Andy, Good going! I wrote to Jack Williams too via the Ask Jack question and answer page but did not get far. I also told him that the weather book he publised which is all in dinosaur units needs to be revised but got no reponse. Otherwise he gives great answers to weather related questions. Looks like nothing but a FEDERAL MANDATE will work in achieving full metrication. Also even if USA Today began conversion, other weather stations still continue to use those dinosaur units and that is not the type of 'conversion' we want. We want conversion across the board. alfred -----Original Message----- From: Andy Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, March 12, 2001 2:30 PM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:11558] RE: weather feedback Thank you very much for being so kind as to respond at all. I fully understand that there is nothing to stop you from just blowing me off with no answer at all. Nevertheless, please bear with me and answer one more question: At what point would USA Today begin to cover the weather in metric? *Only after all major news networks and only after all other major newspapers have begun to cover things in metric? *What if one network and one major newspaper were to go metric in their weather? As you know, metric has been taught in U.S. schools for 50 years, but more important than all the schools in the world is usage and more important to usage than schools...would be the news media. At this point all countries in the entire known universe are metric except only for the U.S. At this point all scientists, other than maybe meteorologists, are always only operating in metric. Today all U.S. auto manufacturers are metric. And probably, probably, if the USA Today were to cover the weather in metric, all others would follow along. But enough of me trying to twist your arm, tell me what would it take for you to choose to cover the weather in metric. Do you insist that it will come only after all other media has gone metric? That would not make much sense, but if that be the case, let me have it. Tell me how many other newspapers I must persuade before you will go metric; I'll go get them and then I'll report back. No doubt at all that U.S. will be completely 100% metric sometime in next 40 years. Probably within 30 years. Probably within 20 years. Maybe within 10 years. Seems to me that we would save much money and confusion and misery by speeding it up rather than another generation of learning to convert back and forth. I don't want kids to waste time ever again learning that 2.54 centimeters is one inch. All I want them to learn is that 100 centimeters is one meter. Andy Johnson see http://www.metric.org for more info --- "USATIN: Weather" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I agree that metric measurements make more sense, > but I'm not about to start > using them in a publication that's read mostly by > people in the U.S. > > Our place in the world is to pass along information > to people that they > need, find useful, or maybe even amusing. In doing > this we also do a > certain amount of education, which I think is great. > But, we are not an > educational institution. > > If we switched to metric we would immediately lose > readers who want to know > what's going on, not get a lesson in the metric > systtem. > > We do give temperatures in both Fahrenheit and > Celsius in our forecasts and > reports of current conditions. > > Our switching to all metric measurements would do > nothing to advance the > cause of getting Americans to use the metric > system... readers would just > go elsewhere ...to weather information that they > would understand and we'd > be stuck with declining readers. > > Jack Williams > Weather Editor > USATODAY.com > ---------- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: weather feedback > Date: Monday, March 12, 2001 12:05AM > > subject:weather Feedback > from:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > replyto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Date: Mar/12/01 > Time: 0:05:54 > Message Number: 239148 > Name: Andy Johnson > ZIP Code: 32277 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Weather ought to use metric measurements. > > Comment: The time has come to switch to metric > measurements in your weather. > Windspeed ought to be kilometers per hour. > Temperature ought to be C not F. > You should be a force for good, not a force which > holds our country back. > > > ============================================= > IP : 150.176.63.227 > Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows > 98) > ============================================= __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices. http://auctions.yahoo.com/
