The biggest scientific instrument in the world was brought down by a tiny weasel

[WhiteTara]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/04/29/the-biggest-scientific-instrument-in-the-world-was-brought-down-by-a-tiny-weasel/

The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva — the world's biggest, most powerful particle accelerator — is going to be out of commission for a few days. Scientists are blaming a weasel.

No, they're not using old-timey slang to accuse their fellow researchers of subterfuge. It was an actual weasel.


Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), told The Washington Post in an email that the LHC had been put on standby mode due to "technical issues in the last 24 hours, including a power cut (likely due to the passage of a small wild animal on a 66 kV/18kV electrical transformer.)"

When pressed, Marsollier — who was incredibly good natured, considering the fact that I was questioning him about a tiny dead animal — identified the perp.

[aidbo]

1. Glad they were able to ferret out the problem.

[JimDandy]

2. I'll bet they're glad it wasn't a mole.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Martyr marten becomes crispy critter. nt

[lunatica]

6. I hope it was quick!

[Xipe Totec]

7. It was over in a flash. nt

[lastlib]

31. My Favorite Marten.........

...fried.

[lastlib]

14. Took 'em a while to det-ermine the solution, I think....

A Mustelidae keeps the Hadron away........

[Eugene]

3. Poor critter.

Reminds me of the original computer bug.

[mindwalker_i]

5. Same thing happens to politics here

One weasle can do a lot of damage.

[lastlib]

15. I was gonna say it was almost a metaphor for US politics!

But I didn't want to sully the entire Mustelidae order by linking it to this smarmy thing which has been called a weasel:

[mindwalker_i]

16. Hahahaha

Man, just as I was trying to eat dinner.

[lastlib]

17. sorry, mon!

[Skittles]

8. this happened where I work last month

the electricity went out and switched to backup generator - that's a big event, and I knew at 02:00 AM it was not a scheduled test - I found out later it was a tiny animal of some sort that got electrocuted on the power grid (they could see it on security cameras)

[WhiteTara]

9. Poor little thing!

[Skittles]

10. they said they thought it was a squirrel or bird, they couldn't tell

at 02:00 AM?

[WhiteTara]

11. Birds don't fly at night so

I'm betting on a squirrel...or maybe a mouse or rat

[Skittles]

12. I used to think birds don't fly at night

but I regularly take long walks in the middle of the night and I can assure you, some of them do

[blondie58]

32. And bats certainly do!

I Took a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon Several years ago. During the Day the Swallows would Swoop over the River, looking for Bugs.
Come nightfall it was like the changing of the Guards When the bats Took over.

[cannabis_flower]

22. Or a bat.

[Thor_MN]

13. We don't need no stinkin' badgers.

[Dr. Xavier]

18. Oh my gosh...

The puns on here are sooooo bad... where's a jury when you need one.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

19. Weasels are weasily wecognized.

But if it was a stoat...they're stoatally different.


Poor little critter. :,(

[valerief]

20. A weasel took down the Middle East, too. nt

[WhiteTara]

21. Yes, he did. nt

[lastlib]

26. Not a weasel--THAT was a GOPher.

Last edited Tue May 3, 2016, 09:36 PM - Edit history (1)

The Mustelidae order are noble beasts compared to the GOPher crowd, which I rank on the same level as pond-scum. Hate to see weasels insulted by comparing them to that bunch.

[valerief]

30. Ha! Excellent point! nt

[cannabis_flower]

23. The Big Bang Theory crew

could have fun with this. I can envision Sheldon or Leonard saying a straight line and Raj or Howard providing the punch line.

[Victor_c3]

24. I get a little angry every time o read about CERN

There was a proposal to build a collider of similar size here in the U.S. In the early 90s but it was more important for our government to build a fleet of $1 billion stealth bombers at the time.

It should have been an American facility providing American high tech jobs making discoveries for the world. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad somebody built it. I just wish it was us.

I'm guess I'm a little jealous...

Oh yeah, I also don't think we have weasels around here.

[WhiteTara]

25. Yeah, it was in Dallas where there was already the

beginning of the tunnel. It was in the mid/late 80s IIRC during the Reagan years. But the right wing was so scared of the end of the world that they nixed the project and it went to Switzerland. I'm sad about it too. We could have been a contender!

[lastlib]

27. Reagan killed it.

His crowd of science-hating know-nothings thought it was too much money not to spend it on military toys. They thought we needed more missiles, battleships,bombers and tanks more than we needed knowledge of the universe we live in. Short-sighted idiots! . . . .

[Leith]

29. Not Only That

The know-nothings were convinced that it would create a black hole that would destroy Earth. For some reason, they think that scientists don't know any more about science than they do.

[ReRe]

28. I had a couple little boys...

... back in the day, who killed a VCR with a frog.

[Katashi_itto]

33. Reuters- Forty foot tall weasel seen in woods near collider.

Military has been called in.

[greiner3]

34. Reading the title the thought that jumped in my head

Trump's hair😆

[WhiteTara]

35. That's funny!

Of course the entire creature is a weasel!