Regret the Error

Fuzzy numbers etc.

In his column, "Is Rising Inequality Reversible?" [May 2007] Paul Starr referred to the total income of the 300,000 Americans who make up the "top 1 percent." In fact, 300,000 equals the "top 0.1 percent," or the "top tenth of the top 1 percent" of the U.S. population.

Attack of the spellchecker

The New Scientist magazine's Feedback column spotted an interesting correction in another publication:

DO WE detect the hand of the mischievous spellchecker in the following apologetic note from the April issue of Contemporary Sociology?
"In the January issue... in the review written by Elizabeth Gorman of The Work and Family Handbook: Multi-disciplinary perspectives and approaches , edited by Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Ellen Ernst Kossek and Stephen Sweet, the contributors' last names should have been spelled 'Karen Gareis' instead of 'Karen Agrees', 'Laura Beavais' instead of 'Laura Beavers', and 'Gerstel and Sarkisian', not 'Gretel and Sardinian'. We regret the errors." Link (to New Scientist)

Credit to the writer, regret from the editors

In her profile of Ann Louise Bardach in the March/April issue, Bree Nordenson spelled Bardach's name perfectly. Unfortunately her editors added an "e" to Ann on the cover and on the contents page. We regret that.

Retraction

The "What's Going on in Transport" article published April 23, 2007, has been retracted from min's b2b and MINONLINE.COM due to unsubstantiated reporting concerning Commonwealth Business Media. The article contained unwarranted accusations against CBM. min's b2b editorial policy is to never publish unsubstantiated rumors and it sincerely regrets this error. Link (sub req'd)

Fun with photos

Not all the people shown in the pictures on the opening spread of the article "They made me do it" (14 April, p 42) were suicide bombers. Among those who are not is the hooded man who was maltreated by soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq. Link

The New Republic is stuck in the past

Please note that our April 23, 2007, issue should have been labeled Vol. 236, Number 14 instead of Vol. 236, Number 12. We regret the error.

Magazine files for divorce on Chris Rock's behalf

In the article, "10 Hottest Couples" (Feb. 2007), we incorrectly referred to Chris and Malaak Rock's marital status. According to a spokesperson, the couple is married and neither has filed for divorce.

Traffic World magazine offers corrections to past editorials, with tongue planted in cheek

Traffic World magazine is the latest publication to use the correction as a gateway to humor. The following is from an article that offers a listing of corrections to various editorials during the magazine's 100 year history:

For instance, we wrote in 1988 the "Railroad Lobbyists' Preservation Act" was killed. Near as we can tell, rail lobbyists look to have been pretty well preserved.
We wrote in 1972 that Congress "shows no interest in coordination of government agency actions with its own." Sadly, government agencies also are uninterested in coordinating their actions with each other.
We suggested in November 1965 there was a "consensus that criticism of carriers whose services fall short of meeting shippers' needs should be coupled with sincere efforts to understand the carriers' problems and to give them such cooperation as may properly be offered." That should be offered, of course, only when written into a binding contract.
We said on Dec. 25, 1972, that "students of all ages" should understand "it is not possible for us to comply with their requests that we mail to them all of the information we have about piggyback service (or railroad abandonments, or the Department of Transportation, or any of various other broad subjects)." We stand by that.
In January 1953, we applauded the "orderliness and on-time schedules" that had come to various traffic club dinners that "springs in no small part from the abolition of the miscellaneous and numerous cocktail parties that normally precede these affairs." We want to reverse that stance and stand, albeit wobbly, behind those "numerous libatory welcomings."
In October 1994, we lamented "the constant attacks to which the Interstate Commerce Commission has been subjected in recent months." We can find no other reference to this so-called commission nor what it did.
In August 1945, with transport capacity finally freed from wartime obligations, we suggested the "truck operator who distributed his limited capacity equitably among the shippers who had built his business in the first instance, and who did his best courteously to help the shipper solve his problems, is likely to find himself with a pretty healthy backlog of civilian traffic." We neglected to mention that would be true as long as the spot market held up.
We wrote in July 1980, "Among the great needs of the hour toward making freight transportation more efficient is the upgrading of main highways that have been allowed to deteriorate." We should have noted it would take more than an hour.
In December 1941, the week after Pearl Harbor, we noted on this page, "True patriotism does not consist in merely to assenting what an administration does because 'we are at war now, you know.' ... We still have the right to say what we think should be done and how it should be done." We'll correct that when someone can tell us how.

Submission correction

The Eat The Press folks over at Huffington Post spotted this correction in the latest issue of The New Yorker, and also explain its significance:

Sports Illustrated editor declines to correct the shape of the earth

From Terry McDonell's letter from the editor in the current issue:

The magazine received nearly 800 letters about the cover story on global warming (Going, Going Green, March 12)--most of them taking issue with the subject matter and suggesting that SI stick to sports and pay more attention to business as usual...These stories were always controversial. This time some readers suggested they didn't want Al Gore running the magazine. Chicken Little was also mentioned. Other letters pointed out that Mars is warming, and one contained a lefthanded reference to the earth's being flat: "Why are you buying into that stuff? There's no more 'scientific consensus' on global warming than there is that the earth is flat." The temptation, of course, was to run a correction that read, "The earth is flat. SI regrets the error."