Re: [OT] Voting schemes

----- Original Message -----
From: <Beth.Fulton@csiro.au>
> G'day,
>
> > One Currency, the UN "Worldo" (copycat credit to the pathetic
> > Euro name)which is pegged to the price of Chocolate.
>
> Now that's my kinda currency!!
>
> By the way we had a visiting European scientist tell us that they'd
> originally thought of calling the Euro the European Monetary Unit, but
then
> someone pointed out that an emu was a flightless Aussie bird, so they
> swapped to Euro (the guy may have been having us on, but that's what
he
> said)... little did they obviously realise that there is a small
Aussie
> marsupial rodent that goes by the name uro, so now every time they
talk
> about European currency I immediately think small and fuzzy ;)

Saw my first real-life Euro coin yesterday (they started distribution
now).
It does look a bit small and cute compared to the Deutschmark ;-)

As to the names: The unified currency unit in the EU before the Euro was
called the European Conversion Unit (ECU). When the name was discussed
and a
suitably neutral name was sought, this apparently was originally
suggested
by a French delegate. Everybody, including Margaret Thatcher, agreed
happily. The twist is that the Ecu was a French gold coin in the days of
the
monarchy. None of the delegates seems to have been aware of that -
except,
presumably, the French :-)

Greetings