I'm somewhat surprised at one of the statements here. Is that really the case that a lot of people in the USA don't even *know* what the metric system is?
I'd argue that in the UK the metric system has not really 'caught on' at all in regards to day to day speech etc but I would never suggest that people here didn't even know what the term 'metric system' means (possibly blanks at 'SI' but certainly not 'metric'). It seems odd with liter bottles and meters in 'track and field' sports etc that the very term 'metric' is relatively unknown. Steve Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:02:14 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:41984] Re: Obama and metric (continued) I to added my support for the proposal and convinced several in my university classes to do the same :). I do wonder a bit even if we get a metric America or start going down that road how long it'll take to re-educate people. I was talking to a couple customers from Malaysia and Germany and the UK the other day and we were all agreeing that we hope that Obama does push this change because it makes sense. The two high school and college age cashiers that were helping out then stopped and got blank looks on their faces and asked what the metric system was. I explained it was liters and meters and all those measurements and they all got kind of a sour grapes look and complained about having to learn another system that made no sense and was "annoying" :). The nice German lady assured them that once they got used to it they'd come to like it. It wouldn't have been so bad except one of the cashiers is majoring in some form of engineering and hadn't been exposed to SI yet. Still, we can but hope :) Mike On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 7:34 AM, Michael Palumbo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: An update: we are now ranked 6th (!) with 3865 votes, nearly 1400 above the next item, and only several hundred from 5th & 4th places. Excellent! -Mike Paul Trusten wrote: I have spent the day searching the word sequence "Obama metric system" online, and I must conclude that, even if Mr. Obama hasn't touched the subject publicly yet, his supporters sure have. Many of them appear to be enthusiastic about metrication, and are hopeful that the new president will advocate it. Also, as of this writing, Bill Potts' contribution to http:.//obamacto.org maintains eighth place on this list of ideas for Obama's Chief Technology Officer to pursue. Paul Trusten, R.Ph. Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org 3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 US +1(432)528-7724 [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. _________________________________________________________________ See the most popular videos on the web http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/115454061/direct/01/
