RE: American Bashing!

In regard to rich Brazilians being spoiled and/or the US causing
Brazils problems by supporting dictatorships. Let me just say that when white settlers landed on north america, there was an estimated 10 million native peoples living on this continent( 10 million may not sound like much by modern standards, but back then major cities in europe like London only had a population of one hundred thousand people). How many native peoples are left in the US now? Maybe a couple hundred thousand? In Latin America however vast majoritys of populations of those countrys are native peoples and account for much of the problems of poverty there since its difficult to assimilate people of different culture into an economy. Now maybe if the Spanish of Latin America had just KILLED the native peoples and driven them off their land like we did in the US, then they could be living at a standard equal to ours???

RE: metric systems shortfall

I think the Imperial system too has a weight definition equivalent to Newton, but I don’t know for sure, and have no idea about the conversion factor.

Theyre called footpounds. Horsepower is also a measurement of force which is converatable to newtons. The fact that there are so many measures of force illustrates my point that a measure is not always practical if it doesnt fit into the range of units its supposed to measure.

Are you proposing a metric equivalent Imperial system; or are you saying that SI should be changed so that 1′ = 1/3 m = 1 yd??????

Yes Im proposing that a few metric equivelants of the Imperial system be added to the metric system, I listed 5 additions to the metric system and 5 alternatives of nomanclature for those used to the names in the Imperial system. As Puffadder pointed out feet are commonly used in european aviation and boating because metric measures just arent practical. I think it would be better to use a type of feet that are more readily convertable.

You guys keep mentioning “feel”, which I assume means being accustomed to visualizing/estimating measures in the real world. Im not saying the Imperial system has better feel than metric, if I used mach numbers to measure the speed Im driving, Im sure I could estimate my speed as well as any other system, its just the numbers itself would be cumbersome to work with (ie mach .012745 on highway signs).
You guys keep making a big deal about the Imperial System originating from body parts. Who cares where the standard originated, whether its a platinum rod in a french vault or the kings elbow. The fact is, all the measures convert evenly althouth not to exact multibles of 10 like the metric system. The fact that the Imperial system is man made and not multibles of one single scientific measurement means it the size of the measurement handles specifac ranges better without resorting to fractional numbers.

RE: Arthur.

Arthur said:

It is, and forest protection should be a bigger international concern than it is now. But the point is that deforestation is for a large part an uncontrolled and illegal matter, and lies far beyond the direct control of policy makers. Unless you want to put a forest-policeman on every acre of tropical rainforest making sure it isn’t slashed down, or provide other direct means of forest protection i’m not so sure what can be done about it.

Ive lived in the Seattle area for quite awhile, and the lumber industry is considered a replenishable resource there. You simply plant new trees. Drive though Washington State sometime and youll see thousands of acres of forest made up of small trees in various stages of growth. This is a simple example of where the international bearuocracy/political wrangling of the kyoto treaty cant get anything done of practical value.

RE: Compare US to Brazil

It makes you wonder about Brazil. Both it and the US started out as colonies of European powers. Both have extensive resourses, energetic people, diversity, natural beauty, fine climates and extentive coastlines, large populations etc,etc. They are the same size geographically. They both have most of the ingedients to be great and they started out in approximately the same place and time in the development of so called ‘new world’.
In spite of all those similarities, look at them now. The US economy is the largest and most prosperous in the world, it is a world power in every sense and while we can argue about the nature of its past and current policies it has been and continues to be the most influential nation in many respects. Look at Brazil in comparison.

Lets look at the big picture sauron. First off, only the eastern of the US seaboard was colonized by Britain, and except for oak lumber to build ships, it was pretty much considered wasteland for outcasts to colonize. Second of all, the US nearly did not win the war of indepenace, and had they failed, try to amagine the US as a colony simply to serve the UK. Latin America on the otherhand has supplied spain with galleon loads of gold and silver almost since the day the spaniards landed their. Latin America has always only been a resource provider for spain and was never alloud to develope its own economy but only to support spanish bussiness. I live in Mexico, and can tell you that native peoples and mixed race are no patriots of spain. If it wasnt for the church and jesuit missionarys, these people would hardly have been assimilated.

RE: metric systems shortfall

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 13-07-02 AT 03:21 AM (GMT)]Arthur- Ill admit my post is a bit jumbled and not very clear, so let me spell out clearly the modifications to the metric system Id like to see:

metric foot= 1/3 meter
metric ounce= 1/32 kilo
metric gallon= 4 liters
metric pint= 1/2 liter
metric cup= 1/4 liter

As you can see these measures are fully compatable with the rest of the metric system. They just make up for sizes of measure that are lacking in the metric system, but which the english system addresses.

I also would like an americanized nomanclature for equivelant measures between english and metric:

meter- metric yard
centimeter- metric inch
kilometer- metric mile
kilogram- metric double pound
liter- metric quart

Ive always enjoyed cheap IQ tests, so of course I cant pass yours up:

Allright then… how many pints go into a case which is 13 inch long, 2 foot wide and 1 yard long? And if you pour a fluid in there which weighs 1/3rd pounds for each cubic inch, how much does that container weigh?

Well if your refering to metric pints(2000 sq centimeters) which is what Im suggesting, they will convet quite readily to metric inches(centimeters), metric feet(1/3 meter) and metric yards(meters). Admittedly the 1/3 meter for metric feet makes this calculation a little difficult, but Im only advocating use of metric feet for descriptive measurement, I mean isnt it more exacting to refer to a room 12 feet by 8 feet rather than 3.6 meter by 5.8 meters???

Or a simple one: if you walk two-thirds of a mile, how many yards is that?

Thats a kilometer!!! Again Im not advocating the adoption of english miles, and I simply want kilometers to be refered to as metric miles.

Oh, and a pound is not 2 kilos, it is 454 grams. Or 0.454 kilos if you like. Or the weight of 454 cubic centimetres of water.

Im just making a general comparison.

RE: American Bashing!

Im an american and Im really getting put off by americas attitude as of late. I think its really vain for the people of the US to praise its self, and expect some kind of respect or high regard from other countrys for things its done in history. Kind of like some rich founder of a corperation who expects gratitude from his workers for providing their way of life. Most countrys I think are willing to overlook this attitude as the US does play a large part in the worlds economy which these countrys want to be a part of.
The one area where the US I think is wrong and was the cause of the 9-11 tragedy is the USs treatment of “rouge nations”. Admittedly most of these countrys are very danerous and should be prevented from being armed. However the US has gone overkill by reducing their living standards to such a low level as to violate human rights. This has been going on for about 10 years now, and I believe were breeding a generation of youth that knows nothing but suffering and will act toward fighting for their rights for freedom. If the US would simply do more to increase peacefull economic development in these rougue countrys, that would improve alot.

RE: a stupid question but are

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 12-07-02 AT 07:07 PM (GMT)]Rabie- The viper turbojets fuel consuption is very good, it isnt that much more than turbofans of the same class. Turbojets have longer service hours and higher maintainability and less limits to throtal changes, so its really a tradeoff as to whats more important. It should be mentioned that the isrealis were going to put a turbojet in their Lavi, were that to have gone into service. So the idea of using a turbojet isnt as outmoded as you might think. They were strongly considering using vipers in the jaguar also but turbofans were thought to be more marketable, so they went with the adour. Can anyone find the fuel consuption specs for the rolls royce viper and the adour for a comparison?