Stephen Bain wrote:
I was writing more in jest than in seriousness. I'm mostly just a little frustrated as an Australian having to constantly convert from pounds to kilometres, or from miles to kilometres whenever I read an American source (and since it is mostly America who resists the metric system, this probably is systemic bias).
Miles are still used in both the United States and UK, which between them count for a pretty large proportion of the English-speaking world. A minority, sure, but one more than large enough to be worth accomodating---we accomodate far smaller minorities than those of 380 million people.
It would certainly be nice if each use of units was quoted in both systems though, unless it makes no sense to do so (e.g. non-engineering-oriented science articles). Putting in miles is appropriate, but not providing a conversion for them is sloppy.
-Mark