The pastor today preached a sermon in which, to give some idea how big the universe is, he gave the distance to various stars and galaxies in light-years and explained what a light-year is. He gave the speed of light in miles per second. I corrected him afterward, saying that the speed of light is a defined constant in meters per second, which I pulled up on my calculator. Where he got the figure I don't know. I heard it when I was little, before metrication started here, but he grew up in Colombia.
I also noticed that the thermostat downstairs (we meet in a building belonging to another church, along with a congregation of Hmongs) is a bimetallic spring jobbie with both Celsius and Fahrenheit scales. My thermostat (which is currently turned off because of the season) displays in Celsius, but it's an electronic one. Pierre
