Bring down this wall!

Jason Kottke takes a sample of content from behind the recently abandoned New York Times Select subscription wall. The archives go back over 150 years, and Kottke dredged up the following gems among others:

• first mention of the World Wide Web
• an early report of Lincoln’s assassination
• report on Germans using mustard gas in WWI
• confirmation of Einstein’s theory of gravity in 1919

Also note that after the wall fell access to a number of columnists blogs is available. Many reacted to the decision to cancel TimesSelect as overdue, calling the NY Times, ahem, “behind the times.” Even though I am not a regular reader, I am glad they did bring down the wall and I only hope some other anachronistic media such as the Globe and Mail catch up.