Bullshit. There is no way that living things are releasing enough ionizing radiation to interfere with a computer, especially an older one--

attenuated both by the rest of their flesh, the building's walls, the computer's chassis, and at least several feet of free space/inverse square.

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ACS_Solver 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, the story is definitely false. I looked into some details the first time I saw it on HN, seemed strange then, and it cannot be true. Radiation from the disaster could, and did, mess with electronics, but close to the disaster area. Most contamination is with alpha-decay elements, and alpha rays aren't going to make it from inside a train to a computer inside a building by the tracks. And yes, any living creature radioactive enough to affect electronics would be rapidly and painfully dying.

It's a funny story, but the physics is impossible, and there's several historically implausible details as well, so I'm comfortable saying it's made up.

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2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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y-curious 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You're right. This and the "banned Geiger counters" are both implausible.

Shame, I already sent this to my coworkers. Time to retract this cool story.

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sillywabbit 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

BASHIR: Out of all the stories you told me, which ones were true and which ones weren't?

GARAK: My dear Doctor, they're all true.

BASHIR: Even the lies?

GARAK: Especially the lies.

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croemer 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Chernobyl food contamination was mostly Cs-137 which emits Gamma rays. But Gamma rays aren't the type of radiation well suited to flip bits. To reliably flip bits, the cows would have to contain so much Cs-137 that they'd die within a day or so.

Story is likely made up.

	▲	mlyle 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		(I could believe that a very sick cow could possibly be a significant alpha emitter after being exposed to Chernobyl... but an alpha-emitting cow isn't going to screw up a computer inside a building).

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croemer 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If I'm reading [1] correctly then the SM-1800 was a clone of Intel-8080A, not PDP-11.

[1]: page 2, line starting with K580 of https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP86R00995R0005011...

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guga42k 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Those poor cows would have to glow in a dark to emit such level of radiation.

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reillyse 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

but don't you see, Communism is so bad that it changes the laws of fundamental physics! But of course you are right, this is a total nonsense story but it is interesting to reflect on why somebody would feel compelled to tell such a lie and spread such propaganda. Also interesting to reflect on what the capitalist analog of this story might be - do we trust that American food corporations would never knowingly ship unhealthy meat?

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flohofwoe 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Calm down Igor, it's probably just a tall tale the seniors told the juniors and the juniors took it in as the truth.

Also didn't you have sarcastic Chornobyl jokes in the 80s if you lived anywhere near East or Central Europe? We certainly did have a lot of them in East Germany.

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reillyse 2 days ago | parent [-]

what?

It is not being presented as a tall tale or a sarcastic joke. It's being presented as fact. I'm merely asking why people feel the need to make up stories and to propagate stories that are untrue. That is a question I am genuinely interested in.

Why, when we know this is complete BS, do people feel the need to 1) make it up in the first place and 2) propagate the story without engaging their mental faculties.

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mlyle 2 days ago | parent [-]

I don't really like your snarky initial take, even when I'm the guy calling bullshit in the first place in the thread.

People propagate falsehoods for numerous reasons. The first is, they don't know it's false. They hear a joke or a hypothetical story and repeat it as fact, and in the retelling it gets amplified. Details get conflated; someone hears a story about slightly radioactive cows and also about computers being affected by radiation, and blends them. Or an expat tells a story about his homeland, exaggerated slightly for effect, and is misunderstood by those who hear it based on their own biases.

In the end we only have so much brainpower. We don't always consider the plausibility of everything to a deep degree. I am nearly positive that you have propagated falsehood where you "should have known better."

And sometimes we tell things that are just a good story. I propagate the neural network tank recognition one to my students because it's a perfect story. I do say that I know it's probably false, but I'm sure some of them will repeat it to others as fact.

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reillyse a day ago | parent [-]

Right, you propagate it for a specific reason presumably, because you think it teaches them something about something even if it might not be true.

So that is your reason there.

I'm just interested in the undercurrent of why people seem to like this story and I think it pretty much is "Communism Bad" even though as mentioned otherwhere in this thread (and by me) capitalism has an awful record when it comes to food quality the one thing that is being knocked in this story.

	▲	mlyle a day ago \| parent [-]
		> I'm just interested in the undercurrent of why people seem to like this story Nah, it's "holy shit radioactive cows causing single-event-upset!@" It's the legend of the impossible to troubleshoot magical problem that actually makes perfect physical sense (even though it doesn't). The communism-bad is merely an afterthought that adds a little more appeal to some people. Indeed, my perspective reading this story... I need to teach a different group of students about SEU and SEL. The thought of radioactive cows from Chernobyl causing upsets is an absolutely "sticky" story that would make the idea of effects from ionizing radiation stay prominently in students' minds, and reinforce my position as a crazy teacher with students. My reaction as I realized that it was BS and I couldn't justify using it was disappointment.

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krapp 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>do we trust that American food corporations would never knowingly ship unhealthy meat?

We know for a fact that many American businesses knowingly allow faulty and dangerous products on the market (see the Ford Pinto,) and that American food corporations have allow tainted meat onto the market.

But for some reason we don't fault capitalism for that the way we would fault communism for this, if it were true. If anything, the most likely reaction this happening in the US would be to deregulate industries so capitalism could capitalize even harder.