End of the world is nigh

[Tadpole]

They've done loads of explaining. It's just that the media has preferred not to listen, because it got in the way of their story.

I agree, given that I think just how exciting the actual pressing of a button (off screen) , as shown on television, was. “five four three two hahaha one…. Nothing haha yes” will not go down in histry as the most thrilling moment of live TV
The media had to hype it up. Nothing is real to the media people or worth putting on TV unless it is hyped
Take the recent floods, Of course "No one out there in TV land knows what a flood is" , that is why your media presenter just had to stand knee deep in water pointing out that he was standing knee deep in water, before us non-media types understood.

If the news rooms had just told the world, that around about lunch time on the 10/09/08 (wouldn’t it have been really great if they had scheduled the launch for 10/09/08 at 0706 and 05 seconds. ) and there would be no visible results until months later when the data was checked. Just how much news coverage do you think they would have got? Nothing, zero, zip, nada, nix nyte

Why tell the truth when it will just get in the way of a good story .

 

[Tengu]

Dissapointing, we should sue.

I love these scientist types and their fanciful announcements. They are the best nutters ever.

(But of course I generaly know enough not to be bothered)

If you hear something really way out, its not some lunatic, its almost always a venerable specialist.

(we wont mention a certain astronomer and his space god friends...)

 

[Eric_Methven]

A scientist tried to tell me the earth wasn't flat. How daft does he think I is?

Eric

 

[malcolmc]

I may be missing something here, but has anyone actually seen a black hole?

 

[Wayland]

You can't see them because light cannot escape from them.

That's why they're black....

 

[Tor helge]

I don`t see the problem in this at all.
If the world did go kaboom tomorrow there would be none around to worry and nag about it anyway.

Besides, I find it very amusing that fear mongers and most people opposing this is Christians. If the world ends this must after all be HIS plan, and they should be happy.

Tor

 

[firecrest]

I don`t see the problem in this at all.
If the world did go kaboom tomorrow there would be none around to worry and nag about it anyway.

Besides, I find it very amusing that fear mongers and most people opposing this is Christians. If the world ends this must after all be HIS plan, and they should be happy.

Tor

If HE was unahappy then he would do something about it.

Unless He had the knowledge but not the power to stop it, in which case He is not omnipotent.

Or perhaps He has the power but not the knowledge, in which case he is not Omniscient.

Or maybe He has both the power and the knowledgebut not the inclination in which case he is Not Good.

Or nothings going to happen and so He isnt bothered.

 

[demographic]

For a start off the Large Hadron Collider hasn't powered upto maximum beanage yet, they have fired some protons round in one direction to check it, fired some round in the other direction to check that but won't be smashing them together at almost the speed of light for a few weeks yet.
They have launched some protons into a collimator at almost the speed of light though.

Of course the tabloids haven't worked out that bit yet and have been chuntering on to the proles about end of the world cos it sells papers

THIS link has a pretty good video giving details about it all.

Part of the problem with telling everyone in the world about these things is that theres an awfull lot of people who just don't understand, wont even try to understand and just get the fear whenever science is moving on.

As long as you can get the funding for these massive projects its simpler to just leave them in the dark that they feel comfortable in

 

[Shewie]

670 million mph those things are belting round that track, simply awesome.


Rich

 

[squantrill]

I been studying loftys book again I'm sure there was something in there about surviving a black hole disaster. Can't remember what it was you were supposed to put in the tabbaco tin though!!

 

[John Fenna]

Abig white bathplug!

 

[woodstock]

I been studying loftys book again I'm sure there was something in there about surviving a black hole disaster. Can't remember what it was you were supposed to put in the tabbaco tin though!!

Thats the SAS for you prepared for anything apart from ration shortages in Brecon

 

[forrestdweller]

Right you asked for it ...

Velcro
Fondue
Internal combustion engine
Muesli
Meat Beef cube
Aluminium Foil
Liquid Compass
Crisps
Electric Toothbrush
Artificial Hip Joint
LCD
LSD
Absinthe

oh and great railway journeys


Rich

looking at my overprized and leaking "recta"-compass and my also-not-too- reliable "katadyn"-filter i'm not too enthusiastic about swiss products, i must admit!
and most swiss people i've met so far were quite a bit strange(maybe just the nutcases they kicked out of the country?)

when reading the posts of this thread i'm beginning to ask myself : what stuff have you guys been taking? could somebody send me a sample or the recipe, please?

 

[Celt_Ginger]

If there is a Black Hole and the world ends, who do we blame?................The Parents, the Council or the Government?

 

[Wayland]

Snip>
when reading the posts of this thread I'm beginning to ask myself : what stuff have you guys been taking? could somebody send me a sample or the recipe, please?

It's the mushrooms.....

 

[malcolmc]

My tendency to heresy is showing. If black holes have not been directly observed they remain a theoretical concept. I know the effects of what is believed to be a black hole have been seen but that could be the effect of something of which we have no inkling at the moment.

Relativity and quantum theories were both derived from observations, both have been very successful. Much of our modern life has resulted from that success. However, these theories are incompatible; at best one is incomplete, at worst they are both plain wrong. There is an axiom in science that what we discover here on Earth applies throughout the Universe, it is an assumption that supports our engineering but I do feel we need to keep in mind that this is an assumption when we are considering extreme conditions such as very large masses or conditions close to the ‘Big Bang’.

I’ll now really stir things up by saying I still have an open mind on whether or not the speed of light in a vacuum is a fundamental constant. And I’m not alone; see the Variable Speed of Light (VSL) Theory [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_speed_of_light ]. Now that really is heresy.

 

[BorderReiver]

Black holes are still at the "do they exist or don't they" stage. The observations suggest that they do.

The LHC theory is that if they are created in the machine they will immediately evaporate and if they don't evaporate they wouldn't have been formed in the first place.

Makes sense to me. At least more sense than killing yourself because of fear that you're going to die.

 

[gregorach]

We're pretty damn sure that black holes exist. There's certainly a very large mass in a very small space at the centre of our galaxy - we can tell this by observing the motions of nearby stars - and unless the theories of both General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are completely wrong, then that something must either be a "black hole", or something very. very like it. Given the previously mentioned successes of both GR and QM, it seems unlikely that they're completely wrong, even though we know they aren't exactly right. We also know from observations of gravitational lensing that something very much like a black hole must exist. And then there's the numerous high-energy phenomena associated with accretion discs...

The existence of black holes is about as certain as the existence of whoever it was broke into my flat a few years back. Nobody observed them directly either...