Newsgroups: comp.std.internat,alt.folklore.computers,sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!hood.cc.rochester.edu!news.acsu.buffalo.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.mathworks.com!EU.net!CERN.ch!news.cern.ch!danpop
From: Dan.Pop@cern.ch (Dan Pop)
Subject: Re: degrees Celsius
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: ues5.cern.ch
Message-ID: <danpop.853350236@news.cern.ch>
Sender: news@news.cern.ch (USENET News System)
Organization: CERN European Lab for Particle Physics
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #18 (NOV)
References: <32C7046E.24F0@cs.purdue.edu> <5am68r$ftg@news.inforamp.net> <32CEEC6C.292B@cs.purdue.edu> <5arrmo$mlh@news.usf.edu> <32D1B8AE.36E3EE0A@swec.com> <32D1D53A.19B@hal-pc.org> <32D2B9B3.2279@cs.purdue.edu> <p.kerr-0801971408560001@news.auckland.ac.nz> <AEF9860B96689330@dialup-305.minn.net> <32D49326.50A0@tiac.net> <32D5A914.1B8B@spessart.com> <32D94C56.7AB8@ix.netcom.com> <32D9580B.919@hal-pc.org> <32DB10A6.5751@cs.purdue.edu> <32dc1f35.1040080@news.southeast.net>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 17:43:56 GMT
Lines: 26
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.std.internat:6577 sci.lang:68181

In <32dc1f35.1040080@news.southeast.net> beckwith@pop.southeast.net (Matt Beckwith) writes:

>This discussion brings up a pet pieve of mine.  That's the practice of
>naming things after people, in an effort to honor those people.
>Often, those people are just rich folk who wanted to see their names
>on bridges, buildings, et cetera.  The worst such abomination is
>naming a position at a University after some dead professor, and
>forcing the individual holding that position to have in his title that
>dead person's name, such as:  "Dr. John Smith is the Edward Peabody
>Professor of Medicine."
>
>I prefer to say "centigrade", since it describes the concept behind
>the scale.  There's no reason the name of the individual who devised
>the scale should be honored every time I want to tell the temperature.
>After all, who was this guy?  Was he a good person?  Was he good to
>his wife?

And what do you use instead of volt (from Alessandro Volta), baud (from
Emile Baudot), henry, weber, tesla, curie, or even... degree Fahrenheit? :-)

Dan
--
Dan Pop
CERN, CN Division
Email: Dan.Pop@cern.ch 
Mail:  CERN - PPE, Bat. 31 1-014, CH-1211 Geneve 23, Switzerland
