Bill, thank you for your kind words. One of the wise moves Barack Obama has made is that, despite the premature demands on him to practically assume the presidency before he takes the oath, he has pointedly stayed out of it. There is quite a bit of speculation going on, and he is being urged to do this and that and do it now. But, as Mr. Obama said, we can only have one president at at time. We can be delighted with the popularity of the metric system on obamacto.org, but I think it is best to wait on press releasese until the new administration takes office and we know what we are dealing with. And, once the Obama era begins in earnest, Rest assured that we at USMA will be on the case just as earnestly!
Obama's possible choice of Penny Pritzker, chairwoman of TransUnion and a Hyatt hotel mogul, as Commerce Secretary, is interesting. Can anyone speculate on someone of her background taking over the executive department that oversees metric activities (NIST, and the Laws and Metric Group)? Pritzker was Obama's campaign finance chair, which is exactly what Maurice Stans, Nixon's Commerce Secretary at the time of the 1971 metric report, was to Nixon. ----- Original Message ----- From: Bill Potts To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: 21 November, 2008 02:23 Subject: [USMA:42009] RE: names mentioned in the news as candidates for CTO It looks like a job for Super-Paul. Seriously, though, as Public Relations Director for the US Metric Association, Paul is the ideal one to put out a press release on this. I don't know how realistic it is, at this stage, to say we're a few points from being in fourth place. As I write this, we're 171 points behind fifth place and 336 votes behind fourth place. I think it's very good -- and very newsworthy -- that we're in the top ten. In fact, as the seventh-place proposal is well behind us (by over 1000 votes), I think our sixth place is probably assured. So, Paul could certainly say we're sixth. Now awaiting Paul's reaction. Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bill Potts WFP Consulting Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 23:03 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42008] RE: names mentioned in the news as candidates for CTO Dear All, On 2008/11/21, at 3:56 PM, Mike Millet wrote: '. our metric topic on obamacto seems to need only a hundred points to be in fifth place and then a couple hundred more to be in fourth :).' This looks like it has the possibility to be a great news story. Maybe now is the time to generate media releases in your area that say something about: 1 The metric system is only a few points from being in fourth place on the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) list of important issues. 2 Following the inauguration of Barack Obama, the metric system could be high on the list of issues for the new presidency. 3 Something about possible candidates for the position of CTO: Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Vint Cerf from Google, Bill Gates from Microsoft, Bill Joy from Sun Microsystems, or Eric Schmidt from Google. 4 Some positive thoughts on what the metric system will mean for the USA. You might like to think about the savings to be made and the possibilities for international cooperation and trade. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
