Monthly Archives: November 2010

“Half of that mince, please”

Posted on 2010-11-26 by Erithacus

Two little anecdotes illustrate the difficulties still being experienced by customers because neither the Government nor “consumer advocates” will try to help them adapt to metric units in the supermarket.

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Law | Tagged , , , | 24 Comments

Parts of the knowledge economy hit the buffers in South America

Posted on 2010-11-19 by derekp

It has been said that Britain is becoming a knowledge economy, and also that metal bashing can now be safely left to the low-wage economies of the Far East. If only it were that simple. Consider the railway industry …

Posted in General, History, Technical, Transport | Tagged , | 3 Comments

‘Optimism bias’ falls from favour

Posted on 2010-11-08 by derekp

In November 2005, the UK Department for Transport (DfT) produced an estimate of the cost of converting road traffic signs for speed and distance measurements to metric units. Optimism bias accounted for between 26% and 33% of the total overall … Continue reading →

Posted in Road signs, Transport | Tagged , , | 14 Comments