Talk of the Town: Knowledge takes a bit of a knock

SAD news this week as one of the oldest and most respected fonts of knowledge announced it would print no more.

No, not our good selves at the Evening News but the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was first printed here in the Capital in 1771.

Its demise is largely blamed upon the success of Wikipedia and a wealth of information which is only ever a mouse click away.

But how will bookish sophisticates decorate their homes? Wiki printout wallpaper?

TV nurturing city folks’ off-screen relationships

SCRAP the cliché about TV turning us into a city of square-eyed loners – it seems it could be bringing us closer together.

The people of Edinburgh are consuming as much telly as ever. New research shows that, on average, residents in each household in the Capital watch the box on four separate devices, including laptops and PCs.

But far from going goggle-eyed, audiences are becoming more social and interactive. In Edinburgh, 19 per cent of respondents said they had commented on TV programmes to family and friends on Facebook and Twitter.

And one fifth of adults aged under 35 have been to a TV-themed party in the last five years.

Yes, it seems watching telly is becoming the new cool.

A very classy clean-up

IT’S not just any clean-up – it’s a Marks & Spencer clean-up.

Cramond Beach has been selected as one of the first locations in the UK to hold an M&S and Marine Conservation Society big beach clean-up.

It will take place on May 11 with the aim of stopping common items such as fishing nets, ropes and bottle tops polluting the beach. To sign up, visit www.mcsuk.org/foreverfish.

We can’t wait to see the silky, slow-motion advert. Actually, on second thoughts, we can.

You can’t teach talent

EVER since Britain’s Got Talent took to our screens, community talent shows have received a new lease of life, not least the News’s very own Edinburgh’s Got Talent.

But surely nowhere has a greater claim to the title than Blackburn in West Lothian, home of the TV competition’s greatest star, Susan Boyle – a village that really does have talent.

So we’re delighted to hear that Blackburn’s Schools’ Got Talent is scheduled for June 1.

Whether or not there’ll be a gasping Amanda Holden in the front row, only time will tell.