Large Hadron Collider being turned on September 10th

[Thanatos]

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/08/07/1252902.aspx?GT1=43001

This is a pretty good article on the subject and covers a lot of ground. They're saying that a global catastrophe could never happen (http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/20/1158097.aspx) when it's turned on. I'm on the fence, though. Either way, September 10th should be very interesting. I'm anxious to see what happens.

[Chruser]

I wouldn't be surprised if they defer the initial beam injections for another 3-6 months.

On another note, I covered some of the paranoia and risks of the LHC here (http://zelaron.com/forum/showthread.php?p=640798#post640798).

[!King_Amazon!]

I suppose I take a neutral stance on this. I don't necessarily think anything bad will happen, but I don't think anyone should be claiming "nothing" will happen either. It has never been done before, so claiming that you know what will or wont happen is pointless.

I think that, with the POSSIBILITY of what could happen, it isn't worth doing. However, they won't just stop because of that. Hell, the guys working on the Manhattan project were probably pissing themselves the first time they set off the chain reaction, thinking it might go on forever.

But why take the risk?

[Chruser]

But why take the risk?


To win the war! Without adversaries, the cohesion of groups is impossible, and so is civilization. Our antagonists may have transcended the human form, and our activities may be surrogate of requisites for survival, but the power process of goal, effort and attainment of goal still remains.

As the asymptote of our quality of life-time graph approaches, expect experiments of magnitudes a thousand or a million times greater than petty $6 billion endeavors like this.

[Kazilla]

by doomsday, why is meant? like the end? or just a giant new body of water will be formed in europe

[Sovereign]

loll large hard-on collider

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangelet

[Chruser]

by doomsday, why is meant? like the end? or just a giant new body of water will be formed in europe


A doomsday event may cause either widespread or total destruction, but an ignominious, Dr. Strangelove-esque contretemps would be a most verisimilar consummation of such linguistic nomenclature.

[Kazilla]

¿Que?

[hotdog]

Why does that device look like the thing in the Zone of Enders: The fist of Mars thing? Oh god a crazy effeminette guy is going to shoot at it and it will cause a huge explosion! ZoE:TFOM was a prophecy in game form!

Just kidding but it does look suspiciously similar.