Saturday, November 21, 2009

The day after

Ladies and gentlemen,
Dames en heren,
Bayanlar, Baylar,
Signoras e Signori,
Señoras y Señores,
Mesdames et Messieurs,

Friends,

Once again, just in case anyone's con
CERNed and fearing - or exulting - I might have been swallowed by a Black Hole.

27 comments:

  1. Not swallowed yet, but when they ramp the thing up soon you'll find you are just a little bit closer to everyone else, then closer... the earth is shrinking... Ooops... Nah. I think we'll be fine. The LHC type collisions happen all the time in the atmosphere with cosmic rays. Stay calm people, when were scientists ever wrong?... Eh... Oops again...

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  2. Andrew,
    :)
    Thus spake Poul Anderson: "I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when youlooked at it in the right way, did not become more complicated."

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  3. I think we all seem to be correct and present! Which is a relief ;-)

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  4. Oh, another good news. So you are still there, too, CherryPie :)

    Hope you are having dry feet, Mylady.

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  5. I took the discretion of staying indoors today, so yes ;-)

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  6. Bad news I'm afraid. They are just testing the beam at present. No actual collisions for quite a while yet. Enjoy what time you have left (and that's the real message, actually. We all get sucked into a black hole soon enough, 'tho I do know the religious among you expect there to be something at the other end. I don't, but if there is will I be pleased or disappointed. Hmmm. Goodnight.)

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  7. What happened? What happened? Was I in danger? Nobody warned me...Was it only on your side of the Ocean? I'm so scientifically ignorant. Presently, I'm solving this problem by reading Dr. Scott's blog. Will I be safer?

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  8. Reading between the lines I think Claudia is safe xx

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  9. If we all get sucked into a black hole together, wherever we happen to land, we'll be in interesting company...That's all that matters!

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  10. Please, bring your camera, CherryPie. xx

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  11. Now that has got me wondering about those lovely conversations we would be having in that black hole...

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  12. Now I can hardly wait for it to happen...;)

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  13. CherryPie,
    a wise decision, I suppose. At the same time, excellent weather for board games-afficionados, hm? :)

    Ha ha, Andrew,
    I know they did not get the real experiment started, yet. Emphasis on yet. Thus I thought I should take the chance for cheering up those who would still believe in the Maya calendar and thus think there are still three years to go.

    Looking forward to see the faces of those supersticious contemporaries' when we meet in the black hole; was it before of or after New Year's Eve?

    The peace of a very black night, Andrew.

    Claudia,,
    at no moment there existed any danger. As CherryPie wrote: You are safe.


    CherryPie, Claudia,
    you can't know how much I am looking forward to seeing you in the Black Hole. And what a good idea to bring you camera, Cherie. I'll bring some copies of the Ulysses, and I am sure fellow-Flannophil Jams O'Donnell Esq., the master of the Poor Mouth will contribute some Third Policemen. Who knows? Perhaps we are lucky and Sergeant Pluck arrives in time on his bicycle to take a photo of us, so that each of us will have a nice souvenir.

    PS: Ah, yes. And tomorrow Dr. Scott will tell us more about the pleasures of seeing (one another), reading and taking photographs in a Black Hole.
    Meanwhile, the peace of the night. :)

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  14. I especially love the second of your links, Sean (Has the Large Hadron Collider Destroyed the World Yet?) but see a slight flaw: if the world is destroyed, will anyone have a computer to update that particular page, or read what it says?

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  15. I am so glad that all is well Sean. I for one will write a stiff letter to CERN expressing my anger if they contrive to destroy the world

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  16. I'll surely bring my camera! Must be wonderful to see each other there.

    I wonder what it will look like. Is it something like Heaven? Something like the end of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life? Or is it something like the Underworld where we can see Eurydice picking flowers (according to Monteverdi or Gluck that is what she is doing down there) or where we can have an interesting chat with Osiris and learn from him how one can pull oneself together? By God that would be nice…

    Bertus

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  17. Not much time for chit chat or photos as we meet up and get sucked in folks. Here is a physicist's description of what it would be like: "As I fall inwards I will see strange optical distortions around me from all the bending of light that goes on (one last chance for a cool picture there CherryPie), then there there will be enormous tidal forces which will squash me in one dimension and stretch me in another until I look like a piece of spaghetti, dead spaghetti." So I think Jams is right. A stiff letter will be required.

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  18. This is starting to sound really scary. Never mind the photos, CherryPie. Please, grab my hand. I don't want to face that tidal wave on my own. I'm already wobbly on my legs...

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  19. D.E.,
    good question. As my knowledge re this specific conundrum is ... is ... well, let me call it suboptimal, I shall forward it to my dear friend Tetrapilotomos, as soon as I get a chance. As you know he's busy with proofreading the 1669 pages of his opus "Pre-Assyrian Philately in a Nutshell", and thus does not even find the 15 minutes which according to his own word he does need to accomplish a PW, i.e. a portable wormhole.

    Jams,
    a very stiff letter, please. Perhaps it would be not unhelpful to mention our close relationship with Sgt. Pluck.
    That might help making these scientific bicycles think thrice.
    By the way, did you recently hear anything about the whereabouts of de Selby?

    Bertus,
    confess: behind the question marks you hide that you know more than we do. Quite? What phantastic prospects! Ah, Eurydice. I think nothing and no one could prevent me from experiencing this aventure, and if Chris de Burgh does not wish me to pay the ferryman.

    Andrew,
    No! Really?! Spooky. Mrs J. would sometimes remark: "One day you will end up as a Spaghetti, Sean."
    Well, although I'd prefer Bertus to be right: Rather ending as a spaghetti than like Max and Moritz.

    Claudia,
    no reason to worry, at all. Just walk five times down and upstairs and you will see: Your legs stop wobbling. :)

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  20. Andrew

    one last chance for a cool picture there CherryPie

    No pressure there then ;-)

    Claudia

    Never mind the photos, CherryPie. Please, grab my hand.

    My hand will be there well in advance of me thinking of my camera xx

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  21. Cherie: "No pressure"? I neglected to mention the pressure will be a few billion times atmospheric pressure, but, the good news? Nobody will survive to look at your photo anyway. There is always some good news. For me? I'll be as slim as I was at 21 again, yipeee! (for an instant, on the way to being a ten mile long string of spaghetti); but remember to look, because I'll be looking pretty damn good :-) Oh, unless those bloomin optical distortions spoil it all. Still, at least we won't have to worry about the pension crisis, eh? Fantastic. Thanks CERN, you have cured all ills

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  22. Ahh! now that is good news for me too, I have been struggling with my diet for sooo long ;-)

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  23. I don't know why but I find this scenario more rejoicing than the one offered by the WarmingClimateChange Doomsayers.

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  24. Chris de Burgh, hmmmmmm.... that really sounds like hell.

    And yes, i do know more about it. I was informed about it in some death temples in Luxor last september.

    Bertus

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  25. Bertus - Yes! I would love to know all you know...At least, on this subject. You sound so mysterious.:)

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