this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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[–] UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 43 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (8 children)

What the fuck is "half a pickup truck" for a measure

[–] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 37 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

Americans will use anything other than the metric system.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

This is a Canadian publication.

EDIT:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Narwhal

The Narwhal is a Canadian investigative online magazine that focuses on environmental issues.[1][2]

[–] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 2 points 49 minutes ago

Unfortunately, a lot of Americanisms have infected Canada due to our historically extremely close trade and cultural relationship with them. Measurement ignorance is one example. Some Americanisms actually become arguably worse in Canada, because we are effectively rudderless, pulled in all different directions by both our own laws and customs and American laws and customs at the same time, resulting in an even less well-defined choice of units. Another example is dates. The US uses mm/dd/yy which is already stupid on its own, but Canada uses BOTH mm/dd/yy and dd/mm/yy seemingly without rhyme or reason, which results in complete ambiguity of many dates, or trying to figure out based on context, looking for other dates that might use a day number >12 to identify which one actually is the day vs the month.

It's awful. I am happy we are distancing ourselves from the US right now, but I'm not sure it will ever be enough to totally escape their shadow.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

yeah, we have fucking idiots who have no idea what a kilogram is.

[–] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

As an american, I am 100% onboard on switching entirely to measuring things in terms of pickup trucks.

[–] Corngood@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 hour ago
  1. Preheat oven to 1 pickup truck
  2. Bake for 1 pickup truck
[–] gnate@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

But the reference objects keep getting bigger!

It's like a cubit, it changes depending on who's in charge.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

but it's 0.5 Pickup Trucke.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 1 points 39 minutes ago

Front or back half? They are substantially different on volume

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

what rural Murica understands.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 10 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Two of them is roughly the size of a pickup truck...

Like, it's volume, they could say X gallons, but it would be hard for people to visualize. So people use an example most readers would be familiar with.

Have you honestly never wondered why journalists use random things? Or has no one taken the time to answer before?

It's been common literally for centuries before either of us were born, but most likely all of human existence. Just with animals like buffalo instead of pickup trucks.

[–] andrewta@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

The problem is he’s Unfortunately, short, so he has a hard time on visualizing things like the size of pick up, which are quite large

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Americans will use literally anything except the metric system 😔

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 3 points 1 hour ago

You posted a minute earlier, but the other guy got the upvotes. Or maybe the timing is based on instance?

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Half of the standard passenger vehicle around here.

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

but how many hamburgers is it?!

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 1 hour ago

Probably 1.25x the size of a washing machine