Word: pyramid
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...living standard still higher, and at a faster rate, Fuller has devoted his life to inventing construction systems of extreme economic efficiency, and to applying these to "livingry" rather than "weaponry." Perhaps his greatest contribution in this respect has been his work with the tetrahedron, a four-faced pyramid which Fuller has discovered to be the most resistant of all polyhedra to external pressure. By combining many tetrahedra into a spherical shape (the sphere can withstand the greatest internal pressures), Fuller constructed his geodesic dome, an extremely light and economical structure of extraordinary strength...
Originator of the geodesic dome and the mass-produceable Dymaxion house, Fuller bases his more efficient architecture on his discovery that the tetrahedron (a pyramid composed of four triangles) has extraordinarily great synergetic force. If one takes six rods and constructs them into a tetrahedron, the strength of the whole is far greater than the sum of the strength of its parts...
...Coffin Texts," explains Bruinsma, "are literature for death. They were given to the dead to take along on their trip into the underworld." The earlier but better-known Pyramid Texts, which were written on the monumental tombs built for pharaohs in the latter part of the Old Kingdom (2980-2275 B.C.), contain the first known written record that man believed in a life after death. The Coffin Texts, which were composed for the tombs of noblemen rather than kings, express a more complicated insight: that man in the next world will be rewarded for his good acts and punished...
Last week in Detroit, the Wallendas formed a six-man pyramid topped by a young lady in a chair. At the pyramid's base was young (23) Dieter Schepp, nephew of the troupe's leader, Karl Wallenda. He had escaped from East Germany only last year, was in his first week as a member of the troupe. Trying to improve his grip on the heavy balancing pole, he tossed it into the air. He grabbed it again. Then he shouted, "I can't hold it," and lost his balance...
...pyramid toppled. Three men crashed to the ground and lay sickeningly still. The other three men caught the girl and clung to the wire, holding her by her wrists until an improvised net was spread out below. Of the three who fell, two were killed, including Dieter Schepp. The third, Mario Wallenda, had a fractured skull and was not expected to live...