Once upon a time on usenet rickman wrote:
~misfit~ wrote on 9/7/2017 7:26 AM:
Once upon a time on usenet Tom Biasi wrote:
Here is a cut from a Wiki article of which seems to be my experience
also.
"The U.S. Metric Study recommended that the United States implement
a carefully planned transition to the principal use of the metric
system over a decade. Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of
1975 "to coordinate and plan the increasing use of the metric
system in the United States". Voluntary conversion was initiated,
and the United States Metric Board (USMB) was established for
planning, coordination, and public education. The public education
component led to public awareness of the metric system, but the
public response included resistance, apathy, and sometimes
ridicule."

"Voluntary conversion" is doomed to failure due to inertia so it's a
failure of the legislators not the public. It should have been made
compulsory as it was in most other countries which changed over.

This country can be pretty idiotic about "compulsory" issues. The
federal government has a regulation that children must wear life
vests in federally controlled waters. The State of Virginia has a
similar law, but it only applies to the waterways that are regulated
by the Coast Guard (federal laws). So the law is no additional
regulation, it simply allows the state authorities to enforce it.
Meanwhile it is perfectly legal in the state controlled waters to not
put a life vest on your children. Allegedly this is because the
legislators get tremendous push back when they pass laws that add new
regulations.
How fooking stupid is that?! *Everyone* should have to wear a life
vest any time they are in a boat underway. Just this past July 4th
weekend someone died when he fell overboard while not wearing a life
vest. They do nothing for you if you don't wear them. Cutting a
tree down with your six year old next to you would be considered
child endangerment even though there is no specific law against it. By the
same reasoning allowing children to ride in a boat without a
life vest should be child endangerment regardless of the law. But we
legislate according to the push back from fears of "over regulation".

Very fooking stupid. Are seat belts compulsory yet? It seems an odd mix.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)