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Encyclopaedia, also spelled encyclopedia, reference work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or that treats a particular branch of knowledge in a comprehensive manner.
For more than 2,000 years encyclopaedias have existed as summaries of extant scholarship in forms comprehensible to their readers. The word encyclopaedia is derived from the Greek enkyklios paideia, "general education," and it at first meant a circle or a complete system of learning—that is, an all-around education. When François Rabelais used the term in French for the first time, in Pantagruel (chapter 20), he was still talking of education. It was Paul Scalich, a German writer and compiler, who was the first to use the word to describe a book in the title of his Encyclopaedia; seu, Orbis disciplinarum, tam sacrarum quam prophanum epistemon… ("Encyclopaedia; or, Knowledge of the World of Disciplines, Not Only Sacred but Profane…"), issued at Basel in 1559. The many encyclopaedias that had been published before this time either had been given fanciful titles (Hortus deliciarum, "Garden of Delights") or had been simply called "dictionary." The word dictionary has been widely used as a name for encyclopaedias, and Scalich's pioneer use of encyclopaedia did not find general acceptance until Denis Diderot made it fashionable with his historic French encyclopaedia, the Encyclopédie, although cyclopaedia was then becoming fairly popular as an alternative term. Even today a modern encyclopaedia may still be called a dictionary, but no good dictionary has ever been called an encyclopaedia.
The meaning of the word encyclopaedia has changed considerably during its long history. Today most people think of an encyclopaedia as a multivolume compendium of all available knowledge, complete with maps and a detailed index, as well as numerous adjuncts such as bibliographies, illustrations, lists of abbreviations and foreign expressions, gazetteers, and so on. They expect it to include biographies of the significant men and women of the present as well as those of the past, and they take it for granted that the alphabetically arranged contents will have been written in their own language by many people and will have been edited by a highly skilled and scholarly staff; nevertheless, not one of these ingredients has remained the same throughout the ages. Encyclopaedias have come in all sizes, from a single 200-page volume written by one man to giant sets of 100 volumes or more. The degree of coverage of knowledge has varied according to the time and country of publication. Illustrations, atlases, and bibliographies have been omitted from many encyclopaedias, and for a long time it was not thought fitting to include biographies of living persons. Indexes are a late addition, and most of the early ones were useless. Alphabetical arrangement was as strongly opposed as the use of any language but Latin, at least in the first 1,000 years of publication in the West, and skilled group editorship has a history of some 200 years.
In this article the word encyclopaedia has been taken to include not only the great general encyclopaedias of the past and the present but all types of works that claim to provide in an orderly arrangement the essence of "all that is known" on a subject or a group of subjects. This includes dictionaries of philosophy and of American history as well as volumes such as The World Almanac and Book of Facts, which is really a kind of encyclopaedia of current information.
An outline of the scope and history of encyclopaedias is essentially a guide to the development of scholarship, for encyclopaedias stand out as landmarks throughout the centuries, recording much of what was known at the time of publication. Many homes have no printed encyclopaedia, and very few have more than one, yet in the past two millennia several thousand encyclopaedias have been issued in various parts of the world, and some of these have had many editions. No library has copies of them all; if it were possible to collect them, they would occupy many miles of shelf space. But they are worth preserving—even those that appear to be hopelessly out-of-date—for they contain many contributions by a large number of the world's leaders and scholars.
The nature of encyclopaedias
Historical significance
In the Speculum majus ("The Greater Mirror"; completed 1244), one of the most important of all encyclopaedias, the French medieval scholar Vincent of Beauvais maintained not only that his work should be perused but that the ideas it recorded should be taken to heart and imitated. Alluding to a secondary sense of the word speculum ("mirror"), he implied that his book showed the world what it is and what it should become. This theme, that encyclopaedias can contribute significantly to the improvement of humankind, recurs constantly throughout their long history. A Catalan ecclesiastic and Scholastic philosopher, Ramon Llull, regarded the 13th-century encyclopaedias, together with language and grammar, as instruments for the pursuit of truth. Domenico Bandini, an Italian humanist, planned his Fons memorabilium universi ("The Source of Noteworthy Facts of the Universe") at the beginning of the 15th century to provide accurate information on any subject to educated men who lacked books and to give edifying lessons to guide them in their lives. Francis Bacon believed that the intellect of the 17th-century individual could be refined by contact with the intellect of the ideal man. Another Englishman, the poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was well aware of this point of view and said in his "Preliminary Treatise on Method" (1817) that in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, which he was proposing to create,
our great objects are to exhibit the Arts and Sciences in their Philosophical harmony; to teach Philosophy in union with Morals; and to sustain Morality by Revealed Religion.
He added that he intended to convey methodically "the pure and unsophisticated knowledge of the past…to aid the progress of the future." The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge declared in The Penny Cyclopædia (1833–43) that, although most encyclopaedias attempted to form systems of knowledge, their own would in addition endeavour to
give such general views of all great branches of knowledge, as may help to the formation of just ideas on their extent and relative importance, and to point out the best sources of complete information.
In De disciplinis (1531; "On the Disciplines") the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives emphasized the encyclopaedia's role in the pursuit of truth. In Germany of the early 19th century the encyclopaedia was expected to provide the right or necessary knowledge for good society. Probably the boldest claim was that of Alexander Aitchison, who said that his new Encyclopædia Perthensis (1796–1806) was intended to supersede the use of all other English books of reference.
Greek and Roman concepts
All these ideas were a far cry from the Greek concept, deriving from Plato, that in order to think better it is necessary to know all, and from the Roman attitude of the advisability of acquiring all useful knowledge in order to carry out one's tasks in life competently. The present concept of the encyclopaedia as an essential starting point from which one can embark on a voyage of discovery, or as a point of basic reference on which one can always rely, dates only to the 18th century.
The prose form has usually been accepted as the only suitable vehicle for the presentation of the text of an encyclopaedia, though L'Image du monde (1245?; "The Image of the World")—attributed by some to Gautier de Metz, a French poet and priest, and by others to a Flemish theologian, Gossuin—was written in French octosyllabic verse. It has also been generally accepted that an encyclopaedia should adopt a straightforward, factual approach. Even so, the Spanish writer Alfonso de la Torre, in his Visiõ delectable (c. 1484; "Delightful Vision"), adopted the allegorical approach of a child receiving instruction from a series of maidens named Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, and so on.
The alphabetically arranged encyclopaedia has a history of less than 1,000 years. Most of the encyclopaedias issued before the introduction of printing into Europe had been arranged in a methodical or classified form—that is, ordered systematically by subject. The early compilers of encyclopaedias held, as Coleridge did, that "to call a huge unconnected miscellany of the omne scibile, in an arrangement determined by the accident of initial letters, an encyclopaedia, is the impudent ignorance of your Presbyterian bookmakers!" Today several encyclopaedias still retain the classified form of arrangement.
There has never been any general agreement on the way in which the contents of an encyclopaedia should be arranged. In Roman times the approach was usually practical, with everyday topics such as astronomy and geography coming first, while the fine arts were relegated to the end of the work. The Roman statesman and writer Cassiodorus, however, in his 6th-century Institutiones, began with the Scriptures and the church and gave only brief attention to such subjects as arithmetic and geometry. St. Isidore of Sevilla, educated in the Classical tradition, redressed the balance in the next century in his Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX ("Twenty Books on Origins [or Etymologies]"), commonly called Etymologiae, giving pride of place to the liberal arts and medicine, the Bible and the church coming later but still preceding such subjects as agriculture and warfare, shipping and furniture. The earliest recorded Arabic encyclopaedia, compiled by the 9th-century Arab philologist and historian Ibn Qutaybah, had a completely different approach, beginning with power, war, and nobility and ending with food and women. A later Persian encyclopaedia, compiled in 975–997 by the Persian scholar and statesman al-Khwārizmī, started with jurisprudence and scholastic philosophy, the more practical matters of medicine, geometry, and mechanics being relegated to a second group labelled "foreign knowledge." The general trend in classification in the Middle Ages is exemplified by Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum majus, which was arranged in three sections: "Naturale"—God, the creation, humankind; "Doctrinale"—language, ethics, crafts, medicine; "Historiale"—world history. The encyclopaedists were, however, still uncertain of the logical sequence of subjects; although there were many who started with theological matters, there were just as many who preferred to put practical topics first.
Content arrangement
A turning point came with Francis Bacon's plan for his uncompleted Instauratio magna (1620; "Great Instauration"), in which he eschewed the endless controversies in favour of a three-section structure, including "External Nature" (covering such topics as astronomy, meteorology, geography, and species of minerals, vegetables, and animals), "Man" (covering anatomy, physiology, structure and powers, and actions), and "Man's Action on Nature" (including medicine, chemistry, the visual arts, the senses, the emotions, the intellectual faculties, architecture, transport, printing, agriculture, navigation, arithmetic, and numerous other subjects).
In his plan Bacon had achieved more than a thoroughly scientific and acceptable arrangement of the contents of an encyclopaedia; he had ensured that the encyclopaedists would have a comprehensive outline of the scope of human knowledge that would operate as a checklist to prevent the omission of whole fields of human thought and endeavour. Bacon so profoundly altered the editorial policy of encyclopaedists that even 130 years later Diderot gratefully acknowledged his debt in the prospectus (1750) of the Encyclopédie. Because every later encyclopaedia was influenced by Diderot's work, the guidance of Bacon still plays its part today.
Coleridge, who was very much impressed by Bacon's scheme, in 1817 drew up a rather different table of arrangement for the Encyclopædia Metropolitana. It comprised five main classes: Pure Sciences—Formal (philology, logic, mathematics) and Real (metaphysics, morals, theology); Mixed and Applied Sciences—Mixed (mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, optics, astronomy) and Applied (experimental philosophy, the fine arts, the useful arts, natural history, application of natural history); Biographical and Historical, chronologically arranged; and Miscellaneous and Lexicographical, which included a gazetteer and a philosophical and etymological lexicon. The fifth class was to be an analytical index.
Although Coleridge's classification was altered by the publisher, and although the Metropolitana was an impressive failure, the ideas for it had a lasting influence. Even though nearly all encyclopaedias today are arranged alphabetically, the classifications of Bacon and Coleridge still enable editors to plan their work with regard to an assumed hierarchy of the various branches of human knowledge.
The concept of alphabetical order was well known to both the Greeks and Romans, but the latter made little use of it. Neither the Greeks nor the Romans employed it for encyclopaedia arrangement, with the exception of Sextus Pompeius Festus in his 2nd-century De verborum significatu ("On the Meaning of Words"). St. Isidore's encyclopaedia was classified, but it included an alphabetically arranged etymological dictionary. The 10th- or 11th-century encyclopaedic dictionary known as Suidas was the first such work to be completely arranged alphabetically, but it had no influence on succeeding encyclopaedias, although glossaries, when included, were so arranged. Bandini's Fons memorabilium universi ("The Source of Noteworthy Facts of the Universe"), though classified, used separate alphabetical orders for more than a quarter of its sections, and the Italian Domenico Nani Mirabelli's Polyanthea nova (1503; "The New Polyanthea") was arranged in one alphabetical sequence. These were rare exceptions, however; the real breakthrough came only with the considerable number of encyclopaedic Latin-language dictionaries that appeared in the early 16th century, the best known of which is a series of publications by the French printer Charles Estienne (see Robert I Estienne). The last of the great Latin-language encyclopaedias arranged in alphabetical order was Encyclopædia (1630) by the German Protestant theologian and philosopher Johann Heinrich Alsted. The publication of Le Grand Dictionnaire historique (1674; "The Great Historical Dictionary") of Louis Moréri, a French Roman Catholic priest and scholar, confirmed public preference both for the vernacular and the alphabetically arranged encyclopaedia; this choice was emphasized by the success of the posthumous Dictionnaire universel (1690) by the French lexicographer Antoine Furetière.
From time to time important attempts have been made to reestablish the idea of the superiority of the classified encyclopaedia. Coleridge saw the encyclopaedia as a vehicle for enabling individuals to think methodically. He felt that his philosophical arrangement would "present the circle of knowledge in its harmony" and give a "unity of design and of elucidation." He did agree that his appended gazetteer and English dictionary would best be arranged alphabetically for ease of reference. By then, however, alphabetical arrangement had too strong a hold, and it was not until 1935 that a new major classified encyclopaedia began to appear—the Encyclopédie française ("French Encyclopaedia"), founded by Anatole de Monzie. The Dutch Eerste nederlandse systematisch ingerichte encyclopædie (1946–52; "First Dutch Systematic and Comprehensive Encyclopaedia") had a classification that was in almost reverse order of that of the Encyclopédie française; both works were established on a philosophical concept of the order and main divisions of knowledge influenced by both Bacon and Coleridge. The Spanish Enciclopedia labor (1955–60) and the Oxford Junior Encyclopædia (1948–56) followed systems of arrangement that were closer to the French than to the Dutch example.
From earliest times it had been held that the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music) were essential ingredients in any encyclopaedia. Even as late as 1435 Alfonso de la Torre began his Visiõ delectable in almost that exact order, and only when he had laid these foundations did he proceed to the problems of science, philosophy, theology, law, and politics. Thus, the seven liberal arts were regarded by the early encyclopaedists as the very mathematics of human knowledge, without a knowledge of which it would be foolish to proceed. This idea survived to a certain extent in Coleridge's classification; he stated that grammar and logic provide the rules of speech and reasoning, while mathematics presents truths that are applicable to external existence.
When Louis Shores became editor in chief of Collier's Encyclopedia in 1962, he said that he considered the encyclopaedia to be "one of the few generalizing influences in a world of overspecialization. It serves to recall that knowledge has unity." This echoes the view of the English novelist H.G. Wells, that the encyclopaedia should not be "a miscellany, but a concentration, a clarification, and a synthesis." The Austrian sociologist Otto Neurath in the same year suggested that a proposed new international encyclopaedia of unified science should be constructed like an onion, the different layers enclosing the "heart"—comprising in this case the foundations of the unity of science. Even a brief survey of encyclopaedia publishing during the second half of the 20th century is enough to make clear that, as the trivium and quadrivium and the topically classified encyclopaedias that they influenced receded further and further into history, there arose a number of modern encyclopaedists concerned with the importance of making a restatement of the unity of knowledge and of the consequent interdependence of its parts. Though most encyclopaedists were willing to accept the essential reference-book function of encyclopaedias and the role of an alphabetical organization in carrying out that function, they became increasingly disturbed about the emphasis on the fragmentation of knowledge that such a function and such an organization encouraged. A number looked for ways of enhancing the educational function of encyclopaedias by reclaiming for them some of the values of the classified or topical organizations of earlier history.
Notable among the results of such activities was the 15th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (1974), which was designed in large part to enhance the role of an encyclopaedia in education and understanding without detracting from its role as a reference book. Its three parts (Propædia, or Outline of Knowledge; Micropædia, or Ready Reference and Index; and Macropædia, or Knowledge in Depth) represented an effort to design an entire set on the understanding that there is a circle of learning and that an encyclopaedia's short informational articles on the details of matter within that circle as well as its long articles on general topics must all be planned and prepared in such a way as to reflect their relation to one another and to the whole of knowledge. The Propædia specifically was a reader's version of the circle of learning on which the set had been based and was organized in such a way that a reader might reassemble in meaningful ways material that the accident of alphabetization had dispersed.
Encyclopaedias in general
The role of encyclopaedias
Of the various types of reference works—who's whos, dictionaries, atlases, gazetteers, directories, and so forth—the encyclopaedia is the only one that can be termed self-contained. Each of the others conveys some information concerning every item it deals with; only the encyclopaedia attempts to provide coverage over the whole range of knowledge, and only the encyclopaedia attempts to offer a comprehensive summary of what is known of each topic considered. To this end it employs many features that can help in its task, including pictures, maps, diagrams, charts, and statistical tables. It also frequently incorporates other types of reference works. Several modern encyclopaedias, from the time of Abraham Rees's New Cyclopædia (1802–20) and the Encyclopédie méthodique (1782–1832; "Systematic Encyclopaedia") onward, have included a world atlas and a gazetteer, and language dictionaries have been an intermittent feature of encyclopaedias for most of their history.
Most modern encyclopaedias since the Universal-Lexicon (1732–50) of the Leipzig bookseller Johann Heinrich Zedler have included biographical material concerning living persons, though the first edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (1768–71) had no biographical material at all. In their treatment of this kind of information, however, they differ from the form of reference work that limits itself to the provision of salient facts without comment. Similarly, with dictionary material, some encyclopaedias provided foreign-language equivalents as well.
An English lexicographer, H.W. Fowler, wrote in the preface to the first edition (1911) of The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English that a dictionary is concerned with the uses of words and phrases and with giving information about the things for which they stand only so far as current use of the words depends upon knowledge of those things. The emphasis in an encyclopaedia is much more on the nature of the things for which the words and phrases stand. Thus, the encyclopaedic dictionary, whose history extends as far back as the 10th- or 11th-century Suidas, forms a convenient bridge between the dictionary and the encyclopaedia, in that it combines the essential features of both, embellishing them where necessary with pictures or diagrams, at the same time that it reduces most entries to a few lines that can provide a brief but accurate introduction to the subject.
An encyclopaedia does not come into being by itself. Each new work builds on the experience and contents of its predecessors. In many cases the debt is acknowledged: the German publisher Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus bought the bankrupt encyclopaedia of Gotthelf Renatus Löbel in 1808 and converted it into his famous Konversationslexikon (see Brockhaus Enzyklopädie), though Jesuits adapted Antoine Furetière's Dictionnaire universel without acknowledgment in their Dictionnaire de Trévoux (1704). Classical writers made many references to their predecessors' efforts and often incorporated whole passages from other encyclopaedias. Of all the many examples, the Cyclopaedia (1728) of the English encyclopaedist Ephraim Chambers has been outstanding in its influence, for Diderot's and Rees's encyclopaedias would have been very different if Chambers had not demonstrated what a modern encyclopaedia could be. In turn, the publication of Encyclopædia Britannica was stimulated by the issue of the French Encyclopédie. Almost every subsequent move in encyclopaedia making is thus directly traceable to Chambers's pioneer work.
Encyclopaedia makers have usually envisaged the particular public they addressed. Cassiodorus wrote for the "instruction of simple and unpolished brothers"; the Roman statesman Cato wrote for the guidance of his son; Gregor Reisch, prior of the Carthusian monastery of Freiburg, addressed himself to "Ingenuous Youth"; the Franciscan encyclopaedist Bartholomaeus Anglicus wrote for "ordinary" people; the German professor Johann Christoph Wagenseil wrote for children; and Herrad of Landsberg, abbess of Hohenburg, wrote for her nuns. Encyclopædia Britannica was designed for the use of the curious and intelligent layman. The editor of The Columbia Encyclopedia in 1935 tried to provide a work that was compact enough and written simply enough to serve as a guide to the "young Abraham Lincoln." The Jesuit Michael Pexenfelder made his intended audience clear enough by writing his Apparatus Eruditionis (1670; "Apparatus of Learning") in the form of a series of conversations between teacher and pupil. St. Isidore addressed himself not only to the needs of his former pupils in the episcopal school but also to the needs of all the priests and monks for whom he was responsible. At the same time, he hoped to provide the newly converted population of Spain with a national culture that would enable it to hold its own in the Byzantine world.
In sympathy with many of their various ends, many scholars have contributed to encyclopaedias. Not all their contributions are known, because until the mid- to late 20th century it was not the custom to sign articles. It is known, however, that the English encyclopaedist John Harris enlisted the help of such scientists as John Ray and Sir Isaac Newton for his Lexicon Technicum (1704) and that Rees's New Cyclopædia (1802–20) included articles on music by the English organist and music historian Charles Burney and on botany by the English botanist Sir J.E. Smith. Illustrious Frenchmen such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, Montesquieu, and Georges Boulanger contributed to the Encyclopédie; Thomas Macaulay, T.E. Lawrence, and more than 100 recipients of Nobel Prizes—including Albert Einstein and Marie Curie—to the Britannica; the Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster and the Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted to The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (1808–30); the English astronomer Sir William Herschel and the English mathematician and mechanical genius Charles Babbage to the Metropolitana; the Russian Communist leader Lenin to the Granat encyclopaedia; and the dictator Benito Mussolini to the Enciclopedia italiana.
The language of Western encyclopaedias was almost exclusively Latin up to the time of the first printed works. As with most scholarly writings, the use of Latin was advantageous because it made works available internationally on a wide scale and thus promoted unlimited sharing of information. On the other hand, it made the contents of encyclopaedias inaccessible to the great majority of people. Consequently, there was from the early days on a movement to translate the more important encyclopaedias into various vernaculars. Honorius Inclusus's Imago mundi (c. 1122; "Image of the World") was rendered into French, Italian, and Spanish; Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De proprietatibus rerum (1220–40; "On the Characteristics of Things") into English; the Dominican friar Thomas de Cantimpré's De natura rerum (c. 1228–44; "On the Nature of Things") into Flemish and German; and Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum majus ("The Greater Mirror") into French, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Catalan. In later years the more successful encyclopaedias were translated from one vernacular into another. Moréri's encyclopaedia, Le Grand Dictionnaire historique, was translated into both English and German. The German Brockhaus appeared in a Russian translation (1890–1907), and the French Petit Larousse had several foreign-language editions. Nevertheless, an encyclopaedia, however successful in its own country, may find acceptance in another country far from easy.
The contemporary world
Encyclopaedias have often reflected fairly accurately the civilization in which they appeared; that this was deliberate is shown by the frequency with which the earlier compilers included such words as speculum ("mirror"), imago ("image"), and so forth in their titles. Thus, as early as the 2nd century the Greek scholar Julius Pollux was already defining current technical terms in his Onomastikon. In the 13th century Vincent of Beauvais quoted the ideas of both pagan and Christian philosophers freely and without differentiation, for their statements often agreed on questions of morals. In doing so, he reflected the rapidly widening horizons of a period that saw the founding of so many universities. Bartholomaeus Anglicus devoted a considerable part of his work to psychology and medicine. Theophilus (thought to be Roger of Helmarshausen, a Benedictine monk) as early as the 12th century gave a clear and practical account in his De diversis artibus ("On Diverse Arts") of contemporary processes used in painting, glassmaking and decoration, metalworking, bone carving, and the working of precious stones, even listing the necessary tools and conditions for successful operations. Pierre Bayle, a French philosopher and critic, showed in his Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697; "Historical and Critical Dictionary") how the scientific renaissance of the previous 40 years had revolutionized contemporary thought. To every detail he applied a mercilessly scientific and inquiring mind that challenged the assumptions and blind reverence for authority that had characterized most of his predecessors.
At that point in history, much attention was being paid to practical matters: the statesman Jean-Baptiste Colbert himself directed the French Académie des Sciences (1675) to produce a work that eventually appeared as the Description et perfection des arts et métiers (1761; "Description and Perfection of the Arts and Crafts"). The German Meyer's Grosses Konversations-Lexicon from the first edition (1840–55) onward paid particular attention to scientific and technical developments, and the Encyclopedia Americana, aided by the Scientific American, strengthened its coverage in this area from 1911 onward. In its very first edition the Encyclopædia Britannica included lengthy articles containing detailed instructions on such topics as surgery, bookkeeping, and many aspects of farming. Similarly, The New Cyclopaedia, in the early 19th century, incorporated articles on subjects such as candle making and coach building.
The outstanding example of a completely contemporary encyclopaedia was, of course, the Encyclopédie, in which Diderot, the mathematician and philosopher Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, and their friends set out to reject much of the heritage of the past in favour of the scientific discoveries and the more advanced thought of their own age. Their decision in this respect was both intellectually and commercially successful. Since that time every edition of any good encyclopaedia has the additional merit of being a valuable source for the thought and attitudes of the people for whom it was published.
Encyclopaedias and politics
All great encyclopaedia makers have tried to be truthful and to present a balanced picture of civilization as they knew it, although it is probable that no encyclopaedia is totally unbiased. A great encyclopaedia is inevitably a sign of national maturity and, as such, it will often pay tribute to the ideals of its country and its times. The first Hungarian encyclopaedia, János Apáczai Csere's Magyar encyclopaedia (1653–55), was mostly a summary of what was available in foreign works, but the Révai nagy lexikona (1911–35; "Révai's Great Lexicon") was a handsome tribute to Hungary's emergence as a country in its own right, just as the Enciklopedija Jugoslavije (first published 1955–71) did full justice to the advances made by Yugoslavia in the mid-20th century. The supreme example of an encyclopaedia that set out to present the best possible image of its people and the wealth and stature of their culture is undoubtedly the Enciclopedia italiana (1929–36). Mussolini's contribution of an article on fascism indicates the extent to which the work might be regarded as an ideological tool, but, in fact, most of its contents are international and objective in approach. The various encyclopaedias of the Soviet Union occupy many feet of shelf space, with the later editions each devoting one complete volume to the Soviet Union in all its aspects. Though successive editions of the Bolshaya Sovetskaya entsiklopediya ("Great Soviet Encyclopaedia") were notable for the obvious political factors that were responsible for the inclusion and exclusion of entries for famous nationals according to the state of their acceptance or condemnation by the existing regime, many critics felt that the third edition (1970–78) was somewhat less ideological than any of the others in this regard.
Diderot, the editor, and André-François Le Breton, the publisher, faced such opposition from both church and state in their publication of the Encyclopédie (1751–65) that many of the volumes were secretly printed, and the last 10 were issued with a false imprint. In the early part of the 19th century, Brockhaus was condemned by the Austrian censor, and in 1950 its 11th edition was branded as reactionary by the East German government. Nor was political censorship the only form of oppression in the world of encyclopaedias. Antoine Furetière, on issuing his prospectus (1675) for his Dictionnaire universel, found his privilege to publish cancelled by the French government at the request of the Académie Française, which accused him of plagiarizing its own dictionary. The Leipzig book trade, fearing that publication of Johann Heinrich Zedler's huge Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexikon (1732–50; "Great Complete Universal Lexicon") might put them out of business, made such difficulties that Zedler thought it best to issue his work in Halle.
The reader's needs
People look to encyclopaedias to give them an adequate introduction to a topic that interests them. Many expect an encyclopaedia to omit nothing and to include consideration of all controversial aspects of a subject. Encyclopaedia makers of the past assumed that there was a large public willing to read through an entire encyclopaedia if it was not too large. In the 18th century, for example, there was a good market for pocket-size compendia for the traveler, or for the courtier to browse in as he waited for an audience. Thus, although most encyclopaedias are multivolume works, there are many small works ranging from the Didascalion (c. 1128; "Teaching") of the Scholastic philosopher and mystic theologian Hugh of Saint-Victor, through Gregor Reisch's Margarita philosophica (1496; "The Philosophical Pearl") and the French writer Pons-Augustin Alletz's Petite Encyclopédie (1766), to C.T. Watkins's Portable Cyclopædia (1817). The last was issued by a remarkable publisher, Sir Richard Phillips, who realized the great demand for pocket-size compendia and drove a thriving trade in issuing a number of these; he is thought to have written large sections of these himself.
Royalty and encyclopaedias
Most of the classic Chinese encyclopaedias owe their existence to the patronage of emperors. In the West the Roman scholar Pliny dedicated his Historia naturalis ("Natural History") to the emperor Titus, and Julius Pollux dedicated his Onomastikon to his former pupil, the Roman emperor Commodus. The Byzantine philosopher and politician Michael Psellus dedicated his De omnifaria doctrina ("On All Sorts of Teaching") to his former pupil the emperor Michael VII Ducas, ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire. Gervase of Tilbury, an English ecclesiastic, compiled his Otia imperialia ("Imperial Pastimes") for the Holy Roman emperor Otto IV, and Alfonso de la Torre prepared his Visiõ delectable for Prince Carlos of Viana. St. Isidore dedicated his encyclopaedia to the Visigothic king Sisebut, and the French king Louis IX patronized Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum majus. Nor did kings eschew the work of compiling encyclopaedias. The emperor Constantine VII of the Eastern Roman Empire was responsible for a series of encyclopaedias, and Alfonso X of Spain organized the making of the Grande e general estoria ("Great and General History").
Contents and authority
The extent to which readers have been dependent on editorial decisions concerning not only what to include but also what to exclude has yet to be explored in detail. For example, Vincent of Beauvais rarely mentioned the pagan and Christian legends that were so popular in his day. The anonymous compiler of the scholarly Compendium philosophiae (c. 1316; "Compendium of Philosophy") was careful to omit the credulous tales that appeared in contemporary bestiaries. For many centuries it was not considered right to include biographies of men and women who were still alive. And the early Romans, such as Cato, rejected much of Greek theoretical knowledge, regarding it as a dangerous foreign influence and believing with the Stoics that wisdom consisted in living according to nature's precepts.
Whatever the compiler did decide to include had a far-reaching influence. Pliny's vast Historia naturalis has survived intact because for so many centuries it symbolized human knowledge, and even the "old wives' tales" it injudiciously included were unquestioningly copied into many later encyclopaedias. The influence of St. Isidore's work can be traced in writings as late as the collection of travelers' tales first published in French in the 1350s and attributed to Sir John Mandeville and to the 14th-century Confessio amantis ("A Lover's Confession") of the English poet John Gower. Honorius's Imago mundi is known to have influenced some of the German medieval chronicles and the Norse saga of Olaf Tryggvason. The main source of classics such as the Roman de la rose ("Romance of the Rose"), the Alexander romances, Archbishop Giovanni da Colonna's Liber de viris illustribus ("Book Concerning Illustrious Men"), and the recorded lives of the saints can be traced to the Speculum majus. The direct and indirect influence of the critical encyclopaedias of Bayle and Diderot is, of course, incalculable.
Editing and publishing
The length of encyclopaedias and encyclopaedic articles
There always have been and there still are a number of successful one-volume encyclopaedias. Outstanding examples of the 20th century include The Columbia Encyclopedia, the Petit Larousse, Hutchinson's New Twentieth Century Encyclopedia, and the Random House Encyclopedia. In the Random House set the contents were divided into two sections, a Colorpedia, composed of relatively lengthy articles dealing with broad topics, and an Alphapedia, composed of concise entries on very specific subjects. Some booksellers and publishers confirm that there is, however unreasonably, a certain amount of public prejudice against the single-volume form and that most people prefer a multivolume work. Throughout the entire history of encyclopaedias there has been much variation in the number of volumes. Many of the Chinese encyclopaedias have been considerably larger than any Western work. Pliny's Historia naturalis comprised about 2,500 chapters, Zedler's Universal-Lexicon was planned for 12 volumes and eventually filled 64; the publishers of the Encyclopédie were faced with a lawsuit (1768–78) for producing a 26-volume encyclopaedia instead of the 10 volumes they had promised; Johann Samuel Ersch and Johann Gottfried Gruber's German Allgemeine Encyclopädie ("General Encyclopaedia") had already reached 167 volumes at the time of its discontinuance; and the major Soviet encyclopaedia consisted of more than 50 volumes. Today most print encyclopaedias range between 20 and 30 volumes, occupying between three and four feet (about a metre) of shelf space. Thus, the modern encyclopaedia appears smaller than its 19th-century counterpart, but, in fact, the content may be greater because the thick mat paper of Victorian times has been replaced by a thinner paper capable of reproducing colour and black-and-white halftone illustrations with sharp definition.
Even more noticeable than variations in the number of volumes in encyclopaedias has been an even greater variation in the average lengths of articles within those volumes. The 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica contained almost twice as many articles as the last significant edition before it, but it contained only 15 or 16 percent more words. The difference had to do with editorial considerations regarding the matter of fragmentation. Although most of the major encyclopaedias of the past had devoted considerable space to any topic of major importance, there was increasing recognition in the 19th century that an alternative method of treatment would be to break large subjects into their constituent subtopics for alphabetical distribution throughout the set. Those who favoured this more fragmented approach argued that by focusing on the smaller part of the whole, the editors could facilitate the user's search for specific information and that the liberal provision of cross-references would facilitate a recombination of the fragments by those interested in the bigger picture. Against this practice, it was argued that most cross-references are not followed up by most readers, that the shorter fragmented pieces work against a correct understanding of the larger subject, and that fragmentation inevitably involved a great amount of repetition of basic information throughout all the related articles. Nevertheless, Brockhaus, Meyer, Larousse, and other encyclopaedias of the shorter-entry type have had and continue to have a strong following.
The first encyclopaedia makers had no doubts concerning their ability to compile their works single-handedly. Cassiodorus, Honorius Inclusus (or Solitarius), and Vincent of Beauvais fully justified this attitude, though their task was largely that of the anthologist. Vincent and many other encyclopaedists employed both scribes and scholars to help them in their work, but, once the encyclopaedia reached the stage of independent writing, it was clear that the editorial task was going to become more complex. Even so, some of the later pocket encyclopaedias—such as the English bookseller John Dunton's mediocre Ladies' Dictionary (1694), An Universal History of Arts and Sciences (1745) by the French-born Englishman Chevalier Denis de Coëtlogon, and the popular Allgemeines Lexicon (1721; "General Lexicon") by the Prussian scholar Johann Theodor Jablonski—were substantially or almost wholly the work of a single author; such items are, however, negligible.
John Harris, an English theologian and scientist, may have been one of the first to enlist the aid of experts, such as the naturalist John Ray and Sir Isaac Newton, in compiling his Lexicon Technicum (1704; "Technical Lexicon"). Johann Heinrich Zedler, in his Universal-Lexicon (1732–50), went further by enlisting the help of two general editors, supported by nine specialist editors, the result being a gigantic work of great accuracy. The French Encyclopédie, the largest encyclopaedia issued at that time, inevitably had many contributors, although the French writer Voltaire said that Diderot's collaborator, the Chevalier Louis de Jaucourt (aided by secretaries), contributed about three-quarters of the articles in that work. The pattern for future encyclopaedias was established: for any substantial work, it would be necessary not only to have contributions from the experts of the day, but it would also be essential to have subject editors who could supervise the coverage and content in each area of knowledge.
Encyclopaedia adjuncts
The readers of modern encyclopaedias are rarely aware of the numerous aids that have been provided to make their search for information so easy and efficient. Only when recourse is had to one of the older encyclopaedias does the reader become conscious of the advances that have been made. In former days it was often difficult to distinguish between one article and the next, because distinctive headings or inset titles or the use of boldface was rare. Nor was the necessity for running titles or alphabetical notations at the head of the pages fully appreciated. Even more troublesome was the problem of the arrangement of entries for several persons of the same name; reference to the older encyclopaedias under such headings as "Henry," "John," or "Louis"—names held by both princes and religious potentates—will show how little the art of acceptable arrangement was understood.
Cross-references and bibliographies
Cross-references are an essential feature of the modern encyclopaedia; they date back at least as far as Bandini's Fons memorabilium universi, but it was Brockhaus who introduced an ingenious system of using arrows instead of the words see also. The Columbia Encyclopedia achieved the same effect by printing in small capital letters the words under which additional information could be found. Some encyclopaedias devote each volume to one letter of the alphabet or indicate the division between letters by thumb-indexing. In electronic encyclopaedias, cross-references are hyperlinked and provide virtually instantaneous movement throughout the database. In established encyclopaedias the bibliographies for individual articles are usually the result of careful editorial consultation with the writer and with librarians.
Undoubtedly the major adjunct of the modern encyclopaedia is its index. As early as 1614 the bishop of Petina, Antonio Zara, included a type of index in his Anatomia ingeniorum et scientiarum ("Anatomy of Talents and Sciences"). A Greek professor at Basel, Johann Jacob Hoffman, added an index to his Lexicon universale of 1677; the Encyclopédie was completed by a two-volume "Table analytique et raisonnée" for the entire 33 volumes of text, supplements, and plates; and the Britannica included individual indexes to the lengthier articles in its 2nd edition (1778–84) and provided its first separate index volume for the 7th edition (1830–42). The nature of good indexing was still far from being fully understood, however, and it was only later in the 19th century that really good encyclopaedia indexes were prepared. In the 20th-century encyclopaedias that provided indexes, the reader was invariably advised to read the guides to their use, because the index had become a sophisticated tool that offered a wealth of information in one alphabetical sequence. Breaking with the alphabetical approach to indexing, the Britannica Electronic Index, made available in 1992, was an inventory of all index terms of the Encyclopædia Britannica; it was to be used topically by the reader. By the 21st century, electronic indexing had grown so sophisticated that it facilitated movement through a database, showed topical relationships, and occasionally offered users the opportunity to form their own groupings of related articles.
Illustrative material
The use of illustrations in encyclopaedias goes back almost certainly to St. Isidore's time. One of the most beautiful examples of an illustrated encyclopaedia was the abbess Herrad's 12th-century Hortus deliciarum. In many earlier encyclopaedias the illustrations were often more decorative than useful, but from the end of the 17th century the better encyclopaedias began to include engraved plates of great accuracy and some of great beauty. The Encyclopédie is particularly distinguished for its superb volume of plates—reprinted in the 20th century. In modern times the trend has been toward more lavish illustration of encyclopaedias, including elaborate coloured anatomical plates with superimposed layers, and specially inset small coloured halftones, as well as marginal line drawings. With the advent of electronic delivery of databases, intricate animations and audio and video clips became common features of online and disc-based encyclopaedias.
The level of writing
The American editor Franklin H. Hooper, undaunted by his own lack of scholarship, took a notable part in ensuring that the articles of the 11th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica were kept within the mental range of the average reader. The problem of the encyclopaedist has always been to strike the right mean between too learned and too simplified an approach. The Roman Cassiodorus wrote his encyclopaedia to provide a bridge between his unlettered monks and the scholarly books he had preserved for their use. Hugh of Saint-Victor, the theologian and philosopher, achieved one of the best approaches in his charming Didascalion (c. 1128), in which he used an elegant and simple style that everyone could appreciate. The abbess Herrad, knowing her audience, described in didactic fashion the history of the world (with emphasis on biblical stories) and its content, with commentaries and beautifully coloured miniatures designed to help and edify the nuns in her charge. The master of Dante, Brunetto Latini, wanted to reach the Italian cultured and mercantile classes with his Li livres dou trésor (c. 1264; "Treasure Books") and therefore used a concise and accurate style that evoked an immediate and general welcome. Gregor Reisch managed to cover the whole university course of the day in his brief Margarita philosophica, which correctly interpreted the taste of the younger generation at the end of the 15th century.
Until the 17th century a great many encyclopaedias had been written by clerics for clerics, and further examples continued to be published. After that time, more popular works began to be published as well, particularly in France, where such palatable compilations as the Sieur Saunier's Encyclopédie des beaux esprits (1657; "Encyclopaedia of Great Minds") had an immediate success. The philosopher Pierre Bayle in his Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697) introduced the lay reader to the necessity of reading more critically; in this his work constituted a forerunner of the Encyclopédie, with its challenges to many undiscriminating assumptions about religion and politics, history and government. On the other hand, the contemporary Dictionnaire universel of the Jesuit fathers of Trévoux had a popularity among the orthodox that caused it to run through six editions and then gradually to expand from three to eight volumes between 1704 and 1771.
Supplementary material
The idea of keeping encyclopaedias up-to-date by means of supplements, yearbooks, and so on, dates back more than two centuries. In 1753 a two-volume supplement to the 7th edition of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia was compiled by George Lewis Scott, a tutor to the English royal family. Charles-Joseph Panckoucke, a publisher, issued a four-volume supplement to the Encyclopédie (1776–77), in spite of Diderot's refusal to edit it. The Britannica included a 200-page appendix in the last volume of the 2nd edition (1784) and issued a two-volume supplement to the 3rd edition (1801; reprinted 1803). Brockhaus broke new ground by issuing in monthly parts (1857–64) a yearbook to the 10th edition (1851–55), which, on the commencement of the issue of the 11th edition, changed its name to Unsere Zeit ("Our Times") and doubled its frequency (1865–74). In 1907 Larousse began publication of the Larousse mensuel illustré ("Monthly Illustrated Larousse"). The New International Encyclopaedia issued a yearbook from 1908 (retrospective to 1903), and the Britannica issued one yearbook in 1913 and recommenced with the Britannica Book of the Year in 1938. The publication of supplements has a much longer history in China, but the system on which the Chinese operated was very different from that of the West. By the second half of the 20th century, yearbooks had become a common feature of most general encyclopaedias. In the main, they proved more effective in recording the events and discoveries of each year than keeping the main articles up-to-date. They also performed an essential duty in informing their readers of much that was not reported or that was only inadequately reported in the press; at the same time, they provided a more reasoned assessment and perspective than the daily newspapers and the weekly commentaries could usually achieve.
Some of the leading encyclopaedias offered additional services during the second half of the 20th century that provided the reader with the expert guidance necessary to get the best from a modern encyclopaedia's complex contents. To this end, small subject guides were sometimes issued, which in narrative form outlined the whole field and brought each topic into perspective, drawing attention to the appropriate articles that would throw further light on the matter. A research service was another supplementary feature offered by some established encyclopaedias. Through such services, purchasers were permitted to submit a limited number of questions about topics either not dealt with in the set or dealt with inadequately. These services were provided in a variety of ways. In some cases, frequently asked questions were answered with previously prepared reports listed in the publisher's catalog; in others, questions were referred to a special office staff for answers culled from the publisher's own databases; in still others, they were referred to researchers stationed at selected specialized libraries.
Other supplementary material sometimes issued by encyclopaedias ranged from 10-year illustrated surveys of events to sets of books considered to have had a major impact on humankind. Although few publishers included dictionaries as an integral part of their encyclopaedia, they frequently supplied a well-known, independently compiled work as part of their service. During the last quarter of the 20th century, it became an increasingly common custom for an encyclopaedia to incorporate an atlas and a gazetteer, often in the last volume.
Problems of encyclopaedias
In using a reputable encyclopaedia, the reader is inclined to accept the authenticity of any article he or she happens to read. Subconsciously the reader is aware that the highly organized staff of scholars credited for the work must inevitably have ensured the scrutiny of all material. Nevertheless, over the course of the 20th century, editors of encyclopaedias tended more and more to commission signed articles by well-known experts. For its 1922 supplement, Britannica commissioned articles from some of the most famous men and women of the day: "Belgium" by the Belgian historian Henri Pirenne; "Anton Ivanovich Denikin" by the Russian-born jurist and historian Sir Paul Vinogradoff; "Drama" by St. John Ervine, the British playwright and novelist; "Czechoslovakia" by the Czech statesman Tomáš Masaryk; and "Russian Army" by Gen. Yuri Danilov. This created a new dimension in encyclopaedias, for it introduced a personal element on a scale previously seen only in the columns of the Encyclopédie. There is in fact a difference in the treatment of a subject written by a politician such as Masaryk and by an academic historian of distinction. Each writer has something important to offer, and the results will be very different.
Encyclopaedia writing requires teamwork in which each article is edited in relation to others closely connected by subject. If a writer makes a statement that is partly qualified or totally contradicted in another article, the contributions of both writers must be scrutinized by the editorial staff, whose job it is to effect some kind of eventual agreement. Truth can be viewed from many standpoints, and references to any controversy may produce problems demanding all the skill and tact of the editors to resolve, particularly when the reputation of the writer is at stake in a signed article.
Length restrictions
The restrictions imposed by the space available for any particular article in a print encyclopaedia are of great consequence. Writing such articles is an art of its own; within a limited space so much must be compressed—nothing important can be omitted, nothing trivial should be included.
Revision and updating
The revision and updating of an encyclopaedia is one of the greatest challenges to its makers, one to which many ingenious, if admittedly partial, solutions have been found. The problem of keeping an encyclopaedia up-to-date has two facets: the first is to assure that any one printing or edition is as up-to-date as possible at the time of its preparation, and the second is to make it possible for purchasers of a print set to maintain the set in an up-to-date condition. One apparent answer to both aspects, the loose-leaf format, has never been a publishing success. Nelson's Perpetual Loose Leaf Encyclopaedia (second edition, 1920) was discontinued; the prestigious Encyclopédie française (1935–66), however, continued to be available in both loose-leaf and bound volumes during the 20th century.
Louis Moréri set an example in his rapid incorporation of new information in each succeeding issue of his widely used Grand Dictionnaire historique (1674; "The Great Historical Dictionary"). When the German publisher Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus first issued his great encyclopaedia, he was forced by an unexpectedly large public demand to issue edition after edition in quick succession (some of them even overlapped). In all of these he took great pride in providing the latest information, personally supervising much of the revision of individual articles. Moreover, he provided special supplements incorporating these revisions for purchasers of each edition.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, most encyclopaedias that lasted long enough to require revision met the problem by preparing a new edition or by issuing supplements. In the case of Encyclopædia Britannica, the first edition (1768–71) was replaced by an essentially new and enlarged second edition in 1777–84; the ninth edition (1875–89), however, remained in print until the preparation of the 11th edition (1910–11), with a 10th edition nominally created by the addition of 11 supplementary volumes in the interim. Among the most serious shortcomings of the new-edition method was the tendency of publishers to dismiss editorial staff after the preparation of a new edition, a practice which meant that skilled editors were dispersed and had to be replaced once the decision to create a new edition had been taken.
Early in the 20th century it became the practice to fill the gaps between new editions with annual summaries called yearbooks. A turning point came when, soon after the publication of its 14th edition in 1929, Encyclopædia Britannica announced the introduction of a system of continuous revision that in one form or another became the practice of most major encyclopaedias in many countries. Under continuous revision programs, some percentage of the articles in a print set are updated or improved in other ways on a flexible schedule. Several publishers were able to take advantage of 20th-century printing technologies to reprint their sets on an annual basis and to introduce into each new printing as many revised entries as possible. The system implied the existence of a permanent editorial department able, with the assistance of academic advisers and article authors, to monitor the condition of entries on a constant basis.
Continuous revision has certain drawbacks. The most serious disadvantage may relate to the rapidity with which articles in a set become noticeably unbalanced in relation to one another. Changes and events requiring revision of articles are more readily apparent in the scientific, technological, biographical, and historical areas, with the result that articles in such fields are revised much more frequently than articles in such fields as the humanities, where important changes do occur, though more subtly.
An equally important disadvantage in continuous revision has to do with the inherent difficulty of revising, on an article-by-article basis, a set of reference books containing many thousands of articles. First, editors are usually unable to revise all the articles that might be affected by a new development. In the case of the assassination of a president, for instance, the editors of the next printing might add the event to the president's biography and even to the history of the country but be unable to acknowledge the event in all the other articles in which the president's name appears. Second, updating a single article is not always as simple as it might at first appear to be. In a biography, for instance, critical events can occur so often that it soon becomes no longer possible simply to add an additional sentence to the end of the piece: the death of the subject of the biography might be the occasion for a reassessment of the person's significance or for the disclosure of long unknown or unpublicized information; in archaeology, a new discovery may be at serious variance with several previously held theories on which a whole article might well be based. In such instances, revision must go beyond the simple addition of a sentence or the insertion of a word or date and may involve partial or complete rewriting. With the rapid pace of modern research, this can quickly become an ever-present editorial problem of great complexity.
Controversy and bias
Throughout the years, most major encyclopaedias have been accused of reflecting bias in one or more of their articles. In the Encyclopédie the lack of neutrality was intentional and apparent. Various editions of Encyclopædia Britannica, almost from the beginning, were accused of bias as well. The practice of relying on outside specialists for articles, a practice now followed by most serious encyclopaedias, has increased the likelihood that bias will be worked into an article. Many critics have felt that the reader is protected in such cases by the fact that the identity of the contributor is not hidden. It has also been argued that the presence of slanted opinions in an article gave to older encyclopaedias a colour and sense of conviction that is lacking in most modern works. Modern editors of major encyclopaedias nevertheless make every effort to eliminate any hint of bias in their products, but the task is a difficult one. For example, an account of the Korean War might vary according to whether it was written by a North or South Korean, a Chinese, or an American writer.
Similarly, the inclusion of a map showing the frontiers between two or more nations may give rise to vigorous controversy if the nations involved dispute any part of the boundaries as shown. The illustration of a painting with an attribution to one artist may draw strong protests from art critics who do not agree with the writer. Controversy today has grown rapidly on many subjects that were not earlier in dispute.


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Saturday, August 13, 2011
A note on our format for the time being
Lately, Real Life has crowded in on the freedom to post as much as we would like, and to be honest, it has felt like a weight has been lifted off our collective shoulders. Obviously, this isn't exactly what we were hoping for. We were hoping that the inability to post updates, snide comments, and analysis would really bother us, and drive us to do better. But it's been freeing.
Life is moving at a fairly rapid clip, new opportunities (not with blogging - those opportunities rarely come up) have arisen. This isn't a farewell post - we will continue to be active on Twitter, including the County Clerk's nuggets, Men of the Match from Eddie's Farm, etc. So by all means, follow Astros County on Twitter and get most of the same information. It's just time for a little break.
Tweet you soon.
14 comments:
- cardsjason said...
bummer, but understandable. you guys are my home page.
- August 14, 2011 at 1:43 AM
Have you ever thought about outsourcing a few of the posts? This way you could keep the site relevant and not fall by the wayside. You could grab a could a friend (or reader) or two, to make the transactions posts or relay any of the twitter posts while still maintaining Eddies Farm and the @AstrosCounty twitter feed. Just food for thought. Love the site.
- August 14, 2011 at 3:36 AM
- Sean Peden said...
- August 14, 2011 at 3:48 AM
No loss. There are other good blogs out there. You are not the first blogger to be p whipped by the wife or girlfriend. "Honey why don't you just stop spending so much time on that stuff. i need you to do things for me". Probably convinced you it was really your idea to stop.
- August 14, 2011 at 9:12 AM
Like when Bra ls Mills calls for a bunt....
- August 14, 2011 at 9:57 AM
- Reuben said...
Definitely understandable, but you'll be missed. The Eddie's Farm stuff was especially valued (by the way, Cosart would certainly have been Man of the Match for CC last night). Unfortunately I don't do the Twitter.
- August 14, 2011 at 10:20 AM
- Denny said...
It is a bit sad. This has been my favourite destination for a compilation of all Astros related news and trivia. Sure there are other blogs oout there, but there is something about this one. I don't have twitter, so I guess I'll just have to hope that astroscounty.com stays alive!
- August 14, 2011 at 12:04 PM
- Bernardo Vieira said...
I'm from São Paulo, Brazil, and I went two times to Houston just to watch Astros games in 2004 and 2005. You guys are my home page like a lot of Astros fans. I know that the last 3 or 4 years was not the best one for our baseball team, but you need to continue your hard work to inform us the news from Astros. I'm alone guy im Brazil that are writing here, but imagine how many guys like me are looking for your posts around the world. Sorry for my bad english, but I need to write to you about this bad time. Sincerely, Bernardo Vieira.
- August 14, 2011 at 1:50 PM
I don't use Twitter. I guess there's always The Crawfish Boxes...
- August 14, 2011 at 2:47 PM
- jmlynch33 said...
Here is some close up , clear video of President George Bush at the Houston astros game.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyxXMeiER4Y
- August 14, 2011 at 3:35 PM
- jmlynch33 said...
- August 14, 2011 at 3:36 PM
"The Crawfish Boxes" doesn't take a break, so MAN UP! And thank you.
- August 14, 2011 at 7:48 PM
Wait... Aren't y'all gonna update us on the Springer/Armstrong/Stubblefield signings today? Please, just one more day! This site is so easy to check from my phone while I'm @ the office.
- August 15, 2011 at 10:21 AM
- Andrew said...
People, just sign up for twitter. Just about everything that shows up on this site pops up on twitter first. Case in point, the Springer signing was announced on Twitter by Alyson Footer about 11:05 last night, well before any of the other sites could put anything up.
When news breaks now, it breaks first on Twitter.
- August 16, 2011 at 8:27 AM

subset: commoncrawl


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March 8, 2011
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - In a new wrinkle of the ampm Big West Tournament this season, the top four seeds were rewarded with home-court advantage. For the UC Santa Barbara women's basketball team, home court, unfortunately, didn't matter.
Seventh-seeded Pacific shocked the co-Big West champion Gauchos in the Thunderdome on Tuesday night, 49-45, holding UCSB without a point in the final 4:18 of the game.
UCSB, which was riding a seven-game winning streak into the first round game, will not reach the semifinals of the Big West tourney for the first time since 1996 when that team was upset by Pacific in double overtime.
The Tigers' win was their first in the Thunderdome since Feb. 21, 1987, a span of 24 straight losses in Santa Barbara.
The Gauchos fall to 19-11 overall while Pacific improves to 9-21.
Santa Barbara was just 5-for-15 from the free throw line after having shot 74.2 percent from the charity stripe over its previous six games. After Danielle Peacon was assessed a technical foul with 3:53 left in the game, Emilie Johnson missed both technical foul shots.
UCSB led by as many as 14 points with 18:35 to go in the game, but a quick 7-2 run by the Tigers cut the lead to 41-34 with 8:51 to go. Angelei Aguirre's basket was the Gauchos' final field goal, giving them a 45-39 lead with 4:18 remaining.
Peacon, an All-Big West Freshman Team pick, then fouled out and was given the T, forcing Pacific to shoot more from the outside and not give the ball into their post player who averaged 12.1 points per game this season. It worked.
"There was definitely a momentum shift," Emilie Johnson said. "In the past that's where we say `No, we're not going to let this happen' and we make a change and we stick together and we fight to the end. But tonight it just didn't go our way."
Jordan Rogers hit a three-pointer to beat the shot clock to make it 45-42 and then Kendall Rodriguez canned a trey to tie the game with 2:14 to go.
Rogers hit both free throws with 0:25 to go and Nicole Nesbit drove the length of the floor to attempt a layin, but missed and UCSB called timeout. Nesbit missed a jumper with 7.3 seconds to go and two more free throws by Erica McKenzie iced the game.
UCSB's men's team opens the ampm Big West Tournament with a game on Thursday afternoon vs. No. 4 seed Pacific. Tickets are available by calling (805) 893-UCSB or online by clicking here.
Seventh-Seeded Tigers Upset Gauchos in 1st Round of Big West Tournament
Mar 08, 2011


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Check out our Ford Mustang Shelby photo gallery
with HQ pics.
Last update in Mustang Shelby gallery: 2006-04-13
The Americans prepare a miniature SUV for Europe with a revived Puma name.
In the Romanian representative office of Ford showed on Facebook a teaser of the newest Kuga.
Ford presented a restyled pick-up Ranger for a European consumer.
Before the holidays, Ford decided to present the concept of a dog kennel, where we can find an active noise reduction system.
The Internet has spread photos from the paparazzi, demonstrating the sports ST-modification of a Ford Focus Hatch new generation.
A new Ford electric car can start selling with the name Mach E or Mach-E.
We select only big size ford mustang shelby photos
for our photogallery.


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Four Other Players Honored At Team Banquet
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Andy Shorten, who finished third on the team in scoring this fall, has been elected captain of the 2010 Yale men's soccer team. The announcement was made Wednesday night at the annual postseason banquet following a team vote.
"It is a great honor," said Shorten, a junior midfielder from Hudson, Ohio. "To be elected by my teammates and to follow in the footsteps of so many great captains of the past is both humbling and exciting. As captain, I hope to work closely with my teammates and coaches to create the strongest team possible when we kick off our season next fall."
Shorten appeared in 16 games this fall and had two goals and three assists. Against SMU, he scored and added an assist, and he also had a goal in Yale's 4-3 victory over Cornell. In his career, he has played in 42 games.
"I am delighted for Andy to be named 2010 soccer captain," said Yale head coach Brian Tompkins. "He exudes passion and commitment on and off the playing field, and his personality and spirit have made him universally well-liked and respected. I have every confidence that he will be an outstanding leader and continue the tradition of excellence set by his predecessors as we prepare for the challenges ahead in the 2010 season."
Shorten will be one of six seniors on next year's team.
"Our class is filled with leaders," Shorten said. "We all have different qualities, but collectively we all want the same thing - to win. There is no doubt in my mind that leading our team to victory will be a collective effort."
In addition to the captain announcement, five team awards were presented. Senior goalkeeper Travis Chulick was the recipient of the Walter J. McNerney Award as the team's most valuable player and the Jack Marshall Award, which is given by the Yale Soccer Association to the member of the team who demonstrated the qualities of team spirit, loyalty to his fellow players and dedication to the game.
Chulick, a Camp Hill, Pa., native, earned second team All-Ivy recognition after starting all but one game and posting a 1.57 goals against average with a .698 save percentage. In his last two years, Chulick played 3,093 out of a possible 3,183 minutes in goal.
The Walter Leemann Trophy, awarded to that senior member of the varsity team who, by sportsmanship and team play, upholds the ideals of former Yale coach Walter Leemann, was presented to Jordan Raybould. Raybould, the team captain this fall, started 58 games in his career.
Sophomore Chris Dennen received the Frank Dunne Award as Yale's most improved player. Dennen started 15 games this fall after starting four in his rookie year. He scored the game-winning goal in the Bulldogs' victory over Cornell.
Sebastian Serra, who appeared in 11 games, was the recipient of the Bob "Doc" Holliday Award, which is presented to the squad member who regardless of playing opportunity or personal recognition has consistently demonstrated a selfless commitment, a positive attitude and has contributed to team spirit in ways that have improved the well-being of the Yale soccer program.
Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity


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Wednesday, March 19, 2014
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Celebrating growing possibilities this unique display consists of work representing the artist's interpretation of the theme "Things That Grow". Artists were encouraged to use their imagination and the world around them as inspiration for their work.
Art in this exhibit was created by artists with and without disabilities.
gallery265 is located on the First Floor of Arc of Westchester's Gleeson-Israel Gateway Center in Hawthorne, NY. The gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9AM-4PM, it is not open on the weekends.
Event Location and Ticket Information
Arc of Westchester's gallery
265 Saw Mill River Road
Hawthorne, NY
Handicap Accessible? Yes
Date: Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Times: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Ticket pricing:
Free event
Presenter Phone: 914.495.4647
Presenter Website: www.arcwestchester.org/gallery-265


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Found and Lost / Found @ Legasy on 7/28« on: July 29, 2013, 09:46:11 AM »
Found a Prodiscus "Legenda" tell me the color and name on it and ill be happy to return...
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
That is great Kel , if I don't play with FTL I will be there by 4pm to start grilling . The beer & food are free while they last.


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The Connecticut Credit Union Charitable Foundation is accepting donations on behalf of the families hit by the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown last Friday.
"The foundation trustees will be working with Gov. Dannel Malloy's office in the coming weeks to identify an appropriate initiative by which to best help the families and honor the memories of those lost," the Connecticut Credit Union League said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
The league said the foundation was reacting "to the overwhelming response of many across the country, and their desire to support the families of those lost in last Friday's tragedy."
"As the families have requested, we are respecting their privacy at this time, but we expect to identify an actionable initiative for their benefit in the coming weeks," the league said.
Donations can be sent to the foundation at 1064 E. Main St., Suite 201, Meriden, Conn. 06450.
For more information, contact CUCL President/CEO Tony Emerson at (203) 213-7829 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Don't have an account? Join the club.
Tell us your email address and we'll email
you a new password.
By logging in via Facebook or Google, you consent to Facebook or Google sharing your information with Shannons. Shannons agrees to use this information in accordance with the Shannons Club Privacy Statement.


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Lindsey's Crisp & Colorful Bedroom
Like this entry? Favorite it below!
- Name:
- Lindsey
- Location:
- Austin, TX
- Division:
- United States
- What do you love about your bedroom?:
- I love how open and airy our bedroom feels. The white walls, curtains, furniture, and bed linens provide a nice, crisp backdrop to the occasional saturated colors. I also love the sentimental quality of so many of the objects in the room. My mother made the quilt at the end of the bed as a graduation gift. The framed art speaks to my profession as an art historian and my love of design. I made the geo-shapes on the windowsill for our wedding, and the paper crane mobile for fun. And, the photos hanging near the bureau are a mix of polaroids and some of our favorite personal instagram snapshots.
- What are your tips for creating a beautiful, healthy and organized bedroom?:
- I think that as your bedroom is one of the most personal spaces in your home, it should be personalized and resonate with your own particular tastes and loves. Choose objects that are sentimental, comfortable, and aesthetically pleasing to populate the space. Also, I like to layer a variety textures and prints throughout. I try not to feel pressured to be too âmatchy matchy,â as I think that is a somewhat common and limiting compulsion in bedroom design (e.g., complete bedroom sets with matching duvet, shams, and curtains).
- In modern homes, bedrooms have become more than just a place to sleep; they can be a retreat, a home office, a library, a relaxation zone. What are some ways you make the most of your bedroom?:
- Unlike most bedroom spaces, ours is not offset from the center of the home. Instead, due to the somewhat odd layout of our carriage apartment, the bedroom connects to both the kitchen and an office space that leads to the living room. As a result, anyone wishing to move from the kitchen to the living room must pass through the bedroom. Though this stands counter to the notion that the bedroom is a private domain, I take it in stride and Iâve attempted to make the bedroom feel casual, open, and welcoming to visitors.


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xbaywarrior wrote:I don't even care about Smiley. I've been waiting for the day Baas starts full time. I liked him ever since we drafted him during that Smith, Baas, Gore 1-2-3 round draft year.
I never understood why Bass wasn't starting for you, guys. I doubt Smiley is good enough to keep him on the bench, although I must admit I haven't followed Smiley's career that close.


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The Many Things To Do In Sedona
What to do in Sedona? Northern Arizona is more than just the Grand Canyon. Sure, you'll want to see that Natural Wonder of the World, but you'll also want to make a trip to scenic Sedona, famous for its red rocks and diverse terrain. Things to do in Sedona abound, whether you're looking for an intense experience, a few hours of relaxation, or something in between, you're sure to find it in Sedona. In the following pages you'll see our best choices of what to do in Sedona.
What to do in Sedona
Sedona is teeming with countless tours and activities. For more information on what to do in Sedona, click here:
A great way to explore the city's past is with a trip to the Sedona Heritage Museum, which preserves memories of a simpler time. Nearby, on Highway 179, you can find excellent art galleries, or head to Tlaquepaque, the fantastic little bazaar that is patterned after a Mexican village of the same name. Any of these options will get you more in touch with Sedona's cultural development and help you understand the things its residents hold most dear.
If you're looking at what to do in Sedona, and are in the mood to explore it's natural side, take one of the guided sightseeing tours that are offered. Hop aboard a plane or helicopter, and investigate the region's peaks and valleys by air. Or jump onto an ATV, Jeep, or Hummer for an intense drive that'll both educate and exhilarate! And, of course, there's always hiking and biking. Sedona has plenty of trails that are appropriate for either activity, allowing you to experience the beauty in a more intimate way. Among the places you'll want to see and discover are Bell Rock and the Chapel of the Holy Cross, as well as the energy-charged vortexes that dot the desert landscape.
A little further up the road, there are even more options. A trip to the ancient cave dwellings at Montezuma Castle National Monument is sure to leave your jaw on the floor. And a ride down the nature-made water slides at Slide Rock State Park will thrill and reinvigorate you! And even further away, but well worth the drive, is the ghost town of Jerome. You'll appreciate its rustic beauty, which is now complemented by a battery of contemporary art galleries and studios. And while you're there, don't forget to drive out to Mingus Mountain!
So that, in a nutshell, is Sedona – activities galore. Come check it out and look to further to discover what to do in Sedona!


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mpilla999 necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 96 diseños de 20 diseñadores freelance.
Our youth ministry is part of a large evangelical church in South Jersey. Our style is unique, complete with a Christian-Teen skateboarding network, DJ-led worship nights with Christian rappers and a group of gifted musicians and actors.
The purpose of our ministry is to show kids that there's a better way to live than the self-destructive lifestyle often chosen by the 21st century teen; one that is exciting, purposeful and centered on Jesus Christ.
The name, "Remix 14:6" is brand-new and was picked by the students. We haven't started using it yet. Once we have the logo, we'll have a big event complete with the unveiling of our new name on banners, media, gear, printed materials, etc.
We used to be called "Pulse". It didn't stick, then it died. I've attached that old logo just so you know where we "were" about a year ago. When I came on board as youth pastor, I officially put the fork in Pulse. We currently have no name.
Our location puts us in the middle of a very diverse area in South Jersey. We have kids that come from affluent suburban neighborhoods, the inner city and everything in between. Because of this location, we seek to reach teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18 of every race, income and style. Our existing group is already reflective of this make-up. We have a "come as you are" mentality, and desire to minister to the both the churched and unchurched high school student.
The logo must be appealing to teens. Something that they'll wear on a T-Shirt and that will catch the attention of other students. The design must be flashy and exude positivity.
The youth group will be called "Remix" by the teens, not "Remix 14:6". Designs with and without the 14:6 will both be considered. If included in the design, the 14:6 should not overshadow Remix.
A cross in the logo would be a plus, but it shouldn't be so prominent that its the first thing you notice.
DJ-style art would be cool, but avoid going too hip-hop.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Tech Overhauling Employee Health Insurance
SOCORRO, N.M. October 15, 2012 – New Mexico Tech administrators will propose new health insurance programs for its employees at the Regents meeting Friday, Oct. 19. Health care costs are continually on the rise and the increased cost of maintaining a health insurance program at New Mexico Tech has forced the institute to modify plans in order to remain solvent. Three new plans were developed as a result of these increasing medical costs. The health insurance program in its current form is no longer feasible.
The three new plan options are all PPO Plans that all have identical health coverage but vary in the out-of-pocket costs and the deductibles paid by employees. The plans provide all the health coverage provided under the current plans and have added some new areas of coverage including acupuncture, family counseling, infertility diagnostics and hearing aids for children/adolescents. The health care plans will also include dental and vision coverage. A major concern was to minimize premium increases as much as possible in order to maintain affordable premiums for employees.
Tech will be hosting its Annual Employee Benefits Fair in November and will be introducing three new health plan choices and explaining each in detail.


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February 23, 2013
I juju'd
I ordered this one from Serena & Lily, but there are different size options and more colors available through Table Tonic too!
If anyone is thinking of an edesign project I do have room in my schedule this week to start one! You can see all the rates and how it works here. So much fun!
happy weekend :) xx
design philosophy | providing a foundation to grow and alter through the years, I keep the core basic and layer in the current, creating a room that is innately yours. I believe great interiors are not found in one shop. I know you should feel a sense of calm in your space as well as balance, and revel in that gut feeling that it's the right fit. DESIGN SERVICES start at only 10.00. See Sarah Swanson Design at the top left of this blog!
11 comments:
- Stephanie said...
Sarah I bought one of these in red and I LOVE it. They are hard to hang aren't they? But oh so pretty.
- February 23, 2013 at 9:44 PM
- Elements said...
It's gorgeous, you won't regret it. I am in love with them and toyed with the idea of making my own but have decided to wait until our new house to decide.
- February 23, 2013 at 10:29 PM
- Tiffany @ Savor Home said...
I always love seeing the little details around your home! The juju looks great!
- February 24, 2013 at 7:14 AM
- Heidi | The Rustic Modernist said...
I just hung mine a few weeks ago and am in love with it. I wanted it for so long and don't know why I waited to pull the trigger because it's amazing. So pretty.
Heidi | The Rustic Modernist
- February 24, 2013 at 10:25 AM
- Jamie Herzlinger said...
Just found your blog. Really lovely.
Happy Sunday
Jamie Herzlinger
- February 24, 2013 at 12:31 PM
- Gaby [The Vault Files] said...
I absolutely love it!
- February 24, 2013 at 8:31 PM
- Donna Benedetto said...
Looks beautiful in the white, a classic clean yet modern look.
A nice addition to everything you have there!
- February 25, 2013 at 4:30 AM
- Brooke said...
Stunning...I have wanted a juju for a while now. Can't decide if I should buy or DIY? This makes me think buy! Love it! Did you paint that console or buy it that way? I am having nightstands refinished, and that is the exact color I am wanting to do!
- February 26, 2013 at 1:48 PM
- Crissy @ House of Marlowe said...
Love the white and your styling. ... looks great.
- February 27, 2013 at 8:28 AM
- bluehydrangea said...
Love it!! I am kind of smitten too!!
- March 4, 2013 at 4:30 PM
- Anonymous said...
Just stumbled across your blog and I love it! Just a quick question though. Where is your console from? I need it in my life!
- March 6, 2013 at 6:13 PM


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Bathroom Window Treatments & Bathroom Blinds
- Moisture resistant window treatments
- Provide an adequate level of privacy
- Consider room darkening options
- Shutters are a natural fit
- Top picks are faux wood blinds, cellular shades & roller shades
While privacy is a major concern in the bathroom, blinds and shades that are able to withstand high levels of humidity are the best choice. Treatments made out of vinyl, PVC, faux wood, or thick fabric will be durable enough to stand up to the unique environment. These window treatments won't bend, warp, crack, or harvest mildew and are sure to withstand the test of time. Many bathroom shades can be configured with a top down/bottom up lift for the ultimate in flexible privacy. The slats on faux wood bathroom blinds and shutters can be tilted upwards to admit some light while still maintaining privacy.
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Blindsgalore® Expressions Roller Shades: Solids
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customer reviews for bathroom
"Very Pleased with Purchase"
By sb23 from Columbus
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By blinds made easy from yuma
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Judge James Block Zagel
September 2012: Median Prison Sentence
District Court - Illinois North
Lead Charge: 18 USC 1962 - RICO - prohibited activities
Program Area: Organized Crime
Judge James Block Zagel didn't dispose of any cases in the Northern District of Illinois in the current fiscal year (2012) with a lead charge of "18 USC 1962 - RICO - prohibited activities" falling under the broad category of "Organized Crime".
Over the last five years, the median prison sentence imposed on defendants that were credited to Judge Zagel was 102.0 months. This was 0.0% higher than the 102.0 months typical in Illinois North and 175.7% higher than the 37.0 months median prison sentence for the nation. Judge James Block Zagel sentenced 11 defendants during the past five years.
(CAUTION: The kinds of cases handled by individual judges influences statistical information about their sentences. It therefore is important to consider the breakdown of cases that each has handled, available below, when making judge-by-judge comparisons.)
Figure 1 compares Judge Zagel's numbers to those for judges in this district and in the United States as a whole for cases of this type over the last five years.
During the last five years there were no other judges in the Northern District of Illinois with information on convictions during that period. The median prison sentence for the whole Northern District of Illinois during that time was 102.0 months.
Professional Biography
Born 1941 in Chicago, IL
Federal Judicial Service
Judge, U. S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
Nominated by Ronald Reagan on February 2, 1987, to a seat vacated by Frank J. McGarr; Confirmed by the Senate on April 21, 1987, and received commission on April 22, 1987.
University of Chicago, B.A., 1962
University of Chicago, M.A., 1962
Harvard Law School, J.D., 1965
Professional Career:
Assistant state's attorney, Cook County, Illinois, 1965-1969
Assistant attorney general, State of Illinois, 1969-1977
Deputy chief, Criminal Justice Division, 1969-1970
Chief, Criminal Justice Division, 1970-1977
Chief prosecuting attorney, Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, 1973-1975
Chief assistant attorney general, State of Arizona, 1975
Executive director, Illinois Law Enforcement Commision, 1977-1979
Director, Department of Revenue, State of Illinois, 1979-1980
Chairman, Governor's Advisory Counsel on Criminal Justice Legislation, 1980-1987
Director of state police, State of Illinois, 1980-1987
Lead Investigative Agencies in Cases Handled
The lead investigative agency that referred cases disposed of by Judge James Block Zagel for the past five years was the Justice - Federal Bureau of Investigation. It accounted for 100.0% of all cases.
Agency Judge District US Justice - Federal Bureau of Investigation 100.0% 100.0% 73.9% More
Table 2: Composition of Cases for the Past Five Years (Top 10)
Number of Defendants in Judge James Block Zagel's Cases
Judge James Block Zagel didn't handle any convictions of this type in the current fiscal year 2012.


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Commission Recommends Ag Water Measurement RegulationsThose numbers do not seem credible. In this post, I reported that urban "smart meters" (can be monitored in real-time) cost $400 each to install and $2 each to monitor per year.
The California Water Commission at its meeting June 15 recommended that the state adopt agricultural water measurement regulations.
Developed under SBX7-7 as part of the comprehensive water legislation of 2009, the proposed regulations would require accurate measurement devices on nearly all irrigation laterals and turnouts in the state, numbering more than 115,000 gates, and would require between 5% and 12% volume accuracy for delivered water. Water supplies would face a deadline of July 31, 2012, to begin measuring volumes delivered to farm and ranch customers.
At a previous water commission meeting, Department of Water Resources officials had suggested that certified volume measurement devices could cost $6,500 each and $1,200 per year for monitoring, repair and reporting.
I understand that agricultural meters are different in size and configuration, but they do not need to be that accurate (5-12% error!).
I bet a pitcher of beer that a competitive market for installing and metering ag water use would come in at 10% of DWR's prices -- $650 per meter and $120 per year of monitoring.
You up for a challenge, Mark?
Bottom Line: DWR is making up big numbers either because they want the money for themselves or want to block agricultural meters by making them look too expensive.
Addendum (Jul 2016): I don't mind buying beer for Mike or Delbert but I did say "competitive market."