[lbo-talk] IT innovation and "the Markets"

[John Thornton]

Jordan Hayes wrote:
> Wojtek writes:
>
>> If we are telling anecdotes, here is another one.  Back
>> in the 1960s American astronauts found that their ball
>> point pens did not work in space in a zero-gravity
>> condition.  To fix the problem, NASA spent a few million
>> $ to invent one that does.  The Russians faced the same
>> problem, of course, but instead of pens, they used pencils.
>
> False.
>
> http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

Not exactly false.
I think this article greatly exaggerates the danger of a pencil.
In all the risks involved in space flight I bet the pencil is 
incalculably low.
And the pen did exceed $1 M in development costs.

John Thornton