Oh, I knew a pole was not ten feet. However, my mind just went off on a
tangent.
Brain fart.
Bill
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Potts
WFP Consulting <http://wfpconsulting.com/>
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org <http://metric1.org/> [SI Navigator]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
*On Behalf Of *David
*Sent:* Saturday, January 10, 2009 11:14
*To:* U.S. Metric Association
*Subject:* [USMA:42294] Re: the metric system, bureaucracy, and, uh,
sodomy?
I forgot about the pole as a unit of measure. But I think they were
referring to the "10-foot pole" saying, since 10 feet is 3.048
meters. I was just joking about soft metrication. Had that been some
kind of product or good, they would round it down to a nice 3 meters.
--- On *Sat, 1/10/09, Bill Potts /<[email protected]>/* wrote:
From: Bill Potts <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:42290] Re: the metric system, bureaucracy, and,
uh, sodomy?
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, January 10, 2009, 6:53 PM
As a unit of measure, the pole would disappear completely
(although I think it probably already has).
"I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole" should remain,
unaltered, as the metaphor it always was, along with
"seven-league boots" and non-metaphorical names like inch worm.
Idiots like Hannity can't see beyond conversion tables and don't
(or won't) understand that, in any case, there's no point it
trying to convert rough estimates using absolute precision. My
suggestion that he (and others like him) *won't *understand it
is because he's simply a blow-hard alarmist who will say
anything, however stupid, to make (or believe he's making) his
point.
Bill
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Potts
WFP Consulting <http://wfpconsulting.com/>
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org <http://metric1.org/> [SI Navigator]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *David
*Sent:* Saturday, January 10, 2009 10:18
*To:* U.S. Metric Association
*Subject:* [USMA:42288] Re: the metric system, bureaucracy,
and, uh, sodomy?
Yeah, I saw that. That's such a shame, because they're
really grasping at straws. The metric system is fine in
day-to-day life. People think meters are too big? Every
person in every other country would think feet are too
small. And if metrication were done correctly the pole would
be rounded down to 3 meters. ;)
People always tell me that we shouldn't transition because
people don't want it, but I say that people don't know what
they want. If people were educated about the metric system,
and I mean everyone and not just students, then the stigma
would go away.
--- On *Sat, 1/10/09, Victor Jockin /<[email protected]>/*
wrote:
From: Victor Jockin <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:42287] Re: the metric system,
bureaucracy, and, uh, sodomy?
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, January 10, 2009, 6:07 PM
Here's another amusing one that I found on the Hannity
forum that Paul mentioned a while back. Maybe some of
you saw it:
Every country that uses metrics is either Socialist,
Fascist or Communist. I don't want to give up our
Republican form of government just so some engineers
don't have to use a calculator. Metricfied
expressions like: "I wouldn't touch that with a
3.048 meter pole" doesn't make sense and seems dumb
to say. What about membership in the "1760 Meter
High Club"? It sounds stupid!
Say NO to metrics!
There's a pretty strong positive relationship between
support for metrication and educational attainment.
Also, social conservatives are generally fearful of
instability or change. Those two attributes -- low
intelligence, and a belief the world is full of scary
people who must be stopped -- produces some hilarious
prose. Now if only there were fewer such people out there.
*From:* Paul Trusten <mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:* 01/10/2009 9:30 AM
*To:* U.S. Metric Association <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* [USMA:42286] the metric system, bureaucracy,
and, uh, sodomy?
What we'll be confronting as U.S. metrication
approaches--extracted from a corner of Facebook:
WHY PEOPLE HATE IT
There is a good reason why people only adopt the metric
system when they are forced to by unjust, bureaucratic
governments:
Because it is inferior, for day-to-day use. Systems
which naturally evolved for the convenience of the user
are almost always better than systems set up by ivory
tower academics, and this is a perfect example of that.
Virginia D. Templeton
<http://www.facebook.com/s.php?k=100000080&id=632219367>
wrote
at 3:34pm on January 6th, 2009
The metric system is of the Devil. It was, after all,
created by a cabal of God-hating French sodomites to
make their genitalia sound bigger when bragging to
potential same-sex "lovers" with the hope of picking
them up for a night of wicked, debauched, feces-smeared
buggery in the back room of some rat-infested
"fromagerie." God hates it.
I just thought I'd offer this up, because there are a
lot of people in the U.S. who missed, or preferred to
miss, the entire 1970s U.S. metrication movement, and
will find 21st-century metrication just as
objectionable, with the old religious and
armchair-mathematics objections resurfacing.
Unfortunately, "metric system" is a phrase that is still
used either as a threat or as a joke among Americans. We
shall need strong leadership to take us to our goal.
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
www.metric.org <http://www.metric.org>
3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 US
+1(432)528-7724
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
