Wait Until Full Power Before Making That Appointment

As if we all needed another reason to procrastinate…a colleague told me they weren’t going to make a dreaded call to the dentist until after the scientists at CERN turned their Large Hadron Collider to full power.

If you haven’t been following it, some folks are worried that the massive (17 mile) proton collider could create a black hole that will swallow the solar system in the blink of an eye--or 15 months, depending on the quality of the science being cited. Some point to the September 10, 2008 test of the beams in the collider that resulted in a shutdown. They haven’t restarted it, and have yet to actually collide particles.

Of course, the brilliant minds at CERN downplay the possibility of creating a black hole. See their reassuring explanation here: CERN reiterates safety of LHC on eve of first beam. One hopes that they are right—in fact, if you are reading this, you have not yet been dispersed into a mist of sub- atomic particles. They won’t be restarting the collider until Spring 2009, in any case--add 15 months to that and you’ve lost any reasonable excuse to procrastinate.

On to business-- for those of you who are just too busy to worry about black holes popping up, here’s a link to a techno-trove of time savers: Lifehacker.com.

If you need to find a faster, easier way to compress and decompress files, or install and maximize iGoogle ( a personalized home page) this might be the site for you. You’ll even tips on defining and writing your personal goals. Be warned- there exists the danger that you waste enormous amounts of time surfing the site’s posts.

-Dave