But the Mail was technically wrong when they quoted: "Skip Snow, a python
specialist who conducted the autopsy at Everglades National Park, said the
animal had a girth of 44ins with the 5st 6lb deer inside its stomach."
I doubt that Skip Snow has any idea at all what a stone is (other than
something you dig up in your garden), and therefore he didn't actually say what
the Mail attributed him as saying.
Another example of unnecessary 'dumbing down' by journalists who insult their
readers by following outdated corporate mantra.
John F-L
----- Original Message -----
From: John M. Steele
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2011 1:58 PM
Subject: [USMA:51288] So, A Snake Eats a Deer
but this is mostly about how the media fiddles with numbers.
The AP item on Yahoo news and this paper report it as a 16 foot (4.88
meter) snake that consumed a 76 pound (34.47 kilogram) deer. Another paper
said the snake was between 16 and 18 ft, so not too precise and a bit of
decimal dust in the numbers above.
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Huge-python-found-in-Florida-had-eaten-a-deer-2241725.php
Obviously, no one in Florida is of foreign origin and everyone
understands Customary, so may as well strip out the metric.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/8479673-418/deer-eating16-foot-python-killed-in-florida.html
Of course, readers in the UK can't understand it unless the deer is
converted to stones (5st 6lb) and no metric.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054968/Peckish-python-16ft-long-snake-South-Florida-Everglades-adult-deer-stomach.html
(caution, this last link has some gross photos)
I'm sure the Canadian and Australian press would have used metric but
had the good taste not to cover the story.
