More On The International Linear Collider

paragon_au writes "The UK Independent is reporting that details for a purposed 40km long international Linear Collider have been released by 'An international panel of particle physicists [that] decided the high-energy linear collider - a £3bn machine for smashing matter against antimatter - will use revolutionary superconducting technology to shed light on the origin and nature of the universe. Plans for the International Linear Collider have still to be finalised but scientists hope that construction of the underground machine will begin in six years.'"

Ultimate Question...

[Anonymous Coward]

shed light on the origin and nature of the universe.

That's fine and dandy, but we already know the answer to life, the universe, and everything. What I want to know is, what's the question. Can this thing help?? ;)

We already have one of these in Canada

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called the Trans-Canada Highway.

(It's an immature joke so I'm posting it AC.)

finally!

[sosuke]

a toy that i can finally put to good use, smashing things never gets old!

Re:Chances of Life

[onyxruby]

Yeah, because you never know what kind of conspiracy theory can take root in a super collider run by an international team of scientists. I'm sure there is some way to make a conspiracy theory out of this. After all, we all know how electrons routinely bow down to US interests.

Damn intolerant fool, your anti-americanism is getting the better of you.

I can hear the planning

[iamdrscience]

I can hear the scientists planning this now...

"Okay, we'll make this like, really huge collider and we'll smash matter and anti-matter together really fast, like SSSSKRKKRAASSSH. Oh man, this will be so awesome."

Must resist Futurama quote....

[Anonymous Coward]

"Super collider? I just met her!"

[The audience laughs.]

And then they built the super collider.

Thank you, you've been a great audience....

What I see coming out of this project

[r.future]

I see scientists getting skate boards, or roller blades on and hurting them selfs as they have jousting tournaments in the thing. On the up side, I bet they will come up with some really bad ass new kinds of armor as a result of this project... maybe even some cool really fast skate boards.

Re:Chances of Life

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure there is some way to make a conspiracy theory out of this.
I am sure you are alluding to the well known fact that this is all part of the plan to give Dick Cheney Spidey-Powers and send him back to before the time of the dinosaurs so that he can influence the size of the US oil reserves.

Half-Life

[miscellaneous_havoc]

This sounds strangely like the plot-line from Half-Life... Do I smell a prequel?

Location.

[LiquidCoooled]

I think they should build it....

oh, I don't know, maybe 40 or so km from SCO's headquarters? ;)

Re:Oops?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, the collider can supposedly relicence GPL software as BSD.

Hello, this is CERN...

[TeknoHog]

and we pronounce linacs as 'linacs'.

Re:FEL anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

A free electron laser? I can already see the infomercial:

"Buy one linear collider for 3 billion pounds and get one electron laser for FREE!"

Sturgeon's Law

[reptar64]

From the article:

"Last year, physicists accurately measured for the first time how the universe is composed. They found that only 4 per cent of it was made up of visible atoms, with the rest being mysterious dark matter and dark energy - neither of which entities can be seen."

SF author Ted Sturgeon once noted that "90% of everything is crap" (he actually said "crud", but "crap" sounds better). So, according to the article, they refined the estimate to 96%. How many more digits of precision will $5B get us?