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Reuters' original online article about this misidentified the queen bee as Queen Elizabeth, stating that Britain's monarch was capable of laying "up to 2,000 eggs a day"
they've corrected it, but you can see the original article here:
http://www.regrettheerror.com/2006/10/reuters_typo _te.html

I'm curious about whether these inaccuracies are limited to science/computers. It's entirely possible that the media sources we trust to be accurate are actually riddled with errors.

I'd definitely say that's a good possibility, given the amount of corrections found on Regret the Error. One of the interesting things that was brought up on the site a couple of weeks ago was the real lack of correction pages for broadcast journalism. If there's an issue in a newspaper article, then a correction is run in the next couple of days. However, there seems to be no real way to demonstrate a correction on a local or network news broadcast.

I'm curious about whether these inaccuracies are limited to science/computers. It's entirely possible that the media sources we trust to be accurate are actually riddled with errors.

I'd definitely say that's a good possibility, given the amount of corrections found on Regret the Error. One of the interesting things that was brought up on the site a couple of weeks ago was the real lack of correction pages for broadcast journalism. If there's an issue in a newspaper article, then a correction is run in the next couple of days. However, there seems to be no real way to demonstrate a correction on a local or network news broadcast.

And most journalists aren't responsible to anyone either. The editor just makes sure the story flows and will sell newspapers. Not counting the real hits you get from googling "false AP stories" or looking at http://www.regrettheerror.com/2005/06/company_corr ect.html , I run out of fingers and toes counting the number of incorrect stories about tech companies and their products that have run on CNet, ZiffDavis, and other "real" news sites with "real" journalists in the past year.

Newsweek reported that American Guantanamo guards, among other abuse and torture, threw a Koran in a toilet. That specific abuse has been reported many times over the past couple of years, including just recently, by witnesses released from the prison. After years of being held without cause. Newsweek confirmed those stories with Federal source, and the Pentagon had reviewed it days before publication, without contradicting the claim.

What kind of "proof" is Newsweek, or anyone, going to get? Investigate the inside of an overseas US torture prison, in Cuba, where even Congressional investigations have met with fraud? Even Newsweek's "retraction" is nominal - they don't admit they got the facts wrong, just that they regret the consequences of publishing it. Like pissing off the Bush administration, which they've been so careful to otherwise support. In fact, Newsweek is continuing to investigate the story, hardly a rejection of the report as "false".

The week the story was published, violent demonstrations in Afghanistan, where we run other torture prisons, and an ongoing, inconclusive war, kill many people. Which isn't unusual in our adminstration of Afghanistan. What is unusual is for Afghans to read Newsweek. Even Bush's Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers (Rumsfeld's right-hand man), blames Afghani "politics", not Newsweek. But since Rice's State Department blames Newsweek, rather than itself, it must be true, right? Especially since they've gotten the rest of the mass media to carry that story.

In fairness, I wonder: what do you think about the lies Newsweek published about WMD in Iraq, shepherding us to war, which came from the Pentagon? Which the Pentagon blames on the uncorroborated lies of one man, Chalabi, an Iranian agent?

Newsweek reported that American Guantanamo guards, among other abuse and torture, threw a Koran in a toilet. That specific abuse has been reported many times over the past couple of years, including just recently, by witnesses released from the prison. After years of being held without cause. Newsweek confirmed those stories with Federal source, and the Pentagon had reviewed it days before publication, without contradicting the claim.

What kind of "proof" is Newsweek, or anyone, going to get? Investigate the inside of an overseas US torture prison, in Cuba, where even Congressional investigations have met with fraud? Even Newsweek's "retraction" is nominal - they don't admit they got the facts wrong, just that they regret the consequences of publishing it. Like pissing off the Bush administration, which they've been so careful to otherwise support. In fact, Newsweek is continuing to investigate the story, hardly a rejection of the report as "false".

The week the story was published, violent demonstrations in Afghanistan, where we run other torture prisons, and an ongoing, inconclusive war, kill many people. Which isn't unusual in our adminstration of Afghanistan. What is unusual is for Afghans to read Newsweek. Even Bush's Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers (Rumsfeld's right-hand man), blames Afghani "politics", not Newsweek. But since Rice's State Department blames Newsweek, rather than itself, it must be true, right? Especially since they've gotten the rest of the mass media to carry that story.

In fairness, I wonder: what do you think about the lies Newsweek published about WMD in Iraq, shepherding us to war, which came from the Pentagon? Which the Pentagon blames on the uncorroborated lies of one man, Chalabi, an Iranian agent?