[FRIAM] OpenAI and the fight between Elon and Sam

[Stephen Guerin]

On Thu, Feb 13, 2025 at 12:32 PM cody dooderson <d00d3rs0n at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I want to like Musk. At one point I did, for the reasons mentioned above.
I am suspicious that his neuro-link is malfunctioning and destroying his
empathy. That being said, I am hopeful that he brings the metric system to
the USA, and somehow doesn't end up in charge of the nuclear weapons
arsenal in the process.

And from your lips to Google's (and Bing and Apple maps's) ears, Cody.

At least I can switch to metric in Google Maps - 500.0 km from Galveston to
Merida :-)
I don't have to change region to Mexico or practically anywhere else, to
get metric by default (which is how google maps works)

I should be able to switch to a different naming system without having to
change my whole region.

Or make metric the standard for the US too..

Google enforces government naming directives, like renaming the Gulf of
Mexico to Gulf of America, without allowing user overrides. However, for
measurement units, they allow users to switch between miles and kilometers,
despite the U.S. government recognizing metric as the "preferred system"
since 1975. This creates an inconsistency where official directives are
followed for naming but ignored for measurement standards. If Google
applies government policy selectively, they should either enforce metric as
the default or allow users to choose place names in their map settings.

There is no law or executive action stating The United States Customary
System (USCS) is the official system of the U.S.—it is simply entrenched
through historical precedent., miles, feet, inches, pounds, gallons,
fahrenheit, BTU, HP, ton, and my personal favorite in Action ( ft·lb·s).
etc.

But there are plenty of federal actions for metric,

Cody, here's some ammo you can use in your letter writing, occupy movements
and social media campaigns why the mapping companies should avoid hypocrisy
and change to metric if they are going to listen to government mandates:


   - Weights and Measures Act of 1866: Legalized metric use in trade.
   - Treaty of the Meter (1875): U.S. joined international metric system.
   - Mendenhall Order (1893): Defined U.S. customary units via metric
   standards.
   - Metric Conversion Act of 1975: Declared metric as preferred system.
   - Executive Order 12770 (1991): Required federal agencies to use metric.
   - Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988: Strengthened federal
   metric adoption.
   - Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1992 amendment): Required metric on
   product labels.
   - National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Policy (2008):
   Encouraged metric in commerce.

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