The British drive on the left because the French drive on the right. It’s that simple. The struggle between Britain (strictly, England because the Scots kept cozying up to the frogs) and France was the driving factor in European history for 500 years and the distrust lingers. Why does little old England have a nuclear deterrent? Because the French are not to be trusted with theirs.
@adrianbray You may enjoy reading a hilarious book called “One Thousand Years of Annoying the French” to get an overall perspective.
@Den S There are more ex-colonies that drive on the right; Nigeria is but one example. The decison is normally driven by what the neighboring countries do, as well as who they trade with most.
The question shouldn’t be “why do Americans and non-colonials” drive on the right side, but why the British drive on the left side. After all, Americans basically invented the automobile and we’re still the leading manufacture and supporter of these expensive and deadly contraptions, so I’d say we’re the de’facto standard. And I like the horse analogy. If you mount a horse on the left, it makes sense you’d want to enter a car on the left as well. The real question becomes why did the Britts do it backwards from everyone else? For that, you’ll need to spend a lot of time in dark and smokey London pubs.
@Lex The most mobile people of ancient times were the Romans, and they drove on the left!! So did nearly all of Europe and Britain, which they conquered. Napoleon changed Europe over to the right, while Britain, later to be THE industrial power, stayed on the left and influenced all their colonies and some admiring nations like Japan, who worshipped anything British!.
So, the Brits were not backwards, and the reason America switched to the right is in all the preceding posts. Canada finally standardized on the right in 1920 after having an unworkable mismash. The Conestoga wagons that preceded the US automobiles also were “driven” on the right.
The Germans (Daimler-Benz) and French invented the automobile and their early models were driven on the right side of the road. Henry Ford popularized the car and made it affordable. By that time most US traffic was already on the right hand side.
Many years ago I dated a girl from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who believed that democracy was an American invention. I had to tactfully point out that the Greeks invented democracy, but only applied it to Greek Citizens. England and Holland had liberal democratic governments at least 100 years before the American revolution. You can have democracy with a king, as long as the king’s power is severely limited.
So, Doc, does the girl from Michigan now know that we’re not a democracy? It always makes me chuckle when I hear people say we are.
@mountainbike In the 60s the US was a more open and democratic society, I think. We actually got to see the Vietnam War on TV.
This girl’s congressman was Gerald Ford, who told everyone all was well with the World. The governor of Michigan was Mennen (soapy) Williams, I believe, or George Romney. Michigan was a properous state. The Buick plant in Flint was the world’s largest auto plant with everything under one roof.
Actually, we were never formed as a democracy. We were formed as a republic.
Locally, there are still towns that are democratically structured, but hey’re getting fewer every year.
I know, I’m being difficult. I just had a lady come to me and tell me that a particular day was “Pi day…you know, 3.14659 etc.” I offered her a C+ and smilingly pointed out that she had Pi wrong. She missed the 1 between the 4 and the 6. I get like that sometimes.
Prior to the Greek senate, towns were run by everyone simply doing what hey wanted. The greeks invented the senate, but that’s not the same as a democracy. The senate made the rules by vote of the senate members, which was a huge jump over dictatorship or chaos, but it wasn’t a true democracy.
I can be a PITA sometimes, can’t I?
Well…it’s 3.1416, or 3.14159, or
3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 …
But 22/7 is pretty close (3.143).
You got me!
Doc is being facetious. Prior to the Vietnam war, the three major media outlets pretty much conveyed what the power brokers in washington wanted. It wasn;t really until the mid-60s ('65 was the year Johnson sent the big buildup of combat troops to Viet Nam). that the TV news media really began to send home footage that the power brokers didn;t want anyone to see. Vietnam I think changed the way the media did business.
Damn. I started thinking about Jane Fonda. My bloodpressure’s going up again. Gotta go.
Saying Pi is 22/7 sounds like a politician (notice the clever intertwining of thread topics)- they try to rationalize everything. Pi day is coming soon- March 13. I tried to ignore it last year, but it’s an irrational longing.
Another fun fact about pi is that, because it’s irrational, EVERY number is contained in it, if you take it out far enough. Your birthdate, my SS#, TSMB’s house number, the national debt, all of them…
You mean there actually IS a Pi day? Why? All it is is a mathematial description of a geometric relationship. Shouldn’t we save our “special” days for important things, like Halle Barry’s birthday?
@mountainbike The news of the 1st Iraq war was tightly managed. They did not want any loose ends, like in the Vietnam War, where General Westmoreland said we were winning and all you had to do was turn on the TV to see we were not. Stormin’ Norman Schwartzkopf did all the briefings and the Scud missiles all hitting their targets was higly orchestrated and edited. Most of them did not hit their targets.
Arthur Kent, the “Scud Stud” was very photogenic in his reporting and almost became a war hero. The Kents are an adventurous bunch. His brother Peter was national news anchor in Canada before going into politics; He is now Canada’s Secretary of the Environment. His sister Norma also had her own Consumer TV show, I don’t know what she is doing now.
@asecular - "There is at least one real number that is not contained in the expansion of Pi. "
Well, there are plenty of infinitely repeating real numbers. say 1/9. But numbers of fixed length will appear in an infinitely long non-repeating random series like pi.
wiki has this to say:
“The digits of π have no apparent pattern and pass tests for statistical randomness including tests for normality; a number of infinite length is called normal when all possible sequences of digits (of any given length) appear equally often. The hypothesis that π is normal has not been proven or disproven. Since the advent of computers, a large number of digits of π have been available on which to perform statistical analysis. Yasumasa Kanada has performed detailed statistical analyses on the decimal digits of π, and found them consistent with normality; for example, the frequency of the ten digits 0 to 9 were subjected to statistical significance tests, and no evidence of a pattern was found”
So there’s my ‘proof’. Yours?
Doc, asecular, as regards the Iraq war I agree with you both. The military and the big three media outlets fed us largely what the establishment was releasing, but there were so many other sources by that time that it really made no difference. News was coming on from not only the three biggies, but also from BBC and countless other sources.
As regards Vietnam, well, IMHO all we really accompliahed was to delay the overthrow of south Vietnam by the communist north Vietnam for some period of years. The theory at that time was that the war was being fought to stop the spread of communism. But as far as I know, it did nothing to stop the spread of communism. Capitalism overcame communism due to the realities of economics in a global economy. I personally think Vietnam would have changed in the same way they did even if we’d never set foot there. But Vietnam is going to be debated until the last of us that lived through it are gone. Perhaps even after.
@ mountainbike:You mean there actually IS a Pi day? Why? All it is is a mathematial description of a geometric relationship. Shouldn’t we save our “special” days for important things, like Halle Barry’s birthday?
Halle Barry’s birthday IS a mathematical description of some GREAT geometry. (not “plain” geometry and definitly not linear)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAmen.
Oh Canada! So far from God so close to America
The “big three”, NBC, ABC, and CBS, continued to spew the official adminitration versions, but with the BBC, CNN, and all the other sources available it was meaningless. NBC, ABC, and CBS can still be counted on to tell us Lindsey Lohan’s latest misadventures or the local weather, but they’re no longer the ultimate word on international affairs. I’ve been watching World News lately, and it’s amazing that with all that’s going on in the world the “big three” are wasting time on the absolute garbage that comprises most of their news broadcasts.
Or is the question prompted by the term “big three” being only recognized now by us old geezers?
@mountainbike Right on! I watch the BBC and other non-BigThree channels. Also read The Economist, one of the few news magazines that tell you how the world really works. Although it’s British, it very often has harsh criticism of the follies of the British government.
The latest issue warns of another economic crisis in Europe and the need for the US to get its fiscal house in order. It also warns that Syria may collapse as a country and put the whole Middle East in turmoil. Just think of what that will do to oil prices.