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The other important factor with libraries is that books don't suddenly disappear en-masse

Unfortunately, that's not true. Many university libraries have been removing (or destroying) the books en-masse. See

https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/24/montgomery-on-ucscs-outrageous-mass-destruction-of-books/

and

http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/shelf-space-university-libraries-move-toward-workspaces-digital-collections/article_ffe3448f-e6d7-5e30-9129-1505b51caf63.html

PICHER, Okla. — Theft of copper from utilities and other businesses is nothing new, but officials say some brazen thieves took the crime up a notch — and should consider themselves lucky they’re not dead, even if they haven’t been caught yet.

The thieves made off with 3,000 feet of copper wire and some aluminum wire after cutting down numerous utility poles northeast of Picher, causing a temporary power outage for a handful of Empire District Electric Co. customers.

“They were sawed off at ground level with a chain saw,” Empire spokeswoman Amy Bass said of the six poles.

...

Nine residents were without power for several hours Wednesday. The lines apparently were cut about 7:30 a.m.

...

Empire District Electric Co. is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in the copper-theft case at Picher. Officials said they are asking people who might have information about the case to call local law enforcement.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1399736758/Copper-thieves-cut-poles-energized-lines-in-Picher-buyout-area/

Countries with planned economies could never make detailed enough plans for it to work efficiently. If you do not produce enough six-millimeter bolts with hex heads you will not be able to make enough 1/4 HP electric motors so you will not have enough refrigerators.

That's a classic "free market" claim. Then look at how Wal-Mart works.

Wal-Mart is a centrally planned economy, run from a headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Store managers have almost no autonomy in the Wal-Mart system. Even the store thermostats are controlled from Bentonville. Purchasing is centralized in Bentonville, where vendors go to the famous Corridor of Doom to present their products to Wal-Mart buyers. ("What can you do for Wal-Mart today?" is how each buyer starts the conversation.)

Everything is bar-coded or has RFID tags. Wal-Mart insisted on vendors providing bar-codes on everything. Everything entering or leaving a Wal-Mart store or warehouse gets scanned, and Central Control (the data center in Jane, MO, about 15 miles from Bentonville) gets all the data each day.

Wal-Mart's data cycle is daily, and their planning cycle is weekly. Most small retailers don't have that clear an idea of what their stores are actually doing. This gives Wal-Mart a competitive advantage.

That's a level of control the USSR could only dream of. It's interesting to speculate whether the USSR's style of communism would have worked if it had survived into the era where data collection, communications, and computing made central planning really effective. Gosplan, the USSR's national planning operation, had a monthly data cycle and a yearly planning cycle. They also had a lot of phony data in the system, because it was being summarized at lower levels. It's easy to fake "we made 10,000 widgets". It's hard to fake "we made 10,000 widgets, shipped in these transactions, and scanned in by the recipients".

Wal-Mart runs a bigger economy than Gosplan ever did.

There are still parts of the United States without cable or DSL

I'll best most of the Post Office closings will be in those same areas.

Qwikster may end up distributing its Blu-Rays via pony express.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090804/NEWS/90804012/Wrong-way-Taconic-crash--Driver-Schuler-was-drunk&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

people don't act responsibly. your opinion about drugs and complete freedom to their access would be valid if everyone acted responsibly with drugs

Oops...looks like drugs don't hold a monopoly on fatal accidents:

'Inattentive' driver cited as reason for Oklahoma crash that claimed 10 lives

Maybe a detector needs to be developed that will detect inattentive drivers? Why stop at alcohol and drugs? Maybe we need speed limiters on vehicles that restrict speeds to, say, 10 MPH?

I'm not saying that you don't have a valid point. But let's focus on the overall problems of poor traffic management at accident scenes, poorly designed roadways, etc. Is there a good reason why traffic is permitted at a standstill on a highway marked at 75 MPH without some sort of "incident response team" ensuring the safety of those who happen to be at the tail end?

But at the same time it's not fair to lump all forms of depression into just being anti-social and lazy.

For those of you that still believe this to be an april fools joke, check out these links:

www.joplinglobe.com/archives/2001/010729/regional/ story1.html
www.changingworldtech.com/mfceo.html

The process is not only designed for turkey waste; it can also be applied to other carbon-based materials. The Discovery article gives examples like tires and plastic bottles, amongst other things.