The other discussion from a good friend who lives in the UK east of London.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Carleton MacDonald Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 18:26 To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [A_A] OT: metric Dennis, Unfortunately you are probably right and the reason is as you said in the second sentence of the second paragraph. The primary goal of every Member of Congress and Senator is to get re-elected. To do so, they pay careful attention to what their constituents are telling them. When a constituent* is happy, he or she normally doesnt say anything. When he or she is unhappy, a letter or phone call results (You changed something, why did you change something, I dont like change, I cant understand change, change is scary, change is hard, change is bad, Im going to remember this at the next election, Ill never contribute to your campaign ever again, dont ever change anything ever ever ever ). Result: Congress hears from the complainers, thinks theyre representative (since no one else is saying anything), fears what will happen at the next election, and suppresses everything. This is particularly true in the Senate where it takes just one Senator to bottle up something but 60 Senators to pry it loose. * Constituent can be an individual, a lobbyist, an industry group such as health insurance companies (Harry and Louise) or road contractor associations, etc. >From what I understand, the UK has two things left in imperial: beer in pints (the UK 568 ml version, not the US 473 ml version over here we would get more beer if it became 500 ml) and road distances and speed limits shown on signs in miles. (Even the pint bottle of delivered milk is going away in April.) Your description of your trip to work had me on the floor laughing. Carleton From: Dennis [RRMail] On Behalf of Dennis McDonald* Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 03:46 To: 'Carleton MacDonald'; [email protected] <mailto:all_aboard%40yahoogroups.com> Subject: RE: [A_A] OT: metric *No relation. Carleton, The metric system works pretty well over here in the UK for people aged 40 or under. Both my children know their weight and height only in metric terms (although in conversation they will refer to their heights as just over six foot, and just under six foot (always foot never feet). I buy fuel in litres actually I dont, I tend to fill up to the top of the tank, or use an even amount of cash (usually £50) as my measure, but the pump is measuring the supply in litres, and the fuel is priced in litres. We build roads in km lengths but measure speed and performance in miles, or miles per hour. I buy beer by the pint in my local pub, but wine and spirits come in centilitres. In both cases though I would be happy to simply ask for my usual measure of.... please. At the grocers I can buy loose items by the pound if I want to, but the same shopkeeper will be happy to serve the next customer in kilograms. All in all though we cope, and everybody is (fairly) happy a contrast to my business life, where the best I can hope for when I finalise a deal is for both parties to be, so far as possible, equally unhappy! I am afraid your chosen mission to impose metric units in your homeland is, in my opinion, doomed to fail. Your fellow countrymen are too stubborn and contrary to accept this kind of change just because the rest of the World does it that way. Just think about the unpopularity of Dollar Coins, the different TV system you use, the unique electric plugs you use, and even the colour of your political parties you are the only country in the world where the workers dont have a theme song which proclaims Well keep the Red Flag flying here. In fact, talking of colour, why do your folk insist on dropping so many letters out of words like colour, or changing the order of the letters like Centre, or create absurd abbreviated forms like lite or nite when you are supposedly using the ENGLISH language? Why are Americans so awkward in these matters? My theory is it is because so many of you have a drop or two of ENGLISH blood coursing through your veins. We, after all is said and done, dont even drive on the Right side of the road! (pun intended). Mandatory rail content. I am typing this on my morning train to work. I have just passed Newington Station, where there are four tracks with two fast lines in the middle and platforms on the outer side of the tracks. Passengers awaiting trains in opposite directions will therefore be standing a good rod, pole, or perch apart. Our cruising speed will be around 80 mph for the next couple of kilometres until we slow for Rainham. Either side of Chatham we pass through a couple of tunnels, and cross a viaduct with around a dozen arches. We will then cross the River Medway which may be anything from one to three fathoms deep, depending on the state of the tide with a view of a preserved Soviet submarine, with a red flag painted on the side. The train then runs fast to London Bridge, where we will pause at one of the half a dozen through platforms, and I will get off. I will walk about a hundred yards (or metres the margin of error allows either) and board one of Londons infamous Bendy Buses which is 19metres long. (I remember when the maximum length of a bus in the UK increased from 27 feet 6 inches to 30 feet and later when it was increased to 36 feet to make it the same as European buses/coaches) Later this week I am off to Belgium by train. On this side of The Channel, thanks to the new High Speed Line we will cruise at an advertised 180 mph. When we reach The Continent, the cruising speed is given as 300 km/h. (I doubt I will notice the difference!) As I complete my journey to my office on foot (about 300 paces or a block and a half) I will reflect on the joys of diversity, and ponder on the possibility that if I carry on in this vein Im might get hung drawn and quartered at the nearby Tower of London 1000 years old, or strung up from the nearby Roman Wall 2000 years old (and you guys tell me America has history). My final thought for the day then is let us relish the differences between us or to steal a phrase from our nearest neighbours the ghastly metric-loving frog-eaters - VIVE LA DIFFERENCE! Dennis McDonald From: [email protected] <mailto:All_Aboard%40yahoogroups.com> Sent: 02 March 2009 01:02 To: [email protected] <mailto:all_aboard%40yahoogroups.com> Subject: RE: [A_A] Re: OT: metric There's a very good reason the grocers in Canada show prices in pounds - 1. It's still for some reason allowed, and 2. It makes the price look smaller, as the pound is smaller than the kg. (The same reason price per liter is a lower number than price per gallon.) Apparently they also think they have to do that for the older people. Since the change happened quite a while ago, most adults under a certain age, and all kids, were never taught imperial. They picked it up from their parents, if that. Canada's muddle happened in large part because Mulroney, a conservative, threw the brakes on the changeover in the early 1980's (just like Reagan and Nofziger did down here) after the baby had been halfway born. All he succeeded in doing was creating a huge mess. Carleton From: [email protected] <mailto:All_Aboard%40yahoogroups.com> On Behalf Of Norman Wilson Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 18:31 To: [email protected] <mailto:all_aboard%40yahoogroups.com> Subject: [A_A] Re: OT: metric Andy Byler: In fact, just like there are metric "pounds" and "tons" in use in "metric" countries overseas, I suspect that Americans would probably come to call a 4 L size a "metric" gallon if they were forced to buy milk or gas by the liter. ======= I've lived for almost 20 years in a country in which metric measure is in common use. The tonne gets used now and then as a conventional shorthand for a million grams, but only rarely in day-to-day life. This is hardly a surprise; how often do you buy a ton of cheese? I've never heard of the half-kilogram `metric pound' Andy writes of, nor of the `metric cup' he mentioned in a message a day or two ago. Never. Not even once. It may make a difference that in Canada people generally understand the obsolete US units too. Older folks often still think in them; the younger generation knows roughly what they are, but thinks mainly in metric. The graduate students I work with, for example, almost invariably speak of kilograms rather than pounds when speaking of their own weights (sic, not masses, sorry Carleton). Cheese shops and butcher shops display both price per kilogram (or sometimes per 100 grams) and per pound. Some of the small storefront grocers still show just prices per pound, but again, nobody fusses about it as you all seem to do down south. On the other hand, so far as I can tell it's not at all controversial that highway distances and speed limits are shown in kilometers and km/h (and Carleton's right here, nobody refers to kph, why should they when it's meaningless gobbledegook?). As for ... I'm curious if this is really true. An 85' car would be 25908 mm. A 59'-6" wheelbase would be 18135.6 mm. The 10'-6" overall width would be 3200.4 mm. ======= ... somehow I doubt anybody would notice if an 85' car was 8mm shorter, making an even 25.9m; or the wheelbase or car width 0.6mm or 0.4mm shorter. In fact I suspect the latter two differences, less than the thickness of a US dime, are well within normal tolerances for such measurements. Don't they teach engineers anymore that it's foolish to pretend to measure such things to five or six decimal places of precision? In any case, having had little time for All_Aboard of late, it's good to see that the conversation is as relevant as ever to passenger-rail advocacy. Norman Wilson Toronto ON
