The Government's web-site showing areas in England and Wales that are at risk of flooding can be found at:

http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/mapController

Before you type in your postcode, look carefully at the map on the home page - it covers an area of 700 km by 700 km. How do I know? It is 7 squares by 7 squares.

Do you think the average person will be interested?

If I had posted the AA routemaster website and said - "look at the units" would that be a moral victory for me?

... but Steve, if you look at the maps produced by the AA (and almost all decent cartographic houses), they will invariable have kilometre (or 10km) squares on them. With the increasing popularity of GPS, every decent map has additional numbers on the 10 km grid (or 1 km grid, depending on the scale) to help those who are using GPS.

With respect, you've harped on about this before.
No-one notices what you are talking about.
People in the uk use miles for "map type" distances - they just do.

You really need to get used to this.

As far as GPS - why would you need to know about km?

I have a GPS and it does everything in miles and yards.

Perhaps underneath it all it uses metric but that's not what I see.

Imperial is compatible with modern technology

SteveH wrote

<<
As far as GPS - why would you need to know about km?
>>

Very useful if you are cross-referencing back to an OS map or some other map that uses the National Grid (there - I've used the expression again!)

That's right -- and there's nothing more to be said because that says it all. So will you people please quit trying to cajole us into giving up our customary units... please?

I love how you guys personify the ‘Government’ over there – assigning it its own capital letter, and all...

From Matt Rosenberg,
Your Guide to Geography.


A map represents a portion of the earth's surface. Since an accurate map represents the land, each map has a "scale" which indicates the relationship between a certain distance on the map and the distance on the ground. The scale is usually located in the legend box of a map, which explains the symbols and provides other important information about the map. A scale can be printed in a variety of ways.

A ratio or representative fraction (RF) indicates how many units on the earth's surface is equal to one unit on the map. It can be expressed as 1/100,000 or 1:100,000. In this example, one centimeter on the map equals 100,000 centimeters (1 kilometer) on the earth. It also means that one inch on the map is equal to 100,000 inches on the land (8,333 feet, 4 inches or about 1.6 miles).

metre:
Enjoyed that lovely and simple explanation at the end. Isn't it so much simpler than bloody metric!
I am intrigued though, why does he say on the land? Do they measure oceans with wet feet?

Niles wrote

<<
I love how you guys personify the ‘Government’ over there – assigning it its own capital letter, and all...
>>

I don't know about "Standard [US] English", but in "Queen's [UK] English", it is correct to use an upper case letter when speaking about "the Government" (assuming that one is refering to a particular government), but to use a lower case letter when refering to governments in general.

Indeed Martin, because it is THE Government. Likewise it is THE God, or THE Parliament. Neither of these things are persons.

Never mind, Martin. I wasn’t suggesting that it was incorrect, I was suggesting that it was telling. It was a libertarian reference. (In the U.S., as far as I know, it is only proper to capitalize ‘government’ when referring to the portion that acts upon us – that is, the executive branch of the U.S. federal government; but this usage isn’t seen as often as it is in the U.K.).

I'm intrigued to know why Niles' post was edited.
Could someone email me? I don't like censorship, but I could understand why BWMA did it if it deemed it necessary.

Anyhoo.....

Martin said, in a previous episode:

<<
As far as GPS - why would you need to know about km?
>>

--Very useful if you are cross-referencing back to an OS map or some other map that uses the National Grid (there - I've used the expression again!)--

Do you REALLY HONESTLY THINK that the average Brit would find that interesting?

I suspect almost 100% would just whack the post code in and the lovely lady will just tell them which roads to turn down after so many yards....


Metre (eric) frothed, in a altogether different type of "episode":

"Enjoyed that lovely and simple explanation at the end. Isn't it so much simpler than bloody metric!"

Nice slip there, pal. True colours as predicted by yours truly.

LOL!

It was at my request. I accidentally posted my e-mail behind my name – I was tired and not paying attention to the stupid default settings. I just don’t like my e-mail to be posted on web forums – I prefer that people contact me through my web site at http://dreamwater.org/whittenword/sovrealm/

Thanks, BWMA; I appreciate it :)

You are right, of course. I wasn’t paying attention to grammar – I was thinking in a literary mode. When you personify something, a way to express its personification is to capitalize it (e.g. “…and Reason appeared to me in a dream…”).

I suppose a better way to say it would have been to substitute the term ‘proper noun’.

Convention says that a proper noun refers to a specific person, place, or thing, and that such nouns are capitalized. There is another rule that a proper noun is not preceded by the word ‘the’. This is clearly rubbish since 'the President (of the U.S.)', 'the United States', 'the State of Florida', and 'the United Kingdom' are all preceded by ‘the’ and no one would suggest that these things are common nouns.

However, ‘the professor of Medieval History at the University of Florida’, while it might refer to a specific person, place, or thing, is not capitalized – the same is true of ‘the government of the United States of America’.

Likewise, there is certain disagreement as to whether the earth, the moon and the sun should be capitalized. There are three prevailing styles: 1.) not capitalized unless appearing in a list with other named planets or stars; 2.) capitalized while retaining the ‘the’; and 3.) capitalized without the ‘the’. Whichever one of these you use largely depends on what style manual you use.

Superficial English usage is largely a matter of preference; what is important is that you are consistent. If you say ‘Government agents’ at one point in your paper, it would not do to say ‘government agents’ at a later point.

But this is all tangential to the point I was trying to make. I was trying to draw attention to a tendency to reify government.

A ratio or representative fraction (RF) indicates how many units on the earth's surface is equal to one unit on the map. It can be expressed as 1/100,000 or 1:100,000. In this example, one centimeter on the map equals 100,000 centimeters (1 kilometer) on the earth. It also means that one inch on the map is equal to 100,000 inches on the land (8,333 feet, 4 inches or about 1.6 miles).

metre:
Enjoyed that lovely and simple explanation at the end. Isn't it so much simpler than bloody metric!
I am intrigued though, why does he say on the land? Do they measure oceans with wet feet?

So they do use wet feet to measure oceans,lakes and rivers, isn't that marvelous. That makes 3 different feet in use altogether. No wonder their measurement hodgepodge is ridiculed world wide.

^^^ Blip ^^^

I'm getting the feeling that most people are starting to install the "fool-ignorer v3.1" software.

Bud - looks like you're on v3.0 - get an upgrade from:

www.does_anyone_even_care_what_the_old_idiot_writes_anymore.com

<<<I'm getting the feeling that most people are starting to install the "fool-ignorer v3.1" software.>>>

Yep, we just need you to install it as well Steve

:-)

I admit I do respond to him - but only as a wind-up, you understand!!!