ERRATA
My general philosophy of life is that, if a job is worth doing, it is worth
doing fast. Which gets a lot done, but it is peppered with mistakes. Compound
those mistakes with printers who miss proof reader's mark-ups, and the
randomizing element of corrupted data transmission, and the only thing
that saves me from despair is middle-aged loss of vision. If I do not wear
reading glasses, the peppering of mistakes disappears in a sort of fuzzy
blur. Before the blur got really bad, here are some mistakes I found.
FIRST AND WORST
The error that causes me most grief is a misrepresentation of Young's modulus
containing an extra and unwanted
kdL/A
which can be found on page 92 of "On-line Evaluation of Meat" (OLEM)
as well as page 559 of "Structure and Development of Meat Animals and Poultry"
(SADMAP)
was a classic error caused by dashing at high speed without checking. The
extra kay diddley A crept in from a line that was not properly deleted,
and it crept into two books! It was not until failing memory caused me
to read one of my own books that I spotted it, although I am sure it must
jump off the page and attack anyone who knows their rheology.
MOST RECENT
-
2001. In the summary of "Relationships between electrical impedance and
fluid losses from turkey breast meat" published in Archives of Animal Breeding
I missed spotting a superfluous k. It should be 120 Hz not 120 kHz.
-
-
The TIBULA, which appears in SADMAP p. 79 is either an uncaught
typographical error or the result of pathological fusion of the tibia and
fibula in a really ugly sheep made to wear rubber boots that were too small.
-
The HAZZARD to human health in SADMAP p. 56 should not cause alarm.
Either I missed a typo or I was really trying to emphasise the point by
going ZZZ quite strongly in the word hazard. The only real hazard to human
health I know is not getting enough meat to eat.
-
Type VI collagen is a tetramer of Type V collagen in SADMAP p. 88,
not a tetramer of itself. Although I don't see why not. Four pints of beer
is a tetramer of one pint of beer and neither could be called a real pissup.
-
Collagen fibrills in SADMAP p. 84. A fibrill is similar to a fibril
but has extra frilly bits. True or false?
-
Single bond between oxygen and carbon in SADMAP p. 114. Honest, this was
not one of my mistakes (the printer reset it and didn't let me see it).
However, when I was a student, I did MUCH WORSE things than this in biochemistry.
Which is why I try to forgive the dumbest kids I teach, because I know
where they are coming from (usually the nearest bar to the exam room).
-
Ten to the minus 8 not to the minus 6 in Figure 1 of Reprint 98. This was
caused by my mind wandering while my hands were rubbing on the Letraset
in the days before computer graphics. I did the same thing on my lab book
in my first scientific job. I spelt my name SWATLALAND. At my goodbye party
in the pub on the day I left, they brought it in to show me. What a surprise.
Although it did look quite aristocratic, like Swat La Land. Then years
later, I did the same to my e-mail address in Reprint 184. Still, it stops
me talking to myself on e-mail.
-
In the first edition of SADMAP, the graphics for Figure 2-33 and 2-34 are
interchanged. It nearly happened in the second edition as well.
-
As soon as I opened
the book when I got the first copy, there it was - a silly mistake, and
all my fault. Near the bottom of page 30, it should have said the
HBO
lamp is not a hot ozone producer. The
XBO
lamp certainly is!
So this is the latest
book - an international glossary of mistakes and omissions. I came home
from the Albion Hotel on Thursday night the first day I saw the final copy
and, of course, found the first typo:-
p. 41, Figure 41, The red crab is Cancer productus - although the typo
"productucs" has a certain sonority to it. If I ever discover a new species
of red crab I will call it C. productucs just to be confusing. If you think
I'm joking, you should look at all the real sound-alikes in the crayfish
family.
Feel free to e-mail other screw-ups for this list. The
origin of the universe was probably the consequence of a divine mistake,
so the mistakes in my work should be viewed in their proper light, as small
echoes of the primaeval big bang.