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Re: measuring systems (was: Selenites)

From:Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
Date:Sunday, September 27, 1998, 22:49
Pablo Flores wrote:

> But I only said I didn't like seeing those measures on documentaries and > movies. Well, movies can do whatever they want to, of course, but > scientific programmes which are supposed to be watched by many people > outside the US _should_ avoid using that system, in favor of the metric > one, which is more common to the rest of the world.
Well, one of the problems with this is that most of the documentaries made in the United States are made specifically for Americans, and perhaps all the other English speakers in the world by extension. Only as an afterthought would American documentary makers want to internationalize their documentaries, because the market is greatest here (and besides, e.g., just how many Europeans are interested in the intimate details of the Mexican-American War?). A great many American documentaries are like this: they are very American in appeal (like Ken Burns' _The Civil War_), and so nobody thinks about the possible foreign appeal of such programming. But here's a question: if the US were to make a change over to the metric system, but kept its present units in remetricized forms, would you find that acceptable? What I mean for example is we use meters, kilometers, and so forth, but change the present value of mile to some useful multiple of the kilometer (like 1 mile = 2km, rather 1.6 km as now), and do this with other present units (1 inch would change from 2.54 cm to 2.5 or 2 cm, etc.). What do you think? Would that still be confusing to you? ======================================================= Tom Wier <artabanos@...> ICQ#: 4315704 AIM: Deuterotom Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/> "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero." We look at [the Tao], and do not see it; Its name is the Invisible. - Lao Tsu, _Tao Te Ching_ Nature is wont to hide herself. - Herakleitos ========================================================