I sent this message to Mrs. Dougherty: Dear Mrs Dougherty, I am from the Netherlands, a metric country, and I use the metric system exclusively. I read your article of May 5 last in the Norfok Virginia Pilot in which you attacked the metric system. Nobody who has learned it will ever confuse centimeters with kilometers. In US/UK units however, it is very well possible to confuse US gallons with UK gallons, avoirdupois weight with Troy weight, US fl.oz with UK fl. oz, statute miles with nautical miles, etc. etc., etc. No wonder that these units are being rejected by almost all nations on this planet. You could go to http://nist.gov . Surf its weights and measures pages and find out about the Mendenhall Order of 1893. There you will see what the United States primary standards have been since that year. On the Internet is enough information about the metric system and about the Mars Climate Orbiter, which would help you to get your facts straight. Please, if you object to the metric system, use rational arguments, not what you have used in your article. I just doubt whether it is possible to defend United States units with rational arguments. Yours sincerely, Han Maenen, The Netherlands [EMAIL PROTECTED] PS: I found this on http://www.metricsucks.com It looks like an attack on the metric system, but in fact it pokes fun at US units and shows exactly what they stand for. Metric is for third world countries Posted By: XXXXXXXXXXX Date: Tuesday, 1 May 2001, at 12:17 a.m. An American does not have any difficulty in telling you how much feet is 1"3/4 + 5"3/64 + 8"13/16 + 1' even without a pocket calculator. But find one Worldling (inhabitant of the world which sadly is metric now) who could tell you without a computer how many meters is 15 cm + � meter + 45 cm + 0.2 m ! They use kilo in kilogram, kilometers, kilohertz, and kilobytes because they say it means one thousand. How confusing ! If it is small, use ounce, inch, fluidic ounce, if it is neither small nor big use feet, pound, pint, if it is big use hundredweight, mile, gallon. Much easier, by the unit you already have an idea how it looks. Same for dry and liquid measures ! A different unit for different product, that is smart ! The foot is divided in 12 inches, 3 foot to the yard. Handy to divide by 2, 3, 4, etc. Not like stupid metric in decimal. Same for the pound in 16 oz, easy to divide by 2, 3, 4 inch in 16th, 32th and 64th and of course the statute mile in 5280 feet. Try to divide a km by 5280 ! Try to divide a kg by 7000 ! No problem with a pound, it is 7000 grains. And if you like decimal, temperature in Fahrenheit is decimal ! There is one unit for any taste in US measures! A yard is from the tip of the King nose to the tip of his extended arm. If no King is available you can use yours. Easy to measure distance as you always carry these appendices but who carries a meter stick in his pocket ? Any American can read map and figure distance and area on a topo map at a scale of 1/24000 but find one Worldling who knows that on a map at a scale of 1/25000, one cm is 250m ! Any American knows that 1200 feet is shorter than � mile but find one metric advocate who knows than 250m is a � km ! Any American mechanic who has to tap for a 1032 screw knows it is 0.1935 inch diameter and he has to use a #19 drill before taping and a 13/64 drill for the clearance hole. Now find a metric mechanic who knows that for a M5 screw he has to use a drill of 5mm 0.8mm (standard pitch of a M5), that is 4.2mm and a 5.2 mm drill for clearance hole. I even heard about these mechanics throwing the 1032 screws in the dustbin and replacing them by M5 which indeed is about the same and furthermore fits OK in a 1032 nut ! (a 1032 is 4.9mm diam., pitch 0.79mm). This is NUT! Thanks to US customary measures, American cuisine is the best. The world wants to eat pounds of McDonalds, 10 inch Pizza Hut and drink gallons of Coke ! Now pity these Frenchies that are so poor they have to eat snails and frogs ! The metric system honors British scumbags like Newton, Watt, Kelvin etc. Americans kicked the Brits out, let's kick them now too ! These traitors have now embraced metric! The above are just a few examples of the vast intellectual superiority of Americans but let it be known too that metric is bad, it is evil. Invented by the French, imposed by a dictator, Napoleon, and spread over the world thanks to communism. America with its allies, Miramar and Burma will soon conquer back the world. What we need to fight the metric conspiracy is an other Mc Carthy. Metric is used by drug dealers, it helps innercity kids carry their business and rot our youth ! Just say NO to metric ! Don't put your children in college if chemistry, physic, biology and all kind of evil science are taught in metric. They even try to make you believe that Almighty God did not create the Universe in 6 days ! For a metric free America, write your congressman ! God bless America !
