I wish people who write or translate for US audiences would have enough respect to use our units of measure.
Forcing metric on Americans is as insulting as asking us to “press 1 for English”.
I know there are FReepers who think this is trivial, but they are wrong.
Yes, it is easy enough to translate and make conversions when necessary. I speak several languages, and there are occasions where it makes sense to borrow terms from other languages. I can convert Celsius to Fahrenheit faster than anyone I know, but why should I have to?
I’ve heard the argument that metric is the language of the sciences - but that is bullshit and it is pure snobbery. I’ve heard the argument that metric somehow better or more accurate. Bullshit.
If metric is so “scientific”, why do scientists still divide a circle into 360 degrees rather than say, 100? Why are measures of time not multiples of 10?
Some sciences borrow vocabulary from Latin and Greek as well - but that different - it is not because it is somehow better or more accurate - it is simply because those languages are older, and were spoken by the developers of those sciences.
This attempt to foist metric upon the USA is just another example of the Left’s contempt for the USA - they are ashamed to be Americans - they wish we could be more like everyone else.
I am as insulted as you are about the message (in Spanish) to choose our native language. I'm not so insulted about the use of metric units. The US is about the only developed country still clinging to the fps (foot-pound-second) system. It is not to our advantage. Countries like Canada and the UK made the switch decades ago, and are now nearly completely converted. The US is mired in this dual world. It will not go away.
Almost everything in the world now is made on metric machines. Almost every fastener in every automobile and truck sold in the world is metric. In my view, once you get the hang of it, metric is a better system. It's far easier to divide by 100 than it is to divide by 12. Time is still stuck in units derived from planetary and lunar motion, because that's been common around the world for millennia (pardon the "metric" term). Seconds, though, are still divided metrically, milli-seconds, micro-seconds, nano-seconds, etc. It's only planetary length times that get away from base 10. At least we've got time to think about that.
And, as Steve Martin famously said, “I hated France. I couldn’t believe there was a whole country full of people who didn’t even have the courtesy to speak English!”
The source is Asia times a Hong Kong-based English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business and culture from an Asian perspective.
It is targeted at audiences who only use the metric system