Hadron Collider fires up on Wednesday (10/09/08) (1 Viewer)

[Jay Taylor]

CERN just received a Teletype message from Guardian, the Russian Hadron Collider:

"Colossus.... is that you?"

 

[drobbins]

According to the Mayan calendar the world isn't supposed to end until 2012. Maybe about the time they get this thing really going. On a sadder note the people in India are really taking this serious.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Has anyone been to Google today?

Joe

 

[andrew markworthy]

My kids came home today and said that a sizeable proportion of their classmates were firmly convinced the world would end today. In which case, why the freak were they spending what they thought would be their last few hours alive in school?

My son at the grand old age of 14 says that this is the final evidence he needed that the human race on the whole is irredeemably stupid.



EDIT: Yes, that is serious, and I feel great sympathy for the family. I cannot help wondering whether the media couldn't have given a rather less alarmist view. But on the other hand, there have been other occasions where folks have panicked when rational thought would have told them to behave rather more sensibly. Take the panic after the War of the Worlds radio broadcast for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War..._Worlds_(radio) . Seriously, if you don't know this piece of social history it's well worth taking the time to read up about it.

 

[andrew markworthy]

As far as I understand it, in a black hole everything gets sucked in, there's seemingly no way out and time stretches out so that everything lasts an eternity.

If Switzerland did get sucked into a black hole, how would we know it had happened?

 

[drobbins]

This is getting on the level of the y2k scare. :rolleyes

 

[Edwin-S]

Damn! I always thought this described being at WORK. Amazing, most of us have been on the event horizon and didn't even know it.

Edit: Knowing that most of my adult life has been spent in a Black Hole makes the possibility of the Earth being eaten up by Black Holes formed by the Large Hardon Collider much more palatable.

 

[Marianne]

Since Wednesday there have been earthquakes in Iran, Chile, Japan and Indonesia - I wonder if it's the beginning of the end?

 

[Holadem]

Sucks about that Indian girl. A bit strange too -- if I knew the world was ending, I would want front row seats.

--
H

 

[drobbins]

Really, I would also hope I am not around a bunch of people yelling and screaming. That would totally ruin it.

 

[RobertR]

From what I heard, it would essentially be instantaneous, so we'd all be gone before we knew it happened.

 

[Marianne]

From what I heard it would cause gradual destruction of the earth's core so we would get to know about it.

 

[Cees Alons]

You would experience it as happening in normal time, but as you get closer and closer to the event horizon, time really would slow down gradually. Which you wouldn't notice.


BTW three blocks away from my home, four houses almost caved in when their foundation suddenly moved 9.5 inches (Amsterdam houses are built on 66' long poles) last night. They say it was caused by the excavations for the new metro tunnel going through that street.
But I wonder if that explanation is true...


Cees

 

[Carlo_M]

Wow, if this is the afterlife...this place sucks!!!!

 

[Bryan X]

Maybe we've already been knocked into an alternate universe by the LHC. How would we know? As far as we would be concerned, our new reality would have ALWAYS been our reality. Hmmmmmm.....

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

Cees - you sound like a bit of a novice in this area (like me). I have been reading Hawkins and deGrasse Tyson books back to back to quench my fascination with the universe and everything in it. Black holes, dark matter, dark energy - those subject lift the lid off everything as we know it. Even Ernest Borgnine stealing my spaceship and being destroyed near the black hole hasn't tempered my joy on the subject

 

[drobbins]

If we are already in an alternate universe, does that mean that we will have an alternate ending?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Does the LHC have an "audio" button? Maybe we can get the creator's commentary track and figure out which version we're in.

Regards,

Joe

 

[andrew markworthy]

No, you're in an alternative universe with an alternative ending. I've just claimed this new universe for the UK and am imposing all that is great about the UK on the rest of you - our spelling, our sensible use of words, our dentistry, our cooking ...

 

[andrew markworthy]

Either that, or the jewel heist went wrong - were there any reports of a George Clooney look-alike in the area?

[This joke makes no sense if you haven't seen Ocean's Twelve, but I thought I'd share it with you. The sun is shining here in the UK for the first time in weeks, and it's sent us all a little crazy, I guess].