... whenever I try to pull one out, I risk a heap dump.

Fortunately your book collection is in the bathroom.

Short answer: because people like books.

Books are (at least in my opinion) easier to browse and go everywhere. Also it is faster to reach for a book than to boot some reader, find a file etc... whereas a book is just sitting on the shelf. Obviously this only works for stuff you have read before (and remembered more or less where it was).

You have a point that it makes little sense not to get all books from a library, but sometimes people just want to have something.

For those who don't know the reference.

Good thinking! And then we burn the diamonds, and the problem is solved completely!

... persisted in their urge to create a black hole, be it in space or in the economy.

Why would everybody "in charge" have gotten there by kissing ass? My previous boss managed 5 teams (of 1 to 3 persons, I was a one-man team), none of which he would have been able to replace because he didn't know the technical details of any team's work. But he was a great boss, great manager and did exactly what he needed to do, i.e. from all management decisions filter out the things any of his people needed to do, tell them and follow-up. And give them the resources.

Without these "glorified secretaries", most companies would collapse.

Seriously, they're people. You make it sound like you're some exotic zoo keeper and you need to know what to do when they present their glowing red ass.

To be honest, judging from some of the comments here, that is an idea programmers seem to want to promote themselves, because they are more special and gifted than normal human beings.

I'm not trolling here. Just scroll up and you'll see.

Reports are generally useful if many people work on something together. It may all be in your mind, and you may know what you are doing, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone knows about it, or that in a year you won't have forgotten stuff that is obvious today. Some paperwork is useful, even for the Greatest on Earth. Not all of it is control and waste of time. If "I-do-my-job" is so high on your list, apparently, why can't you accept that reporting is also a part of your job, and asking you to report is part of your boss's job?

Who says the term "piracy" can't have two meanings? If the rest of the world is ok with calling this form of copyright infringement "piracy", even though no physical is stolen, then that is what it means.

Besides -and this is not addressed at somersault- it is beyond me why this type of topic always leads to semantic discussions. I, for one, whould not be shouting off the roofs that I am reaping the fruits of another's labor, against his will, whether this is called theft, piracy, copyright onfringement or whatever. I do it, like everybody, but at least I don't try to make it ok with Newspeak.

And how well have we been able to harness that power so far? There is a difference between more or less random phenomena in nature and being able to generate as well as capture an 800W power beam. I have also seen mountains that are higher than skyscrapers. So what?

You overestimate how much society changes. Given the ENORMOUS gulf between 1900 and 2000, you could reanimate a person who died in 1908, and it would take them very little effort at all to adjust to 21st century life.

And you know this because?

I'm an English teacher at a good school

You must be a masochist, reading Slashdot.
As a non-native speaker, I don't understand that even in a discussion on the quality of the educational system in the UK (and US), even I see mistakes in half the posts. Maybe I'm just a grammar nazi, though...

Imagine a Beowul cluter of these...

Oh wait. It's called college.

Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these...

Oh wait, it's called college.

Without that generous donation the researchers concerned would have squat.

Whereas now they have squid?