YESTERDAY, I recommended this book as a partial cure for journalistic ignorance concerning matters military so as to avoid embarrassing mistakes like calling an armored personnel carrier a “tank.” But this correction from The New York Times suggests that the problem is worse than I realized. Note especially the last sentence:

An editorial on Monday about the new jumbo Airbus misstated the weight of the airplane. Its takeoff weight, fully loaded with passengers, freight and fuel, is hundreds of thousands of pounds heavier than the Boeing 747, depending on the configurations, not 30,000 tons heavier. It’s an aircraft, not an aircraft carrier.

Ouch! And the truly colossal weight-error (30,000 tons is 60 million pounds) makes me wonder how much I can trust their numbers on Social Security. (Thanks to reader David Gerstman for the pointer).

UPDATE: Reader Brad Spencer recommends this book by John Paulos, instead: Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences.