Pat,
Please put those non-SI units in quotes as Jim did.
Gene.
---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 16:54:28 +1000
>From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]>
>Subject: [USMA:47584] Re: UK Transport Minister banishes metric in all
>official communications
>To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
>Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
>
> Dear Martin,
> Do you remember this:
>
> Dear Editor,
>
> I am 40. I have never been taught Imperial measures
> in school and yet I am surrounded by people who talk
> about inches, pints, miles and ounces. I find it
> quite obscene that I have to learn about measures
> that were declared moribund before I could walk.
>
> Why did the government listen to the old
> stick-in-the-muds? It didn't happen with decimal
> currency because it couldn't. Talk to a twenty year
> old about shillings and he will think you are
> talking about Austria, before the Euro. This is how
> it should be. The past is a different country, we
> have moved on. But why did we allow some
> conservative old fogeys to keep on talking about
> their miles, pints, ounces, stones, feet and
> Fahrenheit? We should have buried these things in
> the 1960s when we left the shillings and 240 pence
> in the pound nonsense.
>
> Tens, hundreds and thousands. So easy to calculate.
> So much easier than twelve pennies in a shilling,
> twenty shillings in a pound, sixteen ounces in a
> pound, fourteen pounds in a stone. Not to mention
> gills, chains, rods, poles, fathoms, bushels and
> firkins.
>
> A cube 100 millimetres by 100 millimetres by 100
> millimetres defines a volume of one litre, if you
> fill it with water it has a mass of one kilogram. If
> you raise the temperature to 100 degrees the water
> boils. Cool it to zero degrees and it freezes. This
> is simple, this is elegant, and this is beautiful.
>
> The oldies say: 'Don't talk to me about them
> kilo-whatsit things laddie I think in inches'.
>
> But, the oldies are trying to force me to think in
> old measures too — despite the fact that all the
> old measures were scheduled for replacement four
> years before I started primary school.
>
> It is time we buried the imperial system. The only
> way do do it is to be draconian about it. Do not
> allow people to ask for, demand or even talk about
> imperial measures.
>
> If you don't draw the line like that, the old fogeys
> will force it down our necks for ever more. Why must
> my children, and probably theirs as well as our
> grandchildren and great grandchildren, have to learn
> about pounds and inches just because some older
> people will not make a little effort?
>
> Name and address supplied
>
> Cheers,
>
> Pat Naughtin
> Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see
> http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
> Hear Pat speak
> at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY
> 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.
> On 2010/06/09, at 15:19 , Martin Vlietstra wrote:
>
> David Cameron was probably not taught how to
> manipulate imperial figures at school. He might
> not know how to add up 3 lb 4oz, 5 lb 14 oz and 6
> lb 5 oz. It gets even more difficult using a
> calculator. However Philip Hammond, the new
> transport minister who is a few years old than
> Cameron might just remember how to do it.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
> Of Stephen Humphreys
> Sent: 08 June 2010 22:50
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:47571] Re: UK Transport Minister
> banishes metric in all official communications
>
>
> Please be aware that there is a change of
> government.
>
> The main part of the new government (the Tories)
> advertised themselves as 'Saving the pound and the
> ounce for Britain' in a recent euro-election
> leaflet.
>
> If I was a betting man - I would bet a huge sum
> that David Cameron is not pro-metric. And now he
> is prime minister.
>
> I would not be surprised if this is the first of
> many moves that could lead some to believe this
> govt as 'anti-metric'.
> It could get very
> interesting/disappointing/pleasing (delete
> depending on your personal view)
> > Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 20:29:12 +0100
> > From: [email protected]
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: [USMA:47570] Re: UK Transport Minister
> banishes metric in all official communications
> >
> >
> > UK government policy on metication is, to quote
> one recent Prime Minister:
> >
> > “that the United Kingdom should – in stages
> – switch from imperial to metric units of
> measurement for an ever-increasing range of
> uses”
> >
> > If the Express story is true (we have to treat
> it with caution) then Hammond is exceeding his
> authority. He has no right to obstruct the free
> use of metric units in department publications.
> The metric system is the offical system of
> measurement in the UK except for road signs (as
> required in the Units of Measurement regulations
> 1986). Civil servants are bound by this.
> >
> > This politician and any others who attempt to
> halt or reverse progress toward honesty in
> measurement should be sacked.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "ezra steinberg"
> <[email protected]>
> > To: "U.S. Metric Association"
> <[email protected]>
> > Sent: Monday, 7 June, 2010 8:13:56 PM
> > Subject: [USMA:47547] UK Transport Minister
> banishes metric in all official communications
> >
> >
> > Is this barmy or what? Hammond has clearly gone
> 'round the bend ...
> >
> >
> http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/179560/This-U-turn-on-metric-is-miles-better
>
> >
> > Ezra
> >
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
> Get a free e-mail account with Hotmail. Sign-up
> now.
