End of the World As We Know It?

Maybe. Possibly. Could happen. Tomorrow, in just a few hours really, the Large Hadron Collider gets switched on and who the hell knows what's going to happen. Basically scientists are trying to figure out particle physics by sort of recreating the Big Bang. They're going to slam together protons at incredibly high speeds in hopes of creating a Higgs bosun, you know, the God Particle no one's seen yet. They also hope to research other grand unified theories and find answers to questions like the mass of quarks, the nature of dark energy and matter, the symmetry violations of matter and antimatter, the existence of extra dimensions (gravitons, string theory), and of course, the possibility of time travel.

Now, obviously, a lot of folks are up in arms over the idea of, you know, recreating the Big Bang. I sort of get the panic. I mean, I'm not too keen on the idea of spawning accidental BLACK HOLES. But, hey, Stephen Hawking says it's safe so it must be, right?

Oh, and just as an aside, The Ash and I met Stephen Hawking during our freshman year of college. Except, and this is the embarrassing bit, we were so busy chatting about fajitas and guacamole that we just sort of blithely passed him by. The Ash held the door for him as his motorized chair wheeled past, and I gave him a polite smile that he returned. We took a few steps and then both stopped dead in our tracks.

The Ash: Holy shit, dude! Was that Stephen Hawking?
Me: Yeah. Yeah it was.
The Ash: Ohmigod.

Yeah. Not one of my great moments, lol.

Anywho. Enjoy your evening folks! It just may be your last...