Big Bang Day , september 10th 2008

[Griffin NoName]

Everone has to wear ties in the bunker. Otherwise they might just drift off down a mine shaft.

Apparently anyone who can receive transmissions from the BBC can watch the world end from 8:30 am tomorrow morning.

What's the reception like at the bottom of that mine shaft Bart?

[Darlica]

Honestly, this is sort of getting to me.


Not that I really think a stable black hole will be created in the LHC but some peoples reactions. Are we going to have a mass psychosis about this within a months time when the real tests begin?

Swedish media is usually level-headed but it seems like we're turning towards the Fox's News type of journalism, "if we interview one scientist that agree with 98% of all other scientists in this question and one wannabe scientist with a different view than these 98% preferable one that will make good headlines about death and destruction we make good and democratic journalism, in the best interest of the general public".

My idea of good journalism in this case would be a clear description of what will be going inside LHC preferable with some good graphics, explaining that the difference between what will happen inside the accelerator and what happens outside in the sunshine every day is the controlled environment, the cameras, and the fact that the energy will not come from the sun directly.

Physics seem to have become the new black magic.
People fear what they don't understand that's how we seem to work, media making money on peoples fears for this must be like stealing candy from a kid. Most of us aren't educated in advanced physics after all so it must be easier to scare the jeebus out of a higher percentage of the people with news of this kind than most other doomsday stories.




_{And then we have this and this 2012 business. It haven't hit the news mills here yet but it will, but we take that another day.}

[Griffin NoName]

Honestly, this is sort of getting to me.

Physics seem to have become the new black magic.
People fear what they don't understand that's how we seem to work, media making money on peoples fears for this must be like stealing candy from a kid. Most of us aren't educated in advanced physics after all so it must be easier to scare the jeebus out of a higher percentage of the people with news of this kind than most other doomsday stories.




_{And then we have this and this 2012 business. It haven't hit the news mills here yet but it will, but we take that another day.}

_{I think that's the point really. We have to evolve into the next level of consciousness because more and more humans cannot understand what is being exposed by others (mostly scientists of one kind or another). It cannot continue} 


BBC news report tonight contained a bicycle tour around and short interview with one of the scientists down there to explain in very simple terms why it wasn't dangerous.

Amongst a lot of other easy to understand sentences, he said we have much stronger particles passing right through us all the time.

I thought that would probably alarm a good few people, especially considering his headgear.

[Pachyderm]

Physics seem to have become the new black magic.

No, physics has always been seen as black magic. Chaos theory, strange matter, bosons, quarks and the wheel.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Remember kids, science is teh evilz. That's why teaching evolution is so dangerous... 
---
Seriously speaking though, CERN is the next step in an arms race, a tool to make the most powerful fuel in the world: antimatter. Actually they have been trying to bottle the stuff for a while although it is a bit difficult so we are not in any immediate danger, but certainly in a few years when the process gets ironed out it things like CERN and Fermilab can potentially become the uranium enrichment facilities of the future.
---
Are scared yet?
---
And for a reality check:

Recent data released by CERN states that when fully operational their facilities are capable of producing 107 antiprotons per second.Assuming an optimal conversion of antiprotons to antihydrogen, it would take two billion years to produce 1 gram of antihydrogen.
[snip]
Antimatter is said to be the most expensive substance in existence, with an estimated cost of $300 billion per milligram.

[ivor]

I think the world as we know it will end tomorrow, but not in a way anyone expects.

[pieces o nine]

And for a reality check:

Recent data released by CERN states that when fully operational their facilities are capable of producing 107 antiprotons per second.Assuming an optimal conversion of antiprotons to antihydrogen, it would take two billion years to produce 1 gram of antihydrogen.

Oh Noes!

^{Not ... a Fully Operational  Death Star CERN!}  

Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi! You are our only hope!

[Sibling Chatty]

I thought that would probably alarm a good few people, especially considering his headgear.

Hey, A Bob the Builder Hat!! KEWL!!

[Sibling Chatty]

What? I thought the rapture was coming in 2012.

What if they gave a rapture and nobody came?

What if they gave a rapture and nobody left?? I'm countin' on inheritin' their stuff to pay for me old age...

[Sibling Qwertyuiopasd]

It's like when they dropped the atomic bomb. Scientists thought it might boil the ocean, or even the atmosphere, end the world and all that.

Turned out, it just made a really big boom. (With localized side effects).

~Qwerty

[Opsa]

What? I thought the rapture was coming in 2012.

What if they gave a rapture and nobody came?

What if they gave a rapture and nobody left?? I'm countin' on inheritin' their stuff to pay for me old age...

Me, too.

Well, it's D-Day. Are we still here?

And more importantly: Is Qwerty still Bono?

[Sibling Qwertyuiopasd]

oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-

[Swatopluk]

Jap: Oshi = Hello? iirc (at least as far as telephone customs are concerned)

[Aggie]

Oishi = delicious

BTW, isn't today just the warm-up testing, with the first collisions to start in a week or few?

[Darlica]

A month from now actually.

Here, there was wartime headlines yesterday all death and destruction, today barely a line about the world still being around and nobody getting hurt or even that no actual collisions took place... Only one of the big daily newspapers have kept their feet on the ground and remained sane, unfortunately it's the most conservative one.