Recent comments in /f/mildlyinteresting

CB_700_SC t1_ja1p60a wrote

Centennial Light

In 1976, the fire department moved to Fire Station #6 with the bulb; the bulb socket's cord was severed for fear that unscrewing the bulb could damage it. It was deprived of electricity for only 22 minutes during the transfer, which was made in a specially designed box and with full firetruck escort. An electrician was on hand to install the bulb into the new fire station's emergency generator.

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RockRevolutionary182 t1_ja1nol2 wrote

Ok that was interesting. I've always hated the metric system but now I wish we were using it only in the US It makes things so much simpler. When they made up the imperial system Dad a meeting with all the smartest dudes and they were like dude how could we look superior to all the people? So the one dude said why don't we make measurements super hard and confusing. They did things like to abbreviate inch let's make it two lines up top and for foot one it'll confuse them because logically you would think 2 lines would be feet and 1 inches because 2 is larger. Then another dude was like dudddddde let's break it down so you can say different numbers in different ways and they all mean the same thing. Example 1/2 " is the same as 32/64 it's the same as 4/8 and 16/32. My dudes that is how the imperial system was born. When they got done with that they named themselves the Democrats.

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