The article is actually about a Canadian rock group named Metric, but the lead-in has a nice diatribe against Imperial/Customary and in favor of SI.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051007/ENTERTAINMENT0202/510070305/1117
<<
10/07/2005
If numbers are the alphabet of the math and science worlds, why doesn't America know its ABCs? The English System of standard weights and measures is the Latin of its field. It's a dead language. No, that's giving the system too much credit. At least Latin gives etymological clues.

The metric system was created in late 18th-century France as a way to unify many disparate systems of measurement into one standard, easy-to-use format that was decimal-based and thereby translatable across any language. Using concepts like reason and logic, French scientists developed two common units, the meter for distance, and the kilogram for mass. With very few minor tweaks over the centuries, the metric system of measurement has become adopted almost universally as the preferred language system for weights and measures. America has chosen poorly, opting to stick with an archaic measurement system that has so ingrained itself that it would cost billions of dollars to change.

While America's chances of adopting a new, logical system of measurement are slim, there's still hope that the United States can adopt another kind of Metric. The Philadelphia area can set the example tonight by embracing Metric for just once.

This Metric is, of course, not about weights and measures, but about addictive Canadian rock. Hailing from the kilometer-per-hour driving city of Toronto, Metric began as a partnership between Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw, two art-school grads who wanted to marry their pop music with a message. . . . {snipped}
>>

<<
The metric system was created in late 18th-century France as a way to unify many disparate systems of measurement into one standard, easy-to-use format that was decimal-based and thereby translatable across any language. Using concepts like reason and logic, French scientists developed two common units, the meter for distance, and the kilogram for mass. With very few minor tweaks over the centuries, the metric system of measurement has become adopted almost universally as the preferred language system for weights and measures. America has chosen poorly, opting to stick with an archaic measurement system that has so ingrained itself that it would cost billions of dollars to change.
>>

The French might have created the metre and the kilogramme, but in 1842 it is obvious that thre was considerabvle inconsistency in the use of prefixes (See http://home.fonline.de/fo0126/geschichte/groessen/mas10.htm). Standard perfixes were introduced a few later after work by *** BRITISH *** scientists.