Slate’s mistakes for the week of March 18.

Slate’s Mistakes for the Week of March 18

Slate’s Mistakes for the Week of March 18

Slate's mistakes.
March 22 2013 4:45 AM

Corrections

Slate’s mistakes.

Red pen,Red Pen

Photo by Gabriela Insuratelu

In a March 22 “Technology,” Kent Sepkowitz misstated the amount of money spent on bottled water last year. It is $21 billion, not $21 million. This article also misstated the name of the acid that helps maintain the blood’s pH. It is carbonic acid, not carbolic acid.

In a March 21 "Bad Astronomy" blog post, Phil Plait incorrectly identified supernova 1999em as the 147th such exploding star that year. It was actually the 143rd supernova in 1999. He apologizes to SN1999eq for usurping that position.

In a March 21 "DoubleX," Adam Alter misstated the location of the University of Southern Brittany. It is in northwestern France, not northeastern France.

Due to an editing error, a March 21 “Future Tense” blog post misstated the number of Microsoft user accounts affected by law enforcement requests for data. It is 137,424, not 137.

In a March 21 “TV Club,” Jeremy Stahl incorrectly identified a dog in the show Archer as a boxer. It appears to be a mastiff. He also misspelled the IFAAB (Isis Field Agent Aptitude Battery) test.

In the March 21 “War Stories,” Fred Kaplan omitted the word conditions in a quote from Title 50 that defines covert actions as activities “to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad.”

In a March 21 "Weigel" blog post, David Weigel misspelled Salomon Melgen's first name.

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In a March 21 "Weigel" blog post, David Weigel misspelled Sen. Daniel Inouye's last name.

In a March 21 “Weigel” blog post, David Weigel misspelled Sen. Mike Crapo’s last name.

In the March 20 "Bad Astronomy" blog post, Phil Plait reported, based on a news release from the American Geophysical Union, that the Voyager 1 spacecraft had left the solar system. Subsequent news releases from NASA and the AGU revised the claim to say Voyager had merely entered a new region of the solar system.

In a March 20 "Brow Beat" blog post, Dan Kois misspelled the first name of journalism school professor Suzi Steffen.

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In a March 20 “Politics,” David Weigel misidentified Sen. Barbara Mikulski as the first woman elected to the Senate “in her own right.” She was the first Democratic woman to do so. He also misspelled the first name of the Polish-American nurse in Capitol Offense, Norrie Gorzack, as well as Sen. Daniel Inouye's last name.

 In a March 20 “Science,” Emma Marris misspelled the name of the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle.

In a March 20 “Weigel” blog post, David Weigel misspelled George Stephanopoulos’ last name.

In a March 18 "Bad Astronomy" blog post, Phil Plait oversimplified the difference between confidence intervals and statistical certainty ranges. The error does not change the overall result or conclusions of the post.

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In a March 18 “Faith-Based,” James Martin misstated the century St. Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscans. It was the 13th century, not the 14th.

In a March 18 “Future Tense,” Frank Swain misspelled Long Now Foundation President Stewart Brand’s first name.

In a March 18 “Moneybox” blog post, Matthew Yglesias misspelled Eric Hirschhorn’s last name.

In a March 18 "Politics," John Dickerson misidentified an author of a 100-page GOP report. It was Henry Barbour, not Haley Barbour.

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In a March 18 “Slatest” blog post, Abby Ohlheiser stated that for the first time since 1978 fewer than 40,000 people are working staff jobs in newsrooms. The number refers exclusively to newspaper newsrooms and not newsrooms as a whole.  

In a March 18 “TV Club,” Aisha Harris misquoted the dean as saying that Chang was once a "homeless bench dweller" and “guitarist.” The dean called him a “homeless vent dweller” and “keytarist.”

In a March 18 "XX Factor" blog post, Amanda Marcotte attributed a statement by journalist Candy Crowley to CNN’s Paul Callan.

In a March 15 “Weigel” blog post, David Weigel misquoted Sen. Mitch McConnell in a speech he gave to the Conservative Political Action Conference. McConnell said, “We gave it everything we had, everything we had and we just barely lost the legislative fight,” not "When it came to Obamacare, we gave it everything we have. Everything we have. And we just lost."

Slate strives to correct all errors of fact. If you've seen an error in our pages, let us know at corrections@slate.com. General comments should be posted in our Comments sections at the bottom of each article.