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Story: The heart of the LHC is more than science

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Posted by: davidhill (Thursday 11 September 2008, 1:09 PM)

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CERN FIASCO Revisited -the end of the world

CERN Fiasco - the end of the world is nigh postmortem
It appears that the Media did frightened the people to death with the notion that yesterday the world might have ended. I had numerous calls over the last week from family and contacts asking what will happen on Wednesday 10th Sept. I told them absolutely nothing. In fact some people who I had considered previously level-headed were literally unhinged about the whole matter.
But the worst part of this media hype is that the collision of protons does not actually happen until around the start of October. Therefore in their quest to sell newspapers they have literally conned the people with misinformation, as yesterday was no more than switching on the electrical systems and testing if protons would travel the 17 miles long system at CERN with no hiccups.
When October comes, the Media will again most likely frighten everyone to death again, just in the quest to sell their goods. Isn't it time therefore that the Media got their facts right and apologized to the people who they have conned through misinformation - their readers. Indeed one guy had a letter posted in the Guardian stating that it was their last publication. Therefore one has to ask, has the Guardian also lost its marbles?
Unfortunately one tragic outcome of all this that has emerged is a young woman in India committed suicide convinced that the world would end on Wednesday. Although her father tried his best she poisoned herself in the early hours of the same day. One life is too much. The Media should learn and not have the deaths of any person on their hands. But the question has to be asked, how many more actually took their lives through this blatant misinformation – unfortunately probably hundreds at least taking into account people with depressive conditions throughout the world. I don’t think that the Media will be looking into publishing these figures but where there again, they may think that they can sell even more of their papers. Unfortunately, it is a very sad world that we live in presently and where money counts above human life itself.

Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation Charity (WIFC)
Bern, Switzerland

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