"The story of Krakatoa had a small beginning--seven newsworthy words, buried well down in the pages of a single London newspaper. As the summer of 1883 wore on, it was to become a very much greater story indeed. And when it was over, three months later, it was to have implications for society--for the laying of the foundations of McLuhan's "global village"--that have reverberated in a far more important way, and for far, far longer, than anyone at the time could ever have supposed." --