So We Didn't Go BOOM *Yet*, But We Still Might...?
Anyone who's read Dan Brown's incredible novels (specifically Angels & Demons) knows that CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research--one of the largest and most respected scientific research centers in the world--has been doing some pretty screwy experiments lately.
Ditto goes for anyone who's been watching the news lately and picked up on the whole End of the World Doomsday warnings regarding CERN's activation of a the Hadron Collider (or, as I like to call it, the Hard-on Collider *smirk*) September 10th.
Now I know I'm a little behind in pronouncing it a success, but that's because I wanted to wait a month and see if I was about to eat my words. (Literally!) So far, so good! No fiery end to the world as we know it or sudden, gruesome mass extinction of humanity... *Checkswatch* Sweet!
Looks like we trumped God again! Woohoo!
Or did we...?
As it turns out, there was an "incident" on September 19th that resulted in a large helium leak in sector 3-4 of the LHC tunnel. The most likely cause? A faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator’s magnets.
Hold up, let me get this straight...
You're telling me CERN built a machine that had the potential to rip apart the very fabric of our space-time continuum (What? I'm a big Star Trek fan, aight? Klingons rule, Romulans drool! Betta' recognize! Humph!) and they didn't DOUBLE, TRIPLE and even friggin' OCTUPLE check every last circuit B-E-F-O-R-E they flicked the ON switch?!?! OMGWTF?!?!
Good news is CERN shut down the Collider:
Before a full understanding of the incident can be established, however, the sector has to be brought to room temperature and the magnets involved opened up for inspection. This will take three to four weeks. Full details of this investigation will be made available once it is complete.
Here's a bit more detail from Guardian.co.uk:
The day the planet will finally discover whether the machine built to recreate the big bang will uncover the secrets of the universe or bring about the end of the world has been put off for two months.
The £5bn Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile tunnel under the Swiss-French border built to smash protons together at velocities just below the speed of light, began operating amid great fanfare earlier this month.
However, only 36 hours into the project, the Cern (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) machine was found to have a fault and shut down.
Today a spokesman for Cern, James Gillies, said that the damage is worse than previously believed and will halt operations for two months.
Oh yeeeaaahhh! Just in time for New Years, baby!! And me without my sparkly party hat and silly string! *facepalm*
So there you have it, folks! We've successfully averted causing our own destruction... for two more months! YES! Boy, I feel relieved! How about you?
xoxo
Miss ♥ Mia
P.S. Feel free to check the status of our complete and utter destruction at any time! *wink* Whew! Now I feel better! :-)
