From: Pat Naughtin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:33086] Re: fans
Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 04:25:16 +1000
Dear John,
The last time that I went to a Subway store, in Australia, their main
products were advertised as 'sixinch' and 'footlong'. Note that there are
no
spaces in the middle of the two created words 'sixinch' and 'footlong'.
When
asked, a Subway manager told me that they did this to get around an
Australian law requiring metric product descriptions.
Since the newly coined words 'sixinch' and 'footlong' do not have spaces
between the number and the unit (in the case of sixinch) and the unit and
the descriptor (in the case of footlong) Subway believes that these
variations protect them from legal proceedings if they are challenged
about
their products not complying with Australian law. They say they are using
word descriptions not measurements.
However, it doesn't protect them from my personal boycott � I intensely
dislike this kind of obfuscation and the damage that I believe it does to
the Australian community.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin ASM (NSAA), LCAMS (USMA)*
PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter,
'Metrication matters'. You can subscribe by going to
http://www.metricationmatters.com and clicking on 'Newsletter'.
* Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the
Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual � for writers,
editors and printers', he is an Accredited Speaking Member (ASM) with the
National Speakers Association of Australia, and a Lifetime Certified
Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric
Association.
This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and
may
contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. This
email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be
partly
or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any
unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is
prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete
it
from your system and notify the sender by return email.
on 2005-06-04 02.05, john mercer at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hello. i have a question about desk fans. Has anyone ever measured the
> diameter of one. They usually come in 6 in 12 in and 16 in sizes. The
reason i
> am asking this are these measurements exact or just rounded numbers. If
they
> are just rounded numbers could the fans be 15 cm 30 cm and 40 cm? If
these
> inch measurements are exact to convert them to cm to be legal you would
have
> to give the exact size in cm. In the states do you have the chain of
stores
> called subway? We have them in Canada and they advertise their
sandwitches in
> 6 in and 12 in sizes. I wonder how close they are to these sizes? The
reason i
> am asking about the size of fans is because i don't have a braille
> ruler
to
> measure them myself. Thank you for your help, i really apreciate it a
lot.
> john Mercer.
>
