On 2010/04/10, at 13:37 , Harry Wyeth wrote:
Not really important, but the PM of Australia was on US TV the other
day, distinctly saying that that Chinese coal freighter which ran
aground on the Great Barrier Reef was "fifteen kilOMeters" off
course". Is this the prevailing Aussie way of saying it? And is it
OK to call you folks Aussies (apologies if not!)?
HARRY WYETH
Dear Harry,
The Prime Minister of Australia is somewhat an exception when it comes
to his use of the metric system. Other than his mispronunciation of
the word kilometre he returned from the Climate Change talks in
Copenhagen earlier this year explaining to us about 'two degrees
centigrade'. I was stunned at that time that, not only, our PM had not
yet heard of degrees Celsius but that none of his advisors apparently
had either!
The expression 'Aussies' is quite common here to refer to ourselves.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
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]
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