In the May 21 "Explainer," Brian Palmer described a fossil as a descendant of extant species instead of the ancestor of extant species.

In the May 20 "Moneybox," Daniel Gross misidentified the building technology group of Siemens America as the business technology group.

In the May 19 "Books," Michael Agger misstated the make of a Honda bike mentioned by the author. It was a Honda Magna, not a Honda Magnum.

In a May 18 "Sports Nut," Christopher Beam incorrectly stated that a Maryland proposal would legalize slot machines at Maryland race tracks. The money raised from slot machines would merely benefit race tracks. He also incorrectly stated that the owners of Pimlico race track filed for bankruptcy in 2008. They filed in March 2009.

In the May 18 "The Best Policy," Eliot Spitzer originally implied that GE is currently saving on its cost of capital by using the Commercial Paper Funding Facility. According to GE, it has not used the CPFF since February.

In the May 18 "Chatterbox," Timothy Noah stated erroneously that Eric Schmidt was a commencement speaker for Princeton's graduating class. Schmidt addressed graduating classes at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pennsylvania.

In the May 18 "Fighting Words," Christopher Hitchens wrote that late comedian Les Dawson used to tell a joke about West Indians using a crosswalk. That joke is more commonly associated with comedian Jim Davidson.

In the May 18 "Foreigners," Miranda Kennedy stated that Manmohan Singh was India's first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to win a second term in office. Indira Gandhi also won consecutive terms, serving from 1966 to 1977.

In the May 18 "Press Box,"  Jack Shafer mistakenly attributed the discovery of the Dowd plagiarism to Talking Points Memo. The discovery was made by a reader/blogger at Talking Points Memo's community site, tpmcafe.com.

In the May 18 "Technology," Farhad Manjoo originally referred to the Web site Wolfram Alpha as "a savant, smart about a few things but profoundly ignorant about large swaths of human knowledge." The correct term is idiot savant.

If you believe you have found an inaccuracy in a Slate story, please send an e-mail to corrections@slate.com, and we will investigate. General comments should be posted in "The Fray," our reader discussion forum.