Let's Go Metric Now!
Does the expense of maintaining two sets of all your measuring devices get to you?Do you get frustrated when you have to do conversions?
Wonder why we use different measuring systems or names with different values depending on what you're measuring?
Is your business suffering because you build using a measurement system the rest of the world has discarded?
Ever had a project set back because one person used a measuring system different from everyone else?
Customary measures (also called imperial or English measures) are an expensive drain on our economy and inhibit trade and information flow between us and the rest of the world (and often internally within our borders as well). It's time to finally rid ourselves of these out dated measures and finish going metric and the best way to do that is together. It's a job that's been started several times, now it's time to finish it! By talking to local influential companies and our local, state and federal representatives (and sharing the feedback here), we can help to convince our politicians that we really need to complete metrication rather than letting it weigh down the next few generations. Got something to say about your metrication efforts? Join us and post about it.
Blog 
July 21, 2010
Gas Metering
Ever really looked at your Gas bill? Chances are that it shows you your usage in Therms.
Now, what percentage of the population know what a Therm is let alone its relation to other measurements of energy you might otherwise come across?
I bet you don't and if you do a quick poll of those around you, you'll find none of them do either.
For the average householder, the most common energy … continue reading
June 22, 2010
Metric Cooking On Oprah
Ever wanted to see a metric cooking segment on Oprah?
Well, here's your chance.
Oprah is holding a competition for a segment on her show and Sally Mitchell wants to run a metric cooking segment.
Want to help make this a reality?
Here's … continue reading
June 02, 2010
National Geographic Feedback
A letter written to the National Geographic News editors:
In reference to the article at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070226-sinkhole-photo.html:
Since Guatemala, along with all but a very small minority of countries in the … continue reading
April 02, 2010
Common Educational Standards
The Common Core Standards Group is soliciting feedback on their draft mathematical standards.
If you haven't already, please take a moment to read the standards and continue reading
December 11, 2009
NPR Feedback
A letter to NPR on the Sarkozy carbon tax story:
While listening to Sarkozy Wants To Tax France's Carbon Footprint I noticed that the figure 24 cents per gallon was quoted. Given that no European country uses gallons for fuel (let alone US gallons which are different from UK gallons), I checked to see what people who weren't converting the figure were … continue reading
November 16, 2009
Applications for Monitoring Health
I've been trying to lose weight over the last few months and as such have had reason to review several tools for tracking diet and exercise on the iPhone. The first one I took a look at (because it is free) was Lose It. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the first screen as it's all US Customary units (no option for metric at all and lots of complaints in the feedback that seem to … continue reading
October 10, 2009
Metric Day
It's Metric Day. Please take a few minutes today to mail your senators and congress folk requesting they use metric exclusively when writing laws.
The best form for this is a story telling them of some way you've been ripped off or severely inconvenienced by customary measurements or our mixed use of systems.
Sally Mitchell gave a continue reading
August 22, 2009
Health Care Reform
Q: How is health care reform like metrication?
A: We're still stuck in the dark ages while the rest of the world has moved on to better, cheaper, ways of doing things. Extended Answer:
Moving to state run health care similar to the UKs continue reading
A: We're still stuck in the dark ages while the rest of the world has moved on to better, cheaper, ways of doing things. Extended Answer:
Moving to state run health care similar to the UKs continue reading
July 13, 2009
Bay Area Meeting
The first SF Bay Area USMA meeting will be held at Genentech on July 16 at 16:00 Pacific thanks to James Scott Hudnall
This aims to be a bi-weekly meeting of those interested in … continue reading
June 19, 2009
Open Government
The Obama administration has an open government dialogue initiative. This is currently being run via Idea Scale.
The site is taking submissions until the end of today. Here are the current metric submissions:
Campaigns
The Campaigns area is for sharing information to help run targeted campaigns. If you're running a campaign, check here for tools and processes you can use to make it easier. Or, if you develop tools or processes, post them here so others can make use of them.Current Campaigns
Change
This campaign focuses on making ourselves heard in the various change related sites and with the incoming Obama administration.
Community
The best way to actually achieve metrication is through community groups and outreach. This is the place to go if you're interested in starting or joining a local group.
Medicine
Medical mistakes due to multiple measurement mistakes are common and completely unnecessary (not to mention potentially fatal).
Education
Our students already have enough to deal with without forcing them to struggle with an outdated and complex measurement system.
Labeling and Packaging
Sick of having to deal with (or produce) long, convoluted and often incorrectly converted measurement specifications for labels such as "4 L, 1.06 gallons (135 fl. oz.)"? Let's get congress to help clean up this mess.