Just need to vent...

Then you have your minutes and seconds of degrees. You do get used to it though when measuring.

 

All of us wackies that do geocaching need those measurements
as well

.

 

Yep ! since here in Canada , we adopted ....or forced to adopt the metric system ...Strange units made it quite complicated . Instead of going all in at the beginning ......some units of the imperial units are still being used today in some conditiions.
I think the worst one is the one on the price of meat . Here is what i want to show . ...usually the price of beef is usually in dollars per kilos ....IF it is on a special sale ..the price is expressed in dollars per POUND . Numbers are quite different ..what a joke.

 

Yep another strange unit ,imperial gallon versus a US gallon

 

How about Mpg e ......another strange metric for us canadians ....where litre per 100 km is the official metric
and is converted in Le/100km ...brain gymnastic.....converting the equivalent in Khw/h of energy of a litre of gas...one litre of gas is the equivalent of 8.9KWh of energy......my brain is tired

 

'Shrinkflation' has given us numerous products in non-round quantities too, though not nearly to the extent that you find north of the border.

 

I'm still PO'd about shrinflation of a ½gallon of ice cream.
& that was decades ago

 

The old 5-quart buckets of my youth are probably today's pints.

 

"The designers of the metric system were starry-eyed idealists"

Oh my dear sir. Metrology is about mass, length, time and temperature. First three are married (if a triad can be called so) in a pendulum, a profoundly tangible device long known. It was brilliant (and curmudgeonly) Newton, I believe, who sanctified that marriage with Calculus. Definition of each unit had histories of their own.

Mesopotamians 5 thousand years ago thought in terms of base 60. Days are of consistent length; divide them thus and so and get seconds. Defining measurements of length could be, well, anything. Three grains of barley could be an inch. A man's forearm length cubit could be a foot. One ten-millionth part of distance from earth's equator to pole could be a meter. Metric system set aside barley and human anatomy in this. Mass remains after defining time and length, and a cubic meter of (very earthly) water weighs 1000 kilograms.

So I say it was not at all starry-eyed. Earthly in every way. Classical physics, statics and dynamics; Galileo and others developed relationships among these. Equations don't care what units one uses, but metric units are clean and consistent.

Last we come to temperature. And water and the element mercury. Water freezes and boils at different temperatures, and as mercury trapped in tubes expands with temperature, it can inform. Celsius set that range to 0 to 100. Fahrenheit went elsewhere.

For reality (of physics) on earth, ANY units could be used, but the simplest and most self-consistent are IUPAC MKS units.

++
US, Myanmar and Liberia hold back from metric adoption. Readers should judge where which "idealists" might be backing the wrong horse.

 

Took delivery of the wife's new 2024 Corolla Hybrid SE AWD yesterday. Beautiful little hybrid. I kept asking my salesman for the OTD price so we could get a cashier's check....never could. Apparently, the finance folks have a SLEW of additional things they try to upsell you before closing the deal! Very annoying and, even though we told the finance guy we didn't want anything, he's required to run through all of them....from insurance to replace the windshield if rocks crack to stain insurance to extended warranty, etc. (I think there was about 6 option.) If we were to accept them all, would've driven the price from $32K to $40K, for a Corolla! (We paid $14K for our last one in 2008....which is still going strong.)
Anyway, very nice car and trunk opens with the remote and it's a much lighter thing than the huge window in the Prius...and I believe that cargo space is larger, too. That's good since the AWD don't have a spare tire so I have an extra tire to use as a spare for that area. (I found out spare tires cost twice as much as just buying a rim and tire.... ridiculous...over $400 versus $200.)
I know the Hybrid has regen braking but noticed no electric whirring sound when I opened up the driver's door after parking. I figured it was alread charged up. So, this morning, with the car cold, I opened the driver's door and, nope, no regen braking whirring sound at all....hmmmm.... will have to research this more.
Same engine and hybrid system as my 2021 Prius...did notice no engine cover but they do have insulation on the bottom of the hood...which is much heavier than in the Prius.
I am getting the windows tinted and clear bra stuff put on the hood and front and mirrors for her...her 2017 didn't have that and now has many little rock chips on the front paint and mirrors from our sanded roads in the winter.

 

lol....I would guess the owner or finance manager...trying to make some easy profits for the business.

So WOW a LOT of BZ's all the over the place and they had 0% Financing written all over them....they just aren't selling. Besides those, only other new vehicles on the lot were primarily Tacoma's and Tundra's.....VERY expensive vehicles. Sad abou the BZ's, when you compare it to other EV's by other makers, has a very low range and costs more than other EV's with almost twice the range...not good selling points. I was surprised at the cheap,plastic charging door....not secured at all so anyone could have easy access to it....I wouldn't want that in a city.

 

My brother in law worked at a car dealership and as he explained it, forcing everyone go through the finance manager in order to "finish the paperwork" maximizes the profits on a new car. It is not "required by the management" per-se. The industry has found it to be an effective way to make more money with minimal overhead and, in many cases, without having to stock anything that is a physical object. This has resulted in it becoming a common practice around here.

 

I don't understand why the "regen" braking should make any sound at all when you open the door, or when the car isn't moving. There is no regen to be had at those times.

Are you confusing this with the familiar whirring noise of the accumulator for the regular hydraulic brake power assist getting pressurized in the Prius?

 

I, probably am! No noises when the driver's door is open in the Corolla Hybrid.

 

Absent any signs of problems, I'd consider it an improvement or refinement.

Several things about my '24 RAV4 are better, quieter, or more seamless than on my '10 and '12 Prii. Though the brake booster pressure pump is not one of them, it sounds unchanged. Very low speed braking didn't improve either, actually getting bumpier.

 

Dockworkers from Maine to Texas go on strike in move that could spark economic doom (msn.com)
"ILA members make a base salary of about $81,000 per year, but some can pull in over $200,000 annually with large amounts of overtime.
But Monday evening, the alliance said it had increased its offer to 50% raises over six years, and it pledged to keep limits on automation in place from the old contract.
The union wants a complete ban on automation"

Union Boss Willing To ‘Cripple’ America Made More Than $900,000 Last Year | The Daily Caller
"International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) President Harold Daggett, who has suggested his organization can “cripple” the U.S. economy with its ongoing strike, was paid nearly $1 million by the union last year, according to Politico.
Daggett has made headlines before, having been described by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a mafia “associate” who ascended the union’s internal hierarchy with the help of organized crime"

sigh