Encyclopædia Britannica is a better read than Wikipedia.

I got a lend of my brother's iPad recently and came across Encyclopædia Britannica for some reason and got the app. Really enjoying it so far.

Wikipedia has been my default go to for probably 12-15 years.. But I've never full enjoyed it even though I can spend hours on it reading about stuff. The regular one can be too heavy on detail requiring many clicks, and simple is too basic. It's still obviously the best thing the internet has created and I will continue to use it, but.. well, here's two bits about the beginnings of the Roman Republic in the middle of the large ancient Rome articles.

According to tradition and later writers such as Livy, the Roman Republic was established around 509 BC, when the last of the seven kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was deposed by Lucius Junius Brutus and a system based on annually elected magistrates and various representative assemblies was established. A constitution set a series of checks and balances, and a separation of powers. The most important magistrates were the two consuls, who together exercised executive authority such as imperium, or military command. The consuls had to work with the senate, which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or patricians, but grew in size and power.

The ancient historians depicted Rome’s first six kings as benevolent and just rulers but the last one as a cruel tyrant who murdered his predecessor Servius Tullius, usurped the kingship, terrorized the Senate, and oppressed the common people with public works. He supposedly was overthrown by a popular uprising ignited by the rape of a virtuous noblewoman, Lucretia, by the king’s son. The reign of Tarquinius Superbus was described in the stereotypical terms of a Greek tyranny in order to explain the major political transition from the monarchy to the republic in accordance with Greek political theory concerning constitutional evolution from monarchy to tyranny to aristocracy. This explanation provided later Romans with a satisfying patriotic story of despotism giving way to liberty. It is probably unhistorical, however, and merely a Roman adaptation of a well-known Greek story of a love affair in Athens that led to the murder of the tyrant’s brother and the tyrant’s eventual downfall.

... ...

Rather than restoring Tarquin from exile to power, the Romans replaced the kingship with two annually elected magistrates (originally called praetors, later consuls).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome#Republic
https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Rome/Early-centuries-of-the-Roman-Republic#ref26591

There's a nice flow that comes from an article written by one person rather than hundreds. Less information and fewer articles but more enjoyable. I'm only posting because I wish I had known this long ago and had been using both.

Rufeo

I had a CD with it ages ago

ancapailldorcha

Interesting. The site seems to be free to browse as well. I remember seeing the set in a hotel when I was younger and being impressed with them.

Rufeo

Rufeo wrote: »

I had a CD with it ages ago

We had the Encarta one at home.

Church on Tuesday

Deleted User wrote: »

We had the Encarta one at home.

2004?

For a young guy in the Whest it was mind blowing at the time.

joeguevara

We had the set of brown and gold, worldbook encyclopedia in the 80s. It was amazing for homework and really learned a lot from it. Still in my parents house but rarely opened now.

MayoForSam

We had an Americanized set (not Britannica) that my late mother invested in when we were sprogs back in the early '80's, I spent many an hour picking a random tome and absorbing info from the pages, my relatively good degree of general knowledge stems from that time.

I also remember the old wooden shelf on which they sat sagging over time and eventually all they were used for was flattening out old photos and magazine articles by my sister.

Today's younger generation wouldn't know how to deal with an encyclopedia if it bit them in the a$$.

Mr. CooL ICE

[Deleted User] wrote: »

We had the Encarta one at home.

Ah jaysus. Nostalgia hit hard when I saw that name.

I had encarta 97. Came with Cinemania 97. Mind was blown when I was able to play the clip from Jaws... A video being played... on a PC! Mind was blown.

Gynoid

joeguevara wrote: »

We had the set of brown and gold, worldbook encyclopedia in the 80s. It was amazing for homework and really learned a lot from it. Still in my parents house but rarely opened now.

Us also! Maybe we had the same traveling encyclopedia salesman...or the same mother! :O Lying down on the carpet beside the bookcase randomly reading entries was how I spent a huge part of childhood and adolescence. Incredibly relaxing activity, when I think back on it. A whole world of wonder.

Mark Rippetoe

Mark Rippetoe wrote: »

Ah jaysus. Nostalgia hit hard when I saw that name.

I had encarta 97. Came with Cinemania 97. Mind was blown when I was able to play the clip from Jaws... A video being played... on a PC! Mind was blown.

We upgraded from an Amstrad to a 233mhz Windows 98 PC and I think it came with Encarta. It was like being in the future.

Church on Tuesday

Mark Rippetoe wrote: »

Ah jaysus. Nostalgia hit hard when I saw that name.

I had encarta 97. Came with Cinemania 97. Mind was blown when I was able to play the clip from Jaws... A video being played... on a PC! Mind was blown.

My mate had that version and yes I remember said clip from Jaws and being blown away.

ILoveYourVibes

Deleted User wrote: »

I got a lend of my brother's iPad recently and came across Encyclopædia Britannica for some reason and got the app. Really enjoying it so far.

Wikipedia has been my default go to for probably 12-15 years.. But I've never full enjoyed it even though I can spend hours on it reading about stuff. The regular one can be too heavy on detail requiring many clicks, and simple is too basic. It's still obviously the best thing the internet has created and I will continue to use it, but.. well, here's two bits about the beginnings of the Roman Republic in the middle of the large ancient Rome articles.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome#Republic
https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Rome/Early-centuries-of-the-Roman-Republic#ref26591

There's a nice flow that comes from an article written by one person rather than hundreds. Less information and fewer articles but more enjoyable. I'm only posting because I wish I had known this long ago and had been using both.

Cool thank you.

branie2

I have it on my computer

branie2

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

My mate had that version and yes I remember said clip from Jaws and being blown away.

Picture quality wasn't that great though

Homelander

I must have watched those Cinemania clips from Star Wars and Jaws around 100 times. Probably in 120P resolution and about 30 seconds long, but the novelty of watching movie clips on your PC was too much.

branie2

Remember World Book Encyclopedia?

Alun

Back when I was a kid in the 60's/70's my parents subscribed to an encyclopedia set that you built up month by month. Each instalment was just the size of a thin magazine and you bought special binders for them to keep them together. It took years and years to get the full set, and I think a lot of the information in the first ones was already out of date by the time we collected the full set.

It had the advantage though that you could read each one as it came in, and learn all kinds of useful/useless stuff along the way rather than diving into a massive set of books.

It's a shame that the youth of today won't know the joys of just flicking through the an encyclopedia and just reading about random stuff..

We have the World Book Encyclopedia (1977) at home. I expect Star Wars will make a small impression at the box office.

topper75

Homelander wrote: »

I must have watched those Cinemania clips from Star Wars and Jaws around 100 times. Probably in 120P resolution and about 30 seconds long, but the novelty of watching movie clips on your PC was too much.

Yeah hard to understand now from the days of youtube how novel a concept that was.

It came a relatively short time after PCs meant little to people beyond the white text on black DOS prompt.

Church on Tuesday

branie2 wrote: »

Picture quality wasn't that great though

True but this was like 1999.

bobbyss

.Is EB free?

Raconteuse

joeguevara wrote: »

We had the set of brown and gold, worldbook encyclopedia in the 80s. It was amazing for homework and really learned a lot from it. Still in my parents house but rarely opened now.

Aw I was mad for the auld World Book as a kid.

bobbyss

bobbyss wrote: »

.Is EB free?

Nope. My understanding is that you get ads and some articles can be cut short or may not be available. They don't sell they subscription very well at all.

It's very enjoyable on the iPad so I might buy my brother's and subscribe. It's 20 quid a year.

joeguevara

Raconteuse wrote: »

Aw I was mad for the auld World Book as a kid.

I have no idea where they came from. They were always just there. I am so grateful that my parents got them as they were such a source of knowledge and I remember thinking of random things and looking them up.

I also used to get tracing paper and trace some of the pictures. One in particular sticks in my mind of an astronaut. The only thing they were shocking for was Irish History.

They are still at home but I haven’t opened one up in at least 25 years. I wonder how out of date they are.

764dak

MayoForSam wrote: »

We had an Americanized set (not Britannica) that my late mother invested in when we were sprogs back in the early '80's, I spent many an hour picking a random tome and absorbing info from the pages, my relatively good degree of general knowledge stems from that time.

I also remember the old wooden shelf on which they sat sagging over time and eventually all they were used for was flattening out old photos and magazine articles by my sister.

Today's younger generation wouldn't know how to deal with an encyclopedia if it bit them in the a$$.

Deleted User wrote: »

It's a shame that the youth of today won't know the joys of just flicking through the an encyclopedia and just reading about random stuff..