A bad day for Metric Man

This is your lighthearted news story for this weekend...

An expensive endeavor is drawing to a close, and Corporate America must be none too pleased.

In the '80s, Interstate 19 in Arizona began using the metric system (usually to the complete exclusion of U.S. units such as miles) to sign its distances. Even some staunch opponents of metric imperialism such as myself could excuse this, because I-19 carried much traffic from Mexico, where the metric system is official.

But now the government is ending this "experiment" and reverting I-19 back to mile-based signage.

It goes to show how costly the switch to metric was in the first place.

Perhaps the more important issue is that this indicates we may be able to breathe a sigh of relief that the U.S. won't be muscled into adopting the metric system any time soon (if ever). In this age of computers, why switch? If the gloBULL economy is what's at stake, large businesses should have the tools to do our metric conversions for us.

You may not realize how close the United States came under the elder Bush to making the metric system official and banishing the U.S. customary system. If Clinton had one positive achievement that had a far greater impact than anyone thinks, it may have been his scuttling of Bush's metric edict.

Forced metrication would have benefited very few outside of Big Business - and cost most Americans time and money.

(Source: http://www.sahuaritasun.com/articles/2009/03/06/breaking_news/00mileposts0308.txt)