----- Original Message ----- From: John Frewen-Lord To: ezra.steinb...@comcast.net Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2010 10:08 PM Subject: Re: [USMA:47151] Degrees Fahrenheit gone the way of the guinea?
Even the British Murdoch-controlled newspapers, which resolutely give all dimensions in imperial units (even those obviously converted from metric values), give temperatures in degrees Celsius. Canadian media (and the general population) also use Celsius, never a mention of Fahrenheit. Degrees F are now only found in the US. John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: ezra.steinb...@comcast.net To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2010 9:32 PM Subject: [USMA:47151] Degrees Fahrenheit gone the way of the guinea? I heard on the BBC World Service last night about a location (which I missed) where the presenter said that the temperature in mid-April was already 45 degrees (no mention of "Celsius" even, just "degrees"). So, I poked around a few of the British papers online (Independent, Daily Mirror, Sun) as well as Sky News and could not find any mention of "Fahrenheit" anywhere (or even a way .. at least not an obvious one that I could find! ... to change the temps display from Celsius to Fahrenheit. In fact, the Mirror also gave wind speed in "kph". (Yes, yes, it should be "km/h", but I'm thrilled that a paper like the Mirror has managed to dump wind speeds in "mph" given that all speed limits are currently displayed on roads in "mph" .... I presume the Met gives the wind speed in "km/h" and the Mirror has simply not bothered to "dumb down" the values. So, it seems that Fahrenheit temps have gone the way of the guinea, the shilling, and the farthing. Why isn't anyone citicizing the Labour Party for not having "saved the Fahrenheit for Britain"? I also see from those papers that there is a new poll out showing that the Lib-Dems have pulled ahead of Labour and the Tories. Wouldn't that be a "kick in the pants" (as we say) if the Lib-Dems could form the next government? -- Ezra
