Yes, this headline appears to be true. A bird dropping a piece of bread onto outdoor machinery has been blamed for a technical fault at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) this week which saw significant overheating on parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the [...]

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It's a very weird world out there...

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

It was a bird sent from the future!

Nick

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--
Nick Theodorakis

I know little about the LHC, was there no way to build it.... well more robustly? Or would that simply be too expensive?

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Science--can't live without it, but it makes everything so much more boring.

Two meter exhaust ports--they get you every time.

Building something to counter every possible problem, however improbable, is indeed very costly. I think issues like the one in this post, where some part of a big instrument fails, is pretty common. But because it's the LHC it is, apparently, worthy of a news report.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.

Yeah, but... a piece of BREAD? Seriously?

CJSF

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Two years ago moved from my town
I was looking up past the city lights
But the city lights got in my way

See the constellation ride across the sky
No cigar, no lady on his arm
Just a guy made of dots and lines

-from "See The Constellation"
by They Might Be Giants

No idea if it's a ridiculous idea or not, power stations provide lots of opportunity for spectacular shorts. The new edition of the "CERN Courier", or whatever its name is, is due today. Maybe it'll have more on it.

ETA: CERN Courier seems to be monthly, previous issue was Nov. 2nd, CERN Bulletin appears to be weekly.

CERN page about the birdstrike.

__________________
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.

My feelings exactly. I wonder if the Supervisor/Manager-person thought he/she was being 'fooled' when given the info of the 'why' the power cut off -> "No, seriously, what really happened? Enough of the jokes now..." leading to them thinking "The boss is never gonna believe this - did you save that piece of bread so I can show the boss?!"


Murphy strikes again
Alex

Just like shootin' womp rats.

Nick

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Nick Theodorakis

You know, I could have sworn I felt a disturbance in the force back on November 5.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/11/05...n-bird-strike/

They should call that bird "Wedge."

No it should be Biggs. Biggs Bird....

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There is no problem that cannot be solved by a suitable application of high explosives - US Army Demolitions School

I just saw Hayley's comet, she waved, Said "why you always running in place? Even the man in the moon disappeared, Somewhere in the stratosphere" - Shinedown

http://worldsofothersuns.home.comcast.net/

I was thinking of a short story based on this.

************************************************** *************
NEAR MISS


My time on the manned space probe Bekuo was rather uneventful until I met the Great Race of Yith, who took my seat of consciousness from me "Spock's Brain" style. I was sent through a rift in space-time, my container and my grey matter flashing away as energy, leaving me only as a pattern--even more disembodied than before. Left back in time on Earth as a type of historian for them, I was meant to explain a great mystery.

The Yithians saw evidence of a cosmological defect left behind after the dissipation of a black hole--something they refered to simply as a "knot." This monster of the microscopic was as large as an atom (huge for such a massless defect.) A hernia in quantum foam was usually quite stable. Most never encountered anything, but this one was headed straight for early 21'st Century Earth's LHC. I somehow knew that it would find its way into the collision chamber, blowing a hole through the entire multiverse.

I raced there through subway tubes (being mistaken for one of the poltergeists there). A drunkard became startled, and sadly jumped straight on the tracks. I did not linger there for fear something might rise, also unseen to the crowd.

I tried to stop the knot but to no avail.

As both I and the knot neared LHC, I saw a bird on a fence. The bird glanced in our direction, then looked up into the sky. A farmer in a nearby field then started screaming at the bird (who just caught a bit of the man's lunch in its mouth)--almost impaling the bird with an angry pitchfork.

The bird dropped the morsel at exactly where it would do the most damage.

Some days later, the knot flew by Earth, and LHC went on to discover the Higgs and become a great boon to science.

My attempt at intercepting the knot had left me weak however, and I drifted low as a will o' the wisp to the shore, where the tides ebb and flow. I saw the same bird among the flotsam and jetsam, saying to his fellow psychopomps "he also only sinned against man...let us be kind to him as well." It was then that they helped my soul flutter and rise to one of the lesser gates of Paradise.

CERN Bulletin, Issue No. 47-48/2009 - Monday 16 November 2009

The truth about Birds and Baguettes

__________________
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.