My response to Amy Chavez: The biggest problem with the Japanese copying America's bad eating habits, however, is that we fear they will find out one of our darkest secrets -- the one about why we haven't converted to the metric system. Metric measurements are, quite simply, too small for our tastes. How could we live without being able to buy a gallon of buttered popcorn at the movie theater?
The Japanese don't care if the US is metric or not. They like everyone in the world have no problem selling Americans products designed, engineered and manufactured strictly in the metric system using only metric parts. The status of the US as far as metric is concerned does not seem to prevent the US from importing milliards of euros in metric goods and services. But for some reason, it does seem to prevent the world from buying US non-metric goods and services. So who are the real idiots when it comes to metric issue? Imagine a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with cheese being, instead, a 0.1 Kilogrammer with cheese. That's microscopic! I can imagine the quarter-pounder being more properly called a "hundred grammer" and it's a grabber. Those of us who use the metric system have the POWER to tailor it to our needs. We can make a unit seem bigger or smaller just my choosing different prefixes. If 10 cm seems to small to our perceptions, the 100 mm seems bigger. This power does not exist in FFU (Fred Flintstone Units). If FFU was so great, then people everywhere would be using it. But they don't. The basic reason is that FFU does not fit their needs as metric does. Metric has given many the power to emerge quickly from the stone age into the modern world. You would do yourself a greater service to become more familiar with the power and versatility of the metric system and use your role as a journalist to promote it instead of allowing it to frustrate you and make you realise the US is on the losing end of the metric-FFU argument. You can start here: http://www.bipm.fr/en/si/ And of course, more fundamentally, the metric system doesn't include handfuls, shots of tequila or pitchers of beer. Those are the "units" of a by-gone stone age Fred Flintstone era. The metre, kilogram, second, ampere, Kelvin, mole and candela and many derived units are the units of the age of technology. The fact that the metric system does not possess those odd units is a asset to metric, and something that will keep the metric system around long after FFU is dead. Euric ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nat Hager III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, 2004-03-19 18:13 Subject: [USMA:29241] RE: Have I been taken off list? No you haven't. > Well, then let's stir the pot a bit.... > > http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20040320cz.htm > > Nat > > <snip>.... > > The biggest problem with the Japanese copying America's bad eating > habits, however, is that we fear they will find out one of our darkest > secrets -- the one about why we haven't converted to the metric system. > Metric measurements are, quite simply, too small for our tastes. How > could we live without being able to buy a gallon of buttered popcorn at > the movie theater? > > Imagine a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with cheese being, instead, a 0.1 > Kilogrammer with cheese. That's microscopic! > > And of course, more fundamentally, the metric system doesn't include > handfuls, shots of tequila or pitchers of beer. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Bill Potts > Sent: Friday, 2004 March 19 13:49 > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:29240] RE: Have I been taken off list? No you haven't. > > > Don Hillger has assured me that all is normal with the list server. > > I think it's just that everyone fell asleep (or something). > > Bill Potts, CMS > Roseville, CA > http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] > > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Behalf Of Stephen Davis > >Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 10:44 > >To: U.S. Metric Association > >Subject: [USMA:29239] Have I been taken off list? > > > > > >I haven't received any emails from the USMA mailing list for about > >two days now! > > > >Has the email address changed or have I been taken off the list? > > > >Regards, > > > >Steve. > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > >
