> Why does 1 hour have 60 minutes, with 60 seconds
> in a minute and 1000 miliseconds in a sec?

Presumably, this reeks of Babylonian influence, for whom Base 60 was the norm. In this case, you might as well ask yourself why we use Base 10. The answer, is simple. Base 10 was used by the Romans, the Chinese, and the Indians. These three powers dominated the world, hence the standard. The adoption of Base 10 has little to do with mathematical necessity nor human anatomy (you might as well ask why we don’t use Base 5 if we have 5 fingers). It has everything to do with history.

This of course, it also the answer to the “Why” questions Alex asks.

The more frustrating norm for me is the non-standardised paper sizing. America and Canada are one of the few countries to use the US Letter system of paper. Elsewhere, they use A-sized paper, which is very designed so as to obey the beautiful and convenient proportions of the golden mean. For example, halving an A4 produces an A5, which halved, produces an A6. Halving a US Letter doesn’t produce something with the same proportions.

There are ways you can justify the beauty of the ‘stumpy’ US Letter. For example, it is very close to an octogonally-inspired design used by Roman scribes. Unfortunately, like the metric system, it exists more as a historical artifact, rather than as a thing which was designed from the ground up to be beautiful and practical.

Love your post on travel below…I’m sort of jonesing to go back to Italy right now. Hope you’re having a good week so far!

xo Mary Jo

Anywayz, I want to see and learn and know and to have set a foot on every inch of walkable earth/forest/mountain/field etc. You get my point. I know I’ll never end up like that, and that my sain mind tells me places where warmongering is still a fashion trend should be black-listed, but still, I wish I saw it all, and now and remember every instant and detail forever.

Future ideas are for Japan and the States.

But then I’d like to see the salt deserts in South America, Iceland is there too, and after reading NG I think, I want to see the Hebrides and Fingal’s Cave. I was re-reading Journey towards the Center of the Earth and that would be fun to do too, but not so realistic I must admit.

Oh, and a dip in some sharky waters off New Zealand with its LOTR mountains…eehh, dream on!