Just imagine, you might be in conference with a soulless unfeeling thing.

Or you might get the AI.

Not only that, it protects them from Aliens too! It's the whole package!

This depends considerably on the paper. Acidic paper, widely used because it's cheap, oxidizes in a few decades and degrades as you have seen. Because of this, acid-free paper has become increasingly popular. Your newer books are in fact likely to last much better than the ones dating from the 20th century.

..which doesn't support 486s, so the OP's statement that OS/2 still supports 486s is still not true.

"Entertainment purposes only" Note that they don't say *whose* entertainment.

"Support", not "in use". IBM sure as hell doesn't support OS/2 any more.

No, they only found the cow tools.

The first person to think of the concept of solar sails was Johannes Kepler in 1610, when he observed that comets' tails always pointed directly away from the sun and speculated that whatever force caused that could be harnessed by sails. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1921 made the first serious proposal, with the concept of light pressure being fairly well-understood at that point.

As far as Star Trek is concerned, I might point out that while TOS never had solar sails, Deep Space Nine did entire episode centered around a solar sail vessel ("Exploters").

Not to mention all the seamen.

Big players *love* regulation, as long as it's red tape but doesn't actually interfere with the business. It's a fixed cost, which they can spread out over their large operations while it strangles the smaller competition that might be a problem.

And now you know why the Mormons have their magic underwear.

"...we should start seeing other asteroids."

PLUGH

" A key aspect of a competitive market is the ability for the buyer to walk away from a purchase, not simply to have an alternative."

So it's your contention that a competitive market in food is impossible? It's a position that has been taken up, but it doesn't seem to generally end well.

"Tools for the job are to be provided by the employer, no matter how expensive. And they can get very expensive."

That's often not true. Many professions expect a workman to have his own tools. Auto mechanics, carpenters, musicians, electricians, plumbers, photographers, and so on.