Encyclopaedia set for sale

[Ken Wagnitz]

Note the unit of currency shown in the ad.
It is called a POUND. It has been that since well before the Boston tea party.
(Same as the gallon has had the same capacity since then, everywhere except in the US.)

See this symbol: # It is NOT called a pound. It is called a 'hash'.

Now do you American folks see why the rest of the world gets so frustrated with you?

Ken.

[Inline-4]

No. I don't.

The rapid rise of industrialization and commerce without the benefit of
rapid communication resulted in the implemenation of American national
standards and other common practices.

This happened in the vacuum of a nation that was not part of an Imperial
Commonwealth during this period. The need for common measure, practices and
nomenclature was driving the definitions. The decision to use # for pounds
was shorthand and deals with weights, not currency. And all things
considered I can understand why US industrialists of 100 years ago would NOT
want to adopt England's pound symbol.

Taking it one step further the term "hash" is a dervitative of "hatch".
Hatch has been used since the 15th century to refer to the of inlay parallel
strips of contrasting metals as a means of decoration. So even that is a
terminology that has evolved from the original.

Michael Oberle
XJ Nobody -'82 Seca Turbo
http://plan9.dnsalias.org:88/xj



*-----Original Message-----
*From: XJ-R...@googlegroups.com [mailto:XJ-R...@googlegroups.com]On
*Behalf Of Ken Wagnitz
*Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 4:59 PM
*To: XJ-R...@googlegroups.com
*Subject: [XJ Riders] Encyclopaedia set for sale
*
*
*Note the unit of currency shown in the ad.
*It is called a POUND. It has been that since well before the
*Boston tea party.
*(Same as the gallon has had the same capacity since then,
*everywhere except in the US.)
*
*See this symbol: # It is NOT called a pound. It is called a 'hash'.
*
*Now do you American folks see why the rest of the world gets so
*frustrated with you?
*
*Ken.
*

[Ken Wagnitz]

So # deals with weights not currency Mike? So it must be shorthand for what the rest of the world
use 'lb' for? In that case why did you say in one of your posts... "900 lbs is a little tough to
sling around in the home garage"? Shouldn't it have been "900 #"?

On your second point, you give an excellent summary of why # is logically called 'hash' (by the
rest of the world). (Dunno about the "evolved from the original" though.) Now explain to me
again why you call it 'pound'?

Ken.

[Dean R.]

On 8/17/05, Ken Wagnitz <k...@waggies.net> wrote:
> Now explain to me
> again why you call it 'pound'?
>

For the same reason you call £ a pound. Because someone, a long time
ago, decided to do it and we've been doing it ever since.

Duh! :-p

That's why we got our own country. So we can do things our own damn way!

Like drink our beer cold!

--
Dean Rachwitz
MSF Rider Coach
motorcycletraining.com
Mesa, AZ
82 Seca XJ550R
82 Seca XS400R
82 Maxim XJ650J

[Inline-4]

If I had known I was going to give a lecture series on this stuff... ;-)

Interestingly enough there are societal reasons that symbols are chosen too.

For example:
Keep in mind that this was an era where literacy was limited in the
developing industrial working class. In a time when many people still made
an X on legal documents for their signature the hash was a simple means of
representing pounds weight. I would argue that if you could learn to write #
you could learn to write lb.

The use of it for pounds simply happened and became accepted. Typically #
means number or quantity. Handwritten scale tickets and other such documents
from that era show weights as "#900" or "900#". It became an accepted symbol
through common use, ie a defacto standard. That is how it became integrated.
It lingers as an old habit or common practice.

It is also commonly still used for quantity, gage and some other odd things
(like Tic-Tac-Toe :-).

I on the other hand am not 100 years old and am familiar with the uses of #
and lb and £. I use lb because the email lists go all over the world and it
recognized. If I had used # we would have had this thread weeks ago.

The "evolved from the original" is called etymology. Hatch and Hash have the
same etymology.

I personally don't call it pound. You asked if we (Americans) understand why
"everyone else" gets frustrated with us.

I said no and provided the history so you would at least know the origin of
your frustration.

-Mike

*-----Original Message-----
*From: XJ-R...@googlegroups.com [mailto:XJ-R...@googlegroups.com]On
*Behalf Of Ken Wagnitz

*Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 2:17 PM
*To: XJ-R...@googlegroups.com
*Subject: [XJ Riders] Re: Encyclopaedia set for sale
*
*
*
*So # deals with weights not currency Mike? So it must be
*shorthand for what the rest of the world
*use 'lb' for? In that case why did you say in one of your
*posts... "900 lbs is a little tough to
*sling around in the home garage"? Shouldn't it have been "900 #"?
*
*On your second point, you give an excellent summary of why # is
*logically called 'hash' (by the
*rest of the world). (Dunno about the "evolved from the original"
*though.) Now explain to me
*again why you call it 'pound'?
*
*Ken.
*
*
*
*>
*> No. I don't.
*>
*> The rapid rise of industrialization and commerce without the benefit of
*> rapid communication resulted in the implemenation of American national
*> standards and other common practices.
*>
*> This happened in the vacuum of a nation that was not part of an Imperial
*> Commonwealth during this period. The need for common measure,
*practices and
*> nomenclature was driving the definitions. The decision to use #
*for pounds
*> was shorthand and deals with weights, not currency. And all things
*> considered I can understand why US industrialists of 100 years
*ago would NOT
*> want to adopt England's pound symbol.
*>
*> Taking it one step further the term "hash" is a dervitative of "hatch".
*> Hatch has been used since the 15th century to refer to the of
*inlay parallel
*> strips of contrasting metals as a means of decoration. So even that is a
*> terminology that has evolved from the original.
*>
*> Michael Oberle
*> XJ Nobody -'82 Seca Turbo
*> http://plan9.dnsalias.org:88/xj
*>
*>
*>
*> *-----Original Message-----
*> *From: XJ-R...@googlegroups.com [mailto:XJ-R...@googlegroups.com]On
*> *Behalf Of Ken Wagnitz
*> *Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 4:59 PM
*> *To: XJ-R...@googlegroups.com
*> *Subject: [XJ Riders] Encyclopaedia set for sale
*> *
*> *

*> *Note the unit of currency shown in the ad.

*> *It is called a POUND. It has been that since well before the
*> *Boston tea party.
*> *(Same as the gallon has had the same capacity since then,
*> *everywhere except in the US.)

*> *
*> *See this symbol: # It is NOT called a pound. It is called a 'hash'.
*> *
*> *Now do you American folks see why the rest of the world gets so

*> *frustrated with you?
*> *
*> *Ken.
*> *
*>
*>
*
*

[William Hanna]

> That's why we got our own country. So we can do things our own damn way!
>
> Like drink our beer cold!
>
> --

Well, we also don't have Lucas refrigerators, so our beer will
actually get and stay cold. OK, it's an English cut, but we are
talking about pounds vs. pounds vs. pounds?

900# vs. 900lb are both legit, they're just abbreviations for 'pound'.

I love intellectual conversations. I never knew it was actually
"hatch", at least originally. Or, are we talking about eggs?

[Ken Wagnitz]

Thank you for that lucid explanation Mike.

The 'hash' vs 'pound' is just one example contributing toward my frustration. More extreme are
the different size of a US gallon, and (we are all mostly old enough) the Bell vs CCITT tones used
for modems (no longer an issue thank goodness). Then there is the US reluctance to join the rest
of the world in metric measurements.

Your murder of English spelling I can understand. While I use the English form, it makes sense to
rationalise toward phonetic spelling. We have both inherited one of the worst languages in the
world in terms of same sounds spelt differently; different sounds spelt the same; same sounding
words with totally diffferent meanings; quite non-phonetic spelling of some words.

I suppose my frustration is increased because the rest of us get bombarded with your way of doing
things whether we like it or not. This is either because we use stuff pretty well invented in the
US (eg computers, operating systems etc), or we buy stuff influenced by the size of the US market,
even though it comes to us from somewhere like China. And US TV programs hammer us with the worst
of your ways and customs. (Unfortunately this is largely because it is cheaper for TV stations to
buy US content than make our own. I bet Canadians are even worse off in this respect.)

And compounding it all is the apparent obliviousness (is that a word?) exhibited by Americans to
the fact that they do frustrate the hell out of 'foreigners' (maybe the word 'insensitive' should
come in there somewhere.)

Never mind, I'm just having a whinge. Can you tell that I'm currently frustrated at work?
While us Aussies are very happy to be friends and allies of the Americans, we reserve the right to
criticise you without reservation, just as we do ourselves -we inherited that trait from our
English forefathers I think.

I know this is a bike list, but hell, we are all mates here, right? So expect me to do a bit of
stirring occasionally.

regards,
Ken.
(I'll settle down now, promise.)

[Ken Wagnitz]

We drink our beer cold in Oz too.

I never knew that # meant pounds weight in the US. If I saw 900#, I wouldn't know what it meant.
So you guys had better stick to using 'lb' for us foreigners.

I strike your use of 'pound' for the # key in automated phone systems which must have come from
the US and don't know they are operating in Australia (and tell me to press the 'pound key", eg
for phone banking). And of course spoken instructions on computer program use.

Ken.

[Inline-4]

Do all of us US folk a favor. Don't assume the crap on TV represents the
mainstream. It does not. It represents the popularized fringe and what can
be sold.

Here is a chance to pull bike stuff back in this conversation. Over the last
3-5 years I have sold most of my measuring tools (mics, calipers, etc) and
replaced them with dual system digital versions.

Most of the hobby machining I do now is metric for metric bikes and I got
tired of converting. Even the new machine I bought has two sets of gears for
threading in both systems. And the CNC software is dual system... once it is
installed.

But you know it wasn't that long ago that you folks suffered under Whitworth
threads, Imperial gallons, rods, chains, etc. :-)

At least neither of us is in England where merchants are ticketed/fined for
selling in pounds and ounces. Here is a group actively fighting compulsory
metric measurements:

http://www.bwmaonline.com/

Cheers,

Michael Oberle

XJ Nobody -'82 Seca Turbo

http://plan9.dnsalias.org:88/xj

*-----Original Message-----
*From: XJ-R...@googlegroups.com [mailto:XJ-R...@googlegroups.com]On
*Behalf Of Ken Wagnitz

*Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 5:21 PM

*To: XJ-R...@googlegroups.com
*Subject: [XJ Riders] Re: Encyclopaedia set for sale
*

*even though it comes to us from somewhere like China. And US TV
*programs hammer us with the worst
*of your ways and customs. (Unfortunately this is largely because
*it is cheaper for TV stations to
*buy US content than make our own. I bet Canadians are even worse
*off in this respect.)
*
*
*I know this is a bike list, but hell, we are all mates here,
*right? So expect me to do a bit of
*stirring occasionally.
*
*regards,
*Ken.
*(I'll settle down now, promise.)
*

[Inline-4]

Well...

The last few days I have spent sorting out the fuel system on my bike. Note
to Turbo owners, the hose diagram in the supplement is wrong. The fuel
regulator must connect to the #2 cylinder vacuum port or it will not allow
fuel to return to the tank (added this to the DAMHIKT).

Once that was sorted I started the engine, balanced and adjusted the carbs.

So there it sat idling smoothly. I went over all the major fasteners, clips,
etc. Then dropped it off the centerstand (for the first time in over a
year). Then mounted the bike and rolled it backwards out of the garage.

Turned down the drive. At the bottom of the incline I grab a handful of
front brakes. Those R1 brakes make a huge difference. I had forgotten the
buzzing sound they make when braking.
Rolled and stopped using the rear disc. Very nice.
Selected first and eased onto the street. Shifted to second...smooth, slick,
noiseless shift.
Worked up through the gears holding revs to about 3.5K.

I rode about 5 miles just looping around the neighborhood. No leaks. No
drips from the turbo. Everything is tight. It feels like a new bike.

Now, on to the bodywork and those cool Speed Block stripes I had made !!

So, waddy think folks ? I want to paint it Yamaha Yellow but I have some
choices; plain yellow, yellow with metal flake, pearl yellow (like the 94
Vmax), or a candy - essentially a silver base coat with yellow clear...

Decisions, decisions...

Michael Oberle
XJ Nobody -'82 Seca Turbo - RUNNING !!!!
http://plan9.dnsalias.org:88/xj

[Dean R.]

Congrats, Mike! That has got to be an awesome feeling! I know how it
feels to be off my bike for a week - can't imagine a year.

Personally, I really dig the original Yamaha bright yellow, and I
think that will look best with the speed blocks.

[XJ900...@aol.com]

                I'd find the guy who can REALLY, REALLY mix paint GREAT!

                Then, I'd go for:

 

                 "Yamaha Yellow Pearl Metallic"

 

 

                RickCoMatic