Dear all,

I was reading an article on the International Space Station at
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/apr/spacestation/index.htm
l which contains the following sentence:

Quote:

The station is costing tens of billions of dollars more than originally
envisioned, forcing NASA to scale back its research budget and table plans
to add a habitation module and an emergency return vehicle.

end quote

I can only infer from this that the term "table" is meant to refer to the
plans being stopped or killed. Is that so? Because in Australian (and
probably British) use "to table" something means that the idea is raised or
opened, as in Parliament tables a Bill for debate or a motion is tabled at a
meeting (No, Marvin, not THAT sort of motion). In other words, the idea is
put on the (discussion) table for comment.

If the American use is exactly the opposite of its Australian use, I just
wonder how the difference came about. How is the term used in Britain and
Canada?

Brett, the mildly confused

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