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Vocabulary > Measurement units
The Guardian
p. 1 12.3.2007
1 inch (in) /
2.54 centimeters
1 foot (ft) /
0.3048 meter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/may/31/arianne-cohen-books
1 yard (yd) /
0.9144 meter
1 mile (mi) /
1.609 kilometers
1 acre = 4 046.85642 m2
1 pound = 453.59237 grams
1 stone = 6.35029318 kilograms
1 US gallon = 3.78541178 liters
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/business/energy-environment/tensions-raise-specter-of-gas-at-5-a-gallon.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/05/15/us/AP-US-Gulf-Oil-Spill.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18dairy.html
1 US bushel = 35.239072 liters
Google calculator
http://www.google.fr/intl/en/help/features.html#calculator
Appendix C of NIST Handbook 44,
Specifications, Tolerances, and Other
Technical Requirements
for Weighing and Measuring Devices
US General Tables of Units of
Measurement / Notes on British Units of measurement
http://ts.nist.gov/WeightsAndMeasures/Publications/appxc.cfm
A Dictionary of Units
http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/dictunit/dictunit.htm
measure
measurement
decimalities
metrication
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2922746
metric
UK Metric Association
metric system
metric units > watt, kelvin,
farad, newton, joule and gray
metrophile
weights and measures
ounce
pound
kilo
stone
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1434607.ece
litre
gallon
foot
inch
temperature scale
furlong
acre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2031755,00.html
Tensions Raise Specter of Gas at $5 a Gallon
February 29, 2012
The New York Times
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
HOUSTON — Gasoline for $5 a gallon? The possibility is hardly
far-fetched.
With no clear end to tensions with Iran and Syria and rising demand from
countries like China, gas prices are already at record highs for the winter
months — averaging $4.32 in California and $3.73 a gallon nationally on
Wednesday, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. As summer approaches,
demand for gasoline rises, typically pushing prices up around 20 cents a gallon.
And gas prices could rise another 50 cents a gallon or more, analysts say, if
the diplomatic and economic standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions escalates
into military conflict or there is some other major supply disruption.
“If we get some kind of explosion — like an Israeli attack or some local Iranian
revolutionary guard decides to take matters in his own hands and attacks a
tanker — than we’d see oil prices push up 20 to 25 percent higher and another 50
cents a gallon at the pump,” said Michael C. Lynch, president of Strategic
Energy and Economic Research.
For the typical driver who pumps 60 gallons a month of regular unleaded
gasoline, a 50-cent increase in price means an extra expense of $30 a month.
The prospect of such a price increase underscores the political and economic
risks that Western political leaders must contend with as they decide how to
address the Iran situation. A sharp rise in the prices of oil and gas would
crimp the nation’s budding economic recovery. It would also cause big political
problems at home for President Obama, who is already being attacked by
Republican presidential candidates over gas prices and his overall energy
policies, and for European nations struggling to deal with the Continent’s debt
crisis.
The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, told a House committee on
Wednesday that rising global oil prices were “likely to push up inflation
temporarily while reducing consumers’ purchasing power.” He maintained the Fed’s
forecast that the nation’s economy would grow 2.2 to 2.7 percent this year.
The Iran situation has already raised the price of crude oil as much as 20
percent, according to oil experts. On Wednesday, the price of the benchmark
American crude settled at $107.07 a barrel. That is about four dollars higher
than on the same day in 2008. Later that year, oil and gasoline prices surged to
new records, including a record nominal high of $145.29 a barrel for oil and
$4.11 a gallon for gasoline in July. (In today’s dollars, that would be $150.87
for oil and $4.27 for gasoline.)
Although prices plunged late in 2008 as the financial crisis took its toll and
the recession deepened, that kind of sharp increase could happen again as summer
approaches.
“That’s what frightens people,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil
Price Information Service.
That fear is tempered by optimism — if tensions ease in the Middle East, experts
predict that energy prices will fall, with gasoline at the pump potentially
dropping 50 cents a gallon or more because supplies are relatively strong in
many parts of the country. Some analysts say the world price of oil could fall
to $80 a barrel if tensions eased.
And there have been signs in recent days that Iran is feeling the pain of
sanctions on its critical oil exports, perhaps increasing its willingness to
negotiate with the West.
On Wednesday, Tehran offered Pakistan, which has been suffering power shortages,
80,000 barrels of oil a day on an easy payment plan. It also offered to accept
gold rather than dollars for payment from any dealers hoping to get around the
Western restrictions on the usual financial channels for buying oil.
And this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Congressional committee
that the administration was working hard to persuade India, China and Turkey,
which represent more than a third of Iran’s oil export market, to reduce their
purchases.
While all three countries have said publicly that they will continue to buy from
Iran, Mrs. Clinton said, “in a number of cases, both on their government side
and on their business side, they are taking actions that go further and deeper
than perhaps their public statements might lead you to believe.”
Neal Soss, chief economist of Credit Suisse, said sustained high gasoline prices
would definitely have an impact on the American economy. “As a rule of thumb, a
penny a gallon is worth a bit over $1 billion in consumer purchasing power if it
is maintained a whole year. A dollar more would be something in excess of $100
billion, which is about the size of the Social Security tax cut.”
Despite a fall in gasoline demand in the United States and Europe, global oil
markets are tightening because demand for energy from Asian countries,
particularly China and India, is rising at surprisingly strong rates even as
output is declining from several important producing countries.
Gasoline futures are surging, spurred in part by recent refinery closings that
may produce a shortage of motor fuel in the Northeast states by summer.
Oil prices have surged about 8 percent since Iran threatened to cut off oil
imports to France, Spain, Italy and other European countries three weeks ago as
a pre-emptive move against Western moves to tighten sanctions. The European
Union has decided to place an embargo on Iranian oil and ban shipping and
insurance on its cargoes. Washington has decided on banking sanctions to curtail
Iran’s ability to earn money from its oil exports.
Middle East experts express doubts that Iran will follow through on its threats
to stop supplying European customers or close the vital oil sea lanes of the
Strait of Hormuz. But the saber-rattling from both sides is encouraging
investors to buy oil futures contracts at higher and higher prices. Rising
conjecture that Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear
facilities has heightened market jitters.
“The bankers are speculating, protecting themselves from higher prices by
committing obligations to buy now, and that starts the ball rolling toward
higher prices,” said Sadad Ibrahim al-Husseini, former head of exploration and
production at Saudi Aramco, the state oil company.
He added that the escalating civil turmoil in Syria, a crucial ally of Iran, “is
bound to increase price volatility and that will drive future speculation.”
The Japanese Foreign Ministry signaled on Wednesday that it was close to an
agreement with Washington to further reduce shipments of oil from Iran, which
have already declined about 20 percent since the beginning of the year.
But any success in tightening sanctions on Iran could squeeze global oil
supplies, pushing up prices and causing serious economic repercussions at home
and abroad.
“It’s a bind for Obama,” said Mr. Kloza at the Oil Price Information Service.
“How do you get tough on Iran without getting tough on American wallets?”
Tensions Raise Specter of Gas at $5 a
Gallon, NYT, 29.2.2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/business/energy-environment/
tensions-raise-specter-of-gas-at-5-a-gallon.html
700-pound woman rescued from second-floor bathroom
Wed Apr 4, 2007
9:03AM EDT
Reuters
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters Life!) - A 700-pound (318 kg) woman was rescued from
her bathroom by firefighters who cut away part of an exterior wall and removed a
window before lowering her to the ground, a fire official said on Tuesday.
The woman, identified as Patty Brown, called emergency services in Trenton, New
Jersey, late on Monday after falling in the second-floor bathroom and being
unable to get up.
Medical personnel were unable to move her, and so called the city's fire
department, which eventually dispatched three fire engines and some 25 officers.
After removing part of the bathroom wall, cutting the window down to the floor,
and taking out the toilet and radiator, firefighters moved her into a rescue
basket in which she was lowered down a specially reinforced ladder to the ground
outside, said Battalion Chief Qareeb Bashir.
With the help of around 10 firefighters, she was then moved on to a stretcher,
transferred to an ambulance specially equipped for very large people, and taken
to a local hospital.
Brown, who was only slightly injured from her fall, was conscious throughout the
five-hour operation, and was "very pleasant," Bashir said.
Although firefighters are trained to perform difficult rescues, this provided an
unusual challenge, Bashir said.
"This was a very unique situation," he said.
700-pound woman rescued
from second-floor bathroom, R, 4.4.2007,
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0329100320070404
Fat boy may be put in care
February 25, 2007
From The Sunday Times
Sarah-Kate Templeton,
Health Correspondent
AN eight-year-old boy who weighs 14 stone, more than
three times the average for his age, may be taken into care if his mother fails
to improve his diet.
Connor McCreaddie, from Wallsend, near Newcastle upon Tyne, has broken four beds
and five bicycles. The family claims to have a history of intolerance to fruit
or vegetables.
On Tuesday his mother and grandmother will attend a formal child protection
conference to decide his future, which could lead to proceedings to take him
into care.
Connor could be placed on the child protection register, along with victims of
physical and sexual abuse, or on the less serious children in need register.
The intervention of social services is a landmark in the fight against youth
obesity.
The boy’s mother, Nicola McKeown, said: “If Connor gets taken into care that is
the worst scenario there could be. Hopefully, we will be able to work through it
and come up with a good plan and he will just be put on the at-risk register or
some other register. That wouldn’t be so bad because, hopefully, there will be
some help for us at the end of it.”
Two specialist obesity nurses, a consultant paediatrician, the deputy head of
Connor’s school, a police officer and at least two social workers are expected
to be on the panel deciding what action should be taken.
One National Health Service source said: “We have attempted many times to
arrange for Connor to have appointments with community and paediatric
nutritionists, public health experts, school nurses and social workers to weigh
and measure him and to address his diet, but the appointments have been missed.
“Taking the child into care or putting him on the child protection register is
absolutely the last resort. We do not do these things lightly but we have got to
consider what effect this life-style is having on his health. Child abuse is not
just about hitting your children or sexually abusing them, it is also about
neglect.”
The source added: “The long-term health effects of obesity such as diabetes are
well known and it is concerning that Connor is more than twice the weight he
should be. There has to be some parental responsibility.”
McKeown will appear on Tonight with Trevor McDonald on ITV tomorrow.
Fat boy may be put in care, STs, 25.2.2007,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1434607.ece
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