Dear Bill (Hooper) You write:
> You are free to use or not use the officially authorised and > standardized symbol "g" for grams if you insist, but that simply means > that you think anyone should be able to use any symbol or any spelling > they please for anything and everything. Thanks - we are getting close to agreement on this now. As far as individuals go in most instances I do think this. As far as institutions go I think its a balancing act and we have to tread carefully. A lot of people have written thoughtfully on this fundamental matter (Lewis Carroll and Chomsky come to mind immediately) There is far too much to be said on it to attempt to tackle it here. On a key issue regarding retail weight standards in the UK I feel that the big four or five food retailers have a near monopoly and do need to be regulated - and in a population where old folk think in imperial and kids in metric if it were me I would probably legislate for them to display both. However regarding sole traders etc selling apples on a local market - they should be free to use Abas, Abuccos, Acinos, Adarmes, or whatever else they chose as a weight standard. If they did they would likely quickly go out of business - but that is their affair too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the back of all this is a deep concern. Most of the people I have met who have any opinion at all on the matter think that Plato was a very great philosopher. And this seem to have been true in Europe and Persia for about a couple of thousand years give or take. Now Plato wrote: "The greatest principle of all is that nobody, whether male or female, should be without a leader. Nor should the mind of anybody be habituated to letting him do anything at all on his own initiative; neither out of zeal or even playfully" Speaking personally - this seem to me good enough grounds for me to take a pretty sceptical view of what my fellow man is likely to be up to - anytime anyplace - if I don't keep my eye on him. Many thanks for your thoughts regards rob (Robert Tye, York, UK)
