Comments on: Today I learned:

By: FIona

FIona — Fri, 20 May 2005 23:18:29 +0000

OMG Danger mouse was my hero :p

you never used fortnight? Wow, I didn’t realise that was a brit/aussie word!

By: keith

keith — Fri, 20 May 2005 22:31:42 +0000

Way back in the pre-internet days, there was a “Lunar Lander” graphic game (complete with light pen!!) that ran on the PDP-8 microcomputer. When I first got a look at the source code, I was laughing my ass off. Because it had no floating point unit, all the math was done in integers, and the program used some of the strangest units of measurement I’ve ever seen. The best?

“furlongs per fortnight”

(see, it *was* relevant!)

By: :: jozjozjoz ::

:: jozjozjoz :: — Fri, 20 May 2005 19:53:45 +0000

Danger Mouse?

By: fashmagslag

fashmagslag — Fri, 20 May 2005 19:48:27 +0000

Clearly, you didn’t watch Danger Mouse as a kid

By: Yoshi!

Yoshi! — Fri, 20 May 2005 19:47:31 +0000

woody, i thought the same thing when i read that. honest abe was cool, instead of starting a speech with your run of the mill, “87 years ago, in 1776…” which to me sounds and awful lot like “and one time, in band camp…”

and jozjozjoz, check out this site: http://www.berlandtools.com/specials/why_fortnight.html

it’s about tools but also kind of endearing.

for the record, i weigh 12.5 stone.

By: Woody

Woody — Fri, 20 May 2005 19:08:50 +0000

Funny, when I read this I immediately thought about a Score, as in “four score and seven years ago”, from I believe the gettysburg address. Its sad, but I know the answer. A score is 20 years, so if you do the math 4 score and 7 years is 87 years. I like Abe’s version better, it just sounds better than 87 years ago.

By: orbicon

orbicon — Fri, 20 May 2005 16:04:45 +0000

Well, then. I’m confused. What is a ’score’ then? How much is a score of fortnights or a fortnight score? ::::sigh::::

By: Nez

Nez — Fri, 20 May 2005 16:01:10 +0000

And whilst you’re at it, weigh yourself in stone. One stone = 14 lbs. I am a heavy bugger at 17 stone!