The $21,000,000,000 hole in Texas
June 23, 2023 3:38 PM Subscribe
Bobby Broccoli presents a story about the greatest failure in American physics: The Superconducting Super Collider. (warning: 3 hour Youtube video)
"Under Texas soil
Under Texas sky
It sits and waits and grows
It runs for fifty-four miles
Goodbye Princeton
Goodbye CERN
He's gone to Texas
To watch the holy fire burn
He's gone to build
He's gone to build the supercollider"
posted by bondcliff at 4:25 PM on June 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
Under Texas sky
It sits and waits and grows
It runs for fifty-four miles
Goodbye Princeton
Goodbye CERN
He's gone to Texas
To watch the holy fire burn
He's gone to build
He's gone to build the supercollider"
posted by bondcliff at 4:25 PM on June 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
Short of watching a 3 hour video, why is this collider a failure?
posted by olykate at 4:32 PM on June 23, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by olykate at 4:32 PM on June 23, 2023 [7 favorites]
It doesn't exist. Never got actually built.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:34 PM on June 23, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:34 PM on June 23, 2023 [7 favorites]
Wikipedia article for those that just want a quick overview
posted by forbiddencabinet at 5:15 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by forbiddencabinet at 5:15 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Well, they did dig 14 miles of tunnels. Univar owns it now. Apparently they produce titanium dioxide and other stuff aboveground. I don't think anyone knows anything about their subterranean operations.
posted by phooky at 5:20 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by phooky at 5:20 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
One of the functions of the Large Hadron Collider in Europe was to give fractious members of the EU a big, economy stimulating and prestigious project to build together and unite behind, as well as something to lose if the EU came apart.
If we had given it the SSC, would Texas not be in the process of attempting to secede from the rest of the US the way it is now?
posted by jamjam at 5:36 PM on June 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
If we had given it the SSC, would Texas not be in the process of attempting to secede from the rest of the US the way it is now?
posted by jamjam at 5:36 PM on June 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
Bruce Sterling wrote a great deep-dive (but less than 3 hours) article about the SSC back in 1994 not long after it died.
posted by straight at 6:04 PM on June 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by straight at 6:04 PM on June 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
I met this guy recently at a house party! Extremely nice dude who was caught off guard when I correctly guessed his channel name from his vague description of "science-y youtuber" lol
posted by Wandering_Boots at 6:18 PM on June 23, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Wandering_Boots at 6:18 PM on June 23, 2023 [8 favorites]
A Hole in Texas
Not exactly The Caine Mutiny, but interesting nonetheless.
I remember this project well; I was very disappointed when it got cancelled. I can’t help but wonder if the influx of highly educated people and federal money might have made Texas somewhat less shitty than it is today.
posted by TedW at 7:54 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Not exactly The Caine Mutiny, but interesting nonetheless.
I remember this project well; I was very disappointed when it got cancelled. I can’t help but wonder if the influx of highly educated people and federal money might have made Texas somewhat less shitty than it is today.
posted by TedW at 7:54 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
bondcliff: “He's gone to build the supercollider”“I directed the video and indeed it was the most expensive music video set ever. However it was a tiny budget and as I was watching it now, I wondered how we got away with so much. The saddest part is that we were there at a time between the funding being passed by the house and getting killed by the senate. It was a euphoric moment for everyone there, it may have had a positive effect in their willingness to help the production, possibly even in having allowed it.”—Adolfo Doring
posted by ob1quixote at 8:07 PM on June 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
what if they actually built it though, and just said they cancelled it
posted by glonous keming at 9:47 PM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by glonous keming at 9:47 PM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Jon Bois has put a huge divot in modern narrative dataviz, hasn't he.
posted by mhoye at 10:17 PM on June 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 10:17 PM on June 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
Previously on der bloo.
Ah... missed that one, sorry.
posted by Pendragon at 12:06 AM on June 24, 2023
Ah... missed that one, sorry.
posted by Pendragon at 12:06 AM on June 24, 2023
I could have sworn he had already done this. Maybe it's a repost as one long video?
posted by wierdo at 8:14 AM on June 24, 2023
posted by wierdo at 8:14 AM on June 24, 2023
It's a compilation of his earlier three videos. I missed the previous post on it.
posted by Pendragon at 8:19 AM on June 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Pendragon at 8:19 AM on June 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
Ah, thanks for that. I was wondering why it popped up in my recommendations yesterday when I had such a strong memory of having seen it before.
It's good stuff, definitely worth watching. It's got all of the intrigue and drama of some TV show, but in real life. I remain somewhat sad it never happened, as I was at the time, though in some ways it may have been for the best. As a country we seem to be willing to spend only so much on basic science.
posted by wierdo at 8:24 AM on June 24, 2023
It's good stuff, definitely worth watching. It's got all of the intrigue and drama of some TV show, but in real life. I remain somewhat sad it never happened, as I was at the time, though in some ways it may have been for the best. As a country we seem to be willing to spend only so much on basic science.
posted by wierdo at 8:24 AM on June 24, 2023
This Texas Monthly article about it from ten years ago is pretty good.
posted by box at 10:00 AM on June 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by box at 10:00 AM on June 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
Fans of nominative determinism will enjoy this bit from the Texas Monthly article, about the civil engineer who was in charge of digging the Supercollider's tunnels:
from the pool of applicants emerged a man named Joginder "Jo" Bhore, a sedulous, India-born civil engineer with a subterranean specialty.... He oversaw the construction of both Union and Wilshire stations in Los Angeles's transit system.... The Anacostia River Crossing Tunnels -- that was Bhore. Dupont Circle Station in Washington D.C. -- that was Bhore. Sewer tunnels in Houston, highways in Stockton and Marysville, ventilation shafts in Boston, water tunnels in Fairfax -- all Bhore.posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:11 PM on June 24, 2023 [6 favorites]
I can’t help but wonder if the influx of highly educated people and federal money might have made Texas somewhat less shitty than it is today.
I grew up around Lynchburg, VA, which you probably know as the home of Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority and Liberty University and all that. What you may not know is that for a long time it was also the home of Babcock and Wilcox, a company that made highly advanced nuclear equipment for the Navy - submarine reactors mainly, along with various other nuclear propulsion system stuff.
And so Lynchburg had a surprising number of highly educated and well paid nuclear physicists and engineers, many of them having relocated from Germany and other European countries. Granted, this was not on the scale of the SSC, but an influx of Federal money and a bunch of highly educated people in no way made Lynchburg any less shitty. It was just a really shitty place that also happened to have some surprisingly sophisticated fine arts programs.
posted by Naberius at 2:00 PM on June 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
I grew up around Lynchburg, VA, which you probably know as the home of Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority and Liberty University and all that. What you may not know is that for a long time it was also the home of Babcock and Wilcox, a company that made highly advanced nuclear equipment for the Navy - submarine reactors mainly, along with various other nuclear propulsion system stuff.
And so Lynchburg had a surprising number of highly educated and well paid nuclear physicists and engineers, many of them having relocated from Germany and other European countries. Granted, this was not on the scale of the SSC, but an influx of Federal money and a bunch of highly educated people in no way made Lynchburg any less shitty. It was just a really shitty place that also happened to have some surprisingly sophisticated fine arts programs.
posted by Naberius at 2:00 PM on June 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
Jon Bois has put a huge divot in modern narrative dataviz, hasn't he.
I first came across Broccoli's videos when he'd post them in the Jon Bois subreddit, he's been very up front about the influence which is cool
posted by jason_steakums at 7:38 PM on June 24, 2023
I first came across Broccoli's videos when he'd post them in the Jon Bois subreddit, he's been very up front about the influence which is cool
posted by jason_steakums at 7:38 PM on June 24, 2023
from the pool of applicants emerged a man named Joginder "Jo" Bhore, a sedulous, India-born civil engineer with a subterranean specialty.... He oversaw the construction of both Union and Wilshire stations in Los Angeles's
It sounds like he bore great responsibility in these in these exciting projects! Although that would be tough for someone like me who abhors being so far underground. Definitely not a boring job!
posted by slogger at 2:05 PM on June 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
It sounds like he bore great responsibility in these in these exciting projects! Although that would be tough for someone like me who abhors being so far underground. Definitely not a boring job!
posted by slogger at 2:05 PM on June 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm still very fond of the Tribe song, though I ran into after the SCSC was already cancelled so it had a melancholy edge to it. It was part of the Science! mix I made back in the 90s, which I sadly have lost the list of, only other one I remember is Tasmin Archer's _Sleeping Satellite_.
posted by tavella at 2:25 PM on June 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by tavella at 2:25 PM on June 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Headline: Expenses soar, neighbors abhor Bhore's giant bore
(I'm sorry, I'll stop)
posted by slogger at 5:03 AM on June 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
(I'm sorry, I'll stop)
posted by slogger at 5:03 AM on June 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by phooky at 4:21 PM on June 23, 2023 [9 favorites]