It goes live this month…
some speculations seem to think that if something goes wrong, it could create a black hole.. 
any thoughts on this thing?
I have no concerns about this, as it is a well-known fact that certain benign agencies from other worlds are monitoring its progress and are prepared to act in case of any unforseen complications.
djm
They turned it on and burned a big hole in California 
Ventura County.
Thoughts:
It will not create a black hole.
That thing sure eats a heap o’ real estate.
we’re going to try and get a tour, our’s here is just too small. we need more POWER!
Denny already posted a photo of what’s about to happen. Prepare to meet your 11-dimensional overlords!
It is not a serious worry.
We know that much higher-energy collisions occur in nature, and they don’t appear to destabilize the celestial bodies involved.
Of course, they don’t necessarily happen on inhabited planets.
On the other hand, you can’t anticipate everything. Sometimes you just have to flip the switch and hope.
Look at the bright side: in a reality-falls-down-and-goes-boom scenario, nobody’s gonna care what your credit score is. 
And gas will be, like, free. In fact, it’ll probably be all that’s left.
–James
well…they are shooting it in 6 days…
if you need a reservation to see your priest, I’d book it now…
here’s a great slide show of the LHC…
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html
Warning…large photos…don’t open if you are on Dialup…
I’m ready to get sucked into Western Europe and compressed into semi-nothingness. Let’s get small, y’all.
That could be an interesting place to work.
I wonder if the left hand ever has any idea what the right hand is doing
I also wonder if it came with an folded sheet of assembly instructions, like the wire handlebar basket I just mounted on my bike today…
Step 1:
Check to see that you have all the listed parts.
Additionally, you will need:
1 Phillips-head screwdriver
1 5mm Hex Wrench
1 small block of wood to insulate breakable parts from your ham-fisted hammering.
(Need help? Call IKEA’s friendly answer staff!)
Step 2:
Insert three (3) Muon Small Wheels into ATLAS Magnet Toroid End-Cap A.
(A second person will be helpful for this step.)
Be sure that the L3 magnet is positioned + end out or damage to the product could result!
remember, pack a towel.
Hmmm kinda makes you wonder what happens if it has just one lose wire?
Getting sucked into a balckhole??
Could be worse ways to die. Think of the view!
Hadron boffins: Our meddling will not destroy universe
“It is difficult for strange matter to stick together in the high temperatures produced by such colliders, rather as ice does not form in hot water”. Although soup can be made in hot water, it seems that strangelet soup can’t, or anyway not this kind of hot water. It ought to be called strangelet gazpacho, really; that would avoid confusion.
YMMV 
Ugh. Call the metaphor police.
What the heck is a “boffin”, anyway?
British slang: scientist
Thank you. I always wondered that.
How about a strangelet smoothie?
Naw…too homogeneous.
Strangelet fruit bubble tea.
Other worries include the possibility that LHC boffins might absent-mindedly convert the Earth - and indeed, if they weren’t careful perhaps the entire universe - into “strangelet soup”, monopole custard or some other kind of fearful hypothetical-particulate semolina, Angel Delight, squirty cheez™ etc.
fruit bubble tea would be better than the squirty cheez™ now, wouldn’t it
Some bright light has figured out that they can use](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080903.wwine0903/BNStory/Science/home%22%3Euse) particle accelerators to determine the age of wine by identifying the atomic structure of the glass in the bottles and thus the place and time of manufacture. Thank goodness for this. Here I was, worrying that we had wasted billions of dollars on a particle accelerator with no immediate use for it.
djm