Still Alive

The LHC is working, and no black hole was created or anyfink. Other than the one in naysayers' arses, that is.

What's interesting (to me) is, last night, before going to bed, I talked to my brother, who mentioned he's been to CERN, with a special group of 17 kids from our school, in 04/2007. He inquired, once he found out what 'the five-storey building' they were building was and what it was supposed to do, if they realized the responsibility attached to a project that involves so much energy. The guy that was showing them around gave him a cool reply, something like "come find me personally and tell me off if anything happens", before explaining that quite a few people around the world had already started with their doomsday scenarios.

The point I'd like to make - nothing that interests you, of course - is that my brother is smart. He could even sort-of-explain what a Higgs boson... could be, on call. It's great for me to realize that this li'l boy is no idiot, especially since I see him as an improved version of me, plus some. I used to be teased for mentioning his basketball achievements when he used to be in a team - he supposedly was in Earth's team, playing against Mars and such. He could easily be a jock, you see, but he's smart, even there.

I was amazed, the other day - about two months ago, I think - when Than suggested that most people around us don't know simple things like what the stars we see in the sky actually are. I couldn't believe that something like that would be possible. I object to being surrounded by stupid and ignorant people, seeing as I am a total intelligence racist (yes, you are allowed to be stupid, as long as you know that to be true). And, especially when my family comes into the equation, given that I am influenced by them in more ways than just genetics, I take it personally. So I was quick to reply to Than that it wouldn't be possible for, say, my brother not to know this - something which I went and checked the other day, just to make sure, for this possibility was eating me up, only to be met with a reply that incorporated ridicule and obvious answers.

A friend told me, when we were fidgeting with the reverse translation of a bad translation of chemical terms (I kid you not), that I choose my friends with intelligence as a primary criterion, and I replied something about my intelligence racism. Still, not being surrounded by idiots doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't billions of stupid people in the world, the way I define 'stupid'. I estimate that the mean IQ of the people I hang out with to be around 120-130 or so, when there are even 80s out there who have every right to consider themselves 'of normal intelligence'.

Do I need to become more tolerant? Really?