I received this in the mailbox from Encyclopedia Britannica
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A Sample of Encyclopædia Britannica’s Distinguished Contributors
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Sigmund Freud The term psychoanalysis does not appear (or at least is not indexed) in the Encyclopædia Britannica until well into the 20th century. The first treatment of psychoanalysis as a subject unto itself appeared in the Thirteenth Edition, written by leading authority Sigmund Freud. Read “Psychoanalysis” by Sigmund Freud |
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Harry Houdini Even a superficial reading of “Conjuring” by American magician Harry Houdini conveys the inescapable conclusion that the magician’s view of the topic was focused on two matters. The first was the debunking of the then-fashionable spiritualists; the second was the greatness of Houdini. Read “Conjuring” by Harry Houdini |
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Lillian Gish The contribution of silent film star Lillian Gish appeared in 1929. By the time it was replaced in 1939, Hollywood was in full swing and exposition of this sort probably sounded somewhat quaint. Read “Motion Pictures: A Universal Language” by Lillian Gish |
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T.E. Lawrence For the Fourteenth Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, wrote on the subject of guerrilla warfare. The element of personal experience that pervades the article is unusual in an encyclopedia but must have been the chief reason this particular author was sought out. Read “Guerilla” by T.E. Lawrence |
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Marie Curie Marie Curie, who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, contributed this article on radium to the Thirteenth Edition of Encyclopædia Britannica. Writing in the third person, she modestly described her involvement in a discovery that would have a significant influence on subsequent research in nuclear physics and chemistry. Read “Radium” by Marie Curie | Watch a video documentary on Marie Curie |
| Orville Wright This fraternal biography may well be unique in the history of Britannica. It appeared in the first printing of the Fourteenth Edition (1929). It was revised several times, first in 1950, two years after Orville’s death, and the last time in 1969 by Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, who subsequently wrote the biography of both brothers that appeared in the Fifteenth Edition (1974). The first mention of the Wright brothers in Britannica was in the Twelfth Edition (1922). Read “Wilbur Wright” by Orville Wright | Watch a video documentary on the Wright Brothers |
Today, we rely on the men and women of Britannica’s Editorial Board of Advisors—the Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners, the leading scholars, writers, artists, public servants, and activists who are at the top of their fields |
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Can you imagine Sigmund Freud writing and defending Psychoanalysis on Wikipedia? Or Orville Wright being allowed to control a biography of his brother without Wikipediots screaming about “Conflict of Interest” and WP:OWN?
Me neither.
Perhaps we’d even have Slimvirgin (aka Sarah McEwan aka Linda Mack) accusing Orville of multiple violations of WP:NPOV and not writing in Good Faith…it might even have been fun to put Marie Curie in front of the ArbCom.
This, from a letter to the (London) Times:
Sir, I was pleased to see Larry Sanger, a Wikipedia co-founder, criticise the Education Secretary’s support for students’ use of Wikipedia on the ground that the online encyclopedia is “broken beyond repair� (report, April 11 ). It is my experience that Wikipedia is littered with inaccuracies (some accidental, some malicious but many simply there to push a point) and trivia, such as detailing the life stories of just about every droid or blob ever to appear in a Star Wars movie.
Many of its articles are now controlled by cabals who force their view on the readership. The articles on religion are perhaps the worst examples.
Wikipedia’s neutrality is negated by members of a cabal electing themselves and their supporters to be administrators, thus enabling them to remove valid edits which contradict the position they are peddling. Wikipedia was a lovely idea but is now a failed experiment— and one which Alan Johnson should tell students to avoid.
ROBERT STEADMAN, Matlock, Derbyshire
The reference to Alan Johnson is to a British politician’s exhortation to schoolchildren to use Wikipedia. Clearly Johnson doesn’t know about Wikipedia or children.
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