The only way metrication is going to happen in the US is by force. If the USMA is only interested in dialog, then they will wait an eternity and nothing will happen.
Jerry ________________________________ From: Al Lawrence <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 9, 2009 5:28:44 PM Subject: [USMA:43601] RE: A modest proposal I agree we need new thread. While I find the postings here interesting and sometimes even entertaining, I am not really that concerned with minutia like railroad gauges in Russia, the incorrect use of kph or whether pints of beer should be sold in English pubs. I am more interested in the progress of metrication, particularly in the US, and what we can do to help the process. It would be wonderful if a logical systemic program could be implemented tomorrow and we would all love to see highway signs converted to metric this year, but that is not going to happen. While this should be supported, time and effort promoting such things will accomplish nothing at this time. Advocates have been doing that for 30 years. What steps towards metrication can we do now? What can actually be accomplished at this time? Two things come to mind, getting Alabama and New York to accept the changes to the UPRL and getting the metric-only labeling option to the FLPA passed. There may be others. What, if anything, can be done to help move towards these goals? (For example, see Paul Trusten's post on Alabama.) To come up with a plan we need to know exactly what the process is. For example, no one seems to know the exact status of the FLPA amendment (although I am new to this forum so I may be wrong). All I can find out is that we have waiting for the amendment to be submitted to Congress since 2004 and that it is somehow being held up by the FMI. What agency makes the submission to Congress and who in that agency makes the decision? If it is being held up by the FMI, how are they doing it and, since labeling is voluntary, what is their underlying concern? For example, would it really cause an extra burden on their people? Presumably the agency director who will decide to make the submission to Congress has others who report to him on the issue. We need to know who are they, if any of their written reports are available, who collects public and corporate input for the reports (at least two national public forums have already been held) and so on. We need the details on this to come up with a strategy to promote metric only labeling, as we do for the Alabama and New York proposals. Perhaps this has been covered before, so at the risk of sounding ignorant I have two questions. What is the exact status of these proposals, who are the decision makers, what is the process and what is the timing? What, if anything, can we do to help? Alan Lawrence > Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2009 17:10:39 -0700 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [USMA:43568] A modest proposal > > > May I suggest that we do something to pigeonhole or earmark UK metric > discussion? Some of it is relevant to the US, of course, but 90% is > not. Much of it is discussions among three or four people. I want to > read stuff about US progress. The number of postings here is getting to > the point where I may unsubscribe for a few months to see if anything > has changed. Webmaster, any suggestions? > > HARRY WYETH > ________________________________ Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. Find out more.
