Hi Alex

Alex Smart Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Well they are trying to find the Higgs..."
>
> No, I'm not even thinking of asking you what that
> is about
>

Too late Its the particle they rekon gives mass to everything. But no one has ever seen it despite spending millions trying. Whenever they don't find it, someone says - "We must have been looking in the wrong place"... in other words it must be heavier or lighter than they thought. But if the Higgs gives other particles mass - then what gives the Higgs mass ???

The funny thing is they call it the "God Particle" because if it does exist it supports their standard way of seeing things. That says more about them than about the theory IMO...


>
> Thinking of paradoxes such as Granny snuffing it
> before your parent is born. I recall reading about
> something called a tachyon (spelling?) that has
> (or should that be 'had'?) quote: "the conceptual
> difficulty of disappearing before it exists".
> Fun, isn't it... he said, reaching for the aspirin
> bottle, again...


Well the tachyon is again something no body has any idea whether or not it exists. The golden fleece kind of thing


>
> Now, be fair. DVC wasn't that bad. Sadly have to
> agree with you re my hero, Dirk. I think it's time
> he quietly retired...

The only one I read with Dirk was Atlantis Found which I was recommended by my father but it really wasn't my kind of thing. I like escapism James Bond/Wilbut Smith type of fantasy but when everything works just in time - usually because the badies were either outrageously unlucky or stupid or both, it gets a bit much for me. Still I read it to the end and there have been a few novels I really couldn't be bothered to finish so it must have had something going for it


> I know this is the Science & Technology Board
> (apologies to Kat )but, ever so briefly, if you
> like fantasy, give David Gemmel a try. Like so
> many authors these days his recent stuff is rather
> repetitive, but his earlier efforts are rather
> good.
>


I haven't heard of him but will keep it in mind - what do you mean by fantasy ? I'm actually reading Bernard Cornwalls "The Grail Quest" right now as an antidote to all the people reading the Da Vinci code Next on the list of novels will probably be the new Boudica that I see it out.

Simon