Chocolate weighed in Schwarzeneggers: Official

Regular readers will be aware that a couple of years back we at El Reg established a set of standards designed to supersede the wholly inadequate imperial and metric measurements which had for so long battled for international supremacy. For example, length, volume and weight are now quantified in linguine, grapefruit and Jubs …

[Pete 2]

Begging for it

What this really needs is an online conversion tool

[Lester Haines]

Re: Begging for it

Here's the basic model for El Reg units:

http://reg.cx/1R1q

[Fred Flintstone]

I think you need to work on this..

The idea is there, great, but the UI needs some work. It would also be nice to link the Reg units to the explanation for their existence - let's not waste that humour!

[stucs201]

Not sure if it includes all el-reg units or not

but try this:

http://www.simonkelk.co.uk/sizeofwales.html

[Simple Si]

Yep - the existing converter needs updating:-

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html

[Pete 43]

Is it available on Google?

letters

[Evil Auditor]

Well, by our reckoning...

...that would probably be better put as "equivalent to an average 'Merkin"...

Or whichever is currently the lardiest nation.

[Armando 123]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/merkin

Be careful what you type, dude.

[Jedit]

He knew exactly what he was typing, *dude*

"Merkin" is a common online term used to describe people from the USA. It derives from their response to the question "Where are you from?", which frequently sounds like "I'm a Merkin".

[Helena Handcart]

You mean this one: http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html

[Tony Haines]

Somehow you miss titles when they're gone.

Olympic gold medals are made of steel now?

[TeeCee]

It doesn't even imply that, but you can work it out.

If 80 million of the shiny beggars weighs 40,000 tonnes then each one weighs 500g. I'm sure that somewhere out there are the exact dimensions of an OGM, so you can work out how dense it is and thus whether it's actually gold, just a bit of plating on base metal or the Graun are taking the piss.

I still think that the weighlifting events should be awarded manhole covers plated in the appropriate colour, just as a final check to see if anyone's cheating.....

[DJO]

medal to the metal

The gold medals are gold plated silver, the silver one are the same without the plating, not sure about the bronze but I think they too are plated silver.

[Velv]

Olympic Gold Medals are actually made of silver plated with gold.

I'm sure it was on "How It's Made" recently

[Naughtyhorse]

manhole covers...

brilliant idea. may i suggest running medals be handed out from the back of a moving car?

[Charlie Clark]

Wonderful

[Peter Gordon]

I'm still hoping

the Reg will adopt the millifortnight as the standard unit of time.

[Geoff May]

How many microarnies is LOHAN intending to carry?

Title says it all

[Anonymous Coward]

As long as....

> working out how many medals to the Jub

That's fine, as long as ElReg doesn't fail along with next year's Olympic commentators who turn the noun "medal" into a verb, surely a desecration of language too far.

"To jub or not to jub, that is the question."

[Lester Haines]

Re: As long as....

Fair enough. Consider yourself gold medalled for your valiant defence of our beloved mother tongue.

[Graham Marsden]

Any noun in the English language...

... can be verbed!

[William Towle]

As I read once...

"Any noun in the English language...

... can be verbed"

Verbing weirds language.

// as in http://madshakespeare.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/calvin-and-hobbes.jpg

[Daniel Evans]

What is this weight you speak of

And why is it being measured in units of mass?

[Peter Galbavy]

Huh!

Speaking as a svelt individual of 135kg who cycles between 60-100 miles a week for commuting, I think that 158kg is only "bloody enormous" if they are the density of an american woman in a mall food court (i.e. lard).

[Fred Flintstone]

Bloody 'ell

I knew bus services were bad, but you must be living in the worst possible place..

:-)

[Jedit]

"svelte 135kg"?

svelte /svɛlt, sfɛlt/ Show Spelled[svelt, sfelt]

adjective, svelt·er, svelt·est.

1. slender, especially gracefully slender in figure; lithe.

135 kilograms is 300lbs. I submit that nobody who weighs 300lbs could even remotely fit the description "svelte" unless they were well over seven feet tall.

I also do not wish to know how anyone can consider a person weighing in excess of 350lbs to not be bloody enormous, when this is a weight not often achieved by contestants in the World's Strongest Man competition.

[Naughtyhorse]

call the OED! The definition of svelte needs updating (and the spelling needs to be changed)

that's all

[Geoff Thompson]

millifortnight

Is about the time it would take Usain Bolt ro run 200M. A useful unit methinks.

[Chris Miller]

Missing 60x

A millifortnight is ~20 minutes (OK 20 minutes 9.6 secs) - even I can run 200m in less than that.

[Evil Auditor]

Maths?

@Geoff

In a millifortnight I could do the 200m crawling through mud. Though I agree, millifortnight seems very useful indeed!

[Greasemonkey]

@millifortnight

Erm - no. A millifortnight is about the time it takes a normal person to walk a mile. If Usain takes that long for 200m, I'll have a go against him, for the right money...

[Naughtyhorse]

we prefer the atto-parsec per microfortnight as our unit of choice at work.

[Sleepy 1]

Eh?

Your tortoise is call Usain Bolt is it?

[DJO]

Mr Bolt bolts 200m in 14.46 microfortnights.

[Dale 3]

Fab article

A tremendous return to form. Too many of the new writers seem to have lost the writing style that makes El Reg such a delight to read. Thank you, Mr Haines.

[Fred 4]

158kg - a very large person...

Well, in this season's First Pittsburgh Steelers vs Baltimore Ravens Football (U.S. football).

The Ravens fielded an Offensive Tackle - <something> McKinnie who the announcers claimed showed up at training camp at 400lbs or about 181.4 kg or 42.95 jubs, and took the field at 372lbs or 168.7 kg or 39.94 jubs -- at 6 feet 8 inches, 2 meters, or 14.5 linguine.

He is indeed a VERY large person, and out weighs the falling debris by a bit. :)

[stucs201]

Shame its American chocolate

They could at least have used something worth eating if they were going to go to all that trouble.

[Armando 123]

What, like marmite?

[Naughtyhorse]

could be worse...

could be Ankh-Morpork chocolate;

chocolate made mostly from milk, sugar, suet, hooves, lips, miscellaneous squeezings, rat droppings, plaster, flies, tallow, bits of tree, hair, lint, spiders, and powdered cocoa husks.

[Stuart Gepp]

American chocolate

An oxymoron or you jest.

[WildWildWolf]

Has anyone else suggested...

Measuring computing power in units of "Lunar Landers" - i.e the computing power Buzz and Neil had available to land on the moon. I know conceptually what a Teraflop is, but it really means nothing to me. I admit I have no idea what sort of computers Apollo used, but surely that's what investigative journalists are for?

[Gordon 8]

Terms and conditions

Has anyone read the small print on the standards converter page?

Quoting the converter

'The Reg online standards converter is the property of the Vulture Central Standards Soviet, and may not be reproduced, altered, disseminated or sold to Iran without the appropriate licence. If in doubt, contact your nearest intelligence agency. You have no statutory rights. ®'

I forgot you're all IT people, and IT People never read the manual let alone the small print.....

Lester, you are a genius.

Beer, because I think Lester deserves several

[Mindbreaker]

elephants

All measures should be based on the elephant. Volume, liquid or solid, would be the volume of an elephant. "Yes, I'd like a milli-phant of mayo." Air pressure: the force an elephant can blow out its trunk. Umm this tire says inflate to 15 Eleblasts. Time: based on elephant gestational units...the Elelaunch. Hah, I am only 21 Elelaunches old. Shorter periods are based on the rate of chewing: Elechomps. Weight well obviously Elebut. "Honny, your not even 3 centielibuts." Distance the length of an elephant, trunk to tail: the Elelink. IQ can be replaced with elefiknows.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re Elephants

Amount of Bullshit

ElliTurds?

[Geoff Thompson]

Oops

Thats all