Born to be w... eh, accurate

It's somewhat amazing how measuring can be overlooked sometimes. And in some cases it's got to be perfect. I have examples to demonstrate, why of course.

When you measure your weight, it seems very important to know how much you weigh by the tenths of a kilogram. Soon we will demand on seeing the hundredths as well! Digital scales make accurate measuring possible, but human weight itself isn't that accurate. Or stable. I bought a mechanic scale in IKEA, and it shows a different value every time! It's not satisfying to hop on the scale and get even 5-kilo differences between two measurings inside 20 seconds.

I have heard that there are scales that are 'fat-friendly', i.e. they lie about your weight. Why pay extra for that kind of feature, when you can calibrate your mechanic scale to show less? And furthermore, is it worth lying to yourself about your weight, since you still know that the scale isn't telling the truth?

It's a known fact that they calibrate downwards the speedometers in cars. To me that's a bit frustrating. I may have too much engineer blood in my veins. If there's a speed limit 100 km/h, I'd like to drive exactly in that speed. There are sometimes speedometers on the road which are telling your actual speed. As I drive my Renault at 110 km/h, my real speed is only 105 km/h. So I'm barely speeding, when I'm doing 110. Luckily my Swedish speedo shows 70, 90 , 110 etc. instead of 60, 80, 100 etc. I can appease myself and pretend 110 translates to 100 in Finnish, LOL! That's not how this deliberate downwards calibrating should affect though.

When measuring outside temperature, it's annoying to get false readings. For example our thermometer outside the window usually has 1-3 degrees warmer temperature than official meters. I guess the window lets the heat out that much. In newer cars there's a thermometer integrated. I have had my doubts (as usual), but it seems to give more accurate readings than the one outside the window.

Someone could develope a matchstick for measuring dicks (here we go again!). It would show 10 inches for everyone. Or more, if needed. It might be just about as useful as the lying scale. And mirrors could be tampered with so that they'd show skinnier people. And a year should take 730 days so that everyone were only half his/her age.

Personally I'd prefer accuracy, even if it weren't that nice to face the truth all the time. The truth may hurt sometimes but who's to blame on that? Engineers?