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On Sunday 02 September 2007 01:32, Ben Goodger wrote: > On 31/08/07, Brad Rogers <brad@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:58:16 +0100 > > Julian Hall <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > Hello Julian, > > > > > True I just prefer Imperial :) > > > > Same here. I still call it all real, rather than old, money. > > > > How many people under 30 can tell us what LSD (as in currency, NOT > > recreational drug) is short for, I wonder? > > Libra, (sisterna?)/shillings, denarii if I guess correctly. I know it's the > useless £sd system which was got rid of 1971, though. I'm glad to have a > sensible currency system nowadays. > I'm nearly 17. Why was it useless? Yes, decimal is easier, but think of those like me who were taught the old system and then, part way through our schooling, we had to learn the "new" system - which of course was not actually introduced for several years after we started learning it. We were given plastic versions of the proposed coins and told that we had to learn the decimal system, but in our lives outside school, we used the imperial system! Even back then we were being told that the decimal system - not just money, but measurements of distance and liquids, weights and so on - would be introduced and that was what we needed to learn. So, many years later, we do use decimal coins, but all road signs are still im miles, traffic speed restrictions are in miles per hour, we buy pints of beer (and milk - even if they do have to put 56something ml on the packages to claim they are not falling foul of EU regulations). Nobody I know works out their fuel consumption in l/km - they all use mpg. I could rant for hours about this. I don't care less which system we use, but we should use one or the other fully, not the mish-mash we have at the moment! Final moan for tonight - why the hell have schools stopped teaching times tables up to 12? They stop at 10 now - presumably decimalisation, but that seems to be a relatively new introduction. I am nearly 47. Mark -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html