BBC: Monster cargo ship delivers '863 million tins of baked beans'

Re: American Broadcasting Corporation?

This should not be a cause for complaint. Rather, look at it as an opportunity to unite both sides of the Atlantic through the Register Units of Measurement Program (RUMP). From now on, large weights should be expressed in terms of Brooklyn Bridges (bb) while masses of industrial building materials should instead be expressed in terms of Eiffel Towers (et). This is similar in concept to avoirdupois and troy measurements of weight. While it does nothing whatsoever to simplify the scales used to measure these things (especially as there are already official Reg UOMs for weight), there is nothing so unifying as confusion.

Re: American Broadcasting Corporation?

My guess is that the BBC knows it has a large Amercian readership. The average UK citizen will have heard of Times Square and the Brooklyn Bridge whereas the average American won't have a clue about Trafalgar Square, etc.* After all, all American TV shows and films have to inform the viewer that London is in England and Paris, France, etc.

I agree though, it is slightly annoying.

* A sweeping generalisation, I know!

Re: American Broadcasting Corporation?

"Why does the Beeb like to use units of measurement which are totally meaningless to its audience when trying to make things meaningful?"

RTFA

I know there is a growing trend amongst hard of reading wing commentardship to prevent facts getting in the way of a decent rant but the BBC didn't make that comparison, that image was from Maersk

As the text under the image states

"This image from Maersk shows what 18,000 shipping containers look like in the wrong place"

Re: ...terms mere mortals can get their heads round...

All I know is that that many beans would produce one mighty fart....

Icon, because need need to was it down properly.

Re: ...terms mere mortals can get their heads round...

863 million tins of baked beans

So how many Ann-Margret's could swin in that amount of baked beans?

Re: too complex for us mere mortals to understand

According to my reckoning, it would require ~260000 million cans to cover Wales one bean deep, so 863m tins really isn't all that much. It would cover the City of London to about 4½ inches deep.

"is the Triple E the class, or the name?"

It's the class, obviously. You see it, and you go "Eee, that's a big ship!"

Re: bit dubious about 18,000

I'm going to guess they've gone with the total ship volume which is naturally not the entire cargo area (small things like engines, crew accomodation, the tower, etc tend to get in the way...

18,000 total size, 15,000 actual cargo carry ability. Sounds about right to me...

Re: How many olympic-sized swimming pools...

...and how many Roger Daltrey dolls would you need to sit in them with their loofah's?

Mine's the one with meaty, bouncy things in the pockets, and no they're not made of horse!