Only too bad that here metric is part and parcel of a horrific Nazi/Bolshevik society. I read somewhere, some years ago, that a US edition of 1984 was ifp. In 1984 Britain was Imperial before the 'Revolution' but the party of Ingsoc metricated after it came to power. In 1984 the party was replacing the English language with Newspeak. And 1984 begins with what is now ISO 8601: "It was a clear, cold day and the bells struck thirteen". (Translated from the Dutch edition).
But the contemporary totalitarians, the Jacobins, did not support metrication. Let it be known that during the French Revolution guillotine-lovers like Marat were not in favour of metric at all. They hounded at least two people who were involved to their deaths and threatened Delambe and Mechain with the guillotine and the lamp-post. In Saint-Denis a mob of hysterical Jacobins screamed that Delambre should be strung up 'a la lanterne, a la lanterne!', as they thought he was a Royalist, Austrian, British spie. Lavoisier was guillotined, and Condorcet died in jail before he could be guillotined. Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Owen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, 2002-10-11 20:01 Subject: [USMA:22627] RE: Metric Pub Here's the part about pints & litres from Orwell's 1984: On the opposite side of the alley there was a dingy little pub whose windows appeared to be frosted over but in reality were merely coated with dust.............. <snip>
