Today's doodle honors one of my heroes- Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the moveable-type

[niyad]

printing press. All hail BOOKS!!!!!

[captain queeg]

1. I used to say that the printing press was the most impactful event in history

It certainly had a huge impact. Nowadays I’d say WWII was the biggest “event” in human history. It opened up the era of globalization though not really a specific event. Nowadays I’d say birth control probably had the biggest impact on society. It really opened the world for 50% of the population.

[Sneederbunk]

2. Where would you rank the Salad Shooter?

[captain queeg]

3. Hmm. Right below the Vegamatic.

We had a vegamatic. It made great French fries. I wonder whatever became of Ronco? All those great products.

[Demovictory9]

4. K&r

[cyclonefence]

5. "Movable type"

is the important phrase. Until Gutenberg, books could be printed using plates that had to be made for each page, then discarded after use. With movable type, *anything* can be type-set, and re-set, indefinitely, making it possible to print multiple copies of *any* material without having someone laboriously create each page completely by hand.

I wish people understood that the printing press itself long predated Gutenberg. His truly revolutionary invention was how to make printing presses work millions of times more efficiently, making possible the creation of millions of times more printed material. Truly a landmark in the history of humans.

And I share your enthusiasm.

[hunter]

6. Gutenberg + Internet gutenberg.org

Never run out of stuff to read!

All free, all the older classics...

https://gutenberg.org/

Here's Jules Verne, for example:

https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/60

[niyad]

7. Good heavens, I had forgotten about this treasure!!! Thank you so much for the reminder.

Two of my favourite bumper stickers about books:

So many books. So little time.

Friends help you move. REAL friends help you move books.

[hunter]

8. My wife and I have thousands of books.

Electronic books have probably saved our house from collapsing under the weight of more books.

[niyad]

9. I understand completely. Seriously considering kindle or nook.