Daily Links: September 14, 2011

Timeline of the Universe infrographic by Omid Kashan

Absolutely stunning depiction of the Big Bang and many of its splendid afteraffects (hint: us and like, everything else). Makes me wish I lived there and not in the alternate pocket dimension I currently reside in. But the view sure is nice from this graph. Look at the massive (almost as big as the universe itself!) version at this link. Via: Boing Boing



Nerdy Day Trips aims to bring you the best in disused power stations, abandoned nuclear bunkers, lighthouse museums and solar observatories from around the world.

Those stories about Ikea abandoning bookcases because people don't buy books anymore were nonsense: "As it turns out, not only had the 15 inch bookcase been in development for a period of eighteen months to two years. Ebooks didn't factor at all into the decision."

News: 
U.S. Poverty Rate, 1 in 6, at Highest Level in Years (NYT) - An additional 2.6 million people slipped below the poverty line in 2010, census officials said, making 46.2 million people in poverty in the United States, the highest number in the 52 years the Census Bureau has been tracking it, said Trudi Renwick, chief of the Poverty Statistic Branch. That represented 15.1 percent of the country. The poverty line in 2010 was at $22,113 for a family of four.

Science:
What does a Higgsless universe mean for science? The Higgs Boson is quite important to the standard model of physics. If it exists, it plays a major role in explaining how particles acquire mass. There’s a distinct possibility that the Higgs Boson may not even exist. Stephen Hawking made a famous bet that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) wouldn't find it. So far both the LHC and Tevatron, another massive particle accelerators have both searched much of the energy ranges we expected to find the Higgs with no luck. So, then, what does it mean if we don’t find the Higgs at all?