Universal Thinker

Why should this come as any shock? Our Government is no better with their spending habits. We have been deficit spending since the late 80s. Why should individuals be any different? The slight difference is that individuals don’t own printing presses (and if they do, they don’t own them legally).

People get used to a particular standard of living. With rising gas prices(which are related to a falling dollar internationally)and inflation, the gaps in consumer spending are widening, and people are using credit as a bridge to maintain their standard of living.

But for how long? Once credit card companies realize that all of this incurred debt will most likely never be paid back, the availability of easy credit - will disappear. At that point, living within your means will be the only viable option and we’d better hope there will be no emergencies.

Who will bail out over-extended consumers? Do they even deserve a bailout? What about responsible credit users?

The Big Bang

Scientists have long theorized that the initial event that created our universe was a massively Big Bang where all potential Energy that existed in the universe was changed into a combination of Energy and Mass.

The Large Hadron Collider is an attempt to recreate the very first Big Bang, when time began. It has been in development since the initial budget of 2.6 Billion Swiss Francs was approved in 1995. Due to cost overruns in the initial planning the final big ticket cost of this technology will be 5 to 10 billion US dollars. Is it worth it?

Wouldn’t it be incredible if the GUT (Grand Unified Theory) were realized within our lifetimes? Maybe 5 to 10 billion US Dollars are worth having a clearer understanding of what happened at the beginning of time.

Scientists are looking for the Higgs Boson particle also known as the God particle. The technical definition is listed below:

The Higgs boson particle is one quantum component of the theoretical Higgs Field. In empty space, the Higgs field has a mathematical value that is always greater than zero. This is also known as a “non-zero vacuum expectation value”, and illustrates the concept that there is no such thing as a completely “empty” vacuum. The existence of this non-zero vacuum expectation plays a fundamental role: it gives mass to every elementary particle, including the Higgs boson itself. In particular, the acquisition of a non-zero vacuum expectation value spontaneously breaks electroweak gauge symmetry, which scientists often refer to as the Higgs mechanism. This is the simplest mechanism capable of giving mass to the gauge bosonsgauge theories. In essence, this field is analogous to a pool of molasses, that “sticks” to the otherwise massless fundamental particles which travel through the field converting into different particles with mass and form the basis of the atom.

This in essence is what gives particles - mass - a basic building block of material reality. The particle is theorized, but as of yet, no one has been able to find one. Take 5 to 10 billion US dollars and perhaps maybe you too can find the God particle once you build a super collider under a mountain range on the border of two European nations.

Danger ahead?

This is all theoretical physics at this point, but if you are feeling uneasy Walter L. Wagner has put together the LHCDefense.org to make sure that CERN doesn’t accidentally destroy the Earth with mini black holes among other things. David Morrison at ask an astrobiologist doesn’t believe there is anything to worry about even regarding the relativistic heavy-ion collider or RHIC back in 1999:

“..Nature has been conducting the same kind of reactions for billions of years by colliding heavy-ion cosmic rays with the Moon. This study concluded that creation of a black hole is “effectively ruled out by the persistence of the Moon.”

Perhaps no one will be opening a rift in the space-time continuum to the planet of Xen anytime soon, but it is still an interestingly possible impossibility.

–Ghostmachine