Ha Ha… my American wife never learned to draw the UK pound symbol, so when she writes notes to me about money, she writes things like “Please get 20 lbs from the ATM”.
I tease her mercilessly about it… 
I’m amused at the idea that it’s like a fishing boat; carry paddles on board as back-up in case the engine fails.
It occurs to me that the critical work is being done by the pilots, who are generally always facing the direction of travel, so their left and right corresponding to the aircraft’s left and right is a pretty constant thing. The cabin crew need to report issues to the pilots, and they might be facing aft, which flips left/right for them, but if the engine to their right is observed to be spewing smoke, it’s the “LH ENGINE” procedures you want the pilots to follow.
LHS or LH and RHS or RH are easily understood and make for good labels on indicator panels, buttons, switches, screens, etc.
P and SB or PORT and STAR or whatever just take up more space.
It’s just a convention that works well enough and doesn’t actually cause any significant confusion in practice. Everyone who needs to know the frame of reference, does, and that’s all that’s necessary.
Any airplane at all can do a barrel roll completely safely and without even spilling the passengers’ drinks, so long as it starts with sufficient altitude.
The Imperial fluid ounce and the American fluid ounce are very close to each other, and both very close to the volume of one weight-ounce of water under standard gravity (though there are slight differences between all three). But there are 20 Imperial fluid ounces in an Imperial pint, and only 16 American ounces in an American pint (and both countries use the same Avudupois ounce for weight, and 16 of them to a pound).
20 pounds of pounds?
How many pints can you pound?
(Did I pound this into the ground yet? )
Let’s see: the only weight for a British bank note I found on the web was for the 5 pound note, 0.7 g, so let’s assume that the one pound note weighs around the same. There are about 454 grams in an English pound (weight), so 20 pounds of pounds make for a nice sum of 12,971 pounds. Not so bad.
Do British ATMs issue 1£ notes?
Good question, and I doubt it, so if we assume that the smallest unit drawn from a British ATM are five pound notes, 20 pounds of pounds are even at least 64,855 pounds.
Wow, that’s even more than dark matter, which is so massive that a single pound of it weighs over ten thousand pounds!
The Bank of England beats everything, even physics.
Pound notes were withdrawn years ago, and ATMs don’t dispense fives, only tens and twenties.
Reminds me of The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra by Firesign Theatre.
When asked why he’d risk his life on such a dangerous case for only a hundred pounds, their version of Sherlock Holmes tells Watson:
“I’d risk anyone’s life for a hundred pounds … of dollars!”
No!
Basic Aristotelian logic proves that a one-pound note must weigh one fifth as much as a five-pound note.
This is my usual response.
In most European public bathrooms, the doors are equipped with red/green markers to indicate if they are occupied. I seems to be very lucky that I get many opportunities to say “Occupado”.
A proper stall should have enough door so that it’s not possible to see feet, or any other part of the occupant.
My guess? Easier maintenance. The concrete bumpers accumulate trash, and in the case of snow removal, interfere with plowing.
Backing out is the expected behavior. Pulling through is not and increases the accident risk, as it’s not possible for the person on the other side, who is pulling in, to see that someone is pulling through the parking space.
Either way, if everyone drives slowly and carefully, there would be fewer accidents in parking lots.
It’s the same thing on the train. If someone presses the button, the button lights up. There is no need to press the button again. There’s really no need to press the button repeatedly.
We went on a sightseeing tour in Canada and the tour guide mentioned that Canadians have to work harder than people in the US to make a gallon of maple syrup.
Same reason. The Canadian gallon is 1.2 US gallons.
A few still do, but they are few and far between.
Japanese people knock on stall or restroom doors and the person inside knocks back. I suppose passing gas loudly would work as well.
I’m picturing a Dueling Banjos type situation, but with knocking.
What’s the Japanese version of “Shave and a Haircut… Two Bits”?
Now I’m picturing Tokyo businessmen knocking (and singing) “Gotta Catch 'Em All” “Po…ke…mon!”