Hundredweights, fathoms and rods safe from grasping Eurocrats

As globalization accelerates, some fear most things will take on a depressing sameness. English is becoming the world's language, the dollar is a de facto world currency, and American celebrities' antics are inescapable as a global lowest common denominator. But, in measurements at least, the world will continue to preserve some variety for culture's sake. So one can infer from the EU Commission's decision to spare what the British still call the "imperial" system of measurements from the bureaucrats' ax. Plans had been to ban use of the units by 2009.

The British will now be permitted for the foreseeable future to print measurements in their beloved miles, gallons, and pounds (along side the metric units that the EU has required be printed for some time). And the United States has been saved from being one of only three countries to make extensive use of the system—along with economic powerhouses Liberia and Burma.