Will our universe end in a ‘big slurp’? Higgs-like particle suggests it might

He said the parameters for our universe, including the Higgs mass value as well as the mass of another subatomic particle known as the top quark, suggest that we’re just at the edge of stability, in a “metastable” state. Physicists have been contemplating such a possibility for more than 30 years. Back in 1982, physicists Michael Turner and Frank Wilczek wrote in Nature that “without warning, a bubble of true vacuum could nucleate somewhere in the universe and move outwards at the speed of light, and before we realized what swept by us our protons would decay away.”

Lykken put it slightly differently: “The universe wants to be in a different state, so eventually to realize that, a little bubble of what you might think of as an alternate universe will appear somewhere, and it will spread out and destroy us.“

Latest Japanese Fad, Schoolgirls Wearing Panties, On Their Head

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Unarmed Woman Shot By Unlegged Man

PRETORIA, South Africa — Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged Thursday with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot inside his home in South Africa, a stunning development in the life of a national hero known as the Blade Runner for his high-tech artificial legs. Reeva Steenkamp, a model who spoke out on Twitter against rape and abuse of women, was shot four times in the predawn hours in the house, in a gated community in the capital, Pretoria, police said. (read more at Portland Press Herald)

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Local Nursing Home Resident Tells Abe Lincoln To Buzz Off, She Voted For Breckinridge

CELEBRATING — Area resident Chester Cornell dresses up as Abraham Lincoln every year on President’s Day and visits nursing homes and other businesses throughout the area, in honor of the holiday. (see more at Advertiser Democrat)

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Twitter Survey Shows Either Maine Is The Second-Happiest State, Or Typing “Suicidal” Into A Smartphone While Wearing Mittens Is Too Difficult

A study that reports it looked at more than 80 million words on Twitter as well as annual state surveys found that Maine followed only Hawaii in general happiness. The saddest states were Louisiana and Mississippi. The study comes from researchers at  the Vermont Complex Systems Center, who posted their analysis to arXiv.org, an electronic archive for scientific papers. The researchers reported that the goal of the paper was to “investigate how geographic place correlates with and potentially influences societal levels of happiness.” The paper focused on both states and larger cities. (read more at Bangor Daily News)

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