From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@netcom.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 95 22:02:15 PST
To: "L. McCarthy" <lmccarth@thor.cs.umass.edu>
Subject: Re: Purpose of Data Havens
In-Reply-To: <199501121810.NAA25089@bb.hks.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9501122152.A28265-0100000@netcom2>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Thu, 12 Jan 1995, L. McCarthy wrote:

> Scenario: June is a test engineer at Rockwell Intl. At the lab where she works,
> it is observed that some rubber O-rings being designed for the space shuttle
> are liable to crack, and lose their airtight seal, when exposed to the 
> extremely low temperatures of space. The project is behind, so the researchers
> are instructed to proceed in spite of the problem. June encrypts the test
> results and deposits them in a data haven.

Digression:  

The interesting thing is that NASA was damn near able
to keep this matter secret despite the projects chief engineer kicking
and screaming.

When Feynman wandered in to Morton Thiokol and started asking questions 
he was not met with a cover up -- instead he was told the whole story,
complete with the chart that lead the chief booster engineer, with
the support of the entire engineering team, to send email and
written reports that the Challenger would blow up unless the launch
was delayed.

And despite one of the worlds most famous scientists knowing the
truth, and despite the fact that he was the only scientist on
the commission of enquiry, they still might well have kept it quiet
if Feynman had not ambushed them on TV.

And despite Feynmans ambush, they still managed pretty good
damage control.

Of course today such a cover up would never succeed -- someone
would just mail it to the internet, and the story would blow.

But the fact is the cover up largely succeeded despite the efforts
of the Chief engineer (which got him blacklisted) and despite
the theatric efforts of one of the worlds most eminent
scientists, perhaps the most eminent living scientist of 
that time.

It makes me realize that the world has already changed, vastly
for the better, and those in power do not yet realize it.

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