I saw this at London Drugs, off in a forgotten corner of the computer department. I remember my grandfather's collection of National Geographic magazines over just a few years, which took up an entire bookshelf. Now here is every issue since 1888, on six DVDs, the size of a single book.

I nearly bought it on impulse, but then I hesitated... what about new issues? Maybe the collection is available online? Maybe I'll just go to the National Geographic web site and see...

It kind of makes your head spin when you think about it. We've gone from expensive, large, paper-based issues which had a huge value (if you had a yearly subscription from 1888 the total cost would easily be in the thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars!) to the entire collection having a value of $70, to the entire collection having a value of $0, because "I can just look at it online".

All those photographers. All those safaris. All those writers, and journalists, and long trips into strange, dusty, foreign lands.

All in a single box that nobody wants any more.

It makes you wonder....