sense, perhaps,
but it wasn't just yanked out of a hat.
> We do some metric. E.g., nutritional information labels are metric. UK
> is half and half, too.
U.S. nutritional information labels aren't just metric. They commonly have
one "layman's terms" measurement, followed by the metric equivalent in
parentheses. For example, my orange juice bottle has "Serving Size: 8 fl oz
(240mL)", and the cupcake package reads "Serving Size: 1 cake (50g)".
> [Light switches] toggle, for Peter's sake! If it's dark, flip the danged
switch
> and see if it gets brighter. Sheesh. :-)
Of course, when you have lights serviced by two or more switches, both sides
of this argument fly right out the window.
> > - Australian power points (or power outlets if you don't know what
> > I'm talking about) all have switches on the outlet itself, not at
> > the wall.
>
> Oh, that's *handy*...walk into a room and fumble behind the furniture
> looking for the light switch. Gee, I can't imagine why we put them on
> the wall...
A bit of clarification is needed here. Typically, power outlets in the U.S.
won't have switches at all; that is, they're "always on." However, housing
and apartment contractors have gotten really cheap lately. Instead of
putting in overhead lighting, they'll wire the wall switch to a power outlet
and expect the tenant to provide his/her own light source. On the other
hand, power outlets in many modern U.S. home bathrooms *do* have a switch on
the outlet itself, due to safety codes.
> Of course we have a North Amercian centric view of the world: we're
> the most powerful and important country in the world. If we were a
> backwater like Canada or Australia, we'd be paying a lot more
> attention to other countries like the US, too.
And guess which countries will be important when the U.S., China, and Russia
all go to war and wipe each other out? :)
---Kris Kelley
