He wouldn't care for this!
Posted on 03/13/2012 4:48:39 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
After 244 years, Encyclopaedia Britannica is shelving its venerable printed edition in favor of its Web-based version, completing a digital transition and marking the end of one of longest chapters in publishing history.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
In the garage I have a Funk & Wagnalls (you could look it up) from the mid-1930’s. It has an entry for Hitler as an up-and-coming leader of Germany.
The writing is quite erudite without being stuffy. Fun to look at the pictures, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO2D_sxXAWM&feature=related
You might remember the above EB TV commercial - never knew it was Donovan Freberg, son of the famed Stan Freberg.
Learn something new every day.
Knowledge stored in physical form (tablets, paper, etc) can survive and be hidden for thousands of years. All one needs is sunlight to access it.
Digital information requires electricity and the right technology to read it. It can also be destroyed by a virus, EMP weapons or a cosmic electromagnetic event. If all the information in the world is digital, it can all be lost relatively easily. Imagine if all records, texts, videos, etc in the world were suddenly lost and there were no hard copies because “nobody uses them”.
There may come a time when people are so completely dependent on technology that they have no clue how to live without it. We are already seeing the beginning stages of this.
You can have not only a whole set of encyclopedias, but every set ever published...on DVDs and it will all fit in a cigar box. A solar flare won’t hurt it either.True, although you won't have a working computer, so you might as well use them as coasters in the event of a "civilization-ending" event.
I haven't checked yet, but I would hate it if they didn't have a DVD version. I notice that schools are moving to online textbooks. That makes it just too easy to "change" history to suit the purposes of whoever controls the data.
I have two sets. One from 1952 and one from 1903. The older set is only a 3 volume set and there are no color pictures. There are only very small line drawings in black and white. they are leather bound and it says “cyclopaedia” on the spine instead of encyclopedia.
He wouldn't care for this!
Same with video. Early tapes (from the 50’s) are unwatchable because there are so few players.
Even VHS is now almost kaput (I saw two players at Best Buy, one for $200, another for $300).
My parents had sets of “The Book of Knowledge” and “Groliers Encyclopedia”, dating from the 1940’s.
The “Book of Knowledge” was originally published in Britain as “The Children’s Encyclopedia.” It was great for kids.
If I wanted to look something up, I would rarely make it to my item of interest without being distracted by a hundred other items of wonderment.
(And, I still keep the old WB collection.)
.
That ship has sailed. If all technology went kaput tomorrow, within a generation the world's population will drop by at least 7 billion due to disease and famine.
geeez. Imagination is the first casualty.
I was using ours up until the early 80s. Yeah it was outta date, but still full of good information.
As a rejoinder, am watching Emergency! on netflix and they are doing a rescue at an ice house. I bet no one born after 1985 has any idea what that is lol.
I went for a leather-bound set in 1984 that my heirs will inherit. The history it holds can’t be altered, it can only be burnt. There are a number of people - you can see them at work altering Wikipedia at every opportunity - who have a stake in altering history to suit themselves. There will come a day when they’ll burn the books. Those who let them will deserve the world that follows.
I wonder if World Book still makes a book set? Might need to look into that. EB would be great but dang the whole set was kinda pricey.
Pretty sad. I have three different CD versions that I hardly ever use. And I have a printed ‘79 set that I refer to all the time.
ML/NJ
World book basic set runs about $1200.
Wow, are you kidding? That is a travesty. The best supplement to education was when I would sit and just flip through the encyclopedia and read what I thought at the time was interesting. I love the feel of books in my hands no matter how big and bulky, always have. I do not own a Kindle or Nook anything like it, don’t want one because the idea of digital versions are so nebulous, they can be gone in an instant and controlled. I won’t give up my books.
I hope-and think that hard back Encyclopedias will live forever. There is so much more to the bookcase set than just the knowledge transfer from page to brain. My parents had a 59 edition of World Book... over time I read I’m sure every page. I can still tell you the top wheat states in the US and the top diamond mines in the world... just by remembering those little symbols. About 6 years ago I finally broke down and brought a new set of World Books from Amazon for about $400. Great bargain... and the smell of the pages! We are now home schooling the last of our 3 children and her daily assignment is pick a letter and do 3 articles.
Bob, you mean well, but in the event of a nuke or emp event, I doubt you’ll be worrying that you can’t access an electronic encyclopedia, or comforted that you can still read the print edition
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