The Conservative Cat

This fact is well-known to anybody who's ever locked their keys in the car. It seems completely lost on the average legislator, however.

Bruce's favorite story of safety features gone awry dates back to his days as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois in Urbana. At the time (we're talking middle Seventies), he was working on the Plato IV Computer Network. The network's mainframe computer was a CDC 6600 that used a closed-system water chiller to prevent overheating. Periodically the water chiller would fail, forcing a shutdown. After several such shutdowns in rapid succession, a fail-safe device was put in place. When the closed system was unable to maintain the desired temperature, cold tap water from the building's plumbing system would be used to keep the computer operating while the chiller was repaired.

The very first time they tried to test the system, the chiller valve successfully shut off the closed-system's water, but the tap water valve failed to open. A repair man was brought in, and while he was attempting to fix the problem, he dropped a screwdriver. With uncanny precision, the screwdriver managed to land on live electrical contacts, causing a short circuit powerful enough to blow out the electrical system of the entire building.

Anyway, it's important to remember that trafficking in safety devices can be a very risky business.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat