Opinion - News Analysis

Corrections and clarifications

In connection with the entry on the genetic condition Down’s Syndrome in “Corrections and Clarifications” (September 6, 2008), a reader points out that the World Health Organisation website lists it as Down Syndrome, although many of its sites also has Down’s. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, too, lists it as Down Syndrome. The Oxford and Chambers dictionaries have it as Down’s. Since it was named after John Langdon Haydon Down (1828–1896), British physician, it (often) was referred to as Down Syndrome.

The thirteenth paragraph of a report “What’s so new about the ‘new’ Pakistan?” (Editorial page, September 1, 2008) was “So, we’ve been there before — and so many times that it almost feels like being trapped in Groundhog Day.” Responding to a query from readers, Hasan Suroor clarifies that Groundhog Day is the term applied to situations where the same thing happens over and over again — like history repeating itself. It has its origins in a very successful Hollywood comedy called “Groundhog Day” where a character finds himself trapped in a time-loop with same events happening day after day.

The second paragraph in a report “Kahn retires” (“Sport”, September 5, 2008) was “Kahn, 39, made 557 appearances in the Bundesliga for Dortmund and Bayern and bade farewell, having on Monday insisted that ‘there aren’t many things I miss’ about the game.” It was an error. Kahn, all through his club career, represented only Karlsruher SC and Bayern Munich.

A late correction. In an article “Another South African icon goes” (Op-Ed, August 22, 2008), the ninth paragraph had a reference to the Decembrists. The author, M.S. Prabhakara, clarifies that there was an error in this reference. The Decembrists were a group of young Russian army officers of various ranks who rose in rebellion against Tsar Nicholas I in December 1825, and not “in the late 19th century”, as published. The book “Conspiracy against the Tsar: A Portrait of the Decembrists”, by the Soviet historian, Natan Eidelman (Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1985), confirms this date.

The third paragraph in an article “Is there a limitation period for use of stamp paper?” (Property Plus – Chennai, September 6, 2008, page 9) was “Alongside this issue, another pressing and related question is whether all stamp papers used in a registration have to be in consecutive numbers and bought from one gannet ….” The word should have been “agent”.

It is the policy of The Hindu to correct significant errors as soon as possible. Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page.

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