this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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Japan has told its citizens living in China to keep a low profile, including talking quietly in public, after Beijing blasted Tokyo for releasing treated radioactive water from a wrecked nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

500 Olympic-sized pools

Why do people use football fields and swimming pools as units of measurement.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How much is that in giraffes?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Roughly 1651 girraffes, assuming an olympic swimming pool is 2.5 million litres.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I can mentally picture an Olympic swimming pool, that's why.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I need to get better at editing myself.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

I assume it’s to help people visualize volume/distance/size/etc. If an article said “50,000 gallons”, it would be much more precise, but also harder to relate to. When an article says “500 Olympic-sized pools”, it’s significantly easier to picture in my mind.

It’s also worth remembering that this is a newspaper intended for the casual edification of the general public, not a scientific document.