I had to blog this bit of trivia.
What is common to Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States?
Answer: The only three countries that still follow the Imperial System of measure.
Cliff at slashdot
pointed out this interesting little nugget. He also suggested that it might be a good idea for the US to switch to the metric system.
I thought it would be a very non-controversially good idea for the US to start getting used to the metric system. Besides the incentive of getting its name off the only list that reads more embarrassing than the
Coalition of The Willing, there is also the confusion, sometimes
very serious, trying to cope with two systems creates.
But Cliff was on to something, as he filed it under the
worthwhile-but-pigs-are-likely-to-fly-first category. In vindication, the little entry generated one thousand three hundred-odd comments, with passionate arguments for and against. Clearly people do get worked up over the metric system.
But, it turns out, people get even further worked up than that. Though the protest against metrication is usually conventional, such as
placards or
Simpsonesque civil disobedience, some people have actually gone to the trouble to set up websites, of which slashdot points out
freedom2measure.org. The reason given on the website is not laziness, or who's-going-to-go-about-changing-all-the-boards-now, or sheer pig-headedness (which are all perfectly good reasons, btw). No, it would threaten the American way of life. I guess if you provide logical reasons you run the risk of being refuted. But what to do of emotions.
Dil to Pagal Hai.In its defense, the website provides other reasons. For one, the metric system is sexist, as it was
'almost wholly created and standardized by male scientists and bureaucrats' (apparently because the lesbian cabal was busy with the imperial system). Also, it
quotes the great French Man of Destiny:
The scientists adopted the decimal system on the basis of the metre as unit. Nothing is more contrary to the organization of the mind, memory and imagination. The new system will be a stumbling block and source of difficulties for generations to come. It is just tormenting the people with trivia.
-Napoleon Bonaparte
Seriously, who better to defend the imperial system than the grand imperialist himself?
