Dear Han and All, It seems that whenever metrication of a nation is attempted there are pockets of non-compliance that can last for many years. Some of these don't matter much (and I think pigeon racing is one of these) but others can have a major impact on the way that others approach the metrication process.
Two examples of sub-groups that have a major impact on metrication are: Shoe makers Shoe makers persist in using the barley corn as the intellectual basis of their size numbers. I believe that the large shoe makers, such as Reebok and Adidas, design and make their shoes in millimetres (with accuracy to 100 micrometres) but they reserve the barleycorn size numbers for the public. By the way, I think that the barley corn was defined as an English law in about 1234, so some of these pockets of resistance to change can persist for a ling time. Journalists I know that it is a generalisation, but I believe that there are many in the writing business who are functionally innumerate � they are highly literate but deeply innumerate. Many of these have an active fear of numbers and anything to do with them. For these reasons it is difficult (maybe impossible) for many journalists to have any understanding of the 'metric system' as a system; they see words such as metre and kilogram as just that: words, and not part of a coherent international system of measuring units. Journalists constantly convey their negative attitudes about numbers and measurement to the wider community. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia on 2003-03-27 07.10, Han Maenen at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Although Australia is a metric country, it seems that there is a firm > exception to the rule. Pigeon racing in that country seems to have been > totally bypassed by metrication; an Imperial island in a metric ocean. They > seem convinced that flying distances should only be measured in miles. In > all other metric countries this sport is metric. It is not metric in > Britain, Ireland and the USA (miles and flying speed in decimal yards per > minute). Speed is measured in m/min in metric countries, and distance of > course in kilometers. > > See this gem from the PDF attachment: "Taking the bird 160 miles (as the > bird flies) involved a round trip of almost 800 klms (SIC) and a long day of > driving with many delays at road works along the Pacific highway." Or this > one: "I have never been able to understand and never will be able to > understand why most flyers start their birds a few klms (SIC) down the road > and slowly progress a few klms (SIC) at a time until a limit of thirty & > forty miles has been reached prior to the first race." > > Maybe they live in a time warp that situates them about 30 years ago. And > "800" and a "few" *klms* after 30 years of exposure to the correct symbol > km!! I wonder, when will Australian pigeon racing go metric? > > I have had pigeons myself. Most were very tame, cheeky and naughty, a bit > like Hitchcocks' birds. A black cock was a real hooligan, always spoiling > for a fight against my hand. He would come down, cooing and blowing up his > neck as if saying: "Come on you, I want to fight you!" He had inherited > this fighting spirit from his mother. When she was hatching eggs and I held > a hand in her cot, she would coo first, then she came off the nest and > attacked me! Imagine a little bird, weighing in at about 400 g, doing such a > thing! I will never forget this lovely little black scoundrel and his plucky > mother. My relationship with these birds was the same that people have with > their dogs. > > The PDF-article is in full in the virus checked attachment: all distances in > miles except for the citations above. > > Han > Historian of Dutch Metrication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands > >
