Large Hadron Collider damaged and we have the photos to prove it
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Dec 11th 2008 3:41AM
posted Dec 11th 2008 3:41AM
Is it possible that shoddy workmanship has once again saved the planet from an untimely demise? Not really, but this next tale should give our paranoiac readers plenty to mull over regardless. CERN has recently released pics of damage wrought when an electrical fault caused a liquid helium leak a mere nine days after the Large Hadron Collider started smashing atoms in September, wrecking interconnects between the magnets in sectors three and four. According to CNET, the doomsday machine will be out of commission until at least summer of 2009. So breathe a sigh of relief, little ones... and pray that the grey goo or the replicant hordes don't get us in the meantime. Hit the read link for all the pics.
Well, at least I know I'll continue breathing in peace until Summer 2009.
*brings out the Corona's.
Countdown to bent large hardon joke.... 3.... 2.....
@Colin Potter:
He bent my wookie!
It's Lindsay Lohan driven this?
For a moment I thought the title was we have the PHOTONS to prove it.
Dammit, who's the idiot that's responsible for this catastrophe by switching the d with the r?
There goes my chance to date little green alien midgets down the liquid helium drain
Or up the drain
Physics joke. If you don't get it, google 'superfluid'.
Freeman strikes again!
Good thing that Resonance Cascade Scenarios are very rare.
the shotgun is loaded, no zombie can harm me i'm safe
Unfortunately the same can't be said of your punctuation.
I call sabotage.
The terrorists did it...
Oh plz!! That's ridiculous! Pakistan doesn't have the know-how!! Jeez!!
By "terrorists" he meant PETA not Pakistan. He is afraid the super collider will be tested on bunnies. Now that the PETA has destroyed the collider, the bunnies are safe.
I'm a member of PETA; no not that one, the other one, People Eating Tasty Animals.
I was thinking more along the lines of religious nut jobs. But i guess PETA will do..
lol If Pakistan can build atomic bombs they would also know how to use crowbars.
Shame.
What a pity, I was hoping to fight the horde!
Danger....Danger ..... Will Robinson !!!!
Oh yeah I see what has happened there... typical noob errors.
Steve Jobs did it. Premature apocalypse was not part of his plans.
First he wanted to see the demise of his new USB combatant... I wish I remembered the name of that thingy, anyone? that thing he is giving free licensing out for?
It didn`t start smashing ANYTHING!!! Why don`t Engadget writers READ a bit before posting anything outside of the well.. gadget-area?!
in fact the only thing getting smashed in the past few months was anything coming out without the apple logo on it....
Oh ye Bitch, it's on after that bias 240Hz Sony TV report... (4/5 stars is 'not worth the money'?)
Yay! We get to live a couple more months! I bet Engadget is praying that they will put it back to use after the 3G iPhone is released, so they can spam the sites!
Exactly how is this a life or death situation?
Where have you been?
LOL wow this is funny. Not the joke itself, but the inside joke on how hes sooo clueless.
and now they are telling us..
they expected us to find it out by ourselves didn't they.
Man Chuck Norris really smashed that thing... Once again the roundhouse kick saved the world!
I thought the Hadron Collider was Chuck Norris.
Looks like the crowbar that was sent there has been put to misuse.
Good job, Gordon Freeman!
You'd think the "brightest minds on the planet" that made this machine would have predicted this. I mean, there's really very little room for error in an experiment of this magnitude.
Well you'd like to think when you employ a specialist contractor to fabricate and install such a device, they'd be competent enough to do so without error. Needless to say, I bet there is a monster of a contract behind this project, and someone somehwere, is about to get their ass destroyed for such errors.
Sue in contract or sue in tort? Ooo, choices.
Even the brightest minds on the planet are capable of making mistakes, like we all do. Unless, you've lived a perfect life which you haven't cuz you posted that comment.
@B3astofthe3ast
We're not exactly talking about a "mistake" cooking a recipe. Or a mistake choosing a VP nominee. In some "grown-up" experiments, sometimes mistakes cannot be afforded.
punk.
Cost of mistake: ~$25m
Is it going to be paid? Yes.
Can the mistake be afforded? Um... Yes.
"Even the brightest minds on the planet are capable of making mistakes, like we all do."
So the LHC is ultra-safe, unless the brightest minds on the planet have made a mistake like we all do, which is pretty probable to begin with, and given it's worked for a week or so, we already have proof that can happen.
Uhm, that doesn't make it sound *that* safe, does it?
@Samboini
Well you'd like to think when you are building a potential doomsday device, you'd check what your specialist contractor did to make sure it's done properly, and then check, and check, and check, and check again.
A thing these "brightest minds of the planet" evidently didn't do.
@Tom
I suggest you get a dictionary and look "(cannot) afford" up before posting crap.
@guiliop
I suggest you look "real life" up before posting crap.
Actually, it wasn't as simple as ordering parts from a catalogue. Lots of the things they needed here didn't exist.
Also, the cooling system uses liquid helium, which is a superfluid. That means it creeps up the container and spreads itself around. As a result, any microscopic pores or loose connections will cause the helium to leak out. It's an incredibly difficult thing to get right. One microscopic mistake and you're haemorrhaging helium.
@EricC
Well, "erriCc", in real life, I do really hope your copy & paste powers stay as far as possible from the LHC.
You DO realize that copy & paste makes a copy of something (hence COPY & paste), right? No? Guess that was a bit too much to hope for.
I'll give you this one, though, since I know you have no real defense for such asinine behavior. Carry on with picking apart my typos in lieu of any semblance of a real argument.
So your "real argument" was "look up real life"? And I'm supposed to counter-argument such and idiotic remark?
And you really didn't understand the copy & paste thing, did you? So here it is:
1. You *could have used* copy & paste, but
2. As your copy & paste skills are nil, you couldn't, and
3. You had to retype my nick thus showing your inability to type a 7-letter string correctly.
Simple enough for you?
@ giuliop and EricC
Knock it off, you two. Don't make me turn this car around.
@ giuliop: Rest assured that you will never have to worry about simplifying anything for me, or talking over my head.