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From: BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: [OT] Is English just badly pronounced French?
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On Mar 31, 2024 at 1:40:59 PM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

> BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>> suzeeq <suzee@imbris.com> wrote:
>>>> On 3/31/2024 10:56 AM, Rhino wrote:
>>>>> Sun, 31 Mar 2024 06:35:33 -0700 suzeeq <suzee@imbris.com>:
> 
>>>>>>> . . . 
> 
>>>>>> While GB officially went metric, many people still use the Imperial
>>>>>> measurements, at least for linear measures, not so much for weight.
> 
>>>>> The Brits weigh themselves in "stones" not pounds or kilograms. (I
>>>>> believe a stone is 14 pounds.) These stones are definitely not metric
>>>>> but I'm not sure they can truly be called Imperial either since they
>>>>> aren't used anywhere outside the UK, as far as I know.
> 
>>>> Yeah, I don't know where stone comes from. I was thinking smaller, like 
>>>> pounds and ounces.
> 
>>> These were literal stones of a uniform weight used in trade, and
>>> depending on the trade good, varied from 6 pounds to 21 pounds. They
>>> would have been used on a balance scale.
> 
>> Is there somewhere in the British government where the official 
>> reference stones are kept? The ones on which all official measurements 
>> are based?
> 
> Not till 1878 when they came up with a stable object made of platinum. I
> think it had to be kept in a vacuum but I haven't read about it in a
> long time.
> 
> Centuries ealier, they wouldn't have had the technical precision to have
> a reference weight.
> 
>> Kind of like the Zero Milestone which stands on the Ellipse, just 
>> outside the south fenceline of the White House. It's the point from 
>> which all official road distances in the United States are measured.
> 
> Interesting.

https://ibb.co/mqbv1KG

https://ibb.co/nsYbWQM

> For navigation, the Washington Naval Observatory was proposed as the
> origin of the longitude, but it's Greenwich because the British had far
> more navigation maps, and nobody wanted it to be Paris except the French.