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On the other hand, I recently rode the train from Ottawa to McKay
Alberta. While I agree, I found Canadians pretty poor at using metric
in daily conversation, its use in formal materials was pretty much
universal, and all the VIA's (the Canadian passenger rail system)
timetables were in the 24 h clock. In case you're wondering why such an epic journey ended at McKay Alberta, not even a stop for VIA... The answer is that the train was involved in a major accident with a logging truck there, which made national headlines in Canada, although miraculously no one was seriously injured, and even the truck driver has since been released from hospital. http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ab/NEWS/2005/Evansburg_ViaRail_Feb01-05.htm I had to continue by air to Vancouver. Because of their use of metric despite their recalcitrant neighbor, the fantastic efficiency with which they dealt with this emergency, the hospitality they showed us afterwards, and the fact that the track was reopened in 16 h! Thank Darwin for the Canadians! Chris -------- Original Message --------
I realize Canada is stuck in many
areas midway in the conversion to SI, but I admit I'm both very pleased
and a little surprised that the CBC seems to be so staunchly metric --
and clearly besting the BBC in this arena.
The latest example from today's news
...
(I guess the only quibble I have --
isn't "quibble" a great word, by the way? Must remember it for Scrabble
-- is the reference to "800 C" without the word or symbol for
"degrees", and while it's not an SI issue, I would have preferred to
see time expressed in 24-hour format, but we're talking serious
quibbling here!!!)
Ezra
Mount St. Helens bursting with ash Last Updated Wed, 09 Mar 2005 09:28:30 EST CBC News SPOKANE, WASH. - Mount St. Helens in Washington state has erupted, sending a plume of steam and ash 7,600 metres into the air. Government scientists say they measured an earthquake of magnitude 2.0 beneath the mountain an hour before the first plume of smoke went up Tuesday at 5:25 p.m. local time. The volcano has been active in previous months. A minor eruption lasted 24 minutes last October, sending up 3,000 metres of steam and ash. The U.S. Geological Survey detected magma moving below the surface, indicating a violent explosion but nothing happened. Mount St. Helens grew a dome top the size of an 80-storey building in December, expanding at a rate never seen before by scientists studying the volcano. Infrared images showed fresh lava was rising at temperatures of almost 800 C. Bill Steele of the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network said a partial collapse of the dome in the crater may have triggered Tuesday's ash burst. At the time the dome formed, scientists said it would take 11 years before the volcano would erupt the way it did back 1980, killing 57 people and covering towns more than 400 kilometres away with ash. |
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