Physicists Allay Fears of the End of the World

Spiegel ONLINE ^ | 8-06-08 | Charles Hawley

[444Flyer]

The video looks a bit like a scene from a low-budget sci-fi horror film. A tiny hole slowly begins sucking in bits of the Earth in Switzerland with mountains, lakes and cities quickly falling into the growing gap. And it just keeps on growing--and growing. By the end of the 38 second movie, the entire planet has been swallowed up -- and all that's left is a shimmering ring in the inky blackness of outer space.

Absurd, perhaps. But a brief look around Internet blogs, and especially YouTube, makes it clear that there are a number of people out there who believe it is a very real possibility. The gigantic particle accelerator just now being completed outside Geneva at the European Organization for Nuclear Research--known as CERN--is set to be switched on soon. And some are concerned that, once the research facility begins bashing subatomic particles together at 99.999991 percent of the speed of light, dangerous black holes could be created and spread out of control.

[444Flyer]

Here is an apparent training video of what to do in the occurence of a black hole. First off, nobody panic..secondly, find some really bad actors and make a B Flick.

The Black Hole (1979)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb1r0mobgsM

[Grizzled Bear]

Wht f t mks r vwls dsspr?

[Cacique]

btt

[Kirkwood]

Good. I won’t need to paint the hallway after all.

[Billthedrill]

It began as a singularity, a tiny spot of darkness that seemed to pulse as it expanded, swallowing everything that was light, killing as it ate, absorbing, growing, sucking the very life out of the world around it, the screams of the living mingled with the groans of the dying as buildings, trees, the hills and the rivers and the ocean itself was crushed into a vortex of spinning madness, spiralling into the depths of nothingness from which there is no escape.

But enough about the Mariners season. What was this thread about again?

[Gordon Greene]

Dang, you had me skeered... sounded like you were talking about Nancy Pelosi.

[djf]

They already almost blew the thing to hell and gone.

I’ve read reviews, but don’t ask me to find them now, of a few engineering-scientist types who say they basically have very little faith in the design.
Sounds like it will create a hole in the Alps way before it ever makes a black hole. A BIG hole in the Alps!

[444Flyer]

Most likely there is going to be a multi-billion dollar Geraldo moment when they turn it on.

[LibFreeOrDie]

"The hills are alive with the sound of...uh oh!

[rbg81]

Black holes really suck.
Reminds me of a 50s Sci-Fi flick titled “The Magnetic Monster”.

[djf]

Guess it’s not like some old dame lying in bed who claps her hands and CERN starts.

There are so many different parts and coils and places and secret tunnels, it takes like a month to actually start it.

Not to mention it can’t run unless it’s somewhere around the temperature of the dark side of Pluto.

[djf]

Lol!

Maybe they deserve it.
I HATE THAT MOVIE!!!!

[null and void]

A big vowel movement...

[LiteKeeper]

The moon missions provided physical evidence as to the age of the earth ... about 4,500,000,000 years old ... and still ticking.

Must have missed that one. What evidence?

[calex59]

Your keyboard went south.

[444Flyer]

“Guess it’s not like some old dame lying in bed who claps her hands and CERN starts.

There are so many different parts and coils and places and secret tunnels, it takes like a month to actually start it.

Not to mention it can’t run unless it’s somewhere around the temperature of the dark side of Pluto.”

I don’t trust any machine you can’t just kick to get started if there’s a glitch.

[Lurker]

Shine a light in a mirror and you're smashing subatomic particle waves at 2x the speed of light.

Wrong.

L

[SunkenCiv]

a sample of earlier, related articles:

Lawsuit: Huge Atom Smasher Could Destroy World
(French/Swiss Hadron Collider)
Fox News | 3-28-08 | Paul Wagenseil
Posted on 03/28/2008 11:52:07 AM PDT by springtime4hillary
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1993231/posts

Asking a Judge to Save the World (from the Large Hadron Collider)
New York Times | 3-29-08 | Dennis Overbye
Posted on 03/29/2008 10:57:09 PM PDT by atomic conspiracy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993903/posts

CERN to Morons: Large Hadron Collider Won’t Destroy Earth. Morons.
Gizmodo | 3/31/08
Posted on 04/03/2008 12:56:00 AM PDT by LibWhacker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1995923/posts

Tech giants use controversial project as test bed
(Hadron Collider threatens the earth says Suit)
MarketWatch | June 12, 2008 7:03 p.m. EDT | John Letzing, MarketWatch
Posted on 06/13/2008 12:01:07 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030707/posts

Lawsuit stirs fear of ‘strangelets’ destroying the Earth
Market Watch | June 12, 2008 | John Letzing
Posted on 07/01/2008 9:35:45 AM PDT by glymers
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039237/posts

-and-

Big Bang at the atomic lab after scientists get their maths wrong
Times Online | 4/8/07 | Jonathan Leake
Posted on 04/08/2007 8:55:49 AM PDT by LibWhacker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1814013/posts

Particle collider magnet self-destructs
AP on Yahoo | 4/3/07 | Alexander G. Higgins - ap
Posted on 04/03/2007 9:35:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1811659/posts

New particle accelerator could rule out string theory [ Large Hadron Collider ]
New Scientist | February 1, 2007 | David Shiga
Posted on 02/03/2007 1:18:18 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1778727/posts

Physicists Say Can Find No Sign of ‘God Particle’
Reuters / Yahoo | December 5, 2001
Posted on 12/06/2001 4:46:03 AM PST by Darth Reagan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/584881/posts

[SunkenCiv]

See, the String Theory list lives. Not a lot goin' on *in* string theory, but the LHC is either going to give it some rescue breathing, or nail the lid shut and bulldoze the grave shut.

[onedoug]

Thanks for the ping. They were, uh...argh! 0./?%#yuurrpp.