The Metric System Just Isn’t Catching On

After nearly three decades of complaints from confused motorists, the Interstate 19 kilometer markers will soon be pulled out of the ground for good.

The state transportation board on Tuesday approved $1.5 million to replace the signs on the entire 100-kilometer — or 63-mile — stretch of I-19 from Nogales to Tucson. The funding is part of the federal stimulus package, which provides $521 million to the state for roads and bridges.

The kilometer signs were placed in 1980 as part of a federal experiment with metric conversion, and over the years proved about as popular as the metric system itself. I-19 is the only U.S. interstate marked in metric.

The Arizona Department of Transportation eventually placed mile markers along I-19 in 1998, but set them at a 90-degree angle to the highway so motorists couldn’t easily see them and be confused by the extra markings.

Full Article

I remember my high school teachers telling me that in my lifetime the U.S. will completely convert to the metric system . . . not so much.

Posted in Pop Culture | 2 Comments

Bag of Randomness

  • I like to give hugs.
  • I say hola a lot.
  • I’m not sure how many people not from the south understood that last line.
  • But I also say howdy quite a lot, so much so I caught myself saying it when I was in NYC once and felt very out of place.
  • I don’t Twitter is as intuitive as it should be.
  • I can’t get pictures from my phone to post to TwitPic.  I take a picture, and using my GMail account send the picture to the email address that TwitPic provide, but the picture and Twitter updated never posts.
  • Meghan McCain continues to entertain me.  Link You go girl.
  • I just got a baby shower invitation from one of my old high school friends – I have a feeling the pregnancy wasn’t planned.
  • During lunch yesterday I stepped out and got my haircut, but nobody noticed when I came back to work.  It kinda made me sad.
  • I heard a guy the other day joking about politics.  He said he blames George W. Bush for his obesity.  The last eight years were pretty stressful, and when he gets stressed, he eats.  made me laugh.
  • If Dr Gregory House and Dr Kerry Weaver from ER had a child, would their child limp and be cranky?
  • Time magazine has two interesting tidbits of news with a Christian perspective.  First, there’s the article  10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now, which includes a piece about The New Calvinism.  And the have something about the Dead Sea Scrolls authors to have never existed.
  • Ten Toxic Things Never to Discuss on the Internet – I think I have posted about three of these topics, and so wanted to discuss the bikes versus cars versus pedestrian topic.
  • Anthony Bourdain has some hot sports opinions about other TV chefs.  Link
  • Time Warner is airing a new commercial with a new spokeswoman, but everytime I see her I always think it’s Elliot Spitizer’s call girl.
  • For those of you that wish you were at South Padre Island for spring break, well, there’s a live camera set up for your viewing pleasure.
  • If I Had to Choose is a nice timewasting website in which you do nothing but choose between two things.
  • Bacon tattoos
  • Learn how much of each kind of chocolate can harm your dog.  Link
  • Grace
Posted in Personal | 3 Comments