Current “End of the World” Stats

What most folks know about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is no more than what they have learned from watching news programs on TV. For example, “The LHC, a giant atom smasher located at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, is believed to be so powerful it will create a black hole here on Earth and thus bring about the destruction of our planet”.
 
That is inaccurate on so many levels I do not even know where to begin… therefore I won’t.
 
The LHC is in the news today though… after a couple of bad starts over the last few years it is up and running. The first line of the press release from CERN today…
 
Geneva, 30 March 2010. Beams collided at 7 TeV in the LHC at 13:06 CEST, marking the start of the LHC research programme.
 
Very cool indeed… record-shattering energies… but still far below the levels they will need (but will eventually attain) when they go in-search-of the Higgs boson a few years from now.

In the mean-time… here are those stats:
 
Persons killed by spontaneously
created black holes: 0

Persons yet to be killed by spontaneously
created black holes: 6,602,224,175

I’ll keep you posted.

Friday by Morning

I’ve done the calculations. If I want it to be Friday when I wake up tomorrow morning (it's Monday evening as I write this) I need to travel at .984375 times the speed of light for the next 12 hours.

It looks good on paper. And the math was relatively easy (pun intended). Now I need a really fast car and a long stretch of open highway…and some beverages heavily laden with caffeine. I need to drive all night to make Friday by morning.

Those Pesky Little Lesson Generators

It takes a while with me. Slow to learn a lesson. Call it a late New Year’s resolution. It won’t happen again. I promise myself and bask in a newfound air of confidence. Sometimes it’s work, sometimes it’s something dumb I did, and sometimes it’s just life hitting me on the back of my head with a piece of ice thrown from the cheap seats. I’ve made it a part of my simplification process… hoping to learn those valuable lessons a little quicker, hoping to be more proactive and less reactive.

Sometimes we willingly put ourselves in positions that we should avoid, and then ponder the resulting mystery. “Why did I do that?” We shake our heads. “I should have known better,” we say. A lesson learned is a lesson learned. It’s not a total waste of time and energy though… you learn something… you do know better… you gain experience. Some lessons can only be taught by experience. What makes each of us different is where “the line” falls. The line between what we can theorize and what we need to discover through empirical methods. My line falls more toward the latter. I have learned a lesson. I am content and satisfied to simply say “Now I know”.

The Ramblings of an Old Fashion, Peculiar, and Presumptuous Kitchen Table Person

I found this in someone’s blog today…

“I've not used this in ages. Facebook and Twitter have become an easier way of conveying what I want to say here and now. Is this a sign of instant gratification?”

A sign of the times I suppose; online snippets, texting, and online chatting instead of emails… and prior to that emails instead of letters. I suppose blogging will eventually go the way of journals and diaries. No one wants to write anymore.

I miss letter writing… putting pen to paper. I still have stationary tucked away in a dresser drawer.

I’m also a kitchen table person. I prefer talking face to face, perhaps over a couple of cups of hot chocolate, or two, or three. Throw in a few more chairs and few more voices. The more the merrier I say. Call me old fashion.

Some ask “Why write when you can speak over the phone?” I suppose it is easier, and I do own one, and I do use it, but the truth is, I don’t care much for phones either (a quirk of mine… I’ve always been that way when it comes to phones… call me peculiar).

And then there’s online chatting… a taxing venue where folks like me (non-multitasking persons whom prefer to live their life in a serial manner) seem to have trouble adapting. My main problem with online chatting is that I always assume I have the other person’s full attention. Call me presumptuous. Given the choice between undivided and divided attention I choose the former.

Yes… I prefer a kitchen table… or a front porch… even a quiet pub will do. Pick any of the “too many to list” places where a pleasant conversation can be enjoyed. With any luck, in my sometimes much too busy life, that’s exactly where you will find me.

Sinus Solutions, Inc.

I’ve done the research… there is no such thing as sinus removal surgery. Nope, you can’t have them ripped out. Therefore, in order to put an end to my sinus induced suffering, I've decided to have them filled in. Yep... you read that right... filled in, just like a pothole on the highway in springtime. I have opted for SRSP (Sinual-Resin Sealing Procedure), also known as The Blockhead Solution. My sinus cavities will be completely filled with a plastic resin made from 100% organic polymers. Once the resin hardens, the pressure within my head will be a blissful steady constant, and it will be impossible for my sinuses to fill with anything else. My head will be as solid as a bowling ball.

Of course there are a few draw-backs (read the next paragraph as quickly as you can… try to sound just like one of those announcers on TV… at the end of a prescription drug commercial… you know… the “fine print” part… where they tell you some people may suffer a few side-effects from the drug… like vomiting, diarrhea, chronic headaches, death, etc.)… all with a voice that speeds through the words as if it were a BMW on the Autobahn.

When I stand I will need to be held up by others because I will no longer have any sensation of balance. I will lose all ability to breathe through my nose; therefore chronic snoring will become an issue. I will lose my sense of smell (the most overrated of the senses in my opinion) and my voice will sound like that of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer in the 1960’s TV special, after his father puts mud on his nose, because he is ashamed of him, and worried he will not be able to follow in his footsteps and be one of Santa’s reindeer, when in fact it is he who is ashamed of his own shortcomings, due to his domineering parents and… sorry… I digress.

Anyways, other than that, my doctor says I will be much better off... and of course I trust everything he says. I’m looking forward to the end of my sinus problems… and it’s all thanks to the good folks at DuPont Chemical (Sinus Solutions Division).

Anyways… just kidding of course… I came down with a really bad cold late last week… makes me fell better to joke about it.