John, I have often contacted them and I have even posted on their Battleboards, in other words, I have blotted my copybook with them. I asked them these questions several times without results. The BWMA just stated that they do not care on what basis Imperial and US units are standardized. They know that I am not an innocent bystander but a hardened metric villain. I think that you or any other member of the list who'd like to accept this challenge should contact them now; they do not know you yet and you are an American (see the address below). BTW, they do not yet know about the antics of Maporama and they will surely never get it from me! That would be a major propaganda coup for them.
Yet this goes to [EMAIL PROTECTED] as they are really going stark raving mad now. And I will still confront them once again with the standardization of Imperial basic units. Han Sir, Some comments on what I found on the footrule site because the BWMA now really seems to think that mainland Europeans prefer Imperial to metric units: >From an e-mail of Jose O'Ware: "I was very intrigued by a piece of information from one commentator, who said that the circles on the ice were still measured in imperial at 4, 8 and 12 feet wide. But don't worry, once the Metric Thought Police have caught up with this one, it will be so much easier to remember it in the metric equivalent of 1219mm, 2438mm and 3657mm.... won't it? I'm also told that the Curling Stones weigh 44lb each, I'll leave it to you to convert that one into the usual incomprehensible kilos." Jos� O'Ware *Do you really think that the metric system is used in such a stupid way? For instance speed limits of 48.28032 km/h in built up areas, 80.4672 km/h on country roads and 112.5298 km/h on motorways? Buying in our shops in multiples of 28.35 and 454 g and petrol in multiples of 4.54 L? * 4, 8 and 12 ft would be converted to 1200, 2400 and 3600 mm or even more sensibly to 1.2, 2.4 and 3.6 m and 44 lbs is of course 20 kg if metric were used. >From "seeing sense' on Yardstick Dec. 2001, some statements put in persepctive. The Sunday Telegraph on 23 September reported that "Belgian police arrested two men in Brussels and seized a large quantity of chemicals which could be used for bomb making. This included 220 lb of sulphur and 13 gallons of acetone." *Yes, sure, the Belgian police uses gallons and pounds! Only, 220 lbs = 100 kg and 13 gallons (I presume Imperial ones) 55 L, rounded to the value I think was really used. I'd rather think that this anti-European newspaper has converted metric to trash that is not used in Belgium. "The Times' on 27 July had another fishy story, about the hunt for a 40lb Welsh catfish: "He comes from mainland Europe, where they can grow up to 300lb". On 25 June the same newspaper had reported that: "A stuffed trout weighing 30lb 9oz - a British record - will be auctioned in London tomorrow." * This '300 lb' fish would have been weighed in kilograms on the continent; sensibly rounded to 150 kg as the '300 lb' value is just approximate. Telegraph'). John Burland, a 64 year-old professor of soil mechanics at Imperial College, London, is the man who has finally stopped the leaning tower from leaning too far. What he has done is to ease the whole 19,000 ton marble-and-stone tower back 20.16 inches [20 and 1/6th] from the very brink of disaster where it has teetered for more than 160 years. He has pulled off this feat of engineering by, each day, pondering the latest measurements taken at the tower and then sending a fax to show precisely where a few more buckets of soil should be excavated from under the base. As a consequence of each fax, the whole tower would ease back another 1/50th of an inch or so, sinking a little deeper into the ancient river silt on which it was so inadvisably built almost 830 years ago.By the end of the year, tourists will be clambering the staircase to the top of the 200ft edifice for the first time in more than a decade. * Of course, we also use Imperial for this. Really? I saw a program on this issue on Discovery Channel where nothing but metric was used, not just by the commentator but also by all those who were involved in this rescue attempt. As Italy is a metric country, the Tower is 60 m high. Period. Once again the metric units that were really used were converted to what we do not use by a British anti-EU newspaper. 'The Sunday Telegraph' on 12 August reported that "The largest roller-coaster in Europe is due to open at Europa Park in Germany next spring. 'Silver Star', a 229ft 'hypercoaster', will feature an enormous 210ft initial drop at a 70 degree angle. It will have a motor-sport theme and passengers will race along 5,315ft of steel track in one of 3 trains reaching speeds of up to 81 mph. The first looping roller-coaster was built in Britain and exported to the Frascati Gardens in Paris in the 1840s. Passengers rode down a 43ft high slope on a small cart and through a 13ft6in wide circle." * The same; the measuring units that were really used were converted by an anti-EU British newspaper to what we do not use. BTW, 81 mph converts to 130 km/h. Peter Scott of Higher Denham sent a postcard from Madrid to advise that the C & A Store there was selling jeans with the waist and leg measurements marked only in inches; while El Corte Ingles (the major department store) was selling photo-frames marked only in inches. But that's a free country! * Some rude, insensitive company that is attempting to impose British units on metric countries. I have seen such photoframes from China. I boycott such companies and I shun jeans because of this too. Spanish people still do not understand what inches are and have to convert them to cm. To hell with these companies! Most photoframes I see are either metric-only or metric and Imperial. And I am convinced that in Britain photoframes can still be sold in inch-sizes only. But they should NOT be sold that way in metric countries and these countries should use the law against such companies. Even if your units have infiltrated metric Europe, we will never adopt them and one day we will boot them out once and for all. Generations of schoolboys were tormented in the economic sections of our secondary schools till about 1960 with making up invoices in ton-cwt-qr-lb as Britain had imposed this trash on international trade. My father hated and loathed Imperial because of that. There have been cases where entire classes REFUSED to learn it! This has now been a thing of the past for about 40 years. I already committed crimes against Imperial in the seventies. I convinced my English teacher in 1974 to use Imperial units *only in a purely British or American context*. She had expressed a distance between two Dutch places in miles during an English lesson; I took action and she accepted my point that Imperial should never be used when the issue involves a metric country. The Imperial 'system' and the US 'system' have been nothing but second hand metric systems since 1959. Their basic units are all defined in terms of the international metric standards. And in the US this was already the case from 1893. Have you ever heard about the Mendenhall Order of that year? Also, all units used to measure electric quantities are metric and they were developed by British (!!!!) scientists in the 19th century. How can the BWMA live with that? Why don't you campaign for the restoration of pure Imperial standards? Your two sets of units are just parasites on SI. I deeply resent this abuse of the metric system. I am just listening to the weather forecast. I do NOT hear any measurement in Fahrenheit, inches etc., just metric only, the altitude of the jetstream is given as 10 km, Yours faithfully, H. Maenen, The Netherlands Anti-Imperialist
