PureGin.org

I happened into a second-hand bookstore today (Carson's Bookstore, on Broadway two blocks east of Alma, in Vancouver, BC). Carson's is a great place - there's always something irresistable, be it a book, sheet music, or LP. Today I was overjoyed to discover Buckminster Fuller's "Ideas and Integrities" and "Intuition", in paperback.

Sample quote:

When the first Sputnik accomplished orbit, it knocked the airplane out of the sky, as a weapon, as the airplane had knocked the battleship off the seas.

This summarizes an amazing analysis of a technological shift, and its attendant global economic impacts. The implication seems to be that the government financed airplane industry, which cost '100 times the total value of
gold in the world' (this having been written when currency was gold-backed), was suddenly without a useful
purpose. Interesting that the whole notion of international travel for the masses was essentially invented to fill
the gap.

Interesting also to re-interpret the quote in terms of the orbital weapon platforms now being built. Not that Bucky imagined it this way, I'm sure... I'd guess he'd be appalled at the idea.