On Sat, 07 Dec 2002 13:59:53
Jim Elwell wrote:
...
>John, you have got to be the most pessimistic person I have ever
>encountered! You admit that the 3 L container was overpriced, in spite of
>which you then extrapolate that failure to all efforts to metricate
>consumer products in the U.S.!
>
I wouldn't say John is a 'pessimist' but a *realist*! ;-) However, it's true that
this kind of goof off ('overpricing') definitely does not help. Nonetheless I do
notice that the majority of new packages (metric or non-metric!) released in the
market overwhelmingly suffer from this... "problem". Gee, I wonder why... :-S ;-)
...
>For anyone else on the list who thinks there is any merit to John's view
>that "progress is non-existent," just go visit Don Hillger's long list of
>metric products in the USA ... the drips and drops are exactly what is helping
>metricate America.
>
Ah-hum... Let me see, if one new 'metric product' is being introduced in the US at
the rate it's been reported here lately (somewhere around 1 every month or so...), and
assuming that failures like the one reported above *also* take place (but let's be a
little... "optimistic" - ok, Jim? - ) at a slightly slower rate (say once every month
and a half), and considering that there are literally hundreds of thousands of
products out there from all sectors of the economy... Hmm... Well, perhaps we'll see
the US being *really metric* in... 20 000 years +, if my calculator is correct?...
Sigh... which leads me to my reaction below:
...
>drip, drop .... drip, drop .... drip, drop ...
>
Yawn, ahhh, yawn, ahhh, yawn... Please wake me up (someone...) when the "collective"
of each grain of sand falling ashore at my beach reaches 20 cm in height so that I can
get up from sleeping on the shoreline before I drown on sand, p-l-e-a-s-e?...
(Sorry, Jim, I just couldn't resist! :-) But the clock is still ticking, 8 1/2
years - left now, my friend...)
Cheers (though...),
Marcus
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