Pop went the weasel and down went the Large Hadron Collider
GENEVA (AP) — It's one of the physics world's most complex machines, and it has been immobilized — temporarily — by a weasel.
Spokesman Arnaud Marsollier says the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN outside of Geneva, has suspended operations because a weasel invaded a transformer that helps power the machine and set off an electrical outage on Friday.
Authorities say the incident was one of several small glitches that will delay plans to restart the $4.4 billion collider by a few days.
Marsollier says Friday that the weasel died — and little remains of it.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/science/article/Pop-went-the-weasel-and-down-went-the-Large-7383686.php
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The weasel apparently chewed into a 66KV line. It received the inevitable result: self-inflicted bar-b-que, it cooked its own goose... er, weasel.
The LHC takes so much energy that winter shut downs are routine. One suspects that it's either heat Geneva, or run the LHC. However, the reality is they do their maintenance then because electrical rates are much higher. Still, I like the heat Geneva or not story.
Regardless of whether or not this could have created a black hole, after The Incident of the Baguette, I kinda lost confidence in safety measures - I imagined the scientists being stretched into molecule-thin vermicelli, saying "Cool!" with their last breath. 
You have a good sense of humor. 
However, for those who might take the mini black hole stuff seriously, the same theory that says they MAY be created at the LHC says that they will nearly instantly evaporate.
And of course, gamma ray collisions in the upper atmosphere of the earth are many orders of magnitude more energetic than anything the LHC could ever create. So the LHC is doing nothing that nature is already doing all the time for the past several billion years.
My best to you.
Operating costs, about $1 billion per year. Cheap when compared to the space shuttle.
We should have built the Superconducting Super Collider.
NB, I agree about the sandwich proofing.
You're correct, of course... and without thinking I unwittingly may have come off as participating in a pattern which drives me, personally, fucking bonkers, namely the tendency of anyone- particularly the news media- to grousingly itemize the costs of ANY scientific endeavour, including but not limited to this stuff AND space exploration. (like: "The Billion Dollar Cassini probe did this today"
I actually think it has gotten better in recent years because I think (hope) the general public has a more pro-science bend.
And yes, I supported the SSC, I generally think any money spent on science, knowledge and exploration is well spent.
Just not too sure of the rest of DU.
No worries, my friend.
Stop this madness before it is too late, and the LHC causes a disruption in the fundamentlal quantum firmament underlying reality, modifying the basic properites of all elemental particles by a small degree and as a result instantly turning the entire human race.... into weasels.
Or occassionally, horribly misshapen, bloated chipmunks.
IT HAS STARTED ALREADY
why did you have to ruin a good thread that I started with a picture of that asshole? 
What's been seen cannot be unseen.
here, this will clear your mental-visual palate
Thank you!
