I wouldn't be surprised if it could be traced to the fertile imagination of a science fiction writer. I recall, though I don't remember the source, similar suggestions concerning the possibility of terraforming other planets. There was, I seem to recall, quite a lot of this stuff about in the 1950s and 1960s, when the possibility of nuclear war was very real, and the search for "peaceful uses of the atom" spawned all sorts of suggestions. In this context, a proposal to use nuclear bombs to excavate new harbors was an almost literal reading of the biblical injunction to beat swords into ploughshares, i.e., do something useful and peaceful with weapons. Cheers, John On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 10:40 AM, Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > David Ritchie wrote: > > "Project Ploughshare was a proposal to blast harbors in Alaska's > coastline, using thermonuclear bombs. People from a place called > Point Hope opposed the project. I kid you not." > > I wonder where the name of this 'project' came from? For another > perspective, see Project Ploughshares > > http://www.ploughshares.ca/ > > > Sincerely, > > Phil Enns > Yogyakarta, Indonesia > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html > -- John McCreery The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN Tel. +81-45-314-9324 http://www.wordworks.jp/