To add insult to injury, when Mrs Thatcher became a life peer her coat of arms alluded to her scientific background. I know that she originally read Chemistry, but her really big "contribution" to science was poisoning the collective mind of the UK against the use of the universal language of science - the metric system.
_____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: 05 February 2011 23:40 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:49772] Quotation from Margaret Mead On 2011/02/06, at 08:53 , John M. Steele wrote: I don't know. Stan and I have both written complaint letters. Since we did not receive the courtesy of a reply, I have no clue what they are thinking. It was not the deciding factor, but it was a factor. I dropped my membership a few years ago. Their magazine (AEI, considers itself "above" the metric policy which prevails in their conferences. I don't know why. Dear John, I would look for a crusading editor. It may even be someone employed for their literary skills because the SAE Board of Directors considered that this was an ability that they lacked. I often saw this when I worked for CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) in Australia. When scientists perceived that they were not getting through to the public they sometimes employed a journalist. Often this was done without checking whether the journalist had any scientific background, or more importantly, was basically numerate. This set up some really strange tensions and the journalist often didn't last long in the job. I am reminded of a quotation from Margaret Mead that goes: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Sadly, the same is true in the inverse: It only takes a small group of thoughtless people -- and even sometimes a thoughtless individual -- to destroy the metric progress of many years. Classic examples are Margaret Thatcher with her campaign to "save the mile and the pint for Britain" in the UK, and Lyn Nofziger and Frank Mankiewicz in the USA with their campaign to defund the Metric Conversion Board. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032802 142.html Another example is from http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/2893/keeps-metric-system-down where Remek remarks (in 2006) about an individual at the Food Marketing Institute: The sad part is that Mankiewicz describes this as if it were a couple of high school students playing a prank on the principal. This type of childish behavior is still visible today with lobby groups like the Food Marketing Institute who kill any attempts at introducing metric at the retail level. They claim to be "happy" doing exactly that. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com <http://www.metricationmatters.com/> for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
