The Man Who Saved the World by Doing ... Nothing


	The Man Who Saved the World by Doing ... Nothing

Mohir

9-26-2007 11:42 AM

1242 views

tags:

history, russia, usa, cold war

4 Comments |

Add a Comment

9-26-2007 3:24 PM

qwertman

Man, nukes just shouldn't exist period. They're way too much trouble. If this event it true, it went completely unnoticed in the general public so far.

9-26-2007 7:14 PM

pokkets

If they weren't nuclear weapons, it would make sense to try and work out what they were, maybe to recognize readouts to reduce the chance of it happening again.

9-27-2007 2:50 PM

Lifestar

Great clip Mohir, and kudos to the Lt. Col.

9-28-2007 7:10 AM

Spiritraiser

wow, nice deductive thinking!

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/472d7055-e523-401c-9425-ef39dd3d4734/9339DB27-B078-46A8-BDB8-1514DA57E930/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/09/dayintech_0926" href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/09/dayintech_0926" style="font-size: 11px;">www.wired.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/09/dayintech_0926"><H1 id="articlehed">Sept. 26, 1983: The Man Who Saved the World by Doing ... Nothing</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/09/dayintech_0926"><P><STRONG>1983:</STRONG> A Soviet ballistics officer draws the right conclusion -- that a satellite report indicating incoming U.S. nuclear missiles is, in fact, a false alarm -- thereby averting a potential nuclear holocaust.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/09/dayintech_0926"><P>Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov was duty officer at Serpukhov-15, the secret bunker outside Moscow that monitored the Soviet Union's early-warning satellite system, when the <A href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/coldwar/shatter021099b.htm" linkindex="40" set="yes">alarm bells went off</A> shortly after midnight. One of the satellites signaled Moscow that the United States had launched five ballistic missiles at Russia.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/09/dayintech_0926"><P>But Petrov smelled a rat. "I had a funny feeling in my gut" that this was a false alarm. For one thing, the report indicated that only five missiles had been fired. Had the United States been launching an actual nuclear attack, he reasoned, ICBMs would be raining down on them.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/09/dayintech_0926"><P><A href="http://www.worldcitizens.org/petrov2.html" linkindex="41">Petrov</A> lives today on his army pension in a village outside of Moscow.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/9339DB27-B078-46A8-BDB8-1514DA57E930/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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