Random
Source Code

Imperial system

An awfully effective, real-world-based system of weights and measures still used in some countries such as the US and partly in the UK - despite the almost dictatorial pronuniciamentoes of the EU 'Yurp'} that everything must be measured in some - mis-measured - micro-fraction of the Earth's semi-demi-circumference.
Revolves around measuring weight, length, distance and energy etc. in units that actually do make sense - inch - called 'un pouce' in French is the length of the first digit of your thumb; span is the span of a man's hand fingers outstretched; a foot - 'un pied' in French - is - well . . . - the length of a foot; a yard is a pace or step; acre is the area a horse will plough in a day 220yards by 22 yards; a chain - 22 yards - is the length of a cricket pitch. And so on.
Unlike the metric system which may have been taken on board by most countries and is used in - almost - all science - the brightness of nebulae is - please note - measured in crabs and millicrabs; but you knew that.

Seriously, metric works for scienfitc calculations. But - when did you last have to work out the weight of an inch of rain falling on an acre (versus a centimetre of rain on a hectare!).

Goliath was six cubits and a span; those Imperial units equate - in other Imperial units - to an improbabble nine foot eight tall.
Now, the metric equivalent is 2,95m (equally improbable, but not blindingly obvious to a lay man).
"The Imperial system relates to human beings, and the things they are familiar with," said Nichola to her pal Nic; "It can be used for recondite scientific calculations, but metric may well be better for those."

by Railtracksurvivor March 17, 2009

130πŸ‘ 217πŸ‘Ž


Tasiac

TASIAC or Tasiac or even tasiac is an acronym:

Tax

And

Spend

Is

A

Catastrophe.
This is exemplified by the (UK) Brown Administration (1997-2010), which, despite having a plausible blair, or Spieler in fairground terminology, to grease the ways, tested to destruction the 'Tax and Spend' notion of socialist economics.
The main architect - given that the blair couldn't calculate the change when buying a newspaper, was the monocular caledonian onanist, Brown.

"Blair allegedly held the levers of power - but was too supine to prevent Gordon Brown exemplifying the Tasiac Law," said Ottaway, a well-regarded gardener.

Without using the term Tasiac, the 'Daily Telegraph' inveighs frequently against the horrendously incontinent spending of the Nu-Labour administration, in a daily bulletin on the iniquities of the Man who ditched Prudence - and bankrupted an Empire's heirs for generations.

by Railtracksurvivor August 21, 2009

55πŸ‘ 6πŸ‘Ž


World

A language, derived from English (or English-English, American-English etc. etc. ad nauseam).
This is the de facto language of international commerce, finance, shipping, aviation, the web, etc.
It has many dialects.
Chinglish, Singlish, Franglais and Spanglish spring to mind.
Acccents include Canadian - which might be boring, Strine, Kiwi, Estuary, Scouse, Cockney and Hindglish.
There is one recognised speech impediment
- this is known as geordie

If you understand this, you understand World.

by Railtracksurvivor February 21, 2009

124πŸ‘ 34πŸ‘Ž


Bojo

A Bojo is a bicycle, specifially a public-access bicycle, sponsored by Barclays Bank in London. It is mainly blue, and has inadequate panniers. In December 2010, Bojos became available for casual use.
They take their name from BOris JOhnson, Mayor of London when they were introduced, and an advocate of cycling generally.
NB The Mayor of London is emphatically not the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

There's a bojo rack round the back of the Bank of England.
You didn't see many bojos in summer - but now they're everywhere!

by Railtracksurvivor December 3, 2010

59πŸ‘ 49πŸ‘Ž


wase

Something between a word and a phrase. In the increasingly action-driven (rather than dictionary-led) lexicon that is modern English (aka World), there is a category of items that are neither a (single) word, nor a (full) phrase.

"I'll go to the bank - but taking my cheques, this time," said David. "That's joined-up thinking."
"'Joined-up-thinking' - that's a wase that Blair doesn't use these days, now he's envoying in the Middle East!" quipped his colleague

by Railtracksurvivor November 20, 2007

32πŸ‘ 3πŸ‘Ž


pretaliation

Getting your revenge in first.
Do unto him before he can do unto you, if you like.
A guy looks at you nastily across a rugby scrum; next maul, you tear his ear off, before he does the same, or worse, to you. You have completed pretaliation. Anything he does after that is retaliation, which referees always come down on harder than on the original malefactor.

"Did you see Tonto get his pretaliation in on that mean-looking winger?"
"Yeah, he'll be counting his ribs for a month! What a kick! Bet Tonto keeps out of his way for the rest of the game, though!"

by Railtracksurvivor October 17, 2007

77πŸ‘ 7πŸ‘Ž


premember

To foretell - accurately.
A regular verb.
Just as remember is in the past - after an event looking back, so premember is something you do before an event, looking ahead.

Just as the French have a phrase 'deja vu' we English use premember; so - "Shall we premember the score of tonight's big match?"
or
"There he sits, premembering his order at the chip shop."
"Yeah, and I'll have a large cod with vinegar, no salt; d'you reckon he'll premember that?"

by Railtracksurvivor October 4, 2008

57πŸ‘ 6πŸ‘Ž