Han, Yes, one would wonder why a pro-metric website would give advertisement space to an article that is anti-metric. But then if you read down to the comments you will see why.
These two comments I found the most interesting. The first one makes a connection between who sets the rules and who benefits. Since the US once set the rules for everyone else to follow it never needed to be metric. The world had to cater to the US in whatever units the US demanded. The burden of two systems was on the world, now it is on the US. Now that arrogance has come home to roost. Not being willing to change is bankrupting the US. True US unemployment is now at 20 % and getting worse month-by-month. Since we will never change the situation will get so bad that it will cause the break-up of the Union. There is already a growing secessionist movement in Texas. The second comment shows how the rest of the world strive to be better by learning multiple languages and do whatever it takes to make their lives better, where-as in the US we want to be like dinosaurs. We get angry when everyone passes us by instead of trying to move past them and staying ahead. The US's loss is everyone Else's gain. createyourfuture. I guess our desire for something (actually anything) new has led us to the current global market which is functioning so well. I for one liked the old system whereby we dictated to the rest of the world how we would measure things and they responded to that or went broke. Now the world dictates and we don't have a chance to change because we are broke and getting more broken daily. Sad that something that was good enough for my grandpa isn't good enough for us today. And he was a person that gave it his all to assure this country would be great. Really sad how we have changed. Posted by disssman on Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:20 PM The metric system is used worldwide because it is a more simple and precise system of measurement. The sad fact is that we Americans are too lazy to embrace and learn anything new and different, even when we know it to be better. People in most the industrialized world are fluent in more than one language, while many of us speak our native English poorly. We're better than that! Change is inevitable, but we can choose to embrace it and benefit from it, rather than continue to think that 'if it was good enough for grandpa, it's good enough for me'.... Posted by worldview on Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:40 PM Jerry ________________________________ From: Han Maenen <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 7:18:30 AM Subject: [USMA:44730] Is this a joke or is it supposed to be serious? I was on the USMA site on the page 'Published articles about metric - 2009' and found this: Metric is no way to measure By Glynn Moore| Columnist Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, 2009-Mar-16, 1p., Moore,G.; Metric is no way to measure. [http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/03/16/moo_514811.shtml] I can hardly believe that an intelligent person can spout such trash. All the old scare mongering canards are back again like: A body temperature of 37.77 degrees, converted from 101.8 degrees Fahrenheit - too accurate. A weatherman predicting 26.7 C = 80 degrees Fahrenheit. That is new to me: nature has standardized the weather to the Fahrenheit scale (and I also suppose to the inHg and the inch of precipitation). Using metric the weatherman would predict 27 degrees of course. A speed limit of 55 mph equates to 88 km/h. In metric it would be 90 km/h. "As globalization continues, a football field is destined to become 91.44 meters long". Of course, if American football should go metric one day, it would be wile to move to a 100 m field. Although soccer still uses soft converted measurements. Not one valid argument against metric, just garbage. Maybeis this supposed to be funny. Han
