Saturday, 27 November 2010

Murray ready for Nadal?

He HAS the game to beat Nadal,if he plays at his best!

Amplify’d from news.bbc.co.uk
Andy Muray in action against David Ferrer
Andy Murray knows he will be the underdog when he takes on world number one Rafael Nadal in the last four of the ATP World Tour Finals on Saturday.

Both men will be making their first appearance in the semi-finals in London after exiting at the group stage when the end-of-season championships made its debut at the O2 Arena in 2009.

The pair will meet in the afternoon match at 1400 GMT, with Roger Federer playing Novak Djokovic in the second semi at 2000 GMT.

For Murray, this weekend offers the possibility of landing the biggest title of his career to date, while Nadal is desperate for victory in the one significant tournament that remains for him to win.

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk
 

Monday, 8 November 2010

BBC News - Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generates a 'mini-Big Bang'

8 November 2010 Last updated at 16:12

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Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generates a 'mini-Big Bang'

By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News
One of the lead-ion collisions, LHC One of the lead-ion collisions at the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider has successfully created a "mini-Big Bang" by smashing together lead ions instead of protons.

The scientists working at the enormous machine on Franco-Swiss border achieved the unique conditions on 7 November.

The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.

The LHC is housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel under the French-Swiss border near Geneva.

Up until now, the world's highest-energy particle accelerator - which is run by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) - has been colliding protons, in a bid to uncover mysteries of the Universe's formation.

Continue reading the main story

THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER

  • The LHC is smashing together particles in a bid to unlock the secrets of formation of our Universe
  • It is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) in Geneva
  • The collider is housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel under the French-Swiss border
  • The giant tunnel is located an average of 100m underground
  • The LHC is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator
  • The circumference of the LHC is 26 659 m, with a total of 9300 magnets inside
  • The magnets are cooled to an operating temperature of -271.3°C (1.9 K) - colder than deep space

Proton collisions could help spot the elusive Higgs boson particle and signs of new physical laws, such as a framework called supersymmetry.

But for the next four weeks, scientists at the LHC will concentrate on analysing the data obtained from the lead ion collisions.

This way, they hope to learn more about the plasma the Universe was made of a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago.

One of the accelerator's experiments, ALICE, has been specifically designed to smash together lead ions, but the ATLAS and Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments have also switched to the new mode.

'Strong force'

David Evans from the University of Birmingham, UK, is one of the researchers working at ALICE.

He said that the collisions obtained were able to generate the highest temperatures and densities ever produced in an experiment.

"We are thrilled with the achievement," said Dr Evans.

ALICE experiment, CERN The ALICE experiment has been designed specifically for lead ion collisions

"This process took place in a safe, controlled environment, generating incredibly hot and dense sub-atomic fireballs with temperatures of over ten trillion degrees, a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.

"At these temperatures even protons and neutrons, which make up the nuclei of atoms, melt resulting in a hot dense soup of quarks and gluons known as a quark-gluon plasma."

Quarks and gluons are sub-atomic particles - some of the building blocks of matter. In the state known as quark-gluon plasma, they are freed of their attraction to one another. This plasma is believed to have existed just after the Big Bang.

He explained that by studying the plasma, physicists hoped to learn more about the so-called strong force - the force that binds the nuclei of atoms together and that is responsible for 98% of their mass.

After the LHC finishes colliding lead ions, it will go back to smashing together protons once again.

Phew!

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Sunday, 7 November 2010

BBC News - Facebook page for Queen Elizabeth

Want a new friend?

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BBC Sport - Cricket - Ashes: Andrew Strauss hundred sets up England tour win

Skipper Andrew Strauss hit 120 not out as England beat Western Australia by six wickets in their opening warm-up game ahead of the Ashes series.

The Middlesex batsman's 141-ball knock featured a six and 15 fours as he led his side home on 243-4 in Perth.

England's only concern was a second failure for Alastair Cook, who fell for nine after they had bowled out the state side for 223.

Spinner Graeme Swann was the tourists' most successful bowler, with 4-101.

Developing a winning habit early in the tour was one of England's goals on arriving in Australia and the manner in which they went about their run-chase at the Waca Ground was a reflection of the confidence within the camp

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Saturday, 6 November 2010

Last of the Bird Food:lonely Nov pears!

Single Mom Fined $1.5 Million for Downloading Music

Seems a bit HARSH?

Amplify’d from news.gather.com
Single Mom Fined $1.5 Million for Downloading Music

A Minnesota woman has been fined $1.5 million for illegally downloading and sharing music online. Her attorney argues the fine is unreasonable.

"A federal jury found Wednesday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset, of Brainerd, must pay $62,500 per song — for a total of $1.5 million — for illegally violating copyrights on 24 songs. This was the third jury to consider damages in her case, and each has found that she must pay — though different amounts," according to MSNBC.

Read more at news.gather.com
 

Thursday, 4 November 2010

Ashes Tour

Complacency would be a big mistake!

Amplify’d from news.bbc.co.uk
Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann
Collingwood hones his catching in the slip cordon during England training
England stalwart Paul Collingwood insisted the tourists would not be distracted by Australia's poor run.

The Australians suffered their sixth successive defeat on Wednesday when they lost by one-wicket in a one-day international against Sri Lanka.

England play their first warm-up match on Friday against Western Australia, and Collingwood said: "We're preparing ourselves to do well in these games.

"Most of us watched Australia but we're more focused on what we've got to do."

Australia have lost a Test against Pakistan, two Tests and a one-day international against India, with two washed out, plus a Twenty20 and the opening one-day international with Sri Lanka.

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk