[CTRL] Big Bang
-Caveat Lector- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-542379,00.html http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,60967,00.gif January 14, 2003 Italians alarmed at discovery of huge US munitions base From Richard Owen in Pisa ITALIANS, already nervous about war with Iraq, were stunned to learn yesterday that they are sitting on top of the biggest American ammunition dump outside the United States. Camp Darby, which nestles in a thousand hectares of pinewoods on the Tuscan coast between Pisa and Livorno, is a storehouse for 20,000 tonnes of artillery and aerial munitions, 8,000 tonnes of high explosive and enough equipment to arm an entire mechanised brigade of tanks and APCs, according to a report. It has emerged that the base was the main source of armaments used during the 1991 Gulf War and is expected to serve the same purpose in any new campaign. It also supplied 60 per cent of the ordnance including nearly 4,000 cluster bombs dropped on Serbia by Nato warplanes during the 1999 Kosovo campaign. The report, issued by the Global Security Foundation in the United States and published yesterday in the respected daily Corriere della Sera, will bolster anti- war sentiment in Italy. The Berlusconi Government has offered the United States use of its bases and airspace, but opposition to war with Iraq is strong both on the Left and in the Roman Catholic Church. A receptionist at the Hotel Mediterraneo, next to the base, said: We knew that its a military base, but not that it has such a huge arsenal. We are all afraid, said a woman wheeling her baby son in a pushchair through the village of Stagno, which borders the camp. The winds of war are blowing, and we feel very close to it here. The armaments are stored in 125 hangar-style buildings, which line the camp behind a seemingly endless green fence. The camp, set up in 1951, is named after General William Darby, an American special forces officer who died during the Allied liberation of Italy from Nazi occupation in 1945. It is one of several US bases on Italian soil, including the airbases at Aviano in northern Italy and Sigonella in Sicily and the naval base at Naples, headquarters of the US Sixth Fleet and of Nato Southern Command. Corriere della Sera said that Italians would be appalled to learn that two years ago underground bunkers at the base built in the 1970s and used to store munitions in controlled temperatures had begun to develop structural problems. US Army engineers had used steel plates to reinforce the bunkers, but this had only made the situation worse. Cracks had widened and chunks of cement had fallen on the stored weapons and bombs. Twelve of the bunkers had been cleared of their contents, with extreme caution, with bomb squads removing 100,000 missiles and bombs and 23 tonnes of high explosive with the help of remote-controlled robots. The report said that it was a small miracle that nothing had gone wrong. US officials emphasised that Camp Darby also had a humanitarian function, storing thousands of beds and tonnes of clothing for aid missions to the Balkans, Kurdish areas and Africa. It houses bulldozers and other heavy equipment for airlifting to areas of natural catastrophe. But the report said that if necessary an entire US armoured brigade could leave Camp Darby for Kuwait without needing a change of socks it would be equipped with everything from cannons to underwear. A:E:R Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article has to stand on its own merits. Therefore, unless I am a first-hand witness to any event described, I cannot attest to its validity. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it. The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutra A HREF=http://www.ctrl.org/;www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and
[CTRL] Big Bang machine could destroy Earth
-Caveat Lector- Ready for blastoff: a Brookhaven engineer puts finishing touches to the ion collider Big Bang machine could destroy Earth by Jonathan Leake Science Editor A NUCLEAR accelerator designed to replicate the Big Bang is under investigation by international physicists because of fears that it might cause "perturbations of the universe" that could destroy the Earth. One theory even suggests that it could create a black hole. Brookhaven National Laboratories (BNL), one of the American government's foremost research bodies, has spent eight years building its Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) on Long Island in New York state. A successful test-firing was held on Friday and the first nuclear collisions will take place in the autumn, building up to full power around the time of the millennium. Last week, however, John Marburger, Brookhaven's director, set up a committee of physicists to investigate whether the project could go disastrously wrong. It followed warnings by other physicists that there was a tiny but real risk that the machine, the most powerful of its kind in the world, had the power to create "strangelets" - a new type of matter made up of sub-atomic particles called "strange quarks". The committee is to examine the possibility that, once formed, strangelets might start an uncontrollable chain reaction that could convert anything they touched into more strange matter. The committee will also consider an alternative, although less likely, possibility that the colliding particles could achieve such a high density that they would form a mini black hole. In space, black holes are believed to generate intense gravitational fields that suck in all surrounding matter. The creation of one on Earth could be disastrous. Professor Bob Jaffe, director of the Centre for Theoretical Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is on the committee, said he believed the risk was tiny but could not be ruled out. "There have been fears that strange matter could alter the structure of anything nearby. The risk is exceedingly small but the probability of something unusual happening is not zero." Construction of the £350m RHIC machine started eight years ago and is almost complete. On Friday scientists sent the first beam of particles around the machine - but without attempting any collisions. Inside the collider, atoms of gold will be stripped of their outer electrons and pumped into one of two 2.4-mile circular tubes where powerful magnets will accelerate them to 99.9% of the speed of light. The ions in the two tubes will travel in opposite directions to increase the power of the collisions. When they smash into each other, at one of several intersections between the tubes, they will generate minuscule fireballs of superdense matter with temperatures of about a trillion degrees - 10,000 times hotter than the sun. Such conditions are thought not to have existed - except possibly in the heart of some dense stars - since the Big Bang that formed the universe between 12 billion and 15 billion years ago. Under such conditions atomic nuclei "evaporate" into a plasma of even smaller particles called quarks and gluons. Theoretical and experimental evidence predicts that such a plasma would then emit a shower of other, different particles as it cooled down. Among the particles predicted to appear during this cooling are strange quarks. These have been detected in other accelerators but always attached to other particles. RHIC, the most powerful such machine yet built, has the ability to create solitary strange quarks for the first time since the universe began. BNL confirmed that there had been discussion over the possibility of "perturbations in the universe". Thomas Ludlam, associate project director of RHIC, said that the committee would hold its first meeting shortly. John Nelson, professor of nuclear physics at Birmingham University who is leading the British scientific team at RHIC, said the chances of an accident were infinitesimally small - but Brookhaven had a duty to assess them. "The big question is whether the planet will disappear in the twinkling of an eye. It is astonishingly unlikely that there is any risk - but I could not prove it," he said. DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substancenot soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives
[CTRL] Big Bang machine could destroy Earth
-Caveat Lector- Big Bang machine could destroy Earth Source: The Times Published: 7-18-99 Author: Jonathan Leake not for commercial use A NUCLEAR accelerator designed to replicate the Big Bang is under investigation by international physicists because of fears that it might cause "perturbations of the universe" that could destroy the Earth. One theory even suggests that it could create a black hole. Brookhaven National Laboratories (BNL), one of the American government's foremost research bodies, has spent eight years building its Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) on Long Island in New York state. A successful test-firing was held on Friday and the first nuclear collisions will take place in the autumn, building up to full power around the time of the millennium. Last week, however, John Marburger, Brookhaven's director, set up a committee of physicists to investigate whether the project could go disastrously wrong. It followed warnings by other physicists that there was a tiny but real risk that the machine, the most powerful of its kind in the world, had the power to create "strangelets" - a new type of matter made up of sub-atomic particles called "strange quarks". The committee is to examine the possibility that, once formed, strangelets might start an uncontrollable chain reaction that could convert anything they touched into more strange matter. The committee will also consider an alternative, although less likely, possibility that the colliding particles could achieve such a high density that they would form a mini black hole. In space, black holes are believed to generate intense gravitational fields that suck in all surrounding matter. The creation of one on Earth could be disastrous. Professor Bob Jaffe, director of the Centre for Theoretical Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is on the committee, said he believed the risk was tiny but could not be ruled out. "There have been fears that strange matter could alter the structure of anything nearby. The risk is exceedingly small but the probability of something unusual happening is not zero." Construction of the £350m RHIC machine started eight years ago and is almost complete. On Friday scientists sent the first beam of particles around the machine - but without attempting any collisions. Inside the collider, atoms of gold will be stripped of their outer electrons and pumped into one of two 2.4-mile circular tubes where powerful magnets will accelerate them to 99.9% of the speed of light. The ions in the two tubes will travel in opposite directions to increase the power of the collisions. When they smash into each other, at one of several intersections between the tubes, they will generate minuscule fireballs of superdense matter with temperatures of about a trillion degrees - 10,000 times hotter than the sun. Such conditions are thought not to have existed - except possibly in the heart of some dense stars - since the Big Bang that formed the universe between 12 billion and 15 billion years ago. Under such conditions atomic nuclei "evaporate" into a plasma of even smaller particles called quarks and gluons. Theoretical and experimental evidence predicts that such a plasma would then emit a shower of other, different particles as it cooled down. Among the particles predicted to appear during this cooling are strange quarks. These have been detected in other accelerators but always attached to other particles. RHIC, the most powerful such machine yet built, has the ability to create solitary strange quarks for the first time since the universe began. BNL confirmed that there had been discussion over the possibility of "perturbations in the universe". Thomas Ludlam, associate project director of RHIC, said that the committee would hold its first meeting shortly. John Nelson, professor of nuclear physics at Birmingham University who is leading the British scientific team at RHIC, said the chances of an accident were infinitesimally small - but Brookhaven had a duty to assess them. "The big question is whether the planet will disappear in the twinkling of an eye. It is astonishingly unlikely that there is any risk - but I could not prove it," he said. ### How about the really important question. Is this gizmo at Brookhaven Y2K compliant? --Ditto Was this project funded by the same people who banned firecrackers for our safety? --enough is enough . DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substancenot soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always
