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 ...
Americans could rename the kilometer the mile, since—as you’ve pointed out—a mile in the Imperial system is no longer the same as the original Roman mile.
Here is a link to a related thread from the UK ping list.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1894442/posts
By the appearance of a deception not of flesh body, claiming to be here to love, love, love us. I mean don't you love Jesus?
The UK is as much an ally as Japan or Israel (from a secular standpoint for Israel).
The early 70's is when the school I attended put into practice that claim, we in the US would be going metric.
He had his car shipped over, and among the things he had to fix to pass inspection was the speedometer having the BIG numbers in kph. They would not accept the smaller, dual markings.
In international and domestic shipping of cargo everything is listing on the airwaybills as lbs and kg.
The neat part is that when you switch your speedometer to metric, it seems like you’re going faster. The speedometer on my Australian car goes up to 200!
Even NASA does not always get the conversions right. Consider the Mars Oribiter fiasco. As the Wikipedia article "Metrification in the United States" observes,
Mars OrbiterThe use of two different systems was the root cause in the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1998. NASA specified metric units in the contract. NASA and other organizations worked in metric units but one subcontractor, Lockheed Martin, provided thruster performance data to the team in pound force seconds instead of newton seconds. The spacecraft was intended to orbit Mars at about 150 km altitude, but the incorrect data meant that it probably descended instead to about 57 km, burning up in the Martian atmosphere.
That little error in unit conversions cost at least $125 million.
Do ya’ll have Autobahns in Australia?...........
You left off a couple dozen more tons. Tons of tons one might say...
No idea. I’m not Australian, my car is. 2004 Pontiac GTO. Manufactured with pride by Holden Motorcars (division of GM.)
Well that depends : ) My wife took a cooking class in France and lo and behold they used cups, teaspoons, etc. The Metric system just doesn't adapt very well to cooking. It is great for decimals, but not for fractions and proportions.
My main complaint with both systems is that they don't use knots. A nautical mile is a much better reference when it comes to navigation than a meter or a mile and guess what? Everyone uses it! Can anyone say hypocrites?
The Imperial System is the system of the Individual and the Metric System is the system of the Totalitarian. As for me, they can pry my 12” ruler out of my cold dead hands.
Maybe in very broad brush strokes, but I am not by any stretch a statist, yet I prefer (and use) the metric system when ever I can.
Actually what we really need to do is either go to base 12 math, or even better, base 8 math...
After the fall of the BSW (British Standard Whitworth) measurement standard, I knew it was a fiendish plot to force new tool purchases!
Up until now, I wouldn’t have given a Farthing for your chances of success.
We did invent the first metric system. We use it (base 10) for our money. None of this silly pounds, shillings, pence, for the former colonies!
Note that base 10 money has taken over 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.
BINGO!
But then the mile wouldn't be 1000 [Roman Army] paces, would it?
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