--- Mathias Schindler neubau@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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