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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-11 10:51 PM
Original message
Inadvertent Erections Could Cause Nuclear War
http://nuclearrisk.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/inadvertent-erections-could-cause-nuclear-war/

Inadvertent Erections Could Cause Nuclear War
Posted on July 17, 2011

Les Earnest is well known to digital cognoscenti for his contributions to artificial intelligence, robotics and the Internet, but few know of his warning that inadvertent erections could start a nuclear war:

In the 1950s I helped design the SAGE air defense system … when we reviewed the BOMARC launch control system, one of our engineers noticed a rather serious defect: if the launch command system was tested, … the “test” switch was then returned to “operate” without individually resetting the control systems in each missile that had been tested, they would all immediately erect and launch! Needless to say, that “feature” was modified rather soon after we mentioned it to Boeing. … The official name of the first BOMARC model was IM-99A, so I wrote a report about this problem titled Inadvertent erection of the IM-99A.


Les also states that:

SAGE was a gigantic fraud on taxpayers in that it was a “peacetime defense system” that would malfunction under an actual attack, much like France’s Maginot Line did in World War 2. … SAGE thus gave rise to a corrupt military-industrial-political establishment that has produced a string of largely useless command-control and weapons projects such as President Reagan’s phony “Star Wars” defense program and the current ongoing deployment of anti-missile systems that don’t work. But that is another story.


<snip>

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Marie Marie Donating Member (709 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-11 10:56 PM
Response to Original message
1. Oh dear. I declare a new war on drugs
of the little blue kind. Caution: If your erection lasts more than 3 hours, stay away from the Nuclear buttons.
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RKP5637 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-11 10:59 PM
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2. Only MIC profit counts, often functionality matters little. Under the current model the
US will "always" be at war. It's necessary to maintain a constant cash flow with the desire to increase that flow. The MIC erection never comes down.

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Monk06 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-11 11:13 PM
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3. OK so who isn't going to click on this thread. K&R
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villager Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-11 12:34 AM
Response to Original message
4. Purity of Essence, Mandrake!
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Kennah Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-11 04:13 AM
Response to Original message
5. After some fiddling, here's what I came up with.
It's wrong to blame nuclear war on erections.

Pricks cause nuclear war. Pricks cause all sorts of wars.
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htuttle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-11 06:10 AM
Response to Original message
6. What's all this I hear about elections starting nuclear wars?
Oh.

Nevermind.



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unblock Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-11 06:33 AM
Response to Original message
7. so that's why they were so obsessed with clinton's sex life and happy shrub was drunk all the time.
and scared of obama.

:evilgrin:

:hide:

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Thor_MN Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-11 08:05 PM
Response to Original message
8. I went to Grade School less than a mile from a BOMARC base
I didn't know until much later that the BOMARC II missiles were nuclear tipped anti-aircraft missiles...

Through 5th grade, less than a mile from 14 Hiroshima's worth of warheads. Fortunately, inadvertant erections did not occur until middle and high school, after the base had been decomissioned.
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rug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-11 08:59 PM
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9. Sounds like a teabagger's wet dream.
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madinmaryland Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-11 09:31 PM
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10. Kicked and recommended!!!
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