[WikiEN-l] Re: Announcing a policy proposal

Mon May 16 21:46:04 UTC 2005

>From: "Tony Sidaway" <minorityreport at bluebottle.com>
>Delirium said:
> >>
> > Miles are still used in both the United States and UK, which between
> > them count for a pretty large proportion of the English-speaking world.
>
>In the UK this is only for "folk" uses such as pints of beer and road
>signs.  I believe all scientific and engineering ventures switched to SI
>long ago, and nearly all commercial institutions (aforementioned pints of
>beer excluded, for instance) are required to use metric measure although
>they are also permitted to provide equivalent ounces, pounds, stones and
>whatnot.  They sell orange juice in liters, butter by the kilogram, cloth
>by the meter.  Liquor is sold in metric measure, so in a pub you get a
>pint of beer but a 35 ml measure of brandy, and a 200ml glass of wine.
>
>Road signs haven't switched because it would be very difficult and
>dangerous as well as politically explosive.

Difficult and dangerous?  As far as I know, in Canada that was one of the 
first things to be switched.

Jay.