I wish all my American comrades in arms a very good Fourth of July! Enjoy the craic! (craic is an Irish word for excitement). I only hope that the temperature is not too high up in the thirties! Remember: last year on the Fourth, a certain Steven T. in Sunderland, Britain, got a visit he did not like at all! Personally I also celebrate the remembrance of 1837 July 4, when France went metric for good and the Napoleonic monstrosity was slain; marking the metric take off into the world. In Ireland very slow progress. Most improvement I have seen is in the real estate business, where often sq.m (sq.ft) appears in announcements on roadsides and in printed matter. The hectare is also starting to make inroads. No metric speed signs however; the fl.oz nonsense from Coca Cola I saw last year seems to have vanished. It is liters and milliliters again. Still a stupid anti-metric ad from Bulmers on TV about pints of cider in a world of milliliters. Han
