Today’s Ariane 5 Disaster and the 1996 Ariane 5 Explosion

Duncan Smeed recently posted on his weblog about the 1996 explosion of an Ariane 5 rocket. The Ariane 5, a European rocket, self-destructed just 39 seconds after launch after onboard computers detected that the rocket was breaking up.

Coincidentally, the Ariane 5 rocket just had another odd failure, plunging straight into the Atlantic Ocean just three minutes after launch.

The cause of the 1996 disaster turned out to be a straighforward bug. Part of the software the Ariane 5 was running attempted to convert a 64-bit number into a 16-bit version, but the number was too large for the 16-bit register. The result was an overflow error which led to the shutdown of both the main guidance system and its backup (which was running identical software). The rocket then veered radically off-course and the self-destruct mechanism kicked in.

But the best part has to be that the calculation that led to the overflow error wasn’t even needed in-flight. According to an article about the incident by James Gleick,

One extra absurdity: the calculation containing the bug, which shut down the guidance system, which confused the on-board computer, which forced the rocket off course, actually served no purpose once the rocket was in the air. Its only function was to align the system before launch. So it should have been turned off. But engineers chose long ago, in an earlier version of the Ariane, to leave this function running for the first 40 seconds of flight — a “special feature” meant to make it easy to restart the system in the event of a brief hold in the countdown.

Source:

Sometimes a bug is more than just a nuisance,/a>. James Gleick, New York Times, December 1, 1996.

Jacob Sullum on Government’s Anti-Drug Ads

Jacob Sullum has a nice takedown of those stupid anti-drug ads that feature people saying things like “I helped kill a judge.” Sullum writes,

The first problem with this syllogism is its unstated moral premise: If some of the people who profit from the sale of a product do “terrible things,” anyone who consumes the product is responsible for those crimes. By this logic, everyone who drives a car is responsible for terrorism because of the links between oil and radical Islam.

“When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden,” comic Bill Maher suggests in the title of his new book. Meanwhile, a little less tongue in cheek, columnist Arianna Huffington has suggested an ad campaign highlighting the connection between oil consumption and terrorism. A script by ad writer Scott Burns has SUV drivers confessing, “I gassed 40,000 Kurds,” “I helped hijack an airplane,” and “I helped blow up a nightclub.” Huffington says she is raising money to produce the ads. Oddly, the Bush administration has not volunteered to chip in.

Sullum also points out that the worst byproducts of the drug trade are created largely as a result of prohibition on the legal sale of drugs.

Source:

Terrible Things: The government defends its anti-drug ads. Jacob Sullum, Reason, December 9, 2002.

Number of Foxes Killed in Scotland Increases After Ban

Hunts in Scotland claim that since hunting with dogs was banned, the number of foxes killed by hunts has skyrocketed to 250 since August, compared to a total of 140 foxes killed in all of 2000 (there was no hunting at all in 2001 due to foot-and-mouth restrictions).

Under the ban, hunting foxes is allowed to eliminate pests, but the foxes have to be shot rather than killed by dogs — except if the hunter can prove that he intended to shoot the fox but the animal was killed by the dogs.

Joe Scott Plummer of the Buccleuch Hunt told Scotland on Sunday that by December 2000, his hunt had killed 30 foxes, but by December 2002, they had killed 65 foxes. According to Scott Plummer, the increase was due to a combination of there being more foxes to hunt because of the 2001 restrictions, as well as it being easier to kill a fox with a gun than with dogs. Scott Plummer said,

Traditional hunting was the natural cunning of the fox pitched against the natural cunning of the hounds, but as soon as a gun is introduced then the odds become heavily weighted against the fox surviving. In the past there would be a possibility that a fox would be able to escape the hounds, and often they did. However, with the guns, however fit or fast a fox, once it’s been flushed out then it doesn’t really stand a chance.

Scotland on Sunday quoted Les Ward of Advocates for Animals as being skeptical of the claims of increased killings of foxes saying, “They would say it’s business as usual, but I can tell you that it’s not.”

Source:

Hunts claim fox deaths soar after ban. Claire Gardner, Scotland On Sunday, December 8, 2002.

18 Activists Arrested at British anti-HLS, Cambridge Protest

Eighteen activists were arrested earlier this week after 200 people participated in a Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty-organized protest outside a Huntingdon Life Sciences facility and the proposed cite for Cambridge University’s primate research center.

The activists were arrested for not having a permit for their protest, and were charged with “public order offences” according to Cambridge News.

A spokesman for the police told the newspaper,

People have the right to demonstrate but those demonstrations must be lawful. We have worked closely with demonstrators in the past to ensure they can carry out their right to protest without breaking the law but unplanned protests are irresponsible and we will not tolerate them.

Source:

Animal rights demo members arrested. Cambridge News, December 9, 2002.

Prison Is a Very Lonely Place for Jeff Luers

The Earth Liberation Prisoners Newsletter recently circulated and appeal for help with the case of Jeff Luers. Luers, you may remember, was sentenced to more than 22 years in jail for several acts of arson (including attempting to blow up a gasoline tanker).

Activists are trying to raise money for Luers’ appeal of his sentence (Luers made the boneheaded mistake of failing to plea bargain to lesser charges — his buddy Craig Marshall received only 5 years). But they also want people to send letters to help Luers pass the time in a lonely prison,

Prison is an extremely lonely place and sending letters to [Luers] asking how you can help, sharing stories, telling him about what is going on in the world is a great way to help.

Awww, poor Jeffrey. So if you want to write a serial arsonist with tales of the outside world or share some stories, please by all means don’t let me stop you. His address is:

Jeffrey Luers, #13797671
Oregon State Prison
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310
USA

Source:

ELP Information Bulletin, December 7, 2002.

More SHAC Activists Jailed in Great Britain

According to the North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network, three more activists affiliated with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty have been jailed in Great Britain.

A December 7 ELP Bulletin said that Sarah Gisborne received 12 months in jail, and Jonny Able-White and Gillian Bradley each received 9 month sentences for criminal acts related to animal rights extremism.

Meanwhile, British animal rights activist Robin Webb is having difficulty obtaining release after his arrest at the December 1st protest against Huntingdon Life Sciences in the United States.

Webb was jailed on a $50,000 bond. Activists managed to raise the bond, but the court also demanded that Webb surrender his passport as well as furnish his birth certificate. As this writing, Webb has been unable to comply with the court’s requirements and so remains jailed.

Source:

Urgent ELP! Bulletin. North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network, Newsletter, December 7, 2002.