[NonValueAdded]

I know the explosion was series, but there are a few things to chuckle about in the article:

It lifted a 20-ton magnet off its mountings, filling a tunnel with helium gas and forcing an evacuation.

Imagine a crowd of workers emerging from a tunnel with the smoke roiling out behind them, all squeaking "run away" in helium voices.

It appears Fermilab made elementary mistakes in the design of the magnets and their anchors that made them insecure once the system was operational.

The self-esteem factor was off by three orders of magnitude.

Coincidentally, Fermilab stands to gain most from delays at Cern. Its researchers also operate a rival but less powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron.

"I smell a rat, a great big Fermi rat," said the CERN director. (with apologies to George C. Scott)

Fermilab staff are pushing the Tevatron to ever-higher energies hoping that they might find the Higgs boson before the LHC switches on. An LHC researcher said: “Ironically, this delay could be all they need.”

Which Fermilab engineer gets the employee of the year award for this one?

[garyhope]

“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”

[wolfcreek]

I guess they haven’t created anti-matter yet or the place would cease to exist. (reference to Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons”)

[GeorgiaDawg32]

The machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), aims to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang,

well, based on what they want to do, I’d say they’re off to a good start on a smaller scale..

[OCCASparky]

Alright, who forgot to put new batteries in the calculator?

[RightWhale]

This would be the smoke test. Didn’t they have an old cigar-chewing railroad engineer available? You know, the kind that looks at a trestle bridge and says: that’ll hold.
-Scotty.

[Moonman62]

The mistakes led to an explosion deep in the tunnel at the Cern particle accelerator complex near Geneva in Switzerland. It lifted a 20-ton magnet off its mountings, filling a tunnel with helium gas and forcing an evacuation.

I remember how embarrassed I was when that happened during my first attempt to build a particle accelerator.

[LdSentinal]

I wonder if these scientists can pump their own gas.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

[Eastbound]

'Lessee, now. Was that pi are squared or pi are rounded?'
'Round, idiot! Cobbler are squared.'
'Righto, Ricky. Make that 3.0 even.

[Moonman62]

Coincidentally, Fermilab stands to gain most from delays at Cern. Its researchers also operate a rival but less powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron.

Fermilab staff are pushing the Tevatron to ever-higher energies hoping that they might find the Higgs boson before the LHC switches on. An LHC researcher said: “Ironically, this delay could be all they need.”

It's a conspiracy, but what are the girlie men in Europe going to do about it, have the UN send us a strongly worded letter?

[Barnacle]

“We are dumb-founded that we missed some very simple balance of forces. Not only was it missed in the engineering design but also in the four engineering reviews carried out between 1998 and 2002 before launching the construction of the magnets.”
Pier Oddone, director of Fermilab

Good grief. An explosion in Europe's accelerator, and it's traced back to us.

[RichInOC]

PROFESSOR: WHAT HAPPEN?
ASSISTANT: WE SET UP US THE BOMB.

[michigander]

Reminds me of this:
Units Blunder Sent Craft Into Martian Atmosphere: NASA

[Caipirabob]

Forgot to carry the 1...DOH!

[Old Professer]

Newton will not be denied.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

That’s why you need a competent outside test organization.

[stuartcr]

Modern days Tower of Babel...

[blam]

These are the guys we’re going to trust with a ‘micro-Black Hole’?

[pax_et_bonum]

“Oops!” Ping