[Goooooblin]

All your furlongs and Gils are belonging to us.

[Grewlybreekly]

Stones are only used in the UK, and I always have to pause to convert.

[laperuzdfhami]

If you see two glasses, what is the total?

Not quite enough.

[STYWOMBORGOSY]

YYYY-MM-DD is 2007-05-10.

It's what computer geeks and scientists like. Some friends of mine spent ages wondering why I always put 8 random numbers in file names, they hadn't realised it was the date...

[xqkAY7Lg]

I don't like Celcius, it is too damned cold.

I don't like it when supposed professional (eg weathermen) refer to 20 degrees centigrade!!!! WTF! Both Celsius and Fahrenheit are centigrade scales by virtue being based on two fixed temperatures and dividing the gap by 100!

I would be so happy if everyone could just start using YYYY-MM-DD so that the confusion could stop...

Don't be ridiculas. DD-MM-YY is the only way to go!

But seriously.... where on earth does YYYY-MM-DD get used! That's stranger than MM-DD-YY!

[triarmarm]

It's the metric standard for expressing numerical date.

[turbutbamethyg]

Well you learn something silly every day

[UvgpXK0J]

IMO, DDMMYY makes sense, YYYYMMDD makes slightly more sense, MMDDYY is just strange, I don't see the logic.

[Gadarett]

I remembered when US try to change to Metrics. It created big confusion especially within construction industry. The design plan show Metric and the contractor had to convert back to English so their labor could understand. I myself invested good money for Metric scales that is collecting the dirt in my draw now.

[Kolovorotkes]

I don't like Celcius, it is too damned cold.

Kelvin is so much simpler

[AK47rulz]

IMO, DDMMYY makes sense, YYYYMMDD makes slightly more sense, MMDDYY is just strange, I don't see the logic.

That's the problem, everybody has an opinion, everyone thinks that they are doing it the "right" way but unless you know which way they used, it's hard to tell what the hell the date is. It's especially problematic since the turn of the century. What's 040506, is that April 5 2006, May 6 2004, etc etc?

[sposicke]

DDMMYY = "15th of May, 2007" = Brits
MMDDYY = "May 15th, 2007" = Americans
YYMMDD = "er.... 2007, May 15th" = Apparently the French!

Edit: This is, of course, in stereotypeland!

[dosyrotsbop]

But seriously.... where on earth does YYYY-MM-DD get used! That's stranger than MM-DD-YY!

I present to you ISO 8601: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

The big advantage is that it is easy to sort and I think it is quite logical to start with the "biggest" and move downwards.

Also I should point out that I suggest the world ditch AM/PM and moves over to 24-hour time format. You only get advantages

[Equackasous]

I don't like it when supposed professional (eg weathermen) refer to 20 degrees centigrade!!!! WTF! Both Celsius and Fahrenheit are centigrade scales by virtue being based on two fixed temperatures and dividing the gap by 100!

Not really, as only one of them has 0 as the freezing point, and 100 as the boiling point of water. Hence centigrade. Don't make quite as much sense to call it centigrade when you're going from 32 to 220, now does it?

[egershna]

Metric is definately good for doing calculations. It's a lot easier to remember things in denominations of 10 instead of 5280 ft per mile or 4 quarts per gallon. When doing homework in imperial, things can get a bit messy.

One thing that I do prefer in imperial is temperatures. The much wider range seems to give a better representation of temperature than celcius does. But then, since I am American, I am biased on that.

There is one imperial measurement that pisses engineers (or at least the ones I talk to) off the most, and that is the slug. Nobody knows why they made it or exactly what it is in terms of measurements due to the arbitrary conversion of 32 lbs = 1 slug. I blame Arthur Mason Worthington (according to wikipedia) for making this stupid measurement in 1902.

Oh yeah, and don't get me started on the distinction between pound-mass and pound-force...

[beckercpa]

Kelvin is so much simpler

and warmer, too.

As for construction. The hardest part, I guess, would be cutting all of those 4x8 foot sheets of plywood into metricx units.

They are starting to label plywood in metric thicknesses which is even more confusing because they are not really correct.

For rough work, a steenth (a sixteenth) is a pretty good value. "Give four foot seven and three quarters plus a steenth."
"Proud"
"Nope, dead on"

[KojlinMakolvin]

Also I should point out that I suggest the world ditch AM/PM and moves over to 24-hour time format. You only get advantages

Apart from the 2 seconds delay I still get occasionally as I subtract 12 in my head!

Besides, 24 hours in a day is so arbitrary that does it make a difference. It not like you are changing to a 10 or 100 hour day!

[dr-eavealer]

I don't have the smallest idea about what is the weight of a stone.

It's a reasonably sized rock to lob at your enemy.

[budumol]

Don't make quite as much sense to call it centigrade when you're going from 32 to 220, now does it?

It's 212 not 220.

[mashabox]

The original 100 point scale was from as cold as it possibly could get at 0 F (OK, we're talking Europe here, bunchapussies), and body temperature at 100 F (rough estimate - whattayawant).