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Comment Re:I should probably upgrade my netbook (Score 1) 455

I have a dual-screen setup with my main monitor on the right, so the left-handed, fixed menu really is a pain: either I make it collapse, and then have to target a very slim pixel-wide bar to un-collapse it, or I have to leave it there and waste screen space. They could at least allow us to switch left and right, and if make it as flexible as (gasp !) Windows, that lets us put the start bar on any border.

You can switch monitor is considered the primary with xrandr or nvidia settings and maybe others and the dash will follow that hint and move over to the left monitor. Just googled this today.

Comment Re:Tax planning and rich people (Score 1) 2115

You can't get rid of social security without getting rid of the social security tax. Or put another way, it's unfair to compare social security expenditures with defense expenditures for absolute dollars in the budget. In fact, I'm taking great offense at your words "wasted by Social Security" as that system, however flawed is paying out money to people who already paid into the system. Really, I just want to tell you, Perry, Bachman, and all the other short-sighted tea party idiots to quit fucking up the GOP for sane people.

Comment Re:Easy answer (Score 1) 2288

I know a fair amount of people who went to, or go to, "certificate mills", schools for basic nursing, vetrinary sciences, various medical "tech" positions. They generally spent a large amount of time complaining about learning metric. This always confuses me, if anything, metric is about as simple as something can get once you get a frame of reference down (1ml is about such and such). Some of my less academic friends still rant about how much the metric system sucks based on some basic training in at non-university training programs. Welcome to human psychology, where metric (the new thing) is strange, counterintuitive, and invasive because it isn't what we're trained from youth to understand. This is probably the largest bar to adoption.

Thank you for adding evidence to my argument.

Comment Re:Easy answer (Score 1) 2288

Stubbornness and American Exceptionalism are the reasons we don't switch. It's the same reason our politics are so screwed up.

I'm sad I already posted something, or I would have modded you as a troll.

Exceptionalism is moronic, I agree, but it has very little to do with why we don't switch to metric. We don't switch because there isn't a real reason to. By real, I mean that effects anyone's life. Scientists have been coping rather well, and that doesn't effect the general public. We're raised using imperial, so they seem commonsensical, metric won't improve anyone's life here. It would be a big hassle just to make some small subset of people happy. Changing would cost a rather large sum of money, and wouldn't really get much benefit. Sure, we'd be more "international", but who cares?

You are in denial. My bikes have metrics parts. One of my cars had (mostly) imperial parts, one of my cars has metric parts. Some medicines are dispensed in metric, some in imperial. Driving and other distances is imperial, but racers and other athletes are frequently dealing with metric. I am no scientist, but I frequently see articles with both imperial and metric measurements in them (how awkward is that writers have to put both in to appeal internationally, both ways?). Some beverages are in metric, some in imperial. Almost every country in the world uses (predominantly) metric, so there is a cost when Americans travel. And, as you should know, there is a cost to the difficulty of the imperial system. You as a fan realize this, but don't put any weight on the cost? How can you question if it "effects(sic) anyone's life" or ask "who cares"?

There is a cost to changing, but there is a cost to not changing that we seem to be paying in perpetuity.

Comment Re:Easy answer (Score 1) 2288

When I have to have two sets of socket wrenches to work on the stuff I own, things are broken. There is a huge cost in material and time to supporting the two systems together. And that's what we have, because we have some non-stubborn sectors that have changed (science, e.g.), and we buy much of our gadgets and toys from countries that have switched.

Stubbornness and American Exceptionalism are the reasons we don't switch. It's the same reason our politics are so screwed up.

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