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July 25, 2005

Reading the Britannica

Andy Ratto is reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and blogging about it. Quite unpretentiously and charmingly.

He's including references he doesn't understand. E.g., on page 29 of the first volume there's a reference to the "pangolin." Andy consults Wikipedia to discover that they are scaly anteaters. Presumably he didn't look up "pangolin" in the Britannica because he's checking the volumes out of the library one at a time.

He also promises to note particularly profound moments, ridiculously obtuse parts and the bios that end in murder or suicide. He is also blogging interesting facts, such as:

"The smallest arthropods include some parastic wasps, beetles of the family Ptiliidae, and mites that are less than 0.25 millimeter in length, despite their complex structure, and may weigh less than the nucleus of a large cell."

Andy is a college student majoring in poli sci, and is in the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. G-d speed, Andy!

(Thanks to the EBlogger — a blog about the Britannica — for the link.) [Technorati tags: britannica wikipedia AndyRatto]

Posted by D. Weinberger at July 25, 2005 02:11 PM


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A UC Bereley student is reading and blogging the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Find out why here and read a few more posts. I plan to check back regularly to see how he is doing. Via Joho the Blog.... [Read More]

Tracked on July 26, 2005 01:31 AM

Comments

Bush is our best President yet!!!

Posted by: Red Peters | July 25, 2005 05:12 PM


thank you for the kind words...

Posted by: Andy R. | July 25, 2005 11:15 PM


They had a small column about you and some other person in DN, the
biggest newspaper in Sweden - be proud, and keep up the good work! I´m actually thinking about doing the same, beware, you are NOT alone! However, you are insane.

Posted by: Greven | July 31, 2005 06:37 PM


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