Philip K Dickhead - Slashdot User

Submission + - LHC Shutdown Again - By Baguette Dropping Bird? (popsci.com)

Submitted by

Philip K Dickhead

on Thursday November 05, 2009 @09:59PM

Philip K Dickhead writes: "Is Douglas Adams scripting the saga of sorrows facing the LHC? These time-traveling Higgs-Boson particles certainly exhibit the sign of his absurd sense of humor! Perhaps it is the Universe itself, conspiring against the revelations intimated by the operation of CERN's Large Hadron Collider? This time, it is not falling cranes, cracked magnets, liquid helium leaks or even links to Al Qaeda, that have halted man's efforts to understand the meaning of life, the universe and everything. It now appears that the collider is hindered from an initial firing by a baguette, dropped by a passing bird. "The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine." One cannot rule out time-traveling mischief makers, however improbable, once credulity has been so rudely affronted by this latest story."

Submission + - 3 Strikes - Denying Physics Won't Save Video Stars (timesonline.co.uk)

Submitted by

Philip K Dickhead

on Friday October 30, 2009 @12:03PM

Philip K Dickhead writes: "Award-winning SF author and BoingBoing co-editor Cory Doctrow has an editorial in today's Times of London. Doctrow elegantly evicerates the basic injustice posed by the imminent Mandelson "3 Strikes" law in Britain. He makes the explicit observation: "The internet is an integral part of our children’s education; it’s critical to our employment; it’s how we stay in touch with distant relatives. It’s how we engage with government. It’s the single wire that delivers freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. It isn’t just a conduit for getting a few naughty free movies, it is the circulatory system of the information age." It is worth noting that Doctrow was influential in the creation of the Creative Commons. He has enjoyed considerable commercial success for his writings, owing in no small part on his insistence that his work be made available for unrestricted electronic distribution and copyng."

Submission + - Swine Flu Killing Obese People (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by

Philip K Dickhead

on Friday July 10, 2009 @06:43PM

Philip K Dickhead writes: "From the Super-Size-Me Dept: Bloomberg is reporting that the World Health Organization discovered a single, surprising characteristic that's emerged among swine flu victims who become severely ill: They are all fat. Infected people with a body mass index greater than 40 suffer respiratory complications that are harder to treat and can be fatal. The virus appears to be on a collision course with the obesity epidemic. WHO officials are gathering statistics to confirm and understand this development. "It's very likely that if we went back retrospectively and looked at people who did poorly during seasonal flu, what would shake out is that obesity would be one of the risks," Fat cells secrete chemicals that cause chronic, low-level inflammation that can hamper the body's immune response and narrow the airways, says Tim Armstrong, a doctor working in the WHO's chronic diseases department in Geneva."

Submission + - Drug Company Drew Up Doctor "Hit List" (news.com.au)

Submitted by

Philip K Dickhead

on Friday April 24, 2009 @03:54PM

Philip K Dickhead writes: "An international drug company made a hit list of doctors who had to be "neutralised" or discredited because they criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceutical giant produced. According to the report in The Australian, saff at US company Merck &Co emailed each other about the list of doctors — mainly researchers and academics — who had been negative about the drug Vioxx or Merck and a recommended course of action. The email, which came out in the Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday as part of a class action against the drug company, included the words "neutralise", "neutralised" or "discredit" against some of the doctors' names. It is also alleged the company used intimidation tactics against critical researchers, including dropping hints it would stop funding to institutions and claims it interfered with academic appointments. "We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live," a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read to the court by Julian Burnside QC, acting for the plaintiff."

Slashdot Top Deals