The people behind the LHC [Colliding Particles]

I believe that most people understand that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) located at CERN, near Switzerland,  intends on smashing two particles traveling at high speeds, and analyzing the results of those collisions.  I also believe that most people understand the magnitude of such a project, such as the size of the collider itself (27 km of material spanning three countries, dug as deep as 175 meters underground).

So what about the people running the show ? As you can imagine, designing, planning, and successfully implementing such a project requires an enourmous amount of resources, including staff, expertise, money, and time.  It would seem that many of the key players involved in this project get overshadowed by the project’s purpose and magnitude.

Luckily, a site called Colliding Particles puts a face to the LHC.  In a series of well-documented webisodes, Colliding Particles provides a very interesting insight into the minds of the poeple behind the CERN and the LHC.

It is definitely worth seeing the first episode, at the very least.  I guarantee you will never look at the LHC without thinking of all the people supporting it at every stage.

Star Trek Groaners [Star Trek]

Question: What did Worf say when small ice asteroids began hitting the Enterprise hull?
Answer: “Captain, we are being hailed.”

Question: What did the first officer answer when Picard asked “Why did you let Troi win at poker?”
Answer: “Because I Riker.”

[See more at Miss Cellenia]

Periodic Table of Video Game Characters [PToTE]

“Holy crap this took a lot longer than I thought. A couple weeks ago, there was this Periodic Table of Cartoon Characters floating around on Digg and it got me thinking about a Periodic Table of Video Game Characters, but unfortunately, the periodic table of elements doesn’t always cooperate when it comes to video game character names. If you’re stumped on any, let me know and maaaybe I’ll give you the answer.”

[via I Heart Chaos]

Ottawa Bluesfest line-up announced [Bluesfest]

Received an email message this morning announcing some of the acts coming to Ottawa for the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest to be held July 9 to 19 of this year.

I am excited about Jeff Beck, Jackson Browne, STP, Joe Cocker, and Cake.

The entire festival schedule will be announced and posted online sometime today.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ottawa Bluesfest
Date: Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 6:04 AM
Subject: 2009 Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest

The 2009 Bluesfest line-up has been announced and features great acts, such as: Jeff Beck,Jackson Browne, Sam Roberts Band, Loreena McKennitt, Matisyahu, Stone Temple Pilots, Xavier Rudd, Joe Cocker, Neko Case, Our Lady Peace, Blue Rodeo, King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, Cake, Ludacris, Drive By Truckers, LIVE, Paolo Nutini, Jennifer Warnes, Spencer Davis, Estelle, Femi Kuti, Mick Taylor, Ani DiFranco, The National, KISS, Styx, DeVotchKa, Girl Talk, Toots & the Maytals, Alan Parsons Live Project, Ornette Coleman, Iron and Wine, Los Lonely Boys, The Zombies, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and many more….

Movie Trivia: The Nightmare Before Christmas [Trivia]

“Number two on the Burton double feature – The Nightmare Before Christmas. I know; it’s neither Halloween nor Christmas, but I think this is one you can watch year-round.

Nightmare dates all the way back to 1980. Burton worked on Fox and the Hound and the Black Cauldron and then started working on his own animations such as Frankenweenie and Vincent – Nightmare was in that group of projects he worked on.

You know the voices of the characters; you just don’t know you do (or maybe you do). Jack’s speaking voice is done by Chris Sarandon, who is Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride. Sally is voiced by the legendary Catherine O’Hara, who has been in everything from SCTV to Home Alone and Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. If Dr. Finklestein sounds familiar, I bet you’re also a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation fan: he was the cigar-smoking, toupee-wearing Uncle Lewis. The Mayor of Halloween Town is voiced by Glenn Shadix, Otho from Beetlejuice, and if you listen closely, you’ll notice that Lock is voiced by Pee Wee himself – Paul Reubens.”

[via Neatorama]

Comics Galore on “Big Bang Theory” [Comics]

This week on the hit CBS show “Big Bang Theory”, we see our gang of intellectual misfits introduce Penny to their local comic book store.  In addition to the typical geek paraphernalia (such as action figures and posters), there are an abundance of comic books to pick from.

Here is an abridged list of all of the comic books that can be found in this comic book store.  Most of them are very current, with some not even released yet.  As far as I can tell, there are only two major publishers – the illustrious DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics.  Dark Horse is, IMO, one of the best forward-thinking comic publishers today.

If you spot any more, please let me know, and I will add them in a future post.

In individual comic boxes
This is Wild Dog #2 (DC)
Black Adam #2 (DC)
Superman: The Man of Steel #28 (DC)
Outsiders #16 (DC)

Found in rack at the back of the store
(from left to right, top to bottom)
Gigantic #3
End League #3
Fear Agent #4
Usagi Yojimb #118
The Scream #3
The Sword #15
Dark Ivory #4
The Scream #4
Killer of Demons #1
Youngblood #8b (Unknown publisher)
Back to Brooklyn #3
Jersey Gods #1
InJustice (Issue Unknown) (DC)
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #49 (DC)
Star Trek (Issue Unknown)

In the Graphic Novel Rack, near the front of the store:
Green Lantern Archives #5
Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns

Why you shouldn’t do drugs [Woodstock]

“Do you remember the sixties ?  I don’t think Joe [Cocker] did…”

Zombies on my lawn ?! [Zombies]

The creators of the wonderfully addictive plinko-style game Peggle is at it again, this time with the future release of a game called “Plants vs. Zombies“.  Details on the game itself is sketchy, but their web site includes a very catchy music video.

Internet Explorer 8 Issues (Already) [IE8]

With the recent release of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer version 8 comes a number of new features that have been touted as rivaling Mozilla’s Firefox package, including a privacy feature for anonymous surfing and selection-based searching.

Also included, however, are features that we certainly don’t want to see, including an “Automatic Crash Recovery”, which promises to “prevent the loss of work in the unlikely event of browser failure.”  (Like that *never* happens, right ?)

It also appears that although the world is ready for a new version of the not-so-popular-anymore web browser, it appears that many sites, especially those that use Java or Flash technology are not yet ready for the transition.

Take a look at the warning from Yahoo games, which uses both Flash and Java to power the front-end game engines:

Zombie attack in Ottawa [Zombies]

In an apparent attempt to organize themselves and take over the neighborhood, zombies have taken over a power substation in eastern Ottawa, giving local residents reason to panic and flee in terror.

See pictures below.