Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:36:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tamar Lindsay <dicconf at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] trying again - Petrov's Day
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

originally posted by Charles Stross on September 26, 2008

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov

On 26th September, 1983, at the nadir of the Cold War,
this man - Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov - made a
judgement call that saved my life.  (I was then living
five miles from the Vickers Tank Factory in Leeds and
about ten miles from the M1/M62 intersection - both
major strategic targets.)  If you're over 25 years old and
live in the UK, he saved your life, too.  If you're over
25 years old and lived in the USA, there's about a 70%
probability that he saved you. And so on.  Iterate for
everyone in every NATO and Warsaw Pact country, all
750 million of us.

He lost his job for it, and suffered a nervous breakdown.
He doesn't consider himself to be a hero.  Nevertheless,
he bent the regulations and risked punishment to prevent
a disaster from overwhelming us all.
I'm going to raise a glass to him tonight.  How about you?

originally posted by Charles Stross on September 26, 2008