Updates from March, 2010
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Work Safe Porn
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LHC helium leak will shut collider down for two months
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More glitches for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): The same day operators announced that a 30-ton transformer that cools part of the particle smasher had broken within hours of the LHC’s launch last week, a mishap yesterday resulted in “a large helium leak” into the collider’s tunnel.
According to a press statement, “the most likely cause of the problem was a faulty electrical connection between two magnets, which probably melted at high current leading to mechanical failure.”
Read more at Sciam
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Goldman Gets Buffett's Backing in $7.5 Billion Fundraising Plan
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. won the backing of Warren Buffett, the world’s preeminent stock-picker, as the Wall Street firm seeks to raise cash from investors whose faith in the investment-banking business model has been shaken.
For Goldman, Buffett’s endorsement came at a price. Berkshire Hathaway Inc., led by the 78-year-old billionaire, is buying $5 billion of perpetual preferred stock with a 10 percent dividend. Berkshire also gets warrants to buy $5 billion of common stock at $115 a share at any time in the next five years. The common stock closed yesterday at $125.05, providing Buffett with an instant paper profit of $437 million.
“It’s a hell of a deal for Buffett,” said Brad Hintz
Read more at Bloomberg.com
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Texas Watch: Hurricane Ike was a chance for Bush to show softer side
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WASHINGTON – One lesson the Bush administration learned the hard way after Hurricane Katrina is that when disaster strikes, the public expects a personal touch – a show of empathy, engagement and oversight.
That made President Bush’s visit to Houston and Galveston last week predictable but also a bit odd, in that Mr. Bush didn’t carve out any time to meet with evacuees, or folks who’d lost homes or businesses in Hurricane Ike. His three-hour visit included official briefings and an aerial tour of Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston.
“When you’re president of a 300 million-person country, I guess there’s a lot of things you could be doing,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who accompanied Mr. Bush to Texas.
He said the president faced a balancing act. Even without any encounters with storm victims, the senator said on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base, “it sends a loud message that he would come.”
FEMA administrator Dave Paulison said the president has a nice touch that helps people overcome shock and anger.
“He is very good in doing those things. I’ve seen him do it a lot of times – hug people, talk to them, encourage them,” said Mr. Paulison.
The consoler in chief did hold hands with Galveston’s mayor as they walked to his helicopter from her emergency operations center. That was about it for the emoting, though the trip had other goals.
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Paulson Says Several Countries May Adopt Bank Rescue Plans
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Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he’s confident several countries will take steps comparable to the $700 billion plan he proposed to buy bad mortgage-related securities to address the global financial crisis.
“We are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will,” Paulson said on ABC News‘ “This Week” program.
Paulson yesterday asked Congress for unfettered authority to buy devalued mortgage-related securities from investment firms in an effort to keep the financial system from coming to a standstill. The proposal would prevent courts from reviewing the Treasury’s actions while raising the nation’s debt ceiling.
German Finance Ministry spokesman Stefan Olbermann said members of the Group of Seven industrial nations are in “ongoing talks about the situation on financial markets worldwide.” Finance ministers from the G-7 countries meet in Washington on Oct. 10.
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Small accidents mean big trouble for supercollider
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Scientists expect startup glitches in the massive, complex machines they use to smash atoms.
But the unique qualities of the world’s largest particle collider mean that the meltdown of a small electrical connection could delay its groundbreaking research until next year, scientists said Sunday.
Because the Large Hadron Collider operates at near absolute zero — colder than outer space — the damaged area must be warmed to a temperature where humans can work. That takes about a month. Then it has to be re-chilled for another month.
As a result, the equipment may not be running again before the planned shutdown of the equipment for the winter to reduce electricity costs. That means Friday’s meltdown could end up putting off high-energy collisions of particles — the machine’s ultimate objective — until 2009.
“Hopefully we’ll come online and go quickly to full energy a few months into 2009 so in the long term, this may not end up being such a large delay in the physics program,” Seth Zenz, a graduate student from the University of California, wrote on the site of the U.S. physicists working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN.
“It’s obviously a short-term disappointment, though, and a lost opportunity,” he wrote.
CERN spokesman James Gillies said the repair operation will last until close to the usual winter shutdown time at the end of November. There has been some discussion that the new equipment could operate through the winter, but no decision has been made, he said.
The melting of the wire connecting two magnets Friday would have taken only a couple of days to repair on smaller, room-temperature accelerators that have been in use for decades, Gillies said.
Gillies said particle accelerators using superconducting equipment at Fermilab outside Chicago and at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state had similar problems starting up, but have been operating smoothly since then.
“Once they settled in they seem to be pretty stable,” Gillies said.
At the Sept. 10 launch of the collider, beams of protons from the nuclei of atoms were fired first at the speed of light in a clockwise direction though a fire-hose-sized tube in the tunnel. Then proton beams were fired in the counterclockwise tube.
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US grabs quick lead on final day of Ryder Cup
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Americans were off to a strong start on the final day of the Ryder Cup, trying to protect a two-point lead and reclaim the gold chalice from Europe for the first time since 1999.
Anthony Kim, at 23 the youngest member of the U.S. team, birdied three of the first four holes and was 2 up on Sergio Garcia through No. 6 in the first of 12 singles matches on a decisive Sunday that will decide who holds the trophy for the next two years.
Hunter Mahan bounced back from a bogey at the first and held a 2-up lead on Paul Casey through five holes. Local favorite Kenny Perry rolled in a 25-foot birdie at the third for the same 2-up lead on Henrik Stenson.
American Boo Weekley did his best to fire up an already raucous crowd at Valhalla Golf Club. After striking his opening drive in a match against Oliver Wilson, the country boy from the Florida Panhandle stuck the club between his legs and galloped down the first fairway like he was on a horse.
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Defense, not Cassel, is Patriots' biggest concern
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The Pats certianly chumped it up today against the Dolphins. I watched the game at Hollywood Billiards. That place is crazy on Sundays. SportingNews.com has the recap:
Matt Cassel didn’t play particularly well in the New England Patriots‘ shocking 38-13 home loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. He threw an interception, lost a fumble and didn’t deliver any big pass plays to Randy Moss or any other receiver.
But Cassel is not the reason New England saw its 21-game regular-season winning streak end at the hands of a Dolphins team that had lost 21 of its past 22 games. Nor is he the biggest concern going forward for the reigning AFC champs.
It seemed like Miami running back Ronnie Brownsinglehandedly beat the Patriots, with his four bruising scoring runs and one touchdown pass accounting for all five Miami touchdowns. Brown and Ricky Williams had no problems running all over the Patriots’ run defense, and Brown and Chad Pennington spread the ball around effectively against the Patriots’ pass coverage.You figured the Patriots would have trouble scoring 38 points in games without Tom Brady, but you also did not think New England’s defense would give up 38 points in any game, especially at home.
The Patriots’ conservative game plan with Cassel works only if the defense is doing its part, tackling well and coming away with key sacks and takeaways.
For the first time in a long while, a Bill Belichick defense looked dazed and confused. The Dolphins had an efficient, balanced attack, incorporating some trickery. The result was 461 total yards for Miami, with no giveaways and no sacks allowed.
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Hackers put out of action one CERN website: related news
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The Greek hackers have put out of action one of sites of the European organisation of nuclear researches (CERN) - cmsmon.cern.ch. Breaking has occurred last week in day of successful start of the accelerator the TANK (Big Adronnogo Kollaydera, LHC). Hackers have laughed over managers of a site, asserting, that “trousers” have taken off from them. Group of the Greek hackers under name GST: Greek Security Team has brought down a site cmsmon.cern.ch. Greeks have successfully laughed over the managers who are responsible for safety o a site, naming them “a small group of schoolboys”. Nevertheless, despite the menacing prevention “not to contact us”, hackers have declared, that were not going to disturb experiment. They have only placed on site CMSMON the manifesto in the Greek language. “We take off from you trousers because we do not wish to see how you run naked, trying to hide when the panic” will come, - is spoken in the message.
“Hackers have not put similar, any harm, - press-secretary CERN James Gillis has declared. - From this, that they have told, it is possible to judge, that it was demonstration of that CMS it is possible to crack. That was fast revealed”. Gillis has added, that at institute a multilevel network, and access to operating systems the TANK is protected much better, than to popular resources.
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CERN hacked before Big Bang
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NEW DELHI: When the whole world’s attention was on the much-publicised `Big Bang‘ on September 10 — particle collider tests are actually a few weeks away — a motley group of `grey hat‘ hackers from Greece managed to crack into CERN’s (The European Organisation for Nuclear Research) network.
Though the hackers did not cause much harm, nor could they fiddle with any of the sensitive information, the attempt has left the CERN administration alarmed and reviewing its security levels.
After sneaking into the system and uploading some six files on CERN’s servers, the hackers withdrew after posting a warning that suggested that even the whole world’s security was just not enough for those who could violate it!
Even as world’s top scientists were all eyes on the matrix on September 10, the Web went less guarded, it seems. Little wonder, the hackers who described themselves as Greek Security team, said those manning the LHC infrastructure were just a “bunch of school kids,” reported British newspaper The Telegraph on Friday.
It now appears that they were just a step away from breaching the systems that control one of the LHC detectors (one of the crucial, giant 12,500 ton magnets). They had targeted the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment (CMS) which is one of the four main systems at CERN that will be analysing the most crucial Big Bang tests.
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