[WikiEN-l] Britannica proud to lag years behind recent developments such as SARS and nanotechnology

Sun Mar 27 15:11:40 UTC 2005

--- Mathias Schindler <neubau at presroi.de> wrote:
>   March 23, 2005 07:00 AM US Eastern Timezone
> 
> New Britannica Keeps Pace with Change; Revised Encyclopedia Boosts 
> Coverage of People, Science & Changing World
> 
> CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 2005--New and revised articles 
> spanning science and technology, literature and the Middle East are at 
> the center of the just-published Encyclopaedia Britannica for 2005.
> 
> Among the new articles included in the 32-volume work are a substantial 
> number in science and medicine, such as SARS, monkeypox, nanotechnology 
> and computer crime.
> 
> There is even an article on earth-impact hazard, the science of 
> predicting the probability of astronomical bodies hitting the planet.

LOL - I wrote the first Wikipedia version more than two years ago. It is now a
pretty darn good article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event

> Several notable people receive their own entries for the first time, 
> including U.S. Senator John Kerry, novelist and Nobel laureate J.M. 
> Coetzee, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and philosopher John Rawls. Socrates is the 
> subject of a lengthy new treatment that reflects the latest scholarship 
> on the Greek philosopher.

John Kerry! Wow - these people are really with it, aren't they. And Yo-Yo Ma
has been a very important person much longer than before the last EB update. 

> According to editor Dale Hoiberg, the revisions are part of an effort to 
> keep the Britannica on the cutting edge of knowledge and world 
> developments at a time when the demand for reliable information is 
> greater than ever.

And they will be up to date for how long? Two weeks, maybe. 

I did take pity on them by buying Britannica Concise for my Palm Pilot. They
really meant it when they called it concise though - all entries are as large
or smaller than our lead sections. 

-- mav

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