LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been in the news quite a bit recently. Probably because they just activated it and did a couple of test firings. The experiments where they do actual collisions I believe are scheduled for Oct 21. So we have some time before the supposed end of the world. I'll admit to having some concerns about a device that could theoretically destroy the planet. At the same time though I'll admit to not fully understanding the problem space and suspect that some of the disaster scenarios that have gotten play in the media are probably just far fetched hypothesis speculation (it's not like anyone has any actual facts at this point to prove anything one way or the other). Gaz has a much more thought out examination of the issue than what I can give here.

Related to the above though, I did find this link to Gordon Freeman at the LHC today hysterical (sent to me by Ken). For the uninitiated Gordon Freeman is the scientist in the Half-Life video game. Where basically a scientific experiment goes off the rails and threatens to destroy the Earth. So even if things go pear shaped, no worries because Gordon is on the scene.

And lastly, if you want to check the status of the experiment to see if the world has been destroyed yet, follow this link (for even more entertainment, check the page source code).