Live Life. Life is Short. Life is an Adventure.

I read today in Advance News that the US is changing the rules for the visa waiver to enter the US temporarily.

While not mandatory yet, you will need to be “pre-approved” online first. Well this will be interested. I was stuck in Canada recently trying to get back into the US, but could not because the finger print scanners were all off-line. I suspect before long we may have to submit more then just our name and travel details online as well.

The Department of Homeland Security is debuting, on a voluntary basis, the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), an online pre-approval system for travelers under the Visa Waiver Program. The program does not become mandatory until January 12, 2009, at which point Visa Waiver travelers will be required to use the online system to obtain advance approval to travel at least 72 hours before departing for the United States. Nonimmigrant visa holders will not use the system.

“Plankton, it’s so small you can hardly see them individually, yet together the can be seen from space.”

From National Geographic Channel “Earth - The Biography - Volcanoes”

I purchased an air conditioning unit this week, and I had to become aware of the BTU. The British thermal unit (BTU or Btu) is a unit of energy. An interesting unit that the USA has yet to change to it’s own need.

I ended up with a 8,000 BTU unit for my bedroom, the equation starts with cubic feet * 5. You then add ~500 BTU per person (just me :-(). So 10ft x 13ft x 9.5 ft = 1,235 * 5 + 500 = 6,675.

You also need to take into account electronics, so living areas and places that include kitchens need greater capacity.

Well it depends which gallon you are referring to.

The question came from a recent discussion with my Mother regarding the cost of fuel. Because Australia uses litres I had to convert the US price of Gallons to Litres. This is where the problem begins because as a child I grew up knowing that 1 Gallon was 4.5 litres. Australia used an imperial system until 1966, and while I was not around then, living on a farm there were many legacies.

The problem is, as usual the USA has to be different from the rest of the world, their gallon is infact more complex. Using the official Wikipedia definition:

• U.S. liquid gallon is equal to 3.785411784 litres
• U.S. dry gallon is 4.40488377086 litres.
• Imperial (UK) gallon is legally defined as 4.54609 litres

Only in America is there such complication!