Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle Collider (npr.org)
New reader mjnhbg1088 cites an article on NPR: A small mammal has sabotaged the world's most powerful scientific instrument. The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons together at close to the speed of light, went offline overnight. Engineers investigating the mishap found the charred remains of a furry creature near a gnawed-through power cable. "We had electrical problems, and we are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal," says Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for CERN, the organization that runs the $7 billion particle collider in Switzerland. Although they had not conducted a thorough analysis of the remains, Marsollier says they believe the creature was "a weasel, probably." The shutdown comes as the LHC was preparing to collect new data on the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle it discovered in 2012. The Higgs is believed to endow other particles with mass, and it is considered to be a cornerstone of the modern theory of particle physics. CERN says the creature may have been a marten.
There are bugs, and then there are weasels.
They are called weasels for a weason.
Table-ized A.I.
...Goes the weasel.
IR Baboon is not happy with estupid weasel.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Enough with these weasel words! I want to know why it shut down, really!
But a stoat is like a weasel and after seeing this video, I can totally believe it. . .
These animals may pose a bigger threat to humanity than ISIS. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
It's not a weasel, it's a marten! POW! http://www.cbsnews.com/news/qu...
I just want to know how charred something has to be for it to be "probably" a weasel.
I thought he was campaigning in Indiana.
It was probably the opposite of this. (Yes, its safe for work)
...the LHC was about to destroy the universe and the surviving timeline involved a weasel chewing through a power cable this time.
Too many times I've seen what happens when squirrels get fried on the power lines near my house. To say they "explode" is an understatement. Mostly is just a big bloody meat mess on my garage door and driveway.
You must gather your party before venturing forth.
Somewhat ironic since Nibbler the Ferret helped get it running to begin with: http://www.best-top10-list.com... Ferrets have a pretty good history for helping out this way in scientific institutions, going back at least to 1971 in Fermilab: http://boingboing.net/2013/06/...
Does everyone remember when a bird with a baguette disabled the LHC?
Back then, there was a theory that the LHC could destroy the universe. There is another theory that says any parallel universe that could destroy itself or cause a paradox, is not a possible universe. Therefore, no matter what we do we could never build a universe destroying or paradox generating machine. So much like in H.G. Wells "The Time Machine" something would always happen to prevent the LHC from coming online. I dismissed it as crackpot until the whole bird with baguette thing happened. I'm told the LHC went online, but there is a part of me that just thinks it is all a hoax and we will forever be plagued with storms, earthquake, weasels, or baguettes at the very last moment before startup, until we give up trying to start the dang thing.
CERN says the creature may have been a marten.
Upon further research, CERN now says the creature was in fact delicious with a dash of Siriacha on it.
done ...added Weasel to my jira instance. Can't decide if it should be considered user error.
Damned martens keep eating my car, too! A couple of months back, one ate the rubber pipe of the break assist and the battery cables. Cost about 200 euros. They are a real problem in middle Europe...
Back in the 1990s a whole bunch of weasels went up against Superconducting Super Collider. The SSC died, and was reduced a mere hole in the ground in the southern suburbs of Dallas, TX. Never underestimate the power of these congress critters.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
It was a 66KV sub-transmission supply. If you touch one, you will have possibly been a person. And that is assuming the protection works fast. We had a protection system fail, miles of power line had to be rebuilt and the damage to the area was so great no one knows the cause of the original fault.