Dear John, Alas this is not so. The BBC is an absolute bastion of colonial units and it encourages the use of these in all areas from sport to international conflict.
I base my views on quite regular listening of BBC commentary on radio through the BBC World Service and on irregular observation of video clips from the BBC that are repeated on the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). Over the last few weeks, I have been watching the Cricket World Cup � held in South Africa. The commentators from Australia, Canada, Holland, India, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and Zimbabwe all used metric measures but the commentators from the BBC in the UK persist in using old colonial units. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia on 2003-03-24 13.42, kilopascal at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > 2003-03-23 > > I though the BBC was pretty much metric. Why would they need to do this? > > John > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Pat Naughtin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Sunday, 2003-03-23 20:52 > Subject: [USMA:25284] Imperial pause > > > Dear Jim and All, > > Here, in Australia, we get several media 'feeds' reporting on the situation > in Iraq. These are from the various networks from the USA; the BBC from the > UK; Australia's ABC; and Al Jazeera (in Arabic � that I can't understand) > > This note is about the pause that comes with the reports from the BBC just > before they mention any measurement in their reports. > > Quote: 'The missiles are landing (ah umm = imperial pause) about two thirds > of a mile away'. > > Quote 2: 'The flames appear (ah umm = imperial pause) about a mile and a > half away. > > Clearly the (ah umm = imperial pause) is needed for the reporter either to > do a mental conversion from metric units, or to look up a convenient > conversion chart. > > Have you noticed this in media reports in the USA? > > Cheers, > > Pat Naughtin LCAMS > Geelong, Australia > > on 2003-03-24 07.32, James Frysinger at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> I have sent a fill-in-the-box reply to MSNBC in response to their > question, >> "How do you like our Interactive Maps?". >> >> Essentially, I told them that our troops operate in kilometers, most of > the >> reporting is in kilometers, and that most of the world, including many >> Americans, use and understand kilometers. On that basis I asked them to >> include a kilometer scale on their maps, which so far seem to have only >> scales in miles. >> >> Jim > >
