Today in history, greetings, and social banter here. (More)
A WhiteHouse.gov petition to switch to the metric system has reached the threshold for response, with 25.39 kilosignatures. Or, as MSN News put it, “‘Merica should switch to metric, snotty White House petition claims.” The metric system is simpler to calculate and used worldwide, yet Americans respond that it would require changing the sizes of football fields and the names of auto races. In a nation where social change can be measured in furlongs per fortnight, will it be another four score years before we adopt the metric system?
January 10, 2013 at 6:06 pm
Today on Campus
Morning Feature – Talking About Guns, Part I: ‘Rights’ and Wrongs
Midday Matinee – triciawyse with Fursdai Furries
Our Earth – New Information About Magma Formation
January 10, 2013 at 6:16 pm
I refuse to throw out my cook books just because they use ounces and tablespoons. My measuring cups and scale are a different issue. They are ready for the change supporting both customary and metric markings.
January 10, 2013 at 6:22 pm
Yes, Jim, the “snotty” science types want to burn your cookbooks. It’s Celsius 267!
January 10, 2013 at 6:21 pm
I’ve never had a real problem using either, since professionally I’ve always used metric. Although I don’t mind using rods, stones, or maybe a few stadia.
January 10, 2013 at 6:27 pm
I doubt the change would happen overnight, but we’ve unconsciously been shifting for some time. Look at our packaging.
As for old cookbooks keeping our old measuring spoons wouldn’t be illegal.
And nobody seems to have a problem buying water by the litre.
With us or wthou us it is going to happen…long after I am dead and buried.
January 10, 2013 at 6:31 pm
In the 1960′s I was sure a conversion to metric was imminent. Okay a few of my college professors were very convincing. I’d be cool with it. I wouldn’t buy all new cookbooks though.
Great question and a nice diversion from whatever is gaining on the rant-o-meters today.
January 10, 2013 at 6:32 pm
The American people have been fetishistically iconoclastic about retaining Imperial measures. One site I saw today said we must keep them because they were used in … the Magna Carta. Yes, really.
Puh-leeze. The metric system is easier to use, and already the standard in U.S. sciences and the U.S. military. I hope it becomes the standard … in less than four score years.