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Europe Odd Spot - Vyoos

Today's news: woman fails to save the Earth

March 10th 2010 06:18

The Large Hadron Collider

A woman in Europe has failed to save the world after a court in Germany yesterday dismissed her claim that Earth is likely to be sucked into a black hole if scientists resume testing at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest atom smasher.

The woman, who has not been named, was convinced a resumption of scientific work at the collider, which has had a checkered and controversial history, posed a serious threat to the planet. She was so worried, she took her case to the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.

The Large Hadron Collider is a high-energy particle collider. Built in a 27-kilometre tunnel under the border between Switzerland and France, it was designed primarily to simulate the conditions prevalent during the Big Bang, and thus help scientists explain the origins of the universe.

The facility was opened, with great fanfare, in September 2008, only to break down after nine days. It stayed broken down for 14 months, opening again briefly in December last year before shutting down again, this time to get it ready for collisions at new "unfathomed" levels. It was these tests, which began last month, that the unidentified woman believed placed the world in danger of being sucked into a black hole.

It is thought she feared that scientists would find the answer to the biggest question of all — how do particles acquire mass? This is the holy grail of the scientists at work at the Large Hadron Collider. They are looking specifically for a surmised entity known as the Higgs Boson which could provide the answer. The Higgs Boson is more commonly referred to as the God Particle.

This is not to be confused with another theoretical particle called a strangelet which earlier opponents of the Large Hadron Collider said posed a great danger. If a strangelet was released, they claimed, it would turn the Earth to goo.

The German Constitutional Court, in its ruling on the latest protest against the collider, said: "The overwhelming scientific opinion is that the experiments carried out at CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) present no dangers."

They then said the woman who feared we were all destined to become dinner for a black hole was "unable to give a coherent account of how her fears would come about".
Agence France Presse

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Europe, Odd Spot, Science

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Addressing the blues

April 13th 2009 23:37

I like architects. I like wacky, you see, and architects provide some of the best wackiness around.

Take this latest example, from Klagenfurt in Austria. The house used to be pretty much what you would expect in a quiet street in an idyllic Austrian town. The architect owner, Peter Kasching, chose to change all that with a truckload of blue paint.

He painted all the inside blue too. He even painted the pot plants blue.

Kasching said he wanted to see the psychological effects of living surrounded by just one colour. He claims that the human has a different perception if natural contrasts are missing.

The neighbours say they want their pretty street back.

“It looks ridiculous and out of place and all the visitors it attracts are a real nuisance," said Heidi Manning. "You can’t park any more and there is no privacy. This used to be a quiet neighbourhood,” she seethed.

Kasching said, “It really does have an amazing impact on the senses to have everything in one colour. It changes the whole 3-D impact of a room. I know there are critics but there are also a lot of people who are very interested in my project."

He can only be referring to other architects.

thesun.co.uk, austrianews.co.uk; image: EuroPics/CEN

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Austria, Odd Spot

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Lourdes and the frog

August 29th 2008 08:15

The Pope has been in the news twice this week in less than totally favourable light.

First, if you are considering visiting Lourdes next month, don't. This shrine to the Madonna, where she appeared to a peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, 150 years ago, is crowded at the best of times. But it will be entirely unapproachable in mid-September when Pope Benedict pops in.

Which leads us to the news item: if you are a journalist travelling with the Pope to Lourdes on the papal plane, and if you purchase any of the revered Lourdes water while you are there, and if you are planning on the return journey to carry it in your hand luggage, don't.

According to a warning issued by the Vatican, do this and your precious water may be confiscated. Not by the Vatican, but by airport security people enforcing measures limiting liquids allowed in carry-on baggage which have been in effect since 2006 when a plot to bring down planes with liquid explosives was discovered.

So the Vatican "warning", which was carried by Reuters and other news agencies, was a friendly one. This may involve the Madonna, the Pope and perhaps the holiest water on the planet, they said, but it's out of our control.

And then yesterday came the news that a museum in the northern Italian town of Bolzano has refused a request by Pope Benedict to remove an exhibit.

The exhibit, pictured above, is a modern art sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger portraying a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg. Kippenberger, who died in 1997, is distinguished, having been exhibited in London's Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery, and at the Venice Biennale.

However, Franz Pahl, president of the Bolzano regional government, opposed the sculpture. Indeed, he was so outraged by it that he went on a hunger strike to demand its removal, and as a consequence ended up in hospital.

The Vatican wrote a letter in the Pope's name supporting Pahl. The museum refused to remove the exhibit, claiming it was an important work of art, a "self-portrait illustrating human angst".

The Vatican has had better weeks.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Europe, Odd Spot

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