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NEWS > U.S.A. > UNITED STATES STILL WAITING FOR EVERYONE ELSE TO SWITCH FROM METRIC
UNITED STATES STILL WAITING FOR EVERYONE ELSE TO SWITCH FROM METRIC
March 15 2011
Washington, D.C. – For most people a mile is a mile, a kilogram is a kilogram, a foot is a foot but there was a time when measurements, no matter what system one used, were far more important than they are now. So-called ‘weights and measures’ helped 
the wealthy control the marketplace far more effectively than any one company is able to do today. Barons and royals alike used and abused the system to gain advantage over the people by manipulating prices through obscure and often labyrinthine units of measure.
Like many great revolutions, it was the French who decided that change needed to happen and set about making it happen. In 1670, French scientist Gabriel Mouton laid out the first concepts for a new standardized decimal-based system of measurement. That system eventually came to be known as the metric system, finally growing into the largely global standard ‘International System of Units’. Despite the largely ubiquitous nature of the system however not every country has adopted the decimal system, with many employing a hybrid system (the United Kingdom, Canada) and others flat out rejecting metric. Chief amongst those opponents has been the most influential nation, the United States which has now joined forces with its allies Burma and Liberia to finally solve the riddle of measurement and turn the rest of the world to their side.
“It’s very clear that these opposing standards cannot continue in our modern world. 
With international trade so important to the economies of so many countries, it is incumbent on us to adopt a single standard to not only keep revenues stable, but also to ensure the safety of everyone who might use these measurements,” said David Horowitz of the Weights and Measures council of the United States. “The best example of how things can go wrong using such different standards is the Mars Climate Orbiter which had two companies using two standards resulting in a cataclysmic crash. If one can imagine such a mistake happening with say a plane, or a school bus, we can start to understand how dangerous such differing standards can be. We are making it our stated goal to convert the rest of the world to Imperial units of measurement.”
Burma, or Myanmar, uses a local standard for measurement. Liberia, it is believed, just grabs handfuls of things and measures distance as over there or near the watering hole.
“These differing standards are confusing across all fields. Scientists have to convert in order to collaborate with their peers in other countries. Manufacturers need to print specialized labels on their product in order to accommodate these battling systems and it needs to stop,” continued Horowitz. “By converting the world to Imperial we will finally have a unifying standard that will allow freedom of trade and safety for our children and grandchildren. It is the obligation of all of us living today to convert the world to one standard, Imperial measurement.”
The representatives from Burma and Liberia did not speak English and had no translators available.
“The introduction of the metric system was one of the most revolutionary advances in history, possibly as revolutionary as something like democracy. It took the power from the oligarchs and monarchs and put it into the hands of the people. It was the triumph of science over the state. It was truly a landmark advance,” said Scrape TV Historical analyst Lars Luger. “But it has been a hard go spreading it throughout the world. Some countries have only converted in the last fifty years or so and obviously the big boy on the block still hasn’t changed and likely never will. That means, like it or not, that in order for everyone to get along we are all going to have to convert. Obviously if the United States uses this system it must have merit.”
In the United States, only the illegal drug industry uses metric as a standard.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
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