Most of the people there ignore his postings and don't respond. Only in the past two days did he have a lengthy exchange with two members from the UK. Steve can't seem to grasp that the majority of these people support metrication and want to see it in force 100 %. To to hear propaganda about "pro-choice" is just aggitation.

This is not the first time someone has asked Steve to leave.



http://www.mail-archive.com/usma@colostate.edu/msg22727.html


Dear Stephen:

I support you rights. You have spoken them eloquently now I ask that you
leave the rest of us alone to get on with our lives.

If your right to imperial comes at the cost of one life is it worth the
price you ask us to pay? Simple question really - but one that is at the
heart of a huge discussion in the medical community at the moment. One that
I research.

If you wish to have your roads in imperial and your bananas in pounds that
is your right - me I prefer to kill fewer people and have to learn that 0.5
kg is one pound. But I am biased I have buried children who died due to
medical mistakes, and I prefer to stop the unnecessary deaths.

So I ask you respectively to take your arguments elsewhere, and leave us to
get back to the mission of this board.

No reply is necessary - or sought.

I assume that no-one needs to see the private emails of support sent to me from pro-metric USMA members either backing my stance on choice, or just complimenting me on bringing a fresh debating style that adds value to their forum?


Looks like someone is still sore about being banned.

....by what he percieves to be "his own side" ! :-D

Hey John! (euric/amertica etc).

You forgot to update this thread!

-----------------------

[USMA:32456] RE: FW: Re: USMA announcement
Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx
Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:06:09 -0800

(snip)

> I have been
> welcomed by many on this
> listserv despite the obvious differences that must
> come up from time to
> time. And, as has been agreed by many, simply all
> saying "yes" all the time
> in a group would be not only boring but would
> distractful from reality.

Hear, hear!

What exactly is the USMA listserv? Does it exist for debate (similar to these boards) or for the purpose of bringing the pro-metric community together to plan things? If it is the latter, I can understand why they would not want Steve there. Do they even specify?

It appears to be 90% pro-metric "community".

I've had several "one to one" emails with pro-metric supporters on the board who have complimented me on my debating style and also encouraged rational argument or debate.

I've been very surprised at how polite and genuinely interested they have been in my contributions. A lot of them are 'anti-statist' which might sound inconceivalble to a UK debate.

To be on their server you have to 'enrol' so to speak. You send them your details and then you simply email your opinion or counter-opinion straight to emails that come your way.

Erin/Euric/Amertica/etc was kicked off of the USMA list-serv for being both insulting and for posting loads of rubbish about an "imminent" collapse of the US dollar. They are fiercely 'on-topic' on the USMA listserv so posting nonsense about an appalling lack of economic knowledge was a strong influencing factor of him being banned.

Note the most current subject matter being posted by the lunatic on these boards.

<<<I've been very surprised at how polite and genuinely interested they have been in my contributions>>>

Why would you expect anything else? The pro-metric posters (the sensible ones) like myself have always been welcomed on here.

You can't have much of a debate without the 'opposition'

"Why would you expect anything else? The pro-metric posters (the sensible ones) like myself have always been welcomed on here"

I rank you alongside the polite people on the USMA listserv.

My references were to the odd-balls like Erin(/etc), or "the ignored one on the inner boards" or the occasional nut-bag who would come here to talk about lederhosen and either call imperial supporters 'nazis' or attack imperial supporters in a nazi-fashion.
I admit that the latter two "types" have been rare of late.

But I note, however, that I've never seen a post by an "extreme equivalent" from the pro-imp camp.

Other nutbags try and portray pro-imps as being "Empire Huggers" as if any of us were even alive at that time of the British Empire. (BTW - I'm not one of those people who see everything bad in the 'Empire days' either! Check out today's Commonwealth).


I, for one, would never post rubbish like "all metric supporters are actually fascists who mess with childrens lives" or wotnot.

No matter how many ciders I'd had!

SteveH: "I, for one, would never post rubbish like "all metric supporters are actually fascists who mess with childrens lives" or wotnot.

No matter how many ciders I'd had!"

Stan: Maybe not, but it is a fact that those who insist on retaining old measures are advocating a society that obstructs childrens from consolidating what they learn at school. Either that or they are trying to get British education to go backwards.

You really should proofread your work:

>>>>>>
Stan: Maybe not, but it is my assertion that those who insist on retaining old measures are advocating a society that obstructs childrens from consolidating what they learn at school. Either that or they are trying to get British education to go backwards.
<<<<<<

I agree with your assertion Stan, and it is for this reason above all others that I believe we should go fully metric.

The government should be explaining this to the people, rather than letting them be fooled into believing we are going metric because of the EU.

The British people are not as stupid as they sometimes seem. If the government gives them the real reasons for going metric they will accept it.

<<Stan: Maybe not, but it is a fact that those who insist on retaining old measures are advocating a society that obstructs childrens from consolidating what they learn at school. Either that or they are trying to get British education to go backwards>>

Arrogance.

No Steve, reality.

'Reality' is not scanning little sticks by the motorway so that one can exclaim to the world that the UK is metric.

No Steve,

Reality is the fact that the teaching of nuemrate disciplines is declining. I see this regularly in my day-to-day work - and most of my colleagues supposedly have an above-average education.

So in the 70's when metric was taught at school but "life" outside was imperial, numerousy and number skills were very good.

But today, in the 2000's - when metric is taught at school but "life" outside is imperial, numerousy and number skills are very bad.

Well that's convinced me - it must be to do with the mix of measurements we use today as opposed to the same mix of measurements used in the 70's.

I blame imperial.

Oh, and the government. Possibly.

Ah! And Murdochs newspapers - yes definitely murdoch's newspapers.

Oh and don't forget Margaret Thatcher.

If in doubt - always blame Margaret Thatcher.

No-one is suggesting the mix of measurements is wholely responsible, but I cannot see how learning one set of measurements and using another can possibly be anything other than detrimental to numeracy skills

<<<I blame imperial.>>>

Not at all. If anything imperial probably gave people better numeracy skills due to its complex nature. The simplicity of the metric system (and the use of calculators) means children don't have to do complex mental arithmetic any more.

Yes of course its the governments fault (successive governments) Thatcher (an easy target I know) played her part by abolishing the metrication board before it had finished the job

Although Murdochs newspapers take a large proportion of the blame for misleading the public about metrication, it is up to the government to respond to the myths and give people the real reasons.

I liked the way you took my post and "re-ironicised" it! Nice one!

You have a very valid point about calculators though.

Also - they should teach fractions more than they do - there's some real math-manipulation.

I was utterly terrible at fractions in my earlier years.

And not much better at maths in my latter years. 28cm buildings eh? ;-)

"""I agree with your assertion Stan, and it is for this reason above all others that I believe we should go fully metric.

The government should be explaining this to the people, rather than letting them be fooled into believing we are going metric because of the EU."""

This is where the UKMA could come in and be very useful. By providing more then just lip service about what a mess the UK is in, they could be an effective force in education of the masses. Not a theorectical school type education, but a practical education. For example, being present in the supermarkets and training people how to order deli items in metric, how to make economic decisions when the quantites are in metric, etc.

The only people who would oppose are the luddites who would fear the education would bring followers and leave them behind.

<<
No-one is suggesting the mix of measurements is wholely responsible, but I cannot see how learning one set of measurements and using another can possibly be anything other than detrimental to numeracy skills
>>
On the contrary, it can be quite helpful to students. It teaches them that not everything they need to know in the real world will be given to them on a silver platter, and sometimes they need to think a little. For example, if students are taught centimetres, and then see an inch ruler, they realise that the unit is different but the concept of measuring length with a ruler is the same, and they take their skill of measuring in centimetres that they learned in school and apply it to measuring in inches. This helps them grasp the concept of measurement better, because they had to think a little rather than just mechanically repeating a procedure taught to them.

Bud, you can't be serious!

Maybe children should be taught the greek alphabet in school as well.

Or maybe - french, or german.

It's a damn fine idea to teach another language -even though the language of "the street" is English.

They can learn French (say) at school but as soon as they step outside of school they speak just English - however - more knowledge is better than less - so by knowing French it may come in handy, and besides, there's no harm in knowing a second language - far from it.

;-)

By the way - did anyone notice the share price of UKMA PLC crashed on March 16 2005 at 3:19 PM?


Something to do with them being linked with an ultra-extremist!!

Rumours eh?

Bud, you can't be serious!

Maybe children should be taught the greek alphabet in school as well.


I think they should. Many of the Greek letters are used as math symbols, especially in trigonometry and geometry. Such as for angle. Two of the symbols, the omega and the mu are SI symbols. And since some of the letters are the same as the Roman alphabet, it shouldn't take to long to learn.

What good reason is there for not teaching the Greek Alphabet in school?

Dunno. I was taught it in primary school. Altho' I can only remember about 1/2 of it.

Andy, there is a big difference between metric-imperial and English-Greek. Once you learn either metric or imperial, you can figure out the other without any problem. If you learn the Greek alphabet, you can't automatically understand English.

I was never taught the Greek alphabet, but I know most of it because the symbols are used in science. I don't know the order of the letters past the first four, but I know what they look like and what they are called.