The Large Hadron Collider is a billion dollar project that has been criticized by some doomsayers as the device that will eventually create a black hole and doom us all. Then again it can’t even stay powered on to accomplish that disaster. The Collider this morning suffered yet another power outage that also took down the colliders website for a short period of time.

According to LHC operators, the family was the result of an affected 18,000 volt power line this morning. Thankfully for researcher their large diesel powered backup generators were able to keep the units supercooled magnets from warming up and they were soon back in business.

The image on this page is the picture of a broken component which may have been part of the problem, although no official statement has been released in regards to the cause of the accident.

As SlashGear pointed out, it’s not the first issue the collider has faced, earlier a bird dropped a piece of bread on the device which caused some of its electronics to short-circuit. While other issues have left the collider unused for long periods of time as fixes were implemented.

The Collider in this case fortunately should be back up and running at full capacity by the end of the day.

And yet, what is truth? Millions of people supporting the McCain-Palin ticket in the United States believe that the earth is 4000 years old and dinosaurs and men existed side-by-side. Sarah Palin advocates that this be taught in schools. There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and direct links between Al Qaeda and Hussein, or so the US Government told the world. If you watch political commercials, you’d believe that Barack Obama teaches sex ed to 6 year olds, and is anti-immigration.

Who decides the truth?

Is not the very nature of the internet, a free platform for most, a conduit that allows the truth to shine when all around us is lies? Do not internet users in China find ways of bypassing the national firewall so they to can find the truth. Do not those of us in free countries benefit from receiving news that isn’t filtered and controlled by the corporate media elite? Is not this very freedom protection against wrongdoing?

Any attempt at grading internet content based on truth would be the start of a slippery slope towards global totalitarianism. We may not like everything on the internet, but as Robert Houghwout Jackson, US Supreme Court Judge and Chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials said: “The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish.”

Or consider John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

As much as I’m sure Tim Berners-Lee has good intentions, in making such a proposal one can only presume that he has lost the plot. He may have created the world wide web, and for that he deserves a lifetime of praise, but the idea that his creation be rated based on rankings around truths needs to die quickly before repressive governments, and those that nearly are, use his words as an excuse to censor and filter the internet further.

Cern has two live streams, one in Windows Media format, the other in Flash. At the time of writing the sites were being hammered with traffic, so it’s pot luck as to whether you’ll get on and get the stream playing.

There is also suppose to be a stream on EVO here, although you have to sign up to get access…which might mean you’ll have a better chance of getting on.

CMS is offering webcam coverage from the site, no live streams, but you will get the general picture here.

The event is getting a lot of coverage in the heritage media, although it’s not clear who will be running the stream live. Try Livestation for access for some channels, or websites directly.

Cern is on Twitter, and there’s an a live blogging effort from news.com.au of all places on Twitter here.

If you’re concerned about the LHC creating a black hole that will consume the planet, you can stay informed at hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com

If you’re interested in a layman’s explanation of what the LHC is trying to achieve, Wired has the best guide.

The first test is due to commence at around 5pm Australian Eastern, midnight PDT.

UPDATE: First test was a success, with the big show yet to come. Cern’s official stream didn’t like the traffic, but following this post, Livestation contacted Cern and are now an official streaming partner. Details here, and for the next round of tests, I’d recommend trying Livestation first.