What a great thread! Ranting, raving, debate, controversy ... is it serious? Is it tongue-in-cheek? Who cares? This is the stuff Rinkworks is best at. :-)

I think in metrics because that's what we've used in New Zealand since before I was born. However, I also use imperial measurements for some things, pretty much at random.

I don't see any point in changing idioms: something moving slowly is "inching along", something moving fast is "going a mile a minute", even though I have no idea what speed that might indicate and I wouldn't have a clue how fast I might be driving in miles per hour. Ninety Mile Beach up north isn't ninety miles long, it's more like 90 km, but who cares? It sounds better that way and gives the desired message that this is basically a Really Enormous Beach. (Hey, maybe *that's* what they should have called it.)

Since I'm practically a mathematical illiterate anyway I guess it doesn't matter much which I use. I don't think a measurement system should be mandatory, and like language, I don't think it's something you *can* enforce, long-term. People will use the system that is most useful to them, and if one or the other loses its usefulness it'll stop being used. Self-regulating, you see.

Brunnen-"how long is a piece of string? Twice the distance from the middle to one end"G