Re: Metric Time (was Re: Why not 13 months? (Was La Systeme Metrique))

Kai Henningsen (kai@khms.westfalen.de)
23 Oct 1995 23:32:00 +0200

jac@ds8.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Carr) wrote on 20.10.95 in <4695nc$3tp@ds8.scri.fsu.edu>:

> kai@khms.westfalen.de (Kai Henningsen) writes:
> >
> >Anyway, my point was that all products I know about that are produced in
> >the US, *don't* use metric measures, or only as an afterthought. That
> >definitely includes those "where it really matters" by whatever
> >definition.
>
> How do you define "afterthought"? If the dies are in metric, as they

As an example, a printer that has all it's measures in inches, but lists
somewhere what that would be in mm. You can tell it "skip 2 inches", but
you can't tell it "skip 5 cm".

I have to admit that current Laserjets at least know what A4 looks like.

> are for the tires I buy from BFG (admittedly part of Michelin here in
> the US, but made exclusively in Ohio), it is not an afterthought.

True. I don't buy car tires, however :-)

> You might be surprised to learn that all US highway construction is
> now done in metric, and that the US is officially a metric country.

The first doesn't affect me until I visit the US, and the second I had
known (only the US seems to define "metric country" different from the
rest of us :-)). This was mainly about how what the US does affects the
rest of the world.

As to consumables, I'm sure I have seen some produced in the US - I just
can't remember what they were like. They seem to have a *very* small part
of the market over here. The stuff trademarked by the Coca Cola Company
that I usually drink (no, not Coke, I don't like it; and no light whatever
please!), however, I buy in bottles of 1.5 l produced at various places in
Germany. If somebody wants to know, DM 2.89, where DM 0.70 is deposit. US$
1.00 is about DM 1.50.

> Our 'common' units are defined in metric terms, not the other way
> around. And I don't know what you think "really matters". Guns?

This was in answer to someone else saying that some things don't belong in
the "really matters" category - I don't make the same sort of distintions.

> Guns matter in the US. ;-) There are many US made guns that are

Please, let's not talk about guns. I find that most US citizens are
incapable of answering any arguments I make there (at least on Usenet), be
they pro or contra guns themselves. They seem to read only what they
expect, not what is there.

If I get into a flame war, I'd prefer to at least be flamed for my
position and not for some imaginary straw man, but that's what happened in
every Usenet gun discussion I've so far said anything in.

Kai

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