Yes yes yes. I completely forgot the subject of 8 digit phone numbers. > Brain, > speaking of mobile phones/communications its amazing that in the LA area for > example there is a new area code appearing every three or so years and now > its up to half a dozen (714,213,310,325,818...). Look at Tokyo with a > population of over 13 million (about twice that of LA) and considering all > the phones, mobiles (at least 50% of school kids owns one), faxes, pagers > used in the city, it still only has one area code - 03 and thats it! Now > back to the beloved topic of SI... > > alfred > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 2:20 PM > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:12712] Interesting email about the USA...Thoughts? > > > My aunt sends out this stupid email about our plane and our soliders > in China during the EP-3 incident. > It was all talking about how you can't tread on us, and give us our > soliders back and you shouldnt buy Chinese good and blah blah blah > blah. > > The email was titled...."Are Americans as dumb as we appear?" > > So I wrote this in response and sent it out to everyone on the mailing > list she sent. > > I thought it was decent enough to share here. Thoughts? > > > > Well...yes..we Americans are as dumb as we appear. > > We are arrogant enough to think that the rest of the world should > operate as we do, yet we are worse in many respects. > > Our education system is among the WORST in the world...We are > consitently ranked in the lower bowels of international education > rankings, which is inexcusable considering our great wealth. > > Our record of human rights is just as spotted as those records of > countries who we deem foes because of such alleged rights abuses.... > > Our nasty habit of punishing smaller countries for perceived > differences. (i.e....there is NO reason Cuba should still be under > sanctions....Cuba's only offense right now is that they are still a > Communist nation. So what? If they want that..so be it. Why should > MY right to travel there and buy good from Cuba be curtailed?).... > > Notice our nasty habit of punishing smaller countries is directly > proportional to the amount of trade we do with them? We punish the > hell out of Cuba, but have favored trade status with China? You > think this is the Chinese fault? Yea right. Americans smell cash. > > Americans also smelled cash during the Gulf War. Do you really think > we were liberating Kuwait in some noble effort of being a friendly big > brother? Yea right. We were fighting against Iraq's supposed > increased aggression to other countries in the region. Now...is that > neccesarily bad? No. Remember European neighbors looked the other > way after the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia...and up until Poland > did nothing. But..my problem with this is that we as Americans love > to pat ourselves on the back..that we liberated Kuwait and helped > their rightful leaders resume their regimes. It was all about money, > oil, and the right to market control. Which is fine, but why dont we > just admit it? > > To date we STILL have not fully converted to SI > measurements...otherwise known as the metric system. But no worries, > we are in good company in the world. The only other 2 countries to > not go metric? Liberia and Myannmar. Wonderful company indeed. > > We are the only "civilized" or "major industrial" nation to still > condone and actively participate in capital punishment. Other > countries have even refused to extridate alleged criminals that face > the death penalty. Other countries have dealt with this matter > though, by voting us off the UN Human Rights Panel...a board that the > United States was a founding member. How embarrassing. > > As a nation we are LIGHT YEARS behind other countries in promoting > renewable sources of energy. We still depend on coal plants, heating > oil power stations, and others. Europe on the other hand has been > leading the world in wind power. This summer while I was there, you'd > see large plains filled with these beautiful and graceful wind power > generators. This technology is just now catching on in the USA. > > We are behind in some other major technology as well. Europe's > mobile phone systems have been based on a single standard for > years...thus allowing many devices, many customers in many nations to > talk on the same networks. We let the standards go out the window. > In fact, just in Seattle we have 3 different major wireless standards. > GSM, TDMA, and CDMA. And it's only getting more pronouced as these > new wireless standards are being ratified. > > Europe is uniting in the force of multiple soverign nations speaking > many different languages. > > We can't even get states to agree on the same seatbelt laws. (Not that > I even agree with seatbelt laws) > > We are behind..... > If we don't wake up and smell the coffee, and quit resting on our "We > won World War II and we are the greatest nation ever" laurels, then > the world is just going to pass us by.... > > ....and it seems, we are so dumb that they'll be several hundred > kilometers ahead before we realize it. > > > > -- > Protect your web site with secure hosting solutions from HostNYC! > Security, Speed and Reliability starting as low as $14.95 per month > Visit HostNYC today! http://www.pop3now.com/go/hostnyc/1000 > > Pop3Now Personal, Manage 5 Email Accounts From 1 Secure Window > Sign Up Today! Visit http://www.pop3now.com/personal > -- Protect your web site with secure hosting solutions from HostNYC! Security, Speed and Reliability starting as low as $14.95 per month Visit HostNYC today! http://www.pop3now.com/go/hostnyc/1000 Pop3Now Personal, Manage 5 Email Accounts From 1 Secure Window Sign Up Today! 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