I am curious as to what sort of sabotage may be being done on the net.
The internet worm? Spamming? Or is someone running an operation
against Canadian (or international) nodes?
I do not understand the reference to "and the legislators would
not introduce bills to stop their own testing"... , unless it is
to the legislative responses to the internet worm and spam attempts.
It may well be that things are a bit different in Canada than in
the U.S.--where Vice President Al Gore has a history as a legislator
in dealing with high tech issues such as computing and communications.
(That's the reason that I know that internet will be regulated this
administration.)
It helps to know "who's on first..."--e.g. to know who the "players"
are: what sort of names do you not follow up on, and just how well
entrenched is the testing group?
I noted the blurb on the majordomo bug that came through the listown-l
in the last day had a return address of LLNL--the Nuclear Weapons
design lab I once worked as a student at, formerly run by Ed
"father of the H-bomb" "star wars" Teller. My former professors
are probably running the computer security operation there--literally.
Remember that the internet was built in significant part around U.S.
energy (nuclear weapons, reactors, and fusion), space (NASA)
and defense needs--and that Internet is their turf.
I can well imagine the cat-fits that the folks at US NSA are having--
I just saw an attempted subscribe to biosph-l from Cuba the other week.
It is, however, modus operandi for the NSA (National Security Agency -
"Never Say Anything") to do just that. After all, they employ better
engineers than the industries building the uplinks, sattelites, etc.,
so why would they bother to blow their own cover, when they practically
"own" these links.
I suspect that the spamming attacks are not a "covert" attack, rather,
the changes in funding (no more NSF funding to the backbones), changes
in political climate (Al Gore as VP), the proposal of the National
Information Superhighway, and all the media hype following the "land
rush" of industry to internet have all lead to a situation where
individuals not steeped in the internet culture have attempted to
abuse it, followed by copycats. Look at it from a "stability" point
of view--its worth too much to somebody not to try, so eventually
someone did.
My current projects include following the issue about the 1500 or so
disabled Gulf War veterans. If you ever wanted to see "spin management",
that is such an issue. A true analysis of the anticholinesterase
neurotoxicity issue would include a discussion of the long term
effects of nerve gas (a defense issue), of the organophosphate and
carbamate insecticides (a pesticide industry/agriculture issue), and
the pyridostigmine bromide "nerve pill" given to 200-400,000 personnel
to protect them against a single nerve agent, soman--but which may
have significant side effects (a drug industry, chemical defense, and
potential liability issue). The failure to discuss these topics in
fair and forthright public debate significantly contributes to the
injuries which have occurred, continue to occur, and may occur in
the future with these agents.
(BTW: Some of the best neurotoxicologists and pesticide toxicologists
come from Canada.)
I will attach my response to Klassen of UVic.CA, who blasted my Hubble
comment.
Stephen A. McFadden [log in to unmask]
========================================================================
I misaddressed my personal response to you, so here it is again:
BTW: After my physics degree, and while getting my masters,
I worked as a student at Ed Teller's Lawrence Livermore National LAb.
From: Melvin Klassen <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Hoax? Sabotage?
> Hmm. I don't see any physical reason for ever pointing the telescope at
> the earth -- that would mean that the communications-dish will then be
> pointing to outer-space!
I use this argument: The Hubble space telescope is supposed to look
at stars. That means that it will spend most of its time looking at the
cosmic background at fixed objects. It will be moved slowly across the
cosmic background to take pictures of successive spots, by adjusting
the speed of its gyros. A minimum of gyro power should be used, because
eventually they saturate and must be shut down, and the telescope must be
brought back under control by using the limited fuel in its thrusters.
(Besides, the telescope is a very large device, and one would not want
to turn it rapidly).
The Hubble telescope was serviced by the Space Shuttle. The maximum
altitude of the Shuttle is about 350 miles, perhaps a bit more. That
means that the Hubble is circling the earth every several hours in
low earth orbit.
That means after a couple hours of sky-watching of a point on the
cosmic background, the earth will usually get in the way. Then
the telescope must either be pointed elsewhere (using gyros), or
be left idle until it can again see the next assigned spot.
It seems to me (and we could ask the folks at NASA) that it is probably
a frequent occurance that the telescope becomes pointed at the earth.
Who knows what it might see (Moscow, Washington, or the ocean), but
I would expect that some might be concerned.
As for its antenna, I suspect that the data from the Hubble is relayed
by sattelites in geosynchronous orbit (e.g. the Tracking Data and Relay
Sattelite-TDRS system).
I just note the coincidence of its "nearsightedness", and the potential
national security implications of its potential nonnearsightedness during
the political events of the Cold War. Would certain forces have tried
to degrade the resolution of the Hubble? I note that it was the first
sattelite ever built to be serviced in-place. I note that the explosion
of the space shuttle Challenger delayed the fix/upgrade by several years.
I note that astronomers today are still being surprised at its resolution.
The best way to judge these events is political. Ronald Regan, Ed Teller,
George Bush, Bill Casey... Possible? Certainly. True? It will be
declassified in 30-40 years, if they have not destroyed all evidence.
Stephen A. McFadden [log in to unmask]
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