tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337206901491734394.post6232914995763890924..comments2023-11-10T03:38:11.763-05:00Comments on I.N.K.: Exactly!Linda Salzmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17217322360480267856noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337206901491734394.post-50186554521342959762013-01-08T22:51:52.545-05:002013-01-08T22:51:52.545-05:00As a nonfiction editor I run into this conversion ...As a nonfiction editor I run into this conversion problem ALL the time. It is nice to hear someone else has thought through this exact same logical argument of when to round or be precise. I find the best ways around it depend on the age level. For the very young I skip the measurements, for lower elementary I like making comparisons--is a pangolin at three feet long about the size of a raccoon? Or a little bigger--maybe a black lab? For upper elementary you can add something visual--scale diagrams or rulers showing the measurements next to a silhouette. rglaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13710584085737543864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337206901491734394.post-54285621814296920282013-01-07T15:29:09.139-05:002013-01-07T15:29:09.139-05:00Welcome back to I.N.K., Steve! Along with meaningl...Welcome back to I.N.K., Steve! Along with meaningless precision another pet peeve is most people's lack of understanding of acceptable risk. Over the weekend I heard a story of a household product that most people have that causes about 800 [note I rounded off] deaths a year. "Horrors!" some people say. "Get it off the market, no death from a household product is acceptable." What's the product? Natural gas.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07214356318088069618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337206901491734394.post-89491700768204494262013-01-07T09:05:14.508-05:002013-01-07T09:05:14.508-05:00Getting things off one's chest is always a goo...Getting things off one's chest is always a good thing. Okay, not always, but it can have certain health benefits. And while I don't usually have to deal with the issues you describe here, it does come up every so often. I try to explain the variables in the text, but if it gets clumsy I put a brief explanation in my backmatter. By the way, like just about everyone else, I grew up understanding that the healthy body temperature was 98.6. When I was eight or so, I mentioned this to my doctor and he said the notion of a fixed body temp number was nonesense. Different people, different bodies, different normal temperatures, he explained. Then he added a really valuable piece of advice, "Don't believe everything you hear even if everybody says it." Maybe more kids need to hear this. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12724255232058112413noreply@blogger.com