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From: landauer@drivax.UUCP (Doug Landauer)
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Standardization (of the meter)
Message-ID: <102@drivax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Feb-85 16:27:33 EST
Article-I.D.: drivax.102
Posted: Thu Feb 28 16:27:33 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 3-Mar-85 03:39:52 EST
Organization: Digital Research, Monterey, CA
Lines: 12

Norman Diamond says:
> ... the metre is 1/10,000,000 of an old estimate of the distance
> from the North Pole to the Equator (I do not know along which longitude).

It was the longitude through the birthplace of chauvinism:  Paris, of course!

------- Doug Landauer:  ...[ ihnp4 | mot | ucscc | amdahl ] !drivax!landauer

Remember the motto of the French Revolution:  Cruelte, Brutalite, Extremite!

PS:  Bonus question -- where did *you* first hear that particular perversion
of that motto?  (I ask because I've forgotten.)