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Further to my previous post here, on
2004.10.02, I also sent an email letter to the Say G’day feedback section
of the Australian leg of The How To Channel. www.howtochannel.com.au Below is the response that I received today; Dear Brenton, Thanks for your keen interest in the
channel. We understand the difficulties caused by the American shows
using imperial system, but being a relatively new channel we are still
developing our line-up. Some of our viewers have a keen interest in the
way other nationalities complete their home projects and the technologies they
use, hence we have shows from There are couple of things to watch out
for in the next few months. We are looking at developing a show for our
resident Aussie chippie Darren. You might have seen him doing his
building tips on "Do It With Dazzler". Also we have a
new show "The Great British Woodshop" starting in December, Thursday
nights at 9:30pm. Thanks again for taking the time out to
Say G'day, and stay tuned to the channel as we bring you more localised
production. Cheers The How To Channel From:
Brenton [mailto: My post questioning US Standard and Metric
has appeared on the message board on www.diynet.com
under the category http://boards.diynetwork.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=8271906766&f=6221916776&m=337107283 From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brenton I found this post on the www.diynetwork.com. Below, I have
cut and pasted the main points of the metric aspect of that discussion. It appeared as though the user ‘Mack’ did not
oppose metric, but rather the user ‘joecaption’. To view the actual thread, click on
the following link: Mack
posted 10/07/2004 07:55 Lay #15 base felt to be
secured using 25mm simplex fasteners The price sounds fine but
I would suggest 30 lb instead of 15 lb felt. 15 lb is for flooring not
roofing. Also why is he quoting metric dimensions instead of English? Mack posted 10/07/2004 12:23 The roofer sounded either
like he was from Rather then reply to that post written on 10 July 2004, I
decided to post my own Australian letter on 03 Oct 2004. However, upon clicking “submit,” an automated
response returned that informed me that my post contained certain words that
have triggered moderation of the post. These words mostly cover political
and religious topics, which are TOTALLY off the topic covered by HGTV. I am now waiting to see if over the next few days for it to
appear, or whether it is deleted or edited at the moderator’s discretion. Below, in {brackets} is a copy of what I wrote. {I recently discovered this channel when I connected to
the new Digital Pay TV service here in However, I write with my frustration with the unit of measure that
appears is only still used in the Australia, along with other English speaking countries such as Canada,
United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand etc, have all each gone
to great expense to change to metric during the 1970’s. Non-English
speaking countries have used metric for much longer than 100 years. In the 1970's there was a major effort to increase the use of the
metric system in the Reference: http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/usmetric.html During my primary and secondary school education during the
1970’s & 80’s, we were solely taught metric in When I watch any My mother who is 25 years older than me,
says she was taught the inch/pound (imperial) system when she went to school in
the 1950’s. However, when she was employed in the home interior
decorating industry, from 1974 she says she was required to use metric with the
calculation of wallpaper drops, paint volume etc. She says she is very
comfortable working with metric, and even uses centimetres in her own
dressmaking. Whilst, my mother says she still prefers
to say her own height in feet/inches. She prefers not to work with units
which involve the manipulation of fractions of an inch etc. She informs
me, she is not proficient with fractions. That, using centimetres are
just so much easier as they are decimal based, like our $ currencies. She
said she would not want to return to working in inches. When I speak with adults who are in their
20’s (about half my age) who have only been taught metric here in I also discovered that when I am viewing
many US internet web sites, that they often provide a button that will provide
the unit of measure in “US Standard” or “Metric.” (Example: http://beef.allrecipes.com/az/mricnShphrdsPi.asp Customize this Recipe Convert to: U.S Standard / Metric) It appears that the Therefore, many of the From a search on Google, I discovered this article written back in 1995
by the United States Department of
Transportation - Federal Highway Administration. http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/summer95/p95su14.htm It appears that not much has progressed since this article was
written. However, some of the key points I noted were: 1) The 2) The 3) Most workmen's
tapes include metric as well as foot/inch. 4) Electronic equipment can do metric at the
push of a button or with very minor programming. 5) Americans are stubborn. 6) The
British are stubborn, too, but 7) If metric countries do not watch your channel because they do not want
to work with US Standard measurements, I believe these programmes may
ultimately be withdrawn from the channel line up. Which, I would be
disappointed if this was to occur. I am interested in the view of Americans. Why do they consider it
to be acceptable to be alone in a unit of measure? Are they concerned
about international trade?} I recently spoke with a 36 year old woman here in When the first book arrived, she discovered that all
dimensions were in feet/inches. She told me she wrote in the front of the
first introductory book some metric conversions. She said, she found it
so unfamiliar to work with, that she rang Time Life and cancelled the remainder
of the monthly book deliveries. She further said, she still has the first book at home, and
there is a book case she wants to make. However, she feels she will have
difficulty going to the hardware store and quoting timers in US Customary
measurements. So, the book has not been used. |
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