2002-12-26 It is only a positive sign if the authors and reviewers are ignored. But, if they are able to damage any progress, they can not be ignored!
John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nat Hager III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, 2002-12-26 10:41 Subject: RE: [USMA:24245] How the West Was Measured, One Chain at a Time.htm > Sure. Metric is looming large enough on the horizon that opponents are > becoming defensive. Authors see the trend and view it as an opportunity to > write books. > > Consider it as a positive sign! > > Nat > > >>>> > 2002-12-26 > > I find it odd that all of a sudden we are being inundated with books that > have a measurement theme. It strikes me odd that both books written and > reviewed this year have an underlying anti-metric theme. This books seems > to come at us from a different angle. Instead of concentrating on > non-existent errors in the early calculation of the metre, this book tends > to glorify the measurement of the American continent in links, chains, > yards, acres and miles. > > One should be asking why are these books appearing? This one seems to be > saying: "America, you can't go metric. FFU is ingrained in our soil. You > can't measure your personal land in metres, it was already done so by the > blood and sweat of American pioneers in chains and miles. You would be > destroying so much if you abandon our earth bound and honoured units for > those foreign, artificial and abstract units of the metric system. And look > folks, even in metric countries, the people resist and still use our natural > units" > > The 2-nd last paragraph of the review attacks Europe because it is the > inventor of metric and Canada because they defied the FFU-ists and went > metric, only to stop half-way creating confusion. And if the US ever thinks > of going metric, this is where we will be. > > I feel these books are designed to give comfort to the US for not > metricating and sticking with FFU. It is like they are saying: "No matter > how much the world is against you, you are right in sticking with FFU, and > you will win in the end. But, you must continue to be on guard and fight, > because the Hitlers and Stalins and Husseins of the metric world want to > destroy you by forcing you to adopt their phoney measurements." > > When will someone write a book praising SI? That is what we need. > > John > >>> > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Nat Hager III > To: U.S. Metric Association > Sent: Thursday, 2002-12-26 05:05 > Subject: [USMA:24245] How the West Was Measured, One Chain at a Time.htm > > > Appeared in the NY Times this morning... > > Nat. > >
