Another Large Hadron Collider Calamity

Over at the About.com Birding site, there's a report that a bird dropped a piece of bread into a cooling unit at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The piece of baguette caused irregularities in the cooling system, which were quickly recognized by technicians. The situation was resolved before there was major damage to the system. (A slightly more technical description of the situation is available on The Register.)

With yet another in a long series of misadventures for the prototype particle accelerator, this lends some anecdotal credence to the speculative idea that "influence" from the future is sabotaging the experiment. Of course, anecdotal evidence isn't enough, and I made an argument that these predictions are logically inconsistent.

I guess nothing will put these speculations to rest until we actually get the LHC up and running and performing the groundbreaking research that physicists are hoping for.