July 21, 2010
Gas Metering
Ever really looked at your Gas bill? Chances are that it shows you your usage in Therms.
Now, what percentage of the population know what a Therm is let alone its relation to other measurements of energy you might otherwise come across?
I bet you don't and if you do a quick poll of those around you, you'll find none of them do either.
For the average householder, the most common energy … continue reading
June 22, 2010
Metric Cooking On Oprah
Ever wanted to see a metric cooking segment on Oprah?
Well, here's your chance.
Oprah is holding a competition for a segment on her show and Sally Mitchell wants to run a metric cooking segment.
Want to help make this a reality?
Here's … continue reading
June 02, 2010
National Geographic Feedback
A letter written to the National Geographic News editors:
In reference to the article at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070226-sinkhole-photo.html:
Since Guatemala, along with all but a very small minority of countries in the … continue reading
National Geographic Feedback
A letter written to the National Geographic News editors:
In reference to the article at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070226-sinkhole-photo.html:
Since Guatemala, along with all but a very small minority of countries in the … continue reading
April 02, 2010
Common Educational Standards
The Common Core Standards Group is soliciting feedback on their draft mathematical standards.
If you haven't already, please take a moment to read the standards and continue reading
December 11, 2009
NPR Feedback
A letter to NPR on the Sarkozy carbon tax story:
While listening to Sarkozy Wants To Tax France's Carbon Footprint I noticed that the figure 24 cents per gallon was quoted. Given that no European country uses gallons for fuel (let alone US gallons which are different from UK gallons), I checked to see what people who weren't converting the figure were … continue reading
November 16, 2009
Applications for Monitoring Health
I've been trying to lose weight over the last few months and as such have had reason to review several tools for tracking diet and exercise on the iPhone. The first one I took a look at (because it is free) was Lose It. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the first screen as it's all US Customary units (no option for metric at all and lots of complaints in the feedback that seem to … continue reading
October 10, 2009
Metric Day
It's Metric Day. Please take a few minutes today to mail your senators and congress folk requesting they use metric exclusively when writing laws.
The best form for this is a story telling them of some way you've been ripped off or severely inconvenienced by customary measurements or our mixed use of systems.
Sally Mitchell gave a continue reading
August 22, 2009
Health Care Reform
Q: How is health care reform like metrication?
A: We're still stuck in the dark ages while the rest of the world has moved on to better, cheaper, ways of doing things. Extended Answer:
Moving to state run health care similar to the UKs continue reading
A: We're still stuck in the dark ages while the rest of the world has moved on to better, cheaper, ways of doing things. Extended Answer:
Moving to state run health care similar to the UKs continue reading
August 01, 2009
Strong Middle Class=Strong America
Here is a letter I wrote to Vice President Biden. He has been charged with creating a Middle Class Task Force, to help bolster the middle class. Which we all know is the life blood of the country. Please consider following suit and writing him a letter. It can only help our cause. Here is a link to the website.
continue reading
July 13, 2009
Bay Area Meeting
The first SF Bay Area USMA meeting will be held at Genentech on July 16 at 16:00 Pacific thanks to James Scott Hudnall
This aims to be a bi-weekly meeting of those interested in … continue reading
June 19, 2009
Open Government
The Obama administration has an open government dialogue initiative. This is currently being run via Idea Scale.
The site is taking submissions until the end of today. Here are the current metric submissions:
May 31, 2009
NASA Puts Astronauts At Unnecessary Risk With Measurement Policy Bungle
Dear NASA,
in case you'd missed it, President Obama's slogan for the last election was "Change we need" not "Going back to the dark ages". The last time measurement was mentioned in terms of NASA, it was when you were explaining to congress why you'd just blown $327.6 million of public funds and who knows how much in lost research … continue reading
March 26, 2009
White House Open For Questions
NB: Voting stops at 09:30 Eastern (06:30 Pacific) _Thursday_.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/openforquestions/
Search for metric and vote.
Sorry for the short notice, I only found out about it tonight.
February 13, 2009
Stimulus Package Reconciliation
Currently, the stimulus package is being reconciled by a committee appointed
from the House and Senate.
This committee is made up of 10 members and in order to get metric into the
package we need to contact them before the bill is reintroduced into the house.
The best way to do this is a personal phone call followed by a fax or email.
Please do this as soon as you can and pass this note … continue reading
February 09, 2009
Letter To Congress
I haven't had a chance to call them yet, but here's the letter I sent to Barack Obama, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Anna Eshoo, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elaine Alquist and Paul Fong.
The economic disaster brings us fresh opportunity to think about the things that aren't working and make fixing those things part of our economic stimulus. A great example of this is … continue reading
Economic Stimulus Package
The economic stimulus package is still being debated.
This is an excellent opportunity for us to finally make the switch over to the metric system. We're about to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure improvements and we could use that opportunity to do the improvements in metric and make other concrete steps towards getting onto the international system of units. … continue reading
February 04, 2009
Economic Stimulus Questions
Just a reminder, economic stimulus questions need to be submitted tonight or early tomorrow.
I just got out of the OFA meeting and the video with the answers will go out Thursday morning!
Here's a … continue reading
Organizing For America Meeting
Tonight I participated in the 45 minute Organizing For America teleconference. Here's my raw notes from the meeting, which don't include various introductory parts about Mitch and Jeremy:
Run By:
- Mitch Stuart, director of OFA
- Jeremy Bird, deputy director
- Poll for best call day
- First call for OFA since … continue reading
February 03, 2009
Economic Stimulus
There's house parties running this weekend to learn about and discuss the economic stimulus plan.
Along with this, is the opportunity to ask questions and have them answered by the … continue reading
Community Involvement
The Obama administration is really encouraging people to get involved with their communities. Such activity not only helps out your local community, personal interaction is the best way to encourage people towards metrication (and letting their representatives know they want metric measures).
You can get involved through continue reading
January 23, 2009
Bills From Congress
I recently sent the following to President Obama:
If a bill crosses your desk and uses our antiquated customary units instead of metric, please send it back to congress with a request to change it into round metric units (e.g. fuel efficiency of 40 MPG should instead be expressed as 5.8 L/100 km (or use the opportunity to do more for our environment and express it … continue reading
January 20, 2009
President Obama
Congratulations to president Obama. We look forward to helping make change rather than just talking about change.
For those interested in congratulating the new president or encouraging him further to finish metrication, you can use the whitehouse feedback form
January 15, 2009
The Citizens Briefing Book
For a while, Change.GOV has had various ways of providing feedback to the Obama administration (this site, unlike all the others, is actually run by the Obama administration so your feedback goes direct to the administration).
Now, they have a way of submitting ideas and allowing others to vote on them.
I encourage you … continue reading
January 09, 2009
USMA Supporters
Note that it's possible to list yourself as a supporter of the US Metric Association on change.org
January 07, 2009
Making Ourselves Heard
There's a nice Op-Ed on AJC about going metric (in terms of not being isolationist any more).
If you haven't voted please do so now.
Please … continue reading
January 05, 2009
Change.ORG Second Round. Vote now!
National Academies
The National Academies have a survey asking what matters most in science, technology and engineering.
Please take a few moments to fill in their survey and add metrication in the "suggest other topics" box.
XKCD Guide to Metric
XKCD has an excellent guide to metric today. I highly recommend checking it out and passing it onto anyone who hasn't yet gotten metric.
There is also a lively discussion of the metric comic … continue reading
January 04, 2009
Change.ORG Video Competition
We have a competition to create a 30-90 second video telling the US why we need to finish metrication.
Click here for details
January 01, 2009
Change We Need
Happy new year!
We're certainly off to a good start. Thanks to all of you for your hard work in helping us to come in 3rd place in technology policy on continue reading
Forum
For those who may have had trouble with the forum since the migration, the link to the right has been fixed.
8 Hours Left
With less than 8 hours left (edit, turns out they closed the polls at midnight Pacific time not Eastern time), we're less than 80 votes short of taking metric into the next round on Change.org
If you haven't already, please contact all your friends and colleagues, we can … continue reading
December 31, 2008
Change.org
For those who haven't been following, change.org site is taking votes on what should be the top priorities of the Obama administration. The top three in each category are going to go into a final round and then the top of that list will be forwarded to the Obama administration.
Below is my list. As you might notice, Metric is at the top here and this is a perfect opportunity for us to finally … continue reading
December 30, 2008
Marginal Revolution
Tyler Cowen recently asked readers of Marginal Revolution what topics they'd be interested in having him write up. Naturally, I'd love to hear his opinions of our system of measurements and it's effect on our economy.
It's a great read so if you're interested in … continue reading
December 27, 2008
Site Upgrade
As you can probably tell (if you're looking at the site rather than the RSS feed), I've updated the underlying site software and made a few other changes to the front page. It took somewhat longer to get out that I was hoping due to a fatal error on my part when I was mostly done the first time. Such is life. Instead of re-doing it all, I've made the first set of changes in order to get them out … continue reading
December 03, 2008
Change.org
The top 10 ideas from change.org are going to go to President Obama on inauguration day. Let's make metric one of them in science and technology and in … continue reading
November 17, 2008
Obama CTO
Obama CTO has a poll asking for top priorities for Obamas CTO.
Currently at 6th place (and only a few hundred votes behind 4th/5th) is "Complete the job on metrication that Ronald Reagan defunded". Please take a few minutes to vote and continue reading
November 04, 2008
Voting - Do It Now
For those who have been living under a rock, the election is today and you should do anything you can to make sure you vote. While McCain has his good sides, I think Obama is far more likely to be interested in making the changes we need to move this country forward.
In fact, that's what Obama's campaign has been all about. We're in a very big mess at the moment in so many ways and it's the … continue reading
September 28, 2008
Election Shirts
If you want to show your support for both metrication and Obama take a look at this shirt
September 13, 2008
Return and OmniFocus
Finally back from overseas travels. Unfortunately work kept me quite busy so there's been little time for site updates.
I use the OmniFocus tool for my iPhone as I find it very useful for keeping track of all the stuff I need to do. Unfortunately, it's got a few issues with distances and date formats. Here's the letter I wrote to them:
I love OmniFocus for the … continue reading
August 25, 2008
New Milk Jugs you weigh in.
It has been a while since I posted on here. But I wanted to share a letter that I wrote to the USMA concerning the new milk jugs. I want people to weigh in.
I have a question. I have been reading a lot lately about the "New Milk Jugs" that Wal-Mart, Sams and Costco are rolling out. They are being advertised as Gallon jugs but in reality aren't they the 4 litre jug that you guys talked … continue reading
Traveling and Site Update
If you're wondering why things have been so quiet lately, I've been in Papua New Guinea traveling and have had no network access.
However, I've been working on a major update to the site which includes and upgrade to XWiki, moving off Apache + continue reading
User Friendly Comment on Metric
The latest User Friendly cartoon suggests that the next lunar probe will fail due to a metric/customary conversion issue. There's also significant conversation about it.
August 09, 2008
Why Metric? Conversation
Had a chat with a friend this evening about why one would want to finish
metrication here. Here's a few tidbits for those who don't yet understand why
we'd want to:
Me:
Well, it costs the economy a fortune each year; everything from continue reading
August 03, 2008
Metrication Rally October 10
A rally is being organized for October 10.
More details on Facebook.
For those without a Facebook login, here's the text:
Host: America Needs to Switch to the Metric System Type: Causes - Rally Network: Global Time and PlaceDate: Friday, … continue reading
August 02, 2008
Prodding The Associated Press
As mentioned by John Steele in this thread, a lot of newspapers get their stories from the AP and posted a letter he'd written. He's my recent addition to their inbox:
Measurement conversions are often inaccurate and unnecessary. The integrity of the story is upheld and … continue reading
August 01, 2008
Citizen Times Article
The Asheville Paper Citizen Times is running the following article encouraging us to finish metrication:
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880726054
July 13, 2008
SF Bay Area Metric Meeting
On Thursday night, Scott Hudnall and I got together for the first Bay Area Go Metric meeting (this one was at Tokies in Foster City, suggestions for future locations appreciated).
Here's some notes about what we discussed.
Things to … continue reading
July 08, 2008
Prodding The Press
I read a wide variety of things and while reading the Atlanta Journal Constitution coverage of the Peachtree road race, I noticed that the measurements were all over the place (sometimes just metric, sometimes a mix, sometimes just a conversion (it's a 10km race)). So, I sent them the following:
continue reading
July 06, 2008
Science Debate 2008
For those who haven't seen it, there's a science debate being organized between the two candidates.
I've recently signed up and encourage you to as well. Science, technology … continue reading
May 25, 2008
Barack Obama Feedback Survey
Barack Obama currently has a feedback survey.
It doesn't have metrication as one of the boxes you can check for issues you care about, but it does have a free text field where you can enter metrication or finishing metric conversion as one of your areas of concern. Even if you don't care … continue reading
May 22, 2008
Funny T Shirts
Public Infrastructure and the Economy
Listening to Marketplace this morning, mention was made of fixing our current economic shambles by improving infrastructure. Here's the letter I wrote in.
As part of the infrastructure improvement projects suggested by continue reading
May 15, 2008
More Videos
Took a look through You Tube this evening to see what new pro-metric videos people had posted.
A Tom Price video on the NCTM report
May 14, 2008
Nader On Metric
Ralph Nader came to talk at Google on Monday. Given he's going for President (again), it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get his opinion about changing to metric.
Unfortunately, the short version is "That's beyond me".
You can see the full question and answer starting at 36:12 here:
May 05, 2008
Newsweek Letter to the Editor
I just sent the following to letters@newsweek.com about the Rist of the Rest article.
I just finished reading Fareed Zakaria's The Rise of the Rest and noticed the comment about joining into the international system of units (i.e. the metric system). I'd love to … continue reading
April 30, 2008
Radio Weather
Want to get the weather in metric from your local radio station?
If so, send them a request for it like the following one I just sent to KQED.
I love KQED and enjoy the local coverage immensely. However, I'd love to get my weather in metric (degrees C, wind speed in km/h, … continue reading
KQED Forum
If your local radio station has something similar to KQED Forum and they're talking about the economy, call in with the following question:
The research I've done suggests we lose about 10% of GDP due to using two measurement systems (wasted time doing conversions, … continue reading
March 20, 2008
Open Congress
There's an excellent new site for tracking what's going on in congress called Open Congress.
Even better, they group each bill by issue and have both issue pages and RSS feeds for issues.
Items that're likely to be extremely interesting for us:
March 17, 2008
Computer Manufacturers
Wondering about the viability of 760mm displays, I started looking around at the places that give employee discounts via my employer. Obviously, I'm looking to do comparisons in metric.
March 09, 2008
Tom Price's Videos
Tom Price has put up another video on YouTube:
3 Liter Milk
Victor Jockin wrote the following on the 100,000 Americans for a Metric Revolution Facebook group (and there's a discussion for it as well).
Make a … continue reading
February 25, 2008
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
The NCTM is having a conference during April 9-12 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We should be encouraging them to support metric exclusively (Tom … continue reading
Cost of Not Metricating vs Metricating
I've added a new page on the cost of not metricating vs metricating.
We all know that it costs a lot to continue using two measurement systems (especially when one of them is as broken as our customary system), but how much exactly does it cost.
I don't have the numbers, but before we can get the numbers (or … continue reading
February 24, 2008
Consumer Reports
Here's a letter I just wrote to Consumer Reports.
I love reading Consumer Reports and get great value from your reviews. They're not only great when I'm looking at purchasing a particular type of product, but also great to learn new things to consider when I'm out browsing. However, there is one thing that's always frustrated me about your reports: you only print … continue reading
February 14, 2008
Yahoo!
If you use Yahoo!, they have a suggestion page for Yahoo! Local. There's already a suggestion for having metric settings and making the site more global.
Obviously, other parts … continue reading
Nikon Universcale
Nikon have a very interesting flash animation showing measurements of things using the "universcale" (universal scale) of metric.
February 09, 2008
Election And Politicians
As we work our way through the primaries and on to the Presidential election, it becomes important to make sure that the things we care about are heard about by those running for President.
I've added a page for Barack Obama as there's a pro-metrication group on his site (although he doesn't seem to have an … continue reading
Another Call For Metric
Here's a teacher named Tom Price making another call for a grassroots metric campaign.
And, on a slightly more humorous note, we have teacher Noon using S'Mores to teach metric
February 05, 2008
Why We Need Metric
This video beautifully describes why we need and many of us want metric.
January 31, 2008
Letter to Congress
Science Blogs has an article encouraging people to write to congress demanding that science funding for FY 2008 be re-instated.
You can modify the form letter they propose so I did so. Given that our broken measurement system negatively impacts science as well as … continue reading
January 28, 2008
CNN Debates
I've posted the following question to both debate lists (there's one for the Republican debate on Wed and one for the Democatic debate on Thu) on the Politico site.
Please vote for it and hopefully we can get metrication back on the debate list.
Our country has been struggling to finish metrication for way too long. The customary system is unintuitive, … continue reading
January 08, 2008
Growing up with Metric in New Zealand
Peter Ferdinand left the following comment (unfortunately, in an inconvenient location so I had to move it here):
I just came across this site. I notice on a lot of these sites, that a lot of Americans think of metric as "European" or "foreign" and don't think it's used in … continue reading
December 25, 2007
First Metric President?
An interesting question posted to the Washington Posts "Stumped" blog. Who will be the first metric President?
While it's an interesting question, it's unfortunate that Andres seems to have taken it as a joke rather than putting even half of the thought … continue reading
December 24, 2007
Pudding
Given the time of year, a metric pudding recipe is in order.
A 2 liter (preferably 2.5L) container or steamer is needed for this quantity.
INGREDIENTS:
- 125g butter
- 3 x 250mL Liquid - I use 250mL boiling water & 500mL wine - sherry, port, anything on hand.
- 1kg fruit (plenty of raisins)
- 60g mixed … continue reading
December 17, 2007
Comments on TTB Labeling Proposal
Here is the comment I just submitted for TTB-2007-0062:
I am an interested consumer and am not otherwise connected with the beverage industry. I think better labeling is important, but the current proposal has some major flaws. My views on the proposed rules … continue reading
December 16, 2007
Alcohol Labeling: Deadline 2008 Jan 28
A reminder for those who are interested in commenting on Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits and Malt Beverages (Notice No. 73), comments are due by 2008-01-28. This gives us 6 weeks to get any further comments in.
The proposal is linked to the forum post that's linked above, but … continue reading
Surgery and Bumper Stickers
Went in for some knee surgery on Friday. While hospitals may be entirely metric, medical centers that do surgery aren't necessarily (and have the associated bizarreness because of it). I was weighed in pounds, but they had a conversion chart from pounds to kilograms hanging from all the scales. I have to wonder how often there are errors.....
On a brighter note, I've updated the continue reading
December 11, 2007
Letter to the FMI
Here is a letter that I sent to the FMI. If you haven't written them yet please do so and let them know that as consumers we need to finish the conversion. Feel free to use any part of my letter in composition of your letters.
I would like to know where the FMI currently stands on updating the FPLA to allow Metric Only Labeling? I would like to see manufactures have the option to label in … continue reading
November 25, 2007
Bank Notes
After Bruce's comment about creating a bumper sticker displaying a $50 note as 155mm x 65mm, I decided to poke around and fine an official link for that.
Unfortunately, the bureau site … continue reading
November 23, 2007
Bumper Sticker Update
Given the enthusiasm and suggestions for the bumper stickers , I've updated them to use L and provided a larger range of values. Uploading to Zazzle and creating through their interface is a bit of a pain, but … continue reading
November 12, 2007
Texas and Fuel Efficiency
I'm in TX this week at a conference. If you're interested in meeting up, drop me a line.
Getting sick of seeing MPG all over the place, I decided to do something about it. If you want something more specific, let me know and I'll do it. I've already got a few ideas for vehicles that are on the low … continue reading
November 08, 2007
Texas State Board of Pharmacy Response
The TSBP responded, seems that as they don't actively license pharmacists, they don't get a say in enforcing rules.
Here's the reply:
It is my understanding that most medical schools are now teaching doctors to use metric when writing prescriptions. In addition, many organizations are recommending that the Latin abbreviations not be used any more when … continue reading
October 27, 2007
Conversion Errors
This thread pointed out a conversion error on this article about the shuttle. 1,600oC … continue reading
October 25, 2007
MetaFilter on Ametrica
Secret Worlds: The Universe Within
I came across a page done by the Optics and Microscopy department of Florida State University.
The Universe Within explores the … continue reading
October 16, 2007
Ametrica
I was pointed to this post on Ametrica by my wife.
For those who hadn't noticed, Amy Wang … continue reading
More Outreach on Pharmacy
At the suggestion of Paul Trusten, I also wrote to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (and for good measure wrote to the California board as well). Note that the form linked seems to be the most … continue reading
October 15, 2007
Texas State Board of Pharmacy
After Paul Trusten's message on the USMA list (link goes to my request for information as his email doesn't seem to be there) with his response to the ABC13 weather blog, I sent … continue reading
October 14, 2007
Weather Science And Manufacturing
Reading through this saddening tale, I came across the following post:
OTOH, when I'm selecting a heat sink for a power transistor, I do the sums in Celsius because things like maximum junction temperature and the thermal resistances involved … continue reading
October 12, 2007
Palo Alto Medical Foundation
Followed up on the (delayed) interaction with PAMF (Sutter Health Network). I have also followed up on the correspondence with the Mayo Clinic as I haven't heard back from them.
Thank you … continue reading
Targets Response
Got a response from Target today to my previous mail. Seems rather form letter like, but at least they bothered to respond.
Dear Paul Armstrong, Thank you for writing to Target.com with your comments about listing the metric measurements of all the items we sell. I will be sure to pass your message on to the appropriate department in our company for … continue reading
October 10, 2007
Letter to Target
I was wandering around the Target site today and sent them the following letter after a bit of frustration caused by the lack of metric.
I was recently looking at target.com for kitchen scales with a 2kg or higher limit, a 1g granularity and digital readout. Unfortunately, all your descriptions only give the max weight in customary units (even though some of the … continue reading
October 08, 2007
Metric Week
For those who don't know, it's metric week (the week containing 10/10).
If you've got things planned for metric week, please post them.
I just sent the following to KQED Forum
This week is metric week and Wednesday (10/10) is metric day. It … continue reading
Colbert and Metric
After the standard definition of the kilogram lost 50 μg Stephen Colbert ran a satiric comment piece on it.
The message boards have only one thread in response to it continue reading
October 07, 2007
Mass And Volume
A group of my friends recently went camping in the desert. Over dinner one night, we were discussing the amount of water they were taking (5 x 55 Gal drums) and one of them was trying to work out how much that would weigh (mass restrictions on the vehicle being the limiting factor for how much they could take).
He never did manage to work out what it weighed in pounds, took me all of 5 … continue reading
September 25, 2007
Two Weeks In Review
If you've done something to promote metrication this week, add it to this post (better to add to the main content than comments).
Paul Armstrong
- Taught measurement class at daughters daycare (all metric, of course)
- Mailed several stores asking about metric only products for teaching
- Posted about NCAA and the … continue reading
September 22, 2007
T Shirts Make A Difference
I had just finished breakfast and was standing around outside Hobees when a group passed by us:
- Passerby 1: Wow, cute!
- Passerby 2: I'd always wanted to understand how that worked.
September 21, 2007
Metric Signs
I have the fortunate task of making signs in my store. As some may know I work for Food Lion a subsidary of Delhaize Group. When making signs for the store I put the Metric sizes on the signs instead of the Customary sizes. I have the support of the managers and customers. Most customers I have spoken to about the metric tell me it was much easier to make sure they are getting the right size … continue reading
September 20, 2007
Metric In School
Went to my daughters daycare on Monday and taught them all a bit about measurement (they're all 3.5 to 4 years old so it's all introductory).
The Learning Game had 1 meter rulers with millimeter, centimeter and decimeter markings on it (including with alternating colors to make it easy to see on one side). … continue reading
September 17, 2007
Comments On EU Backdown
Most of you will have heard the EU is currently planning on letting things stay in the mess they're in as far as dual measurement (this has flooded the news of late). Deutche Welle has a more promising set of reader emails (from all over the world). Only one of them is for keeping customary … continue reading
September 16, 2007
NCAA Updates to Exclusively Metric
Back in June, I reported a thread on the Track and Field News site which was suggesting that the NCAA might push track and field back into the stone age of measurement.
Fortunately, the NCAA seems to have enough smart … continue reading
ETA Cuisenaire Reply
ETA/Cuisenaire replied. Unfortunately not particularly encouraging.
Dear Paul, You have raised some good points, particularly regarding our nation's adherence to our customary system. The rest of the world uses the Metric System, however we stick to our system except in Science. At this time, we're not planning on a metric only version of MeasureWorks, but I … continue reading
September 13, 2007
ETA/Cuisenaire
I'm currently looking at purchasing a fair amount of measurement gear to outfit my daughters school with (more posts later in the week about this). Cuisenaire rods are a wonderful teaching tool for this so naturally I went to the continue reading
Donations to the USMA via Facebook
This Facebook application has been setup to allow donations to the USMA using a credit card. Donations are processed by http://justgive.org who take a 4.5% processing fee, but it's a lot more convenient that writing a check or sending a … continue reading
September 12, 2007
Week In Review
If you've done something to promote metrication this week, add it to this post (better to add to the main content than comments).
Paul Armstrong
- Letter to BevMo
- Sent a message to each of the Presidential candidates asking for a statement on metrication
- Posted a message requesting each candidate to make a … continue reading
September 09, 2007
More You Tube
The (mostly) private comments I made to each of the candidates earlier in the week seem to have gone largely ignored. Kind of unfortunate, but not unexpected (leadership doesn't seem to be something these candidates are willing to show, at least not in the area of metrication).
In an effort to convince at least one of them to make a public statement, I've posted publicly on each of their … continue reading
September 06, 2007
YouTube Debates
Yesterday I posted a message to all the candidates on YouTube asking them for their answer to this video asking about metric.
Today I got a form letter response from Joe Biden skipping the metric part and just answer … continue reading
September 05, 2007
Letter to my Congressman and Senators
Letter to legislators promoting finishing our metrication. … continue reading
September 04, 2007
Letter to BevMo
Sent the following to BevMo today. While my main concern was the ability to scan boxes, there's no use passing up a perfectly good opportunity to encourage metrication.
I regularly purchase Bundaberg Ginger Beer and various other items by the box. Unfortunately, your … continue reading
September 03, 2007
Review Old Companies
Some companies pick up on our requests for metrication immediately, others need reminding.
This week's Company of the Week challenge is to go back and send mail to as many of the previous companies of the week as possible. Without reminders, they'll forget us. Let's not let that happen.
Week In Review
If you've done something to promote metrication this week, add it to this post (better to add to the main content than comments).
Paul Armstrong
- Finished and posted review of alcohol labeling rules proposal
Luther
In Wikipedia I've added metric equivalents in parenthesis in … continue readingProposed Alcohol Labeling Rule Changes
Recently, John Steele posted a proposed labeling law change to the forum
Initial thoughts:
- Too much dual labeling. Given we already use metric exclusively for wine and spirits, we should do so across the board and drop all US customary measures
- Point out that the math … continue reading
August 28, 2007
Week In Review
If you've done something to promote metrication this week, add it to this post (better to add to the main content than comments). … continue reading
August 20, 2007
Week In Review
If you've done something to promote metrication this week, add it to this post (better to add to the main content than comments).
Paul Armstrong
- More reading (with note taking) of the alcohol labeling rules proposal (27 CFR Parts 4, 5, 7, and 24 Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits and Malt Beverages; … continue reading
Kraft Foods
As noted in this blog entry by Bruce Herbertson III, Oscar Mayer (a division of Kraft Foods) have stopped putting metric on their pre-packaged meats.
While not a violation of the FPLA (there's an exception for meat), it's a step backwards … continue reading
August 19, 2007
Mayo Clinic and Dosage Errors
Just sent the following to the Mayo Clinic.
Having had my daughter prescribed an overdose due to mL/tsp mixups, I have a deep interest in the metrication of the health … continue reading
August 18, 2007
Road Signs
According to the New York Times there are currently plans afoot to replace all our road signs. While the plan currently revolves around better fonts improving the readability, it's an excellent opportunity to replace the old miles/yards/feet … continue reading
Pro Metric Multimedia
I've posted a Multimedia section to the site and linked all the pro-metric videos I could find.
Got any video or other multimedia that supports metrication?
If so, please add it.
August 13, 2007
Oscar Mayer (Kraft Foods) using Non-Metric on packaged meats
I work for a major Eastern US supermarket chain and have noticed recently that Oscar Mayer (Kraft Foods) has stopped putting metric on their pre-packaged meats. (Bacon, Bologna, Etc.) As a person who was taught mostly metric in school in the 70's and 80's, I have come to rely on having metric on products that I purchase. I have chosen not to understand and comprehend our US Customary units … continue reading
Week In Review
If you've done something to promote metrication this week, add it to this post (better to add to the main content than comments).
Paul Armstrong
Busy week with catching up from being away from work for two weeks.- Hosted Pat Naughtin at … continue reading
August 10, 2007
Nob Hill
Nob Hill is part of the Raleys privately owned supermarket chain operating in California, Nevada and New Mexico. They have a good atmosphere and friendly staff, but an annoying penchant for marking everything in US customary measures (even things like alcohol that are sold in metric).
There's a continue reading
August 08, 2007
Pat Naughtins' Talk on Google Video
Pat Naughtins' talk has been posted to Google Video.
You can see it here
August 07, 2007
Our Little Earth
Our Little Earth is a newspaper aimed at 6 - 12 year olds. Given one of their goals is Educating children for a global tomorrow and their example used US customary units, I thought I'd send them the following short note pointing out that a global tomorrow is a metric tomorrow.
continue reading
Notes on Pat Naughtins' Talk
Pats' talk today went very well. There was a good size crowed who stayed around even though it was a 90 minute talk instead of the usual 60. I'll post a link when it becomes available on Google Video.
Here's my initial notes.
He started with a story about his wife getting a recipe with … continue reading
August 06, 2007
Pat Naughtin Talk at Google Today
A reminder for those in the Mountain View, CA area, Pat Naughtin is talking at 14:00 at Google today.
August 05, 2007
Rational Arguments
I was reading the following article the other day
and it occurred to me that a few number switches (and occasionally a few other
words to make sense in context) could take a commonly peddled excuse for
continuing to use US customary units and change it into a similar quality
article … continue reading
July 28, 2007
Palo Alto Medical Foundation
Currently overseas on holiday with my family so I've been a bit lax about checking my mail and posting blog entries. On the good news side, I got a reply from PAMF to the message I posted the other week. On the bad news side, they're not currently planning on doing anything to move towards metrication … continue reading
July 25, 2007
Sunny Delight
Sunny Delight sell an assortment of citrus drinks. While they do sell 2 liter sizes, they've also still got 8 fl oz, 12 fl oz and 20 fl oz bottles here in the USA (the rest of the world doesn't get lumbered with non-metric measures). Hopefully a little encouragement on our part can get them to go completely metric in their bottle sizes.
July 18, 2007
Unilever
An Anglo-Dutch company with over 400 products in 14 categories, Unilever is present throughout the world. They are known for for a wide range of food, home, and personal care brands like Skippy peanut butter, Dove soap, Snuggle fabric softener, and Degree antiperspirant. They started introducing metric-sized products in the US quite recently. It looks like a good start, and we can encourage them … continue reading
July 09, 2007
Bolthouse Farms
Bolthouse Farms produce only two sizes of bottle, 450mL and 1 liter.
Unfortunately, everything else is done in US customary (see the trade page for more information on sizing ) so it's not really clear what their metrication policy is (or if they even care).
Let's encourage them to consistently … continue reading
July 07, 2007
Samuel Adams and Barrels
Did Samuel Adams have anything to do with the beer that holds his name? And what is a barrel anyway? … continue reading
July 05, 2007
Climbing and T Shirts
Went climbing on Monday with this t-shirt on. One of the staff asked what it was from expecting something to do with a medical group as he's doing his paramedic training at the moment. This turned into a longer discussion about the benefits of metric, especially for … continue reading
July 04, 2007
Naughtin at NIST
Pat Naughtin's NIST talk will be open to the public. … continue reading
July 01, 2007
Naked Juice
Naked Juice is well known for their natural juice drinks. They also operate mostly in metric (although their interface to US consumers is mostly in US customary). … continue reading
Time Magazine Goes Metric?
Apparently, Time is considering adding metric to all measurement numbers. … continue reading
Pat Naughtin World Tour
Pat Naughtin, renowned metrication specialist and advocate is touring the world. … continue reading
June 29, 2007
Using Metric Exclusively For Medicine
Using metric exclusively is a huge safety benefit. The Mayo Clinic recently changed to be exclusively metric and encouraging all our medical centers to do the same will save a lot of pain (and lost lives) caused by conversion errors. … continue reading
June 25, 2007
Poland Spring
A Nestlé Waters North America company, Poland Spring specializes in bottled water from several sources in Maine. Their bottled water is well-known throughout the Northeast. They offer a variety of bottle sizes, many of them metric. Among them the fairly standard 1/2 liter bottle, the 700 mL sport top bottle, and the stackable 3 L bottle. They give an impression of a company that is interested … continue reading
June 20, 2007
Mazda
Mazdas vehicles are easily converted to using metric (but it should be easier or even unnecessary). … continue reading
Digg on Not Adopting Metric
Digg has an extended discussion on metrication. … continue reading
June 17, 2007
Metric in the News
Metric system and metrication in the news. … continue reading
June 11, 2007
NCAA Contemplates Going Back in Time
The NCAA is contemplating going from 1,500m races to the mile. … continue reading
Ever Wanted to See a List of Metric Bills?
Search bills for the term metric or its derivatives. … continue reading
June 10, 2007
Tropicana
Tropicana, part of PepsiCo, has been gradually introducing metric-sized products. Starting with the Pure Premium 1.75 L carafe designed to compete with the pioneer, Simply Orange, Tropicana expanded the range of various metric containers. The sizes included are 200 mL, 400 mL, 450 mL, and 1 L. Of particular interest is the 450 mL plastic bottle, designed to replace the pint (473 mL) containers. … continue reading
June 08, 2007
Administrivia, Forum Updates and More
I've updated the Ideas page with a few ideas that have been sent to me or I've come up with myself on ways to improve the site and forum.
Got any ideas? Please add them!
Interested in helping? Feel free to pick up one of the ideas or one of the steps … continue reading
June 04, 2007
Making Use of Time
Given the inclination to do something pro-metric and some time, which of the following would you chose?
- Write a post about the merits of one way of using metric measures vs another (cubic meters vs kiloliters for example)
- Write post to a bulletin board or mailing list that argues minor points of the pros or cons of metrication or whether a company is or is not in … continue reading
May 30, 2007
Your Skills and Interests
I've updated the site to include a few new fields on your personal page:
- Motivation: What motivates you to help finish metrication in the USA?
- What you're interested in doing to advance metrication: What actions are you interested in taking to help advance metrication in the USA?
- Skills: What skills do you have?
Lobbying And Goals
For those who aren't on Facebook (and maybe for some who are), some notes from a couple of discussions currently underway. … continue reading
Mother Tongue Annoyances
Mother Tongue Annoyances has an interesting blog entry on metrication.
May 28, 2007
Austin Medical Center
Austin Medical Center has gone completely metric. Let's show them our support. … continue reading
May 22, 2007
Dianne Feinstein Replies
Got a reply from Dianne Feinstein today. While she doesn't go so far as to actually take a position, it's nice that the letter has real content in it.
Thank you for contacting me to share your thoughts about the need for the United States to convert to the metric system. I appreciate hearing from you on this issue and welcome the opportunity to respond. In 1975, … continue reading
May 20, 2007
Maker Faire
Various discussions at Maker Faire about metrication. … continue reading
May 15, 2007
Safeway
Safeway is a large grocery with a world wide presence. The USA shouldn't be an exception when it comes to metric on the shelves. … continue reading
Calling Senators and Representatives
Called my 3 federal representatives and senators today. … continue reading
May 14, 2007
Making A Difference
Doing things that make a difference. … continue reading
May 11, 2007
Facebook Metric Group
A group has been created on Facebook.com in order to gather support for the United States metrication movement. The group's title is "100,000 Americans for a Metric Revolution". The URL of the group site is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2324499886 . I would appreciate any feedback about this page.
May 10, 2007
How Much Time Do You Waste on Conversions?
I'm sitting in the doctors office and the secretary points out that she's having to convert a temperature chart for vaccines from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Turns out the supplier gave her a chart in Fahrenheit but the fridge they store the vaccines in reports temperatures in Celsius.
While I'm not averse to answering the questions she asks while she's wasting the next hour doing the conversions, … continue reading
How Tall Are You?
More conversion madness. … continue reading
May 09, 2007
Metric is Cool.
According to current youth, metric is cool. … continue reading
May 06, 2007
Automotive Fuel Consumption
I travel a lot with one of my Daughters. While we were in the car, We were figuring out the fuel consumption at various distances. I knew that on average, my automobile uses 8 l of gasoline for every 100 km. I had my daughter figure out how much fuel was used for 10 kilometres (800 ml), 1 km (80 ml), 100 m (8 ml), 10 m (0.8 ml), etc. That was a fun exercise and it was easy. This assumes that the … continue reading
Metric sky plane (funny story)
I have been an avid metric user in the USA since I was first able to measure items. Thanks to the 1970's push I was included in a group of Americans who were educated under the easiest system for measurement in the world. I was a kid at that time and I lived near Edwards Air Force base.
My father always had a joke about the SR71's speed being a secret. He would joke with me and say it was … continue reading
April 28, 2007
Decipher This
Reading a scientific catalog is a scientific mess. … continue reading
April 24, 2007
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble have been stout supporters of metrication (and particularly the FPLA). We should mail them to thank them and show our support of their position. … continue reading
April 21, 2007
Ideas and Opinion
Where should we be going and what's stopping you from helping? Please post your thoughts and ideas here … continue reading
Reading Material
I've added a reading material section. … continue reading
April 17, 2007
The Forum is Open
We how have a discussion forum. … continue reading
April 16, 2007
Paper Weight is Easy
Reading that article one can only wonder why Americans punish themselves with hanging on to cumbersome USC measurement units? … continue reading
April 14, 2007
You Can Make A Difference
I often get people mailing me asking how they can help.
If you want to help, take a look at this page.
April 12, 2007
Call a Candidate
Have you talked to or mailed a presidential candidate? … continue reading
April 09, 2007
How Far is That?
That road sign says how far? … continue reading
April 07, 2007
But I only have the small bottle!
What's easier, working with tablespoons, fluid ounces and cups or milliliters, milliliters and milliliters? … continue reading
April 06, 2007
How Much Was That Router?
If you're not sure what scale temperature is measured in, you can't be sure you're monitoring it correctly. … continue reading
April 02, 2007
Volvo
Volvo goes the extra distance when it comes to localization. Unfortunately, they don't realize that even we Americans don't use cubic inches for engine displacement any more. … continue reading
Metric, Yoga and Public Perceptions
A couple people at this weekends yoga retreat passed on their stories of major things that have gone wrong due to our dogged resistance to finishing metrication. … continue reading
March 30, 2007
US Loses Top Spot in Technology Innovation and Competitiveness
This year, we (the USA) dropped from first to seventh in network readiness (a
measure of how well a country takes advantage of modern technology) and from
first to sixth in global competitiveness. … continue reading
March 27, 2007
Metric In The News
Metrication, either through it's use or questions as to why we're not using it makes the news fairly often. Here's a collection of metric news. … continue reading
March 25, 2007
Trader Joes
Trader Joes prides itself on listening to its customers. It's time to let them know how we feel about metrication. … continue reading
March 19, 2007
Emergency Response Personell Must Know Metric
When we send people overseas to help fight fires, if they don't know metric, they're dangerous to both themselves and the people around them. … continue reading
March 12, 2007
Toyota
Toyota produces everything in metric, but their website and the user interface on their vehicles are lacking. … continue reading
March 07, 2007
So, you want to be President?
What does it take to get a response from Presidential candidates?
If you haven't already, send them all an email … continue reading
March 04, 2007
American Beverage Association
The American Beverage Assoication is the trade association for non-alcoholic beverages. … continue reading
February 28, 2007
Letter to Presidential Candidates
After digging through presidential websites to find contact details (some of them are really hard to find and 2 candidates don't care enough about what you think to have contact links), I posted the following letter to all the current presidential candidates. … continue reading
February 26, 2007
Letter to Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton? gave a talk at Google on Friday. Unfortunately, there wasn't time for audience questions so I sent her a letter asking for her opinion on metrication. … continue reading
February 25, 2007
Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.
CCE is a Coca-Cola subsidiary and does most of their bottling. … continue reading
Buying Imperial in an Imperial Country Isn't So Easy
Imperial is confusing even to those who like it. … continue reading
February 18, 2007
Air New Zealand
Even in fully metric countries, being supplied with something that defaults to customary measures leads to random instances of miles in an otherwise fully metric system. … continue reading
January 27, 2007
Food Marketing Institute
Let's get onto the FMI. As consumers, maybe we can convince them that we want metric. … continue reading
January 15, 2007
NASA to Enforce Metric Requirements
NASA to use metric exclusively for the moon (in other words, actually enforcing their current policy). … continue reading
January 14, 2007
Whole Foods Markets
Whole Foods, the market many of us love for their organic products and high quality company values. It's time to encourage them to change from minimally metric to mostly metric. … continue reading
January 04, 2007
Farewell to President Ford
Farewell to President Ford. He was responsible for signing the Metric Conversion Act of 1975. … continue reading
December 27, 2006
December 25, 2006
Site Launch
Welcome to our new metrication site! … continue reading
December 24, 2006
Coca Cola
For the most part, Coke is a metric only company.
Unfortunately, there are still a few sizes left in the USA where it's not using exclusively metric. Let's encourage them to divest themselves of those last few customary unit sized bottles. Don't forget to thank them for the sizes they've already got in metric.
February 07, 2005
Wiki Launch
This is the first news of this Wiki installation. If you want to know what is going on in the XWiki world, don't forget to read the XWiki Blog. … continue reading
on 2007-04-14 at 05:54
