The Concatenate

The SMH is buying a line of bull out of the still esteemed Encyclopedia Britannica.

The venerable reference institution is trying to attract some buzz by promising to let its registered users suggest article edits in a manner somewhat similar to he Wikipedia.

They also complain bitterly that Wikipedia gets higher google rankings than Britannica pages.

The reason for that is very simple and explains why, for all its faults, the Wikipedia will remain the reference of record online:

You don’t have to sign up for a “Free Trial” to see the Wikipedia content.

It also helps that the Wikipedia’s webpages are light basic html while Britannica’s are slow bloated beasts.

I don’t mind Britannica wanting to make a buck, but while they lock up the content they can hardly expect the wider web to take an interest in it.

The NY Times is putting the conspiracy theorists to bed with news that Barack Obama and the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court have had another go at administering the oath of office.

It’s a bad bad day for teachers everywhere trying to insist that things be done right the first time.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is warningthat old emergency beacons won’t work from 1 February 2009:

“To ensure your life and the lives of your family are safe during recreational activities on land, sea or in the air, it is essential to switch to a 406 MHz distress beacon immediately.”

The Register’s Lewis Page has had an epic spray at Australia’s Dr Carlo Kopp and his Air Power Australia website (sometimes mistaken for a think tank).

The subject of contention is the F-35 joint strike fighter which a small band of Australian nutcases continue to poo poo with the help of a dim witted Australian media that loves a good defence scandal.

Aside from delving into Carlo Kopp’s past Lewis Page makes the case that while the F35 is bad news for aerospace enthusiasts it’s probably good news for countries buying the thing.

Well worth a read.

Bloomberg are caterwauling that the end is nigh.

This is joined by Wayne Swan again failing to play the confidence game, the man has done untold and unecessary damage to the Australian economy and appears to hold onto the position simply because no-one with sufficient stature in the Labor ranks wants the job.

So how bad do they think this “scarily fast” unwinding of national prosperity will be?

7% unemployment and a budget deficit.

Not exactly the end of the world is it? Paul Keating would have given his left nut for that kind of national prosperity.

If you needed any proof that the war in Afghanistan is getting out of control…

The Canberra Times has a story on the first Australian Victoria Cross awarded in over 40 years:

A serving soldier in Afghanistan, Trooper Mark Donaldson, has been awarded the prestigious Victoria Cross for Australia for exceptional gallantry after he rescued a wounded interpreter.

Trooper Donaldson received the award from the Governor-General Quentin Bryce in Canberra today at a presentation ceremony at Government House.

Which begs the questions, if for the first time in half a century we’re engaged in a conflict seeing serious honours handed out, and a growing list of casualties; what are we hoping to get out of it? How will we know when we’ve got it? And how are we planning to get it?

Were you wondering where all the apocalyptic mutterings about King Tides came from in the media yesterday?

It was particularly odd as the things happen all the time without incident.

In this morning’s digest of Goverment media releases the culprit could be found with some funding opportunism by the CSIRO.

It’s a worry when you can no longer trust a premier scientific institution.

Email readers are advised to click the story link for the images.

Watching Shaun Tait fire 155 kmph rockets into the South Africans, including smashing DeVilliers so hard in the hip that the poor bugger broke his own stumps in agony, made one wonder…

Could we have done with a bit more of that in the Test side in the last year?

Yahoo finance has a fascinating story on the possible abrupt demise of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, one of the world’s major papers.

Of particular interest is that the august journal has, for some years, been just a newsroom with business operations conducted by the rival Seattle Times.

This was a scheme under the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 which:

a) Indicates this is a part of a long-running process, and
b) Shows that legislators think you can outsource crucial operations to a competitor and survive in the long run.

With a massively smaller circulation than their rival it’s not surprising Hearst media is giving up on them.

My feeling here is that the future is going to be large numbers of smaller media rather than vast monolithic daily journals trying to be all things to all people.

But that could just be wishful thinking on my part.

The Parliamentary Library has produced a paper on the wonders of the old Nazi technology for turning coal into petrol, hydrogen, and buckets of carbon.

It’s surprising, considering how balanced Library papers normally are, for being so gung ho on such a polluting technology.

It also indicates someone in the parliament is preparing a big push on this issue.

(Oh and happy new year to all concatters, we’ll try to up the work rate).