>You are so right – using the English System will hurt us in the long run. The argument is, “It will cost too much to convert to metric”. Instead of support from the engineering community we get arguments from ANSI (American National Standards Institute) that metric screws are not as strong as English screws. This is correct – so why not redesign screws? A fact is that English threads hold much more pressure than metric. Working together would be a positive solution.

It's the old bicycle seat problem that Dogbert brought to light a while back. Bicycle seats are skinny, hard, and hurt like hell. Resolution: padded pants.

Alan