Obscure Units of Measure

The US is one of two countries which does not use the metric system. People think our way of measuring things doesn't make any sense, I agree. Here are a few other measurements which are slightly more odd. 

DALY

Which is short for Disability-adjusted life year. It is used to measure medical outcomes and compare them to one another. Lets say you have the chance to save 20 kids from going blind or heal 500 retirees from prostate cancer. How do you decide what to do? Easy Find out how many DALYs each patient would gain, multiply by patient number and voila.

The grim explanation would be: "Death Panels."

The happy explanation would be:

two patients have torn ACL's. The first is an active 20 sometime who loves running, the second is an 85 year old retiree who enjoys leisurely strolls along the beach and reading a good book.

The two options for a torn ACL are Surgery followed by Physical Therapy, or no surgery and different sort of Physical Therapy that focuses on strengthening adjacent muscle groups to compensate for the lack of ACL.

Almost all surgeons will recommend surgery/PT for the 20 year old and just PT for the 85 year old. The risk of surgery for a 20 year old is minimal, and the lifetime benefits of having a fully rehabbed knee are substantial. The risk of surgery for an 85 year old is substantial, and the lifetime benefits of a fully rehabbed knee over a partially rehabbed knee are minimal.

The Stone 

 The U.K. has a unit of measurement called a "stone." One stone is equal to 14 pounds which is equal to 6.36 kg.

And they think Americans are silly for using the Imperial system. 

Poronkusema

This measurement relates to: the distance a reindeer could travel without stopping to urinate...not well defined but allegedly a maximum of 7.5 km. 

Banana Equivalent Dose (BED)

First, did you even know bananas a radioactive? 

A banana contains the naturally occurring radioactive material - potassium 40.

BED is an informal measurement of ionizing radiation exposure, intended as a general educational example to compare a dose of radioactivity to the dose one is exposed to by eating one average-sized banana. The BED is only meant to inform the public about the existence of very low levels of natural radioactivity within a natural food and is not a formally adopted dose measurement.

The radiation exposure from consuming a banana is approximately 1% of the average daily exposure to radiation, which is 100 banana equivalent doses (BED). The maximum permitted radiation leakage for a nuclear power plant is equivalent to 2,500 BED (250 μSv) per year, while a chest CT scan delivers 70,000 BED (7 mSv). A lethal dose of radiation is approximately 35,000,000 BED (3500 mSv). A person living 16 kilometres (10 mi) from the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor received an average of 800 BED of exposure to radiation during the 1979 accident.

Source: wikipedia 

Butt

"The 'butt' was a measure of liquid volume equaling two hogsheads or half of a tun. This equated to 108 imperial gallons (490 l) for ale or 126 imperial gallons (570 l) for wine (also known as a pipe)...figure all those out.

 So, if you like big butts and cannot lie, you essentially like large volumes of liquid.

 Waffle House Index

The Waffle House Index is an informal metric used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to determine the effect of a storm and the likely scale of assistance required for disaster recovery.

"If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That's really bad. That's when you go to work."

The index has three levels, based on the extent of operations and service at the restaurant following a storm:

• GREEN: full menu - restaurant has power and damage is limited.
• YELLOW: limited menu - no power or only power from a generator, or food supplies may be low.
• RED: the restaurant is closed - indicating severe damage.

Cord

A cord is a unit for volume of wood. It measures four feet high by four feet wide by eight feet long (4 ft. x 4 ft. x 8 ft.) and has a volume of 128 cubic feet. The amount of solid wood in a cord varies depending on the size of the pieces, but for firewood it averages about 85 cubic feet.

It is called a cord because bundles of wood are tied together with a cord.  

Hand

A hand is a non-SI unit with a standard length of 4 inches.
It is used to measure the height of horses in some English-speaking countries,