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Revived LHC Could Run Through the Winter

Jack Spine writes "When you are powering nuclear particle beams that could drill a hole through 30 metres of copper, you don't want to be paying a premium for electricity. However, Cern scientists are determined that the delayed experiment will get some workable results, and so are preparing to run the machine throughout the winter."

7 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I don't mean to nitpick... by repapetilto · · Score: 5, Informative

    He didn't just try to nitpick. He actually did it. Get it straight truncated e.

  2. Re:LHC Could Run Through the Winter ... by perryizgr8 · · Score: 3, Informative

    we call it a JOKE around here!

    --
    Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
  3. competition with Fermilab by bcrowell · · Score: 5, Informative

    This may have to do with the fact that Fermilab could find the Higgs particle very soon, and then the LHC would have been scooped on its single most important reason for existing.

  4. British capitalization of acronyms by Jim+Efaw · · Score: 5, Informative

    This has been discussed previously on Slashdot. British writing often uses only initial-caps for pronounceable acronyms. The BBC is especially aggressive about this, resulting in things like "Nasa", which looks like a foreign name at first glance from an American eye. Why the BBC differentiates "BAFTA" from "NASA" in their style guide is a mystery to me; however, in recent BBC articles, it appears that the BBC is writing "Bafta" in actual practice.

    BBC House Style and Writing Guidelines, September 2007 (in PDF or raw HTML):

    "Usually, if an acronym is pronounced as a word, use an initial capital only. If it is pronounced as individual letters, use all capitals:

    • Aids Nato Acas Unicef
    • BBC CD GCSE PC
    • CD-Rom (pronounced partly as letters, partly as a word)

    But follow the preference of organisations with their own names and brands: DfES BAFTA MORI RADA

    1. Re:British capitalization of acronyms by DirePickle · · Score: 3, Informative

      If we're really picking nits here, strictly a "pronounceable acronym" is redundant. Abbreviations like BBC, CD, and FBI are initialisms, if you want a special word for them. I'm surprised that the BBC isn't anal about that usage also.

  5. We announced this over 6 months ago by Werthless5 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Is it a slow news day or what?

  6. I nitpick your nitpick by Attila+the+Bun · · Score: 4, Informative

    Cern should be CERN, as it stands for "Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire"

    Actually it doesn't. The Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire was a provisional body created in 1952, and no longer exists. In 1954 the European Laboratory for Particle Physics was founded, and the C.E.R.N. was dissolved. The laboratory is named CERN, and although it is conventionally capitalised, it is not an acronym.