The publishers aren't the ones footing the bill for a major internet-connected business server operation ...

But it does get cranked into the price. TANSTAAFL: The customer pays for it somehow.

Good grief. Why did you wait UNTIL THE DAY they should be used to actually post about useful gadgets that require time to purchase, set up, and check out before use?

Now any of us who would have liked to obtain and use one of these gets to fret about how much BETTER the holiday could have been, rather than actually having the gadget operating and ENJOYING it.

TFA was updated two days ago so it obviously had been up for at least that long. A week or two lead would have been ideal.

This is right up there with not mentioning eclipses, meteor showers, and the like until the day of, or the day before, rather than at least a week back, so people who had forgotten about them have no time to arrange their schedules for a watch-it excursion. B-b

I'm pretty sure I can find something interesting to do with the extra years. :p

Ditto.

Even more so if, during the extra years, I am as healthy as I was at 20 (jogging as a normal gait) rather than at 65 (aching slightly all the time, pain in the morning, joints starting to fail, ...)

Coming from a line of people that typically lives to see birthdays numbered in the low nineties, I can say that even if I DON'T get any extra years it would still be a fine bonus to live just the rest of the same number without the inflammation and the impairment of body functions and healing due to cell senescence.

Kids these days... I blame parents! Damn feminism, dad isn't being manly enough. D:{ /sarcasm

"There's too much making your own entertainment now. When I was a lass we didn't make our own entertainment. We didn't have the time." -- Granny Weatherwax

Disney pushed the lemmings off a cliff. They don't do that naturally.

Guilty as charged, except for the fact that I'd rather have a nice, difficult interview rather than some retarded piece of "gamification". Keep adulthood in its damned place! "Gamification" doesn't just mean childish stupidity pollutes adult endeavors, it means adult exploitation pollutes childish fun.

Charging as much for an ebook as a physical book is completely off-base. You still have to make the money back on editors, artwork, advertisement, etc., but the physical print, transportation, and storage costs should cause those books to be discounted a good amount.

On the other hand, a hardcopy book is an asset on which the publishers and booksellers can be charged an inventory tax. Thus it is often to their financial advantage to actually destroy them rather than hold them in the hope of future sales. Holding them effectively becomes a liability rather than an asset (though the tax man doesn't see it that way). This is one reason it becomes hard to find many books after a year or so. It's also a reason for deep discounts on books to clear inventory.

(Interestingly: Science Fiction is an exception. It has a track record of slow long-term sales - for decades - that makes it advantageous to hang on to physical copies for future sales.)

Electronic books don't have this problem. The publisher has only one copy (plus backups) and creates additional copies for sale on-the-fly.

As it is, much of the time you can buy a print edition cheaper than an eBook version on new releases...

When the value of the hardcopy book has actually gone negative, selling it for any price above the transaction cost is better than pulping it. Meanwhile, operating a major Internet-connected business server operation is not cheap.

Eliminate the inventory taxes on books, bringing the cost of holding onto a book until it sells down near the cost of the storage space and environmental control, and you should see a drastic change in hardcopy book availability and pricing structure. (Assuming electronic books haven't substantially displaced hardcopy by then.)

Eh, for manned landing missions, I'd rather that the historical preservation zone extend to the horizon (inclusive of the skyline). The desolation they encountered is important, IMO. Otherwise you'd have something like the Eagle descent stage surrounded by the Tranquility Mall food court someday. The moon is big, and they never went very far, so this isn't a big deal.

Let the rule apply to anyone's first manned landing site (unless they waive it), and all manned landings prior to the beginning of real industrial development. Unmanned probes need only a small area around them, though, I think.

There is still a market for creative labor. There is still a market for some goods which happen to embody creativity, eg original works of art (as distinguished from copies; the original Mona Lisa is worth more than a poster of it). But it seems that the market for many creative goods that was enabled by copyright and certain technological advances in mass reproduction and transmission, is dying.

So be it. For most of human history that last market didn't exist, and yet there was art, and we got by. Copyright as we knew it may have been an aberration. I think we can save some of it, but we must remember that copyright isn't worthwhile on its own; rather, it's a means to an end. If our priorities change, so must copyright.