We need to convert this figure to help people understand the magnitude of what has happened. (Already, I'll bet, too many people think that it was 380 lbs.)
The fact that one pound of the stuff brought down a plane makes this conversion necessary for those that are mathematically challenged or just too lazy to really listen to the story.
This should be a huge story for the next couple of days and as it usually takes about a week for events to really show up in the polls, the timing couldn't be better.
GOTV