At least the Post left the measurements out entirely, and didn't dumb them
down for the American audience.

 

I read the Washington Post daily, and it's rare that metric units are used;
when they are, they're often indiscriminately mixed with colonial units, and
always spelled out in full.

 

Carleton

 

  _____  

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Pat Naughtin
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 16:51
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:40322] 113 kg Brown bear

 

Dear All,

 

This is an interesting story about a brown bear from Iran that was adopted
by the Polish Army that was mentioned on the Australian Broadcasting
Commission (ABC) News. In the full story is at:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/27/2147412.htm 

the bear is described as being 1.8 metres and 113 kilograms.

 

However, when the Washington Post ran the same story at:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/offbeat/2008/01/voytek_the_soldier_bear_of_po
l_1.html 

they chose to remove any references to metres and kilograms presumably to
protect the good citizens of the USA from these foreign influences.

 

Most other sources for this story (and there are many - it's a great story)
chose to use rather clumsy constructions like:

 

Voytek, a 113-kilogram, 1,8-metre (249-pound, nearly six feet) brown bear,
was adopted by the Poles after they found it in Iran in 1943. ...

 

Cheers,

Pat Naughtin

 

PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,

Geelong, Australia

Phone: 61 3 5241 2008

 

Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped
thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric
system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands
each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat
provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and
professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in
Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian
Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the
UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ for more metrication
information, contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or subscribe
to the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter at
http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter/ 

 

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