Barrel Strength

The previous examples of “Hand of God” have been on shaky ground but this example might be more compelling.  An earlier article in NYT discussed how the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was being sabotaged by its own future.  It stated the following.

A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather….

This malign influence from the future, they argue, could explain why the United States Superconducting Supercollider, also designed to find the Higgs, was canceled in 1993 after billions of dollars had already been spent, an event so unlikely that Dr. Nielsen calls it an “anti-miracle.”…

Dr. Nielsen and Dr. Ninomiya have proposed a kind of test: that CERN engage in a game of chance, a “card-drawing” exercise using perhaps a random-number generator, in order to discern bad luck from the future. If the outcome was sufficiently unlikely, say drawing the one spade in a deck with 100 million hearts, the machine would either not run at all, or only at low energies unlikely to find the Higgs.

Odd as it may seem the events are starting to bear this hypothesis correct.  A Popular Science article notes the follow.

First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a piece of bread on a section of the accelerator has, according to the Register, shut down the whole operation.

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.

Hand of God?  Only Maradona knows!

Obama and Iran

May 19th, 2008. Obama pooh-poohs danger from ‘tiny’ Iran

Leading Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama  pooh-poohed the idea that Iran or any of a few other “tiny” nations around the world offer a serious potential threat to the United States or the free world.

July 23rd, 2008. Obama says nuclear Iran poses “grave threat”

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Wednesday a nuclear Iran would pose a “grave threat” and that the world must stop Tehran from obtaining an atomic weapon.

Obama and Poland

Sept 17th, 2009. Obama nixes Europe missile shield plans

US President Barack Obama on Thursday shelved a Bush-era plan for an Eastern European missile defense plan that has been a major irritant in US relations with Russia. He said a redesigned defensive system would be cheaper, quicker and more effective against the threat from Iranian missiles.

Oct 21st, 2009. Biden, Polish leaders agree on revised missile plan

The Obama administration reached a new agreement Wednesday with top Polish government officials to place a new generation of missile interceptors on Polish soil, a surprising turnabout from just a few weeks earlier when it appeared the United States was ready to abandon its missile defense program in Eastern Europe.

In leftist circles this is “smart diplomacy“.