Archive for the ‘General’ Category

A juicy story

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

A slogan appearing on the label of a bottle of apple juice leaves some of us guessing about its intended message. (more…)

Measuring, trading and manufacturing

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

Two questions from a reader have prompted thoughts about the impact on UK trade of the continued use of pound/inch units in the US, and about the future prospects for manufacturing industry. (more…)

Linked by a common system of measures

Friday, June 18th, 2010

There is a widely held view in the UK that we share our measurement system with the USA. True – but not in the way many believe. (more…)

60 km Jubilee Greenway to be signed in imperial

Friday, June 11th, 2010

On 9th June 1977, the Queen officially opened the Silver Jubilee Walkway, a 21 km walking trail around central London to mark her Silver Jubilee, or 25 years on the throne. Thirty-three years later, work is under way to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with a new 60 km walking trail, the Jubilee Greenway, providing walkers with a kilometre to walk for every year of the Queen’s reign.

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Glaring omission from Queen’s Speech

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

The new coalition Government claims to be determined to clear up the “mess” left behind by the previous Government. So it is notable that Her Majesty’s gracious speech included no proposals to tackle one of the biggest “messes” of all – the intractable muddle of incompatible measurement units with which her UK (but not other Commonwealth) subjects have to struggle.

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Kids don’t count

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Two recent Channel 4 Dispatches programmes entitled “Kids Don’t Count” sought to demonstrate just that. But if you saw the programmes and are a regular reader of Metric Views, you may have wondered if the programmes overlooked the real problem. (more…)

Prospects for metrication progress under the new government

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

The makeup of the new coalition government and its policy programme are now broadly clear.  How will it affect the prospects for progress on completing metrication?

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The UK has a new Government. So what?

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Metric Views reported a few days ago on the mixed fortunes of some of the parliamentary supporters and opponents of a single system of measurement for the UK. This produced several comments about the prospect of a new Government.

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An improvement in the weather

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

A recent exchange of e-mails between Ezra, a reader of MetricViews in the USA, and Tony, in the UK, suggests that recent years have seen changes for the better in weather reporting in the both the UK and Canada. Do other readers of MetricViews share Tony’s viewpoint? (more…)

Could a future Government reverse metrication?

Friday, April 16th, 2010

A recent correspondent expressed the wish “Let’s hope the new (Conservative) government puts a stop to metrication as far as is practically possible.” Naturally, we disagree with this sentiment – but, whoever wins the election, what could they actually do to turn the clock back? and, realistically, what  would they do?

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