It's just a theory, but there is evidence to the effect that, earlier, many who became journalists 'hated maths' and [in consequence] couldn't do science. They hoped to avoid these issues by becoming journalists. They couldn't hope to become good journalists [without some remedial numeracy]. Duncan
-----Original Message----- From: Han Maenen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: November 4, 2001 12:49 Subject: [USMA:15944] Re: I challenged the Associated Press >Claiming that the Gotthardt Tunnel has a length of 11.7 miles is equally >stupid, as 11.7 miles is not equal to 11 700 yards, and of course, because >Switzerland is a metric nation. Agencies like AP make English speaking >people believe that ifp used all over the world. > >BTW, the innumeracy of this reporter with his 35 miles versus 56.32704 km is >beyond belief. How can an otherwise intelligent person be so awfully stupid? > >Han > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "James R. Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; etc. >Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2001 5:14 PM >Subject: Re: I challenged the Associated Press > > > 2001-11-04 > > Jim & Jason, > >Your comment reminded me of a reporter's comment in an article back in the >'70s. He was against metric because he knew the distance between Cleveland >and Akron was 35 miles and in metric we would have to learn it as 56.32704 >km. Of course his intent was to "show" those who don't know metric that >metric meant going from simple numbers to these long, odd numbers. And as >dumb as people are, I'm sure many were turned off to metric from reading >these comments. >
