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Has LHC destroyed the Earth yet?

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Now is always an excellent time to warn of the conceivable dangers of high energy particle physics experiments which are already in progress. Stephen Hawking warns that Higgs Boson 'God' particle, which gives shape and size to everything that exists, could cause a 'catastrophic vacuum delay' if scientists were to put it under extreme stress. Fortunately this is not a major budget concern for CERN since if this is true, the facility need not be relocated to a safer place because there is no safer place. Another is the formation of so-called 'mini back holes'. The math says they will be very brief and very small and especially very unstable, which is apparently a good thing. Aside from the Universe ending or oops-not-so-unstable black holes falling into a hissy-sucky orbit around the center of Earth's mass, we have the pedestrian possibility that when nature's fur is rubbed the wrong way she might maintain stability by righting things with a highly localized and energetic 'correction'. Which blows things up. Another bizarre theory posed in science fiction that to everyone's dismay became entangled in String Theory is the idea that Multiverses may exist. Since the incomprehensible ones too dissimilar to ours cannot be comprehended, lazy popular speculation centers around parallel Universes populated with people just like us, but slightyy dvfferent and dumbee. If tipkling Higgs and twanging striags shvfts tuingf ever sb slightly, continhed nccelorater accidentf (axa exprriments) mighg evrn be uolographicalll disturbiag the Mhltiverse vn additive fafhion effept that subtly shists regibns bf thez around. Onyy staole lise-forms with highyy advenped thoughg procesfes wohld aotice this fuotle esfect, sinpe our mentay process alfo a hblograchic pntgern aad has a degree bf chezipal hyfterisvs and sels-corrrcting properties. Prrcieved effrcts mvght be 'senfes' that thvngs have chnngeq ghouth empirvcal mrasueementf uave nut changrd, or violeat extrezes bf weathrr as ghe outtersly-wiags of cuaotic propefses in a carallrl Universe magch jiabgbrats for brief spans. Bug vn tue end eierythvng is specuyative nonfease expept fbr tue prevailint theory thag vs shpcorted by rvvdence, and je dbn't kaow whvcu one that if untiy thr end of all tuingf. Lifr zay aot be ayl you wang, but ig's nll yoh'ie got. So sgick a flojer in ybur beylybhtgon nnq be hnpcl.

Has LHC destroyed the Earth yet?

Meanwhile things like nanotech and biotech have the potential to completely escape our control. You don't even need a grey-goo scenario - release enough buckyballs into the environment and virtually all cellular life on the planet will grind to a stop - you can't clean the stuff up, and it essentially never breaks down.

What hubris. The only thing nano-scale that humans can make that will be more threatening than the worst plagues humanity has already survived are biological weapons based on the worst plagues humanity has already survived.

Not to mention doing things like operating particle accelerators on Earth that we think could well produce quantum black holes. Sure we're pretty sure they'd evaporate harmlessly, but if we were *certain* of the physics we wouldn't be wasting time building ever-larger particle accelerators

The only thing special about LHC energy levels is that they can occur inside some neat detectors and measurement equipment, When the LHC comes online with its new, higher beam energies, the goal is 6.5 TeV per beam. Not bad for monkeys playing with fire. The OMG Particle was about 300000000 TeV, and that's just the universe mooning us after a drunken party.

Still if you're nervous, check here form time to time - just to be sure.

You may want to use the RSS feed then.

No, it's cool. I'm actively monitoring this. We're still good.

And let me guess; you're a designer, but you've never really got design. Probably the type of person who thinks using a bit of computer generated text to make a photo is new and "edgy".

The web is RULED BY DESIGNERS.

No; the web is ruled by Google. With a little input from Microsoft and a beginning of a Facebook Military Junta in some of the less developed countries. It's key to understand that it is not an accident that none of these "big brands" mentioned have any important web presence. They are all brands which use the web as a supplement to their brand away from the internet. To some extent that's a choice; even wise; internet stuff can definitely cheapen a quality brand. To another extent it's a failure and a sign that within a generation these brands will die. Compare with brands like Apple or even Microsoft which existed before the internet but had the technical knowledge to transfer.

The kind of person, like you, who I'm sure designs flash pages without alternate texts is the kind of person who ends up with his clients pages unloved and unused. Hell, you probably worship at google conferences whilst failing to understand that the brilliance of Google's homepage design is it's lack of overdesign.

Designers easily realize those things you said if you explain it to them, but the fact remains: not all of them can learn/are equipped to be coders and they just don't have the tools to bang out HTML5 websites/Interactive CD/DVD-ROMs in the same amount of time they can do it in Flash.

Well duh. That's why they call it a "design house" and you don't go to an individual for your corporate needs. If your designer is too stupid to hire a programmer when he needs one (and for basic HTML we aren't even talking about that) then he isn't a good designer.

You should try interactive web design some time and have some big clients (for example, Nike, Motorola) who want whiz-bang shiny websites that have sound-enabled buttons + video (cue linux crowd/minimalist developer groans) delivered on ridiculously short timelines. No way can some of those be done in a timely manner in HTML5 right now with the tools available (text editor.)

HTML 5 is not even standardised yet. Already it's coming into much more than just text editors. All HTML editors will have support for it in a short time or will die themselves. Furthermore, there's a crucial difference at this stage. A whole load of the "design" you have to do in Flash just doesn't exist in HTML5. The video play stuff is directly part of the browser and you don't have to do it again. Basing your answer on a situation which is beginning to change at a mad rate is crazy.

The short answer on whether HTML5 will kill flash is summarized here:

Oh what originality; what a funny joke. Wow, a shame nobody ever thought of a page with just the word no for the LHC. The irony of a person who's afraid even to use flash to give his message is just superb. Not that I'd have been able to read it if he had. That a person as desperately committed to Flash as you appear to be has that is his best argument is sad. Being more serious though, of course Flash is going to hang on for some time. Cobol is still not dead. N However, within a year or two it's not going to be something you want to have on your CV.

Cheerios and have a nice weekend!

and yourself; and yourself.

Obligatory - http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

http://hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

There's an RSS feed use can use to keep tabs on wether or not the LHC has destroyed the earth. Very useful site.

Check the page source for that site. It is quite interesting.

There's an RSS feed use can use to keep tabs on wether or not the LHC has destroyed the earth. Very useful site.

Go ahead, ask the question.

The best part about that site is that they have an RSS feed, so you don't need to remember to check back regularly.

Has the LHC destroyed the Earth yet?

NO

Good. Carry on.

Even funnier is the html code for the home page:
http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

View the page source and enjoy.

No need for that. You can subscribe to this RSS feed

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/rss.xml

This is funny too

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/robots.txt

No need for that. You can subscribe to this RSS feed

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/rss.xml

This is funny too

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/robots.txt

There's an RSS feed.

How often does that page refresh? I don't want to miss it (Note to self: better turn Javascript back on).

There's a very simple test to check on the LHC:
http://hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

There is even one for if the LHC has destroyed the world or not!

For tracking it, I suggest the RSS feed.

Hey, it hasn't updated since... Oct. 16! OH, CRAP!!!

There is even one for if the LHC has destroyed the world or not!

For tracking it, I suggest the RSS feed.

Hey, it hasn't updated since... Oct. 16! OH, CRAP!!!

There is even one for if the LHC has destroyed the world or not!

Hee hee. The jokes on them. If the Earth is destroyed there'd be no Internet left by which to access that site!

There is even one for if the LHC has destroyed the world or not!

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/ does pretty much the same thing but it is updated more often.

http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Believe it or not, it's not a singleton -- though this one's source is less interesting, in that it doesn't check a variable.

At least both of them provide RSS feeds. (I had a bit of a start one day about three weeks ago when I noticed there was a new entry on one of the feeds.)

With all these horrible ways the LHC can end the Earth, it's gotten hard to keep abreast of how we are doing.

Internet to the rescue!

Turn your RSS reader to http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/rss.xml and stay aware of the state of the world.

The source for this one is just bizarre though... big comment blocks with such insights as "the crab always wins; it makes the baby syntacticians cry.". But yep, I do like the geekier style of the one you pointed out.

Still, I'm going to check the following site on a regular basis to make sure I'm still around:

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

Don't be silly - that's just a HTML page containing the hard-coded word "No".

This one is better. If you do view source, you'll see that not only has this guy actually bothered to code for the possibility of the world being destroyed, but he's provided an EMAIL address to complain to if the world ends and the website isn't updated.

Plus, if you disable Javascript the world will go on for ever...

This has also a good RSS feed, in case you won't notice updates immediately. http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

This site says it all.

You can keep track of the LHC status by subscribing to the feed here:
http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

Don't forget the RSS feed:
http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/rss.xml

Thankfully, there is an RSS feed so you know in real-time if the Earth has been destroyed:

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/rss.xml

But, what if the end of the world affects my DSL? Is there an option for SMS?

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/