»
Discussion
»
The Alley
»
Be conCERNed - The End Of The World Is Nigh
| The Alley |
|
Be conCERNed - The End Of The World Is Nigh |
|
moonbeam
since 2005-12-24
Posts 2356 |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bigbang/ Do these crazy scientists have the right to gamble with the planet's very existence in an attempt to interrogate God? Is the so called search for the Higgs boson just an excuse to play with expensive fancy machinery while half the world starves? Will the unravelling of the mysteries of Dark Matter show that Mrs Eddy was more right than George Lucas or Stephen Hawking? We have about one day to decide, before we all disappear down a BLACK HOLE! Enjoy  But hurry And SHE even gets a mention here! http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=7459319a-a075-4efe-bd05-5dc5fdaa0697 |
||
| © Copyright 2008 moonbeam - All Rights Reserved | |||
|
JenniferMaxwell
since 2006-09-14
Posts 2423 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QP-SIW6iKY&feature=related |
||
|
Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
I will try not to sleep through it. |
||
|
moonbeam
since 2005-12-24
Posts 2356 |
They have the first beam half way round the 27 kilometers as of now. The collision maybe later today or tomorrow. |
||
|
Margherita Member Seraphic
since 2003-02-08
Posts 22236Eternity |
I guess I am the closest, not sure if I will live to tell! Nooooo, I do trust the scientists, it is an exciting experiment. Humanity is bound to evolve and we will eventually evolve, as soon as we stop fighting each other ... money wasted for war is the worst, money for science is well spent. Peace and don't buy into fear! Margherita  "Love is the One who masters all things; |
||
|
JenniferMaxwell
since 2006-09-14
Posts 2423 |
Now they're saying "the first collisions which will be at relatively low energy will be in a week or so they think." |
||
|
Bob K Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208 |
Dear MB & JM & folks, I'm excited. I think Moonbeam is offering a false dichotomy, between science and starvation, by the way. Cern is a European Union project, as I understand it. The American version in Texas was shut down years ago. I think shutting down the Texas supercollider was shameful too, by the way. Science has to beg crumbs from the table in the same way that social programs do, and the better we understand the world and the nature of reality, the better equipped we are to make decent decisions about it. Should you be interested in getting less sensational and more factual information about the Higgs Bosons, the Cern supercollider, the black hole business and a lot of other math science stuff put into pretty understandable English, Lisa Randall's book Warped Passages: Unravelling The Mysteries of The Universe's Hidden Dimensions is wonderful. She even provides an ongoing English/American glossary for those of us who have trouble with some of the idiomatic leaps. I would be one of those. The U.S. Edition is Harper Perennial 2006 for the paperback and 2005 Ecco for the hardbound. I'm sure there's an English edition, probably in paper by now. She actually makes you feel educated about pretty advanced math and, Friends, I can't add, even if I use my toes to help. Thrill your friends! Amaze your dinner companions. Bore your co-workers to tears! The stuff really does get interesting, especially about the nature of membranes and gravity and, yes, even Higgs Particles and the Mexican Hat. It will also calm you about being blown to bits inside the next week. If it happens, it'll probably be the result of a domestic slip-up in the mid-east or with Russia. Best to all may panic filled friends, Bob Kaven |
||
|
moonbeam
since 2005-12-24
Posts 2356 |
Awwww Bob, now you went an' spoiled it all ~sulk~ ... Heh. Is that really right JM? As long as a week! The tension, the tension! |
||
|
Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
ZZZZzzzzzzzz |
||
|
Bob K Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208 |
ZZZZzzzzzzzz, is it? THE ILLIAD BITES PLASTER DUST!, BOREDOM BOY! Respectfully yours, yr. Obdt Srvnt, Rbt. H. Kaven |
||
|
JenniferMaxwell
since 2006-09-14
Posts 2423 |
Would you believe they actually have that book in my local library. Could have knocked me over with the proverbial. According to Amazon, it's intended for a popular audience so it shouldn't be too difficult a read. Click on Amazon and you can read excerpts. It does look a little dry but for a drop out like me, it's a place to start. I already learned two new words, boson and fermion. Isn't that neat! |
||
|
moonbeam
since 2005-12-24
Posts 2356 |
Yes Bob I was being somewhat tongue in cheek with my provocative and contentious opening comments. Some people might think however that £2.6 billion could have been more compassionately spent on something rather lower tech like small scale hydro electric schemes to provide parts of Africa with water and power. Personally I am excited too. Perhaps not for the same reasons as you are. I don't have a comprehensive grasp of quantum physics or particle theory, but one thing seems to emerge from what I have read and that is simply that the more scientists "know" the more they suspect they don't know. Stephen Hawking has bet the grand sum of $100 that the so called Higgs Bosun will not be found, and that as a result current theories will have to be re-evaluated. I am pretty sure he will be proved right. What excites me is that physicists are now starting to get down to the levels where the particle sizes are of an order smallness, and their "appearances" in our space time of an unpredictability, that starts to throw some doubt upon their very "existence"- at least as we normally think of the concept of "existence", i.e. in material terms. What I'm hoping is that, as a result of the work at CERN, physics starts to move into a realm which questions the nature of materiality itself. Ess is asleep and the rest of America is apparently unaware of these momentous events. Is it that anything that isn't US funded or US based doesn't exist? A whole new take on reality! |
||
|
JenniferMaxwell
since 2006-09-14
Posts 2423 |
Well, MB, here in the States we're pretty busy right now debating lipstick on pigs vs lipstick on pit bulls. It's fascinating subject, so glad you brought it up. |
||
|
moonbeam
since 2005-12-24
Posts 2356 |
Well JM I don't count you as parochial American. You take an interest in EVERYTHING. A true citizen of the Universe. Er, which universe though? I wonder. |
||
|
Bob K Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208 |
Dear Moonbeam, I must be a worse writer than I thought. I certainly don't re=write enough in these forums, I wish we had contributed to Cern; I think it's an admirable project doing interesting work. Feeding the bodies of the world ought not compete with feeding the minds of the world... The actual competition as I understand it is between the necessity of the two and the wish to overstuff the bloated egos of the world. I say this in a moment of idealism, because I know the idea breaks down somewhat in practice . But I see no way, frankly, on the most personal basis, by which I mean looking at myself, to shut down either my sympathy for my fellows or my curiosity about the world. The best I can do is manage these elements within myself, which I suppose leads to the notion of mastery. So, despite my change of subject, of course the fact the U.S. doesn't fund it has nothing to do with its reality. The U.S. didn't pay its U.N. dues for many years and the U.N. still toddled on, didn't it? Didn't I say that I though we ought to have funded our own super collider? Didn't I say it was a false dichotomy? Unnecessary wars should have been cut from the budget and a bit a extra foreign aid and science aid for projects should have been put in. I have grown a bit skeptical about giant hydroelectric projects, however. I would want to know that there was a very good reason for building such a thing and putting a massive and possibly crippling debt on an African country which may destroy its potential economic base servicing the debt over the next several generations. There is history for this sort of thing. The Africans tend to feel this is a sort of neocolonialism. They seem to be able to make better use at this point of micro loans of $100.00 or less to set up very small businesses which they can build from the ground up. Though perhaps my information is now obsolete. Sincerely, Bob Kaven |
||
|
Grinch Member Elite
since 2005-12-31
Posts 2929Whoville |
I feel fine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXZGefbrlyY&feature=related or I feel vines http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gYSwveEwD0&feature=related |
||
|
|
⇧ top of page ⇧ |
|
| All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format. | ||
