Encyclopaedia Britannica Goes Out Of Print
- Thread starter WMDogma
- Start date
I have to say.... My mother had bought an entire set of those for me in 1989. It constituted and entire year of gifts because I'm from a poor ass family. I'm really sorry to see this happen. But at least they aren't folding. They will still exist in a much better form.... but I do love the smell of a book.
Well God bless them for moving into the digital age.
Now noone has an excuse. The encyclopaedia is now on the internet.
Still, a sad day. 244 years of print. That means 1768 was their first printing year. They are older then the US itself (At least the official nation).
Now noone has an excuse. The encyclopaedia is now on the internet.
Still, a sad day. 244 years of print. That means 1768 was their first printing year. They are older then the US itself (At least the official nation).
Is it wrong that I read this as Encyclopedia dramatica, and was it even worse that I was somewhat upset before I re-read it and corrected myself?
Well I want to be optimistic about this so let's say that there is always the past, the knowledge itself and its creditability hasn't been lost and it's good to see even extremely old resources and companies aren't above adjusting to the times for the convenience of the everyday person without sacrificing their integrity.
Well I want to be optimistic about this so let's say that there is always the past, the knowledge itself and its creditability hasn't been lost and it's good to see even extremely old resources and companies aren't above adjusting to the times for the convenience of the everyday person without sacrificing their integrity.
Good, I've been waiting for published encyclopedias to go away for years & years, Next stop; phone books.
Back in the day, that was a decent investment as the information included in that one purchase was figured to stay relevant through a kid's primary and secondary school education. Heck, my family had a set of the good ol' EB's that served us well. When my folks passed away, I opted to sell the set in the estate sell, and glory be, it actually got sold in the 21st Century.Mumorpuger said:
So you may still have your chance to get your own print set, still.
Bear in mind, it is nice to have electronic media without having to kill trees. But if the world goes upside down, it will be nice to have real books to read during the quiet times. Take good care of what you have.
It's a shame. My parents bought a set in 1974 and I've used them my entire life. Every year Britannica would send us a "Book of the Year" that updated the set and I kept getting them. I love them, It's like a huge newspaper giving me details on what happened last year. I'm sad that I won't get one this year and I'm angry that I didn't get a letter telling me this before it hit the news.
And yeah no more trees will be killed to make books but I'll have to use my computer which uses electricity that I get from coal and nuclear. I'm not seeing the Eco-friendly benefits of the digital age.
And yeah no more trees will be killed to make books but I'll have to use my computer which uses electricity that I get from coal and nuclear. I'm not seeing the Eco-friendly benefits of the digital age.
PlasticLion said:
I think this is a bad thing, though not out of a sense of nostolgia. I do not like the idea of all our information going entirely onto digital platforms. It means that if something happens down the road to wipe out digital media we literally lose every bit of information that doesn't have hardcopy storage. Oddly, as time goes on, we seem to be stupidly advancing more and more towards one of those "Dark Future" techno-apocolypse stories. One good burst of EMP from a solar flare, global warfare/world class terrorism, or something like that and we won't just lose the computers, but all the accumulated information we rely on them to store. This is to say nothing of the possibility of someone actually creating the "super virus" of cyberpunk fiction, as everything grows increasingly interconnected and we grow increasingly dependant on it, something like the fears over the Michaelangelo virus come closer to reality, especially if someone decides not to tell everyone about it.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are digital information repositories that are protected against EMP and isolated from outside viruses to the point of most information surviving somewhere, but it wouldn't be in the public's hands, rather in the hands of those specific groups of people.
If your Encyclopedia exists only on say your Smart Phone, which you use for information, and something takes out all the electronics... your pretty much screwed, as is everyone. Sure, you've got an "updated" Encyclopedia from the 70s, but from here on out if a company like Encyclopedia Brittanica goes out of business fewer and fewer people are going to have books like that anymore. Copies in storage right now, despite best intentions (like you mention) are going to be lost or destroyed, or bought up as collectibles by the wealthy who are the people likely to be sheltered after such an apocolypse anyway.
As odd as it sounds, I think that some branch of the goverment should probably be assigned the job of ensuring hardcopy data of this sort be created and easily availible... I mean beyond the library of congress.
-
Otherwise... I think Nuclear is pretty Eco-Friendly overall, people just mostly focus on the potential for disasters with the technology rather than the realities. Even the waste isn't really an issue, we just choose to make it one, part of the problem with allowing NIMBYs to potentially have so much power. In certain cases the goverment does kind of need to be able to say "okay, we need to do this, and we're doing it... right over here" which is why the goverment was given the power of Eminant Domain (which is rarely used for what it's supposed to be). Seems to me that 90% of the issues with Nuclear Power are ones that are created by people surrounding it, rather than with the system itself. Waste and such leaks or gets dumped in screwed up places because the goverment and various companies rarely get to put the stuff in the ideal, safest locations, rather they fight NIMBYs until they wind up with some less than ideal compromise location that wasn't at the top of the list specifically because of the potential problems... then people QQ when it leaks or whatever, and it makes the problem worse.
Sorry to ramble, I guess both of these points will make me a jerk in the eyes of 90% of the Escapist community like just about everything I say.
At first I was like: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Then I was like: I cannot be!
Now I'm like: I guess i t makes sense, but I'm still sad about it.
Then I was like: I cannot be!
Now I'm like: I guess i t makes sense, but I'm still sad about it.
'Tis very sad, but inevitable, I guess. I gather even most of those 8000 copies of the 2010 edition are simply gathering dust in some back corner of a library. I hope the web version of the EB continues to grow and prosper.
I need something to cheer me up...
I need something to cheer me up...
...and everything is again right in the worldDanpascooch said:
Given how few copies it sold last year, it's probably only "saving" a few dozen at most. Plus, didn't we switch to a more sustainable model of paper production than clear-cutting forests ages ago?KeyMaster45 said: