World To End Wednesday

[MA-Caver]

Time to practice our putting heads between legs and kissing bit.

World to end Wednesday

http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/07/world-to-end-wednesday by Nilay Patel, posted Sep 7th 2008 at 8:56PM

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Well, not really -- the actual experiments that could result in potentially disastrous "micro black holes" won't happen for another month (and probably won't end anything except the lives of a few protons), but as rumored, CERN's flipping the switch on the four billion dollar Large Hadron Collider this Wednesday to test the superconducting magnets that control the proton beams. After a clockwise test, they'll send protons counter-clockwise, and after that -- smashy time. Of course, there are still paranoid lawsuits pending to shut all this down, and we wouldn't mind another rap video or two, but after two decades of work, it's probably time to boot this thing up, death threats or no. Let's make it a good last month of humanity, people.

• Read

CERN fires up new atom smasher to near Big Bang By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS – 1 day ago
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jj8FEmbV51mefR7brcbExIAOOtTQD931VSPO1 GENEVA (AP) — It has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe — or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday.
Whatever the case, the most powerful atom-smasher ever built comes online Wednesday, eagerly anticipated by scientists worldwide who have awaited this moment for two decades.
The multibillion-dollar Large Hadron Collider will explore the tiniest particles and come ever closer to re-enacting the big bang, the theory that a colossal explosion created the universe.
The machine at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, promises scientists a closer look at the makeup of matter, filling in gaps in knowledge or possibly reshaping theories.
The first beams of protons will be fired around the 17-mile tunnel to test the controlling strength of the world's largest superconducting magnets. It will still be about a month before beams traveling in opposite directions are brought together in collisions that some skeptics fear could create micro "black holes" and endanger the planet.
The project has attracted researchers of 80 nationalities, some 1,200 of them from the United States, which contributed $531 million of the project's price tag of nearly $4 billion.

Is it really necessary to spend this much on something like this? How many people could've been fed with 4 Billion bucks half a billion of it came from the U.S. no less. Is this our tax dollars at work?
If this will somehow help the world come together, end wars and create a cooperative humanity then fine I reckon 4 billion is a small price to pay. But honestly...

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

This is very, very interesting and I read all about it a month ago and then again today. This is a new direction and evolution of our physic's knowledge.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Many years ago I was discussing the whole Big Bang theory with some people and I said I have often wondered about there being some people researching the big Bag theory millions of years ago and when they figured it out and...

BANG!!!!

the whole thing started all over again :uhyeah:

 

[theletch1]

When the nuclear bomb was in production there were grave concerns that the reaction that would result from detonation would be one in which ALL oxygen on the planet would be ignited. Didn't happen. I'm not too concerned with black holes being created by CERN. It's a potentiality, not a probability. Besides, we already have more than enough ways to make the planet go bye bye with out this one.

 

[Sukerkin]

In governmental terms, half a billion dollars is very small beer. Well worth the cost for what this mighty gizmo may help us figure out.

This is the path that leads us to matter-energy-matter conversion a la Star Trek and is an underpinning for the TOE that science is searching for.

The fruits of pure science are many, varied and often unexpected and a great many of the devices that we depend upon in the modern world came from it.

In the long run it is very cheap compared to the rewards we get from it and technology/knowledge stagnates when it is not done.

 

[CoryKS]

But just think of all the people who won't be hungry on Thursday if this thing produces an earth-shattering kaboom. Problem solved, and at a mere $4 billion!

 

[theletch1]

Many years ago I was discussing the whole Big Bang theory with some people and I said I have often wondered about there being some people researching the big Bag theory millions of years ago and when they figured it out and...

BANG!!!!

the whole thing started all over again :uhyeah:

There are those that interpret the Ramayana as being a story of ancient nuclear holocaust which resulted in returning man back to a stone age. That would fit your take on the CERN reactor. It's an interesting train of thought but one that would most assuredly derail this thread. Hmmm, a new thread, perhaps?

 

[CoryKS]

Many years ago I was discussing the whole Big Bang theory with some people and I said I have often wondered about there being some people researching the big Bag theory millions of years ago and when they figured it out and...

BANG!!!!

the whole thing started all over again :uhyeah:

Roland Deschain approves.

 

[Xue Sheng]

But just think of all the people who won't be hungry on Thursday if this thing produces an earth-shattering kaboom. Problem solved, and at a mere $4 billion!

Can't be an earth-shattering Kaboom... that would be the Aludium Q-36 explosive space modulator...wait a minute...PLEASE tell me those bastards were not crazy enough to make an Aludium Q-36 explosive space modulator.....

 

[Empty Hands]

Time to practice our putting heads between legs and kissing bit.

Nah. Micro-black holes would evaporate in a matter of microseconds, and could never consume enough matter to overcome that and grow in time. There is a reason that micro-black holes are only theoretical - they won't last long, and have never been observed.

Is it really necessary to spend this much on something like this? How many people could've been fed with 4 Billion bucks half a billion of it came from the U.S. no less.

You tell me which is a better buy: pushing the frontiers of knowledge for 4 billion, or spending 700 billion on a military that matches the entire rest of the world put together. Or over a trillion on transfer payments. Hell, just paying the interest on our debt is several hundred billion.

 

[Big Don]

World To End Wednesday

Oh well

 

[CoryKS]

World To End Wednesday; Women, Minorities Hardest Hit

/NYTimes

 

[Archangel M]

Time to party like its...well...Tuesday.

 

[Imua Kuntao]

You tell me which is a better buy: pushing the frontiers of knowledge for 4 billion, or spending 700 billion on a military that matches the entire rest of the world put together. Or over a trillion on transfer payments. Hell, just paying the interest on our debt is several hundred billion.[/quote]


I think this is going to be used as a weapon. Dont we have enuff _holes in the world.

 

[elder999]

I think this is going to be used as a weapon. Dont we have enuff _holes in the world.

No time soon-if ever.There's hardly even any weapons potential that hasn't already been explored. The micro-mini black hole like effects are a theoretical, uncontrollable side effect: they'll go where they want to go, for the short time that they exist, if they're produced at all...they've also likely to have been produced in the past by other devices, with no known harmful effects like these dire predictions of doom....fear not the mini-pacmen of death, for they'll just eat a proton or two and blink out.....

Some of you are probably familiar with my "explain it so mom the shrink can understand" model. If mom asked me about this, the short, smart-*** answer would be "It can't happen, Mom, because the blessed Saint Stephen Hawking says so....."

To which she'd reply (probably after playfully slapping me) "Well, what does he say, smarty pants?"

The explanation lies in something commonly called Hawking Radiation, more properly as Bakenstein-Hawking Radiation (but, hey, he&#8217;s St. Stephen for a reason&#8230 which is radiation theoretically emitted by black holes due to quantum effects.basically, at the event horizon of a black hole, energy is emitted in the form of particles from particle pairing-one is absorbed, and one is emitted. If it&#8217;s real, well, such small black holes-whether man-made or natural can&#8217;t last long because their Hawking Radiation will (in theory) exceed what mass they&#8217;re capable of absorbing, and they&#8217;ll evaporate-for lack of a better word- in a burst of particles-rapidly. In theory, this is the eventual fate of even the largest of black holes, which is why some astonomers are looking for effects from large, primordial black holes in the form of emitted Hawking radiation from <carlsganvoicemode"on>billions and billions of years ago<carlsaganvoicemode"off"> :lol:

Of course, Hawking Radiation is &#8220;only a theory.&#8221; If it doesn&#8217;t exist, though, and they remain stable, the micro black holes produced by the LHC will simply fall through the earth, at speeds approaching the speed of light (99% + or - 0.99% of C)-and not do a damn thing to the earth except gobble up a particle or two along the way.


Some colliders and accelerators, btw, have probably already produced black hole like micro effects, which is really a more accurate (but far less convenient) nomenclature....

 

[Ninjamom]

.....I'm not too concerned with black holes being created by CERN. It's a potentiality, not a probability.

Yeah, but ya know, I think 'll hold off on paying my bills until Thursday, just in case

There is a reason that micro-black holes are only theoretical - they won't last long, and have never been observed.

That isn't true!! Haven't you ever heard of Dr. Emory Raines-Sykes, Dr. Piotr Magrajavich, Dr. Claris J. Kennely, or Dr. Sari Randjaputra? OF COURSE NOT, because they were all swallowed by black holes before they could report their findings!

 

[Xue Sheng]

Yeah, but ya know, I think 'll hold off on paying my bills until Thursday, just in case

That isn't true!! Haven't you ever heard of Dr. Emory Raines-Sykes, Dr. Piotr Magrajavich, Dr. Claris J. Kennely, or Dr. Sari Randjaputra? OF COURSE NOT, because they were all swallowed by black holes before they could report their findings!

:lol:

 

[Brother John]

In governmental terms, half a billion dollars is very small beer.

Then I wish they'd leave me alone about my few thousand in income taxes!


Your Bro.
John

 

[Empty Hands]

In theory, this is the eventual fate of even the largest of black holes...

Sure, it just takes thousands of universe lifetimes to accomplish.

 

[Big Don]

the mini-pacmen of death

Next Friday at 8 on SCI FI