Good list. I don't work there but recently got the incredible luck to be invited to a VIP visit of the LHC and a few other things. My own personal comments:
1) While in the "Microcosm" museum, be sure to pay your respects to the first ever WWW server. The NeXt cube used by Tim Berner Lee is exposed there:-)
2) When you take pictures of the ATLAS experiment, you may want to have a few people in the shot, otherwise it will be hard to tell the scale of that thing. It is really huge.
3) A word of advice: get there VERY early. Last time CERN had a open-door day, it was packed, and I mean PACKED. Access to the underground tunnels (coolest thing to see) had to be closed early because of the huge lines to get in there. Since this will be the LAST chance to see them (as mentioned before, they'll be quite radio-active once the LHC is turned on) I think it's a fair bet that they'll be even more popular this time.
Anybody who has played any role-playing game can attest that religion is indeed an integral part of the gameplay, and even sometimes is a pilar of the main plot. I mean, in the Baldur's Gate series it was all about being the offspring of a god, and of the consequences of your actions as such. Same with "Planescape: torment". Granted this were not "real" religions, but the concepts are close enough and, as a player, you were, from time to time, placed into some serious conundrums when you were confronted to NPCs whose beliefs were possibly in conflict with your goals but you still needed them. The fact that mainstream religions are not really used in games is probably mostly due to the fact that these religions don't seem to like being depicted in *any* entertainment form and game developers wisely stay away from the whole issue.
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Good list. I don't work there but recently got the incredible luck to be invited to a VIP visit of the LHC and a few other things.
:-)
My own personal comments:
1) While in the "Microcosm" museum, be sure to pay your respects to the first ever WWW server. The NeXt cube used by Tim Berner Lee is exposed there
2) When you take pictures of the ATLAS experiment, you may want to have a few people in the shot, otherwise it will be hard to tell the scale of that thing. It is really huge.
3) A word of advice: get there VERY early. Last time CERN had a open-door day, it was packed, and I mean PACKED. Access to the underground tunnels (coolest thing to see) had to be closed early because of the huge lines to get in there. Since this will be the LAST chance to see them (as mentioned before, they'll be quite radio-active once the LHC is turned on) I think it's a fair bet that they'll be even more popular this time.
Anybody who has played any role-playing game can attest that religion is indeed an integral part of the gameplay, and even sometimes is a pilar of the main plot. I mean, in the Baldur's Gate series it was all about being the offspring of a god, and of the consequences of your actions as such. Same with "Planescape: torment". Granted this were not "real" religions, but the concepts are close enough and, as a player, you were, from time to time, placed into some serious conundrums when you were confronted to NPCs whose beliefs were possibly in conflict with your goals but you still needed them.
The fact that mainstream religions are not really used in games is probably mostly due to the fact that these religions don't seem to like being depicted in *any* entertainment form and game developers wisely stay away from the whole issue.