I actually use space pens. In the summertime I often wear short-sleeved pullover shirts with no pocket. A space pen has no sharp points or edges and if you slide the pocket clip off, it's small size fits nicely in one's pants pocket.

Now I seem to remember that GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) calls for a cost accountant, in cases where items on an invoice aren't seperately priced, to simply divide the total invoice amount by the number of items on the invoice when entering costs on the books. So let's say a defense contractor sells a missle and a hammer to the army and sends an invoice with only one amount. The accountant will divide the amount, say $1,436,852.00, by two and come up with a hammer valued at $718,426.00. Of course that's a ridiculous case but it illistrates the process by which the military seems to pay way too much money for some common item.

If a skilled smith were to forge a standard claw hammer by hand, one off, you'd expect that hammer to get at least $100.00 at retail or it wouldn't be worth the smith's time to make. Extend that to a specially machined hammer made to exacting specifications of a special alloy and a hammer can be very expensive without anyone making much money on the deal.

      - Mark