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The LHC and Alex's Survey

2011-10-03 · Q&A · Hank, Joe Incandela · 3:51 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Science & nature) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: guest or collab

Hank answers Alex Day's YouTube survey with comic personal answers (first kiss, a lucky coat pocket, childhood oceanographer dream, his all-girl high-school 'Posse', kids' names), then reports on interviewing LHC physicist Joe Incandela and says he is reserving judgment on the faster-than-light neutrino.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; survey answers: first kiss, most expensive casual clothing (money and a beer receipt in the pocket), oceanographer haiku, The Posse, kids' names, who should answer next

  • ★ Hank tries to start with his LHC interview but is repeatedly told 'Tell us about your first kiss' and gives in to doing the survey first. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ In third grade Hank 'dated' a girl for about six months, kissing her on the forehead, cheek and hand; friends staged a mock wedding at his pool, but she got cold feet. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank's first real mouth kiss was with a girl he identifies by her surname, who he says liked boys, including him. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Asked for his most expensive casual clothing, Hank shows a winter garment (prepared for Montana winters) and finds six dollars and a receipt for only a six-pack of Miller High Life in its pocket. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Montana
  • ★★ As a kid Hank, like around 85% of his elementary class, wanted to be an oceanographer, and recites a haiku he wrote about it. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Hank's senior-year high-school friends called themselves The Posse: five people, Hank the only boy; they passed notes, renamed the days of the week and listened to Hanson, and the four girls remain some of his best friends. — 00:01:14
  • ★★ Hank won't name his kids Hunter, Olive, Forest, Lime or Asparagus, names that make a shade of green with his surname; cute names are cute for a tiny part of a child's life. (playful) — 00:01:44
  • ★ Asked who should answer the survey next, Hank names all his ex-girlfriends, to learn whether he was anyone's first kiss (he suspects not), and especially Hatchetface from Cry-Baby. (playful) — 00:01:44

00:02:07 — Interview with LHC physicist Joe Incandela: thanks to viewers, Joe on what happens if nothing is found, the faster-than-light neutrino

  • ★★★ Hank interviewed Joe Incandela, one of the top scientists at the Large Hadron Collider, for half an hour that morning, calling it the coolest thing that has happened to him. — 00:02:07
  • ★★ Hank says Joe Incandela is pretty famous in particle physics and helped discover the top quark. — 00:02:07
  • ★★ Hank thanks viewers: no one would talk to him about awesome things if it weren't for them. — 00:02:07 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★ Hank proposes 'The coolest thing that happened to me like ever' as a new Vlogbrothers segment. (playful) — 00:02:36 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★★ Joe Incandela: In an interview clip, Joe Incandela says that after 15 years of preparation he wonders what if nothing is found, but something has to give: a find would be studied for details on where to look next, and no find would be even more exciting, if hard to explain to funders. — 00:02:36
  • ★★★ Hank says he talked with Joe about the neutrino that supposedly went faster than light; he hasn't discussed it, though asked on Twitter, because he is reserving judgment and finds faster-than-light matter hard to accept. (unsure) — 00:03:05 · Twitter

00:03:36 — Sign-off; 'what's holding you from falling to the center of the earth?' 'My chair.'

Humor (significant)

  • Hank pulls last winter's receipts from the pocket of his most expensive casual garment to see what he bought. — 00:00:29

    “The only thing on this receipt is a six of Miller High Life.”

  • Hank explains his high-school group The Posse had five members and he was the only boy; a second Hank voice heckles him. — 00:01:14

    “Well, that explains a lot.”

  • Asked about the faster-than-light neutrino, Hank says he is reserving judgment and that it makes him want to make a noise, which he makes. — 00:03:36

    “That actually was probably the most articulate thing I've ever said about particle physics in my life.”

  • After the sign-off a voice asks Hank what is holding him from falling to the center of the earth right now. — 00:03:36

    “My chair.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Joe Incandela · Large Hadron Collider · YouTube Survey

Also: 2011 OPERA faster-than-light neutrino anomaly · Cry-Baby · Hanson · Hatchet-Face · Miller High Life · Montana · top quark · Twitter

Only in the description or credits: Alex Day

Also centred on YouTube Survey: YouTube Survey: Balls and First Kisses

Later videos replying to this one

  • 2011-10-05 · SIGNING MADNESS (John) — answers — “great joke to the CERN physicist when he was like, what's keeping you from falling to the center of the earth? And you were like, my chair.” (00:02:27)