I don't know about the Russians and the Norwegians (having only spent a few days in Norway and never having visited Russia), but the South Africans almost certainly used metric units (I lived in South Africa for almost 30 years). ----- Original Message ----- From: Harry Wyeth To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 8:22 AM Subject: [USMA:37857] Drives me crazy!
Another drives-me-nuts product of the National Geographic! HARRY WYETH ----- Original Message ----- From: Harry Wyeth To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 12:18 AM Subject: Nonsense "traditional" measurements Dear Editors; No one, but no one, in the English speaking world measures height in yards. But on page 142 of the January issue we read about the Arctic travelers encountering "six yard(s) high" ice blockages. In an article about an expedition from Russia by Norwegian and South African venturers, would it be too difficult to tell it the way they experienced it--with metric measurements? They surely didn't relate to any media that the ice floes were "six yards" high! The height was 6 m. The open lead referred to was 400 m wide. The 375 pound sleds were 170 kg. And at the end, they discovered that they were 1000 m or one km from the North Pole (not 1000 yards!), for heaven's sake. By dumbing down worldwide metric standard measurements, your editors are insulting Americans' intelligence. HARRY WYETH
