Bird bread halts LHC testing

I got this note from cnet.com
November 7, 2009 11:59 AM PST
Bird drops baguette, halts Collider
by Chris Matyszczyk

I am all for discovering the Meaning of Life. And though I was once concerned that you could never trust scientists enough to find it, many wise people persuaded me that we should still try.

However, I am concerned with the news reported by the Guardian that a hungry bird has halted testing on the Large Hadron Collider.

The Collider, positioned on the increasingly sensitive border between France and Switzerland, has been quiet for more than a year after electrical faults and helium leaks.

It is now being tested to prepare it for action and reaction. However, a de-beaked piece of bread that dropped into the machine appears to have caused a power outage.

CERN spokesperson Christine Sutton told the Guardian: "The problem related to the high voltage supply. We get mains voltage from the grid, and there was an interruption in the power supply, just like you might have a power cut at home. The person who went to investigate discovered bread and a bird eating the bread."

I know there will be some who might suggest that the bird was actually French, as the bread has been identified as being of baguette form.

However, shouldn't we be more concerned with the metaphysics of physics?

A Millenium of Art and Architecture

A thousand years of art, a thousand years of architecture, was destroyed in about 15 years in the middle of the 16th century. About two thirds of the history of art, in the world we call English, was destroyed deliberately.

Anniversary of July 20, 1969

On this anniversary date, it may be forgotten soon, that while we were recalling past triumphs, the ISS was dealing with 13 people and a broken toilet, whilst circling our achievements.

They used to call chickens beedys

There is some place in England where during the medieval period, the word for chicken was beedy. They called the flower we know as pansies, "beedys eyes. "

Roadshow appraisers

It's not that the young do not grasp aging

It is also that the old do not think the young will age, either.

Unnamed Hero

The New York Times mentioned another vignette regarding Flight 1549 on January 15, 2009. The plane which crash landed into the Hudson with an impact so harsh that both engine were ripped off the plane, was evacuated in such an orderly atmosphere that one lady was trying to get her luggage out of the overhead bins. Fortunately one of the other passengers picked her up and threw her into a life raft.