The Large Hadron Collider is almost ready to roll. The New York Times gives a rough timetable of the warming up, with the first proton expected to launch the weekend of August 9, September 2 or 3 for the first lap of the racetrack. October 21 is when many of the launch parties kick in and the "pilot physics" begin.
Alpinekat, a CERN writer, has made a rap vid explaining what the LHC is all about. "Unlike the first rap video about the neurochip, there was no tequila involved.”
UPDATE: New Scientist's Blog has a less fuzzy version of the video here.
