Perhaps I can give more specific directions to the link at http://www.epolitix.com/default.asp?body=/data/interview/ that I posted in USMA:18260. The interview is with Lord Howe, who is a patron of the UKMA. To see the interview, click on his name (in red, *above* the list of blue links). He's got some nice lines in there:
"There was a report to the CBI in 1980 on the cost of the metric muddle. It estimated that continuing to work in dual systems of measurement was increasing UK production costs by �5,000 million every year - then about half the cost of the National Health Service. In the companies on which the survey was based, their increased production costs were equal to 9% of their gross profit and 14% of their net profit. You can't stay prosperous, or even survive, for long when you have to cope with such inefficient working, ..." "I don't think the Government should shy away from metrication. There are few people more passionate than the Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians. They all had the same system as we did but they've all been sufficiently sensible to subdue their passions. Now they look back on us as if we are completely stuck in a rut." "The rest of the world, with the exception of the United States, has completed metrication. People say the United States is a metric buttress [sic] but even there the United States gallon isn't the same as an imperial gallon. So we haven't got much support there. And about 40 per cent of American companies have switched to metric for practical purposes, so we're living in a self-imposed twilight. It requires political courage and conviction rather than cowardice and inertia." "We politicians I'm afraid have let the public down and it's time we summoned up the courage together, from all parties, to say enough is enough. We were invited in the late eighteenth century to join the French in designing the metric system. Everyone else joined in - but we have turned our back on it, to our own great disadvantage." "Metrication can work, when it's done the popular way - as in the Olympics, where 100 metres seems exactly right. A 100 yard race sounds now like something from another age." "To them [the Government of Britain] - and not just to them. Leaders of opinion, in industry, in the academic world, in the scientific world all recognise this is a disgraceful position for Britain to be in. We need to act collectively and courageously and get together a campaign to finish the job. Going properly metric won't bring the roof down on our heads. It will open up a new era of easier counting and measuring for Britons, with many other benefits for us all." Jim -- James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston 10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street 843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424 http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644
