[USMA:54625] Re: Metric Units Take over New Technology
Reply to [USMA 54623] Mark Henschel You draw attention to an aspect of advancing metrication that metric advocates have rarely commented upon: new technologies start using metric from the beginning, so U.S. legacy units don't even get a foothold. This is true, for example, for the Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) industry that replaced incandescent lights. Finally, instead of improperly using watts to signal luminous flux (brightness), the proper metric term of lumens was used from the start, together with kelvins to indicate light color. As you point out, solar-energy technology has also started out metric. Unfortunately, technological areas that are not new, like astronomy, though all the work has been done in metric for many years, often translates the metric units into U.S. legacy units for the public because even science-oriented people are apparently incapable of understanding the meters and kilometers that are so commonly used in astronomy. But I notice that, over time, this translation is becoming less frequent. I notice too that even new products coming onto the market are being designed in metric units. For example, all of the new Greek yogurt containers that are taking over now are sized in 150 ml containers. The completion of metric conversion goes on in the United States, but most of it is done now with very little notice so as not inflame opposition. Who cares, as long as the end result is 100% conversion?
[USMA:54648] Interesting Comments on Metric in Forbes Medical Article
Forbes Magazine Pharma Healthcare 03/18/2015 17:56 Questioning This Week's Heath Scare Linking Diet Soda To Belly Fat http://www.forbes.com/sites/fayeflam/2015/03/18/questioning-this-weeks-heath-scare-linking-diet-soda-to-belly-fat/ Quote: One of the ways the coverage confused people comes down to Americans ineptitude with the metric system. That sounds like a put-down of non-metricated Americans.
[USMA:54673] FYI: NCSL International Workshop Symposium, July 19-23 Grapevine, TX
NCSL International Workshop Symposium, July 19-23, 2015 Grapevine, Texas. Measurement Science and the Quality of Life The 2015 NCSL International Workshop Symposium will bring measurement experts together to tell their Amazing Stories of Measurement. All speakers lead significant programs at NIST, NRC-Canada and the Dutch Metrology Institute (VSL). Measurement Science and the Quality of Life Boulder, Colorado (PRWEB) March 28, 2015 Join us for the 2015 NCSL International Workshop Symposium in Grapevine, Texas. The Amazing Stories of Measurement presentations will feature talks on: Forensic DNA Quality and Metrology; The Planned Redefinition of the Metric System: Made Easy; Whats Your Poison? Addressing the Biotoxin Measurement Challenge; Smart Grid Metrology: How Measurements Keep our Society Up and Running; Ballistics and Impression Evidence: Taking the Guess out of an Identification. This combination of fascinating science with a measurement perspective should make this an unforgettable series of talks for NCSLI participants. Ncsli.org for complete technical program and conference information. NCSL International 2995 Wilderness Place, Suite 107 Boulder, CO 80301 303-440-3339 info(at)ncsli(dot)org
[USMA:54671] Video Vault: Adult Metric Instruction
http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2015/03/26/video-vault-metric-in-school.html From the local Columbus, Ohio, TV station in 1976. The accompanying text unfortunately perpetrates the usual misinformation: the U.S. isn't metric, etc. You'd think that these clueless journalists hadn't ever opened an aspirin bottle or bought a Compact Fluorescent Light bulb!
[USMA:54663] Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wants Metric
The NRC has decided the United States should just be more like Europe they want the two bureaucracies to align. I can see the advantage to that kind of congruence in attempts to change us from the English system of measure to the metric system at least that would save money in the long run. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2015/03/23/the-nuclear-regulatory-commission-thinks-america-should-be-more-like-europe/
[USMA:54733] Paul Trusten Gets through to CNN
Paul Trusten, USMA Vice President, got through to CNN as of 06/19/15 18:19 EDT: www.cnn.com/2015/06/04/politics/lincoln-chafee-metric-system/index.html. It sure doesn't say much for Chafee that he has such a disorganized office and campaign staff that Paul was able to get through to CNN, but not the candidate himself. Chafee has been described as quixotic. We in the USMA need to be careful that metrication isn't thrown into the same basket with him. I'll bet Marco Rubio in Florida or Rick Perry in Texas or Carly Fiorina in California could make a much better argument for metrication that Chafee ever will! Martin Morrison Metric Today Training Education Columnist P.S. In my previous message I meant Don (Hillger), not Dan. Sorry, Don.
[USMA:54724] Democratic Presidential Candidate Advocates Completing Metric Conversion
06/03/15 Fox News and Other Sources Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee announced he is running for president on Wednesday, becoming the third Democrat to challenge Hillary Clinton. Today I am formally entering the race for the Democratic nomination for president, Chafee said in a university auditorium just outside Washington, D.C. During his speech, Chafee suggested the United States abandon its current measuring system and adopt the metric system, saying such a move could prove an economic boon. Earlier I said, 'Lets be bold'. Here's a bold embrace of internationalism, Chafee said, lets join the rest of the world and go metric. I happened to live in Canada as they completed the process. Believe me it is easy. It doesnt take long before 34 degrees is hot. Only Myanmar, Liberia and the United States aren't metric and it will help our economy! Chafee said. Chafee told Fox News his idea to convert the United States to the metric system is just one of ten that sets him apart from other candidates. = One particularly uninformed comment by Politico ran: I just dont understand how you can make the metric transfer, mechanically, one student said to another. As if 200 other nations had any problem! It seems that our U.S. educational system is failing us again.
[USMA:54727] An Opportunity for the USMA (or Chafee Could Do a Lot of Harm)
Paul (Trusten) -- A good response as always, Paul. The advantage of Chaffee's statement is that it has drawn attention to the metric question once again. BUT -- and it is a big BUT: Chafee did an absolutely lousy job in rolling out his policy. He claimed (briefly) that metrication would be a boost to international commerce, but he didn't give any argument for why that would be the case. He could have talked about figures from the U.S. Metric Study (updated), he could have talked about improving STEM education to get our students jobs, he could have talked to the benefit to U.S. workers not having to buy two sets of tools, he could talked about greater markets for U.S. goods. BUT -- he didn't. Moreover, I would have hoped that he would mention that the U.S. is already half metric and is paying a high price for not pushing the conversion to completion, but remaining in limbo. He could have educated people (briefly) about the fact that they are already metric in medicine, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, lighting, electricity, automotive, and many other areas. American still remain ignorant of this fact. BUT -- he didn't. As a result, the press simply dredged up the old jokes against metric instead of discussing the issue as an economic and educational one. I noted that one of the hosts on Fox News said that Chafee was thousands of meters behind in getting votes. It is of interest that Fox News, the leading cable news company, is using meters more and more in its broadcasts. It's going to be an uphill battle, but if we are to avoid metric being the butt of jokes instead of the way to the future economy, I strongly urge that you, Paul, or Dan, or someone of like metric knowledge and credentials, make a real effort to get through to Chafee, educate him on metric, and help him develop talking points for his speeches so that he won't sound like the -- sorry -- fool that he came across on television yesterday. If Chafee continues to play the fool, the result will be that candidates back off any recommendation toward metric. And you know that every one of the candidates in both parties will be asked the question -- if they haven't been already. USMA needs to move fast. My recommendation would be to downplay the metric law and emphasize jobs and commerce. The U.S. needs a lot of education about this, but if we can get the message across that Metric Means Jobs and Money (how's that for a motto!), we might be able to move the debate to our side. Martin Morrison USMA Today Training Education Columnist
[USMA:54737] Don Hillger Gets through on Metric
I am particularly glad to note that Don Hillger, our new USMA President, spoke of completing conversion to metric. I have spoken to several people since Chafee's announcement, and I was quite surprised to see how ignorant people are about metric, much worse than in the 1970, when they were educated in it. Oddly, it seems that people don't equate milligrams of aspirin and liters of soda with the metric system. More than that, they don't equate the kilowatts on their electric bill, the lumens on their light bulbs, and the kelvins in their photography with the metric system. This was a revelation to me. We at USMA have to educate the public as to the extent to which they are already metric without knowing it. Don covers this in his interview with The Washington Times. Keep it up, Don, we need more of it! I have noticed another interesting fact. Most of the news feeds that I have monitored seem to show a much higher level of interest in metric conversion among Republicans, even though Chafee is a Democrat. On the Republican side, there are candidates for whom the metric issue should particularly resonate. Former Texas governor Rich Perry, who announced yesterday, is familiar with commerce across the southern border. Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, is familiar with extensive metric usage in Florida. Carly Fiorina in California is familiar with the extent of metric usage across the Mexican border and across the entire Pacific Rim. It would be wonderful if we could get more candidates who have real-world experience in commerce to address the issue seriously as an economic one. I suggest a motto for the campaign: Metric Means Jobs and Money for the U.S. Martin Morrison, USMA Today Training Education Columnist By Nate Madden - The Washington Times - Thursday, June 4, 2015 For a movement whose forward progress seems to be measured in centimeters these days, Donald Hillger is happy to welcome any champion he can get. The Colorado State University meteorologist and newly-elected president of the United States Metric Association said Thursday he was surprised and very pleased by the full-throated endorsement of the metric measuring system by former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee as he announced Wednesday he was entering the 2016 race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Chafee remains a very distinct underdog to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race, and his call for Americans to drop feet, pounds and gallons in favor of grams, meters and liters got at least as much media attention as some of his more serious policy critiques. Despite the long national resistance to changing over, Mr. Chafee said it was time to be bold. Believe me, its easy, he said. It doesnt take long before 34 degrees is hot. Only Myanmar, Liberia and the United States arent metric, and it will help our economy. Mr. Hillger said he was surprised by Mr. Chafees stance, and acknowledged its been a long and arduous struggle trying to get Americans to, in his words, complete the switch to the metric system. I say completing because it is happening behind the scenes and a lot of things are now in metric, even if many people arent aware of that, he said. Mr. Chafees endorsement is one more small step in the right direction, he said. Right now we dont have the government support to do this. Its up to Congress to set the weights and measures of the United States, he explained. Other countries that have switched to metric had a coordinated plan and deadlines and followed through with them. We dont have that. Previous congressional attempts to integrate the metric system include the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 and the 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act, both of which were met by resistance by American consumers. According to Mr. Hillger, the changes didnt take root because they were optional, which he called unfortunate. Metric advocates repeatedly note there are real economic costs to the U.S. from being an outlier. In 1999, NASA infamously lost a Mars climate orbiter due to a failure to coordinate on units. While the agencys engineers used metric, according to protocol, the contractor worked in the imperial system. The resulting failure of the probe cost taxpayers over $655 million. U.S. shippers and packagers face extra costs when preparing one set of products measured in metric for export and a second in Imperial for domestic consumption. In response to a 2013 We the People petition to the White House to replace the Imperial system with the metric system, Patrick D. Gallagher, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, argued there are benefits to being a bilingual nation and that the metric system has already made major inroads without being mandated. We measure distance in miles, but fiber-optic cable diameter in millimeters, he wrote. We weigh deli products in pounds, but medicine in
[USMA:54739] Fact-Check Article on Metric
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/07/lincoln-chafee/lincoln-chafee-says-ronald-reagan-talked-about-con/ Some two thousand years ago, the Roman satirist Juvenal wrote the prescient words: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This article, purportedly a fact-check piece, shows how carefully one has to watch the checkers as well as the checked! The article does get most of the facts right, and even quotes our President, Don Hillger. But it certainly makes a ridiculous fuss about Reagan. What difference does it make what Reagan did or didn't do, in view of the fact that practically every U.S. President between Ford and Bush pushed the program, as the article confirms.
[USMA:54745] Re: Metric Units Already Used in the US
Jim (Frysinger)-- This is exactly what I was talking about, and I didn't even know that it had already been compiled! I think that Don Hillger might want to feature this information on the USMA website, and Gary Brown might want to get some of it into Metric Today. The last paragraph in your Metric U.S. section is exactly the kind of information that we in the USMA should be pushing. Your compilation could be very useful for those giving interviews. They'll probably shock their audiences about the extent to which the U.S. is already metric! --Martin Morrison [Pat Naughtin and I (Jim Frysinger), with suggestions from others, developed a list of instances in which Americans use the metric system in their everyday lives. I think USMA's website used to post that list but I cannot find it. So I provide this link to it on my website: www.metricmethods.com/metricmoments.php.]
[USMA:54742] Interview for Here and Now NPR program
The problem I see is that we (USMA) still get bogged down way too much in mathematical and technical and historical technicalities, which a mostly science-ignorant population tunes out. In this interview, the practical argument was relegated to the very last few seconds, after lots of talk about abstruse (to the general public) metric units, Napoleon, and Roman miles -- fascinating in themselves and encouraged by the interviewer, but of no practical interest to the audience. I can just hear that audience thinking: That's why I don't like the metric system. It's too confusing. I STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT WE NEED TO GET OFF THIS TRACK OF TRYING TO PERSUADE PEOPLE THAT THE METRIC SYSTEM IS BETTER FOR LOGICAL REASONS. PEOPLE ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THAT ARGUMENT. Instead, we need to emphasize the ECONOMIC and FINANCIAL advantages of completing the national conversion to metric. I say completing, because we are 50% converted already, and there is no going back. If we complete the conversion, we become competitive worldwide and can take advantage of billions of dollars of extra commerce. But people don't realize that we are already 50% metric. One of the revelations that has come to me during this recent discussion is that most people don't recognize the metric system when they see it. When they buy 500 mg of aspirin, they don't know that the milligram is a metric unit. When they buy a 2-liter Coke, they don't realize that the liter is a metric unit. When they buy a 3500-lumen CFL, they don't realize that the lumen is a metric unit. They think metric without knowing it. We (USMA) really need to take this fact into account when we develop our arguments. People are not moved by philosophical arguments now. They are moved by practical arguments. If you tell them that metric means a job for them or a higher salary, they will convert overnight! Remember the motto: Metric Means Jobs and Money. --Martin Morrison, USMA Columnist
[USMA:54774] International Coverage in Metric
One thing that is pushing more metric is cable television, with its international channels and coverage of foreign events. For example, this weekend is the Open de France golf tournament being played just outside of Paris. Although the commentators on cable's Golf Channel are American, they are almost always using meters for distance, and even used degrees Celsius for the temperature. Every once in a while they'll throw in a conversion to yards, but not too often. The on-screen display unfortunately still shows yards. I think that this metric usage is mainly a matter of convenience. Probably the data being fed to the commentators by the tournament organizers is in metric units, so they just use them. It would be a real inconvenience to have to keep translating into U.S. customary units. So they just give up and use metric. No problem. When they gave the temperature (a warm 32-33 degrees Celsius), they didn't even bother to translate, saying that it had been 34 the previous day. All this goes to show that metric is really no big deal. If we could just stop arguing conversions, mathematics, and history, we could convert practically overnight. The key is just to start using metric exclusively, to think metric. I wonder how the European players react when they play in the United States. I'll bet that they still think and plan in metric units.
[USMA:54818] [Rep: Al Lawrence] U.S. Is Metricating Faster than We Think
Al-- Your suggestion for the USMA to push metric with businesses more than government was well argued and is the kind of new direction that I think our movement needs. We have limited resources, and if could get one other major industry to go metric, that would be a significant accomplishment. Beer and candy bars would be good possibilities to work with, as you have argued. --Martin Morrison
[USMA:54816] U.S. Is Metricating Faster than We Think
I was reminded today that sometimes we metricators lose sight of the forest for the trees. We're always talking so much about how the U.S. is not completely metricated that we overlook the increasing number of areas in which it is becoming metricated. Some of you may have heard on the national news this morning of a moderate earthquake that we had in Oakland, California. I happened to be watching Oakland's local TV news station at the time. The experienced traffic reporter, who has been with the channel for many years, must have immediately gone onto the U.S. Geological Service site to get the information, which is available these days in just a couple of minutes. The USGS site is metric, with no conversions and no apologies. The traffic reporter stated that the epicenter of the earthquake was 1 kilometer from Piedmont, California. He did no conversion. Later, the anchormen announced that the earthquake was 1 kilometer, or a little less than a mile, from Piedmont. Later broadcasts used the mile figure. I follow golf a little on television. I have noticed that the European tournaments, where the distance of the holes is signed in meters, are described by American commentators in meters. Occasionally, they they will give a quick conversion to feet (probably with those new distance-meters that golfers use), but most of the time they stick just to meters. I haven't once heard an objection. I think that we can learn some things from these incidents. 1) Americans may be more familiar with the metric system than we give them credit for, so more of them feel comfortable using kilometers. 2) People are intrinsically lazy, so they will grab information in whatever form it comes. If it is in metric, so be it. 3) Because of the international nature of news these days, with cable channels coming into the United States from Canada, France, Russia, and the Middle East, and more people getting their news off of the internet than from U.S. TV stations, people are hearing metric units more and more as a matter of course. I haven't once heard an objection. 4) News wire services (AP, AFP, Reuters) are international in scope. It is easier for them to use metric for a worldwide audience. Sometimes they put U.S. Obsolescent Units in parentheses afterward, but less and less as time goes on. Remember when incandescent light-bulbs were replaced by compact fluorescents? There was a major conversion when this happened from watts to lumens. (Actually, watts are a metric unit too, but CFLs uses less wattage for the same luminence.) This was a much more radical change than miles to kilometers. I doubt that very few but scientists and us metricators even knew what a lumen was! Yet, I heard no outcry. There were some conversion charts and labels that indicated the equivalent wattage for legacy bulbs, but eventually these will go away, and the proper unit for luminence, the lumen, will be the only unit used. Today I noticed in the grocery store a Coke in the old-style glass Coke bottle. It came from Mexico (when Cokes come from Mexico, you know that the U.S. economy is in trouble!) As I happened to look at the nutrition label, I noticed that the bottle was marked 355 ml. I guess that was supposed to be 12 U.S. fluid ounces, but I looked all over the bottle, and I could find no ounce equivalent given. Will it be long before these bottles are 350 ml, or even 375 ml, to equate to a standard size of wine bottle? What is the moral of the story for us at USMA? I'm not completely sure at the moment. Don, Paul, and the rest will have more insight, but what I do know is that we need to rethink our approach, just as Don and Paul are doing now. The old saw about the U.S. being the only non-metric country except for two tiny Asian states is the wrong message, and -- worse -- it is false. We are metricating, faster than ever before, but the impetus is not coming from government, for the most part. There is an advantage in this. When the government does things, all the ignorants rev up the anti-metric political nonsense. When private industry and media do it, there is essentially no resistence. It just happens. In this context, I am very happy to see the U.S. Metric Association's new motto: Advocating the Completion of U.S. Conversion to the Metric System. That nails it! Martin Morrison Metric Training and Education Columnist Metric Today
[USMA:54876] Earthquake in Metric Units
I was pleased to see that the information on this morning's small earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area was given entirely in metric units. It was obvious that the information box broadcasted was cribbed unedited from the U.S. Geological Survey site, which gives information in kilometers. What was remarkable was that the news stations didn't bother to convert the units to miles. To me, this policy indicates an increasing acceptance of metric units in news broadcasts, when those are the units in which the original information comes. Martin Morrison USMA Today Columnist
[USMA:54843] Metrication of Pharmaceuticals
Paul (Trusten) -- In watching a 1972 movie on television the other night, I noticed that a hospital physician ordered a medication in grains. That reminded me that I had never heard an explanation about how it came about that the medicinal area became almost completely metricated at some period after that. I don't ever recall hearing the story about how this happened. I have heard about the conversion of wine bottles, but I don't recall that we have ever had an article in Metric Today about the medicinal conversion. If anyone would know the story, Paul, you would! Could you give a brief explanation for this USMA list and consider writing a more extensive article for Metric Today? --Martin Morrison
[USMA:54851] Abbreviation for Degrees Celsius
I'm sure that this has been addressed before, but I can find no specific answer in my library of standards documents. When using the limited ASCII character set, how do you write the symbol for the degree Celsius? Is it 40 oC, using the rule that there is to be a space between the numeral and the symbol. Or is it 40oC, as one commonly sees it in print?
[USMA] Do We "Metrify"?
http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/variety-an-acrostic-that-floats/?_r=0 ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA] NASA Used the Metric System to Get to the Moon
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20151126/OPINION/151129771?Title=The-Buzz-Nov-27-2015 ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA] The State of the Metric System in Turkey
http://www.todayszaman.com/expat-zone_weighing-up-weights-and-measures_405680.html ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA] Timex Metropolitan+ Goes "All Metric"
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20151126/OPINION/151129771?Title=The-Buzz-Nov-27-2015 ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 18] Metric Shoes
This article from today's Huffington Post uses exclusively metric units: www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-charfen/your-shoes-are-an-unstable-foundation_b_8760374.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp0592 ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 21] Paris Agreement in Degrees Celsius
I was interested to note that in the reporting I heard about the Paris "climate control" agreement, the goal was, except in one case, stated as "1 degree Celsius." Only in one instance did a reporter add "1.8 degrees Fahrenheit." It was nice to hear the whole Celsius number, whereas Fahrenheit had to add a decimal point! I think that this reporting reflects my suspicion that news media are (1) becoming more internationalized and (2) are generally too lazy, or in too much of a rush, to convert units from metric. (2) would imply that the news media now assume that Americans are at least somewhat conversant with metric unit. Associated Press, which has always been a Luddite as far as metric is concerned, is shrinkin in importance compared to Reuters and AFP, which are more international in flavor. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 58] U.S. Is 100% Metric in Puerto Rico and Guam
When we talk about the U.S. not being metric (which is really not true, as you know, either legally or practically), we forget that these two U.S. Territories are fully metric. Just more ammunition for our side. www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/US-leaves-the-world-puzzled-by-dragging-its-feet-o-30275741.html I also noticed this morning, New Years Eve, on Fox News, that the reporting on one of the tallest buildings in the world, in Dubai, was in flames probably as a result of errant fireworks was given in -- meters! I think that this is just another example of my Laziness Principle, that more and more news reporters just let the metric units through because they don't have the time to do conversions. But this situation also implies that they now think that their viewers are conversant enough with metric units to do so. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 57] U.S. Metric Act Drove Canada to Metric, if Not U.S.
I had never heard this story of how close Canada came to dumping metric. Thank goodness Prime Minister Trudeau stood firm in 1976. Even Jimmy Carter, unbeknownst to him, saved metric in Canada if not in the U.S. Would that we had had a President as foresightful and courageous as Trudeau! Martin Morrison, "Metric Today" Columnist From: Kamloops This Week www.kamloopsthisweek.com/where-are-they-now-len-marchand-still-watching-political-scene/ "By 1976, Marchand was in cabinet as Minister of State for Small Business and handed the task of bringing the metric system to Canada. "I was really getting a lot of heat about metric, Marchand says. So, I said to Pierre [Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada], Give me the word and I can dismantle it. But, he said, We are a trading nation and one of the last great nations in the world not going metric. "At one time, Marchand says, he had a letter from then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter confirming that country would also go metric." ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 49] Metric in 1869 Harvard Entrance Examination
1869 Harvard Entrance Examination: graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/education/harvardexam.pdf Note Question 8 under Arithmetic. I wonder how many current high-school seniors would even know where to start! ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 52] "The Nation" Argues for U.S. Metrication
www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/US-leaves-the-world-puzzled-by-dragging-its-feet-o-30275741.html ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 39] Motorsports Cyclist Praises Metric System
Alexander Smith, competing in Dakar, made the following statement to the press: "One good thing is, being an Australian of the metric system, the roadmap distances are in kilometers so I have no trouble remembering those during the crash course in navigating by American off-road legend, Quinn Cody. Oh, and the roadmap is in abbreviated French. I don't know French." (Cycle News, December 18, 2015) ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 45] New York Times: Half of Businesses Metricated
[The last two paragraphs are the important ones. --Martin Morrison] NEW YORK TIMES BACK STORY What do the U.S., Liberia and Myanmar have in common? They are the only nations that do not mandate the metric system as their official measurement standard. Its not for lack of trying, at least in the U.S. Forty years ago today, the Metric Conversion Act required the federal government to endorse, if not adopt, the system. That law followed at least five other legal efforts to go metric since 1866, as well as numerous informal attempts since the time of Thomas Jefferson. Officially, not much has happened since then. Many federal agencies now use the metric system exclusively, but many others particularly those involving transportation and construction do not. Most recently, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island made converting to metric a centerpiece of his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Apathy is most often cited as the cause of Americans attachment to inches and pounds. Yet even without legal mandates, the metric system surrounds us. Medicines are measured in milligrams, soda bottles in liters and dental floss in meters. Even marijuana and cocaine come by the gram. Some experts estimate half of U.S. business is conducted in metric, leading them to predict its eventual adoption, by law or not. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 46] Metric American Football
www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/sports/The-Toilet-Bowl-memories-overflow-363249011.html ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA:54898] Journalist Goes Pro-metric
Journalist miscalculates because of confusion in use of legacy unit "acres" and is converted to a pro-metric position. granitegeek.concordmonitor.com/2015/11/17/670-trillion-or-maybe-425-trillion-the-number-of-peep-able-leaves-on-new-hampshire-trees/
[USMA:54901] Is Microsoft Windows 10 Ignorant of Metric in the U.S.?
From a business article: "Microsoft's voice-activated digital assistant, Cortana, which Canadians could previously only use by lying about their location, is now officially available in English Canada (the French Canada localization is due sometime next year) on all devices. Like Google Now and Siri, Cortana keeps track of appointments and interests, issues reminders, answers questions, and learns the users interests and needs over time. Microsoft says that her Canadian personality, in addition to being up on local sports and jargon, acquainted with both Imperial and Metric measurement systems, and being able to correctly pronounce Canadian place and personality names, is optimized for politeness." Does this imply that the American English version of Cortana is ignorant of the metric system?!" So Americans need to choose the British English version? I wonder.
[USMA:54902] Even Obsolescent "Ounces" Can Be Deceptive
At least with grams, you wouldn't have to use two decimal places! "Lawsuit: Safeway ripped off canned-tuna customers A $5 million class-action lawsuit filed in San Francisco accuses Safeway of shortchanging customers who purchased store-brand canned tuna. Ehder Soto of Aptos, Calif., said in court documents that government testing showed that cans of tuna he bought regularly from a local Safeway supermarket did not contain the full five ounces as advertised on the label, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. "I would not have purchased Safeway Chunk Light Tuna in Water if I had known that the cans were underfilled and underweight," Soto stated in court documents. The documents said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that 106 out of 108 Safeway tuna cans were underfilled. They averaged 2.29 ounces of pressed cake tuna, or 19.4 percent below the federally mandated minimum standard of fill 2.84 ounces, according to the lawsuit."
[USMA:54905] Metric Is American
What does even Thanksgiving has to be tagged with anti-metric false propaganda. Somehow we in USMA have to get out the message that, as I put it in one newspaper article, "metric is as American as apple pie, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln." From: "Golf Digest" Magazine "...True, going against Thanksgiving pick-up pigskin is as unAmerican as the metric system, Heineken or (shrudders) Coldplay, but hear us out."
[USMA:54906] More False Propaganda from the Ignoscenti
Below is another hackneyed error, just as untrue as the previous one from "Golf Digest." The USMA is starting to address this one by its new motto about "completing" the conversion to the Metric System. I think that a good deal of the P.R. problem is that Americans (that is, U.S. natives; the rest of America is metricated) don't realize how much they are already metricated. It certainly is at least 50%. Outside of reported temperatures and road signs, most areas are at least dual now, and many are fully metricated. From "Yale News" "In high school [in Japan], my friends and I talked about Americans like they weren't us. (Most of us, though admittedly not all, had at least one parent who had been raised stateside.) Americans couldn't understand the metric system, we joked." By the way, it seems as if the Yalies are just as compromised with their English as with their measurement system. "Like" in English is properly a preposition taking an object, not a conjunction taking a clause.)
[USMA 207] Astronomy Magazines
Concerning Don Hillger's comment in the July-August 2016 "Metric Today" on the Sky & Telescope resisting metrication, there is another popular astronomy magazine, Astronomy, which does a better job. If I recall correctly from having perused the latest issue at the supermarket, Astronomy is now using at least dual units, with the metric units in bigger type. S uses some metric too, but not as comprehensively as Astronomy. I find the mish-mosh of units in the astronomy magazines particularly disheartening. These are supposed to be scientific, after all. Eyepiece focal lengths are regularly given in millimeters, whereas focal lengths of telescopes are often given in inches. This makes absolutely no sense, as calculations of magnification, etc., use both figures, so one has to be converted to the other before you can plug it into the formulae. After all this time you'd think that these magazines would have bit the bullet and just gone metric. Maybe astronomy aficionados should write S and say that they are switching to Astronomy because the later is almost completely metricated. The commercial argument always wins over the intellectual. --Martin Morriso ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 206] An historian explains why the U.S. still hasnt adopted the global standard
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/whos-afraid-of-the-metric-system/395057/ Who's Afraid of the Metric System? Yoni Appelbaum Jun 6, 2015 Technology When former Rhode Island senator and governor Lincoln Chafee formally jumped into the presidential race on Wednesday, he made a splash. There are good reasons to take Chafees bid seriously, but his speech drew the most attention for a less-conventional proposal. Lets join the rest of the world and go metric, he said. His call was not universally embraced. Labeling it the worst idea of the campaign, the National Reviews Jim Geraghty blustered, with perhaps a touch of humor: You will get my American system ruler when you pry it from my cold dead hand. Advocates of the metric system are accustomed to such scorn. Back in 1972, Rhode Island senator Claiborne Pell was attacked by his Republican opponent for wasting time on low-priority items like the metric system. The politician leveling that attack? John Chafee. But Lincoln Chafee, Johns son, is undeterred. People say its expensive, but the economic benefits outweigh the cost, he told CNN. Many experts agree. Which raises an interesting question: Why, exactly, doesnt the United States already use the metric system? To find out, I turned to Stephen Mihm, an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia, and author of the forthcoming book, Mastering Modernity: Weights, Measures, and the Standardization of American Life. Yoni Appelbaum: Let's start at the beginning. What's the utility of having a single, standardized system of measurement? Stephen Mihm: It permits nations, individuals, or corporations who would otherwise be hampered in their efforts at communicating, trading, or sharing information. Think of it as a common language. If everyone in the world speaks English, it's very easy to do business, travel, and engage in trade. The same is true of a single, standardized system of weights and measures. Appelbaum: Much of the world started moving to the metric system in the late nineteenth century. You've written that the United States didn't follow, because of the humble screw thread. For want of a screw, the metric system was lost? Mihm: Many factors played a role in frustrating the adoption of the metric system in the United States. But much of the opposition from the 1870s onward came from the manufacturers of high-end machine tools. They had based their entire systemwhich encompassed everything from lathe machines to devices for cutting screw threadson the inch. Retooling, they argued, was prohibitively expensive. They successfully blocked the adoption of the metric system in Congress on a number of occasions in the late 19th and 20th century. The most sophisticated and powerful opponents of the metric system were engineers who built the industrial infrastructure of the United States. Appelbaum: So the people blocking adoption of the metric system weren't backward-looking traditionalists, but cutting-edge industrialists? Mihm: That's correct. While the anti-metric forces included outright cranks, including people who believed that the inch was a God-given unit of measurement, the most sophisticated and powerful opponents of the metric system were anything but cranks. They were engineers who built the industrial infrastructure of the United States. And their concerns, while self-interested, were not entirely off base. Whatever the drawbacks of the English units, the inch was divided in ways that made sense to the mechanics and machinists of the era: it was built around "2s" rather than "10s," with each inch subdivided in half and in half againand so forth. This permitted various sizes of screw thread to have some logical correspondence to all the other increments. The same was true of the sizes of other small parts that were essential modern machinery. Appelbaum: We've arrived at a hybrid system. Most American rulers show inches along one edge, centimeters along the other. Is it possible that the metric system will slowly displace English measurements, not by government fiat, but one inch at a time? Mihm: Yes, that's right. If history is any guide, government fiats don't work when it comes to weights and measures. The undertow of history and custom is too strong (proponents of the metric system, for example, are often unaware that it took many decades for France to get its citizens to adopt itthere were many, many setbacks and a staggering amount of resistance). Government fiats don't work when it comes to weights and measures. Appelbaum: Chafee's call for the United States to adopt the metric system generated an immediate backlash. Why does a seemingly dry subject like metrology ignite such intense passions? Mihm: National pride is at stake. The adoption of another country's weights and measuresor in the case of the metric system, the rest of the world's weights and measuresseems an
[USMA 88] "You Don't Want the Guy Who Didn't Understand the Metric System"
http://www.daily-journal.com/opinion/editorials/take-the-test-it-s-the-only-way-to-compete/article_0295fa2e-9867-5a72-95ee-2ffac8ae95a4.html Every now and then, someone scores a critical success with a lecture or book such as "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." It's clever. It appeals to those who hold that interpersonal understanding is the key to a happy life. Maybe so. But if you are an engineer, a doctor or a chemist, well, you had to learn a whole lot after kindergarten. The rest of us are appreciative of that learning, too. If you are driving over a bridge or flying in a plane, you want one designed by the "A" engineer, not the guy who didn't understand the metric system. If you are in heart surgery, you want the "A" surgeon. You probably would want your investments handled by a person great at math and analysis, rather than one with just a great smile. The federal government, under Barack Obama as it has under George W. Bush, is sticking to a series of standardized tests designed to force improvements in education. Such tests, though, still stir resistance from students and parents. Across the nation, 640,000 students refused to take the tests. Illinois was singled out as one of the offenders. We think there are a lot to be said for tests. First of all, even if you don't do well a test often points out where you need to improve. Secondly, a test is objective. You don't get marked down because your name ends in a vowel or you live on the wrong side of the tracks. It is true, certainly, that a test is a form of stress. Not everyone does well with stress. But the ability to make the right decision, under stress, is critical in all sorts of professions. It makes a difference in medicine, in law enforcement, in military service. That brings us to two concluding arguments. Does American education need to improve? In 2012, there was a worldwide Programme for International Student Assessment. Fifteen-year-olds around the world took a test designed to measure what students knew. The test was heavily weighted in math. Students in Shanghai, China, scored a mean of 613. The United States had a mean of 481. We fell behind not only China, Japan and Korea, but also some places you would not have expected. Students in Vietnam, Portugal, Ireland and Poland were better than those in the United States. Here's a dagger. Test scores seem to be tied to economic growth rates. Those countries doing the best in math seem to be improving the most in economics. Does that mean you need high level math skills and the ability to work under pressure in every job? No. But the world is competing and you are not going to win by failing to show up at the starting line. Take the test. Discover what you don't know. Than learn it. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 89] Creator of Periodical Table Introduced Metric System to the Russian Empire
http://www.prepsure.com/news/182nd-birthday-of-periodic-table-creator-dmitir-mendeleev-his-contribution$ 182nd Birthday of Periodic Table Creator Dmitir Mendeleev: His contribution and use of Sanskrit All you need to know about Dmitir Mendeleev, creator of Periodic Table, on his 182nd birth anniversary. Did you know that the Creator of the Periodic Table, Dmitir Mendeleev, predicted eight elements in his table using the prefixes which are derived from Sanskrit ? Today is his 182nd birth anniversary and here is all that you need to know about him and his contribution to the Periodic Table. Father of Periodic Table The famous Russian Chemist who was the inventor of the infamous Periodic Law, Dimitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, is often regarded as the farsighted father of periodic table elements. Born in 8 February, 1834 in the village of Verkhnie Aremzyani, near Tobolsk in Siberia, Mendeleev was raised as an Orthodox Christian by his parents. He later deviated from the missionary ideas of the church and embraced deism instead at his later life. After acquiring his higher education in various parts of Russia he returned to Saint Petesberg in 1857 to cure his tuberculosis. Other Theories In the year 1864 he joined the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute and in 1865 the Saint Petersberg State University as Professor. He had developed the chemistry department of the state university to one of the most internationally recognized centres for chemistry research, with his impeccable knowledge in the subject. With 56 known elements in the year 1863, new elements were coming up at the rate of at least one per year. John Newlands and Lothar Meyer were some of the notable scientists who described their models for periodic table earlier. Newlands described it through the Law of Octaves, saying the periodicity of elements depends upon the atomic weight that they carry. On the contrary Meyer was of the view that there are 28 elements in the table that can be classified by their valence. He didnt predict any new elements in the table. What was Dmitir Mendeleev contribution to the Periodic Table? This is when Mendeleev came into picture, during his professorship at the Saint Petersberg State University. He decided to classify the elements in the periodic table through the chemical properties associated with them. He devised his own model of extended periodic table and on 06 March 1869, he presented his model to the Russian Chemical Society and named it, The Dependence between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements. He presented his own periodic table with several new predicted elements and completed it. He came out with his own periodic table in the year 1871. He named the predicted eight elements in his table using the prefixes eka, dvi and tri, which are derived from Sanskrit. This clearly proved his appreciation to the Sanskrit Grammarians of ancient India, who were the forefathers of discovering a sophisticated theory of language. It is often said that his work resembles with that of Sanskritist Bohtlingk who found the phonological patterning of sounds with the Sanskirt language in his book Panini. Mendeleev similarly found chemical properties of elements function according to their atomic weights. His predictions of rare earth elements ekaboron (Eb), ekaaluminium (Ea), ekamanganese(Em) and ekasilicon (Es) along with thorium and uranium and noble gases helium and argon, all found its place later at the periodic table. HE IS ALSO GIVEN THE CREDIT FOR INTRODUCING THE METRIC SYSTEM TO THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. For his outstanding contribution in the field of Chemistry, he was given the Davy Medal from the Roayal Society of London in the year 1882 along with Lothar Meyer. He died on 2 February, 1907 at the age of 72 in Saint Petersburg. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 87] "An Impassioned Plea for the Metric System"
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2016/02/food-lab-cooking-science-kenji-lopez-alt The food lab: better home cooking through science 10 February 2016 J. Kenji Lpez-Alt W W Norton & Company 2015 | 938pp | 26.40 ISBN 9780393081084 Reviewed by Yuandi Li The professional kitchen is often seen as a military operation, with the teamwork and clearly defined chain of command. The head chef barks orders and the cooks dutifully respond oui, chef! Perhaps this is why cookbooks only tell you what to do without telling you the reason. Just as soldiers do not question why they need to carry out their mission, you do not question why you have to rest your roast before carving. Then Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal came along. By questioning the orthodoxy and applying chemistry and physics, their new approach caused a lasting revolution in haute cuisine (attested by the ubiquity of foams, liquid nitrogen ice cream and sous-vide cooking). Understandably, such cookery is often seen as pretentious or inaccessible by those that just want a simple home-cooked meal. However, science is indiscriminate and what improves Michelin-star food can also improve your sausages and mash. J. Kenji Lpez-Alts The food lab is both a science textbook and cookbook that brings modernist cooking to the home kitchen with the tools to exercise our own creativity. With an infectious enthusiasm, Lpez-Alt applies the scientific method to explain things like why fried eggs can have a runny yolk despite the higher coagulation temperature of whites; why salads must be dressed at the last moment; and, indeed, why you must rest meat. The food lab assumes no knowledge of science or cookery and provides a thorough grounding on many common dishes and ingredients. For each, he explains the underlying scientific principles and cooking techniques before demonstrating them with some easy-to-make and very delicious recipes. The dishes are generally American (a highly underrated cuisine on the Eastern side of the Atlantic), with recipes catering for every course apart from dessert. It is also very much home cooking and does not require any fancy ingredients or equipment although Lpez-Alt does provide an in-depth introduction to a myriad of kitchen gear (prepare to get nerdy about knives!). The only criticism is that despite CONTAINING AN IMPASSIONED PLEA FOR THE METRIC SYSTEM, the book is understandably written for its American audience and is rife with Imperial measurements. The books modularity means you can work through it like a textbook or simply find a specific recipe. However, you truly do get back what you put in. As such, it wont inspire those who have no current interest in cuisine, but for everyone else, it is the only book you need to become a seriously good cook. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 90] Master Choclatier Recommends Metric
http://onmilwaukee.com/dining/articles/5tipsfromanetterighidefendi.html 5 tips from master chocolatier Anette Righi DeFendi Published Feb. 11, 2016 at 11:01 a.m. Valentine's Day is right around the corner. And whether you're spending it with friends, family or even that special someone, the day is a great excuse to indulge in something rich and chocolatey. And, while you can always pick up a box of chocolate confections from an area chocolate shop (or order one online), sometimes making an indulgent recipe from scratch is the best way to share your love. But, how do you ensure that your chocolate masterpiece is, well, actually a masterpiece? We consulted with Anette Righi DeFendi, head chocolatier at Kohler Original Recipe Chocolates and one of Dessert Professional's picks for the Top 10 Chocolatiers in North America for 2015. And here's five of her top tips for working (and baking) with chocolate: 1. Stop the pooling To create a cleaner finish when dipping food into melted chocolate be sure to use a dipping fork. This specially designed simplistic tool allows for the removal of excess chocolate which prevents the forming of a pool of chocolate under the item known as a foot. This method makes the most of your chocolate creating less waste. 2. GO METRIC To insure consistency and accuracy, use the metric system that measures weight (milliliters, grams, etc.) instead of the American Standard system that measures volume (cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, etc.). Conversion charts are readily available online, better yet print one out and post it inside a cupboard door for easy reference. Recipes will always turn out exactly the same. There are simply too many variables with cups/teaspoons. 3. Don't be afraid of failure Intrigued by a new recipe? Try it. Even if you fail, you are sure to learn something to do or not to do next time! It is often equally as important to know what not to do as it is to know what to do! 4. Stop struggling with sticky ingredients This is my favorite tip. When measuring sticky ingredients such as honey or corn syrup, it is best to spray the measuring tool with cooking spray prior to adding the ingredient. This allows the ingredient to slide out easily resulting in proper proportions and minimizing waste! 5. Don't be afraid to experiment Take a favorite recipe and modify it. Make slight modifications to the type of chocolate, add a flavor or incorporate inclusions such as nuts or chocolate chips. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 100] Britain's "Brexit" May Sink Metric
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/foreign/21-Feb-2016/what-if-the-uncharted-waters-of-brexit If there is any country more stupid than the U.S., it is Britain! See the last paragraph. A British exit from the European Union would leave the country in uncharted territory, no country having ever travelled that road, which spells freedom to eurosceptics but doom to the pro-Europe camp. As Britain gears up for a membership referendum, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker insists there is no plan B, while Downing Street maintains it has made no contingencies. After securing a deal on Britains special status in the EU at a summit on Friday, Prime Minister David Cameron said he would campaign for his country to stay in and warned those clamouring for a divorce that a post-EU future might be far from rosy. We should be suspicious of those who claim that leaving Europe is some automatic fast track to some land of milk and honey, Cameron said, adding that Brexit would be a leap into the unknown. A War Game held in London last month attempted to simulate post-Brexit negotiations on Britains place in Europe, but even there discussions quickly turned toxic. As a first step, Britain and the EU must negotiate and conclude an agreement... setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal, as required by Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. If no agreement is reached after two years, Britain would automatically be ejected from the union, unless both parties agreed to an extension. At the heart of discussions will be whether Britain remains in the European Economic Area (EEA), like other non-EU members Norway and Iceland, or whether it quits the single market altogether. The City of London, Europes most important financial centre, is hostile to a Brexit and its big hitters have already planned for various post-EU scenarios. HSBC, Europes biggest bank, has warned that 1,000 jobs could shift from London to Paris. According to a study by the think-tank Open Europe, Britains GDP would be 2.2 points lower in 2030 if Britain leaves the EU, in its worst-case scenario, with a loss of 0.8 percent deemed most likely. Despite Brexits many unknowns, the government would likely clamp down on immigrants, starting with migrants from Eastern Europe, whom eurosceptics believe are being lured by Britains welfare system. Parliament would be able to strike down EU laws written into British law, which currently state that the welfare system must treat workers from other parts of Europe as it does British citizens. France would have to decide whether to continue to host British border police, or whether it would lift the controls to allow migrants currently stranded in Calais to travel on to England through the Eurotunnel. Meanwhile, EU citizens already resident in Britain could suddenly find themselves treated as any other foreigner, requiring residence and work permits. Remaining EU members could respond in kind, leaving Britons on the continent in need of visas and permits. In the key areas of security and defence, it seems likely that all parties would conclude the need to continue cooperating closely on defence and counter-terrorism. But a Brexit could leave Britain weakened on the world stage as it loses its role as a gateway to Europe for the United States and China. Both US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have publicly called for Britain to stay in the EU. Britain could be further weakened by the prospect of losing Scotland, whose devolved government has signalled it would demand another independence referendum in the event of a Brexit. The ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) claims that it is being forced out of the EU against its wishes, and believes it would have a stronger chance of winning independence than it did in 2014, when Scotland voted by 55 percent to 45 percent to remain in the United Kingdom. The consequences would be dire for Prime Minster David Cameron, who would go down in history as the man who empowered the countrys eurosceptics to drive Britain out of the EU. Political commentators are already fantasising about charismatic London mayor Boris Johnson, a die-hard eurosceptic, replacing Cameron should the vote go against the current prime minister. Another issue that carries weight, literally, among Britains eurosceptics will also be settled. The 2009 European regulation imposing the use of the metric system will finally be able to be binned, signalling a return to imperial measurements and victory for metric martyr campaigners. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 96] Another Area of Metric Conversion - Nuclear Medicine
I noticed that in last night's "Madame Secretary" on CBS, one of the few good drama programs left, when the Secretary of State's husband suffers radiation poisoning from an Islamic dirty bomb, the physician in charge says that he has received "one Sievert" of radiation, which is described as causing nasty, but not lethal, symptoms. Sievert is the SI unit of radiation dose. Formerly, one commonly heard the obsolete units of roetgen, rem, or rem. This is yet another unacknowledged area in which metric units are being used, and legacy units have been supplanted. --Martin Morrison ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 98] New York Times: "Don't Let the Metric System Scare You"
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/23/dining/how-to-make-coffee.html?_r=0 2. Use a Scale, Not a Scoop Now that nerd has gone from a slur to a compliment, it frees you to be more compulsive about how you make coffee. To start, coffee should be measured in grams, using a digital scale. It doesnt have to be expensive. You can buy a perfectly functional digital scale for less than $15. This suggestion shouldnt be a surprise to anybody who has bought a baking cookbook recently. For years, pastry chefs have weighed their ingredients in grams, and now its standard for all corners of a restaurant kitchen. If youve baked using a digital scale, you know it is very easy to use and delivers better results with less mess or waste. And its not just the coffee you should weigh. Ideally, you would also weigh your water, or at least measure volume in liters, rather than cups or ounces. Heres why: When you brew coffee, youre working with a ratio, a certain amount of coffee to water that you can scale up or down depending on how much you want to make. Most Americans do this with scoops and cups, meaning the cup measurements marked on the coffee machine. But a cup on a coffee machine is usually five ounces (not eight), and a scoop is arbitrary (there is no standard measurement). Its a messy system. If you are going to the trouble of creating that ratio every morning, you may as well do it right. A good benchmark is 55 grams of coffee to 1,000 grams (or one liter) of water, which is the Golden Cup Ratio of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. Dont let the metric system scare you; it actually makes doing any math much easier. As for the scale itself, an inexpensive one is all you need; be sure it has a capacity of at least two kilograms. But if you want to nudge open the door of coffee obsession, consider the Hario V60 scale ($60), which is accurate up to 0.01 of a gram, has a built-in timer and comes in Death Star matte black. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 99] CDC Makes Lethal Metric Error Caught by "60 Minutes"
Remember the Mars Lander crashing because someone used legacy units? This is worse. Note particularly the penultimate paragraph. http://www.vocativ.com/news/289002/cdc-laminate-cancer/ CDC Revises Health Risk Assessment Of Flooring After Math Error CDC recently announced that laminate floors are safe, only to realize that they forgot to convert from feet to metersand that the cancer risk is three-fold higher. By Joshua A. Krisch on Feb 23, 2016 at 10:25 AM Laminate flooring, that synthetic tile that looks like finished wood, is probably lurking beneath the carpet in your ratty Brooklyn apartment. And recently, its been the subject of some controversy. Certain models on laminate flooring contain formaldehyde, a chemical linked to cancer, asthma attacks and upper airway irritation. Fortunately, a CDC report recently confirmed that the amount of formaldehyde in laminate flooring is infinitesimal. Unfortunately, the CDC appears to have messed up the math. From the CDCs revised report: Health risks of people who have the laminate flooring are being revised to reflect greater exposure to formaldehyde, which could cause eye, nose, and throat irritation for anyone. The estimated risk of cancer associated with exposure to the flooring increased. The CDC/ATSDR indoor air model used an incorrect value for ceiling height. As a result, the health risks were calculated using airborne concentration estimates about 3 times lower than they should have been. Skeptical health journalism won the day when a 60 minutes report found the error upon performing their own calculations. It turns out CDC had forgotten to convert to the metric system from feet to meters when measuring the formaldehyde content in areas covered by laminate flooring. Due to their math mistake, the estimated risk of cancer is likely to climb from nine cases per 100,000 (an insignificant risk) to as many as 30 cases per 100,000 (still not much of a risk, but one heck of a lot higher than previously thought). Risk of asthma and other upper airway problems is also expected to increase. Stock in Lumber Liquidators, a company that sells the questionable flooring, plummeted accordingly according to Bloomberg News, which notes that the stock dropped 20 percent on Monday to $11.40. Lumber Liquidators sells $120 million in laminate flooring each year, and recently lifted a self-imposed ban on a class of Chinese laminates, imposed after a 2015 report suggested that the laminate may cause cancer. The company says that it intends to continue selling the laminate flooring, and now offers a free air test to worried customers. Despite the errors in CDCs calculation, we note that they do not expect to change their recommendations, the company told NBC. But one, important question remains. How exactly does a panel of health experts and scientists employed by the CDC make a grade school error in calculations about something as important as cancer risk? Thats got to hurt. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 71] Agricultural Reporter Writes: "Time to Go Metric"
www.hpj.com/opinion/time-to-go-metric/article_2cf2e38c-72ed-584e-a6e8-c92112c2d929.html We missed an opportunity to move our primary system of measurement to the metric system back in the late 1970s. People rose up against changing from miles to meters and from quarts to liters for what good outcome? Metric measurements didnt go away and the United States has incurred more confusion, expense and self-imposed exile because of unwillingness to unify within a mature measurement system that works worldwide. If the French hadnt invented it, we could probably accept the decimal based measurement more easily. France was a nation of great scientific achievement in the 19th century and implemented the metric system in 1875. But France fell out of favor due its wartime actions and rude waiters in the 20th century. As the United States gained dominance following World War II, the diplomatic language shifted from French to English, and we thought all else would follow. We failed to realize the shortcomings of our arcane Roman and Germanic units of measurement that evolved from the length of a kings arm or the width of the rumps of two Roman horses. It was impossible for us to accept changing all measurement, except time, by establishing of a single measure of length: the meter, and a single measure of weight and volume: the kilogram. As a French philosopher put it, the metric system was to be: For all people, for all time. We said: Not us. Americas scientific advancement in the 1940s, and especially when we sent men to the moon in the 1960s, boosted our ego to a high level. However, the scientific community, manufacturers, who exported, and those citizens who had peacetime interaction with Europe, began to favor the metric system until push came to shove in the 1970s. In my humble opinion, we had too much pride and too much bravado to admit something from across the water was better than our own. We stopped legislative attempts to go metric by applying the basic rule of humanity: Rich people are never wrong. We argued the infrastructure and legal divisions of property were laid out in traditional measurement so, we the powerful, exerted our influence to allow our system to prevail. For the past century, technology has been the greatest factor in the argument for unifying worldwide measurement. We ship all types of products to every country and have no hesitation to buy industrial machines and vehicles made in Europe, Japan or wherever they are made cheaper or better. As a result, the tools for repair had to be in metric units. That one 160-piece socket and wrench set you got for Christmas is half metric and half United States customary units. The challenge of conversion to a new system is the number of people who know the old one. The classic example is keys on the typewriter laid out in the QWERTY configuration. I contend it wont be hard to parallel measurements for a few years and then convert. Metric units quantify length, area, volume and mass. We have a number of these measurements already in our daily language: the liter, or litre is almost exactly a quart. I hear people quote the price of 2-liter bottles as the norm for soda pop measurement so I know there can be change, even among those who oppose it. Milligram is common in prescriptions for medications. Most news stories about drug busts give the haul in kilos(kilograms or about 2.2 pounds) so we know its imported. Kilometers(3,281 feet) are the norm for almost all foot races and for Olympic events. Hectares define area and equate to about 2 and a half acres. A metric ton(1000 kilos or 2,200 pounds) is about 39 bushels of corn. The scientific community deals almost exclusively in metric measurements as do most manufacturers who sell worldwide or buy equipment from foreign sources. The military has to work in both modes as well. The need for collaboration between scientists was shown in a bad outcome for a Mars probe in the late 1990s. There is good substantiation the joint U.S. and European project crashed because of a computer software error. In other words, it was sent guidance that confused American measurements with metric and came in too close to the planet. The difference between 100 miles and 100 kilometers may not be that substantial, but in this case it was goodbye to $100 million! Government is making us do so many things we are sure are bad. Why cant it make us do something that will be good for future generations? Probably the most difficult change in daily life would be measurement of temperature. The TV stations would need to quote both Celsius and Fahrenheit for several years until we get the hang of 100 degrees from freezing to boiling rather than 180. The two align only at 40 degrees below zero so only people in North Dakota and Alaska can appreciate the similarity. Road signs would need to have both miles and kilometers posted for an undetermined period of time.
[USMA 69] "Barrel" of Oil
[Don & Paul -- This could be a little item for "Metric Today". --Martin Morrison, MT Columnist] "The measure of an oil barrel is defined as 42 US gallons, which is the rough equivalent of 159 liters. It has become an international standard since 1872 and is based on King Richard IIIs English wine tierce. However, most modern oil drums have a capacity of 55 US gallons, although the UK uses a drum with 44 imperial gallons and the countries affiliated to the metric system use 200-liter drums. At the end of the day, everybody trades oil using barrels as a measurement standard." www.autoevolution.com/news/oil-price-falls-to-new-low-a-barrel-of-crude-is-cheaper-than-the-barrel-that-contains-it-103750.html ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 91] CNN Uses "Centimeter" in Politics
I have heard some stations use millimeters for small distances, but this morning on CNN occurred the first time when I heard centimeters used outside of a scientific context. One of the morning hosts described two Presidential candidates as a "centimeter" apart in their political positions. There is no doubt that metric units are making their way into America at a growing rate, perhaps because so much coverage is now coming from international sources. Metric units will become more and more familiar in a natural way -- without government action and without stirring up anti-metric sentiment. We might wish for a unified approach from government, but the natural way might be the better way. Reagan couldn't get the job done. Can you imagine what kind of a mess the Obama administration would make of it? Maybe there would be some hope with Trump. At least he is an international businessman, used to dealing with metric countries. If anyone could get the job done, he probably could, but I have not heard him comment on this issue. --Martin Morrison, "Metric Today" Columnist ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 93] Reuters Translates Legacy Unit to Metric
This is the first time that I have seen anything like this. Reuters glossed a U.S. Legacy unit to metric. We have all seen metric units glossed into Legacy, but this is the first time that I have seen it done the other way around: "Later Wednesday, the pope will be driven to the fence that separates Mexico from the United States, and will celebrate just 80 yards (73 meters) from the crossing." ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 116] USMA State Science Fair Awards in Wyoming
http://thesheridanpress.com/?p=50060 STATE SCIENCE FAIR: Local students earn awards in Laramie March 11, 2016 Students from Holy Name Catholic School pause for a photo at the 2016 Wyoming State Science Fair that took place March 2-4 in Laramie. Pictured, front row from left, are Katelin Rogaczewski, Samantha Rogaczewski, Julia Smart, Katie Magera and Cisco Gallegos. Back row, from left, are Seth Deutscher, Alex Garber, Morgan Smith, Nicholas Aasby and Shannon Holzerland. SHERIDAN Area students recently competed in the Wyoming State Science Fair in Laramie. Several Sheridan County students won awards at the contest. The following Sheridan County students earned awards: Animal sciences Third place junior division Samantha Rogaczewski, Holy Name Catholic School Chemistry First place junior division Carley Jo Motsick, Big Horn Middle School Earth and environmental sciences Third place junior division Carly Craig, Big Horn Middle School Energy and transportation Third place junior division Jacob McIntyre, Tongue River Middle School Engineering design and innovation First place junior division Dulce Carroll, Sheridan Junior High School Microbiology Second place junior division Francisco Gallegos, Holy Name Catholic School Physics, astronomy, planetary sciences Third place junior division Kathryn Moran, Sheridan Junior High School Second place junior division Cade Relaford, Sheridan Junior High School Plant sciences Second place junior division Katelin Rogaczewski, Holy Name Catholic School Robotics, computer, mathematical sciences Third place junior division Morgan Smith, Holy Name Catholic School In addition, The American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics awarded select students an Arduino Kit and a one-year student membership to the AIAA. Dulce Carroll of SJHS received the prize in the junior division. The American Meteorological Society also recognized four students for their creative scientific endeavors in the areas of atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences. Awardees, including Big Horn Middle Schools Carly Craig, received a certificate and their names may be published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Winners named by the U.S. Air Force included Dulce Carroll from SJHS. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration presented a certificate and medallion to two individuals whose research emphasized the NOAA mission. Carly Craig of BHMS received one of the awards. The University of Wyoming Department of Anthropology offers two $50 awards, one in the junior division and one in the senior division, to students whose projects address a topic of interest and relevance to one of the major anthropological research fields of archaeology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology or biological anthropology. Katie Magera of HNCS won the junior division award. The U.S. Metric Association recognizes a student whose project involved quantitative measures and correctly used units of the SI metric system for those measures. The recipient of this award was Nicholas Aasby of HNCS. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 156] Japan Enforces Metric System
50 YEARS AGO Friday, April 1, 1966 Metric system goes into effect nationwide Today the metric system will be enforced in all aspects of Japanese life. The metric system was put into effect on Jan. 1, 1959, but a period of grace was provided for its enforcement in the areas of real estate and house building up to March 31 this year. From 1959 on, the Japanese have been using the metric system for almost all other things. A housewife today buys rice by the kilogram and soy sauce by the liter. Japan was first exposed to the metric system in 1891 when she acceded to the International Convention on the Metric System of 1875. As of that time, however, the metric system was made legal alongside the traditional weights and measures known as the shakkan system (shaku for length and kan for weight). With the introduction in 1909 of the British yard-pound system, weights and measures came to be expressed in three different systems in Japan, much to the complication of national life. The coexistence of these systems had no serious consequence until World War I, when the Army found some shells made to British specifications did not fit their cannons, whose calibers were measured by the centimeter. In 1921, the weights and measures law was revised to make the metric system the only official one. But implementation of the new system was postponed due to lack of adequate preparation in 1924 and 1934. In 1938 it was postponed again because it was seen as being foreign and, therefore, to be rejected. Eventually, a 1951 law provided for implementation in 1959, with a period of grace till March 1966 for land and buildings because of Japans unique modular system of building. Here, every house is planned according to the modules of shaku, ken and tsubo. A ken, the very basis of all other modules, is the length of the Japanese tatami and all the sliding doors. When building a house, a carpenter buys lumber which is also measured to these standard sizes to minimize waste. In spite of the law that goes into full force today, it seems unlikely that tatami makers will alter their ways. Without shaku as units, they feel, it would be impossible to make tatami. www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/02/national/history/munitions-orders-grow-japan-soviet-union-sign-neutrality-treaty-metric-system-enforced-public-asked-accept-gulf-mission/#.Vwa0gzfn_Qx ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 139] Rethinking Society - The Metric System
This one gets it right. http://www.solomonstarnews.com/viewpoint/letters-to-the-editor/9989-rethinking-society-and-the-human-spirit [v. ad finem] Solomon Star News Rethinking society and the human spirit Published: 24 March 2016 Dear Editor - Science thinking and religious thinking has changed over the centuries concerning origins of the universe, evolution of human and other species, the solar systems size and other profound matters. Just think! Women and men were created by an all loving God to engage in bringing forward an ever advancing civilization. If one were asked to define a woman and a man one would probably first reach for the dictionary to see what is written. However, what we should understand about all dictionaries is they are history books; they define or teach us how to understand what we see, think, and as we walk through our world, the manner in which something may be experienced. Current, rather, advanced 21st Century definitions of humans is more along the following lines of thought. Women and men are complex thinking, feeling, self-moving, electro-chemical organisms, existing in an ever evolving space-time environment, having a historical past, and a projected-future; both are endowed with a divinely ordained everlasting soul, currently experiencing a material existence as a development enhancing process for spiritual existence in the other worlds of God. Also, however, the world of action has taught us a thought system of judgement, defensiveness, attack, and condemnation. And it is that way of thinking and acting which needs to change. Women and men are like two wings of a bird, both wings must function together in order to serve its purpose for being from the beginning of recorded history men have and are still making the same mistake of advocating the inferiority of women and all that pertains thereto. The dawn for enlightenment has emerged out of the shadow of darkness where both women and men are like a mirror that is capable of reflecting the suns brilliance in equal proportions. Spiritual growth is about learning and unlearning. As we meditate we unlearn a destructive point of view. We have been given a Centre where it has been continually stated, over the ions of human existence, that there is more than we think there is to our being. In other words we are spiritual beings. There are millions of people in the western, eastern and pacific island world who wish to discover through common sense the underlying mystical unity that is the love of God but to achieve that end they have to unlearn religion as it currently is taught. Our supreme, greatest challenge is to move toward practicing the religion of our FOUNDERS instead of the religion about the Founders. Some people are brought up to define faith as adherence to a set of beliefs; some now see faith as openness to truth, whatever truth may turn out to be but, I would dare say, under all circumstances, it excludes killing our fellow girls, women, boys and men with bombs, bullets, blades, or, as in some cultures, by any other so called necessary means to regain a mans honour. The moment comes when one is obliged to jettison old beliefs. Someone once made a snide remark in the case of most belief systems they are very material because you cant even get them going without eating, drinking and swimming. Yesteryear worshiping the faith of ones ancestors, people were instructed to pray, pay and obey and if you acted contrarily to that pattern of thinking you may have signed your death warrant, as in past politically inspired religious inquisitions. Today, it should be clear that knowledge is as wings to womens and mens life, and a ladder for their ascent. Its organisation is incumbent upon everyone; Im disturbed when I see primary school-age children not in school when I know that it is the time of the day when they should be. In truth, formal education is a veritable treasure for all people, whether in the bush, or an island or continent, and a source of glory, of bounty, of joy, of exaltation, of cheer and gladness to people; Happy are they who have it and to ones consternation who doesnt through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you 11 Peter 2:3. Every school, especially primary, should have a library overflowing with useful books and *magazines to name a few categories such as music, *National Geographic, *Scientific American, *Mechanics Illustrated, science, geography, photography, *Popular Science, art, architecture, philosophy, sociology, world and local history, and sculpture to successfully expose children to creative and analytic thinking as described by Piaget, Montessori and Steiner as opposed to being excessively engaged in sports and the use of games media as an agent for social development. One observer of the way children in kindergarten and lower grades are being educated in current
[USMA 138] USMA Awards to National Honor Society
http://blog.nola.com/eastjefferson/2016/03/john_curtis_school_inducts_30.html [V. ad finem] John Curtis School inducts 30 new National Honor Society members Alexis Lang By Alexis Lang on March 23, 2016 at 3:09 PM, updated March 24, 2016 at 8:29 AM Congratulations to our 30 new members of the Patriot Chapter of the National Honor Society. An assembly was held on Tuesday, March 15 to recognize our new and current members. The new members are: Lacee Ancar, Joseph Guillie, Brock Hebert, Adam Murphy, Tylar Sanchez, James Compton V, Meredith Perniciaro, Ashton Austin, Zachery Barthel, Cade Blalock, Breione Brown, William Brupbacher, John Curtis, IV, Gideon Daniels, Terri Dennis, Alli Despaux, Rachel Drake, Lexie Dufour, Alexis Lang, Christopher Matise, Brady Mitchell, Matthew Perniciaro, Peyton Picou, Andrew Pitari, Cebastian Rubio, Briana Strider, Taylor Textor, Brilyant Turner, Courtney Vidrine, and Ethan Weaver. Current members are: Jenna Bordelon, Kyle Burns, Payton Claverie, Corinne Daniels, Sarah Drake, Layne Estes, Reaghan Fabacher, Danielle Hebert, A'Jenai Johnson, Colby Mitchell, Zachary Morris, Madelyn Myers, Kelsei Oestriecher, Antoinette Rizzo, Taylor Rogan, Mariah Abraham, Dar'Jene Brown, Jordan Canamar, Ethan Edwards, Isaac Fincher, Joshua Hartley, Keenan Hurst, Jr., Victoria Interiano, Jesse Melan, Jr., Brandon Mockbee, Paul Simon, Jr. Sixth grade social studies winners The lower school recently held its annual social studies fair. For the political science category, winners were: Christian Causey (1st), Brance Wunstell (2nd) and Gavin Gomez (3rd). History category winners were: Mason Despaux (1st), Logan O'Neill (2nd), and Layton Esteves (3rd). Sociology winners were: Kalea Ruffin (1st), Grayson Barron (2nd), and Sophia Miller (3rd). Economics winners were: Thomas Sells (1st), Rachel Pizzolato (2nd), and Sage Dragon (3rd). Geography winners were: Gabby Boudreaux (1st), Zachary Henderson (2nd), and Joshlyn Gauthier (3rd). Anthropology winners were: Trey Norman (1st), Jacob Eames (2nd) and Nicholas Bono (3rd). Louisiana History winners were: Anna Curtis (1st), Preston Allen (2nd), and Taylor Green (3rd). State science fair participants Eight high school students will be representing Region IX and John Curtis Christian at the State Science Fair at LSU in late March. They are: A'Jenai Johnson for her project "Gender Multi-tasking." It won in Behavioral & Social Science and also received the American Psychological Association first place certificate for outstanding research by a student psychological science; Jordan Canamar for his project "Picachurin Protein Analysis in the Human Lineage Using BLAST," won in Computational Biology & Bioinformatics. Denton Young's project "What Causes Bad WIFI Reception?" won in Embedded Systems & Intelligent Machines. Isaac Fincher's project "Which Sound Insulator Works Best?" won in Materials Science. It also nabbed the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics award. Keenan Hurst's project "Bitter Tasting Ability & the TAS2R38 Gene-Is There a Correlation?" placed second in Biochemistry, and the Society of Toxicology first place biochemistry award. Second place in Materials Science was awarded to Andrew Pitari for "Synthetic vs. Natural Cloth Flammability." Pitari also received several special awards: alternate for the ASM International Foundation outstanding exhibit in materials engineering science which includes an all-expense trip to a one-week materials camp in Ohio; the Gulf Coast Safety and Training Group first place, medal and invitation to meeting in Lafayette to display project, and the New Orleans Section of NACE International second place Outstanding project. Corey Seiser's "Using Geospatial Software to Determine Wetland Loss" was awarded second place in Embedded Systems & Intelligent Machines. Cebastion Rubio's project title "Measuring the Earth Using Eratosthenes' Method" placed second in Mathematics and honorable mention from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; first place from Mu Alpha Theta for the most challenging, original, thorough, and creative investigation of a problem involving mathematics; and first place from the U.S. Metric Association for project involving quantitative measures which best uses the SI metric system. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 140] A Positive Attitude about the Metric System
http://www.collegian.com/2016/03/australia-abroad-convert-your-thinking/157199/ Australia Abroad: Convert your thinking to the metric system I have done a pretty good job taking care of myself here. Most of my meals are either grilled cheese sandwiches, quesadillas or noodles with chicken if I am feeling fancy. Ive had to compromise on what I eat because the kitchen is not fully stocked with appliances, since we are all only here for four months. One night, my roommate and I decided we were going to cook chicken bow-tie pasta for everyone in the house. First, we went to the grocery store to buy all of the ingredients except one cilantro. They didnt have cilantro. We even asked someone in the store where the cilantro was, and she answered back, What is cilantro? Our jaws fell to the floor with shock. How were we supposed to cook this meal without the most important ingredient? This wasnt the only set-back we had. Once we got home, we got out the recipe for the delicious meal and read through the instructions. The first thing it said to do was to preheat the oven to 325 degrees, so with confidence we went to the oven only to realize the maximum temperature was 225 degrees. What were we supposed to do? The meal ended up working out, but we definitely had some challenges getting to the finish line. After a couple of days went by, I came home from class and my roommate said sternly, Michelle. Then he paused. I was worried something had gone terribly wrong. He continued, The oven is in Celsius, not Fahrenheit. We both just looked at each other in astonishment and bursted out laughing. How could we be so oblivious? I have encountered this kind of situation a lot while I have been here. At the gym, the weights are in kilograms, so I either have to get a converter out or just guess the approximate weight by picking them up. The treadmill speeds are in kilometers per hour, not miles per hour. You can only imagine how I found that out. The two simplest activities for me to do in the States have just become the most challenging. You dont know how many times I have been on Google to convert measurements and distances. I continue to struggle with the metric system and quite honestly probably wont be able to learn it by the time I leave, but Im willing to try. Cheers. Collegian Australia Abroad Blogger Michelle Buser can be reached online at bl...@collegian.com or on Twitter @buser_Michelle. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 141] Why That Overseas Whiskey You Buy Is 700 ml Not 750 ml
http://thewhiskeywash.com/2016/03/17/u-s-country-use-750ml-bottling-standard/ Ever wondered why the standard whiskey bottle is 750 milliliters (ml) in the U.S. and 700 ml in Europe? As a result of a federal regulation that alcohol be sold based on metric conversions of United States customary units, much of the worlds best whiskies have been kept out of the United States. What does that have to do with the discrepancy in liquid volume, you ask? The answer may leave you scratching your head. Back in the mid to late 1970s, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau or ATTTB (a former subdivision of The Bureau of Alcohol Firearms and Tobacco that is now a part of the Department of the Treasury), regulated all aspects of the production, sale and importation of distilled spirits. At the time, there was a huge push for the U.S. to adopt the metric system and it looked like the government might actually go through with the change. The Deveron Scotch Before that was decided, the ATTTB decided to switch bottle sizes from ounces to ml when there was a push for the country to join the rest of the world in using the metric system. The standard-sized fifth (1/5 of a gallon) nearly equaled 750 ml, so they decided that would be the simplest transition for domestic bottlers. Concerned that spirit distributors would try to sell 700 ml bottles at the same price as 750 ml bottles, the ATTTB decided to standardize the 750 ml bottle and ban the importation of the 700 ml bottles, ostensibly to alleviate any concern about fraud for the consumers. Surely, it must have involved underlying tax complications for the government, but branding the regulation as protecting the customer made the arbitrary sanction more palatable. Thus, only bottles that conformed to Rule 27 CFR 5.74a: Metric standards of fill distilled spirits bottled after December 31, 1979 could be imported for resale (that is, bottles that fit the appropriate conversions based of the original Imperial measurements). That excluded an awful lot of good whiskies from the United States market. Some have tried to petition the ATTTB for a change, but one mans 2013 attempt failed to meet the signature requirements. Does that mean we at least get more bang for our buck here in the U.S.? That depends, really, on your location, the spirit, and how your home state taxes liquor. The difference of 50 ml is only about the size of an airplane bottle. If youre in California, for example, you will pay much less per ml. But if youre drinking the same imported scotch in Washington State, youre definitely paying more per ml. Since the cost of 700ml bottles is variable across Europe as well, the comparable value to the U.S. bottles also depends on where you buy. For example, the cost to purchase a bottle of 10YO Laphroaig in the U.K. is roughly $52.40 U.S. dollars (700ml) from the distillery. To purchase the same bottle in the U.S., you will pay roughly $53.00 in California for 750 ml but nearly $68.00 in Washington State (based on a sampling of stores). Thus, you do get more bang for your buck in California than if you purchased a bottle from the U.K. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 108] Leister Mercury: "Why we should stay in the EU and go metric"
Leister Mercury, U.K. The coming EU referendum should turn our minds to matters metric. This morning I read on my milk bottle label that I have 2 pints, or 1.136 litres. In the supermarket I buy a litre of whisky and in the pub a pint of beer. The speedometer in my car gives me a reading in both mph and km per hour. Recently, during the floods in the North West a TV news reporter gave overnight rainfall in millimetres and a few seconds later the equivalent in inches clearly many people still have difficulty with amounts quoted in metric units. Is there any other country in the world with such confusion? Of course not. Furthermore, school pupils are weak enough in arithmetic without being confronted with both metric and imperial systems. How did we get into this mess? Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling has said the EU is holding back the UK's economy. I think the culprits are in his Brexit group. Within this group are the people who for decades have prevented this country's conversion to the metric system. If they win the referendum, this metric/imperial units chaos will be perpetuated. Let us hope we remain in the EU and get a swift change to the metric system, preferably by Act of Parliament this year. Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Let-s-stay-EU-ndash-metric/story-28830611-detail/story.html#ixzz41nzrcy9s ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 176] Re: eCreamery Uses the Metric System "Of Course"
Mark (Henschel)-- It is disappointing that latter-day Democrats, who claim to be "progressive," have been useless as far as promoting the metric system is concerned. The modern U.S. movement started in the 1970s with Republican Gerald Ford, but Republican Ronald Reagan slowed it down. However, businessmen of both parties are now largely in support of metrication because of international advantages. Barack Obama has been useless. Nevertheless, as I have written before, it may be best for the government to keep out of it and let business drive the movement. That way, there isn't the ignorant public resistance encountered. Metrication just happens without opposition. If the U.S. government were as efficient as the Australian government, we wouldn't have to worry, but in the last decade more more, the U.S. bureaucracy has become incompetent and corrupt. An example of recent conversation, without much government involvement, is the complete conversion of the lighting industry to the use of lumens and kelvins, driven by Compact Fluorescent Lights, units which had been virtually unknown to the public before, but you didn't hear any resistance to the conversion on January 1, 2015. --Martin Morrison ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 172] eCreamery Uses the Metric System "Of Course"
http://www.ketv.com/news/2016-nebraska-science-festival-ecreamery/39080938 ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 187] Leading U.S. Swimmer Advocate Metric System
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/sports/rodriguezs-strong-looking-to-make-splash-with-adelphi/; "McLaughlin, the lone remaining coach from when the school opened in 2001, talked of Strongs strengths as a swimmer, as a student and as a person, including his insistence that the United States needs to switch to the metric system." ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 163] Medication errors related to metric/imperial conversions
Medication errors related to metric/imperial conversions Simple conversion errors, unfortunately common in the only country in the world that has not fully embraced the metric system, can be deadly for patients especially children. Recording patient weight in kilograms instead of pounds, or confusing grams and milligrams, can result in deadly overdoses. ECRI suggests that healthcare organizations should stop using patient scales that record weight in pounds to eliminate the potential for error at the source. Clinical decision support tools that flag unexpected entries into the EHR could also help to reduce potential patient safety events. http://healthitanalytics.com/news/ehr-workflow-patient-id-woes-top-2016-patient-safety-error-list ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 278] Lighting Is Metric from the Start
Add to the product areas metricated from the start the luminous flux (lumen) and luminous intensity (lux) in the measurement of flashlight intensity, as advertised in current television advertising. I don't remember any units being used before (probably because flashlights weren't advertised on television), but for military-grade flashlights now availabie for the home, the units used from the start have been metric: lumens, sometimes luxes. I doubt that most Americans have heard of either unit. They may have heard of the obsolete "candlepower," but not have known to what it referred. In the case of product areas not widely known to the public, I have noticed that metric units are used from the start without apology and without backlash. The same was true with Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs), which have been measured and labeled from the start in lumens and Kelvins. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 273] Reply To: SAE More Metric
Stan (Jackuba)-- I agree with your final point. I think that we will see metrication come naturally rather than by government mandate. One big driver is technology. I have noticed that when a new area of technology is rolled out -- electric cars and Compact Fluorescent Lights, for example, they start 100% metric. Did you hear any complaints about CFLs being measure in lumens? No. I doubt that any but us metricists even know what a lumen is! I hear metric units being spoken of more and more in the broadcast media. Millimeters are commonly used for small distances. Meters and kilometers are also heard more. Degrees Celsius are all over the international reports that are on cable television. A personal experience. When I went for a medical appointment a year ago, I gave my height in centimeters and weight in kilograms. This caused some confusion because the computer program wasn't set up for it. When I went in a year later, no problem. I was told that the computer program was set up, and that more patients were giving their data in metric units. If you monitor your diet in grams, why shouldn't you monitor your weight in kilograms? In some ways, a governmental metric mandate may be preferable, but in some ways not. Look at Britain. It is supposed to be metricated, but it is still pretty mixed up after all these years. --Martin Morrison On Wed, 20 Jul 2016, Stanislav Jakuba wrote: Old-timers will remember that several decades ago there was yet another push for metrication. At that time, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), among others, switched to publishing its flagship AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING magazine in metric units. I am purposely not saying SI, because old metric units were still there, the editors not knowing better. A decade later, it was back to IP units at SAE, enacted on a protest by protesting "letters form members." (It was 6 or 8 letters we were told and none of us on the committee saw any of them; the rumor was that they originated with influential retirees). Now I am pleased to share with you that, in the latest issue, although still ?dual united? here and there, almost all units were SI metric including the most ignored unit of them all, the joule. Here are some examples: Referring to the Le Mans racing technology the article says ?10 MJ per lap? (followed by the silly conversion of (2.77 kWh)). Porsche has 8 MJ assist, Audi 6 MJ (no I-Ps). Car dimensions 4650 mm l., 1050 mm w., 1050 h. (with inches in brackets), but both the displacement volume and fuel capacity in L only. Perhaps the new era of fuel efficiency in racing and the existence of both IC and el. cars will accomplish what our generation has not. Stan J. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 266] Pokemon GO Forces Americans to Learn Metric
8 Astonishing Pokemon GO Facts You Need to Know About In Pokemon GO, the latest rage game played on cell phones by young and old alike, you need to think in kilometers instead of miles. Gizmodo predicts that millions of young Americans will eventually learn the metric system all because of Pokemon GO, as it will force them to think in kilometers instead of miles. ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 304] First Brexit, now SOME Brits want to leave the metric system
http://www.torontosun.com/2016/08/31/first-brexit-now-brits-want-to-leave-the-metric-system Like the U.S., metric has gone too far to turn back in practice. Postmedia Network First posted: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 01:05 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 01:20 PM EDT Buoyed by Brexit, SOME Britons are now lobbying hard to reverse another perceived national mistake. They want to ditch the metric system and re-implement pounds and inches like the British Empire of old. The British Weights and Measures Association has been receiving requests from shopkeepers who want to ditch the use of metric measurements when selling groceries and other goods, the Telegraph newspaper reported this week. The group, which advocates against the metric system, said it suspected that this was just "the tip of a much bigger iceberg" of people hoping to make the move back to the imperial system. Some politicians are on side, too. "That is one of those things that can be implemented now so that when we actually pull out it is a smooth process," Peter Bone, an MP for the ruling Conservatives, said. Polling company YouGov released a survey that appeared to show that 45% of Britons favoured selling produce in imperial measurements. And some have already started. Gratton's Butchers in Devon began selling meat in pounds and ounces almost immediately after the referendum. "It seems like in north Devon everyone's for it," Darren Gratton told the Sun newspaper. "I think it will be better for local farmers." Britain has been using the metric system for decades, but it's never been fully implemented. Road signs still show distances in miles, weight is still commonly referred to in "stone," and British pubs -- of course -- still pull pints, not half litres ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 311] Metric Earthquakes on CNN
I noticed that in CNN's coverage of the Oklahoma City earthquake this morning, the depth was given in kilometers, both on the graphic display and orally. Unfortunately, the reporter felt contrained to give a "translation" into miles, and then give other descriptions in miles. I conjecture that the reason the depth was given in kilometers was that the USGS provides it that way, and news stations are too "lazy" to translate it quickly. The same is true, I think, of commonly giving the atmospheric pressure of hurricanes in millibars, which is the unit the U.S. Weather Service uses -- although I have seen a few TV reports in that really contorted unit "inches of mercury." ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
[USMA 320] A Plea for Safety: Use Metric Radiation Units
http://www.nature.com/news/modernize-radiation-measurements-to-save-lives-1.20579 Nature - International Weekly Journal of Science Modernize radiation measurements to save lives The US refusal to use SI radiation units is confusing and dangerous. Its time to make the switch. 13 September 2016 There are two types of nation: those that use the metric system and those that have put a man on the Moon. The reliance of the United States on feet and pounds, along with its refusal to embrace metres and kilograms, baffles outsiders as much as it warms the hearts of some American patriots. But it is time for the country to give up on the curie, the roentgen, the rad and the rem. Instead, US regulators and scientists should adopt the appropriate SI units for the measurement of radioactivity. They should do so not only for the sake of international harmony, but also to protect the health and safety of US citizens. After years of wrangling, on 29September the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will hold a workshop to discuss whether the United States should adopt the international system of units for radiological measurements. The negotiations will affect everyone from NASA astronauts and air crews to emergency responders. The rest of the world signed up some time ago. In the 1970s, the International Committee for Weights and Measures adopted a clear set of SI units to describe radiation exposure. The curie, an inspiringly named but clunky measure of radioactivity, was replaced with the becquerel. The roentgen, describing air ionization, became a measurement in coulombs per kilogram. The rad, which quantifies absorbed dose, was superseded by the gray. And the rem, which describes thedose that causes the same amount of biological damage as a rad, was replaced by the sievert. In case of a nuclear accident, this last quantity is the most crucial. Sieverts capture how peoples immediate radiation exposure might translate to future health effects. In 2011, after a tsunami swamped the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Japanese authorities used sieverts to describe releases of radiation from the three failed reactors. As fear spread and the public and media clamoured for information, the last thing anybody needed was a load of complicated conversions. It was hard enough for most to sort out the difference between millisieverts and microsieverts, never mind then having to convert those to rems. Yet US officials insisted on generating hazard maps using rems. And that meant that people, including those in the danger zone, could not tell at a glimpse what was really happening. In the middle of a radiation incident, should emergency-response officials need to whip out their calculators? Yes, it is possible to use both sets of measures, and to follow the rem numbers with the sievert numbers in brackets. In practice, this is what many US regulatory agencies do. But it is simply too awkward. The Australian government has publicly criticized the US system for creating confusion. In the middle of an international nuclear-radiation incident, should emergency-response officials huddled in a situation room really need to whip out their calculators? Remember NASAs Mars Climate Orbiter, which was lost in 1999 when someone forgot to convert between imperial and metric units (even though they had plenty of time to check) the spacecraft broke apart in the Martian atmosphere rather than smoothly entering orbit. Imagine if such an embarrassing error involved the life and safety of millions of people here on Earth. Many US experts know that they need to make the switch. Officially, the government encourages agencies to use SI units. And unlike with everyday measures of distance and mass, Americans dont have a deep and lasting emotional bond with radiological measures, and could easily be brought to understand sieverts. During Fukushima, many US news agencies gave up on even trying to convert, and simply used the international sievert measures. So why not make the change? The US nuclear industry claims it will be expensive, with millions of dollars needed to update software and hardware and to retrain workers. (In 2012, the countrys Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which technically oversees the industry but is widely sympathetic to it, quashed an effort to switch to SI units.) But the US nuclear industrys suppliers also sell to European manufacturers, and so are well equipped to adapt. In the eighteenth century, French scientists proposed the metric system, and then French officials imposed it. US researchers should follow their lead, and then US regulators should make the change, and require the industry to follow. In 1914, an article in Nature bemoaned the fact that the metric system was slow in catching on: Why do people go on agitating? Well, the reason is the necessity for such
[USMA 299] Pokemon Go Forces Metric on the U.S.
"The game has forced American players to come to terms with the metric system. The game relies on metric measurements, and as such, online searches for metric conversions have risen sharply." blastmagazine.com/2016/08/23/5-things-might-not-know-pokemon-go/ ___ USMA mailing list USMA@colostate.edu https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
