Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Experiment have seen collisions!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • Ross Mason,

    Maybe it is (was) Shrodingers Cake:

    Not eaten? Eaten?

    If it fell of the table would it land icing side up?

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

  • James Butler,

    ...and I presume you mean QCD?

    BANG on Duckie. Quark Quark!

    <facepalm> I just re-read your post... shall we say it gained a new spin I hadn't noticed previously?

    Auckland • Since Jan 2009 • 856 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Maybe it is (was) Shrodingers Cake:

    Not eaten? Eaten?

    Well, clearly, you don't know until you open the cake tin.

    But would the tin feel heavy?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    From the CERN Document Server:

    Fashion, Novelty and Optimality: An application from Physics
    Author(s) Galam, S ; Vignes, A
    Imprint 19 Oct 2004. - 24 p.
    Subject category: Condensed Matter

    Abstract

    We apply a physical based model to describe the clothes fashion market. Every time a new outlet appears on the market, it can invade the market under certain specific conditions. Hence, the "old'' outlet can be completely dominated and disappears. Each creator competes for a finite population of agents. Fashion phenomena are shown to result from a collective phenomenon produced by local individual imitation effects. We assume that, in each step of the imitation process, agents only interact with a subset rather than with the whole set of agents. People are actually more likely to influence (and be influenced by) their close ''neighbours''. Accordingly we discuss which strategy is best fitted for new producers when people are either simply organised into anonymous reference groups or when they are organised in social groups hierarchically ordered. While counterfeits are shown to reinforce the first strategy, creating social leaders can permit to avoid them.

    Far. Out.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Whoops,

    But would the tin feel heavy?

    but you just 'observed' it (by feeling for the weight) so you've changed the state.

    what state it changed to would maybe depend on how hungry you were - if you wanted cake it would be there. perhaps that's how the cornucopia of old worked?

    Physics in mythology!

    here • Since Apr 2007 • 105 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    What will the Red Cross or Amnesty International do with a whole pile of Higgs' Bosons?

    Dunno. Personally, I find all of mine very handy for holding the universe together.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Mason,

    Seriously though:

    It seems fitting that CERN, where the World Wide Web was germinated, should deliver witness to the greatest moment of its history via that same web. That in a quiet house on the far side of the globe, I was able to watch a new era in physics begin.

    I concur Russell. What value could you now put on that piece of personal "skunk work" that took place in CERN all those years ago? What use was it to be able to send a bit of ASCII to someone somewhere else for - horrors of horrors - FREE. I remember when there were a few geeks - and physicists - walking around here and putting the IP number on their business cards and that FREE question coming up frequently. The bureaucracy could not abide that folk were able to bypass the "normal" communication method of LETTER typed by the typing pool. Even worse, no record could be kept of the communication!! One might say that THAT is an issue even today where a formal letter got interpreted "normally" whereas poor of Peter Sharples gets screwed because he writ what he thought.

    But getting back to the Cost of LHCs. A mere puddle in the bucket the Internet brung to the world surely.

    We wait for the next piece of skunk to emerge that influences on such a monumental scale.

    Cheap at a hundred times the price. And note that well John Key!

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Mason,

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

  • 81stcolumn,

    But would the tin feel heavy?

    but you just 'observed' it (by feeling for the weight) so you've changed the state.

    Does the weight of expectation change the state of what is observed or the observation ?

    Nawthshaw • Since Nov 2006 • 790 posts Report Reply

  • Grace Dalley,

    Love the cake!

    And now we know that colliding silver cachous creates hundreds-and-thousands :-)

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2008 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    some of those on screen appeared to have got dressed in the dark.

    You say this like it's abad thing. I would sugest that, maybe, some did get dressed in the dark, so what. Perhaps it was more important for them to be there " looking square" rather than miss the event.
    I have often wondered why our politicians are required to wear a shirt and tie, the uniform of the Businessman, and that the "Business" of parliament must be carried out in a "Businesslike" manner when, in fact, the function of parliament is as an arbiter negotiator of public and foreign affairs, not a business, it is not there to make a profit.
    I would rather our MPs looked as if they got dressed in the dark while they engineered our future and made decisions based upon peer reviewed practices and theories rather than the besuited drones of the business elite vying to grab as much from the public purse as they can.
    Hmmm, second thoughts, I just had a vision of Gerry Brownlee in a thong...

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    as much from the public purse as they can.
    Hmmm, second thoughts, I just had a vision of Gerry Brownlee in a thong...

    Well, that has put me off any thoughts of cake!

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Helen Miller,

    not sure what's happened to Schrodinger's Cat in all this cake debate. Maybe it ate the cake and the hundreds and thousands, then got dressed in black and wasn't there at all.

    Grey Lynn • Since Nov 2006 • 15 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Litterick,

    I find the cake strange and charming.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report Reply

  • Whoops,

    Quirky?

    here • Since Apr 2007 • 105 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    Paul, I have just the recipe for you: Easter Quark Cake.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Jolisa,

    not sure what's happened to Schrodinger's Cat in all this cake debate. Maybe it ate the cake and the hundreds and thousands, then got dressed in black and wasn't there at all.

    I'm uncertain, on principle.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    I find the cake strange and charming.

    Ah, but is it Art?

    I'll just get my Bosons and leave...

    Peter Higgs,

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Lyndon Hood,

    Was it a Neil Gaiman story I read/heard recently pointing out ... if they haven't been feeding that cat, by now it will just be two different kinds of dead.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1115 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    forget about that - even if they've been feeding it it's way past 100 in kitty-years

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    You say this like it's abad thing. I would sugest that, maybe, some did get dressed in the dark, so what. Perhaps it was more important for them to be there " looking square" rather than miss the event.

    Oh, of course. I actively approve of scientists' casual dress codes. As someone who really struggles to look tidy (I was once described in Felicity Ferret as "delightfully disshevelled") I can relate.

    Also, I have an urge to make a joke around the phrase "Higg's Bosoms". But I feel that would be an adolescent thing to do.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    Seems to me that Bos'n Higgs has been on unauthorised shore leave for far too long.

    Clearly he is enjoying the charm of strange ports of call.

    A dozen lashes with the Schrödinger's cat await him when he finally returns to the good ship Hadron: up, down, top and bottom. No mercy will be shown - it certainly won't be a weak interaction.

    That should leave his head spinning.

    Oh, and why hasn't anyone youtube'd some Hawkwind yet?

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Mason,

    I was once described in Felicity Ferret

    ...name dropper.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    But then again I have a nagging doubt about those bosons, the qualities we expect of them seem a little too convenient.
    I have a gut feeling that Burkhard Heim may yet be proven to be correct.
    Now that would be very interesting.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

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