Pretty Ugly, More or Less

(How big is a yea, anyway?)

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It occurred to me this week, while burying another door-to-door salesman who wants to replace my roof, that mankind has spent an inordinate amount of time over the years doing two things: killing each other, and measuring stuff.

But since it’s the holiday season, let’s play down the “killing each other” part. Let’s focus on the measurements. Measuring stuff has been intriguing us for millennia: remember, Noah was able to build an ark to spec, without be...