Pot Dealer in UK Gets Sentenced to Write 10-Page Essay

Convicted UK pot dealer Terry Bennett, 32, was just sentenced to the grown-up version of writing “I will not chew gum in class” on the chalkboard 100 times. He must pen a 5,000-word essay about the dangers of cannabis by April 4—or spend a year in jail.

More on Shine: Busted: 15-Year-Old Son Caught with Marijuana Thanks to Dog's Strange Symptoms

“It was a shock to be given such an unusual punishment. It’s been ages since I last wrote an essay,” Bennett, who was caught with just over two pounds of marijuana and admitted his intent to sell it, told the UK newspaper the Mirror.

More on Yahoo!: For Investors, Marijuana Remains a Cloudy Bet

“I think it’s good in a way because it gives me a chance to express my opinion about the crime that I’ve committed,” he added in a video interview with SWNS. “And it also gives me more of an understanding of why the crime’s illegal, because I’m having to actually do the research.”

Bennett’s original sentence from Bristol Judge Julian Lambert, given in January 2012, was for a one-year suspended prison sentence with 240 hours of community service. But a shoulder injury Bennett got while snowboarding, he eventually explained to the judge, made that impossible. Last week Lambert came back with the alternative essay-writing sentence, which also comes with a four-month daily curfew of 8pm to 8am.

“I asked the judge if I could write a balanced argument for and against cannabis, but he said that since it’s illegal, I should only write about the bad things,” said Bennett. “I’m just going to write about certain dangers caused by cannabis that people might not necessarily know.”

The former plumber and father of two kids left high school at 16 and lives in Gloucestershire with his mother. Speaking with various UK news outlets, he seemed rather excited about the assignment, saying he’d gotten right to work with online research.

“I’ve always loved writing, and used to write stories from when I was 11, but this is the first time I’ve ever had to write a proper essay,” Bennett told the SWNS. “I didn’t realize just how much work it would be to get my point across properly.”

He said he plans to take a slightly different tack than the judge may be expecting.

“I'm going to approach it from a different angle, writing about the dangers that come about because it is illegal, rather than the nature of weed itself,” he explained to the Telegraph. He shared points he planned to cover in his 10-page thesis, including the concepts that pot can cause psychotic episodes, that money generated around the selling of the drug is not taxable, and that smoking the stuff can cause cancers. Then, he stressed, there are the social dangers.

“Weed often causes more problems because of the social inertia and stigma that surrounds it,” the blooming writer noted. “It would be good if there was no stigma attached to people who want help with weed.”

SOURCE : http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/pot-dealer-in-uk-gets-sentenced-to-write-10-page-essay--161750168.html

Interesting and Strange (Yet True) Everyday Facts

2

Source

3

Good man, that Henry

4

Poor Pluto

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I approve of this method

6

Source.

7

Source.

8

Source.

9

Source

10

The guy who did it

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Only in Japan…

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Source.

13

Seriously.

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Source

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Source. So don’t mess with them.

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Source.

17

God I love that stuff

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Source. I’d hate to see the signal for the guys who make Viagra.

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It’s a cool story, actually

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Source.

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It’s only sketchy if you make it sketchy

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It’s called the AWARE Study

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His name was Troy Leon Gregg

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Source. But still, don’t try it at home.

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SOURCE : http://thechive.com/2013/03/28/i-like-to-learn-something-new-every-day-25-photos/

Strange Donuts Meets Kickstarter Goal

Backers helped the soon-to-open Maplewood donut shop raise $10,000 toward new kitchen equipment. With one challenge out of the way, now the shop's owners can focus on a sweet 'craft donut and beer tasting' event next week.

Corey Smale and his partners, Tyler Fenwick and Sweet Will, are getting ready to offer Maplewood residents "classic" flavored donuts in addition to a few of their own "creations" at their new shop, Strange Donuts, on Sutton Avenue.
Thursday the trio successfully reached the goal of their $10,000 Kickstarter campaign toward the purchase of kitchen equipment, including a fryer and hood, oven, proofing box, donut cutter, mixer and glazing tables. The fundraising effort took just over two weeks.
Three of the backers pledged more than $500, and will be able to collaborate with chef Sweet Will on a donut to be featured in the shop.
Prior to their May opening, the business partners are hard at work introducing themselves to the community--and they're doing it with some true flair. They recently teamed with The Post to host a pog tournament and hand out donut pop samples.
Next Friday stop by Perennial Artisan Ales, 8125 Michigan Ave., on April 5 for "Strange Beers" a 'craft donut and beer tasting event' Donut flavors, which have yet to be announced, will be paired with four featured Perennial beers. The donut makers will also have a presence at the Maplewood Coffee Crawl on April 6.

SOURCE : http://maplewood-brentwood.patch.com/articles/strange-donuts-meets-kickstarter-goal

Weird crime: Snow stalls scrap thieves

The skinny: State police said some would-be scrap metal thieves didn't account for snowy conditions when they targeted a building in Venango Township earlier this week.

What we know: Troopers were called to Macedonia Road on Tuesday to check out a report of a suspicious vehicle that was off the roadway. Police said they learned after arriving on scene that one man had stolen scrap metal from a building on the road, and that two others were planning to do the same but got their vehicle stuck in the snow.

Case update: The suspects, ages 19, 20 and 46, are under investigation, police said Friday.

SOURCE : http://www.goerie.com/article/20130329/NEWS02/303299882/Weird-crime%3A-Snow-stalls-scrap-thieves

The Weird World of Adventure Time Comes Full Circle

Nobody really expected a cartoon featuring post-apocalyptic candy kingdoms and Korean-speaking unicorns to become a children’s-television success story. Nor did anybody expect that same show to be a success story with just about every other demographic out there, either.
But that’s exactly what happened to Adventure Time, an animated series following the exploits of Finn, a 14-year-old boy, and his best friend, Jake, a walking, talking and shape-shifting dog. Together, the pair has inspired a loyal legion of fans of that number in the millions. And, now in its fifth season, the show that began as a one-off animated web short is coming back to the medium on which it originally debuted: streaming video. All past seasons of Adventure Time will go live on Netflix Instant at the end of March, with new episodes still airing through the spring on Cartoon Network. If you binged on House of Cards earlier this year, prepare your queue for a dose of trippy whimsy.
Adventure Time’s evolution from web short to international franchise has surprised and stumped even those intimately involved with the show, like John DiMaggio, the voice behind Jake (as well as Futurama’s Bender). He remembers one conversation with voice actor Tom Kenny — Adventure Time’s Ice King villain — about the show’s unexpected popularity.
“I was like, ‘I just don’t get it man,’” DiMaggio recalls. “And he said, ‘You know what? This is this generation’s Yellow Submarine. It’s that kind of world.’ It finally struck me — and I get it ever since.”
(MORE: Disney: Hand-Drawn Cartoons Coming to TV This Summer)

Read more: http://entertainment.time.com/2013/03/29/the-weird-world-of-adventure-time-comes-full-circle/#ixzz2Ovp93s00

'Floating Umbrella' skyscrapers of the future

A Florida architect, Derek Pirozzi, won for his idea of a floating building "that rebuilds the arctic ice caps by reducing the surface’s heat gain and freezing ocean water. In addition, the super-structure is equipped with a desalinization plant and solar powered research facilities and eco-tourist attractions."










SOURCE : http://www.philly.com/philly/news/10-best-and-bizarre-skyscapers-of-the-future.html

One year after founding, 1 Million Cups’ word spreads

Nate Olson once read on an entrepreneur’s blog that communities are built through a million cups of coffee.

That appears to be grounds for truth.

One year after Olson and colleague Thom Ruhe at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation founded 1 Million Cups, a networking organization for startup entrepreneurs, the expected conversations — and communities — are percolating.

Not just in Kansas City but expanding to other cities around the country, 1 Million Cups meetings are brewing communities among business developers who otherwise might feel isolated.

That collegial spirit is most in evidence on Wednesday mornings at the Kauffman Foundation. At each regular 9 a.m. meeting an average of 220 people now listen to presentations by two pre-registered entrepreneurs. About 40 more tune in each week through live streaming.

The opportunity to explain their new enterprises gives presenters exposure to possible advisers, funders and fellow business operators who might become customers, suppliers or confidants.

“The neat thing about 1 Million Cups is that it’s a friendly environment for people who have passion for an idea to get in front of an audience,” said Mike Farmer, founder of Leap2, a mobile Internet search application. “It’s the first step to test the waters before you fund-raise or give venture capital pitches.”

For Tyler Becket, who started Hugo Tea Co. last fall, his January presentation was a turning point for the young company.

“Immediately after, we doubled our wholesale accounts and doubled our online sales,” Becket said, adding that the Kauffman Foundation itself became a client. “Before it was all about coffee. Now there’s tea at the meetings, too.”

Becket said the 1 Million Cups exposure added legitimacy and access to his venture.

Farmer said he also appreciated that the gatherings had become “showcases for some amazing talent here in KC” and in some of the other new markets where 1 Million Cups groups are being established. They are places, he said, where people sometimes are humble to a fault about their ideas.

Reno, Nev., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, this month became the fifth and sixth cities to form 1 Million Cups groups. They joined Kansas City, Des Moines, Houston and St. Louis. Organizers hope to have groups going in 20 cities by the end of the year.

The Kauffman-based group is getting more exposure at 12:30 p.m. today at Hangar 9 at the Downtown Airport, where sample presentations will be shared at the Big Kansas City event sponsored by Silicon Prairie News.

For people who can’t get to a meeting, there are 1 Million Cups website, Facebook, Twitter and other social media links. Olson said that in the first year, 146 startups had been able to share their stories with more than 6,700 participants.

Though technology helps spread the word, a survey of participants taken earlier this year found that face-to-face contact was the big draw.

“The word-of-mouth growth of 1 Million Cups suggests the value of interpersonal networking among entrepreneurs,” said Yasuyuki Motoyama, a Kauffman senior scholar who researched the program. “Busy entrepreneurs may look to peers for trustable information, rather than weeding through electronic information and trying to assess its value.”

Olson, who shepherded the beginning of 1 Million Cups, said research and experience had made it clear that the groups worked best when led by entrepreneurs themselves, not by existing organizations that have broader agendas.

To that end, four new-business creators now are in charge of the Kansas City group. They are George Brooks, with Cremalab; Mike Craig, with Ruxter Mobile; John McGovern, with Crowd Prospectus; and Melissa Roberts, with Partnership for Technology Innovation.

SOURCE: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/26/4145688/1-million-cups-is-one-year-old.html

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/26/4145688/1-million-cups-is-one-year-old.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/26/4145688/1-million-cups-is-one-year-old.html#storylink=cpy

That appears to be grounds for truth.

One year after Olson and colleague Thom Ruhe at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation founded 1 Million Cups, a networking organization for startup entrepreneurs, the expected conversations — and communities — are percolating.

Not just in Kansas City but expanding to other cities around the country, 1 Million Cups meetings are brewing communities among business developers who otherwise might feel isolated.

That collegial spirit is most in evidence on Wednesday mornings at the Kauffman Foundation. At each regular 9 a.m. meeting an average of 220 people now listen to presentations by two pre-registered entrepreneurs. About 40 more tune in each week through live streaming.

The opportunity to explain their new enterprises gives presenters exposure to possible advisers, funders and fellow business operators who might become customers, suppliers or confidants.

“The neat thing about 1 Million Cups is that it’s a friendly environment for people who have passion for an idea to get in front of an audience,” said Mike Farmer, founder of Leap2, a mobile Internet search application. “It’s the first step to test the waters before you fund-raise or give venture capital pitches.”

For Tyler Becket, who started Hugo Tea Co. last fall, his January presentation was a turning point for the young company.

“Immediately after, we doubled our wholesale accounts and doubled our online sales,” Becket said, adding that the Kauffman Foundation itself became a client. “Before it was all about coffee. Now there’s tea at the meetings, too.”

Becket said the 1 Million Cups exposure added legitimacy and access to his venture.

Farmer said he also appreciated that the gatherings had become “showcases for some amazing talent here in KC” and in some of the other new markets where 1 Million Cups groups are being established. They are places, he said, where people sometimes are humble to a fault about their ideas.

Reno, Nev., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, this month became the fifth and sixth cities to form 1 Million Cups groups. They joined Kansas City, Des Moines, Houston and St. Louis. Organizers hope to have groups going in 20 cities by the end of the year.

The Kauffman-based group is getting more exposure at 12:30 p.m. today at Hangar 9 at the Downtown Airport, where sample presentations will be shared at the Big Kansas City event sponsored by Silicon Prairie News.

For people who can’t get to a meeting, there are 1 Million Cups website, Facebook, Twitter and other social media links. Olson said that in the first year, 146 startups had been able to share their stories with more than 6,700 participants.

Though technology helps spread the word, a survey of participants taken earlier this year found that face-to-face contact was the big draw.

“The word-of-mouth growth of 1 Million Cups suggests the value of interpersonal networking among entrepreneurs,” said Yasuyuki Motoyama, a Kauffman senior scholar who researched the program. “Busy entrepreneurs may look to peers for trustable information, rather than weeding through electronic information and trying to assess its value.”

Olson, who shepherded the beginning of 1 Million Cups, said research and experience had made it clear that the groups worked best when led by entrepreneurs themselves, not by existing organizations that have broader agendas.

To that end, four new-business creators now are in charge of the Kansas City group. They are George Brooks, with Cremalab; Mike Craig, with Ruxter Mobile; John McGovern, with Crowd Prospectus; and Melissa Roberts, with Partnership for Technology Innovation.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/26/4145688/1-million-cups-is-one-year-old.html#storylink=cpy

 

Strange Space Object Found In Jasper County

Jasper County - KBMT - A Chinese Rocket Crashed in the East Texas near Buna, TX in Jasper County. Farfetched? Conspiracy theory? Actually, this story is true!

Early morning February 27th, 2013 there were reports of bright fireballs over East Texas and West Louisiana skies.

Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society determined that the fireball event was the result of Chinese Rocket CZ-4B crashing back to earth.

Lunsford made his determination using information from Aerospace.org that say the rocket was launched May 10th, 2012 and was expected to re-enter the atmosphere on February 27th, 2013. Aerospace.org also posted a map that showed the trajectory of the rocket. The trajectory brought the rocket over the area where the lights were seen (see image below).

Now, nearly a month later, Dean Gents in Jasper County contacted KBMT Channel 12 news in Beaumont, TX to report debris on his property. Dean Gents emailed me a couple of pictures that he took when he discovered the remnants of this Chinese Rocket (see 2 pictures below). KBMT 12 News went out to the property and found that one beach ball size object left a 9 inch crater (see picture of debris above from KBMT)

NASA has been contacted about the debris but they have not responded. An Aerospace Engineer from California did respond and he believes the debris is a pressure tank from the Chinese Rocket CZ-4B that was seen crashing to earth in the early morning of Feb 27th, 2013.

SOURCE : http://www.cbs19.tv/story/21802751/strange-space-object-found-in-jasper-county

Strange Shaking in New Jersey

Unexplained booms and shaking incidents disturbed residents of southern New Jersey on March 19 and 20. The US Geologic Survey says that it didn’t detect any earthquakes, and military officials said that their activities could not explain the incidents.

SOURCE : http://economicrisis.com/strange-shaking-in-new-jersey/2522

Man banned from ‘all libraries on the face of the earth’

TYREE S. Carter, 20, has been banned from “all libraries on the face of the earth“.
Yeah, libraries. How quaint. If Carter transgresses again will he be banned from riding a Penny Farthing to the video store?
There is a reason for Carter’s banning. He was masturbating in Wisconsin’s Racine Public Library. Carter was, reportedly, “standing in the open, not trying to conceal the act”. The Journal Times reports:

When police arrived Carter was seated reading a book at a table and the officer asked Carter if he knew why police were called. He said he had no idea, the complaint said. But when the officer explained, Carter allegedly apologized and said it was his first time doing it in public.

Carter is homeless. If convicted of the crime, he faces up to $11,000 in fines and a year in prison. Whether he will allowed to use the prison library is not known. He could be forced to use the showers, like everyone else…

SOURCE : http://www.anorak.co.uk/351390/strange-but-true/man-banned-from-all-libraries-on-the-face-of-the-earth.html/

U.S. launches civil rights probe of Cleveland police

(CNN) -- The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation of Cleveland police on Thursday over allegations of excessive force prompted by a deadly chase and shooting.

Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez joined the U.S. attorney in Cleveland and top city officials to announce the investigation of the police department's policies and practices.

"The investigation will focus on use of force issues and will examine allegations that Cleveland police officers use excessive force," Perez said in Cleveland.

Mayor Frank Jackson requested an investigation following a controversial police chase and shooting in December that killed two people.

Perez said the civil scrutiny will look at police systems issues and not any culpability of individuals.

There is no criminal component of the investigation that is expected to take more than a year to complete, he said.

SOURCE : http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/14/politics/cleveland-police-probe/index.html

Rafael Nadal crushes Roger Federer to make semi-finals at Indian Wells

• Nadal wins 6-4, 6-2 at BNP Paribas Open
• Victoria Azarenka forced to withdraw with ankle injury

Nadal eased to a 6-4, 6-2 win over Roger Federer in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

The fifth seed recently returned from seven months out with knee problems but showed no signs of discomfort as he dismantled his old rival in their first meeting since the semi-finals of this tournament last year, booking a last-four clash with Tomas Berdych.

Indeed, if there were any injury questions they were aimed at Federer, who suffered a back twinge earlier in the tournament and did not appear to be moving entirely freely.

The world No2 saved a break point in the fifth game with an ace, but could not repeat the feat two games later when Nadal came from 40-15 down and sealed the break when he easily passed the advancing Swiss.

Federer forced Nadal to serve the set out at 5-4 after holding on when he was in trouble for the third service game in a row, but there was little he could do to hurt the serve of the Spaniard.

There was more of the same as Nadal broke to love at the start of the second set and with Federer not looking comfortable and seemingly losing interest the Spaniard increased his advantage to 3-0. The Swiss finally broke the Nadal serve to make it 3-1, then made it two games in a row before a big inside-out forehand gave him a sniff of a chance at 15-30 in the next. But he twice found the net and the world No5 held his serve.

Federer saved two break points in his next service game but succumbed the third time when he could not deal with Nadal's deep return, and the Spaniard served out the match to complete a comprehensive victory, improving his record against his rival to 19-10.

Berdych, the sixth seed, beat the South African Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4 and is still to drop a set in Indian Wells.

The women's top seed, Victoria Azarenka, was forced to withdraw, sending Caroline Wozniacki into the semi-finals as neither scheduled women's singles match made it on court. Azarenka suffered an ankle injury allowing Wozniacki a free passage, while Angelique Kerber advanced thanks to a calf problem suffered by Samantha Stosur in the previous round.

Azarenka said: "I'm extremely disappointed because I feel I'm playing really well right now."

SOURCE : http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/mar/15/rafael-nadal-roger-federer-indian-wells

G.O.P.’s Portman, Saying Son Is Gay, Now Backs Same-Sex Marriage

Paul Vernon/Associated Press Senator Rob Portman, in front, with Representative Paul D. Ryan, center, and Mitt Romney at a campaign rally in Lancaster, Ohio, in October.

Senator Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican, has switched his stand on same-sex marriage, saying he now supports it after his son told him he is gay.
Mr. Portman, who had been considered one of the leading candidates to be Mitt Romney’s running mate in 2012, told Ohio newspapers that his son Will told him and his wife, Jane, in 2011 of his sexual orientation.
“It allowed me to think of this issue from a new perspective, and that’s of a Dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have — to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years,” Mr. Portman was quoted by Cleveland.com as telling reporters in an interview in his Washington office.
“If anything, I’m even more proud of the way he has handled the whole situation,” the senator said of his son, a student at Yale. “He’s an amazing young man.”
His decision to become the only sitting Republican senator to so publicly embrace same-sex marriage comes after President Obama switched his position during the 2012 campaign to support such unions. The president announced his new position as Americans have been steadily shifting their attitudes on the issue, with polls showing an increasing numbers of Americans accepting gay marriages.
Mr. Portman said that when he was being considered for Mr. Romney’s ticket last year, he told the candidate that his son is gay.
While he was not selected as Mr. Romney’s running mate, the senator was a key adviser through his campaign, and played the role of President Obama as Mr. Romney prepared for the presidential debates.
Word of Mr. Portman’s switch on the issue came the same day that a fellow Republican senator, Marco Rubio of Florida, who is considered a likely 2016 presidential contender, appealed to conservatives by defending his stance on key social issues, including his opposition to same-sex marriage.
“Just because I believe states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday in a speech in Maryland.
Mr. Portman was a sponsor of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that is now being reviewed by the Supreme Court. He said he wants the court to invalidate parts of the law, particularly the wording that marriage is between a man and a woman. But he said states should be allowed to decide whether to allow same-sex marriage.
Last month, dozens of prominent Republicans signed a legal brief stating their support for same-sex marriage, but no sitting Republicans senators signed on.

SOURCE :  http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/portman-saying-son-is-gay-now-backs-gay-marriage/

Cern scientists believe newly discovered particle is the real Higgs boson

The more they look at it, the more the new particle discovered at Cern last year resembles the long-sought Higgs boson, the mysterious particle that confers mass on the building blocks of nature.
Scientists at the home of the Large Hadron Collider on the outskirts of Geneva said their latest analysis, based on more than twice as much data as before, pointed firmly towards the particle first described in 1964 by Professor Peter Higgs at Edinburgh University.
Physicists at the lab announced the discovery of a new particle in July last year, but cautioned that the results were preliminary. The latest measurements show that the particle behaves precisely as expected, leading some to drop their reservations over its identity. "I'm confident that it's a Higgs particle. I don't need to call it Higgs-like any more," said Joe Incandela, spokesman for the CMS team at Cern. "I may need to eat my words one day, but I think that's very unlikely."
The particle was discovered among the subatomic debris spewed out from hundreds of trillions of proton collisions inside the Large Hadron Collider. Two teams, working on the huge detectors Atlas and CMS, announced a tentative discovery of the particle last year.
The Higgs particle is highly unstable and disintegrates into other subatomic particles as soon as it is created. The latest data shows that the new particle decays as predicted for the simplest type of Higgs boson.
The scientists also measured a quantum property of the particle called spin. The Higgs boson should have no spin, and this has so far been borne out by measurements. Details of the latest results were announced at a physics conference in La Thuile in Italy.
The discovery marks the end of a decades-long search for the particle, and the beginning of a new effort among physicists to understand its place in nature.
Though all measurements to date point to the particle being a simple and singular Higgs boson, many physicists hope that relatives of the Higgs particle await discovery.
One theory, called supersymmetry, calls for five different varieties of Higgs boson. The theory would take physics in a radical new direction, and pave the way to understanding dark matter, the invisible substance that clings around galaxies and makes up around one fifth of the universe.
The Large Hadron Collider was switched off earlier this year for maintenance and repairs that will last until 2015. When the collider is turned back on, physicists hope to push it to its full design energy, nearly twice that achieved so far.

SOURCE : http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/mar/14/scientists-particle-higgs-boson