Australia appeared to me to be as thriving a free economy as one can imagine. Exploring downtown Melbourne, I felt as if I being swept along by a wave of vigorous commerce. And this in what is probably the world's youngest totally metric society.
Quoting Martin Vlietstra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > It is interesting that in South Africa metrication was not part of a > communist plot - they had draconian anti-communist laws in the 1960's and > 1970's - Mandela was imprisoned under the anti-communist laws. > > Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) likewise had draconian anti-communist laws, yet they > too adopted the metric system at the same time as did their arch-enemy > Zambia. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of Han Maenen > Sent: 12 June 2007 19:33 > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:38895] Re: Persistent attitudes toward metric > > In fact, the USA fell victim to this 'communist plot' as early as 1893 with > the Mendenhall Order. Then all English speaking nations fell for it in 1959 > when they agreed to define the inch as 25.4 mm exactly, and also defined the > > yard and the pound on such lines. All measurements made in the UK and the > USA are metric, albeit second hand. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Scott Hudnall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, 2007, June 12 6:05 > Subject: [USMA:38893] Persistent attitudes toward metric > > > >I was talking with a co-worker the other day, and was appalled to learn he > > >thought metrication was a communist plot. I had heard this once as a > >school boy back in the 1970's , but thought it was a joke. I did some > >searching on the Internet and found this clip from 1977 in the CBC > >archives. > > > > http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-75-1572-10614/science_technology/ > > metric_system/clip5 > > > > The clip is 30 years old, and communism is all but dead - so what can we > > do to change these attitudes? > > > > Scott > > > > > > > > -- Paul Trusten, R.Ph. Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. Phone (432)528-7724 www.metric.org 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.grandecom.net/~trusten
