Loading ...Large Hadron Collider (LHC) To Be Turned On September 10th – Half Life Effect Imminent?
Just learned about this on No Agenda, the Adam Curry/John Dvorak podcast presented by Mevio, and I have to say that while I doubt anything will happen other than what is expected, I can still throw the Half Life scenario out there.
For those not in the know, and that included me up until a few minutes ago, here is more detailed information about what the LHC is…
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 m underground. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionise our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe.
Two beams of subatomic particles called ‘hadrons’ – either protons or lead ions – will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy with every lap. Physicists will use the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy. Teams of physicists from around the world will analyse the particles created in the collisions using special detectors in a number of experiments dedicated to the LHC.
There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions, but what’s for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator, as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe. For decades, the Standard Model of particle physics has served physicists well as a means of understanding the fundamental laws of Nature, but it does not tell the whole story. Only experimental data using the higher energies reached by the LHC can push knowledge forward, challenging those who seek confirmation of established knowledge, and those who dare to dream beyond the paradigm.
You heard it folks, if Science Fiction proves accurate, we will have a good 2 days to play around with Spore before the dimensional fabric is torn and we are enslaved by the other worlds. Darn you guys in the UK getting Spore before us, it’s a plot I tells ya. A plot against FUN! :D BTW, this was satire… OR WAS IT?!?
UPDATE: I just contacted Leto to see if he would be willing to infiltrate the LHC to be our own Gordon Freeman, be apparently he is passed out drunk and can’t be bothered with world saving at this time. *sigh* I knew I should have spent my money on a fall-out shelter rather than TGM, but did I listen to my inner-paranoia? NOOOOOOOOOOO
2 Comments to “Large Hadron Collider (LHC) To Be Turned On September 10th – Half Life Effect Imminent?”
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Warhammer 40k Screens Released
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Looking at this, just this image below, I’m all of a sudden rather interested in what this MMO might have to offer. With the lack of success of the recent Warhammer MMO, I’m skeptical, but it may bring some nice new feature to the industry. Enjoy the shinies….
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Most Impressive: Dead Space Extraction for Wii
Most Impressive: Dead Space Extraction for Wii
Never before have I played a Wii game where I simply *forgot* that I was playing it on the Wii. Dead Space Extraction, the prequel to the hit 360 game, Dead Space, did just that. From beginning to end, Extraction takes the look and feel of the original and makes the amazing transition to the underpowered Nintendo console in such a way that it loses nothing and gains so much more.
Upon entering the game proper you are reintroduced to the surface of Aegis VII, the planet from the original game where the so-called “Marker” was discovered. This reintroduction is more than how it sounds, however, as the location you find yourself is the same spot where the ending events of the 360 title take place. I was taken back by the amazing eye for detail the developers had. Everything looked like it did in the original game. Some of the models may not as been as crisp or the textures not as high resolution, but the overall appearance was so very much accurate to Dead Space that, only minutes into the game, any thoughts of this being on a different system vanished from my mind.Extraction’s gameplay is set apart from the original in a number of respects. Dead Space was a third person shooter where the main character, Isaac Clarke, was nearly always in view and rarely talked except to say “ouch” if you were playing badly. Extraction is a First-Person “On-Rails” shooter where you play the role of a number of different characters through the course of the storyline. On-Rails shooters, much like House of the Dead Overkill, seem to be right at home on the Wii. With the advent of HDTVs and the mass exodus from CRT televisions, light-gun games have nearly become of thing of the past due to technological limitations. The Wii, however, facilitates this genre of game perfectly due to the combination of the Wiimote’s built in IR-camera and the Sensor bar.
The best parts of Dead Space make their return. Each weapon has an alternate fire mode, activated by tilting the Wiimote 90 degrees, aka “Gangsta Style”. Some of these alternate modes have been changed to better serve the new interface, such as the Pulse Rifles Alt-Fire, and new weapons have been added as well, such as the Arc Welder and Rivet Gun. Equipment Upgrades also made the transition as pick-up items and not requiring the use of the Bench like in the original.
Going into the game, I knew that I would revisit locations from Dead Space, such as the “Planet Cracker” ship the Ishimura, though I did not realize that I would actually be setting the scene for when you return to the ship as Isaac. From deactivating the filtration systems, blocking off access to sectors of the ship all the way to the shut down of the ADS (Automatic Defense Systems), forcing Isaac to play thru the worst part of Dead Space, in my opinion.
One of the nice additions to Extraction is the “Hacking” mini-game. Rather than take a cue from Bioshock’s Pipe-Dreams style of hacking, we are instead presented with an altered version of the Metroid Prime “Welding” mechanic, that being Connect-The-Dots (la la la la). Early hacks are quite easy. Further into the game, however, hacks become much more difficult, requiring both steady and timed connections as to not touch or get caught between “bad segments” of the circuit that glow red and losing health. To increase the difficulty more, some hacks take place in the middle of gun fights, with the shooting happening to the left and the hacking on the right. During these specific hacks, the actual gunfight does not end until the hack is complete, so there will be an endless spawning of monsters until you finish the job. In a single player game, this can prove to be quite the challenge from a multitasking perspective. In a Co-Op game, however, this becomes very much like an “Aliens” moment, where one player fights off the baddies while his partner works on the hack.
The character development was very well handled. You play the game through the eyes of four different characters throughout the course of the game, yet there is enough down-time to flesh out each one. The first character you play as was perhaps the least developed overall since you only get to experience his story for the first chapter before SPOILERS happen, however, the way SPOILERS happen was a very nice plot point that brought a smile to my face and set the mood for the game as a whole. For the remaining three characters, two of them are with you from Chapter 2 until the final chapter, and the third character adds that much needed amount of “Survival Horror” and “playing as a non-soldier/badass” feel that was lacking in even the original game. Also, much like the first characters story, HER story and eventual SPOILERS was quite poetic, if not complete BS. The fun BS, not the “I hate this game” BS.
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Well this looks interesting!
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Warhammer 40k Screens Released
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The safety opposition argues that CERN is minimizing the danger and misrepresenting the facts.
Several papers recent papers all conclude that Hawking Radiation is fundamentally flawed conjecture, micro black holes will not evaporate!
A common argument is that cosmic rays prove safety, they do not. If cosmic rays create stable neutral micro black holes, all will travel through Earth.
If micro black holes are created by head-on collisions in particle colliders some percentage will travel too slowly to escape Earth’s gravity.
The safety opposition includes senior Physics PHD Dr. Rainer Plaga who refutes CERNs conclusions of safety.
The opposition includes visiting professor of Physics Dr. Otto Rossler who is famous for inventing Chaos Theory’s Rossler attractor and founder of Endophysics. Dr Rossler theorizes that Hawking Radiation is not possible, micro black holes would grow exponentially over decades or centuries and CERN’s cosmic ray arguments are flawed including failure to account for super fluidity of neutron stars.
Former cosmic ray researcher, California math champion and Nuclear Safety Officer Walter L. Wagner discovered flaws with CERN’s safety arguments and prompted CERN to write a new safety report.
The opposition argues that the Large Hadron Collider may be safe, it may be disastrous. Like launching shuttles in freezing weather, we should not launch until the safety or danger can be accurately calculated. Currently it can not.
Got LHCFacts.org?
I got the HEV suit on, I have my crowbar…. holy hell this is one mother of a hangover….. saving the world may have to wait until mid-afternoon. I wonder if Gordon had to deal with hangovers…..?