PASSWORDS can be a nuisance, especially when they are needed for an emergency system and the operator can’t remember them. Wouldn’t it be better if managements decreed that systems intended for emergencies had all their passwords set to the same thing, something like 0000000? Then we could all sleep better knowing that a forgotten password would never get in the way of anything critical.
This argument made eminent sense to the officers in charge of the US Strategic Air Command back in the 1960s and 1970s, according to Bruce Blair, president of the Center for Defense Information, writing on the organisation’s website.
It seems that Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara wanted to make sure nuclear Armageddon didn’t arrive by mistake, so he instructed the SAC to equip controls for its nuclear-tipped Minuteman missiles with locks that could only be released with a secret password before launch. But according to Blair, this degree of micromanagement of the important matter of obliterating civilisation without delay was too much for the SAC commanders. They insisted all eight digits of the password should be set to 0, a decree not reversed until 1977.
Advertisement
When Blair’s story surfaced recently on a science-writers’ mailing list, space writer and SAC veteran Matt Bille insisted it wasn’t true. He declined to say what the real story was, on the grounds that it was classified. When asked, Blair held his ground.
Meanwhile, an old friend of Feedback’s who spent some time sitting in a missile silo in the dark days of the cold war said that in his time they used physical keys, not passwords. “It was much more secure, since we also carried .38 revolvers,” he said.
THE mind sometimes boggles at the names that wind up attached to institutions. The US House of Representatives has proposed a pair of fellowships for US and Russian scientists to study ways to slow or prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It’s a noble goal, but the peaceable sentiment is somewhat spoilt by the suggestion that the fellowships be named after Edward Teller and Igor Kurchatov, leading developers of the cold war era nuclear weapons in the US and the Soviet Union.
What next? The Jack Daniel’s Fellowship for the promotion of teetotalism?
THE summer issue of the London Natural History Museum’s magazine Nature First has some “Sizzling Summer Offers”, Alex Sanderson noticed. One of these is a DVD entitled The Planets: “This comprehensive and spectacular account of space exploration and discovery uses state-of-the-art computer graphics and unseen space race archive material and is a must have for enthusiasts of the moon, the stars and beyond.”
If you are an enthusiast of the planets, on the other hand, they clearly don’t think it’s for you.
PERHAPS it’s the pressure of essays and exams, or perhaps British students aren’t quite as bright as they are reputed to be. Stephen Aggett is about to graduate from the University of Bristol and so was recently browsing for a graduation ceremony gown. He was slightly worried when he found the Frequently Asked Questions section included:
Q. I’m not sure what degree I am on.
A. We are unable to tell you what you have been studying for. Ask your course tutor or the university or college registry.
Q. What does “Height” mean?
A. Your height means the measurement from the top of your head to the ground. This can be in metres or feet and inches.
A REQUEST to Samantha Brown for a career resumé or CV, which she had so far neglected to compose, prompted her to search amazon.co.uk for a book that might help. Finding How to Write a Powerful CV in a Hurry: An at a glance guide to writing a powerful CV and covering letter, she thought her task would be made easier, until she read on: “Availability: usually dispatched within 4 to 6 weeks.”
THROWING away a shoebox after a purchase from the Lands’ End catalogue, Scott Rumschlag noticed a small blue piece of paper on the top stating in bold letters, “Do not eat”. He was unsure whether this referred to the box itself or the shoes it had contained. To be on the safe side, he refrained from eating either.
WHY, what a soft-hearted lot Feedback readers are. Several have written in, clearly moved by a headline that appeared on both the BBC online news and the Voice of America online news last week: “SARS virus found in tears”. Let’s hope someone gave it a hug to make it feel better.
FINALLY, it seems something strange is happening to childhood in these youth-oriented times. Alexandre Oliveira was checking some symptoms on the EMedicineHealth.com site and came across this: “PV [pemphigus vulgaris] happens more commonly in adults aged 40-60 years, but it has been found in children as young as 3 years and as old as 89 years.”
Gary Beaton tells us that he was made to ponder for a few moments in his local Tesco supermarket when he noticed a product labelled “New Improved Swarfega Original”
