In a message dated 07/04/2002 12.12.23 PM, the never-to-be-underestimated
John Cowan writes:

>Peter Clark scripsit:
>>
>>         Does anyone know of an electronic version of the Oxford English
>Dictionary that can be downloaded? As far as I know, the copyright for the
first
>edition should have expired some time ago.
>
>AFAIK no one has ever taken the trouble to transcribe it.

    ::cheeky grin... pushes Christophe forward::

>  It is a 20-volume multifont nightmare.

    LMAO That must be the bloody understatement of the month if not the
summer on this list.

    Pavel writes:

>But it costs $$$$$$$$$$$
>
>There's also a CD-ROM edtion, at about the same price (> $500!)

    ;/WARNING socio-political/socio-cultural rant WARNING//

    I feel and think this must be said in this situaton: "Free Markets do
_not_ necessarily make for Free Minds. The Market always dictates the flow of
ideas and their applications."
    Look at what happens to any truly alternative ideas in America: i.e.
books by both Buckminister Fuller and Ernest Friedrich Schumacher are
increasingly harder to get as they go out of print and/or are only being
published in expensive editions by small presses. The average, 1/2-educated
American born after the 60's more times that not does not even know very
basic ideas these men proposed.
    Stewart Brand of "Whole Earth Catalog" fame wrote something to the effect
that Freedom of the Press is that literally _everyone_ now can have Freedom
of the Press by owning one ... that this is true participatory democracy in
action via the good agencies of technological progress (esp'ly in the
fast-paced advancings of personal computers), etc. ad nauseum.
    Brand ignores the basic critical fact that it takes money to even
purchase a computer (much less a good printer ;) [And even with money, just
keeping up with current technology is a real bugger of a socio-economic
challenge (not to mention an increasing strain on the waste-dumps and ecology
of the world). ]
    This lil fact alone tends to leave a lot of people out of technocultural
life and self-educational processes, much less having a real stake in so-call
"participatory democracy."

    //rant over//

    Forgive my rantin'... it's the 4th of July here in the USA and I don't
feel like being too comfortable or smug in any misplaced knee-jerk patriotism.
    I also have been really eying the various complete OEDs for some time and
it grates all my sensibilities that I, an economically-endangered species of
one ;)  can't afford something that could actually make me a much more
productive, creative citizen (and keep me outta mayhem & mischief ... hehe...
at least for a bit ;) until I, the MonkeyBrained, eyeballs something else...

    "Think outside the Box. Expand your I-site!" - women's bathroom
graffitti, University of Berkeley, California

Hanuman Zhang
Avatar of Sun WuKong, a.k.a. "Monkey," a.k.a. "TricksterGod of Chinese Boxers"

~ om hung hanumatay rudratmakai hung phat ~
    mantra to Hanuman the Hindu Monkey TricksterGod

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