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Things I want to know about the US (but was afraid to ask!)

 
 
caprice
 
  1  
Reply Fri 2 Apr, 2004 12:26 pm
Setanta wrote:
Canada is even funnier. The putative speed limit is 100 kph (about 62 mph). In my experience, all Canadians speed, it is just a question of degree.


Gee, out west (Western Canada that is) the highway limits are 110 kph.

And yes I think all Canucks (except me!! Mr. Green) speed. It's as if people see the speed limit sign and think that means "oh it's 10 to 20 kph higher"...and I imagine it's even worse on the major highways, though I haven't travelled them in ages.

When I am amongst traffic that is going the actual speed limit, it's a dead giveaway that there is a speed trap up ahead. Very Happy
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Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Fri 2 Apr, 2004 01:20 pm
21) In continental Europe it's 16 for beer and wine (and lowest percentage "winy drinks") and 18 for spirits.
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Roberta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 3 Apr, 2004 03:09 am
It used to be 21 to vote and 18 to drink. Then it got turned about. Why? I don't remember. And the legal driving age in NYC used to be 18. It might still be.

At one time, when Carter was president and there was a fuel shortage, the speed limit in all states was 55. From the other responses, you know that it's been changed.
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Ceili
 
  1  
Reply Sat 3 Apr, 2004 12:10 pm
As Beth said, it's 110 kph out here, nobody but nobody, drives anything under 10% over the limit.
So that means your average car is hurtling down the highway doing at least 121 kph/75 mph or more.


Drinking age is 18 in Alberta and Quebec but 19 in Ontario and BC. I'm not sure about the other provinces.
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oldandknew
 
  1  
Reply Sat 3 Apr, 2004 12:52 pm
So you can't drive yourself or drink yourself to death, legaly, till you're 21 but you can go to war as an 18 year old & get blown to Kingdom Come quite legaly in the name of the Good.

Likewise, you can't go and see adult movies till you are 18 but you can get married and even have babies when you are 16 years old.

Funny old world we live in
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 3 Apr, 2004 07:17 pm
And, in North Carolina, it was recently (30 years ago) true that one could marry at 14 years of age.
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Linkat
 
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Reply Mon 5 Apr, 2004 11:49 am
That's exactly it oldandknew.
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oldandknew
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Apr, 2004 12:23 pm
On a lighter note, we in the UK have recently seen the arrival of Grocery God, good ol' Wal-Mart.
They bought one of our home grown chains but I haven't been brave enough to cross the threshold.
Also my local downtown McD***** has closed down. Is this a world first for the Burger Boys ?????
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Eva
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Apr, 2004 01:12 pm
No, not the first, oak. They've been through a big reorganization here (not bankruptcy). They closed quite a few of their older stores that were not very profitable and opened a bunch in new locations.
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Grand Duke
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 05:54 am
I though I'd revisit this topic, as more questions have come to mind:

Why is the American system of Imperial measurement different from the UK's? I though the name Imperial was derived from the British Empire, and therefore the units would be standard Confused

Preceding a US presidential election, what are the Primaries (sp) and why are there only 9 (?) of them?
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 05:58 am
GD, the system of measurements in the United States is called U.S. Standard, and there is a government office of weights an measures which maintains the standard. The several states, and the the counties therein as well as municipalities have agencies for weights and measures, which assure standardization--most Americans can easily see this at the gasoline pump, which in most states must have a current certification sticker from a local or the state bureau of weights and measures.

When the U.S. adopted their weights and measures standards, as i have read, they were already using slightly smaller measures of volume, because the factors in England who traded with American in colonial times tended to short-weight the goods they sent to the colonies. I have read this many years ago, and can provide no verification.

Preceding a presidential election, there are fifty primaries, and they are organized and scheduled at the discretion of each of the fifty state boards of election. Most are primary elections, but some states use party caucuses--most famously, Iowa--but in any event, it is largely a scam to maintain the death grip on electoral politics enjoyed by the two major parties.
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 06:07 am
From the Federal Citizen Information Center's list of state weights and measurments agencies page:

State Weights and Measures offices enforce laws and regulations about the labeling, weight, measure or count of such packaged items as food and household products. These offices also check the accuracy of weighing and measuring devices, for example, supermarket scales, gasoline pumps, taxicab meters and rental car odometers.

Some city and county offices have weights and measures functions in addition to the state offices listed below. Contact the state office or check our local telephone directory under the governmental listings for your local weights and measures office. The office might be listed under either the city or county bureau of standards, agriculture or consumer protection.


A listing of state agencies follows on that page.

Here is an excellent article on weights and measures at Wikipedia.
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Grand Duke
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 06:07 am
Whenever I have seen the US measures in (British) reference books, they are listed with the Imperial measures, and seperate from the Metric. This is obviously the source of my confusion. The story of tight-fisted British traders short-changing the colonials seems a reasonable explanation to me, and has the added bonus of being amusing as well!

Not sure where I got 9 primaries from. I was only half-listening to something on the TV when I (think) I heard it. Are the primaries linked somehow to Super Tuesday (again, something I think I've heard on TV)? And how is a caucus different from a primary?
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 06:11 am
In a caucus, members of the political party gather in groups, and try to arrive at a single choice of candidate. The leading speaker for the faction of each candidate gives a presentation, and then they split off into groups to attempt to convince othes to switch their support to another candidate. The idea is that by winnowing those with little support, the process will eventually result in only two or three candidates being viable for a vote in the caucus, and theoretically, will eventually result in each local caucus selecting a single candidate. The results of the local caucuses are then tabulated to arrive at an over-all winner. Super Tuesday refers to a day on which several states, with a great many convention delegates at stake, hold their primaries or caucuses.
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Grand Duke
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 06:13 am
You are a gentleman and a scholar. Clarity & brevity.
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Joe Nation
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 06:27 am
We, the USA citizens, Cool , are the proud user of the US Customary Measurement System except that nowadays we are just about the only place that does use it. The Bahamas and Liberia and the USA use inches and quarts etc, everyone else seems to like the Metric System. It just seems to Americans that it is easier to add 1 3/4 plus 2 5/16 plus 1 instead of the extremely awkward 110mm + 155mm + 35. Shocked

When you throw in, or out, as the case may be, the British Imperial System of dry/wet measurement, there's been some spillage or slippage over the years, with the US pint slightly larger that the Brit pint (take that!!) with the US gallon being 2/10th more than the Imperial gallon. (Though 2/10ths of a what, I don't know.) I also don't know when this imbalance occurred (the revolution?) maybe Setanta has a reference, I do know that many pages of oil production contracts between US and foreign companies are concerned with how big a barrel is a barrel. (which by the way is the only measurement not listed in my big list of measurements page..... Evil or Very Mad )

But to get to Primaries, this is much Rolling Eyes Rolling Eyes Shocked Shocked Evil or Very Mad Shocked Rolling Eyes simpler Shocked Rolling Eyes Shocked Shocked

Try here for actual information.
http://www.ctv.ca/generic/WebSpecials/us_primaries/index_primer.html

There are forty-something primaries in the various States. It's just that some are perceived as more important than others, more of an indicator of what the pulse of voters is. This is a somewhat media inspired idea because it does give them a kind of horse race that they have the intellectual ability and technology to cover.
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fishin
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 06:51 am
Grand Duke wrote:
Preceding a US presidential election, what are the Primaries (sp) and why are there only 9 (?) of them?


Under our political system, a political party can chose one person to represent tham as their candidate on the final ballot. The Primaries are one of several methods the parties use to decide who their candidate will be.

In effect there are 2 seperate races - one for your party's nomination and then once that is secured, the actual race for the presidency. For that first race most states use either the primary or caucus systems.
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Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 08:38 am
fishin' wrote:
Under our political system, a political party can chose one person to represent tham as their candidate on the final ballot.


That's actually the same here in Germany (and the UK plus most other European countries I know).

However, this is seen here (mostly) just as a matter of the party members - although the results and the procedure is being reported in the media.
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Grand Duke
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 09:03 am
Walter Hinteler wrote:
However, this is seen here (mostly) just as a matter of the party members - although the results and the procedure is being reported in the media.


Thanks Walter. Sometimes I wish it was done in a different way, so we could choose our own Prime Ministers rather than letting the MPs do it for us.
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Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Sep, 2004 09:20 am
Well, as a party member you can choose who will represent you in your in your constituency (that's what origianlly thought of :wink: ), but ... ...

You are somewhat right.


And we can't elect our queen, ehem president directly either - although we have a lot more influence on this than you do :wink:
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