Slate’s mistakes for the week of Oct. 14.

Slate’s Mistakes for the Week of Oct. 14.

Slate’s Mistakes for the Week of Oct. 14.

Slate's mistakes.
Oct. 18 2013 4:00 AM

Corrections

Slate’s mistakes.

In an Oct. 18 Bad Astronomy blog post, Phil Plait stated that the probability of a safe pass is 99.99998 percent. It's 99.998 percent. (This is still a pretty safe bet.) Also, in the illustration depicting a 1-in-63,000 impact chance, Plait listed the circle as 500 pixels across. It's 280 pixels across.

In an Oct. 18 Human Genome, Razib Khan miscalculated the odds that the chromosomes a child inherits from one parent could come entirely from just one grandparent. The odds are 1 in 4 million, not 1 in 1,048.

Due to an error in Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All, the photo caption in an Oct. 18 The Eye blog post misidentified the machine as an MRI machine. It is a CT scanner.

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Due to a production error in the Oct. 18 Slate Quiz, Question 10 of the quiz marked an incorrect answer as correct. The Slate contestant's score was corrected accordingly.

In an Oct. 18 Weigel blog post, David Weigel misquoted Rep. Mark Meadows as saying President Obama was “willing to negotiate with a gun to his head.” Meadows said Obama was willing negotiate when “there’s not a gun to his head.”

In an Oct. 17 Bad Astronomy blog post, Phil Plait misspelled Gordan Ugarkovic's first name.

In an Oct. 17 Brow Beat blog post, Forrest Wickman suggested that Patsey's plea to be put out of her misery in the film adaptation of 12 Years a Slave was artistic license. It was drawn from the book.

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Due to an editing error in an Oct. 17 Medical Examiner, a headline implied that vasectomies are performed with a scalpel. In many cases, a no-scalpel option is the preferred procedure.

In an Oct. 17 Double X, Laura Helmuth referred to science blogger Danielle Lee as an anthropologist. Lee is a biologist.

In an Oct. 17 Politics, John Dickerson wrote that the government shutdown cost taxpayers roughly $24 billion. The estimate was for the overall economic cost.

In an Oct. 17 Weigel blog post, David Weigel misspelled Sen. Susan Collins' first name.

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In an Oct. 16 Bad Astronomy blog post, Phil Plait wrote that immunity develops "a few days" after a flu shot. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, immunity takes up to two weeks. 

In an Oct. 16 XX Factor blog post, Amanda Hess misspelled researcher Jill Tiefenthaler's last name.

In an Oct. 15 Books, Matthew Yglesias misstated the timing of Google's founding. Google was founded in 1998 during the original dot-com boom, but did not go public until 2004, after the bubble burst.

In an Oct. 15 Outward blog post, J. Bryan Lowder misgendered Rolling Stone reporter Alex Stone. She is a woman.

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In an Oct. 14 Brow Beat blog post, Mac Rogers incorrectly identified a Doctor Who episode recovered in 2011. It was from the serial “The Underwater Menace,” not “Fury From the Deep.”

In an Oct. 14 The World blog post, Joshua Keating misspelled Cape Verde.

In a Oct. 10 Politics, David Weigel incorrectly identified Rep. Tim Griffin as an Arizona congressman. He represents Arkansas. 

In an Oct. 10 Weigel blog post, David Weigel misstated that Republicans have held the Virginia attorney general's office since 1997. They've held it since 1994.

An Oct. 7 American Prosperity Consensus was misattributed to the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was written by Jeremy Dennison.

In a Sept. 26 Culturebox, Alan Siegel misspelled the last name of an alt.tv.simpsons user, Jonathan Haas.

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.