Tonnes of bottled oxygen, kilometres (miles) of rope, food and tents need to be carried up to the four camps between base camp and the summit.
. . . sigh. Are we that stupid? And which is worse, that they think people don’t know what a kilometer is, or that they would also be dumb enough that (miles) would somehow make sense? I’m going to go kick my cat (dog).
H.
I really doubt a U.S. native wrote that since I don’t know a single one that would have used “tonnes” since most people don’t even know what a metric ton is because the metric system is for appeasers and surrender monkeys.
If that guy thinks he has to say kilometers (miles) that’s an indictment of the writer not the U.S.
I really doubt a U.S. native wrote that since I don’t know a single one that would have used “tonnes” since most people don’t even know what a metric ton is because the metric system is for appeasers and surrender monkeys.
Thats what I was thinking when I read it.
My impression was that CNN was printing a story from a foreign source, and “clarifying” it for the US audience.
H.
Well if that’s the case then I blame CNN rather than America. But in all seriousness, I do have to agree with you unfortunately however that there is probably a significant portion of U.S. citizens that would not immediately know the approximate value of a kilometer in “english” or “imperial” units.
Also for reference:
1 ton = 907.18474 kg = 2000 lbs.
1 tonne = 1000 kg
A search of CNN’s website doesn’t even hit a match on that phrase.
Wow I wasn’t aware a metric ton was spelled a tonne. English imperial units just have to use the bastardized ton version don’t they.
Getting off topic, I wasn’t really bashing America, just the whole “dumbing down” process that affects so many things. The irony of clarifying something with incorrect information, or something like that. Not to say that I don’t despise the imperial measurement system.
It was an article on the 18yo that climbed Everest, and a group of sherpas that also climbed everest by themselves.
H.
Dude, CNN is the light beer of news. Is this really your beef with America?
I hate to break it to you but most people are tards.
**ok you beat me to that.
Here’s the thing, and why I was searching for it.
Often, I’ll see a website like CNN that uses metric meaurements put the english unit equivalent behind it in parentheses as a hyperlink, and clicking the hyperlink gives you the equivalent unit measurement in english units.
That’s what I think your original source was on “(miles)”–a hyperlink.
Now then, most of us Yanks know kilometers rather well…but even I have trouble sometimes remembering exactly how heavy a kilogram is, or how the whole pints to liters thing breaks down. Not to mention that when you get into units of area space, I’m totally lost (hectares? yeah…no.) CNN does that translation as a matter of editorial policy, and I’m sure there’s a “where do we draw the line on this?” thing in action. Rather than decide for us that we all know that a kilometer is roughly a sixth of a mile, they instead decide that they’ll translate any metric unit of measure when transposing a story from an international correspondent or source.
Don’t get upset. If this was Fox News or USA Today it would probably read:
> kilometres (yards) of rope
Could be worse…
But yeah, no American would ever use the “tonne” or “kilometre” spelling to begin with, so it’s not our fault anyway. Any American journalist would just write “miles of rope”.
Typo? I think you meant sixty-percent and wrote one-sixth instead.
1.6 km ~= 1 mile.
easy way to remember 100 km/hour ~= 60 mph. Roughly highway speed.
CNN got a lot of prestige when in Iraq invasion part I. Then they have slowly gotten dumber or I’ve gotten smarter. More likely the former. ***
*** HA! That’s another British/American difference isn’t it? Former/latter. With the Americans, the former is the former whereas the former is the latter
for the Brits.
The former is the latter? What?
You mean while Brits will say “probably the former,” Yanks will say “probably the latter?”
The former is the one that comes first in the list and the latter is the one that comes last. Is this different in America?
Miles and Kilometres can be seen on your speedometer. Maybe it was written for kids. Or a foreigner too arrogant to believe that Americans know what each represents.
It’s the same.
The former climbs the latter to fix the roof of the barn.
I thought as much. That just really confuses me as to what the previous comments were about though.
Ah geez, I was completely wrong. Now I have to figure out what short-circuit my memory was referencing to. Is there any instance the usage is reversed? Maybe in some obscure language so I can pretend I heard it long ago?
Maybe just stroll away whistling with your hands behind your back?
From the opening paragraph of an article I saw yesterday on MSN’s front page:
To enter the nation’s top 1%, you need more than $5 million. And if you get there, you’ll have plenty of newly-arrived company: The number of U.S. “pentamillionaires” has quadrupled in the past 10 years, to more than 930,000.