Mutant Marsupials Take Up Arms Against Australian Air Force
The reuse of some object-oriented code has caused tactical headaches for Australia’s armed forces. As virtual reality simulators assume larger roles in helicopter combat training, programmers have gone to great lengths to increase the realism of their scenarios, including detailed landscapes and - in the case of the Northern Territory’s Operation Phoenix- herds of kangaroos (since disturbed animals might well give away a helicopter’s position).

The head of the Defense Science & Technology Organization’s land Operations/Simulation division reportedly instructed developers to
model the local marsupials’ movements and reactions to helicopters. Being efficient programmers, they just re-appropriated some code originally used to model infantry detachment reactions under the same stimuli, changed the mapped icon from a soldier to a kangaroo, and increased the figures’ speed of movement. Eager to demonstrate their flying skills for some visiting American pilots, the hotshot Aussies “buzzed” the virtual kangaroos in low flight during a simulation.

The kangaroos scattered, as predicted, and the visiting Americans nodded appreciatively… then did a double-take as the kangaroos
reappeared from behind a hill and launched a barrage of Stinger
missiles at the hapless helicopter. (Apparently the programmers had forgotten to remove that part of the infantry coding.)

The lesson?

Objects are defined with certain attributes, and any new object defined in terms of an old one inherits all the attributes. The embarrassed programmers had learned to be careful when reusing object-oriented code, and the Yanks left with a newfound respect for Australian wildlife. Simulator supervisors report that pilots from that point onward have strictly avoided kangaroos, just as they were meant to.

– From June 15, 1999 Defense Science and Technology Organization
Lecture Series, Melbourne, Australia, and staff reports

A true story from the NY Times.

Sometimes it takes a rocket scientist..

Scientists at NASA built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all travelling at maximum velocity. The idea was to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields. British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on windshields of their new high speed trains. Arrangements were made and a gun was sent to the British engineers.

When the gun was fired, the engineers looked shocked as the chicken hurtled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the console, snapped the engineers backrest in two and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin, like an arrow shot from a bow.

The horrified Britons sent NASA the disastrous results of the
experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the US scientists for suggestions. NASA responded with a one line memo: Thaw the chicken!

Thanks for the humor.

A. “F*ck you, Ringo!”

Knock, Knock.
Who’s There?
Me Mah.
Me Mah Who?!

Everyone laughs their asses off except for the poor guy who has no idea what he has just called himself.

(”Mahu” - Pronounced Mah-Who, is the Hawaiian word for transvestite)

Aloha,
Dave.