The NWS (National Weather Service for those of us in the USA) has always measured hail in inches. However, they make reference to a table to estimate hail size, since it's very difficult to accurately measure hail while it's falling. Here is a publication put out in January 6, 2003 which presents the table on page 15:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/directives/010/ ... 16005a.pdf
In addition, world records on hail are also kept in inches, like the heaviest hailstone measured had a radius of 5.7 inches, while the largest hailstone measured had a radius of 7 inches. Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hailstone
Unfortunately, the game of golf has its roots in many countries around the world, so no one inventor of the golf ball can be given. Early golf balls were simple spheres of wood or rocks hit around with sticks. Feather-stuffed leather balls were used in Rome and later in Scotland. In 1848, Reverend Adam Paterson introduced the Gutta Percha ball, also known as the Guttie, which was made of the sap of the tropical Gutta tree. In the years to come, a solid rubber core would be introduced along with dimples to increase control, speed, and distance. Sources:
http://www.golfeurope.com/almanac/history/golf_ball.htm
http://www.dave-and-maggie-world-of-gol ... story.html
I haven’t mentioned Al Gore and the internet on these forums, but other people have. To find out whom, click search up at the top, type in “Al Gore” in the keywords box, and change the “Display results as” option to “Posts”, so you can see exactly who said it.
Actually, it’s just a myth that Al Gore claims to have invented the internet. His exact quote was:
”During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.” (CNN)
Though clumsy wording, he never claimed to invent the internet. He claims to have helped the development of the internet through politics, though this can be contested as he became a senator in 1977, after the major parts of the internet were already in place. Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/ ... index.html
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.htm
According to The American Heritage Dictionary, luncheon is probably an alliteration of nuncheon ( Middle English word meaning “light snack”) based on the word lunch. Source:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=luncheon
By the way, I’d like to apologize for the incredibly long delay in my answering questions. Recently, I lost my laptop and have spent the past few weeks getting a temporary computer to work the way I want it to. I’ll eventually have to give up this computer, as I’m loaning it from a friend, so I’m in the process now of finding a new computer for myself. To read the full story about my computer, check out my journal:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/chromus/19523.html
Also, it was pointed out that the last few questions I answered weren't very researched, so I went back and added links and more information for those of you who are interested.
EDIT: A note on the URL BBCode: don't have a space right after the opening tag, and keep the URL one one line. Would have helped if I had known before writing this out.