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"You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't"

[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov[/URL]

Jesus, what a decision to make. I'd never heard about this until today. Going on an all-out war bender, with that film about the guy who killed more than 240 Germans during WW2, then played himself in the film of his autobiography on at 12pm, this nuclear Megadeath thing, and possiby Battlefield 2 later (who am I kidding, of course I'll be online). Expect me at the nearest belltower tomorrow, rifle in hand and tie around my head.

I recommend a short but informative book called 'Nuclear Paranoia' by Chas Newkey-Burden. Not very long, but packed with near miss incidents involving nuclear weapons.

Particularly of note was when the American air force put out a full alert and made ready its B52 bombers for a full scale nuclear assault on the USSR, only to find the alert was triggered by a glitch in a computer program. Very similar to the story in that link.

Who would trust circa-1983 soviet computer technology? They hadn't even reached Tetris by then, let alone missile surveillance systems.

Still, props to Stan.

Balls. Should have read article before posting.

I remember reading about something similiar happening around the Cuban missile crisis. Russian chap decided not to launch, thus saving world.

That's a true national hero for you.
You're going to die, but youavert nuclear war anyway>

If I knew I was going to die, I'd probably let them start one.



That article mentions War Games.

What a great film that is.

"How do we beat it? I know, Tic Tac Toe"

There have been a few incidents like this and probably many more that haven't been reported.

One that I remember is when a Russian nuclear submarine and American nuclear submarine somehow managed to collide off the coast of the USA. The Russian submarine was badly damaged and surfaced and had it's nuclear missiles pointing directly at the coast looking like it was about to strike.

The American's were about to start a nuclear war against Russia when the Russian submarine crew went to where the missiles were launched from and manually moved them away to show that they weren't about to launch them and that the missile launch pads were damaged and couldn't be moved without help.

This prevented America starting a nuclear war and the Russian crews thanks for averting the destruction of mankind was a slow death from radiation poisoning.

Apparently this happened more than what's mentioned.. including several occasions when the counter reported a few million missiles being launched. No doubt he still made a great decision, but I expect it was a little easier to make than what's being made out. Good for him.

Wow, a guy who can truly say he's saved the world. And his reward? An organisation based in his former enemy's country, gives him a measly 1000 bucks in US dollars. Fantastic.

"Ahueyet? I should have pressed the damn button!"

SHEEPY wrote:
> Oooooh £1000 for saving the world.

And if you're good, a nice dacha in Siberia.

Wow.

Just wow.