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What really grinds your gears?

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Duchess Jan 2017 9:03pm, 30 Jan 2017 7,371 posts	Quote 2 pins Duchess The expression "parents' right to take their children out of school on holiday". It's not a right, a good education is a right.
CharlieP Jan 2017 9:10am, 31 Jan 2017 657 posts	Quote Pin CharlieP When I was about 10, my parents and sisters went on holiday to Cyprus without me, because I was still at school.
Fleecing Icicles Jan 2017 9:42am, 31 Jan 2017 32,894 posts	Quote 1 pin Fleecing Icicles Duchess: given the amount of wasted time in schools, I think that taking kids somewhere can be more educational, personally. When I was 14 and lived in Australia, my parents took me out of school for 2 months to go round Europe. My teachers were thrilled at such an opportunity to learn about different cultures and gave me stuff to do. Can't imagine that happening nowadays when kids are drilled and drilled to take tests and go up levels. The education system is archaic and needs radical reform when kids are still essentially taught the same way as they were 100 years ago.
CharlieP Jan 2017 10:00am, 31 Jan 2017 658 posts	Quote Pin CharlieP "The course, beginning in George Square and ending at Glasgow Green, was 149.7m short of the full 13.1 miles." That's almost exactly as short as "13.1 miles" is of an actual half marathon (21.0975 km)...
CharlieP Jan 2017 10:01am, 31 Jan 2017 659 posts	Quote Pin CharlieP Oops, forgot the link. bbc.co.uk
Badger Jan 2017 10:21am, 31 Jan 2017 8,045 posts	Quote Pin Badger Think you've got your decimal point in the wrong place there, CP. 13.1 miles is about 15m short of 21.0975km, not 150m (and 15m is within the margin of accuracy for course measurement). 150m is nearly a tenth of a mile.
CharlieP Jan 2017 10:27am, 31 Jan 2017 660 posts	Quote Pin CharlieP Oops. You're right. Thrown by the 4 decimal places I was using (why they couldn't have made a marathon 42.2 km I don't know).
CharlieP Jan 2017 10:29am, 31 Jan 2017 661 posts	Quote Pin CharlieP Probably just as well my parents didn't take me out of school to go to Cyprus.
Badger Jan 2017 11:08am, 31 Jan 2017 8,048 posts	Quote Pin Badger It's from the historical marathon standard - the half distance is half of 26 miles 385 yards, which is 13.109 miles, which is 21.0975km. Heaven forfend modern runners should need to run an extra 2.5m to set a world record. It mildly grinds my gears that the world's most popular race distance is only defined as half of something else and has a formal distance of such arbitrary length. 13 miles 192 yards one foot and 6 inches, if I haven't got it wrong along the way, which is far too easy to do.
CharlieP Jan 2017 11:58am, 31 Jan 2017 662 posts	Quote Pin CharlieP No, the half distance is half of 42.195 km, which was defined as such in the 1920s using the famous London 1908 race (an original course of "about 25 to 26 miles" which had a course change of about 385 yards added at the last minute). 26 miles 385 yards is an approximation, 26.2 miles even more so.