Trip to CERN September 22, 2008
Posted by dorigo in personal, travel.Tags: real time blogging
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Not having anything interesting to post about, I will for once follow the advice of Bob Yen, a regular here, who says I should add more visual impact to this blog, add stories, make the thing more alive. He would like to see video clips of the life of a physicist, but I am afraid I am not ready for that, if only because it is so time-consuming to shoot good footage.
Instead, let me just post here a few pictures of my trip. I am leaving Venice this afternoon, for a short trip to CERN, where I will follow a couple of days of the CMS collaboration meeting. I am due to fly with Fly Baboo to Geneva at 17.45 (just delayed to 18.00). In Geneva, Alex will pick me up at the Airport, and then we’ll see if it will be an evening spent playing billiards or what.
So here is a picture of what I have right now in front of me, at the Marco Polo Airport:
If you watch closely, you can figure out I’m wearing a grey suit, I have a red carry-on suitcase, and I am working on my blog, with Skype opened on a side window.
And this is the sight out of the window on my left. A KLM flight is boarding, and you can see a strip of blue -that’s the Venice lagoon in the background.
More pictures to come later…
So here are four more. Geneva is just about to start boarding (top left):
Arrived at Geneva airport at 7.20, here is the tapis roulant bringing to the arrivals:
Alex picked me up and then we drove to my hotel room. No luxury, just a bed to sleep.
And finally, the goal of the trip:
(pardon the lousy picture, taken while driving into Entree B…)
Er, yeah. LOL. Airport photos: the ultimate sign of degeneration of blog content. That could just as easily be Changi or Lax or just about anywhere else.
Sure. I am not much of a fun of this kind of stuff, but you have to try everything once… I found out I am too lazy to take out the camera and shoot. And a bit embarassed also. It looks strange for a businessman to act like a tourist.
Cheers,
T.
Are you (not) a fun of this kind or a fan of this kind, Tommaso?
At any rate, it is fanny. Huhuhuhu.
Lubos, you should visit Gordon Watts’ blog, he makes many more typos with which you can have a lot of fUn.
Cheers,
T.
a brief report of leave to travel, so nice, i like its very much
I never use a camera, just grab pics from google..people do seem to appreciate them
Dear Tommaso, I assure you that I am visiting Gordon Watts’ blog, too.
> Not having anything interesting to post about,
Not even about an important accelerator in Europe who recently had some accident?
I opened this webpage just to see if you had reported on the psychodramatic athmosphere of the opening talk of the current CMS week…
Cormac, I also do that sometimes, but not when I post something this personal.
Ok Lubos, then why aren’t you glossing over his tons of typos ?
Andrea, that is classified information, as you are well aware!
Cheers,
T.
> Andrea, that is classified information, as you are well aware!
Not anymore since the press release on saturday…
Then, of course, any rumour about what *exactly* happened is classified information.
Dear Tommaso, I haven’t seen any typo there. Maybe you create typos even during reading.
The only typo I noticed was that the “LHC is working extremely fast and well” – he wrote a whole article of this typo (right before the quench) – and I have commented on that.
It might be classified, but the issue of how the extensive use of superconducting magnets may gravely impact the long-term reliability and productivity of the LHC is not.
Superconducting magnet quenches are, of course, nothing new in accelerator physics and the LHC has a fantastic protection system installed. As is explained here:
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000570
Which is why it shouldn’t be an issue except in the case of “a bad accident”. Or the wiring problem and helium leak as reported.
Which is why the authorities need to do some more explaining and reassuring. In a detailed and transparent way. As they did with the Or else the impression could be created that the LHC is so inherently vulnerable to breakdown that it might end up spending more time being warmed up and cooled down than actually running experiments.
And then the jokes would start. That would be a real shame.
Hmm, this is type Tuesday. I meant to say “As they did in the case of the faulty Fermilab components”
For example, here is another press release:
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR10.08E.html
Hi Andrea,
yes, we only go by press releases it seems.
I agree DB, it is a big conCERN. In fact, I said in another thread that I am willing to bet against the fact that LHC will ever run at 14 TeV. I think it is likely that safety margins will advise the choice of running at 12, or maybe 10 TeV, for at least a while.
Cheers,
T.
Dear Kea,
You must be joking. LAX looks, and is, far far worse than this. And Changi looks, and is, far far better.
Yeah, OK, so Changi has a nice orchid garden and rest areas, but I think you get the point.