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Normal Body Temperature?

4'' and 6'' nails can be replaced by 10 cm and 15 cm ones. 12 oz soda/beer cans can be replace by 0.33 l. Etc... Slightly smaller, but can be sold for the same price. And the people making all the stuff that has to be replaced/rebuilt has to love this!

Basically all the rich will be slightly richer, and the regular guy gets slightly poorer. When has an idea like this not been implemented? Is USA the only country where politics is not controlled by the rich people? Quite on the contrary. Maybe I should just call Skull & Bones? (I saw some conspiracy programs on TV yesterday.) ;)

Anyway, metric units are sneaking in. A couple of California roadsigns I have seen give distance and even speed limits in metric units alongside the local ones. Wine and liquor are sold in metric units, and water and soda can also be found in 0.5 l and 1 l bottles. Scientists have been using standard units almost exclusively for decades, of course.

Judging by the Mars program, the engineering profession is about halfway in their conversion... ;)
 
Ririon said:
So all the other countries in the world have done something stupid, expensive and inconvenient? Interesting point... ;)
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It wouldn't be the first time such a thing had happened. Consider the First World War, for example. I think most historians would classify it as "stupid, expensive, and inconvenient."
 
I'll_buy_that said:
Wait! we aren't alone...

"Blair Won't 'Give One Inch' to Terrorists "
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The French, however, will probably give them a cm any time... (Kidding, of course.)

BUT: I think this illustrates the link between national units and nationalism. The metric system's french roots are probably not a good selling point in the US.

I have seen 3 french cars in the year I have lived in the USA. It's not entirely clear to me what terrible things France have done to America, but judging by the car market, it pales in comparison to WWII. (Plenty of german and japanese cars.)
 
jmercer said:
When you get right down to it, fundamental change is hard...
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Yet we managed it down here. Temperature, distances, and money.


So it can't be THAT hard. :D


BillyJoe.
 
Ririon said:
BUT: I think this illustrates the link between national units and nationalism. The metric system's french roots are probably not a good selling point in the US.

I have seen 3 french cars in the year I have lived in the USA. It's not entirely clear to me what terrible things France have done to America, but judging by the car market, it pales in comparison to WWII. (Plenty of german and japanese cars.)
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I don't think most people would link metric to the French. I don't think it is that widely known where it originated. Besides anti French sentiment is pretty recent and not all that pervasive. It is only a very small group of people. The fact that it is really strange is why it got so much attention.

As for the cars, I don't think they were all that reliable (like Chryslers are :rolleyes: ) and there just wasn't that big of a market for them. Price probably has a lot to do with low sales.
 
Ririon said:

I have seen 3 french cars in the year I have lived in the USA. It's not entirely clear to me what terrible things France have done to America, but judging by the car market, it pales in comparison to WWII. (Plenty of german and japanese cars.)
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I suspect that what the French did included "selling really really bad cars." According to this press release from last year, all of the major French car manufacturers (Citroën, Renault, and Peugeot) had "poor" reliability and had for at least two years running. Of the ten most breakdown-prone cars, four were Renault models.

I must admit that my one experience owning a Renault did not endear the company to me; the car spent more time in the shop than it did on the road.
 
new drkitten said:
I suspect that what the French did included "selling really really bad cars." According to this press release from last year, all of the major French car manufacturers (Citroën, Renault, and Peugeot) had "poor" reliability and had for at least two years running. Of the ten most breakdown-prone cars, four were Renault models.

I must admit that my one experience owning a Renault did not endear the company to me; the car spent more time in the shop than it did on the road.
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Your link didn't work, Doc. I'm not saying french cars are the most brilliant thing since the invention of the pizza slicer, but they are not that bad. See this link:

http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/trends7.html?apc=31382522333596

Can anybody provide statistics from a market where they sell large numbers of both french and american cars? It seems like the only solid trend is that japanese cars are the best when it comes to reliability and everybody else is trying to keep up.

Pricing should be comparable to german cars (also made in Euroland).

And about anti-French sentiments:
Is that really all about France not supporting the Iraq war? That "freedom fries" thing? If so, the Bush supporters I have talked to took that really seriously! I got the feeling that it goes a lot deeper than that. At least among those people. I guess they would be called "the religious right" even in the US.
 
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