I thought I would add a comment on the debate on the measurement system.
Australia converted from imperial to metric in 1971. It has been a long
haul with many people, naturally the older ones who grew up with imperial.
Many people still using this system as their preferred datum.
 
It has not been easy and takes a lot of effort to learn the relative
comparisons of the many units of measurement that we all use every day. I
would however urge you and all your countrymen to make the effort as I
believe that once familiar with it it is a much simpler system. The
comments regarding the small base units disguises one of the real benefits
of the system, that is the lack of dividers like quarters, eighths etc
which are not easy to deal with if they are not divisable.
 
Metric has strengths in its cross matching, for example 1 litre of water
weighs one Kilogram and one litre is contained within a 100mm cube, thus
one cubic metre contains 1000 litres ie one kilolitre and weighs one tonne.
All very tidy!!
 
I must confess that here we still measure fish and babies in pounds, I
guess some things just sit well!
 
Regards
 
The converted!!
 
Paul Roberts
Brisbane Australia