Re: [OT] Metric was Yerushala(y)im - or Biblical Hebrew

From: Karljürgen Feuerherm (cuneiform@rogers.com)
Date: Tue Jul 29 2003 - 10:09:37 EDT

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    I'm willing to concede that the US may have been the most progressive nation
    on earth with respect to the *specifically restricted context* of
    rationalizing the currency system in use in that place at that time.... :)
    The original statement sounded rather more all-encompassing.

    K
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
    To: "Karljürgen Feuerherm" <cuneiform@rogers.com>
    Cc: <unicode@unicode.org>
    Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 9:57 AM
    Subject: Re: [OT] Metric was Yerushala(y)im - or Biblical Hebrew

    > Karljürgen Feuerherm scripsit:
    >
    > > Well, in either case, the original point falls to bits. Neither of the
    two
    > > countries match the original descriptor of 'the at-the-time most
    progressive
    > > nation on Earth'.
    >
    > In terms of reform of this kind, the U.S. certainly does match, thanks to
    > Thomas Jefferson, who liberated the world pounds, shillings, and pence
    > (and their analogues). Unfortunately, his decimal-based measurement
    > system didn't have the quantifying prefixes of the metric system (which
    > did not yet exist), and it was entirely Jefferson's idea with no support
    > from other scientists or countries. So it failed, and the U.S. was
    > stuck with the Fred Flintstone Memorial Measurement system by default
    > (it has never been adopted officially).
    >
    > > Nor does any other. It's simply much too simplistic a statement.
    >
    > In general, yes. But this is a restricted context.
    >
    > --
    > Real FORTRAN programmers can program FORTRAN John Cowan
    > in any language. --Allen Brown jcowan@reutershealth.com
    >

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