Rivalarrival

Every measurement system has had its formal definition changed several times. The kilogram, for example, was once formally defined as the mass of a specific block of metal in France, which was later determined to be losing mass, and thus made a pretty terrible standard. Now, the kilogram is formally defined in terms of the meter and the Planck Constant.

Celsius was once defined by the freezing and boiling points of water, but those aren't actually constant: Fahrenheit's brine mixture is actually significantly more consistent. Kelvin's degree spacing comes from that definition of Celsius, but it it was eventually redefined to be more precise by using the triple point of water: pure water at a specific pressure and temperature where it can simultaneously exist as solid, liquid, and gas. Significantly more accurate, but not enough: Kelvin was redefined in 2019 in terms of joules, which are in turn defined by kg, m, s, which are ultimately defined in terms of the Planck constant.

Celsius is now formally defined in terms of Kelvin. Fahrenheit is also formally defined in terms of Kelvin. Fahrenheit's brine story is just a piece of trivia.

100 is the imprecise average body temperature of the developer

That's a myth. It's no more true than the myth that it was the body temperature of horses, or that the scale was designed to reflect how humans experience the weather. (It happens to reflect how humans experience the weather, but this was an incidental characteristic and not the purpose for which the scale was designed.)

The Fahrenheit scale starts to make sense when you realize he was a geometrist. It turns out that a base-10 system of angular measurement objectively sucks ass, so the developer wasn't particularly interested geometrically irrelevant numbers like "100", but in geometrically interesting numbers like "180". He put 180 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water. (212F - 32F = 180F)

After settling on the "width" of his degree, he measured down to a repeatable origin point, which happened to be 32 of his degrees below the freezing point of water. He wanted a dial thermometer to point straight down in ice water, straight up in boiling water, and to use the same angular degrees as a protractor.

The calibration point he chose wasn't the "freezing point" of the "random brine mixture". The brine was water, ice, and ammonium chloride, which together form a frigorific mixture due to the phase change of the water. As the mixture is cooled, it resists getting colder than 0F due to the phase change of the water to ice. As it is warmed, it resists getting warmer than 0F due to the phase change of ice to water. (Obviously, it can't maintain this relationship indefinitely. But so long as there is ice and liquid brine, the brine will maintain this temperature.) This makes it repeatable, in labs around the world.

And it wasn't a "random" brine mixture: it was the coldest and most stable frigorific mixture known to the scientific community.

This criticism of Fahrenheit is borne of simple ignorance: people don't understand how or why it was developed, and assume he was an idiot. He wasn't. He had very good reasons for his choices.

The only relevant factors I can think of are jurisdictional. You don't risk having your servers stolen by jackbooted government agents when your servers are safely beyond their physical reach.

Caption: Taylor Swift, wearing a black turtleneck, holding her dinner.

The ACA is Obama's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". It is better than what we had before it. It is the best option we could enact at the time. It is fucking disgustingly terrible, and needs to die in a goddamn fire.

Is she going to eat that cat?

Those are called "dormitories", and they work very well on college campuses and in the military.

You need a whole host of communal facilities to make them work, including a cafeteria. Dorm life isn't for everyone, but it is certainly feasible.

Don't try sucking up to me now.

When it was time to decide whether to order DoorDash or go to the grocery store, you had enough fucks to get out the door. But when it comes time to put the cart back, you're suddenly at bingo fucks and need to immediately RTB?

May all your shits be runny.

It's just so arbitrary

All of them are. The decision to use water at all is completely arbitrary. Even Kelvin and Rankine are completely arbitrary: the "width" of the degrees is not defined by a physical factor, but relative to an entirely arbitrary concept.

probably the most ridiculous rebuttal you could have come up with. People will bring the infrastructure with them?

Yes.

Where people need food and have money, someone builds a produce stand, a convenience store, a grocery store, a supermarket, whatever other infrastructure the consumer base will support in their quest to do business. They want the money the consumers have, so businesspeople build the places where consumers can spend their money.

But business only works when consumers actually have money. When they don't have any money, nobody is interested in supplying them with goods and services, and nothing gets built.

Put the money in their pockets, and watch businesspeople trip over themselves to sell them shit.

I mean, I have clothes. Long underwear? Layers? Coats, gloves, hats, scarves?

They say you can always put on more clothes if you're cold, but that's not really true. Insulation adds bulk, and bulk reduces mobility. Around 0F is where I start to have real trouble wearing enough clothing to stay warm while still being able to perform the activity that has me outside in that weather. Somewhere around 0F, clothing doesn't really cut it, and I need shelter or additional heat.