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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Tuesday, February 03, 2004 The NY Times published an article yesterday by William Safire (free registration required to view) that describes an alleged intelligence coup against the Soviet Union in 1982. Sounds good, until you dig a bit into the facts, and if you recognize a possible motive behind this sudden revelation. Safire's article refers to a book about to be published by Thomas C. Reed, a former Air Force secretary. According to Safire, Reed states, "The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves [for the Trans-Siberia pipeline] was programmed to go haywire, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space." Safire says that the explosion occurred in 1982 in the Siberian wilderness, with no loss of life, and that the Soviets' discovery of the flawed software "made all the software it had stolen for years . . . suddenly suspect, which stopped or delayed the work of thousands of worried Russian technicians and scientists." Just a couple of little problems here. First, the explosion he refers to (unless someone snuck one in that nobody else knows anything about) took place in 1989 and was set off by sparks from a couple of passenger trains passing through valleys where leaking gas had settled. Over 500 people were killed. Second, the NSC staffer with whom Reed was working, Gus Weiss, wrote about the sale of flawed technology to the Soviet Union in a 1996 article now posted on the CIA website. His article states that "Contrived computer chips found their way into Soviet military equipment, flawed turbines were installed on a gas pipeline, and defective plans disrupted the output of chemical plants and a tractor factory." Granted, Reed might simply be providing more information in his book than Weiss did in this article, but if Weiss bothered to note that defective plans "disrupted the output" of chemical plants, it seems odd that he would have skipped any mention of what Reed describes as the "most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space." There is also the little matter of "computer chips" versus "software." Leaving out for the moment the fact that Weiss specifically says they ended up in Soviet military equipment, 1982-vintage "chips" were not what they are today. You didn't incorporate whole pipeline control software packages into a bunch of chips. Yes, individual controller chips certainly could have been designed to spit out incorrect valve settings. But such chips were used for highly specialized functions and were normally programmed either by the manufacturer of the device they were going to be controlling, or by programmers working at the facility where they were going to be placed into use. That's not to say pre-programmed chips couldn't have been sabotaged, and the Soviets' definition of military equipment might well have included a natural gas pipeline. Reed's statement may simply reflect a lack of understanding of the difference between individual electronic controllers and "pipeline software." And Gus Weiss's article is non-specific enough to leave plenty of room for things he didn't happen to mention. But the number of apparently conflicting statements, the number of "mays" and "mights" that are required to make it plausible at all, and the outright error in the date of the explosion should have been enough to trigger any editor's bullshit monitor. The fact that Safire's article appeared on the Times op-ed page, rather than being presented as "news," suggests that perhaps it did. If this article was intended to buoy up the reputation of the intelligence community, all I can say is that it suffers from the same lack of careful research that our intelligence experts have been accused of, and should be viewed with the same skeptical mindset. posted by Liz @ 10:08 AM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. 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The NY Times published an article yesterday by William Safire (free registration required to view) that describes an alleged intelligence coup against the Soviet Union in 1982. Sounds good, until you dig a bit into the facts, and if you recognize a possible motive behind this sudden revelation. Safire's article refers to a book about to be published by Thomas C. Reed, a former Air Force secretary. According to Safire, Reed states, "The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves [for the Trans-Siberia pipeline] was programmed to go haywire, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space." Safire says that the explosion occurred in 1982 in the Siberian wilderness, with no loss of life, and that the Soviets' discovery of the flawed software "made all the software it had stolen for years . . . suddenly suspect, which stopped or delayed the work of thousands of worried Russian technicians and scientists." Just a couple of little problems here. First, the explosion he refers to (unless someone snuck one in that nobody else knows anything about) took place in 1989 and was set off by sparks from a couple of passenger trains passing through valleys where leaking gas had settled. Over 500 people were killed. Second, the NSC staffer with whom Reed was working, Gus Weiss, wrote about the sale of flawed technology to the Soviet Union in a 1996 article now posted on the CIA website. His article states that "Contrived computer chips found their way into Soviet military equipment, flawed turbines were installed on a gas pipeline, and defective plans disrupted the output of chemical plants and a tractor factory." Granted, Reed might simply be providing more information in his book than Weiss did in this article, but if Weiss bothered to note that defective plans "disrupted the output" of chemical plants, it seems odd that he would have skipped any mention of what Reed describes as the "most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space." There is also the little matter of "computer chips" versus "software." Leaving out for the moment the fact that Weiss specifically says they ended up in Soviet military equipment, 1982-vintage "chips" were not what they are today. You didn't incorporate whole pipeline control software packages into a bunch of chips. Yes, individual controller chips certainly could have been designed to spit out incorrect valve settings. But such chips were used for highly specialized functions and were normally programmed either by the manufacturer of the device they were going to be controlling, or by programmers working at the facility where they were going to be placed into use. That's not to say pre-programmed chips couldn't have been sabotaged, and the Soviets' definition of military equipment might well have included a natural gas pipeline. Reed's statement may simply reflect a lack of understanding of the difference between individual electronic controllers and "pipeline software." And Gus Weiss's article is non-specific enough to leave plenty of room for things he didn't happen to mention. But the number of apparently conflicting statements, the number of "mays" and "mights" that are required to make it plausible at all, and the outright error in the date of the explosion should have been enough to trigger any editor's bullshit monitor. The fact that Safire's article appeared on the Times op-ed page, rather than being presented as "news," suggests that perhaps it did. If this article was intended to buoy up the reputation of the intelligence community, all I can say is that it suffers from the same lack of careful research that our intelligence experts have been accused of, and should be viewed with the same skeptical mindset.
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
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PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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