Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Let me get this straight.... The Justice Department, which is not known for its superabundance of medical doctors, is going to examine medical records to determine whether the opinions of licensed physicians are correct as regards 'medical necessity?' While we're at it, why don't we get the plumber's union to examine Justice Department records to determine whether its actions are legally permissible?" -- bbwoof, responding to news that Attorney General John Ashcroft demanded records of abortions performed on hundreds of women at six Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country

A book I'd like to see:

How to build a radio transmitter completely from scratch, starting with how to chip flint to make the stone knife to skin an animal to make leather to use for seals in the pump you'll build in order to evacuate the vacuum tubes you'll blow from glass that started off as sand; and how to figure out where to dig for copper ore, tips on constructing tools with which to remove it from the ground, and how to smelt it and draw the copper into wire.

Does this book already exist? It'd be a fun read, no? (Okay, so maybe being able to construct a functioning time machine starting with raw materials in their natural forms would make even more sense in terms of situations in which you might actually need such a book, but ...)

I wonder whether there are any steps which would absolutely require more than one person -- drawing the wire, perhaps? And would any iron or steel need to be involved, or could the entire project be accomplished with only wood, leather, sinew, quartz, flint, copper, zinc, and water? (Obviously some steps would be easier with steel tools, but then we'd have to mine and smelt the iron ore, add coke, etc.)

"I am endeavoring, Madam, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins."