Paul, sir: Your very interesting mail make a positive 'contribution' for US to adopt metric standards!
>The metric system stands alone. But, metrication involves people everywhere >measurement is used. Everybody measures >things, so metrication must involve >all of us. During my inputs to USMA, I have emphasised the soft & NOT hard metrication shall be an advantage, where units need be understood and thought from the 'common man or house wife's view point'! While conversion is a matter of NATIONAL importance, implementation at grass root is to be thought from view point of the child at school/house wife when buying her grocery etc.....Policy & plans are to be in co-ordination with SI usage & recommendations of BIPM/CGPM/ and concerned sub-committees. Time & calendar need a seperate debate, where base unit for Time, s or (sd) need be co-ordinated with the Length Unit, m or m'. Please see: http://www.brijvij.com/ for my examination of the calendar & time and length merger! Regards, Brij Bhushan Vij (MJD 2454893)/1361+D-071W10-00 (G. Sunday, 2009 March 01H20:48 (decimal) EST Aa Nau Bhadra Kritvo Yantu Vishwatah -Rg Veda Jan:31; Feb:29; Mar:31; Apr:30; May:31; Jun:30 Jul:30; Aug:31; Sep:30; Oct:31; Nov:30; Dec:30 (365th day of Year is World Day) My Profile:http://www.brijvij.com/bbv_2col-vipBrief.pdf HOME PAGE: http://www.brijvij.com/ ******As per Kali V-GRhymeCalendaar***** "Koi bhi cheshtha vayarth nahin hoti, purshaarth karne mein hai" Contact # 091(201)675-8548(M) 001(201)962-3708(R) From: [email protected] To: [email protected] CC: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:43317] true metrication requires a coordinated national plan Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 14:26:39 -0600 Alan, Thank you for contacting the U.S. Metric Association (USMA), Inc., about questions concerning U.S. metrication. I am writing, not only to you, but perhaps to the newer readers on the USMA Listerver, to present a retrospective on what U.S. metrication is, and where we beleve it stands. I apologize for the length of this post, but sometimes one needs space to exercise. I'm not sure how you began corresponding with Jerry MacGregor, but if you haven't subscribed to the U.S. Metric Association (USMA) Listserver yet, please do. You'll find easy instructions as to how to do it at http://www.metric.org/listserv.htm. Please join us and add your views to the discussion. The process of changing over a country to the SI metric standard of measurement is called metrication, not metrification. The way to remember this is that there is no "if" in metrication---only "when!" The U.S. shall go metric. We at USMA want to see it happen systematically, i.e., successfully. Half-measures will avail us nothing in our quest for a metric America. There are those who want to attempt to thrust the metric system on the American people by shocking them into using it, i.e., simply changing road signs to read in metric units, with the idea of turning highway signage into instant billboards for the use of metric units. The first thing wrong with this is that is very dangerous; it is simply impractical, and maybe very harmful, to change speed limits to, say, 100 km/h by fiat. Driving along the highway is no time to be learning what "km/h" means and that suddenly you have to start using your car's secondary speedometer scale. Same for distance signs; firm understanding of metric units MUST be in hand to know how far 50 km is, before it ever gets posted on a sign (remember also that almost all U.S. vehicle odometers now accumulate miles, not kilometers, so cumulative distance data would become meaningless). Worst of all would be changing bridge clearance signs to state the height of the bridge in meters. If that were done this afternoon, truck drivers would be caught completely unwares, and would be unable to judge the safety of driving under a particular bridge or overpass. Like computers vs. information systems, there is the dichotomy of metric system vs. metrication. The metric system stands alone. But, metrication involves people everywhere measurement is used. Everybody measures things, so metrication must involve all of us. As I think you correctly point out, consumer products work in a special way. Since 1994, U.S. consumer products have been required to be labeled in both U.S. customary and in metric units. Certain alcoholic beverages must be marketed in standard metric sizes. In 1988, Congress declared that the metric system is the Nation's preferred commercial measurement system, ending, in my opinion, any validity to the statement that "metric units are foreign to America." We at USMA have seen a golden opportunity to establish the metric system safely, prominently, and fairly, by giving U.S. manufacturers the option of dropping the customary units from their labeling. As you wisely observe, exercising that option on a 2-liter bottle of soda simply confirms with the public something they have already accepted, i.e., that 2 liters means 2 liters. The product is even advertised as a 2-liter bottle! This means that the seller has determined that this is the product size the public wants. So, why not label it only with the units by which it is sold? To do this requires an amendment to the federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act to permit the change. Such an amendment would offer only an option. It would make no requirements. It is only permissive. This is not to say that USMA does not support a coordinated, national plan to change the United States of America over to the SI metric standard in every aspect of the life of this Nation. We sure do!! This is our reason for existing. We have never wavered on such support. However, the U.S. has suffered from a dearth of national leadership on launching such a plan. Although the press has been increasing the drumbeat of support for true metrication in recent months, the politics just isn't there. Indeed, it is hard to convince an economy already hurting from an historic recession that we are going to have to endure the effort and expense of going metric. President Obama has made a lot of noise about change and infrastructural improvement, but we have been listening carefully for any metric in his bluster, and we haven't heard a word. The U.S. has a suggestion for a plan for coordinated conversion to the metric system. The plan was written in 1971, and was begun partially with the passage of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975. the Act established a U.S. Metric Board consisting of 17 authorities (13 dedicated and four at-large members) representing most of the identifiable sectors of U.S. society, charged with "coordinating the increasing use" of the metric system in this country. The board lacked support, both internally and externally, and was disbanded in 1982. If you stop and think about what we at USMA and many of us on this Listserver want, we want to see the metric system become the primary system of measurement in the U.S. If I were to pick a country we should resemble in this respect, it would be Australia. I visited that country two years ago, and found it to be totally metricated. All consumer products, advertising, measuring tools, road signs, print and broadcast media, and public speech are shown, marked, posted, printed, transmitted, and spoken in metric units (see attached photos). Prior to 1971, Australia, a British Commonwealth country, used the imperial measurement system primarily. In 1971, through its Metric Conversion Board, they agreed to go metric as a society. Australia wrote a plan and set a 10-year deadline for completion of the project. With everyone in the country officially involved, nobody was officially left out. Schools taught metric, the public was taught and learned metric (you can learn all the metric you need in about 5 minutes), manufacturers began to change over to making things in metric units and doing so in concert with other makers (e.g., the construction materials makers working with the construction industry). The U.S. could have done this long ago, but I think we didn't because we were economically and socially isolated in the world. But, on those two counts, the 21st century may be a different story for us. What will inspire our national political and industrial leadership finally to bring America into the metric fold? We may be looking at it right now---the blowing open of an economic caldera not seen in generations. Metrologically speaking, the U.S. may be on the verge of receiving the gift of national desperation, within which any embedded cost will have to be examined. In particular, U.S. students should have the same metric advantages as the students in other countries. Like the bumper sticker reads, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." A U.S. news announcer stated this afternoon that there is hope for the U.S. economy once the American people begin to feel the pain. For much of its history, the U.S. has not admitted to itself that it has been doing this big internal conversion step from metric to home-grown units. We have continued to do this out of pride and habits. Perhaps this is the hour at which we will swallow our pride and change our habits. For me, using a decimal measurement system has always been a matter of common sense (compare dollars and cents), and I always thought that common sense was very American, so I've been patriotic all along. SI-incerely, 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] _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_70faster_032009
