Humodour

In terms of energy involved. Cosmic particles collide with similar energies up there on a fairly regular basis. It is the particles and densities involved here that make this entirely different, though.

This. It's not the temperature that is impressive about this (although I personally find a temperature millions of times higher than that of our sun to be intriguing), it's the state of the matter within. Isolating and observing quarks and gluons in reality is hard - usually the strong force prevents this. So what is this quark-gluon plasma? Nobody actually knows completely, which is why they're generating them at the LHC. EDIT: And everyone keep in mind that the LHC is only running on 50% beam power this year, so there are plenty more discoveries yet to come from the LHC!

The universe where the LHC caused a vacuum metastability event (or similar) no longer has sentient life. By definition the fact that we are still alive is evidence that we are in the universe where the laws of physics do not allow the LHC to destroy us. And arguably we always will be. It's almost like quantum immortality - some thought experiment extension of the Many Worlds interpretation of QM, from memory. Of course, humans still die of old age in any universe, quantum immortality can't stop entropy (assuming no Singularity-like event). Or can it...? Dun dun dun. Not that I necessary believe this interpretation of Everett's interpretation, but it's interesting that scientific experimentation (the LHC) is starting to catch up with scientific metaphysics (musings about the universe which are interesting but largely unprovable due to the energies and/or scales required)... so maybe in my lifetime we'll have some fascinating answers. Personally I disagree with pmp10 and think he or she is far too conservative in regards to humanity's capacity for scientific advancement.

I think I know this answer. It didnt melt everything because it is contained within a magnetic field, much like the prototype fusion reactor do. Not to mention that, barring something like a vacuum metastability event, two objects (e.g. lead ions) only have a finite amount of energy. So it (the sub-sub-atomic particle plasma) could probably melt something, but it wouldn't be much before it rapidly cooled down to room temperature (or in the LHC's case, near absolute zero temperature). I'm guessing the posts below Gfted's will elaborate in more detail.

I imagine the Daintree Rainforest, the Blue Mountains, and Ayre's Rock rate a mention (alongside Gorth's suggestion of the Great Barrier Reef). Although these things are more likely to be famous among ex-British colonies and Asia than anywhere else.

It occurs to me that a better name for a 'mini big bang' is simply a 'bang'. In the event you were being facetious Morgoth, it is fairly straightforward logic that discovering new physics has being able to exploit that physics as a corollary.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11...m?section=world This is good. Really, really good. We've now got rock solid proof of certain previously metaphysical theories in physics. This data is going to produce the same kinds of seismic shifts in physics that Einstein's theories of relativity did. And that's going to have positive repercussions for technology (and thus society) in general.

Consider the implications of that: if China can knock out one of its old satellites, it can also knock out one the West's new ones. And on a related note, when Australia and America say they're developing a system to destroy space junk... well, that's a valid concern, but any such system would also by definition be capable of knocking out enemy satellites. Hello Cold War 2.0

[Citation Needed]

History shows Saddam was a violent, evil man and any attempts to characterise him as otherwise are suspect.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-a...x-1225949666285 http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-austra...rveillance.html tl;dr America ignores Asia. China gets ****y and starts violating international law by claiming land & sea belonging to other countries. US allies complain to America. America rapidly and efficiently flexes its muscle in the region as a sign to China to back off. America sells more military hardware to Taiwan and South Korea. US allies announce extra defence pacts and alliances with each other. Japan (world's second largest economy) becomes openly politically angry with China on multiple fronts. Australia and the US announce joint state-of-the-art space surveillance and missile defence systems to be built in the Australian desert. US allies feel safer and happier. America gains respect for handling the situation skilfully. For now.

Indeed.

Hahahaha wtf

Why?

Proposition 19 is the most interesting election this cycle. It's also got probably the most wide-spread, long-term impact of all the elections currently taking place in America.

Wait till they hear these god-damn bats.

Different aspects of PS:T's brilliance HAVE been replicated in Obsidian's games, but I guess not all in the same game. I've heard the closest to a spiritual successor to PS:T is MotB, did you try that? EDIT: But I agree with you. My new computer just arrived so I'm now going to go play all the Obsid games that wouldn't run on my Mac Mini. I have a feeling I'm not going to be enjoying Obsid's games but find little replay value in them. Hopefully I am wrong. But, you know, things change. It would not be surprising if Obsidian never managed to rekindle its old glory. But if that's the case, some other developers will pick up the slack (and indeed they already do - Obsidian isn't the only RPG developer, and Black Isle wasn't the only good RPG developer either) That said, Fallout:NV and DS3 sound extremely promising.

This may interest you: http://gamingtheclassroom.wordpress.com/ Summary article which may be more palatable as an intro: http://itnews.com.au/News/169862,employers...vate-staff.aspx Some of the comments from Slashdot users on this topic are interesting, e.g. mention of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

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And this is exactly the situation which the existence of WikiLeaks threatens. If a government's various branches and the democratic mechanisms aren't holding a government to account correctly, why is it wrong for a civil liberties organisation to do so? If we don't hold government to account, we become like China. Wals, can we please have a conversation on the nature of the material WikiLeaks has produced, not the fact that it produced it (or at least alongside the WikiLeaks discussion)? That material - what do you think of it? Does it not enrage you? Do you not want Western governments (especially Britain and America) to be held account for crimes committed during war?

I don't care about your opinion.

I doubt it's a bot.

While I generally dislike nuclear weapons, in this instance they would be the most effective tool to secure Taiwan's freedom permanently. We need a stable, civil democracy in the region with nukes to counterbalance China's increasing aggression. India has too many of its own problems to qualify.

Canada

Yeah, because it doesn't friggin' matter if Afgani's are dying because of the leaks posted on the web. It only matters that Americans are brutal ****, and Di in particular is a Fox News Junkie, even though she hasn't seen more than six minutes of Fox News in the past five years. She isn't a European, she isn't an Australian, so she must be some kind of right-wing nutcase, despite the fact that she hasn't voted republican in a decade and is an avowed atheist. And God forbid she post an opinion on this forum, because everyone knows that as an American female she must be a dedicated right-winger, despite the fact that she has spent the past decade railing against the illegal preemptive invasion of Iraq as an illegal war based upon lies and deceit. She is Di... she is American, she is a female... therefore, she must be a brain-washed idiot. Your condescending insult of people with your stereotypes and pompous superiority complex because they aren't YOU, aren't from your so-very-perfect societies, make me glad that although I live in an imperfect country with a government I frequently disagree with, at least I don't live in a country that ignores its imperfections in order to scapegoat others to make myself feel important in a world where I know that I don't really matter. What a cruel bunch of xenophobic bullies you are. I'm actually sorry that the internet came to exist. Before that happened, I actually thought that I liked Australians and western Europeans because I didn't know what self-indulgent blame-mongering pricks they were. I have now been enlightened. Um. Unless you're a neo-con, I think you've got the wrong impression. I certainly haven't said anything bad about you in this thread? Not to mention that, touching on the final part of your post, I hardly think you can now say you think all Europeans and Australians are dislikeable pricks just because you didn't like what some guys posted on a message board. Even if I were actually a prick, I'm 1 Aussie out of 22 million - is that really enough data for you to start making assumptions about Australians?