'Round About Midwest

Free thoughts, without any order or direction. A Shangai of thoughts.

[jackytallac]

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Charlie “Bird” Parker

[jackytallac]

An adventure through the Imperial System - Part 1

I have to say this. I was thinking that I’ve tried to embrace the local culture at best I could. But there is something that is still creating me some issues (along with the pronunciation of “th”): the imperial system of measurement. In the first picture you can see a common bottle of distilled water.

The liquid capacity of this bottle is 1 liter. The internal volume of this bottle is 1 dm3. The net weight of the water contained in this bottle is 1Kg. This water become solid (ice) at 0 Celsius degrees and boils at 100 Celsius degrees at the pressure of 1 atmosphere. 1 liter 1 dm3 1 Kg liquid between 0-100 Celsius degrees at 1atm

Now I try to use the imperial system with 1 gallon jug of distilled water.

The liquid capacity of this jug is 1 gallon. So far so good. The internal volume of this jug is 0.133681 cubic feet. The net weight of the water contained in this jug is 8.34 lbs. This water become solid at 32 Fahrenheit degrees and boils at 220 Fahrenheit degrees at the pressure of 14.6959 Pond-force per square inch. 1 US gal 0.133681 cubic feet 8.34 lbs liquid between 32-220 at 14.6959 psi.

Now. I don’t want to say which is the best but If you have to explain the two different systems to a complete ignorant about this matter, which one is the more comprehensible?

[jackytallac]

Breaking...good or: the only positive side of the American Healthcare is the plot of Breaking Bad.

I love Breaking Bad, it's one of the best shows ever! But let's try a game: let's suppose that Walter White was not a teacher from Albuquerque but from, for example, Odense, Denmark.

This would be the plot.

"Walter White is a Chemistry teacher in a high school of Odense, Denmark. A good person, very smart, kinda shy, with a beautiful family he loves. Unfortunately one day he discovered to have a lung cancer. He went to the hospital, doing chemio and analysis surrounded by the love of his family, until the complete remission of the disease."

Yes, I like happy endings. Pretty boring plot, right? No risk of getting broke, no extreme solutions aimed to make a lot of money in a short period of time, no criminal ideas, no Breaking Bad! Only love, cures and hope. That's the scenario when you have a Universal Health Care in your Country. In case of a big tragedy like a possibly killer disease, you have only to take care of yourself, without any economic worries for you and your loved ones. Isn't that wonderful?

Isn't that FREEDOM?

When at the hospital they thank me for my business, they give me the chills! Healthcare don't have to be a business, healthcare must be a HUMAN RIGHT!

[jackytallac]

An adventure through the Imperial System - Part 2

I published the first part on Facebook, a couple of months ago.

Today we are dealing with the need to buy some baseboard for a room. The cousin of the wife of the stepson of the brother in law of the best man of my uncle is a wholesales and he can sell us the material we need for a really good price, but we have to cut it by ourself. The price is calculated in $/yard. We look at the drawing of the room and write down the various partial lengths.

Then we have:

6'3"¾, 2'11"3/16, 11'2"7/8, 4'7"9/16

6*12+3+¾+2*12+11+3/16+11*12+2+7/8+4*12+7+9/16=

75"+¾+35"+3/16+134"+7/8+55"+9/16=

299"+(12+3+14+9)/16=

299"+38/16=

299"+2"+6/16=

301"3/8=

25'1"3/8

“What are you doing?”

“The sum for the baseboard!”

“But we need the measure in yards! Why are you doing all this mess?”

“Well, ok, don’t overreact. I’ll tell you in a moment.”

25'1"3/8=

25*12+1+3/8=

300+1+0.375=

301.375"/12=25.115’

25.115/3=8.37yrd

“OK, we can go out for lunch, and then to the cousin of the wife of the stepson of the brother in law of the best man of my uncle to buy the baseboard.”

“Sounds like a plan! Can we go to the new Italian place? I love their spaghetti with meatballs!”

“Me too!! And the Alfredo sauce is yummy! BTW, you know what I’ve heard? A guy told me that in Italy nobody eat meatballs with pasta. Do you believe that?”

“No way! That’s a joke, for sure!”

“I think so”

(40 minutes later….)

“Ok, let’s go! Do you remember the length we need?”

“Not me! I believed you have it. You mean…”

“Yes, we have to go back to take it”

(10 minutes later)

“Where’s the drawing?”

“I don’t have any idea, it was here…wait a moment, those paper pieces near the kennel…”

“the dog ate the drawing!”

“I told you to wash your hands after eating those honeybuns, that drawing smelled like a candy store!’

"OK, OK, sorry. What are we gonna do now?”

“We have to measure it…do you have a tape?”

“I have only this metric one, it’s a gift from Europe”

“Gosh, better than nothing. Write down the numbers. We’ll figure the math out later with the wholesaler”

“1m and 924mm, 894mm, 3m and 426mm, 1m and 411mm”

(15 minutes later)

“hey man! How are you doing today? We need some baseboard”

“Hi guys! OK! How much do you need of it?”

“Well, we have the metric partial measures in meters and millimeters.”

“Ok, no problem, can I see them?”

“let’s see.. 1.924m+0.894m+3.426m+1.411m=7.655m…converted in yards we have 7.655m*1.0936=

8.37yrd”

“What? Already done?”

“oh yes, for example 1m and 924mm equals to 1.924m, the math is very easy, because is completely positional!”

“that’s great!”

Now, think about it: what’s easier to learn for a kid of the primary school?