BellGab.com Archive

I've always double spaced after periods.  That's how I was taught in high school typing class.  I always thought people who didn't had never been formally taught to type.  I read recently it is incorrect and a relic of the typewriter age.  In fact I read that double spacing after periods is a sure sign you're over 40 and out of touch. 

I've been looking through some publications, and sure enough everything is single spaced after a period, exclamation point, or question mark: articles on major news sites like the New York Times, BBC, and CBC; government and university sites; scientific publications, and published books.

Where do you fall on the whole spacing after a period issue?

Since the World is going to end tomorrow when an asteroid hits the Large Hadron Collider and sprays quantum black holes all over the place, disrupting the false vacuum and starting a cascade effect that will erase all matter in the Universe at the speed of light, I thought I would post this fact sheet. 

I have actually had a difficult time finding out what was supposed to happen on September 23rd, exactly, so here it is from the CERN press office.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

CERN answers your queries about 23 September 2015

Is the Large Hadron Collider dangerous?

No. Although powerful for an accelerator, the energy reached in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is modest by nature’s standards.  Cosmic rays â€" particles produced by events in outer space â€" collide with particles in the Earth’s atmosphere at much greater energies than those of the LHC. These cosmic rays have been bombarding the Earth’s atmosphere as well as other astronomical bodies since these bodies were formed, with no harmful consequences. These planets and stars have stayed intact despite these higher energy collisions over billions of years.

Read more about the safety of the LHC here

Is CERN planning anything for the end of September 2015?

CERN has no special events planned for the end of September. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be running at its usual collision energy of 13 teraelectronvolts (TeV).

The LHC has been running at this collision energy since 3 June 2015 and had already delivered some 28,000 billion collisions to the large experiments by mid-August. Throughout the rest of 2015, CERN aims to gradually increase the number of collisions, while remaining at the same energy. Read more about gradually increasing the intensity of the proton beams here.

Why is the Higgs boson referred to as the God particle?

The Higgs boson is the linchpin of the Standard Model of particle physics but experimental physicists weren’t able to observe it until the arrival of the LHC, nearly 50 years after the particle was first postulated. Leon Lederman coined the term ‘the God particle’ in his popular 1993 book ‘The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question?’ written with Dick Teresi. In their book, Lederman and Teresi claim the nickname originated because the publisher wouldn’t allow them to call it ‘the Goddamn Particle’ â€" a name that reflected the difficulty in observing the elusive boson. The name caught on through the media attention it attracted but is disliked by both clerics and scientists.

Is CERN's aim to prove that God does not exist?

No. People from all over the world work together harmoniously at CERN, representing all regions, religions and cultures. CERN exists to understand the mystery of nature for the benefit of humankind. Scientists at CERN use the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter â€" the fundamental particles. Particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. This process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature.

Why does CERN have a statue of Shiva?

The Shiva statue was a gift from India to celebrate its association with CERN, which started in the 1960’s and remains strong today. In the Hindu religion, Lord Shiva practiced Nataraj dance which symbolises Shakti, or life force. This deity was chosen by the Indian government because of a metaphor that was drawn between the cosmic dance of the Nataraj and the modern study of the ‘cosmic dance’ of subatomic particles. India is one of CERN’s observer states, along with the USA, Russia and Japan. CERN is a multicultural organisation that welcomes scientists from more than 100 countries and 680 institutions. The Shiva statue is only one of the many statues and art pieces at CERN.

What are the shapes in the CERN logo?

The shapes in CERN’s current logo represent particle accelerators. The logo in this form dates back to 1968, when a decision was made to change the CERN logo from the original one, seen here. Some 114 new designs were proposed, many of which used CERN’s experiments as inspiration. The final design used the original lettering, surrounded by a schematic of a synchrotron, beam lines and particle tracks. Today’s logo is a simplified version of this.

Will CERN open a door to another dimension?

CERN will not open a door to another dimension. However, if the experiments conducted at the LHC demonstrate the existence of certain particles it could help physicists to test various theories about nature and our Universe, such as the presence of extra dimensions. There is more information here.

What did Stephen Hawking say about Higgs potential destroying the Universe?

Hawking was not discussing the work being done at the LHC.

The LHC observes nature at a fundamental level but does not influence it. Measurements of the Higgs boson have allowed us to learn more about the intrinsic nature of the Universe, and it is this that Hawking was discussing. The measured properties of the boson suggest that the Universe is in a quasi-stable equilibrium, though with a lifetime far exceeding anything we can imagine (10^100 years). This is explained further in the TEDxCERN talk below:

http://tedxcern.web.cern.ch/video/2013/what-higgs-might-mean-fate-universe

Why does CERN appear in Google Maps when I type certain keywords?

Many of these associations have no grounding in fact, and are a possible result of several users renaming locations on their own maps, keyword searches, or from lots of users creating custom maps, which utilise those search terms.

Can the LHC have an influence on weather patterns and natural phenomena?

No. The magnets at CERN have an electromagnetic field, which is contained with the magnets themselves and therefore cannot influence the Earth’s magnetic field, nor the weather. The strength of the LHC magnets (8.36 teslas) is comparable to the magnetic field found in PET-MRI scanners (link is external) (up to 9.4 tesla (link is external)), which are regularly used for brain scans.

Will CERN generate a black hole?

The LHC will not generate black holes in the cosmological sense. However, some theories suggest that the formation of tiny 'quantum' black holes may be possible. The observation of such an event would be thrilling in terms of our understanding of the Universe; and would be perfectly safe. More information is available here.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://press.web.cern.ch/backgrounders/cern-answers-your-queries-about-23-september-2015

Ruh roh.

Since Art has proclaimed JC unofficially lost to us, I thought we needed some sort of virtual memorial.

RIP JC.  Thanks for the memories.

In memoriam of all those sacrificed on D-Day, 71 years ago today, who paved the way for all that we enjoy.

How long until Noory's crack reporting team lets us know this was caused by HAARP, or happened because we were within 15 days of a full moon?

I suppose the Niburu folks will be milking this for the next 20 years.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31519875

Is there a way to get a list of formatting tags that will work on the forum?

James Bond is bringing back Bond's cold war nemesis SPECTRE and the Austin Martin.  I thought they put the final nail in that coffin with For Your Eyes Only in 1981.  I know it's a reboot with Daniel Craig, but is this a harbinger of a new Cold War... everything coming back around again?  Maybe with the Sony hack and stolen script they'll rewrite it and we'll be saved from another fifty years of imminent nuclear Armageddon.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/spectre-filming-continues-despite-james-bond-script-leak-in-sony-hack-1.2874710

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/aston-martin-db10-from-007-spectre-wont-be-sold/

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Everyone knows Chuck Norris facts such as:

There's never been a street named Chuck Norris because nobody crosses Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris doesn't dial the wrong number.  You pick up the wrong phone.

When the boogeyman goes to sleep at night, he checks under his bed for Chuck Norris.


I'm just wondering... what are some George Noory facts?  I'll start.

Air flows out of a vacuum into George Noory.

QuoteCaptain of Doomed Korean Ferry Sentenced to 36 Years in Prison

GWANGJU, South Korea â€" The captain of the South Korean ferry that sank last April, killing 304 people, most of them high school students on a field trip, was sentenced on Tuesday to 36 years in prison for deserting his ship and its passengers in a fatal crisis.

...the judge rejected the murder charge against Mr. Lee and the death penalty that prosecutors had sought.

What are the chances someone in Canada or the US would get such a sentence in a similar situation?  Especially when it was the ferry operators who ignored safety regulations, building extra cabins that made the ferry top heavy and allowing it to carry three times its weight capacity.

Shouldn't more Western countries have harsher sentences so that prison will function as a better deterrent?

Whether a one shot wonder or a future regular host, she deserves her own thread.

I'm starting this thread because I still listen to C2C in the hopes of hearing something thought provoking or useful, or learning something new.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can remember the last time I heard a guest who actually had legitimate credentials in his field or made statements that could be corroborated.

I think I can be a much more productive member of society by sleeping instead of staying up listening to Coast, so I am putting up this thread to see if anyone can prove me wrong.

I'm looking for posts based on the nightly C2C line up.  I'm searching for guests who have recognized credentials in the field they discuss on air, and make statements which can be corroborated by a reliable source.  How many times have we heard an astronomy guest was a physicist with a Ph.D, when it turned out he had a bachelors of Art in physics and creative writing with a Ph.D. in the history of journalism from some unaccredited institution?

I'll be surprised if this thread gets two posts a month.

I hope I don't offend Bellgab's female readers with this post, but does Noory get a lot of women?

Your first answer will be no, definitely not, but hear me out.

Noory's favourite interviews on the air seem to center around some sort of loosely defined spirituality of the afterlife, as well as alternative health.  In my experience, these are subjects which frequently resonate with women, particularly vulnerable women who are having difficulty defining their place in the world.  Throw in George's false sense of authority, his minor celebrity status, and the perception that he's a nice guy, and I bet he could sucker in his share of the more insecure mature women.  In fact, I'm starting to think a lot of the paranormal frauds do what they do to entice women with their 'new age' sensibilities.   They don't care if they have no credibility with people like us or the world at large.  George doesn't always seem appropriate around women but I find that's not necessarily a negative.

Maybe that is why George always seems so detached from his interviews.  He's tired from his long day of getting busy.  With all his personal anecdotes he doesn't tell us much about his life off air.  I used to have a classmate at university.  He was pudgy and unattractive.  He wasn't very smart and was one of the worst students.  He was constantly falling asleep in class.  But I found out why.  For whatever reason he had a very active sex life with multiple women so he had no energy left for school.

I can't keep a straight face thinking about George being successful with women.  He's probably more of a 'take it slow,' awkward with women kind of guy anyway.  I just thought I'd put it out there.

Art tweeted on July 21st:

Art Bell ‏@ArtBell51 21 Jul
Closer and closer. I may announce here or on Facebook. I am
bound right now to not say more.

Since there are indications he looks at this forum, where would you prefer he makes his announcement?

edit:  someone else added in CoastGab.  That wasn't me.

I'm just doing my bit to find a more suitable nickname for the Nighthawk.  I couldn't think of one that really nailed his personality but I'm hopeful someone can suggest a good one.