Knowledge base  

Google has announced (and on the same day as an announcement from Microsoft, per their usual strategy) that they're going to be digitally encoding the entire store of human knowledge -- or at least, the slice of it contained in libraries at Harvard, UMich, Stanford, and the New York Public Library. This seems very cool, especially after my visit to the highly restrictive and controlling (ie I couldn't get on the internet) Oak Park Public Library earlier this evening. One question though: is it really wise to commit the entire store of human knowledge to the Google-Yahoo!-Microsoft competitive complex? I suppose we can still go back and look in the stacks if it all comes crashing down.

MORE: Thoughts on where this is going from Chapati Mystery.