English oak and British valor.
England for ever: the land we live in.
England, the queen of the isles and the queen of the main.
May old England’s sons, the Americans, never forget their mother.
Posted on 09/11/2007 4:59:59 AM PDT by oblomov
The European Union is set to confirm it has abandoned what became one of its most unpopular policies among many people in Britain. It is proposing to allow the UK to continue using pounds, miles and pints as units of measurement indefinitely.
The European Commission will announce later it is leaving all future decisions to the British government.
The decision is being seen as a victory for supporters of the ancient imperial system, the so-called "metric martyrs".
Pint saved
The UK had been due to set a date for phasing out all its imperial measurements within three years.
This would have meant setting a deadline for ending the traditional delivery of pints of milk - and the sale of pints of beer in Britain's pubs.
Every one of Britain's road signs would have had to be changed from miles to kilometres - a move which opponents warned would be both expensive and confusing.
Steve Thoburn made headlines around the world over his campaign
But it was the move, begun in 2000, to make Britain's market traders sell their produce in kilograms rather than pounds and ounces which caused outrage among traditionalists.
Sunderland grocer Steve Thoburn inspired the "metric martyr" movement with his defiance of the order to abandon the imperial measurements.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
They’re still there in South Dakota. They put up the dual unit signs for a few years starting about when the 55mph speed limit law ended.
Piffle. The notion that a preference for the "Imperial" system indicates a love for freedom and dignity is quaint, but unconvincing. Feet and inches are used to measure lengths, not human dignity.
Traditional systems of measurement may be good for carpenters—who are not known these days for great precision in their work—but it can be hell on anyone trying to build or maintain modern technology.
I am an engineering professor. My students must know unit conversions. It complicates their work to have to convert between traditional systems of units and the International (SI) units. What is worse, the traditional units introduce ambiguity and therefore the danger of errors.
The other day, I asked my class to define ton. They replied that a ton is equal to 2000 pounds. But that is true of a short ton. A long ton can be 2200 pounds or 2240 pounds. A freight or measurement ton is 40 cubic feet. A ton of refrigeration is 12,000 BTU/hour. (I am not sure which definition of BTU is used—there are several.)
I am not in favor of forcing people to drop familiar units of measurement: miles are fine for measuring driving distance; pints are OK for dispensing milk; yards are just right in football. But serious work in science, engineering, or commerce requires more carefully defined measurements; ambiguity and imprecision are not good.
Good for you guys.
The early 1970s. This was a non-fiction bestseller in the US:
http://www.amazon.com/Prepare-Metric-Future-Robert-Donovan/dp/0679400761
Also this book:
The social change of the sixties was motivated in part by idealism - change for the good of humanity. For the seventies, the motivator was boredom - change for its own sake.
Some of my earliest memories from the late 70’s were film strips at school showing cartoons of how the metric system was going to take over for good.
I was in Germany back in 2000-2001 on business trips and had to drive on their roads with solely kph units. Of course the speedometers were also solely in kph units, also. I usually just kept up with the traffic in town and didn’t worry about the speed. On the Autobahn, outside the city limits, there is no speed limit so it didn’t matter anyway. I had to do mental math to find out how fast I was driving in mph using the old 88 kph as a reference for 55 mph. So when the speedo said 190 kph I knew I was doing about 110-115 mph.................
You’re right. Instead, they tried to make us abandon the old names, and use the new.
Hey that's an insult to us Steeler Fans. We drink our Iron City beer by the pink, quart gallon, Oh Ok, by the keg.
The Plantster’s Vision
Sir John Betjeman
Cut down that timber! Bells, too many and strong,
Pouring their music through the branches bare,
From moon-white church towers down the windy air
Have pealed the centuries out with Evensong.
Remove those cottages, a huddled throng!
Too many babies have been born in there,
Too many coffins, bumping down the stair,
Carried the old their garden paths along.
I have a Vision of the Future, chum,
The workers’ flats in fields of soya beans
Tower up like silver pencils, score on score:
And Surging Millions hear the Challenge come
From microphones in communal canteens
“No Right! No Wrong! All’s perfect, evermore!”
Not liking isn’t the same as not understanding. By the way, you think Favre will throw for 2,743 m this year?
Still, the decision should be up to the people--in this case, the British people.
My Chevy truck has a 6 quart engine.
Resistance to the metric system wasn’t the result of ignorance or inability to change. It was due to resentment of being forced to change by a set of elites, whose only justification was that it would help us be more like the rest of the world.
That was reason enough to resist it. Americans don’t want their country to be like the rest of the world. That’s why they live here.
WOW! You’ve got almost a whole peck!.........
While Americans today are more comfortable with the Imperial system, Americans of the future can find metric to be more normal (as has happened in much of mainland Europe).
I'm pretty sure I heard a Radio Canada International piece on this guy.
The Euroweenies were giving him a hard time because if someone asked for a pound of meat, he'd sell them a pound of meat.
"Tony Blair is only doing this so he could be president of the EU when he's done here."
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