I didn't yet. Is it really appropriate? As a non-US press agency, I expect them to use metric correctly, as I would AFP. It seems like saying, "thanks for not being idiots." What do other people think? If AP changed, after years of being wrong on metric, I'd be glad to say, "thanks for not being idiots, anymore."
--- On Thu, 6/14/12, Edward Schlesinger <[email protected]> wrote: From: Edward Schlesinger <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [USMA:51701] Fw: AP gets it wrong; Reuters gets it right To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 3:01 PM Hi John, Did you remember to leave positive feed back for the Reuters article? On 6/14/12, John M. Steele <[email protected]> wrote: > I may have been wrong on NHC. They have not yet associated a numeric value > with storm surge in any units. However, they are now predicting rainfall > from the storm in dual units. The first time I've ever seen this (I urged > them to make this change last fall). Since the whole advisory is "all > caps," the closest they can come is "MM." I think it is perfectly clear in > context. > > http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPEP3+shtml/DDHHMM.shtml > RAINFALL...CARLOTTA IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL > ACCUMULATIONS OF 3-5 INCHES...75-125 MM...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM > AMOUNTS OF 10-12 INCHES...250-300 MM...OVER THE MEXICAN STATES OF > GUERRERO...OAXACA...CHIAPAS...AS WELL AS OVER THE SOUTHERN PORTION > OF GUATEMALA. THESE RAINS COULD CAUSE LIFE-THREATENING FLASH FLOODS > AND MUDSLIDES. > > --- On Thu, 6/14/12, John M. Steele <[email protected]> wrote: > > > From: John M. Steele <[email protected]> > Subject: AP gets it wrong; Reuters gets it right > To: [email protected] > Date: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 7:51 AM > > > > > > > > What's the subject? Metric, of course. Well actually, Tropical Storm > Carlotta, expected to be a hurricane by Friday. > > AP goes out of their way to change the the symbol for kilometers per hour > (km/h) used by the National Hurricane Center to a wrong "kph" to help > confuse readers who understand metric better than Customary. (Yes, guilty, I > made the bitter comment which follows the article.) > http://news.yahoo.com/tropical-storm-carlotta-forms-pacific-south-mexico-expected-085210645.html > > Reuters uses metric correctly, has a nice graphic, and even goes to the > trouble of converting storm surge to metric (a suggestion I made to NHC > which they apparently did not accept). > http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/tropical-storm-carlotta-is-forecast-to-strike-mexico-as-a-hurricane-at-about-0000-gmt-on-16-june/ > > When the numbers count, you can count on AP to confuse you. -- Sincerely, Edward B.
