On Tue, 9 Apr 2002 18:10:42 Bill Potts wrote: >I'm not sure what the US equivalent of BIPM would be. > >NIST/Metric is part of the Department of Commerce and is thus, unlike BIPM, >not an international body... >The national standards body is, of course, ANSI, which has many many other >things on its plate than just SI... > Hmm... Perhaps the role of each of these bodies could be expanded/clarified to fit a future legislative effort to settle this. If this issue is not part of their agenda, Congress could select either one of them to fulfill that role.
>Doing things legislatively appears to be sensible on its face. However, to >accomplish anything, you have to get the attention of the legislators, whose >primary motivation (with some notable exceptions) is to get re-elected. Any >bill, in the House or the Senate, has to have a substantial number of >sponsors in order to stand a chance of even being considered, let alone >passed. > >Metrication is not an election-time issue... > But that's why I felt this idea could fly. If Congress treats this as just a normal scientific regulatory issue, without it necessarily meaning "metrication" there could be a good chance for this bill to pass! NIST or ANSI having significant authority over this could by virtue of its own regulatory action demand that the marketplace comply with potentially SI-only policies, especially for things like labeling/testing/certification!!! >If only Jimmy Carter had not sabotaged metrication (inadvertently), and if >only Ronald Reagan had not subdued it almost completely (deliberately), we >might not be having this discussion. > >(If you remember, Carter, in trying very naovely to be fair, appointed both >supporters and opponents of metrication to the commission that was supposed >to implement it. Reagan, in his turn, defunded the commission.) > Yeah... We all know why metrication efforts ended up flopping in the US. We did let a wonderful opportunity to get the job done properly slip away. But, again, we could focus on trying this approach this time and end up accomplishing the same goal! >We'll just have to keep chipping away, spreading the word and setting the >example. >... Unfortunately as I've indicated here earlier and through endless discussions with my dear friend Jim it seems clear to me that such piecemeal approaches ARE NOT yielding much fruitful results. Hence, my suggestion. Thanks for your insightful feedback, Bill. Please keep at it (debating it) if you want. Marcus Is your boss reading your email? ....Probably Keep your messages private by using Lycos Mail. Sign up today at http://mail.lycos.com
