AW: Re: 20th may, Historical date!

[Creighton Dement]

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> Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 18:35:58 +0200
> Subject: Re: 20th may, Historical date!
> From: Olivier Gerard <ogerard at ext.jussieu.fr>
> To: David C Terr <David_C_Terr at raytheon.com>

> 
> Hello,
> 
> May I repeat again that this kind
> of posting is not welcome here ?
> 
> You should edit your post to quote
> only relevant passages and refrain
> from abrupt or rude comments on
> other people's contribution.
> 
> You should try to ponder what you
> write so to avoid a rush of messages
> correcting mistakes of the preceding
> ones.
> 
> As an administrator of this list, I 
> am completely free to unsubscribe
> anyone not behaving responsibly and
> have done so in the past.
> 
> Moreover, in this case, the metric
> system is not really relevant since
> almost everywhere nowadays (even
> in France where the powers of ten
> metric system was invented) we
> count days by an approximation
> of the ratio between the Earth orbit
> time and the Earth rotation time and that 
> we have kept the sexagesimal system
> for hours and minutes.
> 
> Olivier
> 
> Le 12, David C Terr écrivait:
> > Go metric!
> > 
> > Dave
> > 
> > 
> Unedited hundreds of line of previous conversation 

To this I (as someone who earns money on the side in the translation of
documents)  would like to add that one should also be extremely cautious
in writing short phrases such as "Go metric" in an international forum.
These can be very easily misinterpreted by non-native speakers. To a
native English speaker "Go metric!" means something like "I support you,
metric! Keep up the good work." However, I presume that to many if not
most peope around the world "Go metric!" will immediately translate into
"Get out of here metric! You are unwanted!". 

  
Sincerely, 
Creighton 




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