Feedback editor, Associated Press Please pass to Mr. Randolph E. Schmid Dear Mr. Schmid, I read your AP Wire story as printed in today's local newspaper and then I took the time and trouble to make sure our local editors had not "dumbed down" what you had written. I finally found your article posted on the AP Wire as "African Dust Brings Germs Across Ocean", dated JULY 01, 18:31 EST. Now I see that they quoted your wording exactly: "On the dusty days there averaged 158 bacteria, 213 viruses and 201 fluorescent bacteria in about a quart of air." It has dawned on me that you probably wrote "about a quart of air" because you had concerns about Americans understanding what a liter is. Please rest assured that Americans, at least those of us who live in South Carolina, are very familiar with liters. Down here, the major soft-drink bottlers provide 1 L and 2 L bottles of their products. Most "spring waters" are now available in 1 L bottles. I have one in front of me from Sam's Club (you can't get much more American than that!) and it contains exactly 1 L of water. Those who imbibe alcohol know that spirits are also sold in 1 L bottles--nationwide, if the rumors are to be believed. Since microbe counts such as 158, 213, and 201 don't seem to be round numbers, it seems incredible that you would give those as the counts in "about a quart of air". You seem to have obtained your data from the USGS and I find it hard to believe that they do research in such a sloppy manner. Nor does their article in "the June issue of the journal Aerobiologia" put it that way, I'm sure. How can one derive much information from an exact count in an approximate volume? Please refer to the AP Stylebook under "metric" and note that it says AP writers should use metric units where appropriate. If the writer feels that most Americans (not just journalists) would be confused by such metric units then non-metric equivalents can be provided in parentheses (35th ed. p 157). I have a Jeffersonian outlook on the news media. It should serve to enlighten and educate the citizens. If you cannot convey to your readers what you mean by a liter, then there is no hope that you will successfully convey to them the concept of dust-borne microbes being blown from the Sahara to Sarasota Springs. sincerely, James R. Frysinger -- James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston 10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street 843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424 http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644
