the large hadron collidor particle accelerator

[worm]

????.. we can make the world a better place by giving everyone KFC ???!!!!?!?!?!?

you see, this is why we need to undestand things a little bit betterrer

[mikeb]

????.. we can make the world a better place by giving everyone KFC ???!!!!?!?!?!?

[Kowalski]

Its broken!

[-pogo-]

But there's a difference in the university thing because people go and learn stuff and then put it to modern day practice which keeps up society. Then some people learn stuff and also expand on it.

These guys and gals are expanding on it, but it's well loadsa money. I'm meaning they seem to be like "ehhh yeah we hope to find something" and then talk about finding out how the universe came about. Just me being me, but who cares how the universe came about? Why not spend the money (and the KFC line was a joke) on things like cancer or Africa or finding a way to live in space comfortably.

[rabid]

Its broken!

[Greeny_Musicchild]

Excuse me if it's been posted already...made me laugh.

Hackers break into LHC

Edited September 21, 2008 by Greeny_Musicchild

[llcoolphil]

Its broken!

Edited September 21, 2008 by llcoolphil

[HorseboX]

Should we be trusting these people to be messing around with black holes when a technical fault can damage their equipment enough to be out of action for a couple of months?

[rabid]

It was supposed to start last November but it broke then...

[Kowalski]

The hardon has collided.

[worm]

And what about learning just for learning's sake?

[llcoolphil]

Oooo, no.

We can't have academics and intellectuals prowling around the internet speaking freely about stuff they know. There is work to be done and we need educated drones to do it.

[worm]

Sorry dont know what I was thinking about - education is about getting the best job you can. Happily my daughter has just started A level Philosophy and, from what she tells me, has a teacher who seems intent on undermining this mullarkey she's spent the last 11 years being taught.

[-pogo-]

How has my Linguistics degree enhanced anything in modern life? or your Politics?

These people learn stuff and use it in everyday practice - what engineering advancements might have been made just from building the collider? And lest we forget, the internet was invented by these boffins as a side project to what else they were doing.

In terms of loadsa money - quantify loads. Its a fraction of 1% of GDP. Its a fraction of the amount the US Reserve is proposing to spend to bail out past mistakes of the banking system - and that's just this week. How much have we spent on wars in just Iraq and Afghanistan in the past ten years? In terms of curing cancer or bringing Africa out of poverty - how do you propose to generate the energy (let alone the food) to support the extra millions upon millions of people living on the planet this will do? In terms of living in space, I reckon the work they do at CERN has more chance of bringing about solutios to these problems than anywhere else just now - how can we live somewhere if we dont understand the basic properties of what we're hoping to live in?

And what about learning just for learning's sake ? Is there no role for that anymore?

Edited September 21, 2008 by -pogo-

[worm]

Because we learn these things to mantain parts of life and work which need people who understand them. If nobody studied engeneering and got degrees it would be a catastrophe! And with this status quo we move forward ever so surely.

[-pogo-]

Why would it? It would just be a change. People go to university for an academic degree. Not to be primed for production.

[worm]

But they usualy fall into the productive line, which keeps society afloat.

[-pogo-]

So, academia first, society second. Society being founded upon philosophy and such like.

[llcoolphil]

That's what they do.

I envy her.

[-pogo-]

If nobody studied history, soociology and politics - and linguistics - it wouldn't be a catastrophe in practical terms.

[worm]

To know is to achieve, and with that achievement, we have what we have; society.

[worm]

Oh but were that true!

[-pogo-]

Na. f**k social engineering mate. It's complete arse.

[worm]

Our education has created our social structure

Edited September 21, 2008 by worm

[-pogo-]

Indeed. So why have them create our education? Wouldn't that be maintaining the status quo?