Dear Jim and All,
You are right that the metric conversion in Australia was done efficiently
(with some small exceptions that are still haunting us) but it is not true
that we had an 'M-day'.
The truth is that there were quite a few M-days � at least one for each
industry. Here are some examples:
An M-day was decided by the meteorologists and from that day Celsius
temperatures were no longer converted to Fahrenheit.
Road signs were installed, covered with fabric, and then revealed on the
M-day for roads.
The motor industry had many M-days as each model was made solely metric.
In short, any industry, any company, or any individual can have an M-day
whenever they want one.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
CAMS - Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist
- United States Metric Association
ASM - Accredited Speaking Member
- National Speakers Association of Australia
Member, International Federation for Professional Speakers
--
on 2002/03/05 16.10, James Frysinger at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> My last spiel (for tonight, anyway):
>
> My friend, you have hit the nail on the head. I admire the way you home in on
> the main point.
>
> My personal view is that the government is costing us money in the long run
> by not taking firm, positive action. Some of my friends prefer the approach
> of letting things take their natural course, but I view that as being about
> as tasteful as getting a flu shot or vaccination by having the needle moved
> inward at 1 mm per minute.
>
> Dang it, let's just take that shot and get it over with. Let's set a
> deadline, an "M-Day", and make it happen -- far enough off to prepare, but
> close enough that our politicians can't chicken out and cancel things like
> they did in the 70s.
>
> That's the way that Australia metricated and it was virtually painless. The
> Australian government convened all the responsible industry groups and told
> them to get their industries ready. The government prepared the people. Then
> it happened. Done.
>
> That's the way Britain shifted to decimal currency in the 70s. That's the way
> that we recently shifted to decimal stock market operations (though this was
> not so government intensive). That's the way the European Union shifted to
> the euro. Two months overlap were alloted but within 2 weeks 95% of all
> transactions were done in euros! The French gave up their beloved Franc, the
> German their marks, and the Greeks gave up their 2000 year old drachmas!
>
> Nowadays, everyone's pussyfooting around. The government is afraid the
> citizens are going to throw their 2 L Coke bottles at them while chanting "We
> don't understand metric units!" The agencies that could do more for metric
> awareness (the various math and science teachers organizations, the NSF,
> NASA, Dept. of Education) are afraid to stick their heads out. And everyone's
> waiting for the government to say "go".
>
> Who's in charge of running our country and keeping our economic situtation
> hopeful? If this administration were truly serious about doing something to
> help American goods sell abroad, it would have something before Congress to
> set an M-Day before the next presidential election. And if Americans realized
> what was going on (or not!), if they realized how this dual-unit system is
> hurting their children's education, they would be writing to their
> congressional representatives demanding action.
>
> For what it's worth, that's my opinion. In the meantime, I teach the metric
> system in addition to physics and astronomy. I encourage responsible agencies
> to teach the metric system. I also encourage NASA to teach the metric system
> as well as they teach astronomy and space science. Their artificial
> "translation" of metric information to feet and pounds while blaming it on
> the American public's knowledge is an insult to us all. If they can't explain
> and use meters, they can't explain and talk about meteors.
