http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

9/10/2008 11:41:47 AM

^ hah

9/10/2008 11:42:58 AM

9/10/2008 12:08:31 PM

^so aliens are going to come out of it and we will have to fight them?

[Edited on September 10, 2008 at 12:12 PM. Reason : someone should photoshop "POINT AWAY FROM FACE" on the tube]

9/10/2008 12:11:19 PM

^No, you won't have to fight them.

9/10/2008 12:45:42 PM

qntmfred posted this elsewhere, but I want you guys to see it too:

http://www.particlezoo.net



[Edited on September 10, 2008 at 1:54 PM. Reason : a Higgs special for today only!]

9/10/2008 1:53:46 PM

^now i want to play pacman.

9/10/2008 2:01:54 PM

^^ haha. i love it.

9/10/2008 2:10:17 PM

I always imagined a graviton a little less nutsack looking.

9/10/2008 2:42:44 PM

I asked my boss (a southern baptist) this morning if he was up to date on the goings on of the LHC. He said he doesn't believe they will find anything because he believes their principle goal is to disprove Christianity. . . . . . .. . . . . ..........

9/10/2008 6:58:26 PM

this experiment is gonna make or break science for the next 1000 years
if they screw up, we will destroy all machines and jail all scientist
if they do well mankind will be propelled into a new era

9/10/2008 7:08:52 PM

Quote :

"if they screw up, we will destroy all machines and jail all scientist"

uhh.... what?
are you saying because they wasted money? or because..... why?

9/10/2008 8:18:52 PM

i'm such a fucking dumbass. all this time i've been pronouncing collider like "CAHlidder." no wonder it didn't make any sense

9/10/2008 11:19:20 PM

^^^ yeah seriously, that made absolutely zero sense

9/10/2008 11:27:31 PM

jbtilley, you beat me to it. Well heres part 2 to that.

http://blog.reddit.com/2008/09/crowbar-headcrab-and-half-life-strategy.html

9/11/2008 12:36:45 PM

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=hackers-attack-large-hadron-collide-2008-09-12

Quote :

"As the first particles began circulating in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) this week, a group of hackers calling themselves the "Greek Security Team" penetrated computer systems inside CERN's Geneva, Switzerland, facility, where the world's biggest particle accelerator is housed, the Telegraph.co.uk reported today. The hackers were reportedly targeting the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment (CMS), a device in Cessy, France, built to monitor a wide range of particles and phenomena produced in high-energy collisions in the LHC. The 12,500-ton detector's different layers (weighing, according to CERN, as much as 30 jumbo jets or 2,500 African elephants) stop and measure the different particles, and use this data to form a picture of events at the heart of the collision. Scientists plan to use the info to help answer questions about what the university is really made of and what forces act within it. On Wednesday, as the LHC was revving up, CMS engineers searched computers for half a dozen files uploaded by the hackers. The interlopers accessed the computer that monitors the CMS software system as the CMS collects data during particle collisions. CERN scientists says no harm was done but that the break-in raises security concerns, given that intruders were able to penetrate so close to the CMS's computer control system, according to the Telegraph.co.uk. In other words, the hackers came this close to being able to switch off some CMS controls. "We are 2600 - dont mess with us. (sic)," the group warned in a message to CERN engineers. The "2600" refers to a U.S. magazine published quarterly that appeals to the hackers worldwide by publishing technical information about telephone switching systems, the Internet and other technology, as well as computer-related news. The mindset behind the sharing of this information is to find vulnerabilities in the computer systems used by government and industry and force them to improve their security by exploiting their flaws. In fact, 2600 has become a brand in the hacker world: in addition to 2600: The Hacker Quarterly; an organization known as 2600 hosts hacker conferences and there's even a film company of that name that's made a documentary on legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick. Given the huge interest not to mention the enormity of the LHC's task, it's "highly disturbing" that hackers were able to compromise and change data on its Web site, Graham Cluley, security researcher with Sophos Plc (a security services firm based in both the UK and Burlington, Mass.) wrote in his blog today. "Theoretically," he noted, "hackers could have planted malicious code which could have stolen identities or installed malware onto the computers of millions of web visitors.""

9/12/2008 4:39:51 PM

http://lhccam.com/

9/12/2008 5:52:29 PM

haha, that's funny.

9/13/2008 10:32:27 AM

9/13/2008 10:43:33 AM

Quote :

"Scientists plan to use the info to help answer questions about what the university is really made of "

Couldn't they just walk around campus and figure that out?

9/13/2008 10:52:09 AM

via
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/11/uncritical-thinking-kills/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26641652/

Quote :

"A teenage girl in central India killed herself on Wednesday after being traumatized by media reports that a "Big Bang" experiment in Europe could bring about the end of the world, her father said."

nice. the media in India is so uncritical and unscrupulous that they had people convinced enough that the world was going to end, a girl killed herself so she wouldn't have to die in a black hole.
And people say pseudoscience never hurt anyone?

9/13/2008 10:58:51 AM

she wouldve prob felt less pain in a black hole than however she killed herself

9/13/2008 11:03:30 AM

Quote :

"the media in India is so uncritical and unscrupulous that they had people convinced enough that the world was going to end, a girl killed herself so she wouldn't have to die in a black hole. And people say pseudoscience never hurt anyone?"

don't be an ass...what you're saying is akin to saying guns kill people, instead of the person who pulls the trigger

she didn't give in to pseudoscience...she demonstrated darwin's theory, you oaf

[Edited on September 13, 2008 at 11:31 AM. Reason : "into" != "in to"]

9/13/2008 11:31:35 AM

I hope these nerds don't fuck up.

9/13/2008 12:21:15 PM

^^ the media needs to take responsibility to stand up for the truth. They could ask any reputable scientist with any intimate knowledge of the situation and found that the whole black-hole, earth-ending thing is a non-issue. But no, to get ratings and money, media would rather drag nutjobs out of the wood-work and put them on a national/international stage, and put ridiculous ranting and ravings on the same level of scientists, who actually know what the fuck they're doing.

If they want to give these people an outlet, fine - the stories about the LHC should contain 99% information from people who are actually informed and involved with the situation, then they can throw in a line from the opposition, which represents an extremely small minority view. But that would be a boring story, so instead, most media outlets would prefer to write a story focused on the minority view that the LHC is playing Russian roulette with the earth, then get a "token skeptic's" point-of-view that it's safe, when in fact the "skeptic's" point of view is the majority consensus.

9/13/2008 1:22:00 PM

did you actually read the MSNBC article you posted?

Quote :

"For the past two days, many Indian news channels held discussions airing doomsday predictions over a huge particle-smashing machine buried under the Swiss-French border. ... The machine smashes particles together to achieve, on a small-scale, re-enactments of the "Big Bang" that created the universe. ... But in deeply religious and superstitious India, fears about the experiment and the minor risks associated with it spread rapidly through the media. In east India, thousands of people rushed to temples to pray and fast while others savored their favorite foods in anticipation of the world's end. ... Assurances by scientists and the media that nothing would happen counted for nothing for housewife Rukmini Moharana."

"discussions" != "uncritical and unscrupulous"

"assurances by scientists and the media that nothing would happen" != "uncritical and unscrupulous"

did you ever think that simply reporting about the LHC in a "deeply religious and superstitious" society would cause those on the far end to freak out, regardless of what they said?

this is in no way newsworthy...some stupid and superstitious bitch freaked out by focusing on the words "big bang" and drank pesticide...people kill themselves EVERY DAY, for any number of reasons...stupid people sometimes work their way out of the gene pool without any help from others and this is just one of those cases

[Edited on September 13, 2008 at 2:31 PM. Reason : .]

9/13/2008 2:29:33 PM

Quote :

"did you ever think that simply reporting about the LHC in a "deeply religious and superstitious" society would cause those on the far end to freak out, regardless of what they said?"

no - simply reporting on what the LHC is and what it's going to do should not cause panic, even in religous or superstitious places. The only reason it would cause panic is if someone reported on the possibility of a black hole that will destroy the world, which if you were just reporting on the LHC and talking to people who are actually qualified to talk about the LHC, this subject would no even be broached, and therefore would not be reported.

it's become pervasive in our media culture that when reporting a story, any story, we have to hear "both sides of the story", even if that involves concocting a 2nd side, or elevating a minority viewpoint to the same status as the scientific consensus. Politicians and the media tells us now that people should hear all sides to a story, then you decide, as if everything is simply a matter of opinion. Well some things are not opinions - there are facts in the world, and scientific fact should be reported as such, not as just another option on the table for you to choose from.

There are plenty of things to debate about the LHC - was it too expensive for the outcome? will the results be scientifically or practically usable? Who should be funding it?
Those are all matters of opinion, and the media can and should have healthy debates on it. Whether it will or won't destroy the world is not a matter of opinion, and therefore has no place at the table for public discussion.

9/13/2008 4:50:42 PM

Quote :

"the media in India is so uncritical and unscrupulous that they had people convinced enough that the world was going to end, a girl killed herself so she wouldn't have to die in a black hole."

It's just as likely her family killed her as an honor killing and the father is using the story as a coverup

9/14/2008 12:00:51 AM

well, i could see that too, but even so - it would still serve the same point about the dangers of superstition or religious indoctrination

9/14/2008 12:05:23 AM

Good BBC show...

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1790078

9/14/2008 9:06:12 PM

Bullshit

9/14/2008 11:31:19 PM

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/hackers-infiltr.html

9/15/2008 3:46:24 PM

#12047524

[Edited on September 15, 2008 at 7:42 PM. Reason : and http://www.0x000000.com/?i=637 as an update]

9/15/2008 7:41:29 PM

hmm, no colliding for a while now....
they have to shut it down for 2 months to fix a coolant leak
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7626944.stm

9/20/2008 11:02:22 PM

I guess we will have to wait two months for the end of the world.

9/20/2008 11:57:59 PM

Quote :

"I asked my boss (a southern baptist) this morning if he was up to date on the goings on of the LHC. He said he doesn't believe they will find anything because he believes their principle goal is to disprove Christianity. . . . . . .. . . . . .......... "

....

*facepalm*

9/21/2008 9:17:15 AM

It's ironic that christians would disapprove of a controlled scientific experiment that seeks to logically confirm or deny a well documented theory, especially when they've never attempted to logically prove any of their horse shit.

9/21/2008 10:18:36 AM

how is it ironic ESPECIALLY for that reason?

9/24/2008 2:30:21 PM

hey

can this thing save the economy?

9/29/2008 7:16:20 PM

srsly

HEY EUROPE, HOW BOUT SENDING SOME OF THAT 500 TRILLION DOLLARS OVER THIS WAY!? WE'RE STARVING OVER HERE MAN

9/29/2008 7:58:48 PM

another all-life-on-earth-destroying science project, this one just across the mountains at ORNL

http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20081009-00

Quote :

" OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Oct. 9, 2008 — New analytical tools coming on line at the Spallation Neutron Source, the Department of Energy's state-of-the-art neutron science facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, include a beam line dedicated to nuclear physics studies. The Fundamental Neutron Physics Beam Line (FNPB) has opened its shutter to receive neutrons for the first time. Among the nuclear physics studies planned for the new, intense beam line are experiments that probe the neutron-related mysteries associated with the "Big Bang." "Completion of the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beam Line marks a significant step in the SNS's ramp up to full power, building up to its eventual suite of 25 instruments for neutron analysis," said ORNL Director Thom Mason, who led the SNS construction project to its completion. "The nuclear physics community is excited to have this new tool for exploring theories of the origins of the universe." Although research at most of the current and future operating SNS beam lines is directed towards condensed matter and materials research, research at the FNPB is focused on basic studies in nuclear physics. "While other beam lines use neutrons as a probe to study materials, the object for much of the work proposed at the FNPB is the study of the neutron itself," said University of Tennessee Professor Geoffrey Greene, who holds a Joint Faculty Appointment with ORNL and who leads the FNPB project. "Among the questions that will be addressed at the FNPB are the details of the internal structure of the neutron as well as a careful study of the way in which the free neutron decays. Such experiments have important implication for fundamental questions in particle physics and cosmology." Greene explained that neutrons, which have no electric charge, may nevertheless have a slight displacement between internal positive and negative charges. The existence of such a "neutron electric dipole moment" could shed light on what happened in the early phases of the Big Bang. In particular it could help to explain why the universe appears to be made entirely of matter without any antimatter, he said. While the neutron is stable in most nuclei, when it is liberated (for example in an SNS neutron beam) it lives for only about 10 minutes. "Precise measurements of the neutron lifetime help clarify the distribution of chemical elements generated in the first few minutes of the Big Bang and shed light on the amount of normal matter—as opposed to dark matter and dark energy—in the universe," Greene said. "Another set of extremely precise studies at the FNPB will address the interaction between neutrons and simple nuclei and may help to explain universal 'parity' violation," Greene said. "Roughly speaking, parity is the symmetry that implies that the laws of physics are invariant when 'viewed in a mirror.' The surprising fact is, at a basic level, the universe appears to be 'left-handed.' "The challenge remains to understand why this puzzling state of affairs exists," he said. Greene noted that the theoretical basis for such symmetry violation --first outlined several decades ago--was recognized earlier this month with the 2008 Nobel Prize to Yoichiro Nambu. The FNPB is funded by the DOE Office of Science's Office of Nuclear Physics. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy. "

10/13/2008 9:29:49 PM

Quote :

"CERN releases preliminary failure analysis The mammoth Large Hadron Collider is offline after a pretty big malfunction during testing. CERN, the agency in charge of the LHC, has released its preliminary findings of what happened. The current flow in the LHC depends critically on it being a superconductor. That means the electricity flows with almost no resistance (think of it like water flowing in a pipe that has no friction). For some reason — why it happened is still unknown — a small patch of resistance developed in the circuit. If left alone, something like this can cause massive damage; for example electricity flow can generate a vast amount of heat in such a patch. However, the LHC automatic safeguards kicked in, and appeared to work as designed. However again, an electric arc was triggered, and we’re not talking about a little spark. It was big enough to punch a hole in the dewars containing the liquid helium needed to cool the magnets down to superconducting temperatures. The helium leaked out, and started to fill a region of the LHC which is supposed to be kept in vacuum. It also leaked out into the tunnel holding the LHC itself, causing some damage to the structure, including partially tearing the 1 ton magnets out of their brackets holding them down. Yikes. So there is some mechanical damage, but it’s limited to where the problem occurred (other magnets appear to be fine). About 30 magnets were damaged, and they lost about six tons of helium, which needs to be replaced. The repair will take some time, as will figuring out exactly what happened, and, more importantly, why. They’re being cautious about this, as you might expect: Although the cause of the initial growth of connection resistance has not yet been established, and knowing that a similar event has not occurred in the test of all other sectors and of their thousands of connections, it has nonetheless been decided that additional measurements to generate early warnings and interlocks, improvements in pressure relief devices and in external anchoring of the quadrupole [magnet] cryostats with vacuum barrier will be implemented before any further powering of the LHC circuits at high current. So they will proceed carefully, but I’m guessing they will have it up and running in a few months time, certainly sometime next year. This is a major setback for the program, of course, and will cost them time, money, and some PR, no doubt. But they will get it back up to speed, and soon they’ll be back in the business of science, poking and prodding the Universe on a quantum scale. "

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/19/cern-releases-preliminary-failure-analysis/

10/21/2008 10:43:06 AM

Sounds like a quench occurred. They were talking about how dangerous a quench would be were to to occur.

10/21/2008 10:44:57 AM

omf Oak Ridge is right across the street.

10/21/2008 5:38:54 PM

^^^ i love the badastronomy blog

10/21/2008 7:04:35 PM

That particular LHC is not a big problem. Any number of State parties acts as a large, hardon collider.

10/22/2008 1:36:22 PM

obligatory "God made it fail"

10/22/2008 6:35:09 PM

Obligatory, what? Why would God make it fail? God has nothing to fear from physics. Moreover, God has allowed us to discover much of the innerworkings of the cosmos already, why would He stop us here?

The things in "science" which seem to contradict Scripture are not basic physical law. The LHC is not trying to reveal the history of the universe, or finally demonstrate spontaneous generation,...

I don't see how supersymmetry and Christianity have any intersection what so ever.

Anyway, I'll stop wasting my time on your snarky nonsense. Proceed.

10/22/2008 10:11:37 PM

oh snap

10/24/2008 2:02:48 PM

are we dead yet?

10/9/2009 5:42:58 PM