[Leica] Was Today is 8/9/10 Now Metric

[gregj_lorenzo at hotmail.com (Greg Lorenzo)]

Today is actually: 2010/08/09. Perfectly clear and you can't be out by 1000 
years, 2000 years, etc.
 
Greg Lorenzo
Calgary, Canada
 
> Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2010 11:59:08 -0400
> From: shino at panix.com
> To: lug at leica-users.org
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Was Today is 8/9/10 Now Metric
> 
> i was in jr high school when ford and carter were presidents and were 
> pushing this "ferrin" stuff. from all the educational materials, i 
> still recall that 1 inch is 25.4 mm. and 1 lb is 454 grams.
> 
> my knowledge of physical facts is largely imperial. the sun is about 93 
> million miles away, the moon about a quarter of a million miles away. 
> the speed of sound is something like 750 mph and the earth is about 
> 8,000 miles in diameter. the speed of light is about 86,000 miles per 
> second. my first corvette had 460 ft-lbs of torque, my current one 365 
> ft-lb.
> 
> but a falling object falls at 9.8 meters / sec^2. and the 35mm frame is 
> 36mm x 24mm.
> 
> so i'm getting there.
> 
> -rei
> 
> 
> On 08/09/2010 11:39 AM, Aram Langhans wrote:
> > Ah, to be metric. I sure remember the ill-fated attempt in this 
> > country to "Go Metric". I had just started teaching in this little 
> > town in Washington, Odessa. I was teaching 6-8th grade science. The 
> > law gave all kinds of money and materials to schools to teach the kids 
> > metric. The school looked around at the staff and classes they had 
> > and asked, "Hmm. Who should we give this task to. I know. Science 
> > teachers. They use metric anyway." So the task was mine. But they 
> > also looked at all the materials that were send and saw that there was 
> > a "lot" of math involved, so the said the math teachers could assist 
> > the science teachers. Let the fun begin. The materials, or at least 
> > the ones that I got, were all conversion based. Lets teach our kids 
> > how to convert from the English system to the Metric (or should I say 
> > SI) system. I looked at that and said, forget that. They will never 
> > learn it that way. So, the math teacher and I devised an immersion 
> > curriculum. For 15 minutes each day (at the start. It expanded as 
> > time went on), we started talking in just "metric". We would hold up 
> > objects and ask what length, volume, mass, etc. they were. Just 
> > "Think Metric". We went on metric field trips around town, walking 
> > about and asking how far that was, sizes, masses, etc. The kids were 
> > really learning the metric system. Of course, after they left our 
> > classes, they were back in the English world again. It didn't take 
> > many years and the school district said stop. Too bad. I felt we 
> > were really making progress and the students were bilingual in 
> > measurement.
> > This country has always been afraid of change. From things as benign 
> > as metric to civil rights. If I remember correctly, when Canada 
> > changed, they just said this is the way it will be and did not teach 
> > how to convert. As Nike says, Just Do It. Change all the signs, order 
> > forms, product labels, etc. Just Do It. Mass confusion for a bit, 
> > but if you have to, you will. Of course, any politician who votes for 
> > something like that would not be reelected.
> > So, as a scientist and science teacher, I just plug along an in my 
> > class, we Just Do It until it is second nature.
> >
> > Aram
> >
> > Aram Langhans
> > Semi-retired (retarded?) Science Teacher
> > & Unemployed photographer
> >
> > "The Human Genome Project has proved Darwin more right than Darwin 
> > himself would ever have dared dream." James D. Watson
> >
> >> Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:07:57 -0400
> >> From: Rei Shinozuka <shino at panix.com>
> >> Subject: Re: [Leica] Today is 8/9/10
> >> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> >> Message-ID: <4C5FEF9D.40406 at panix.com>
> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> >>
> >> On 08/09/2010 03:34 AM, Jeff Moore wrote:
> >>> While I don't want the world to be boringly culturally homogeneous,
> >>> there are some things we should all just get with the program on:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> - Use the metric system, dammit.
> >>>
> >>>
> >> Metric? We might as well dissolve the NFL and watch guys in shorts
> >> maneuvering black and white Archimedean Buckyballs using only their 
> >> feet.
> >>
> >> :-)
> >>
> >> But any American born in the 1960s should remember this:
> >>
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metric_Marvels
> >>
> >> The article closes:
> >>
> >> "Ultimately, /The Metric Marvels/ failed to convince Americans to
> >> convert to the metric system. ... Americans largely ignored governmental
> >> attempts to push them in the direction of metrication, and the USMB [
> >> (U.S. Metric Board <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Metric_Board>) ]
> >> was eventually disbanded in 1982 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982>."
> >>
> >> -rei
> >> (the ugly american, whose favorite lens is the 1.97 inch noctilux)
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
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> 
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