The list of problems encountered by the Large Hadron Collider, a super-sized particle accelerator in Switzerland, is long and becoming longer. It ranges from French bread to French terrorists, and from black holes to time travel, and makes for increasingly entertaining reading.

One can almost hear the tone of surprise in Monday's press release from the enormous particle accelerator at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN for short. "Particles Have Gone Half Way Round the LHC," reads the headline, referring to the Large Hadron Collider.

At first glance, it seems odd that the people at the LHC would find such a partial particle peregrination worthy of triumphalism, no matter how tepid. But given that the launch of the ambitious experiments slated for the multi-billion euro science kit is now over a year behind schedule, the LHC has been starved of anything positive to say at all.

Indeed, the periodic hiccups on the way to functionality have become something of a running joke in the media coverage of CERN. This week has seen two new punchlines added to the list. On Monday, CERN announced that a bird carrying a hunk of French bread accidentally dropped its snack on an external power generator last week, creating a short-circuit that briefly shut down the accelerator's all-important cooling system.