Mailwatch(ed) Forum

It's worth noting that the old measure names were an international thing.
But they varied between countries and cities.

Napoleon was short when his height was measured in French feet (12 3/4 English inches).
He also got screwed over by differences in the Viennese, Berlin and Paris pound when the cannonball crisis of 1813-14 struck.

The differences in measures could be a serious block to international trace, and incorporated an element of smug protectionism.
"Bloody Kaiserlicks coming over here trying to sell their short cloth measures".

Standard measures, and the simplicity of decimal multiples explain the popularity of the SI / Decimal measures.

Indeed. In their beloved Australia, you get this mess:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Australia#Sizes

The hard truth about standardisation is that it works.

It works, it's transparent, it's easy to comprehend, it's quick and it's neat.

In other words, all virtues unless your sense of self is so utterly reliant on symbolism that you lose your head at it...

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:51 am To be fair, the tower looks like utter shit and I can't see what historical value it holds...

To be fair, that is just your opinion. The same could be said for Wimpole Hall, Salt's Mill, the Newport transporter bridge, Ansell's Snuff Mill, or just about any of the structures that have been granted listed status.

...it's the willingness to interfere that's worrying.

This^^^ And on her first day in the job. Is the fact it's an ugly (but, somehow, quite appealing) 1950s concrete structure relevant? Have we got one of those morons* who beleives Heritage is the pretty stuff, the country houses, quaint old village pubs and water mills - the chocolate box stuff thrown at prospective Yank tourists to lure them over, and ugly, even brutalistic, industrial architectur is beyond the Pale and should be swept away? I have my fears about this, but we'll have to wait and see.




*We know she's a moron, it's what kind of moron that worries me.

Cyclist wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:31 am To be fair, that is just your opinion.

Fair point. It does seem to be about to fall down of its own accord, however.

Re: the proposed return of the bushel, peck, rods, poles and curtains*, this is being discussed on James O'Brien's LBC show now - it'd be on Globalplayer later if you're unable to listen now.


* NB for the benefit of anyone under 60 - "a curtain" was never a unit of measurement, just my silly joke.

Which definition of Imperial measures will we be using? I picked one at random

chaldron
Sometimes called a chalder. When used for coal the chaldron was in some times and places a unit of mass and in others a unit of capacity.

1
In England, 15ᵗʰ – 19ᵗʰ century, a unit of dry capacity used for grain, = 4 quarters = 32 bushels...


...The distinction between the London and Newcastle chaldron appears at least as early as 1580. Hayes (1740, page 206) states that “8 Chaldron at Newcastle makes at London about 15 Chaldrons.”

Coal was taxed by the chaldron, not by weight, so it was to the seller's advantage to make the chaldron as large as possible.

The Newcastle chaldron
The Newcastle chaldron, used only for coal. Before 1695 its weight was taken to be 42 hundredweight (about 2134 kg). In 1695 it was standardized at = 72 heaped bushels¹. One chaldron was enough to fill three wains (wagons), in which case it was reckoned as 52½ hundredweights (5880 pounds, about 2667 kilograms).

1. 6 & 7 William III chapter 10 1695.

Simmonds (1892), page 81.

The London chaldron
By a law of 1665, 1 chaldron = 36 bushels, weighing 25 1/3 hundredweights, about 2837 pounds avoirdupois (about 1287 kilograms).

All sorts of coale commonly called sea-coals brought into the River Thames and sold, shall be sold by the chaldron containing thirty-six bushels heaped up according to the bushel sealed for that purpose in the Guildhall.

16 & 17 Charles II chapter 2, 1664-1665....


...On shipboard 1 score of chaldrons was not 20, but 21 chaldrons.

At Newcastle, if the coal was loaded on shipboard the chaldron was reckoned at 53 hundredweights (5936 pounds, about 2692.5 kilograms).

The Weights and Measures Act of 1835² required all coal to be sold by weight, not by measure, an injunction repeated in the Weights and Measures Act of 1878³, which nonetheless again defined the chaldron at 36 bushels.


https://www.sizes.com/units/chaldron.htm

There is so much fun to be had with this stuff.

Just as an aside, in Normandy firewood is sold by the stere - an indeterminate measurement open to much discussion. In practical terms it's one tractor bucketload...

RedSparrows wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:26 am It works, it's transparent, it's easy to comprehend, it's quick and it's neat.

In other words, all virtues unless your sense of self is so utterly reliant on symbolism that you lose your head at it...

Or if you're a spiv, a coin-shaver or the like.

Won't somebody think of the ready-reckoner sellers?

Nadine Dorries and the media: Licence fee sceptic who threatened to nail reporter's testicles to the floor


https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/culture- ... the-media/

This is scary

BBC Director of News: Runners and riders for ‘impossible job’ must pass Nadine Dorries ‘bias’ test
ANALYSISCould Robert Peston be a surprise candidate for politically sensitive job running BBC News and Current Affairs

By Adam Sherwin
Arts and Media Correspondent

September 19, 2021 11:00 am(Updated September 20, 2021 7:45 am)

The arrival of Nadine Dorries as Culture Secretary has heightened sensitivities within the BBC over the appointment of its next head of News, one of the most influential roles in British broadcasting.

The Director of News and Current Affairs post is up for grabs after Fran Unsworth announced her resignation from the £340,000 a-year role, amid reports that she was only too happy to leave the “no-win” job.

It will be the first major BBC hire since Dorries, who has said that the licence fee model is “more in keeping in a Soviet-style country” and has accused the broadcaster of “left-wing bias”, took over at the DCMS...

https://inews.co.uk/news/media/nadine-d ... 196772/amp

The new Director of News and Current Affairs will have to pass a bias test set by someone who thinks Josef Goebbels might have been a bit wishy-washy?

GB News just went mainstream.

Reality has a left-wing bias, after all...

I made a post (that I have since deleted) on the BBC thread which made note that a Radio 6 Music presenter was recently sacked ,with the strongest rumour to explain it being that it was because he wouldn't stop calling the Tories cunts on Twitter.

How will the towering intellect that is the SofS for culture deal with this?

Chief executives from a group of charities and organisations have written to the new Culture Secretary in protest at what they say are plans by ministers to politicise the role of the head of the Charity Commission.

More than 20 charity leaders have signed an open letter to Nadine Dorries raising concerns that her predecessor, Oliver Dowden, vowed to use the appointment to “rebalance” what he called the “woke” agenda in the sector.

Last month, when he was still Culture Secretary, Mr Dowden wrote an article suggesting the incoming chair of the Charity Commission would be selected according to whether he or she followed the government’s policy to tackle the “woke” agenda in charities and arts organisations.

The Good Law Project has launched a legal challenge in response to Mr Dowden’s plans, saying it is unlawful for the government to interfere with the Charity Commission....

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/chari ... 232415/amp

I suppose we'll have to learn to differentiate between the deserving and undeserving poor.

Apparently there was some heckling today, from Tories pointing out that women's suffrage and racial equality were pretty woke causes in their day.

Much "No, not like that" defensiveness followed.

In their day? Women might have the vote now, but we're still a long way from true racial equality.

The war on Woke is not a laughing matter. "Woke" is facing up to and admitting past injustices. "Woke" is looking at our society, recognising the inequalities, and doing something about it. "Woke" is being decent to our fellow humans.

There are senior members of our government who think this is wrong. They don't just think it - they actually say it is wrong.

Let that sink in. Senior members of our government believe inequality and injustice are not only good, they are desirable.

These are not Conservatives. They are fascists. And Corbyn, that righteous champion of the downtrodden, gifted them an 80 seat majority.

ROOMS TO LET

NO BLACKS
NO IRISH
NO DOGS

Thatcher at her worst was a far better human being than these.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:52 pm Much "No, not like that" defensiveness followed.

This is the Tories all round. They want to target immigrants, but not that lovely Polish guy you know who helps your elderly mum. They want to target the unemployed, but not your dad who can’t do anything after a bad fall damaged his hip. They want to make young people pay for the old, but not your daughter who has had to take 2 jobs to afford to go to University. They want to target scrounging, but not your mate who was made redundant. They want to stop inequality, but not *that*inequality that makes you feel like you’re better than someone else because they’re worse off.

It’s always about someone else and not your problem and not *you* they want to deal with, right up until it is. And then you either remain a Tory voter in denial or you wake up to the fact that you were always “them” and never an “us”.

Brexit cheerleader drops all mention of Brexit from festival of Brexit


Warning: contains photo of lazy stupid racist woman.

The government has dumped Brexit from its ‘Festival of Brexit’.

The £120 million event, promised by Theresa May in 2018, was intended to be a showcase of British achievements in art, culture and technology to coincide with Britain leaving the EU.

But the bash has been rebranded - with the word Brexit nowhere to be found in newly published details.

Instead, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries announced it would be named “Unboxed: Creativity in the UK” - and will bring together “some of the UK’s brightest talents in science, technology, engineering, arts and maths to work on jaw-dropping projects.”...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... n=sharebar

This could be a bit embarrassing for the government - the majority of creative people happen to be left-of-centre, politically speaking.