Discussion on:

Geek Trivia: What outside group forces the Large Hadron Collider to shut down every winter?

It's a pun, and it's vaguely puerile, but still nerd-funny
http://www.splitreason.com/product/538

It isn't sexist or idiotic, and it is funny, so - win!

Hey! I think you also missed the frustrated gold-mine TV show one-season-only Flash Forward. Where colliding particles in the LHC creates a global blackout and the whole world saw its future for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. Trivia: in the first episode Seth McFarlane acts as FBI agent.

I figured it was a herd of critters on their annual migration through the area, either causing or subject to some vague form of potential harm.

It was mentioned that a previous month long shut down was due to failure of a coolant system but there was no mention of the uncanny cause of this coolant failure. A time traveler (Eloi Cole) from the future was aprehended at the LHC site for walking around without an access badge. He said he dropped a baguette in to the air intake system in order to change the course of history where in the future the LHC project had unforseen consequences.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/man-arrested-at-large-hadron-collider-claims-hes-from-the-future-49305387/

The link was funny. So a time traveler comes from a future where the Higgs Bosun discovery led to unlimited power, end of poverty and kit kats for everyone.

Honestly I thought it would be to perform housekeeping tasks like sweeping the floor of the chamber and cleaning up all the mess those darn colliding particles leave...

"..I just cleaned up this place !!..."

Well, I figured it had something to do with electricity and heating.

knowing what winter is like probably helps

I toyed with the idea that it was Brigitte Bardot using the tunnel as a training track for her fur-tracking killer ferrets, but then I figured, nah - it's supposed to be a non-gov org, definitely the power company.

weren't early colliders cleaned by sending through a skirt-wearing ferret? Seriously.

For some reason this just makes the world a brighter place. Thanks Palmetto.

http://history.fnal.gov/felicia.html

She didn't actually clean it. She pulled the leader line through that the tech then used to pull the 'mophead'.

Don't let the last headline put you off. 'falls victim to robot' means 'replaced by robot'.

I know that most everything everywhere in Europe closes down for 3 to 4 week vacations in the summer. I thought this was the winter version.

and managed to find the particle responsible for Murphy's Law
They call it the Biggs Hoson.

But wasn't sure what exactly though, knowing Power and Winter doesn't really get along too well except if you were in Russia (USSR) or Siberia; don't know how they do it and don't want to know either nor do not invite me to their Ice Hotel with their Ice Bar either.

:-P

So does being half right count?