"Nearly all men die of their remedies, not of their illnesses."

Moli re

And so drew to a close the final chapter, Chapter Eleven in reality, in the tortured life of Daedalus Industries, International; AKA Daedalus Aerospace, Ltd.; AKA Daedalus Aircraft, Inc.; n e Daedalus Model Airplane Company. Certainly the only thing model about its history had been its original name. They had started out with nothing, and ended wishing they could get it back. As one football coach observed, "We lost it in the last fifty-eight minutes." It proved to have been sadly correct that the motion picture telling the tale of this project should have been shown backward to permit a happy ending. But such is the nature of high-technology undertakings near the edge of the state-of-the-art particularly when it is not altogether clear which side of the edge they are on. Nonetheless, optimism among Daedalus's former employees continued at a high level since all the participants in the earlier debacle were now firmly entrenched in their new positions with the federal government; ample funds were available; the nuisance of competitors constantly yapping at their heels was gone; and, best of all, they were now part of the fastest-growing team anywhere in the Free World. At least that's what the two founders told their enthusiastic class at the local business school as they gave their final lecture before graduation. The two students in the front row, close friends through their interest in the model railroading club, listened attentively.

The trend in...