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Well, today at 4pm (Japan time) the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) will go live.  What they hope to
analize with the LHC is the collisions of particles at high speeds.  These collisions should do all sorts of
exciting things like create microscopic black holes and maybe even recreate the
Big Bang (which I would like to point out is a theory, and hasn’t been proven
yet).

Here in Japan I don’t get to read newspapers or watch the
evening news frequently, so I try to keep up to date by reading newspapers
online.  The funny thing is there has
hardly been a mention of the LHC on the Asahi Shimbun’s website but the
Courier Mail  in Queensland seems to be
inciting all sorts of debate over the issue. 
The main things people seem to be ‘blogging’, as the Courier Mail likes
to call its comments, about are  –

•  We’re all going to die!
• What right do ‘they’ have to turn on this
  doomsday device and kill us all?
• I won’t have to finish my assignments/Well, if
  it’s the end of the world then I’m off to the pub.
• The rest of you lot are bloody idiots for buying
  into the scaremongering.
• If ‘they’ wanted to know how the universe was
  created why don’t ‘they’ look in the Bible.
• 
  Why don’t they spend all that money on the poor
  instead of ‘wasting’ it on science.

I am of the opinion expressed in the fourth point, but personally
I wouldn’t be using such strong language. What surprises me the most is that
people are so ill-informed.  (actually,
the word I really want to use is stupid) Really, I know science isn’t for
everyone, but if you want to express your opinion, please at least be informed
and express a valid opinion.  And use
spell check.

Sometimes (like now) I am ashamed to be a Queenslander.