[USMA:54257] Donating Blood
Let me tell you about my experiences in trying to donate blood in Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin. I used to donate quite regularly when I lived in Chicago, but it was always a hassle. I went to Lifesource in Chicago every few months and pretty much had the same experience each time. They would ask me how tall I was and I would say 1.68 meters. This of course led to confusion, because they never knew what to type in on their computers. I never helped, figuring that if they wanted my blood they would be willing to use the Metric System. Then they wanted to know my mass, and I told them 95 kilograms. Once again confusion, and running around the office took place by staff to find a conversion they could type into their computer. When they took my temperature, I said, Good, a healthy 37 degrees. Well, of course this happened every time I went to donate blood so I got kind of tired of having to go through this every time I wanted to donate. I even switched to the red blood cell donation program so I only needed to go once every 16 weeks instead of every 8 weeks. But when I moved out of Chicago I pretty much decided it wasn't worth the hassle to donate if I had to argue about the Metric System every time I wanted to donate blood. But last week I decided to try it at the Red Cross in Madison, Wisconsin. Figuring Madison is one of those progressive cities, but once again a miserable experience. Giving blood to me is painless, but the difficult part is going through the data entry phase. This time they wanted to know my height, which I gave them in SI units. The really odd part is the intake nurse had my driver's license right in front of her, and it had my height and weight in obsolete units typed right on the top of the license. But evidently this was too difficult for her, so she had to walk around the office and find someone who had a computer that could give her my height in inches and feet. We went through the same thing with my mass (which she called weight) Then after threatening to not let me donate unless I could tell her how heavy I am in pounds, she finally gave up and went out and got a conversion from kilograms to pounds. I think by the time we got to my temperature she stopped saying anything out loud, knowing I would only give her my data in SI units. I did donate over 500 mL of blood. About 473 mL in what they called a unit but they also took several also vials of about 5 mL each for various types of testing. I did write the general office of the Red Cross in Washington asking them where could donate blood using SI metric units so I wouldn't have to go through this hassle every time I tried to donate. He said there was a federal regulation. What federal regulation? Mark Henschel
[USMA:54258] Re: Donating Blood
I had a similar but different experience at the Oregon Depeartment of Motor Vehicles last winter when I renewed my Oregon Driver License. I had told the guy that I am 181 cm tall and I gave him my weight in kilograms. The Motor Vehicles Depeartment tends to hire some bilingual workers in Salem offices because of the relatively high Hispanic population. I suspect this particular Motor Vehicles employee is from Mexico, and thus familiar with SI units. He made a rough mental calculation and put six feet and two hundred pounds on my Oregon Driver License. I lost a little weight since then; I weigh about 88 kg now. I know some of you insist that weight and mass are different, but the word Weight is right there on my Oregon Driver License, and most Americans use the words mass and weight interchangeably, so in effect, weight and mass mean the same thing to most Americans. (Please don't yell at me for that. I already understand the argument.) My 183 cm tall, eighteen-year-old son Shmuel (Sam) on the other hand, has an erroneous height on his Oregon Driver License, which says he is 6'10 which is completely wrong; he is probably 6'1 (if you measure him while he wears shoes) so someone (probably a gringa) was so measurement challenged that he or she did not notice a difference between 1 and 10. (I was not there when my son got his Oregon Driver License renewed, so I am making some presumptions about how the error happened.) - Message from Mark Henschel mwhensch...@gmail.com - Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2014 10:51:47 -0500 From: Mark Henschel mwhensch...@gmail.com Reply-To: mwhensch...@gmail.com Subject: [USMA:54257] Donating Blood To: U.S. Metric Association usma@colostate.edu Cc: Mark Henschel mwhensch...@gmail.com Let me tell you about my experiences in trying to donate blood in Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin. I used to donate quite regularly when I lived in Chicago, but it was always a hassle. I went to Lifesource in Chicago every few months and pretty much had the same experience each time. They would ask me how tall I was and I would say 1.68 meters. This of course led to confusion, because they never knew what to type in on their computers. I never helped, figuring that if they wanted my blood they would be willing to use the Metric System. Then they wanted to know my mass, and I told them 95 kilograms. Once again confusion, and running around the office took place by staff to find a conversion they could type into their computer. When they took my temperature, I said, Good, a healthy 37 degrees. Well, of course this happened every time I went to donate blood so I got kind of tired of having to go through this every time I wanted to donate. I even switched to the red blood cell donation program so I only needed to go once every 16 weeks instead of every 8 weeks. But when I moved out of Chicago I pretty much decided it wasn't worth the hassle to donate if I had to argue about the Metric System every time I wanted to donate blood. But last week I decided to try it at the Red Cross in Madison, Wisconsin. Figuring Madison is one of those progressive cities, but once again a miserable experience. Giving blood to me is painless, but the difficult part is going through the data entry phase. This time they wanted to know my height, which I gave them in SI units. The really odd part is the intake nurse had my driver's license right in front of her, and it had my height and weight in obsolete units typed right on the top of the license. But evidently this was too difficult for her, so she had to walk around the office and find someone who had a computer that could give her my height in inches and feet. We went through the same thing with my mass (which she called weight) Then after threatening to not let me donate unless I could tell her how heavy I am in pounds, she finally gave up and went out and got a conversion from kilograms to pounds. I think by the time we got to my temperature she stopped saying anything out loud, knowing I would only give her my data in SI units. I did donate over 500 mL of blood. About 473 mL in what they called a unit but they also took several also vials of about 5 mL each for various types of testing. I did write the general office of the Red Cross in Washington asking them where could donate blood using SI metric units so I wouldn't have to go through this hassle every time I tried to donate. He said there was a federal regulation. What federal regulation? Mark Henschel - End message from Mark Henschel mwhensch...@gmail.com - David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
[USMA:54259] Re: Donating Blood
Mark – your BMI works out to 33.7, which is VERY high! I am 1.71 m (down from 1.76 m 40 years ago) and 65 kg, for a BMI of 22.2, which I believe is in the sort of range a BMI should be. John F-L From: Mark Henschel Sent: Monday, August 04, 2014 4:51 PM To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: Mark Henschel Subject: [USMA:54257] Donating Blood Let me tell you about my experiences in trying to donate blood in Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin. I used to donate quite regularly when I lived in Chicago, but it was always a hassle. I went to Lifesource in Chicago every few months and pretty much had the same experience each time. They would ask me how tall I was and I would say 1.68 meters. This of course led to confusion, because they never knew what to type in on their computers. I never helped, figuring that if they wanted my blood they would be willing to use the Metric System. Then they wanted to know my mass, and I told them 95 kilograms. Once again confusion, and running around the office took place by staff to find a conversion they could type into their computer. When they took my temperature, I said, Good, a healthy 37 degrees. Well, of course this happened every time I went to donate blood so I got kind of tired of having to go through this every time I wanted to donate. I even switched to the red blood cell donation program so I only needed to go once every 16 weeks instead of every 8 weeks. But when I moved out of Chicago I pretty much decided it wasn't worth the hassle to donate if I had to argue about the Metric System every time I wanted to donate blood. But last week I decided to try it at the Red Cross in Madison, Wisconsin. Figuring Madison is one of those progressive cities, but once again a miserable experience. Giving blood to me is painless, but the difficult part is going through the data entry phase. This time they wanted to know my height, which I gave them in SI units. The really odd part is the intake nurse had my driver's license right in front of her, and it had my height and weight in obsolete units typed right on the top of the license. But evidently this was too difficult for her, so she had to walk around the office and find someone who had a computer that could give her my height in inches and feet. We went through the same thing with my mass (which she called weight) Then after threatening to not let me donate unless I could tell her how heavy I am in pounds, she finally gave up and went out and got a conversion from kilograms to pounds. I think by the time we got to my temperature she stopped saying anything out loud, knowing I would only give her my data in SI units. I did donate over 500 mL of blood. About 473 mL in what they called a unit but they also took several also vials of about 5 mL each for various types of testing. I did write the general office of the Red Cross in Washington asking them where could donate blood using SI metric units so I wouldn't have to go through this hassle every time I tried to donate. He said there was a federal regulation. What federal regulation? Mark Henschel No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2014.0.4744 / Virus Database: 3986/7977 - Release Date: 08/04/14
[USMA:54260] RE: Site Down
Thanks for letting us know, David. This is a problem with the host computer and will be resolved in time. No estimate has been given by those in charge. Don USMA Webmaster and list owner From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of cont...@metricpioneer.com Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2014 19:21 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:54256] Site Down I just noticed that metric.org is down right now. I hope it comes back up soon. David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.comhttp://www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
[USMA:54261] Scientific American article.
You can always count on metric in Scientific American, right? http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-earth-s-life-unique-in-the-universe/?nocache=1#postcomment So wrong. Not only is the article illustration ridiculous, so is the measurement in the article.
[USMA:54262] FPLA and UPLR Inspectors
I am trying to learn more about the FPLA and UPLR Inspectors; the Federal, State, and local (city) officials who have the authority to take products (packages) off sale if they do not meet the requirrements stated in NIST Handbooks 44, 130, and 133. Is there a database (registry) of Inspectors? (name and office address or other contact information)? Is each, a federal, state, or local employee? Is the employer a federal, State, or local authority? e.g. USDA, FDA, ATF, EPA, County __, City of ___? What NIST Training Course(s) has each Inspector passed? Is the Inspector elected or appointed? Is the Inspector a voting member of the NCWM? What NCWM committees has each Inspector served on and when? etc. All this is public information, and I shall be surproised if it is not available somwhere from NIST, from the NCWM, or from State or local records. Eugene Mechtly
[USMA:54263] Re: FPLA and UPLR Inspectors
Gene, I imagine that most of the inspectors are all state-level employees. I interacted with the Tennessee office controlling labels, weights, and measures several years ago. I found that I could indeed sell produce at farmers' markets solely in metric units, should I choose to do so. My scale, if I used one, required certification and that, too, could be done in metric units. Unfortunately, selling fresh eggs or produced food products requires a certified kitchen and training and a certification examination for the operator. It's just too darned expensive to do here just for fun. Why don't you call your state's office of weights and measures. Your Illinois Secretary of State could tell you what that office is called in Illinois and where it fits in the state government hierarchy. Jim -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stoney Point Mountain Road Doyle TN 38559-3030 (C) 931.212.0267 (H) 931.657.3107 (F) 931.657.3108 On 2014-08-04 19:36, mechtly, eugene a wrote: I am trying to learn more about the FPLA and UPLR Inspectors; the Federal, State, and local (city) officials who have the authority to take products (packages) off sale if they do not meet the requirrements stated in NIST Handbooks 44, 130, and 133. Is there a database (registry) of Inspectors? (name and office address or other contact information)? Is each, a federal, state, or local employee? Is the employer a federal, State, or local authority? e.g. USDA, FDA, ATF, EPA, County __, City of ___? What NIST Training Course(s) has each Inspector passed? Is the Inspector elected or appointed? Is the Inspector a voting member of the NCWM? What NCWM committees has each Inspector served on and when? etc. All this is public information, and I shall be surproised if it is not available somwhere from NIST, from the NCWM, or from State or local records. Eugene Mechtly
[USMA:54264] RE: FPLA and UPLR Inspectors
Jim (Frysinger), Thanks for your comments on your personsal experiences with markeding regulators. It is good that farmers are allowed to sell at least some of their *fresh products*, labeled only in SI Units. As with eggs, I assume that private sales of meat and poultry are more tightly regulated for public health reasons, whatever the units of masurement used on their labels.. Recently, here in Illinois, regulation of baked goods has been relaxed. Certified kitchens are no longer required. Farmers' Markets are loaded with unregulated baked goods. Gene From: James [j...@metricmethods.com] Sent: Monday, August 04, 2014 8:35 PM To: mechtly, eugene a; U.S. Metric Association Cc: carol.hock...@nist.gov; kenneth.butc...@nist.gov Subject: Re: [USMA:54262] FPLA and UPLR Inspectors Gene, I imagine that most of the inspectors are all state-level employees. I interacted with the Tennessee office controlling labels, weights, and measures several years ago. I found that I could indeed sell produce at farmers' markets solely in metric units, should I choose to do so. My scale, if I used one, required certification and that, too, could be done in metric units. Unfortunately, selling fresh eggs or produced food products requires a certified kitchen and training and a certification examination for the operator. It's just too darned expensive to do here just for fun. Why don't you call your state's office of weights and measures. Your Illinois Secretary of State could tell you what that office is called in Illinois and where it fits in the state government hierarchy. Jim -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stoney Point Mountain Road Doyle TN 38559-3030 (C) 931.212.0267 (H) 931.657.3107 (F) 931.657.3108 On 2014-08-04 19:36, mechtly, eugene a wrote: I am trying to learn more about the FPLA and UPLR Inspectors; the Federal, State, and local (city) officials who have the authority to take products (packages) off sale if they do not meet the requirrements stated in NIST Handbooks 44, 130, and 133. Is there a database (registry) of Inspectors? (name and office address or other contact information)? Is each, a federal, state, or local employee? Is the employer a federal, State, or local authority? e.g. USDA, FDA, ATF, EPA, County __, City of ___? What NIST Training Course(s) has each Inspector passed? Is the Inspector elected or appointed? Is the Inspector a voting member of the NCWM? What NCWM committees has each Inspector served on and when? etc. All this is public information, and I shall be surproised if it is not available somwhere from NIST, from the NCWM, or from State or local records. Eugene Mechtly
