The SI is the International System of Units - (Metric System) Tired of waiting!

100 YEARS AGO (From Nature 30 March 1899).
A deputation of representatives from the Decimal Association, chambers of commerce, educational institutions, and trade unions, waited upon Mr. Ritchie on Wednesday, March 22, at the House of
Commons to urge upon the Government the compulsory adoption of the metric system of weights and measures on January 1, 1901. Several of the delegates described the advantages which the metric system possesses, reference being made to the great waste of timeinvolved in teaching our complicated system of arithmetic, and the loss of trade resulting from the use of a system not understood by other nations. In reply, Mr. Ritchie expressed himself in agreement with the arguments in favour of the metric system, but stated that his own view, and that of his colleagues, was that chaos and confusion would be created by the compulsory adoption of the metric system in this country, and it would be practically impossible to carry
out a compulsory law on the subject. They had not only passed a law two years ago to make the metric system legal, but they had also added to their Board of Trade standards the standards for the metric system, and only seventeen of the whole of the local authorities in the country had come toverify their standards.

Some bookmarks relating to Metric Syatem
http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/200/202/lc1136a.htm
http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/summer95/p95su14.htm
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/usmetric.html
http://www.cftech.com/BrainBank/OTHERREFERENCE/WEIGHTSandMEASURES/MetricHistory.html
Proponents of the metric system in the U.S. often claim that "the United States, Liberia, and Burma (or Myanmar) are the only countries that have not adopted the metric system." This statement is not correct with respect to the U.S., and probably it isn't correct with respect to Liberia and Burma, either. The U.S. adopted the metric system in 1866. What the U.S. has failed to do is to restrict or prohibit the use of traditional units in areas touching the ordinary citizen: construction, real estate transactions, retail trade, and education. The U.S. has not made the crucial transition from "soft metric" to "hard metric", so that "1 pint (473 mL)" becomes "500 mL (1.057 pint)", with the traditional equivalent fading into smaller type sizes and finally disappearing.
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The use of the metric system made legal (but not mandatory) in the United States by the (Kasson) Metric Act of 1866 (Public Law 39-183) [See: Page 1 and Page 2]. This law also made it unlawful to refuse to trade or deal in metric quantities. http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/dates.htm
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Lack of public interest and support has prevented the metric system from being adopted in the United States. http://encarta.msn.com/text_761561345___7/Metric_System.html
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It is the use by our modern progressive country of an ancient system of weights and measures which it is here proposed to discuss and show up as an absurdity.
The annual expense of retaining the old system of weights and measures is over $300,000,000.
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/socl/education/AMetricalTragedy/Chap1.html

95 % of the world's people use the SI for all their measurement needs and since our international trade is a significant part of our national economy, it should be apparent that we cannot waste any more time. http://www.metricmethods.com/whatistheSI.html
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The U.S. realized that it was very difficult for its industries to compete in a metric world. Other countries such as Japan, Britain and Germany were shipping products all over the world. It was difficult for the U.S. to compete because the standards were different and everything had to be converted to metric. Congress knew we had to change to the international standards for trade. In 1988, a trade act was adopted that made the metric system the preferred system of measurement for trade and commerce. http://www.michigan.gov/mda/0,1607,7-125-2961_2971_2972-8931--,00.html
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Link

Things to do around Los Angeles - 2004

SWAPS - http://www.familymatters.tv/level_3/moneysaver/fleasandswap.htm

Pasadena Ciity College First Sunday, 7 to 5

Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market Second Sunday of the month 9 to 3

Glendale College Flea Market, monthly, 3rd Sunday, 7 to 3


See a calander of some at http://www.rgcshows.com/calendar.asp#OCTOBER2004

Things to Do in Los Angeles is a directory of places to eat and things to see & do in the City of Angels and the San Fernando Valley. http://www.laokay.com/

Free Saturday Morning Archery Classes, arroyo - every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
http://www.rovingarchers.com/

Electronic Surplus - listing at http://www.laokay.com/ElectronicSurplus.htm
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"Today, the dream of digital entertainment becomes a reality," Gates told an audience at an interactive presentation at Los Angeles' Shrine auditorium, where he was flanked by Hollywood music and film star Queen Latifah.

The system, operated by a single remote control, integrates multimedia entertainment and allows consumers to harness digital photos, music, movies, live and recorded TV and high-definition TV around their homes via wireless or cabled transmission from their computers.
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Link

Made a Amici right angle adaptor yesterday - used Edmond Sci. prism
Rob purchased a Canon Rebel 300D today
Link

Got a bee sting on 8/6/04 ... (stinger not attached)
Bee Sting First Aid - Advice found includes the following, but what works best ? Sounds like a good area for a controlled study.
1- Meat Tenderizer - neutralizes the venom - This sounds best to me ( have none today)
2- Wet aspirin applied to area (did next)
3- Ice
4- Wet Tobacco
5- Onion slice held on area
6- Ammonia applied to area (did first)
7- Soap and water
8- Mud
9- St. John's Wort
10- Baking Soda applied to area
Best single link = http://ny.essortment.com/howtotreatbee_prc.htm

Why am I getting email not addressed to me? - answer may be:
Blind carbon copying or "Bcc" can be useful if you are creating a mailing list, and you wish to ensure that the address of each of your recipients is kept private from the others. So a mailer can set the "To" header to be anything he or she wishes. He or she can then silently tell the mail server, by using the "Bcc," who the actual recipients are. Unfortunately, this feature can also be used by spammers for illegitimate purposes ...the "To" header on messages (the line that normally contains your e-mail address, assuming it's a legitimate message) does not really determine where the message gets delivered. What does determine the recipient of the message is a command (or commands, if there are multiple recipients) sent to the mail server telling it where to send the mail. Unfortunately, these commands are ultimately hidden from the recipient's view, and do not show up anywhere in the mail headers once the message is finally delivered.
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My next camera may be.(- too expensive!) .. News regarding Minolta's 7 D DSLR - Will use "A Mount lenses" - Pricing about as Canon EOS 10D, Nikon D100, etc. 6 Megapixel CCD APS-C sized CCD 1.5x focal factor Dynax 7 Layout Minolta A Mount Anti-Shake - 6 Megapixels, This is comparable with other models in this sector of the market. - APS-C sized sensor and 1.5x Focal Factor, a smaller CCD than the 35mm film size it extends the focal length by a factor of 1.5x, thus a 28mm lens becomes a 42mm and a 300mm becomes a 450mm. The Minolta A mount was introduced in 1985 and continues today. The product will become available in October, should there be any delays in development and testing this will be moved into early November. http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=008U15 -- The Maxxum 7000 was the very first body integrated auto focus SLR and was introduced in '85+
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First came MSNbot, Microsoft's Web-spidering content bot that is part of its new MSN search initiative. Now, MSN is powering its media partner MSNBC's beta test of Newsbot, a customized search-driven news service. http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/print.php/3386471

7-night CRUISE for $369? Turns out to be about $1100
Some details:
Service charge is (can be)automatically applied to your shipboard account. $10 per guest per day, ...
... not included, such as alcoholic beverages and soft drinks,
...Government taxes and fees are also not included.
... The current on board is 110 volts AC.
.... $3.95 per e-mail transmission, Terminal usage time $0.75 per minute
.... All suitcases are collected the night before we return to our home port, so be sure to bring an overnight bag.
.... U.S. and Canadian citizens must provide PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP and PROOF OF IDENTITY for boarding NCL cruises. PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP consists of one of the following:
Passport (preferred), (or ) Original or state certified copy of a birth certificate (photocopies are not accepted) .. and IDENTITY Valid driver's license that includes a photograph http://www.ncl.com/more/cruise_docs.htm
.... What about Shore Excursions? =DEAD LINK
... Port fee $218 - "Prices do not include taxes and port charges."
... Total > 1007 each, including air to Vancouver (+transportation to and from ship.)
... I checked Dockage and Passenger fees at San Fran, combined per passenger = $10-15.00
.... Class action lawsuits have been filed in the state courts of
California, Florida, and Washington State against seven cruise lines over allegedly over-charging port charges. The cruise lines named in the suit are Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Kloster Cruise Ltd. doing business as Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America , Princess and Renaissance.
The suits allege that "port charges" increase the fares advertised by at least $100 to $150 per person and that the cruise lines have led the public to believe that "port charges" are costs charged to the cruise lines by governmental authorities - Ray LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL 800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
.. They do NOT pay commissions on port charges. There is one cruise line (Rennaissance) that charges $295 for port charges http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&threadm=4llnss%24iq4%40ocean.silcom.com&rnum=7&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D%2520%2522port%2520charges%2522%2520cruise%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg

Picgoo, a free web hosting service that provides free web hosting for your images or pictures for 6 months - then automatically deleted, a great way to avoid blot on my site (www.edhiker)


About Gmail at
http://www.gmailswap.com/index.html

On the Wed hike, I was asked if the North Pole was Positive or Negative. It may be a matter of interpretation -- read on...

The north-seeking end of a magnet is in English-speaking countries called the north pole and the other end the south pole; in France the names are interchanged. The reason for this conflict in terminology can be traced to the early users of the compass. Knowing little about magnetic effects, they called the end of the compass needle that pointed towards the north geographical pole, the north pole of a compass. A north pole is reckoned as positive (+) and a south pole as negative... A pole which points north is reckoned positive, one which points south negative. http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:eV2nSOlj-_oJ:31.1911encyclopedia.org/M/MA/MAGNETISM.htm+north+pole+positive+pole+earth&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Noun 1. positive magnetic pole - the pole of a magnet that points toward the north when the magnet is suspended freely http://www.thefreedictionary.com/positive%20magnetic%20pole

One of the first things we note in examining a bar magnet is that it has two region of magnetic concentration: poles at the ends of the magnet. We call these two poles north seeking N, and south seeking, S, since a compass needle was one of the earliest applications of magnetism. The N pole of a magnet, like a compass, points north, and the S pole points south. http://library.thinkquest.org/12632/electricity/magnetism.html

A magnet will align itself with Earth's magnetic field with one (the positive north seeking)
pointing towards the Earth's north pole and the other (the negative south seeking)
towards the south magnetic pole. http://www.geophysik.uni-koeln.de/studium/WS03/vorlesung/geoscience/chapter5.pdf

French magnets are marked N (being negative) and S (positive). S will seek the North and N, the south of a suspended French magnet. The N seeking pole of a compass needle will be repelled by the N marked pole of an English or German bar-magnet, and will be attracted by the N marked pole of a French magnet. http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:ajLpgs6pd7UJ:www.meridianinstitute.com/eaem/abrams1/abr1ch3.html+English-speaking+north-seeking+end+of+a+magnet&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Note that since the north pole of the magnet is attracted to the south pole of another magnet, the Earth's geographic north is actually a magnetic south. The overall geomagnetic field is becoming weaker at a rate which will cause the field to disappear, albeit temporarily, by about 4000 AD. Other sources have put the date of field collapse as early as 3000 AD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet

Definition: POSITIVE MAGNETIC POLE [n] the pole of a magnet that points toward the north when the magnet is suspended freely. Synonyms: north-seeking pole, positive
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040510 - I found out that Google owns Blogger -- 2003 January - February Google acquires Pyra Labs, creator of web self-publishing tool Blogger.

Google - Find local businesses and services on the web. (show URL )

A purchasing manager should know about this -- works great! Gives maps.

New! Find stores in your neighborhood. Try Google Local.

Google - Find local businesses and services on the web.
http://local.google.com/local?q=pizza&num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=G&near=10426+glory+ave+91042&dm=full

Shuttle, Mars, and Hubble

Many links at http://edhiker.home.comcast.net/ShuttleMarsHubble.html

Feet, miles, nautical miles, pounds, etc. still on NASA sites! In 1902 legislation requiring the federal government to use metric exclusively was defeated by a single vote.

NASA cancels Hubble Telescope , due to directive to retire the shuttle by 2010. Hello, Mars ... Goodbye Hubble, the resources will now go into human exploration program. The decision prompted dismay and anger among astronomers across the nation. Hubble is doing the best science ever, but a shuttle is too unsafe for flight to the Hubble. NASA officials decided that a backup would have to be ready to help any shuttle going anywhere but the International Space Station. So what happens now? -- Public Bombards Operators to Save Hubble

NASA policy is confusing. Below are some points found in the many articles that have appeared following president Bush's new Space Initiative.

One less flight also means one less chance for another shuttle disaster. NASA will not risk astronauts or shuttles on another mission to upgrade Hubble Space Telescope, widely considered the most successful science spacecraft ever. The planned mission to Hubble was the only flight scheduled to go somewhere other than the station. Bush's plan is to shift $11 billion NASA is now spending on other projects to the new Moon-Mars program. Bush stated that all human spaceflight would be directed to support the effort of putting people on the Moon and Mars. The shuttle, which is the only means by which NASA could service Hubble, is to be devoted to finishing construction of the space station. The danger inherent in sending a space shuttle to maintain Hubble pales in comparison with the danger of sending astronauts to the moon and Mars. It’s as though the agency were abandoning hopscotch for fear of tripping, to concentrate instead on sky diving.

"The tragedy is that the Hubble Space Telescope is better now than it ever was before," said astronomer Tom Brown, 34, instrument scientist for the now-grounded Wide Field Camera 3. "It's like shooting a prize-winning thoroughbred when it's about to win the Triple Crown." What really astonishes me is how the president can talk about the moon and Mars while pulling the plug on the Hubble Space Telescope. Is this the Bush vision? Where is Bush's curiosity? The Hubble Space Telescope is the greatest individual scientific instrument of all time.

In a Jan. 21 letter to NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, Mikulski, the ranking minority member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA’s budget, askeds the space agency chief to reconsider his decision. Mikulski also asked O’Keefe to appoint an independent panel of outside experts to assess all the ins and outs of conducting another space shuttle mission to Hubble.

NASA is making "uneven" progress in the steps required before it can fly another mission, too soon to schedule the next flight. NASA, which first spoke of resuming flights this spring, now hopes for September or October. NASA has decided to launch only during the day. NASA's administrator, Sean O'Keefe, has repeatedly promised to follow all recommendations of the accident board. Some space experts think NASA is too stodgy and incompetent to create a new spacecraft, what type of vehicle is still a mystery. NASA officials say they don't know whether it would be reusable or single-use; whether it would touch down on land or sea; or whether it would have wings. Others say the agency has the technical know-how — just not the cash. Some former members of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel worry that too many resources will be diverted from the space station as NASA reshifts its focus.

Bush Vision Was Key to Saving NASA from Budget Cuts (political)

"The real future of the international space station is still to be determined," said Michael Kostelnik, a NASA administrator who oversees the space shuttle and space station programs.

The Hubble has done more to advance understanding of the universe than any other space mission. This is the true adventure of the human spirit.

Too unsafe to fly to the Hubble?

Was the Atlantic too unsafe for Columbus? How do we discover without taking some risk?

Ed's proposal - fly to the Hubble in two steps, first to a parking orbit where inspection takes place, then a final boost to the Hubble Telescope. Inspection at the Space Station will not work for missions using US preferred inclinations near 28 degrees, the plane change needs a velocity impulse of about 3 km/s, about ten times as much as the shuttle orbital maneuvering system has. Space Station is in an orbit inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator. (Before the Russians joined the program, the Space Station was to be in a 28.5 degree orbit, same as Hubble). The most efficient orbit out of Russia's Baikonour results in an inclination to the equator of 51.6 degrees.

Inspection of Space Shuttle Tiles in orbit -- A free-flying television camera, the Autonomous EVA Robotic Camera (AERCam) was developed to perform visual and non-visual inspection activities around orbiting parent spacecraft. I believe it may have been possible to save the astronauts if inspection showed high danger. Looking ahead to future missions, on seeing trouble, take off the astronauts and (try to)land shuttle on autopilot. More at Free Flying Servicers -- See also: PSA red globe , however, Yuri Gawdiak, the inventor of this smaller device says the PSA is designed for internal operations only. I would want to inspect my Space Shuttle before deorbit if I were flying it! (posted at http://edhiker.home.comcast.net/bestwebsites.html 2/4/03)

Ed Johnson

1/29/04