Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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I hope people had a chance to read this fascinating article in Tuesday's New York Times by Alex Wright about Belgian librarian Paul Otlet.
In Mons, Belgium, you can visit a museum dedicated to Otlet's dream institution, called the Mundaneum.In 1934, Otlet sketched out plans for a global network of computers (or “electric telescopes,” as he called them) that would allow people to search and browse through millions of interlinked documents, images, audio and video files. He described how people would use the devices to send messages to one another, share files and even congregate in online social networks. He called the whole thing a “réseau,” which might be translated as “network” — or arguably, “web.”
Otlet wanted to put all of the world's knowledge into the most practical and useful storage medium of the era: a 3 X 5 index card! Instead of the free-wheeling internet, we'd have a world dominated by trained library catalogers!
World peace would have ensued.
And since Otlet's dream never came about, what happened? The Nazis destroyed much of his work.
QED.
Still, he made out better than Hypatia.
Felix Hernandez matched Rich Harden's feat with an Immaculate Inning in the fourth inning versus the Marlins last night:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-marlins0618,0,5318684.story
It was exciting to see recognition for Paul Otlet in the mainstream media. Thanks for spreading the word, Bob!
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