The end is nigh

One of my favourite songs is Collide - by Howie Day. It has a lingering connotation that is hard to shake off.

I mention that, in advance of tomorrow, when, if we are to believe the loony fringe, the world will come to an end.

Tomorrow the CERN particle collider goes on line, and experiments begin that involve causing collisions between sub atomic particles. Protons will be accelerated around a huge tunnel and crashed into each other at speeds approaching the speed of light, and as a result, they will be shattered releasing all sorts of bits an pieces for vast numbers of scientists to observe and measure.

One possible outcome, and this is a very slim possibility, is that mini black holes will be formed, as conditions are likely to be similar to the big bang, albeit on a small scale. Steven Hawking hopes so, as any radiation detected from them would almost certainly result in a Nobel prize for him.

Now a black hole is a scary thing. It is effectively a tiny lump of matter that is so dense, it has a gravitational pull that nothing can escape from. They draw in matter around them and become more dense and this becomes a vicious circle. There are some that believe that on wednesday, we will all vanish into a man made black hole, and the world will cease to exist.

One of the scientists working on the project is reported as saying that anyone who believes that is a "complete twat!", I do love the use of scientific terminology.

I am wondering how, if the world is going to end, I would spend my last 24 hours. Maybe if anyone is reading this they might like to share their own thoughts on that one.

Roger McGough gave this some consideration in the 1960s






At Lunchtime - A story of Love

by Roger McGough

When the bus stopped suddenly to avoid
damaging a mother and child in the road,
the young lady in the greenhat sitting opposite
was thrown across me, and not being one to
miss an opportunity i started to makelove
with all my body.

At first she resisted saying that it was too early in the morning and too soon
after breakfast and that anyway she found
me repulsive. But when i explained that
this being a nuclearage, the world was going
to end at lunchtime, she took off her greenhat,
put her busticket in her pocket
and joined in the exercise.

The buspeople, and there were many of them,
were shockedandsurprised and amused and annoyed, but when the
word got around that the world was coming to an end at
lunchtime, they put their pride in their pockets with their bustickets and
madelove one with the other. And even the busconductor,
being over, climbed into the cab and struck up some sort of
relationship with the driver.

Thatnight, on the bus coming home,
wewere all alittle embarrassed, especially me and the younglady
in the greenhat, and we all started to say in different ways howhasty
and foolish we had been. Butthen, always having been a bitofalad, i stood up and said it was a pity that the world didn;t nearly end every lunchtime and
that we could always pretend. And then it happened.......

Quick asa crash we all changed partners
and soon the bus was acquiver with white
mothballbodies doing naughty things.

And the next day
And everyday
In everybus
In everystreet
In everytown
In everycountry

people pretended that the world was coming
to an end at lunchtime. It still hasn't
Although in a way it has.