Ode to the SSC... aka "What the hell send it overseas"
Please see the article below from this weekends Wall Street Journal Online (WSJ Article). The Swiss are celebrating the "Large Hadron Collider" they just finished building. ( See website: LHC - THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER) The article speaks on about the excitement surrounding the potential new discoveries.
Suddenly, while sitting in in Waxahachie, Texas reading this article I had the feeling of Deja Vu. Wait a minute. Wasn't the United States & the Department of Energy building this same project in Ellis County at one time? As a matter of fact, it occurred to me that because of partisan politics the U.S. cancelled the "Super Conducting Super-Collider" (SSC).
At the time the politicians in Washington said that the U.S. couldn't fund such pork barrel projects and the SSC had to be shut down immediately. And shut down they project they did. Several additional years and a few billion dollars later the United States completed the shut down of the SSC.
At the time the American taxpayers received the shaft and Ellis County residents received a $50 million dollar building in the middle of nowhere. As an side fact the inherited buildings were in such great demand that Ellis County just recently managed to sell the collider facilities for a whopping $7 million dollars.
Yet I digress, the real reason for this walk down memory lane is to celebrate the "Large Hadron Collider" LHC. The same project the Americans abandoned several years back is now been completed by the Swiss. Rather than the U.S. owning the rights to any new technological discoveries the Swiss and other countries will.
And I have no doubt that many mysteries will be revealed and great knowledge and wealth will come to those who build this great scientific achievement.
Additional resources: The U.S. LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP)
Suddenly, while sitting in in Waxahachie, Texas reading this article I had the feeling of Deja Vu. Wait a minute. Wasn't the United States & the Department of Energy building this same project in Ellis County at one time? As a matter of fact, it occurred to me that because of partisan politics the U.S. cancelled the "Super Conducting Super-Collider" (SSC).
At the time the politicians in Washington said that the U.S. couldn't fund such pork barrel projects and the SSC had to be shut down immediately. And shut down they project they did. Several additional years and a few billion dollars later the United States completed the shut down of the SSC.
At the time the American taxpayers received the shaft and Ellis County residents received a $50 million dollar building in the middle of nowhere. As an side fact the inherited buildings were in such great demand that Ellis County just recently managed to sell the collider facilities for a whopping $7 million dollars.
Yet I digress, the real reason for this walk down memory lane is to celebrate the "Large Hadron Collider" LHC. The same project the Americans abandoned several years back is now been completed by the Swiss. Rather than the U.S. owning the rights to any new technological discoveries the Swiss and other countries will.
And I have no doubt that many mysteries will be revealed and great knowledge and wealth will come to those who build this great scientific achievement.
Additional resources: The U.S. LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP)
posted by Rusty @ 1/08/2007 04:40:00 PM
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