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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 1993)
Troubles attend switch to metric system More adjustments needed than first meet the eye By Jan Calinger Staff Reporter The metric system, also known as the Systeme Internationale (S.I.), has replaced the English system of mea surements in every country in the world except two (and England is not one of them). Even Americans, de spite their inherent stubbornness, arc starting to change over. Photographers use a 35mm cam era. My friends and I buy two-liter bottles of Pepsi. Even my mechanic has a full set of millimeter ratchet settings and talks about a five-liter engine. The S.I., admittedly, has many advantages over the old “inches and feet” system. You don’t have to re member tricky equations like 12 inches to a foot, three feet to a yard, or 1,760 yards to a mile. Instead, it’s all 10 of this, 10 of that. But it will still be a long time before the United States will get into step with the rest of the world. Al though there is talk of gradual transi tions until A.D. 2000, the final step will take much longer than that. One reason is that the metric sys tem isn’t macho. It makes anyone using it sound like a rocket scientist. For instance, I hear people in my uncle’s bar ordering a pint of beer. That sounds manly. But imagine a man in a Harlcy-Davidson T-shirt and worn jeans saying, “I want 473 milli lilcrsof Genuine Draft on the double.” It won ’ t happen. The guy would be laughed out of the joint. Even “half liter,” although more than a pint, doesn’t seem so. A pint may only be a pint, but it’s one whole pint. Under the S.I., though, my friends would have to say, “I want a 340 grammer.” (This is not to be confused with the 12 ounces that constitute a can of beer, which would be 354 milliliters.) Even ata diner, one couldn’t order a quarter pounder with the works. They would have to settle for a 113 grammer. Or, if we round off, a tenth kilogrammcr. The system may have one good point, though. If, on the freeway, a man secs he is going 100 (kph) as opposed to 62 (mph), then he may not want to speed as much. On a more serious note, the change would cost a lot of money. No doubt drivers have often noticed the mark ers that show how many miles away from the border one is on the inter state. -44 The metric system isn’t macho. It makes anyone using it sound like a rocket scientist. -ft - The state would have to employ a lot of people to yank the one-mile marker and hammer it into the ground at the one-kilometer mark along ev ery highway in each state. That, ad mittedly, would only take a journey of 1999 feet, or about three-eighths of a kilometer. But the two-mile marker move would lake twice that, or 3998 feet. And the 455-miIc marker, the last on the Nebraska section of Interstate 80, would have to be moved 909,577 feet, 172 1/4 miles, or 277 1/4 kilometers. Thai’s a lot of moving. Perhaps someday Americans will take the lime, effort, and money to change the way they gauge their length, volume and so on. But for now. I’ll have a fool-long, a pint of Pepsi, and a car that can hardly do 65 miles on the interstate. And I’ll enjoy every macho minute of it. David Badders/DN Non-football fans can capitalize on plenty of weekend activities in Lincoln area this weekend Here are some highlights of what’s going on in the Lincoln area this weekend: Want a free alternative to watching the Bills and the Cowboys throw a pigskin around? Try a foreign film or two. Nebraska ETV is featuring four exotic films Sunday. Beginning at noon, the French “Jean de Floreue,”a 1987 film about the 1920sFrance, will be shown. At 2:05 p.m., the sequel to “Jean de Floretle,”“Manon of the Spring,” will air on NETV, followed by the Flemish film, “The Flaxfield,” at 4 p.m. “Babettc’s Feast,” a film about a Parisian Catholic refugee who is sheltered in a Dan ish village by strict Lutheran spWters, will air at 5:30 p.m. All the foreign films will be broadcast with English subtitles. •On a musical note (pun intended), the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln School of Music will present a free recital by mezzo soprano Judy Cole at 3 p.m. Sunday in Kimball Hall. Cole is an associate professor of voice at UNL. She has appeared in supporting roles as an apprentice artist with the Santa Fe Opera Company for two seasons. She will be assisted by Catherine Herbencr on harpsichord and piano, John Bailey on flute and piccolo, and Tracy Sands on vio loncello. •Here’s an alternative to the usual alter natives. The 13th Annual Quackoff will be in Avoca Saturday. Duck races on ice, a premiere performance by the Schoolhouse Orchestra and a dance with Silver Wings will be featured. Registration is from 10a.m. until noon at Town Hall. Races start at 1 p.m., and the dance begins at 6:30 p.m. •If foreign or culture films arc not what you’re seeking, the Lincoln Fantasy and Science Fiction Club is presenting a free screening of various Godzilla movies Satur day from 5:30-11 p.m. in the Nebraska Union Ballroom. The» Japanese-American venture, “Gunhed,” will be featured. •The Native American Public Broad casting Consortium Retrospective contin ues its ongoing film festival this weekend with the movies “Distant Voices... Thunder Words” from 1990 and “Eyes of the Spirit” from 1983. •These films on Native American life and culture will be shown today at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m. The films are free and open to the public. For more information call 275-3294. •The Ralph Mueller Planetarium is pre senting a live performance by John Seme today, Saturday and Sunday. This perfor mance will be the first such live-music presentation in any area planetarium. “Romantic Concert Under the Stars,” will be performed today and Saturday at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Matinee shows will be offered Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The cost is $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 12 and under. •The Lincoln Symphony Orchestra is continuing its season today by featuring the third of its guest-conductor concerts. Yong-Yan Hu,associate conductor of the Savannah Symphony, will lead the orches tra in its performance, which will include Rachman inoff ’ s “Capriccio Bohemien” and “A Chilly Moon in the Spring” by the Chi nese composer A. Bing. The 8 p.m. concert will include a pre concert introduction in the Steinhan Room of the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the concert are $25.50, $ 19.50 and $16.50 for adults, and discount tickets arc available for UNL staff and students. — Compiled by Shannon Uehling New club open, aimed at college students under 21 By Stacie Hakel Staff Reporter Stand up and cheer because Grandstand is ready to get down and boogie. Open since Christmas at 14th and O streets. Grandstand was created in Lincoln specifically for college students, Russell Kaelberer and Garry Robinson, president and vice president of the club, said. The two had marketing experience with clubs in Colorado, and brought it to Nebraska after discovering that students ages 19-20 had nothing to do for entertainment, Kaelberer said. “Knowing the market in Denver, 1 felt it was a better business opportunity to target a captive audience,” he said. “Our market is designed to target the university population under 21, and give an entertainment alternative for those not legally old enough to enter a bar yet.” The music at Grandstand is also geared toward the college student. Grandstand not only features the traditional Top 40 music, but also alternative, techno, hard rock and more, Kaelberer said. He said that each n ight featured a different type of music which enabled students to come on a night they chose. “Wc’v<; created this for the University stu dents,” Kaelberer said. “It wasn T designed to be a teen club. We encourage University students to come in whether they arc under 21 or over 21.” National and local bands are in plans for the future, Kaelberer said. - But that’s not all. Grandstand derived its name from bleacher scaling, which indicates sports-related contests for the future. The name also described the step sealing of Grandstand which allowed people to sit informally in groups. Kaelberer said there was still work to do in setting up the club. But with promotions from various companies, radio phone lines, and the biggest dance floor in Lincoln, he said he hoped Grandstand would be a success. Grandstand is open Wednesday through Sun day with a cover charge ranging from $ 1.50 to $5. -1 Local record firm gives area bands boost on new CD By Bryan Peterson Staff Reporter Lincoln-based Caulfield Records has just released its fifth record, “Record Number 5,” a seven-inch compilation with one song each from four area bands. The record provides another boost to the already booming local music scene, which has witnessed a resurgence in the number and quality of bands, concerts and recordings in recent years. Preserved on vinyl are Sideshow and Mercy Rule, both of whose members have been active in Lincoln bands for more than five years. “We haven’t had any songs out for a while, and the others are good bands,” said Bemic McGinn, bassist for Side show and the main force behind Caulfield Records. “It’s a good way to give other bands exposure.” Following this record. Sideshow will be releasing a compact disc which may . alsoappcaron vinyl, said McGinn. Mercy Rule just finished recording at Lincoln’s Stud ioQ and a compact disc is forthcom ing from them as well, he added. Germbox and Molly McGuire, both from Kansas City, have played at Duffy’s and other local venues. Germbox re cently disbanded but Molly McGuire will soon have its own seven- inch record on Caulfield Records. Curiously, Germbox may be the most widely heard of all these bands, thanks to one of Caulfield Records* distributors, Community 3. Through the vagaries of Soviet disin tegration, Community 3 happened to be the only importer of foreign music into the Soviet Union after the state-owned record company collapsed. The owner of Community 3 “stepped off the plane a hero” to the Soviets and played a Germbox song on slate radio to an estimated thirty million listeners, McGinn said, a number which dwarfs the 1000 copies of this compilation which were pressed in Lincoln. i