Where do all these fascinating tidbits come from?
I admit, I love web-based almanacs. I think that organizing information around the date of occurrence, though hardly helpful for learning about historical processes, is a captivating method of accessing information. Who, after all, doesn't enjoy learning that someone famous was born on their birthday? Most online almanacs do little more than copy information they've found on others. This is what leads to the phenomenon of a Google search for Lipman, pencil, and eraser leading to about 115 hits, with the vast majority of these telling us nothing more than the bare basics that Lipman got the patent. Only a handful of sites (those dealing with technology, or patents, or in this case, with pencils) give us any additional details.
From the web site of the Center for the Study of Technology and Society we learn that the details of Lipman's patent are actually very interesting. It turns out that Lipman's patent was later revoked when the U.S. Supreme Court determined that his invention was nothing more than a combination of two separate invetions, and didn't produce "a different force or effect".
Most web-based almanacs, however, are short on detail. I proudly admit that my presently dormant Two Weeks on the Web (in Hebrew) tried, and even succeeded in being different. There, each item not only carried a few sentences of basic information, but also two or three links to sites that from which more in depth information was available. In that way, the organizational metaphor of date serves as an opportunity to learn more on a wide variety of subjects.
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Go to: Excess Exposure.