. . . and vending machine makers could save the cost of installing and
maintaining those paper currency readers if the U.S. discontinued the
printing of $1 notes and relied on the dollar coin that we've redesigned
three times now, but have not actively circulated. The pool builders and
vending machine makers have the same illusion in common: that both of
these things constitute the cost of doing business.
Also, the use of polymer currency instead of paper currency (as is the
practice in Australia and New Zealand) could save greatly on the cost of
repeated printings of U.S. notes, but somebody up in Dalton,
Massachusetts (home of Crane & Co., maker of U.S. currency paper for
over a century) is preventing that from happening (BTW, I used to live
in western Massachusetts, and the folks there told me that the road
through Dalton would be closed off when the paper shipments rolled; I
never saw it myself, just heard about it).
Right now, I am watching a National Geographic documentary on China's
Three Gorges Dam project. The imagination and determination of this
country could easily rule the world in the next 20 years, if not sooner.
If the totalitarians get out of the way, the 21st century shall belong
to a free China.
Just my opinions. I could be wrong.
The slow pace of U.S. metrication is, of course, part of my complaint. I
say this just so this will be a metric-related post instead of just
another lamentation (grin).
Paul
Remek Kocz wrote:
This brief Rochester (NY) summer, I had a chance to visit a few
swimming pools. Without an exception all were marked in feet and
inches without a sign of a metric equivalent. Likewise, all had the
words "feet" and "inches" spelled out, which is quite a bit of mosaic
work. It's pretty obvious, that when building a pool, writing " 1.25
m" is a lot more cost effective than "4 feet 2 inches" at 5 characters
vs. 12. Likewise, quite a bit of space is saved.
Remek
--
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
www.metric.org
3609 Caldera Blvd., Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
+1(432)528-7724
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://oleapothecary.blog.com
