On 2007 May 21 , at 6:05 PM, Martin Vlietstra wrote:
Some really breath-taking pictures! ... (of Mars)
As you say, it is all in metric units. However there is no French
or German
version, so the writers of the article obviously deemed it not worth
translating on grounds that anybody who had sufficient interest to
read it
could also read English.
There is really not any discrimination against languages other than
English.
If you go back to the ESA home page, you will find a series of flags
across the top, one for each nation in the ESA (European Space
Agency). Clicking on the appropriate flag brings up articles written
in the language(s) of that country. So neither the Germans nor the
French (nor any of the others) are being discriminated against.
However, it is still curious, because the different languages have
different articles, not the same articles in the other languages (so
far as I could tell). So, one still has to read articles in the
language in which it (presumably) was written. But that language is
not any more likely to be English than any of the others in the ESA.
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
==========================
Make It Simple; Make It Metric!
==========================
