I agree that what this columnist said is utterly stupid. Howver, I think we can be encouraged by the responses - not one totally agreed with him, and even those who sort of sympathised qualified their comments by saying that the US is really out of touch and must change if it wants to be a part of this world.
John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: Han Maenen To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 12:18 PM 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. Maybe is this supposed to be funny. Han