Dear USMA mailing list: Too often we see shared on this list instances of information originally given in metric units (from an organization or governmental body located outside the USA) that is "dumbed down" (as many list members have put it) to Imperial or US Customary units in news reports, magazine articles, etc here in the States.
Tonight I was pleased to hear an instance of "smarting up". The BBC (broadcast over our National Public Radio network) reported tonight that a US Federal agency announced it was going to auction off concessions for drilling for oil off the shore of Alaska. That was the sad part. The positive part was that the announcer gave the size of the off-shore drilling area in square kilometers only. Clearly, the US Federal agency must have originally announced the size in square miles. I was quite pleasantly surprised to hear that the BBC had converted the area to metric and gave only that figure in their reading of the news. With continuing influence like that, there's hope for us yet, boys! ;-) Cheers, Ezra
