From: Michael Walsh <walshmichaelj at gmail.com> Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2016 12:12:18 -0400 Subject: [WSFA] The Great Pokemon Go Conspiracy .... To: WSFA Official List <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com>, WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> "At least 7.5 million of the users who=E2=80=99ve downloaded the app so far are in the U.S., a country where it's generally not necessary to know how long it takes to walk one kilometer. Pok=C3=A9mon Go is changing that. Instead of measuring distance in miles, the game follows the metric system=E2=80=94just like the majority of the world. Walking is a big part of the game; to find new Pok=C3=A9mon, players need to go to new places until they appear. One component even forces players to walk a certain distance to accomplish the goal. To hatch a common Pok=C3=A9mon egg, users must walk two kilometers, and to hatch a rare one, they need to walk five kilometers. A lot of players in the U.S. apparently have no concept of how far that is: According to Google Trends, searches for the phrases =E2=80=9Chow far is 2 km=E2=80=9D a= nd =E2=80=9Chow far is 5 km=E2=80=9D spiked after July 6." http://mentalfloss.com/article/82975/pokemon-go-forcing-americans-learn-met= ric-system mjw