The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Corrections and clarifications

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 18, 2006

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Corrections and clarifications

A retired professor of physics says: "In the Young World, May 12, 2006, Page 1, in the box item titled `The Power of Watt', you have printed the unit of Power as `Watt'. This is against international convention. A symbol for units, if it is derived from a proper name, should be printed in capital letters, while the complete name should start with lower case letter, and not capital. As such, the unit of power should be printed as `watt' and its symbol, as W. Some other examples, with the symbol in brackets, are: newton [N], hertz [Hz], ampere [A], weber [Wb], kelvin [K]. These conventions have been evolved after a series of Commissions under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and accepted internationally since 1963."

In "Jewel thieves strike again in Hyderabad" ("From the South", May 17, 2006), the words "heist", "looting" and "burglary" have been used alternately in the text. (The report was on how gold and jewellery items worth Rs. 9 crore were stolen from a jewellery shop in Hyderabad.) While heist is a robbery, looting is the act of stealing money or valuables, typically during a war or a riot. Burglary is illegal entry of a building with intent to commit a crime, especially theft. Considering the value of the items lost, "heist" would have been the right choice of word.

The blurb for "House break-ins in Saligramam, Ambattur" (Chennai city, May 17, 2006, page 3) was: "88 sovereigns of gold, Rs. 30,000 in cash stolen". Sovereign is a former British coin worth one pound sterling, now minted for commemorative purposes. A sovereign is a term of weight for gold, and is 8 grammes. It should be gold weighing 88 sovereigns, as in the text.

A few readers have pointed out that in "Cabinet nod to appoint qualified persons from any caste as priests" (Tamil Nadu, May 17, 2006, page 6), the sentence "He [Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss] said the decision was taken at the speed of lightening" is incorrect. It should have been "lightning", which, in this context, is "moving or occurring with remarkable speed or suddenness".

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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