Light of Our Lives
Natural World
The Rhythm of Life
The Greedy Globe
The Hungry World
Cash Crops
Can You Dig It?
Pay Day
On the Move
Staying Touch
It’s a Bad, Bad World
Accidents Will Happen
The Global Garbage Pile
Friend or Foe?
A Day in the Year 2000
Within most of Bailey’s chapters there were sub-chapters, e.g., “Some new you every day”, or “Can’t bottle it all up”. In a printed text these might now be called side-bars, or, if it was on-line, hyper-text. I am going to up-date some of the side-bars attached to that original outline, as well as drift off into new side-bars of my own. I will also try to incorporate web links, at least occasionally, as well as some post some website locations and note some books that may be pertinent.
WEIGHTS and MEASURES
Before he got into the meat of his endeavor, Bailey led off by establishing the quantification method or code that he would be using when presenting all of his statistical information. He devoted two brief pages to “Weights and Measures”. Of course it may have been right there that he lost most of his potential readers here in the USofA.
The United States is one of only three countries in the entire world, Liberia and Burma being the other two, that haven’t adopted the SI, the International System of Units, or the metric system. Americans probably use a greater variety of units of measurement than anyone else in the world. For instance, foot races are calculated in meters, but the length of the long jump is measured in feet and inches. The strength of an engine is talked about in terms of “horsepower”, but its displacement is noted in liters. While the wind speed of a hurricane's is called out in knots, the barometric pressure in the “eye” is measured in millibars.
In our daily activities we are likewise still wedded to the US Customary System, a system that the rest of the world considers a rather funky and inaccurate way of quantifying things. We use two systems for land measurement (one based on the yard and the other on the rod) and a third system for distances at sea. We use two systems (avoirdupois and troy) for small weights and two more (based on the long and short tons) for large weights. We use two systems for volumes (one for dry commodities and one for liquids). Just FYI: the British use a third (British Imperial Measure). At least we’ve given up stones and hogsheads. It would be pleasant to think it’s a romantic attachment to a more ‘natural’ past, but I suspect our reluctance to adapt to the rest of the world is based more on arrogant stubbornness and habit. In the increasing glare of attention devoted to the US financial markets, we may see just how long that kind of intransigence can last.
The international trading and scientific community has come up with ways to bring these diverse systems into some sort of concord. Most of the kinks have been worked out, but the effort and on-going resolution of differences provides a good deal of amusement and occupies the computing savoir faire of numberless accountants and other varieties of bean counters. Needless to say, it also provides them with a consistent and well-paid livelihood. To get some idea of how muddled the entire universe of weights and measures can be, go to the reference pages of almost any dictionary, or go on line and google ‘weights and measures’.
Like the original ADLW, this renewed version will be dealing with a lot of data that involves weights, volumes, and lengths. Even though I still haven’t gotten accustomed to looking at a gallon container of milk and seeing it as some portion of a liter, or looking at chickens and seeing them in kilograms, I will use the metric system in this endeavor. I will, however, provide occasional comparables in our “common” system.
Just FYI and to suggest some of the correlations: I’ll have to work the images in later.
WEIGHT: The kilogram (kg) is a basic unit of weight around the world. A kilogram is equal to 2.2046 pounds (lb). A pound (lb) is equal to .453 (kg).
(Image: Me on the scales)
One ton = 1000 kg (2000 lbs.) 1 gram = 1/1000 kg
(Image: car weights Hummer vs Beetle)
VOLUME: The liter is basic unit of volume around the world.
One liter = 1000 milliliters (which are also called cubic centimeters)
Liters and quarts are very nearly the same but
Image: gallon of gasoline = 3.7850 liters
Image: one liter of water = 1 kilogram of weight
LENGTH:
The meter (m) is the basic unit of length. A kilometer (km) = 1000 m.
A meter = 3.28 feet or 39.37 inches or 1.??? yards
(Image: a mile vs. km)
AREA:
Another important and universal measure is one of area called a hectare.
One hectare = 2.471 acres one acre = 43,560 square feet (0.4047 hectare)
(image: show comparison on sample map)
Websites: www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/ - this site describes itself as a “Dictionary of Units of Measurement”. It is both informative and entertaining.
http://ntl.nectec.or.th/services/converter/
VALUE or CURRENCY: the $ or the € or the ¥
For many, the value of money is the most important measure of anything and everything in the world. It was a subject that Andrew Bailey didn’t really address in the original ADLW. Even though there are 191 official currencies, he merely assumed the dollar was the benchmark of financial measurement throughout the world. But things have changed dramatically since 1983. While weights and measures have remained unchanged, the value of money or currency, has changed dramatically. These days the American dollar ($), which for decades has been the recognized and unchallenged standard of measuring the value of currency, has been coming under pressure from worldwide financial institutions and governments. The principal reason is that the value or perceived value of the dollar when compared to that of other currencies, particularly the euro, is both inconsistent and tending to trend downward.
Image: Picture of euro and dollar
The euro (currency sign: €) is the official currency of the European Union (EU). It is the single currency for 317 million Europeans. Including those areas whose currencies are pegged to the euro, this currency directly affects close to 500 million people worldwide. When the Euro was first introduced in 1999, it traded at virtual parity with the US dollar. At various times from 2000 through much of 2002, the Euro dipped below parity reaching a low point of $0.825 cents in October of 2000. Since the end of 2002, however, the Euro has risen steadily in value versus the dollar. As I am writing this, one euro is worth $1.57. With more than €610 billion in circulation as of December 2007 (equivalent to at least US $952 billion at the exchange rates at the time), the euro is the currency with the highest combined value of cash in circulation in the world. One indication of the change in fortunes, as it were, for the dollar is this: Some international figures, among them CEOs, pop stars and models will no longer accept payments for their work in dollars. They are demanding euros instead. On the news today, March 15, 2008, and on some oil-related websites, there is increasing talk about pegging the cost of oil to the euro instead of the dollar. And don't forget the yuan.
I have neither the expertise nor the interest in following the twisted trail of how money works, but if you do, try this site: www.harley.com/money/index.html.
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