Is it really worth the energy to be "appalled?" My view -- every sport has a document defining the "rules of the game," by some title, and an association which maintains those rules. The rules are the rules until the association changes them. For anyone who cares enough to watch the game, the field is plainly marked in yards. Translating game statistics of an Imperial/Customary game to metres is as silly as US publications converting metric track and field events to feet and inches. I have no issue with a parenthetical conversion, but the primary reporting should use the official units of the game. Supplemental units should be used as deemed necessary based on the readers.
When the game is officially converted, the reporting should be as well. A good example is your horse race (Australia Cup?). It has been converted to 3200 m and should be described as such (or 3.2 km). A parenthetical (about 2 miles) is fine, but it should not be converted in primary reporting. If yards are that unacceptable in polite Australian society, the pressure should be on the association to change the rules of Australian Gridiron, not on the reporter to depart from official units and records. ________________________________ From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, November 14, 2010 10:27:29 PM Subject: [USMA:48863] Re: Yards Come to Australia On 2010/11/15, at 12:20 , John M. Steele wrote: I was surprised by this article. Apparently there is a league there which plays American rule football, which is called Gridiron, there. >(there is also a Google article) > >http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/sport/other/firebirds-storm-home-for-5th-title/1996688.aspx > >"With the metric system given the boot for the afternoon, Milne put in a >dominant display which saw him named most valuable player rushing 133 yards >from >14 carries and also having four receipts for another 24 yards." Dear John, I imagine, without seeing it, that the field of play would have been marked out as shown in either of the diagrams at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridiron_football and as you can see these are both marked out in yards. Canberra is the Australian Capital Territory and, as such, it has all the foreign embassies including the USA Embassy and the Canadian Embassy. I suspect that the supporters at the ground might have included a lot of homesick North Americans. Sadly, one of the symptoms of their homesickness appears to be a longing for old pre-metric measuring words! However, that said, newspapers here generally put translations of foreign words like 'yards' into parentheses. Accordingly, I have written to the Editor of the Canberra Times as follows: ## Dear Editor, I have just read the article, Firebirds storm home for 5th title by DAVID POLKINGHORNE, at http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/sport/other/firebirds-storm-home-for-5th-title/1996688.aspx and I am appalled that you did not translate the gridiron distances into metres for Australian readers. Australia is not a state or a colony of the USA or Canada and foreign terms like yards should be translated into modern metric system units. Regards, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia ## Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ to subscribe.
