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LHC Shut Down Again — By Baguette-Dropping Bird
Philip K Dickhead writes "Is Douglas Adams scripting the saga of sorrows facing the LHC? These time-traveling Higgs-Boson particles certainly exhibit the sign of his absurd sense of humor! Perhaps it is the Universe itself, conspiring against the revelations intimated by the operation of CERN's Large Hadron Collider? This time, it is not falling cranes, cracked magnets, liquid helium leaks or even links to Al Qaeda, that have halted man's efforts to understand the meaning of life, the universe and everything. It now appears that the collider is hindered from an initial firing by a baguette, dropped by a passing bird: 'The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant overheating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.'"
... and why, pray tell, was such apparently critical equipment not in some sort of enclosure?
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Engage!
-Uberhund
The real Douglas Adams twist wasn't really reported. The baguette came from the Heart of Gold. Ford Prefect caused a very small dimensional hole when he threw it out the window. Luckily, we can report that the crisps were very good so the whole incident is justified.