We may never know

Wait a minute… Does the name of the currency come from payments that were not counted but weighed? Gotta check.

ETA: Oh my gosh yes, one pound sterling (currency) was originally one pound (weight) of sterling silver. I’m probably the last person to discover this, but still that’s pretty cool.

you’re one of today’s lucky 10,000

I’m also among those 10,000! Good day to be alive.

We’re 3 of the lucky 30,000

I can feel all the math people dying inside from not reducing that

Such a wholesome XKCD

What does ETA stand for in this context?

Edited To Add. The constant barrage of TLAs is exhausting.

What does TLA stand for in this context?

I am one of the 10,000 today.

Never seen it used like that before. Usually just use Edit:

If anyone is the last, it’s me. Thank you.

You are at worst second to last. You also thought about the possibility first, unlike me.

Neither are you. There’s always Ten Thousand on any topic.

And then you ask their weight, and they start talking about rocks.

Then you ask about rocks and

JESUS CHRIST MARIE, THEY’RE MINERALS!

Maybe I’m just being dense rn, but… huh?

Breaking Bad reference

Please add Breaking Bad to your watchlist. And then after that, check out Better Call Saul. But promise me you’ll stick it out through the first season of Saul and continue on to the second. I promise you it’s worth it. Breaking Bad is one of the greatest shows of all time, and Saul is even better if you have the patience to let the story slowly build itself up.

Apparently the UK still uses stone as a step above pounds. Then again, the UK is a hot mess when it comes to units…

Yep, I’m about 13 stone 1. Which I know is about 83kg. But I have no idea how many pounds in a stone. I do know that there’s about 2 and a quarter lb to a kg. Therefore I must be about 186lb.

One stone is 6,35kg or 14 liberties (that’s what the lb means, right?)

I know they use mph. Do they use km for distance or miles? I think they use meters for shorter distances so I’ve no clue.

Road distances are in miles, speed in mph, heights in feet & inches, anything else is a hot mess generally trending towards metric the younger you are (or if you’re in STEM)

ETA: there was a dumb plan a couple years ago to “reintroduce” imperial measurements after Brexit, mainly aimed at food shops, ignoring the fact that the EU never prevented anyone using them, and then the govt quietly dropped it in December lawl

The part I love is when you talk about the odometer in a car. They use kilometers to measure the milage. I guess kilometage just wouldn’t roll off the tongue.

Driving related measurements are a total clusterfuck. By default all distances are in miles. But distance markers along the motorways are placed at metric distances. But some markers are in yards. But then some are in fucking kilometres. And then you drive on the left, but of course there’s a fucking road in London where you drive on the right. Because fuck you, that’s why!

By the way, the highway code is available online for free, check it out - https://www.gov.uk/browse/driving/highway-code-road-safety

You ask an American how much they weigh, and they tell you in money. Typical American capitalism.

Four score and seven stone = 1218 pounds

EDIT: Whoopsie, forgot to include the 7 before multiplying, it’s actually 1316.

Google says 87 stones = 1218 pounds so I think you got it right the first time?

Do Brits also tell their salary on annual instead of monthly basis? I thought that was just an American thing

Where do they describe it on a monthly basis? I’m in Australia and I’ve never heard anyone describe their salary in anything other than annual. Take home pay we’d go fortnightly though.

Over here in Belgium we do, I thought that’s how it’s done in most countries. It makes more sense to me too, you get your salary monthly (or maybe fortnightly like you) and you talk about your rent, debt payments, … also on a monthly basis.

In the U.S., most salary jobs are spoken about in annual terms. Job listing’s list annual salary, offer letters list annual pay, my employee portal lists annual pay, etc. My pay stubs are biweekly though. Pretty much nothing is ever described in monthly terms, at least not that I’ve ever seen.

In NZ we would talk annual salary, rent per week, and we just don’t talk about mortgage payments because it’s easier not to.

I think we probably do annual salary because there isn’t consistency with how people are paid. Weekly and fortnightly are probably the most common, but monthly is pretty normal too and I’ve seen some being paid twice monthly.

Same in Croatia. Also think it’s in most countries.

It makes sense… until you learn about the 13th/14th month of the year. Having to multiply the monthly salary by 13.x (depending on the collective agreement of course) to get the taxable income makes imperial measurements sound logical.

Give me yearly or give me hourly, but monthly makes no sense under the current system.

At least in Germany, depending on contract, monthly payments vary heavily. For instance the labour agreement for the automotive industry contains a 13th salary at christmas time, vacation pay in summer, a bonus in spring depending on company performance, a potential bonus if you pass on some vacation days and more. Other contracts only have a monthly salary and no bonuses. My contract has only one bonus depending on company performance in April while my wife gets 12.8 monthly salaries (1.8x salary in November as end-of-year bonus). To compare job offers in any way, you can only go with the annual number.

Are you taxed based on your yearly income, or month by month?

Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary no one in these countries talks on annual basis. it’s always monthly or hourly wage if it’s not a salaried position, but most are salaried and paycheck is once a month.

In Serbia as well. Whenever someone mentions an annual salary, I have to divide it by 12 to get some sense out of it, because we only talk about the monthly.