Re: Americans: that clueless cretin you elected just killed the CVE program :-(

On 22/04/2025 15:54, Dan Cross wrote:

In article <vu845v$juoc$1@dont-email.me>,
Simon Clubley  <clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:

I really wish we would complete the process of moving to metric as well. :-(
We are currently in some half-way situation that feels like it is currently
static and unmoving.
>
For example, metres/kilometres are a hell of a lot nicer and easier
to work with than the miles/yards/feet stuff.
>
Direct personal experience here as OS maps have been metric for decades
and the standard hiking maps (1:25000) are easy to work with provided
you know how to read a map (which I do).

 I learned land navigation using metric units in the US Marines,
using the NATO grid system (not lat/long).  I agree that it is
better in all respects.  And certainly, for any sort of
scientific or engineering work, one should just use metric.
 That said, for intuitive distances and so forth, for example if
someone says to me, "how far is it from here to X" or "about how
much does this weigh?"  I find imperial units easier to think
about, but this is simply because I am used to them.
 Officially, the US is a metric country; we switched back in the
70s.  Of course, most working scientists and many engineers here
use it professionally.  But it's never been _implemented_ on a
large scale for day-to-day use, and I suspect if you tried now,
the MAGA crowd would throw another temper tantrum.  They're
still holding onto cursive for similar, antiquated reasons.

One of the suggested benefits of Brexit was that the UK could revert to imperial measure.  The UK government ran a consultation. The results were almost totally in favour of retaining Metric Measure...
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/choice-on-units-of-measurement-markings-and-sales/outcome/choice-on-units-of-measurement-consultation-response
or
https://tinyurl.com/3bpjjae9

  - Dan C.
 (I do think that Farenheit is frankly a better scale for human
temperatures: 0 is really cold, 100 is really hot, the
differences between degress are small enough that they're
meaningful without fractions.  Compare to Celsius, where at 0,
water is getting icy and 100 you're dead.)

Went on a trip across Canada. Interesting to see the Americans response to Celsius - total bafflement...
... I was also bemused by the bafflement of some USA passengers who did not know why the Holland America's flagship the Nieuw Amsterdam has a light representing the New York skyline.. Pic here -
https://www.tripadvisor.com.my/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g1-d15691662-i386593179-Nieuw_Amsterdam-World.html
or
https://tinyurl.com/2469rxu3
Dave