Shootings

[rob love]

They could say it in metric, but who in hell would know how much that would be? I know what 1000 pounds is, but would have no idea what 453.59 kg would represent.

[Marc Montgomery]

Canada has been metric for 44 years. Maybe the Canadian contract called for complement of officers and a 450kg of payload and the Americans rather than understand 992lb 1.2 oz...decided to round it up to 1000lbs?

actually, I was always kinda confused by American quarts and gallons etc..so much smaller than the correct (Commonwealth) imperial.

and you were completely familiar with short tons and long tons right?

and of course you know off the top of your head what lb means right?

Base 10 vs base 12? no..metric makes a heck of lot of sense to me

[rob love]

According to another RCMP article, the trucks were built by Navistar Defense Canada, so not really sure why they list pounds, except that is what people understand.

I had the metric training back in grade 8, and the teachers extolled all the virtues of the system. So why am I still having to convert kmh to mph. And why do we understand mpg rather than lp100km for consumption?

Since highway speeds are generally around 60mph, and there are 60 minutes in an hour, it makes it easy to figure out how long until we get there.

[Marc Montgomery]

well posted speeds are actually around 62.1 mph.

Grade 8 math question..if you're travelling 60mph, and there are 60 minutes in an hour and its 174 km from Dauphin to Yorkton...how long will it take you.?

supplement..you've just purchased 20L of gas at a Canadian gas pump. and you know your car gets 25mpg- will you have enough?

[chris vickery]

Try working in industry with Metric.
Go cut me a piece of 500mcm cable 3710mm long....
Do I need a friend to help me? How heavy is that?
I had a young trainee years ago that I had asked to get me a piece of material.
I asked for a piece 20 x 40. He returned with a piece 20mm x 40mm, a slight difference from 20" x 40" Considering the job we were working on, common sense should have prevailed

[Marc Montgomery]

isnt it fascinating how the thread started out talking about mental wackos shooting people and ended up talking about metric measure?

back to topic, Kalashnikov always said he had no remorse for making the AK, that he invented it to protect the motherland and if people used it to kill each other around the world it was politicians fault not his
..but now revealed is that he had remorse shortly before his death and asked Orthodox religious leaders about it... saying he had spiritual pain..and asking them if he was to blame for the slaughter around the world using the gun he created.

Apparently the reply was the church supported the designer saying the weapon was intended to protect the motherland and that was all and he could not be spiritually condemned for that.

Oppenhiemer and Rotblat invented the nuclear bomb (relunctantly) to end war..fearing that Hitler was trying to do it

Gattling invented his "machine gun" believing it would reduce the size of armies, reduce killing and make war futile.

[guyvapeur]

There are many ways to resurrect a thread that has pettered out. Last night 3 police officers were murdered in the Moncton New Brunswick area. That should bring a spark back into this thread. Any one interested can certainly get better information from the many news media outlets.
I will leave it at that..... I am going to take the flag to half mast until we lay these three officers to rest.
I have a lot more to say.......but..... I will probably be in front of the tube until this matter is resolved.

[motto]

No response Guyvapeur. Not because nobody cares but because 'what can be said in the face of these senseless killings that seem to have become part of our lives?' It's not only law enforcement officers that are the victims. The pre-disposition of people to perform violence on each other appears to be increasing generally. Last night a 19 year old man was fatally shot in a Sydney street. This sort of thing didn't used to happen.
It is a complex issue of which access to firearms is only a part. After WW1 & 2 hundreds of thousands of men trained in the use of firearms returned to civilian life with easy access to guns but shootings were a rarity. In Australia these shooting rampages started happening around the time that the generation that fought WW2 was handing over the reins to the following generation.
The great Australian poet Henry Lawson uses a line in one of his poems that refers to 'rotting in a deadly peace'. I suspect that he perceived something of the big picture. We've had it too good for too long. It seems that violence, lamentably, is part of the human condition in one form or another and always will be.

David

Shots fired into the front of a house in Sydney overnight. This never used to happen either. Now it's not uncommon at all in Sydney and Melbourne and firearms legislation is vastly more restrictive than it was when I was a youth.