I have been trying to switch to metric for patterning, but I am finding it impossible. The math is so much easier for most things, but I know so instinctively how big an inch is that I can't do it!

UGH - there's a 9/11 truther posting in my local parenting listserv. (Someone asked if there were any "talk to your kids about 9/11" resources in our neighborhood and now the list is FULL OF CONSPIRACY NUT SPAM. GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!!)

Ugh is right--I have no idea how to deal with those people.

I was just reading an article about 9/11 conspiracy folks. Some people believe the World Trade Center was not hit by planes--those were holograms.

Damn, the government has some excellent hologram technology....

Anyway, I stopped reading at that point.

I actually like many complex conspiracy theories (JFK assassination being one), but Beau told me his uncle (now deceased) believed that the moon landing was staged.

It was not until adulthood I even knew that people believed this and I thought it was a small segment of the population! I cannot even fathom that the landing was staged. Truly.

As I cannot even fathom there were no planes crashing into buildings. I mean WTF?

Trying very hard to resist replying to this tweet:

Holy Hell. The new Tim Horton's Maple Cinnamon French Toast Bagel is my new favorite vice

with "Just eat a muffin, whitey!!!"

The problem is that I learned metric and imperial in school, but I don't have a frame of reference for imperial. Cookbooks aren't written in metric, my car does not display metric, I don't think in metric (although I used to for temperature, not anymore). It would be almost like learning a new language. I would have to mentally convert all the time.

It's easier than a new language, but yes, there'd be some mental discombobulation until you got used to it. I was born the year before Australia started the process of metric conversion. (There's a wikipedia entry about it here: [link] ) I drive in kph, fill the car in litres, ran the 100 metres at school athletics (or more precisely tried to get out of running the 100 metres at school athletics, and once hit myself in the back of the head with a javelin) and I measure out all my recipes in grams ans millilitres, then cook them in Celsius. However, I still think of my own height in feet and inches, and my own weight in stones and pounds. Ryan's weight is metric (15 kilos! Thanks for asking!), as is his height. I've learned a dirty metrication.

There's a lot of effort in metricating a country. I find it fun being in a transitional generation. At this stage, I doubt the US will do it until there's a commercial imperative (i.e. until you lose your dominant position in the global economy). It'll be messier than ours, but you'll get through it. (With the occasional loss of kilometre-based speed limit signs to armed, drunken Texans.)

In conclusion, some countries have switched over the side of the road on which they drive. Now that's hard-core.

with "Just eat a muffin, whitey!!!"

Dooooo eeeeeeet.

I am mostly metric, but sort of a hybrid. We still use pounds for weighing people, but ask me to measure out a few ounces of butter and I'm completely lost. But I use cups and teaspoons measures all the time. I no longer have any concept of how long a mile is, but I know the dimensions of my house in feet and inches. It makes sense to me that 0C is cold, but when you get into the 30C range, I want to convert to Fahrenheit...it just sounds hotter to be 90F.

ETA: What Billytea said.

Interesting - if Scientology goes bankrupt in Australia does it effect it elsewhere?

It makes sense to me that 0C is cold, but when you get into the 30C range, I want to convert to Fahrenheit...it just sounds hotter to be 90F.

Oh yeah, they should totally ease into Celsius by making summer F and winter C. "It's fifteen below!"/"It's a hundred degrees!"

I was a science major in school so metric seems pretty natural. I think the problem in the U.S. is that having easily convertible units will turn us into a socialist state.