Comments on: Not With a Bang But a Whimper (In the Press)

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:09:30 +0000

isn't the warning supposed to sound BEFORE the explosion occurrs?

It was, but do to the gravity of the humor, it was a bit time-dilated in it's arrival.

By: Bithead

Bithead — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:05:59 +0000

Yes, but trying to keep track of your bosons and baryons is a bit like trying to put all your fermions in one quantum state. (Warning, nerd humor).

isn't the warning supposed to sound BEFORE the explosion occurrs?

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:15:36 +0000

those scientists that investigated the possibility of EOTW convinced themselves that while possible, the probability of an EOTW outcome was something like .0000067.

It reminds me of the urban legend that our early nuclear scientists thought that the first atom bomb would ignite the atmosphere. It's true that the possibility was brought up, but again it was proven to be an unsubstantiated concern _before_ the test. But even still, some people still believe that they didn't know it was safe (well, as safe as a radioactive kiloton bomb can be).

Uh, isn't that the Higgs Boson?

Yes, but trying to keep track of your bosons and baryons is a bit like trying to put all your fermions in one quantum state. (Warning, nerd humor).

By: sam

sam — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:05:35 +0000

Pedant alert:

Uh, isn't that the Higgs Boson?

By: mannning

mannning — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:47:34 +0000

Since turning the LHC on and conducting experiments on black holes and the Higgs Baryon is virtually unstoppable now, a campaign to publicize the event to a mass audience as a possible EOTW action would have only one point: to scare the public.

Meanwhile, thousands of scientists around the world are waiting with great anticipation to hear the results of these experiments. The contribution to physics if they are successful with the LHC experiments is enormous, and those scientists that investigated the possibility of EOTW convinced themselves that while possible, the probability of an EOTW outcome was something like .0000067. Finite, yes, but hardly alarming.

Let us bet on the success of the experiments. Might as well...

By: sam

sam — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:57:55 +0000

I believe the experiment was really conducted last week -- Thursday, I think.

This simulation will terminate in 1024 seconds.

End msg.

By: DL

DL — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:38:15 +0000

Doess this mean I can risk not filing my quarterly income taxes?

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:26:09 +0000

Well, the good news is that this thing might resolve the Fermi paradox. The bad news is that if it does, nobody will survive who knows the answer.

Thus the paradox will live on in other pre-Hadron Collider civilizations.

By: Chris Lawrence

Chris Lawrence — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:05:30 +0000

Well, the good news is that this thing might resolve the Fermi paradox. The bad news is that if it does, nobody will survive who knows the answer.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:43:02 +0000

I'd chalk it up more to the press having absolutely no idea how any of it works, or even being able to jumple enough physics terminology together to produce a readable article.

By: c. wagener

c. wagener — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:19:13 +0000

A few years back Lawrence Livermore reduced the temperature of a vessel closer to absolute zero than is thought to exist anywhere due to background radiation. When you create something in physics that doesn't exist you really don't know what will happen or it wouldn't be an experiment.

Then again Spielberg and Lucas recently created the highest budget to quality ratio of any movie in history with Indiana Jones and no one died (as far as I know).

By: charles austin

charles austin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:17:10 +0000

That giant sucking sound won't be jobs going to Mexico as Ross Perot thought, but all the matter on earth falling into a black hole.

If there were a way to exploit it to further transnationalism or a progressive agenda, I think they would probably write about it. Alas, there's way too much math for them to take this on.

By: Bithead

Bithead — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:01:19 +0000

Apparently, spreading the global warming myth was enough of a lesson of the consequences of being dead wrong on predictions of world-wide calamity.