On 2010/06/19, at 12:06 , John M. Steele wrote:
Given the New York Times byline at the end of the article, and the
photographic record, I would be fairly confident it is American
gallons and (petroleum) barrels.
Dear John,
I noticed the reference to the New York Times but I had already
assumed that due to the history of Nigeria as some sort of colony of
the UK that the gallons were the old UK Imperial gallon of 1824.
However, let me consider another possibility. The Nigerian writer
intended Imperial gallons and wrote the word gallon to indicate this.
Then the article arrived in front of a New York Times sub-editor who
saw the word gallon and automatically assumed that gallon (Imp.) meant
gallon (USA) thus reducing the amount of oil by about 15 %.
Oh how our minds we do pervert,
When first we practise to convert.
And all of this confusion can be created without the stroke of a
single editorial pen!
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see
http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY
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 to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
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From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]>
Sent: Fri, June 18, 2010 8:01:28 PM
Subject: [USMA:47858] Oil Leak Estimates
Dear All,
The Gulf oil leak is not the only one in the world.
See
http://www.theage.com.au/world/large-oil-spills-are-old-news-in-the-niger-delta-20100617-yjnf.html
In this story the reporter, Adam Nossiter, routinely chooses to use
gallons but then fails to specify which gallon he has in mind. Nor
does he give a metric system unit that we could use to guess the
conversion factor that was used for the 'dumbing-down'.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide,
seehttp://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY
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/ to subscribe.
