>Yes, what does the European shoe number stand for? The number of grains of rice the King of a European country lined up end to end when the moon was full? So many numbering systems have such backgrounds. Now where is that rice?

I think the difference between twi consecutive European shoe sizes is 1cm, but I couldn't find anything. I tried "european shoe size definition" on Google and got bunch of interesting stuff, but not the definition. There's also an offset, so it doesn't start with a zero.

>We measured time to 2 parts in ten to the ?12, and distances of one micron, with very high degrees of accuracy and repeatability. All measurements have to be traceable to international standards.

Boy, that must have been interesting. All those fancy toys :)

>Then later, I realized why Reagan changed the name. He has Alzheimer's and forgot the name NBS so he made up a new name. :)

I remember a joke, when the president's private library burned, with both the books, and to make matters worse, one wasn't colored yet...

>Printing money would be fine except some government entities seem to frown upon such endeavors.

I assume hand-painted money would have more value.

>While a Metrologist, I worked at Ampex Corporation. They had about 20,000 employees and owned property all around the world. We produced the worlds first commercial audio tape recorder, invented the video recorder, instant reply

As in "one click and the message has been replied to" :) ?

>Thus an innovate American Company was sold to an Englishman for his pleasure and enjoyment.

Had I invented capitalism, I would feel ashamed for this flaw in the system. If it will comfort you, I've seen inventive people being screwed by society in socialism as well. As one said "we would again let Tesla leave".