#1: Honda has always been terrible about their km/h displays from my experience. My wife had a 1996 Honda Civic EX. And the km/h wasn't even illuminated at all. When we took it to Canada once, that royally sucked. But at least that's better than the few makers that have removed km/h from their speedos (not counting the button-calibrating ones...I'm thinking Mercedes-Benz of all people.)
#2: My wife's exercise balls are both made in the United States and are labelled in ONLY metric. I always thought that was cool. Thera-Band is the maker. It's marked "55 cm" and "Made in U.S.A.".
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [USMA:41067] Re: Two more instances of gradual US metrication
From: "Mike Millet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Fri, June 13, 2008 8:39 am
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
I have a 2001 Honda Civic and the mechanic said it couldn't switch the odometer without a computer change but it could be done. Of course the speedometer has miles per hour and then incredibly tiny km/h numbers that are at least well lit at night.
I just hope that when they finally switch the road signs to metric the cops continue their four percent above speed limit range before they pull you over. I routinely go 111 km/h ina 104 zone (or 69 in a 65 in ye olde English units). Even better is some of the highways near where I live are 120 km/h and I usually do about 127 km/h without worrying about a ticket.
Back on the exercise front I noticed that the giant exercise balls the gym has are called Duraball and a product of Australia. I also noticed that the static and dynamic resistance are listed both in pounds and kilograms, and that the size of the balls are listed in inches and centimeters.
Now if only they'd replace the weights that I use in the machines with metric ones. Most of the weights I'm using on the machine I do 25-30 reps of 27 kg each. The only one I go higher on is the machine where you kick against the board and push back to lift the weight while sitting on the chair and that one I usually set at the equivalent of 52 kg. It's a small start but a start nonetheless :)
Mike
On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 9:04 AM, Paul Trusten, R.Ph. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi, Mike,
I'm wondering if more and more late-model motor vehicles have the capability of
metric-unit displays. My latest rental, a Suzuki SUV (no, I didn't ask for the
behemoth, I wanted a subcompact!), could change its odometer and tire-pressure
readings to kilometers and kilopascals respectively. The unit symbols on the
display were correct ("km" and "kPa"). Last year, I rented a Buick that had
also had these capabilities.
Paul Trusten
--
Quoting Mike Millet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> Today while I was visiting the gym I noticed that the eliptical machines now
> had color touchscreen panels on them. The first thing I noticed was it had
> an iPod dock so I could control my playlists by tapping the screen and
> setting the song I wanted and listening through a headphone jack. But as I
> was using it I noticed that the distance units could be set to kilometers
> and the speed to kilometers per hour. I was originally confused because on
> the screen it shows an imaginary track oval and you as a little dot running
> along towards the finish line, but the finish line seemed to make no sense
> in miles until I switched it to meters and discovered that the "track" was a
> standard 400m oval marked off every 100m.
>
> Needless to say I was happy to have at least part of my workout fully metric
> :). The second instance I noticed was Fox news was interviewing the Boy
> Scouts who survived a tornado striking their camp earlier this week and when
> one of the news anchors asked one of the boys how far away he thought the
> tornado was from his position the boy replied that he thought it was about
> 500 meters, and seemed quite comfortable using meters to describe distance.
>
> It's nice to see a couple more instances of the USA's slow but inevitable
> transition towards the SI.
>
> Mike
>
> --
> "The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?"
>
> (\__/)
> (='.'=)This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your
> (")_(")signature to help him gain world domination.
>
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association (USMA), Inc.
www.metric.org
3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
+1(432)528-7724
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
"The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?"
(\__/)
(='.'=)This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your
(")_(")signature to help him gain world domination.
