Friends: With the advent of Internet and email, you thought that the post office would have become less important. Please read the latest US Postal Service Annual report (for the year 2005), which is just out. United States Postal Service Source: United States Postal Service (USPS) USPS Annual Report 2005
From press release: "The results are in - the U.S. Postal Service ended 2005 with a record sixth consecutive year of growth in productivity, wiped out its debt and delivered fifty percent more mail to 32 million more homes and businesses than it did 20 years ago while doing it at 1985 staffing levels. These results are highlighted in the just released 2005 Annual Report of the U.S. Postal Service."
With the advent of Open access journals [and open access archives], other professional print journals wouldn't die, as feared by the writer(s) of the recent report of the Royal Society! Physics journals and the central archive (arXiv) coexist for the past 15 years. Free availability of Internet downloaded music has not resulted in music recording companies closing down. Commonsense would make us believe that heavy objects cannot remain up in the air for even a minute, and that thanks to gravity they will fall down. Every day thousands of planes, weighing in tonnes, are crisscrossing the skies at altitudes of 30,000 feet. The same way, contrary to the 'commonsense thinking' of many who believe that giving information free on the Internet will destroy the publishing industry, it will continue to thrive. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam]