[ATM] Some Old Friends in Literature

["Richard Schwartz" <richas@earthlink.net>]

I have just finished reading "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Cliff Stoll.   This is
about computer security and the effort to track down a German hacker spy
who was trying to enter U.S. military computer networks in 1986 and 1987.  
Keep in mind that Dr. Stoll is an astronomer.   From the first page of
chapter 26, 

"So I watdered over to the telescope design team, where Jerry Nelson and
Terry Mast were arguing over how much their telescope would bend due to
gravity.   When looking at stars straight overhead, gravity wouldn't bend
the telescope tube,  But when pointing near the horizon, the tube would bow
slightly.  Just enough to upset the delicate optical alignment.   They
wanted to know how much and could I show the effect on the computer.

"This seemed like fun..."

Recall that a 1982 paper by Nelson and Mast lead to the debunking of
Hindle's 1932 theory of mirror support and the creation of PLOP.   It's a
small world!

. . . Richard
   Heil Hindle!


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