Firefighters protect UK National Archives from blaze - Polidicks

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAIuTMgmffM[/media] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26208830[/url] [quote]A fire broke out at the National Archives in Kew, home to some of the UK's most important historical documents. Some 20 firefighters tackled the blaze, which affected two disused water towers at the site in Richmond, south-west London. London Fire Brigade(LFB), which was called out at about 12:30 GMT, said the blaze was now out. The National Archives is the official UK government archive and publisher. Held there are 11 million historical documents of national importance, some dating back more than 1,000 years.[/quote]

I feel like everything should be backed up electronically just in case things like this go wrong

[QUOTE=The Rifleman;43928556]I feel like everything should be backed up electronically just in case things like this go wrong[/QUOTE] Everything will be electronically backed up but a 1,000 year old book can't be taken in and out of a computer. Part of what makes most of this so special is that it's in material form which you can take out and handle.

Yes, but it's better to have the history than to have it lost in time. Nobody is saying things should be replaced, but more of an insurance policy.

The library of congress is in the process of digitizing everything that they have and saving all the data in a private government-owned cloud storage network in case of things like this

A few years ago I had a house fire but the firefighters responded very quickly. They saved the majority of our stuff and even saved our pet fish. I have the utmost respect for firefighters.

(dont)[b]BLAZE IT[/b]

Is there any explanation to the cause of the fire? Is it suspicious?

It would have been a sullen day in all History departments if the national archive burnt down. Thank god they put the blaze out

[QUOTE=kaine123;43929360]I have the utmost respect for firefighters.[/QUOTE] Who the hell doesn't?

[QUOTE=IKTM;43931969]Who the hell doesn't?[/QUOTE] Some US police forces.

If we lost our copy of the Declaration of Independence in the blaze then there is nothing stopping us now, Americans.

I find it vaguely amusing it managed to catch on fire during the wettest winter on record, glad it was stopped without any damage or more importantly any injuries to people though.

Well I hope they don't let this turn out like the Roman Archives...

[QUOTE=IKTM;43931969]Who the hell doesn't?[/QUOTE] Amute loses his SHIT if you mention a fire fighter doing a good job.

[QUOTE=The Rifleman;43928556]I feel like everything should be backed up electronically just in case things like this go wrong[/QUOTE] They are but you still keep the original documents you used sock

[QUOTE=Camundongo;43932882]I find it vaguely amusing it managed to catch on fire during the wettest winter on record, glad it was stopped without any damage or more importantly any injuries to people though.[/QUOTE] Also: [quote]Some 20 firefighters tackled the blaze, [B]which affected two disused water towers[/B] at the site in Richmond, south-west London.[/quote]

[QUOTE=The Rifleman;43928556]I feel like everything should be backed up electronically just in case things like this go wrong[/QUOTE] its expensive to transfer everything over whenever a new format comes out. technology becomes depreciated extremely quickly, to the point that its easier and cheaper to store things in analog (ie on paper). realistically there will always be an analog copy for a lot of things

Problem with digitizing history is that it can easily be altered. No longer is there a hard copy to refer to, only a database. History could be rewritten given the right circumstance.

[QUOTE=Zenreon117;43941855]Problem with digitizing history is that it can easily be altered. No longer is there a hard copy to refer to, only a database. History could be rewritten given the right circumstance.[/QUOTE] that's just a really stupid perspective, stalin rewrote history before the digital age too. hard copies are not magically immune to tampering.