The article is quite incomplete when it comes to Masaaki Hatsumi - he started teaching westerners Budo Taijutsu in the seventies. Since then, it spread to all corners of the world. Also, it’s fair to say that ninjas in their original form no longer exist, but the art lives on and continues to affect its practitioners’ lives in many ways; see en.m.wikipedia.org/…/Modern_schools_of_ninjutsu
Or it could’ve led to a butterfly effect where measurements were much easier to understand and as a result scientific and engineering progress moved along a bit faster
Maybe both; maybe that resulted in like a huge bomb that destroyed the world. Or maybe it resulted in utopia where we figure out eternal life and cured all disease
Also that NASA’s scientists with many suppliers would have performed their tasks and intended with quality, following through schedules. Through a handful of projects. Meaning that some space missions would not have failed. Those outcomes could have made us living and work on the Moon by now. (Maybe).
Great historic trivia. Have always wondered why the US had chosen their system. Still never to late to change over.
actually, they didn't need examples (even if it would make things easier.)
for example, the meter was originally defined as one ten millionth of the distance between the equator and the north pole. (which, given the necessary instrumentation, was something "anyone" could measure. well, instrumentation and instruction.) it's now based on the emissions of krypton-86, and the wave length of a certain part of it. Again anyone with the proper tools is able to measure this.)
Similarly, the kilogram was defined- originally- as the mass of one liter of water. the liter was defined as the volume of a cube with a length of ten centimeters.. (today it gets quite a bit more complicated, but based on observable constants...)
One of the ongoing goals in science is to reference all metric units to fundamental forces. Basically, we want a system where you can write down everything you need to recreate all our measurement systems.
Right now, most are referenced that way, but not all. Last I heard the kg was being difficult. I believe the plan is to reference it to a perfect sphere of perfectly crystalline silicon-28 of a given size. Creating such a sphere is extremely difficult however.
Powers of 10 is actually the main problem with the metric system. It makes geometry ugly as sin, and isn’t sufficiently granular for convenient use in the kitchen.
Whatever asshole invented us with 10 fingers instead of 12 is begging for my boot in his ass. Geometry is elegant in duodecimal. But because we developed basic arithmetic with 10 fingers, we have to resort to ugly hacks like a sexagesimal unit circle to make geometry compatible with decimal.
And it sounds like Jefferson was already familiar with it anyway, if he was thinking it was the best system. I find it very doubtful that the only holdup was that there was no one to demonstrate it.
And it sounds like Jefferson was already familiar with it anyway, if he was thinking it was the best system. I find it very doubtful that the only holdup was that there was no one to demonstrate it.
I always find it funny to read about how much it’s the public who wants America to be a “leader” and not a “follower” and keep resisting the change. Meanwhile metric is in widespread use across the country. Most science and medicine is done in metric. NASA and the US Military are metric. Most soldiers knows how long a “klick” is, which is literally just slang for kilometer. Every car mechanic can show you exactly how much a centimeter is, since the 10mm wrench/socket size is burned into their memory.
And because of the global trade market, a lot of products that are also meant for export is manufactured in metric
Not to mention that when it comes to conversion it’s so much easier that US students are in some cases taught to convert to metric, apply that formula and then convert back(like calculating work) since it’s so much faster and easier.
NASA still almost lost the Mars Climate Orbiter in '98- they used metric, and Lockheed used US customary. Probably put it on approach too close to mars, and uh, it "encountered" the planet....
One thing I find humourous is the term ‘US Customary’ - I’ve only come across it recently; to most of the world they’re Imperial units, which is ironic given the nature of how the USA came about.
Strictly speaking, there are a few places where Imperial measurements diverge from US customary measurements; the sizes of a fluid ounce, pint and gallon are a few examples.
I think it’s funny that they have to have a converter button on every medical scale in this country so that patients can find out what their weight is in pounds.
It wasn’t until the age of eighteen, when he was given access to the clan’s ancient scrolls, that Kawakami finally realized the purpose behind his decades of training
For anyone who’s interested, Hatsumi-sensei’s school is called Bujinkan Taijutsu and is practised in Japan, the US, New Zealand and other places. It’s a serious self-defense style and students train without mats, because if you need it to defend yourself, you’ll probably be on concrete. It comprises kicks, punches, throws, joint locks, weapons and poking opponents in the most painful nerves.
You’d be surprised how hard it is to hit anything with a throwing star.
I knew a guy who trained in ninjitsu in highschool. I trained in Kung Fu for a few years before I met him. We used to spar after school and he was ridiculously hard to fight. All of his moves were deceptive. Even simple kicks and blocks were meant to decieve. As a result I was constantly trying to predict his actual motive instead of just fighting him straight-up. It’s a really neat style that seems to be very effective against other trained martial artists. Idk how it would fare against an untrained street fighter, but I’d guess that it is just as effective in that situation too.
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