:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 11.23.2009 ::
:: 11.09.2009 ::
:: LHC nears restart after repairs ::
BBC News
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) could restart as early as this weekend after more than a year of repairs.
But officials have avoided giving an exact date for sending beams of protons around the 27km (17 mile) circular tunnel which houses the collider.
The LHC was first switched on in 2008, but had to be shut down when a faulty electrical connection caused one tonne of helium to leak into the tunnel.
The vast machine is located 100m below the French-Swiss border.
Operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), the LHC will recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang.
Two beams of protons will be fired around the tunnel. These beams will travel in opposite directions around the main "ring" at close to the speed of light.
At allotted points around the tunnel, the proton beams will cross paths, smashing into one another with enormous energy.
Scientists hope to see new particles in the debris of these collisions, revealing fundamental new insights into the nature of the cosmos.
Read more here.
A L S O
Earth Destroyed By Large Hadron Collider; Martian Questioned
Wired News
posted by me
:: 3:22:00 AM [+] ::
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:: In Germany, an ode to joy ::
Fall of Wall commemorated World leaders attend celebration in Berlin
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
BERLIN -- For once, Germans celebrated a moment from their tumultuous past without a pang of guilt.
World leaders, aging Cold War luminaries and tens of thousands of spectators packed the center of Berlin on Monday to commemorate a singularly joyful chapter in Germany's national history, the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
On a rainy night, spotlights bathed the Brandenburg Gate in a spectrum of color to mark the anniversary of the night -- Nov. 9, 1989 -- when Berliners spontaneously reunited their divided city and sealed the end of the Cold War.
"Almost everyone can remember what he or she did on that evening," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A young East German physicist at the time, Merkel had just finished her regular Thursday night trip to the sauna when a crowd swept her past a border crossing into West Berlin. "For me, it was one of the happiest moments of my life," she said.
In a symbolic procession, Merkel led a delegation of leaders from the United States, Britain, France and Russia -- the powers that divided and controlled Berlin after World War II -- through the restored Brandenburg Gate, from east to west. Joining her were French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Read more here.
A L S O
Cold War's End -- The Wall Comes Down
Huffington Post
'I'll always associate Beethoven's 7th with the fall of the Berlin wall'
Guardian UK
posted by me
:: 10:31:00 PM [+] ::
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