Why not? That's exactly why we haven't converted. It's been put off. Be brave! Make the jump! It's not so scary.
AAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
And yes, Maisky, Wonderful Sister A has the ability to choose her age. But it gets real annoying when she wants to be 12 and I have to put the training wheels back on my bike so I'm still her litte sister.
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Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too. - Frederick Buechner
If society prospers at the expense of the intangibles, how can it be called progress?
And yes, Maisky, Wonderful Sister A has the ability to choose her age. But it gets real annoying when she wants to be 12 and I have to put the training wheels back on my bike so I'm still her litte sister.
Really, I don't care if we switch, it will just make me nostalgic.
But if we do, I want it to be all the way. Learn it once and be done. No converting. Having some things measured or sold one way and other things another.
Group: Celtic Nation
Posts: 911
Joined: 18-Nov-2003 Zodiac: Oak
Training wheels are an impediment that just get in the way of any real leaening. IMHO, we've all been using enough of the metric system long enough that completing the job would be less burdensome than having to constantly decide which system to use in a particular situation, which is where we are now.
Elspeth and MMD, I agree with both of you. Just cut the cord and move forward. A great example of why we should is the failure of the Mars Polar Lander mission a couple of years ago. NASA uses metric measurement and calculations. The contracter that built and ran the mission used US. The calculations for the landing were done in US and not converted to metric, so the parachute being used for the landing was released too early, causing the probe to crash. Stupid. Hundreds of millions of dollars down the toilet. A pile of twisted scrap metal on the surface of Mars.
The world would be much less confusing if we would just switch.
The UK shilly-shallied about metric for 25 years! I have never really 'converted' - although I do convert 'new' recipes to old imperial measures! My family, however, cannot work in feet and inches or pounds and ounces... They say 'Oh mum, we don't do old-fashioned measurements' - and I have always replied 'and I don't do 'foreign'!!!.
However, for about a year shops have stopped offering dual pricings for weights - but I still ask for 'a pound' of something - the staff in the deli and supermarkets know exactly how to convert my request into kilos and grammes!
Lord Snocknoggle is correct. NASA looked REALLY bad when they blew several million dollars on a conversion mistake. I don't know how difficult it would be to switch, but just dont mess with the Pint measure, unless your going to increase it...yum...
Eamon
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"I care not whether I die tomorrow or next year, if only my deeds live after me." -Cuchullain
Lord Snocknoggle is correct. NASA looked REALLY bad when they blew several million dollars on a conversion mistake. I don't know how difficult it would be to switch, but just dont mess with the Pint measure, unless your going to increase it...yum...
The UK shilly-shallied about metric for 25 years! I have never really 'converted' - although I do convert 'new' recipes to old imperial measures! My family, however, cannot work in feet and inches or pounds and ounces... They say 'Oh mum, we don't do old-fashioned measurements' - and I have always replied 'and I don't do 'foreign'!!!.
However, for about a year shops have stopped offering dual pricings for weights - but I still ask for 'a pound' of something - the staff in the deli and supermarkets know exactly how to convert my request into kilos and grammes!
Yeah, I still go by lbs, as far as body weight goes. The same for everyone I know. No one I know says, 'I'm so many kilos'.
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Caw
"I am a Canadian by birth, but I am a Highlander by blood and feel under an obligation to do all I can for the sake of the Highlanders and their literature.... I have never yet spoken a word of English to any of my children. They can speak as much English as they like to others, but when they talk to me they have to talk in Gaelic."
-Alexander Maclean Sinclair of Goshen (protector of Gaelic Culture)
My children's generation weigh themselves in Kilos - downright unpatriotic to the UK is what I call it!
Luckily, I never got to grips with the American habit of weighing people in pounds - it seemed SUCH a huge amount - i mean 8 stone 6 lb is my weight - by the time I do 8 x 14 + 9..... - I'm even beginning to believe it is easier to use kilos!