It’s true, I cannot overcome this poll on WorldNutDaily. They are ‘reporting’ on the Large Hadron Collider and the weird fact that people are fretting over whether the Swiss will annihilate the word, so they ask their readers about why they’re worried.
The first way they stumped me was by not giving any good answers (the seventh and eighth are probably closest to what I think). Then they threw in so many possible answers, which contain a lot of insane answers, which I thought at first were intended to be jokes…until I looked and saw that several of the crazy answers were leading in votes.
So here’s the lunacy, with the current leading answers flagged. I don’t think we can crash this poll — it’s too bizarre to be addressed.
I DON’T WANT TO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE. Are you concerned about scientists turning on a machine some say could destroy the planet?
- No, I trust the scientists to know what they’re doing
- No, doomsayers said the world would end two weeks ago when the supercollider was being tested
- No, somebody has been watching too many science fiction TV shows
- No, it’s simply not plausible that a machine underground could destroy the entire earth
- #2: No, this kind of catastrophe doesn’t fit into Bible prophecy
- No, if Al Gore isn’t worried, I’m not worried
- No, the risks have been wildly exaggerated
- No, the benefits of the research are worth the risk
- #1: No, the only black hole I’m concerned about is the one that sucked billions of dollars from taxpayers to fund this boondoggle
- What’s the difference? Global warming is going to kill us eventually
- I don’t know, but if the worst happens, you can be sure some lawyer will find a way to make money off of it
- Yes, it could ruin my whole day
- Yes, this may be the time scientists finally go too far
- Yes, these are forces of nature man was not meant to monkey with
- Yes, the courts should halt the startup until more studies are done
- Yes, these scientists are nothing more than al-Qaida in lab coats
- Of course, creating black holes is dangerous
- #3: Yes, this arrogant search for a “God particle” is no different than building the Tower of Babel — God is not mocked
- Yes, I’m convinced this is putting us all at risk
- Other
I surrender. The drunken monkey style of WND is victorious.
Isn’t it obvious? Vote “Other.”
What if the Higgs boson particle turns out to be a wallet-sized picture of Sarah Palin?
How about “No, it will lead to the greatest physics discoveries in the upcoming decade?”
Or “Maybe the creation of the LHC will lead to the annihilation of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and our god will be lost forever in a messy goo of overcooked pasta”.
A histogram of the results might prove interesting.
Overwhelming. The burning stupid is just too hot to approach.
I know what the scientists are doing.
Huh? Tested? What?
Ironically, that’s not where the idea comes from.
“Plausible”? If it could create a black hole, that would be a practically inevitable conclusion.
I hope so — for the Bible!
Argumentum ad hominem.
“Exaggerated”? What happens when you multiply zero by anything?
There ain’t no risk. Much stronger collisions happen all the time above our heads, and we are still here.
Didn’t one of the scientists say there is a one in 50 million chance it will destroy earth? I know that sounds like nothing to worry about, but that means that statistically, it will kill 120 people. Just sayin’.
Some of those seem kind of redundant don’t they? Looks like it was made by some sort of a committee or something.
“Please login to submit your poll response.”
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. -Friedrich von Schiller
“….people are fretting over whether the Swiss will annihilate the word”
The LHC straddles the France-Switzerland but it is an international project, also partly funded by the USA.
So don’t blame the Swiss!
The WND crowd are not showing much faith in God’s plan, are they?
PZ, OT before the comments get flooded:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/evolutionists_flock_to_darwin?utm_source=onion_rss_daily
It made me giggle. :-)
Darwin shaped stain on wall of where the scopes trial was held has evolutionists flocking to it to have their genetic traits fixed.
heh!
Yes, these are forces of nature man was not meant to monkey with
Freudian slip?
what are the chances of an accelerated particle escaping and rigging the US election in favour of the Republicans?
…but that means that statistically, it will kill 120 people.
:D
Haven’t you been paying attention? The last two votes were rigged in favor of the Republicans without the help of the LHC.
When they turn it on and the world doesn’t end, what are the chances of it being seen as a victory for science as opposed to God simply deciding not to smite us?
Oh, about 50 million to 1 :)
I DON’T WANT TO MELT MY BRAIN. Are you concerned about WND publishing gibberish some people are so stupid they actually believe it?
* No, I trust the WND to know they never publish gibberish.
* No, doomsayers said the WND was telling lies when they didn’t use the n– word.
* No, somebody has been watching too much Faux News.
* No, it’s simply not plausible that someone is wrong on Teh Interwebs.
* No, this kind of catastrophe fits Bible prophecy.
* No, if Chuck “Cheney” Noris isn’t worried, I’m not worried.
* No, the risks have been wildly exaggerated.
* No, the the truth is worth the risk.
* No, the only gibberish I’m concerned about is that published by them liberal retards.
* What’s gibberish?
* I don’t know, but if it melts, you can be sure some my lawyer will find a way to make money off of it.
* Yes, it could ruin my whole day.
* Yes, this may be the time Republicans finally go too far.
* Where’s my crayon?
* Yes, these are forces of nature WND was not meant to monkey with.
* Yes, the courts should halt the criticism until we can ship ’em at to Gitmo.
* Yes, this is all an evilutionist’s plot!
* Yes, the WND is nothing more than al-Qaida in suits and ties.
* Of course! Melting my brain, the size of a planet, is dangerous.
* Yes, this arrogant criticism of “Dog’s truth” is no different from commies, atheists, Mooslims, and Teh Gay.
* Yes, I’m convinced the WND is saving the world for all Good Christians.
* Other.
[The disturbing thing is I did not have to change some of the possible responses. They fit the question so perfectly…]
I like this headline:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4682260.ece
I suspect that the reason that so many WorldNut Daily readers were excited was simple misreading: they thought the poll was about a “Large Hard-On Collider” and they were overcome with either lust or gay panic or a combination of the two.
“If it could create a black hole, that would be a practically inevitable conclusion.”
Actually, from what I understand of the physics (which is admittedly little). Even if a black hole were created it would be so small as to evaporate almost instantaneously via hawking radiation.
“No, the planet can’t be destroyed before Cthulhu raises from the deep.”
http://ursulav.deviantart.com/art/Walking-the-Kraken-77489668
actually, at least two of the answers seemed reasonable to me:
Given that the LHC involves science that is entirely unknown to the overwhelming majority of the population of the planet, this is pretty close to what is being asked. A certain amount of trust is being required to know that the people responsible do, in fact, know what they’re doing and wouldn’t be proceeding if they thought there was a chance it could destroy the planet.
I don’t see anything much wrong with this response either…
Well, I guess it’s nice to be reminded that biology isn’t the only science that can anger the idiots of the world.
Comment FTA:
Well, I’m convinced.
… apart from the fact that the logo is quite clearly derived from “CCC” and nothing like “666”.
Also, the theory that predicts the formation of mini black holes is the same theory that predicts their instant evaporation du to “Hawking Radiation” (I do happen to know a thing or two about this) – so if the theory is right, they wouldn’t be around anywhere near long enough to hurt us, and if it’s wrong, hey ho, no black holes. Simple enough.
Personally I can’t wait till next week to hear the deafening silence from all the critics of this experiment.
# 25 “Personally I can’t wait till next week to hear the deafening silence from all the critics of this experiment.”
Hell yes! That’ll make the score:
SCIENCE: 4,197
PEOPLE WHO KNOW JACK SHIT ABOUT THINGS THEY CLAIM TO BE AN EXPERT ON: 0
Then crash my polls PZ! They have answers that should fit most everyone! (I’ll never give up till you do!)
I seriously want to stab the asshole journalist who coined the term “God particle”. Physicists are not playing God. Physicists are not searching for God. Physicists don’t give a shit about God, because they have real science to do and real things to study and discover.
His minions do as they are told
But even they cannot be sold
On this, and so they’ll have to fold;
This craziness cannot be polled.
Perhaps it was a really bold
Idea from a different mold
Or else, perhaps, comedic gold;
This craziness cannot be polled.
Of course, I do not mean to scold
But polls like this are getting old
I think it’s gotten uncontrolled;
This craziness cannot be polled.
The World Nut Daily must uphold
It’s principles (what? none? that’s cold)
With tinfoil hats, and shirtsleeves rolled;
This craziness cannot be polled.
I don’t know why they’re all bitching about the cost. I mean, it only costs as much as about one month of being in Iraq, and we’re not even the main ones footing the bill to my knowledge.
As Jackie Chan has shown us, it is very difficult to defeat Drunken Master.
Joshua, the term “God Particle” was not given by a journalist. It was given by the physicist Leon Lederman (who originally wanted to call it the “That Goddamn Particle”).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/30/higgs.boson.cern
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Particle:_If_the_Universe_Is_the_Answer,_What_Is_the_Question%3F
We bible literates win again! Why do you think we canceled the supercollider in Texas? It’s because we *know* the world won’t be destroyed that way, but rather in the nuclear fire of Armageddon. Prophecy trumps your silly man-made science every time. You see through a glass darkly, but we embrace the true knowledge of the bible, not the hopeless darkness of man-made science, which in the end is no real knowledge at all.
I love the end-of-the-world Haldron video
——————————————-
Palin perverts UNITE
Keep your off-color sexist Sarah Palin jokes off this list. Take them over to http://hockeymompitbull.net which I just put on teh Internets this morning. Enter the Sexist Hockeymom Pitbull Joke Contest
Wikipedia (which is usually spot on for this kind of thing) tells me that World Net Daily is a “socially conservative” news website that just happens to be among the top 90 news websites according to Alexa.
If true, that’s insane, but not completely incredible.
Gee, the comments on the WDN as well as timesonline (see SC’s post #19) are really depressing.
It seems most of these people have absolutely no idea why the LHC was built, and what kind of experiments will take place. But yet they do come up with all kinds of crazy ideas, without ever askng themselves if they shouldn’t investigate first before they comment.
This s rather disturbing, people have fixed “opinions” on absolutely everything, even when they have absolutely no knowledge or understandng of the subject at hand. Much worse than kids.
For those interested to understand better what the LHC might find, I recommend this excellent blog post on cosmicvariance written by Sean Caroll who is as always an excellent educator :
http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/08/04/what-will-the-lhc-find/
What will the LHC find ?
It gives a probabilstic assessment and description of what potential discoveries can be expected from the LHC.
The 2 main discoveries expected are of course the Higgs boson (95%) and supersymmetry (60%)
And, Stable black holes that eat up the earth destroying all living organisms in the process : 10^-25% chance
And before people get all heated up about string theory : evidence for or against it : 0.5%
Funny, he puts “God” at 10^-20% !
JoJo @ #9:
“Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.”
-Friedrich von Schiller
Excellent reference. Reminds me of Asimov’s “The Gods Themselves”.
I was pissed when the US congress stopped funding for the super colllider in Texas. These same assholes can find money to kill people and blow up massive portions of Iraq as well as fund private security forces. (Blackwater etc.). WND is hand in hand with them. The violence is a given as their god has ordained them the keepers and has forgiven them ahead of time.
What a bunch of idiotic freaks.
Beware the LOLCAT meme…
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080904&mode=classic
I think it’s gotten uncontrolled;
I’m not normally the worshipful sort, but I bow before thee, Cuttlefish, OM.
I think it’s really kind of the wingnuts to worry about what we poor atheist Europeans spend out taxes on.
Personally I’m much much more offended by the bloody political finagling that causes them to move the entire, bloody parliament to Strassbourg once a month to placate the French.
Of course now they’ve had to cancel two sessions because the roof caved in. I hope they take forever to fix it. The direct demonstration of how much money is saved when they cannot move might hopefully tip the public opinion enough to make them stop.
I wish! It’s not like we don’t already now what a bloody waste of resources it is. Damn politics!Don’t fark with the quark!
Meh, particles with far higher energies hit the Earth all the time. It’s the 500km wide meteors that we have to worry about:
CG Animation Shows What Happens When Large Meteor Hits Earth
(with great musical accompaniment, courtesy of Pink Floyd)
Ted Powell #39: It takes a lot for me to ROTFLMAO but that hit the spot!
Sili, I was wondering, do you know where I can find a breakdown of the LHC’s costs by country? I found some data showing that the US had given about 530 million dollars (372 million Euros) to the project (which is about 5-15% of the total cost of the project, based on a total cost estimate of 2.2-6.2 billion euros).
Ugh. I am so sick of seeing people whine and be afraid about the various physics equipment. It is not dangerous! It will not hurt anyone! And yet everyone is so afraid because they have absolutely no idea what’s going on.
Geez… I mean, I’m an undergraduate biology student. I don’t honestly know all that much about physics… but even I know that it’s not going to destroy the world! People really do need to THINK about science instead of fearing everything that they don’t understand.
You all need to learn some respect for your fellow humans over at WND and treat them with respect. All this hostile talk about their limited intelligence, fear mongering, and stupidity is the wrong way to frame this. Instead, we should consider their objections, correct them when necessary, and treat them as objects of Christ’s love. Anything else is elitist.
{sigh} make that “asteriod”, not “meteor”.
Can I draw your attention to the BBC Radio 4 Big Bang Day?
Good old Auntie! Public broadcasting at it’s best.
And a specially written Torchwood as the afternoon play!
I respect people. I don’t respect ignorance.
If being educated is elitist… well so be it. Knowledge is a good thing.
…and make that “asteroid” rather than “asteriod”.
MH, Emperor of Typos.
Sorry! Try
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bigbang/
Which word?
Went with “No, somebody has been watching too many science fiction TV shows” as I remember seeing something similar as plot on some B-grade SciFi channel Saturday night original movie once.
Also watched a BBC produced program on potential disasters as well, one of the scenarios was a huge collider creating “Stranglets” that went on the essentially suck up the world.
Can’t wait until the HLC is on so people can finally put all these retarded fears to rest.
Brian Hertz @ #23:
No, somebody has been watching too many science fiction TV shows
I agreed with your assessment on the first one, but I dislike this one quite a bit as it’s both disingenuous and thoughtlessly dismissive.
The doomsayers’ fears probably don’t, in most cases, have their origin in any sci-fi shows, but in a lack of knowledge about physics, and the faulty way that humans assess risks intuitively.
The dismissiveness annoys me because I’ve seen this same brand of dismissiveness applied by ignorant people to legitimate scientific theories, e.g. special/general relativity and biological evolution. This strikes me as the reaction of people who like to think of themselves as “grounded,” but who simply reject anything that seems unfamiliar or “weird”.
Of course, the stopped watches would happen to be right to be dismissive in this case, but that doesn’t mean that they’re working properly.
Reginald Selkirk @ #53:
The Word of God!
Read your Bible. It’s all there.
:-)
“Truth is stranger than fiction”.
That is why my vote on this poll is one of the ‘crazy’ top two results.
You guys keep mocking the WND. Keep in mind that they and their fellow travelers have bred up their numbers, stockpiled their weapons, and currently have control of the presidency. Yeah, they might be done, but they out vote you and, when Peak Oil, global warming, and stupidity merge and bring down the social order, whom do you think will be in charge? You, or the heavily armed gun nuts who oppose this project? Them there fancy book learnings won’t do you any good my friend.
archgoon,
Short answer: I don’t know. I’m just ranting. I’m all for CERN and the LHC, but some of the bureaucratic waste in the EU gets my blood boiling.
Quick Google answer: This is the breakdown of the CERN budget. This obviously includes all expenses. CERN confirms your $531M too. If WP is to be trusted the total cost for the hardware is CHF(2.6+0.48)G.
Near as I can tell the 1997 exchange rate was about 1.4 CHF to 1 USD, so that’s c. CHF 740M or about 25% ignoring inflation.
Damn that was more work than planned. That’ll learn me to spout off like that.Wait, fellow minions, this poll is ridiculously easy to defeat, actually! It requires voters to register, but it doesn’t track IPs!
So it’s possible to register multiple times with different name & e-mail addy. It’s a bit annoying, but I managed to vote 3 times for “Too much science-fiction” in under a minute. (I used bogus IDs, of course. Don’t want to get WND spam…)
your concern is noted.
This poll gives the phrase “unscientific survey” fresh meaning.
Instead, we should consider their objections, correct them when necessary, and treat them as objects of Christ’s love.
They go into the confessional box and bend over with legs spread wide?
“Die Lage ist hoffnungslos, aber nicht ernst”
“The situation is hopeless, but not serious”
— I forgot. Probably Erich Kästner.
Consider my day saved.
Brussels reportedly being one of two ugly cities in the whole of Europe, why don’t they stay in Strasbourg? What’s the point of ever moving to Brussels? The Commission is already in Brussels, and I don’t see a point in centralizing.
“Instead, we should consider their objections, correct them when necessary . . . Anything else is elitist.”
People are playing back-room scientist with things that they barely comprehend let alone understand. People need to learn to not meddle in things they don’t understand until they do understand it or just be labled morons.
” and treat them as objects of Christ’s love”
*flash of inspiration*
/sings “Jesus loves the little mor-ons / all the little mor-ons of the world / the dumb asses who aren’t right / they’re all precious in his sight / jesus loves the little mor-ons of the world”
No, Ross. You can’t engage in radical skepticism. That would be doublethink.
Or have you suddenly become an Apathetic Agnostic?
Beware WND spam. I went over there and took some sort of survey once and started getting all kinds of newsletters and such. I just blocked them and that was that, but it was still quite annoying.
Generally people are fearful of the unknown because they know so little.
If you all email me your bank A/C numbers and PINs I will ensure your relatives that are not raptured will receive their inheritance.
heh heh heh
Oh, dear, dear! They seem to have noticed the influx of godless voters. Here’s what I got when I tried to ‘register’ again:
“Unable to use account management. Your have been blocked.”
Meh. I always figured the Swiss would annihilate the world one way or another, but I was betting on them finally constructing the perfect clock and obliterating the timeline.
For the baffled, that’s a Discworld reference.
You know, it strikes me that if anyone should be worried about accidentally vaporizing the planet, it should be those of us who don’t think there’s a divine purpose to our being here.
I mean seriously, if you actually believe that God created Earth for some divine purpose and that Jesus Christ himself is going to come back to rule the planet for 10,000 years, God’s unlikely to allow the entire thing get blown up by a bunch of geeks in the land of chocolate and cuckoo clocks.
That’s an excellent point Kyoseki.
Imagine the scene: Jesus returns at some future date and can’t find the Earth. “Funny – I’m sure I left it circling this G type star a couple of thousand years ago. I wonder where it could have got to? Damn, I’m gonna get crucified for this. Again. It’s always the same, you turn your back for one minute…”
Its incredible. I dont get at all
why does this concern even exists.
Im happy to have a job in science,
my coworkers must had some high intelectual
level after all.
Amazing…a lab in Batavia, Ill. has harnessed 15% of the power necessary to destroy the world?
Cool!
And still nobody has noticed that I am so wise was joking?
Actually I just discovered a new particle last week, called the palon. Characteristics are:
I suspect that the reason that so many WorldNut Daily readers were excited was simple misreading: they thought the poll was about a “Large Hard-On Collider” and they were overcome with either lust or gay panic or a combination of the two.
If the balls touch, we all die. (NSFW, but not really pornographic:)
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/8246/largehardoncolliderme5.png
David Marjanovic, OM wrote:
And still nobody has noticed that I am so wise was joking?
Too obvious to bother.
On the contrary, DM OM, some of us called Poe on his use of ‘framing’, and ‘elitist’ just confirmed it.
On a serious note, my only fear of the LHC is that the world will run out of energy before they discover anything useful.
How is higgs likely to help controlled fusion?
That’s one whacked list right there. But the top three selections are the most screwball of all. No wonder I am chronically depressed and given to drinking a lot. I can’t seem to beat back the conclusion that humankind is going to totally screw itself before it wakes up. Collectively we are simply not evolved to the mental capacity to avoid it. Sure, there are maybe 10% of us who see what’s going on, but the masses of bleating sheep have the numbers, so fuckwits like Bush, Cheney, etc. get elected, and we are doomed. If the environmental decay doesn’t get us, the fascist theocracy (police state) will. Either way I’m going to do a lot of drinking in the next decade, and prepare my kids to fight back against fascism when it gets to Canada (we are always about 20 years behind the US in political trends, so we have some time). If McSame and that fundamentalist whackjob Palin get elected you folks down there are fucked. And we’ll take it up the ass at some point thereafter.
Just because it’s bugging me, I’ll get this out.
McCain: wooden old man who has nothing but his POW experience to run on. He’s no leader. You want a sharp mind running the country, and his is about as sharp as a turnip. I watched him in the convention and nothing about him is in any way inspiring. He’s intellectually dead. An empty vessel. Needs to be hold up in a curling club drinking cheap beer.
Palin: I apologize in advance for being “sexist”, but in the USA (aka “shallow land”) looks is important, and she’s a good looking woman. Her looks will win votes, sad to say. I’m about 6 years older than her, and if she weren’t a raving lunatic, I’d want to shag her. She’s really rather hot. And good for her for keeping herself fit (but no praise for having good genes). But when you look past that, she’s a lying, distorting, fundamentalist republican shitbag. No matter how hot she is, once you listen to her you know she’s a nutcase. All the god talk, the anti-choice stance, the anti-science stance, the distortion of her record, and you know she’s just like Bush and the rest of the neocons. She’s also unable to learn from experience. Her daughter didn’t get the whole abstinence training thing, so how is it supposed to work for other teens? Stupid person.
Obama: He needs to grow some testicles, and soon. The rethug noise machine will eat him alive if he doesn’t come back like a shark. Democrats are too “touchy feely”. If you don’t adopt tough tactics with these assholes they will bury you. In this case, I think Hillary would have been tougher for the rethugs to fight. She’s got balls and if she campaigns for Obama she’s going to be more effective than he is. I think he’ll be a good president, but he has to get there, and he can’t do it unless he’s a lot tougher. Clinton can help him a lot. She will if he stands up on his hind legs.
Biden: He needs to find a way to bite large chunks of flesh out of Palin without coming across as a bully. Tough, but if he can do it, he will be important in the win. Sticking to the facts and away from the personality thing will be important.
American Voters: They need to wake the fuck up and look at the last 8 years and ask the question: “which vote will result in change, and which in more of the same?” I am constantly baffled that there are any people who are not rich and who vote republican. They have allowed all of the American trans-national corporations to ship the good manufacturing jobs overseas thus gutting the US capability to build anything. When the real tension with China heats up, the US is going to be fucked. Your “concerned about next quarter’s profits” executives have sold you down the river. You’re fucked. You get the government you deserve. The voters deserve a sharp stick up the ass. And you’re going to get it. Look at the shit the police pulled in the twin cities during this convention. You’ve got a lot more of that to look forward to. Dissent will be silenced like it is in China. Or worse. The shit of it is that all of you live in this dream world that makes you think it can’t happen. Wake up.
Politics in the US: For those of us who live in a different country it’s absolutely hilarious to watch some of the shit that goes on down there. You have these right wing bloviators talking about the “liberal media”. You folks wouldn’t know a liberal if one bit you in the ass. There aren’t more than a few dozen in the entire country. And those who call Obama a communist, well that’s just so over the top it’s insane. By any rational measure, Obama is a conservative, perhaps closer to centrist, but still a conservative. You don’t have any liberals in the political apparatus down there. The mere suggestion is completely fucking absurd.
One thing that really baffles me is how people as obviously crazy as Rush, Savage, Hannity, O’Reilly, and the rest of the windbags that trumpet such rubbish on air are actually listened to. It baffles us that anyone can be so completely fucking stupid, hateful, bigoted, blind, and irrational. What the fuck is going on down there? Whatever it is, you need to get it under control or you’re going to fuck yourselves and the rest of the world in the process. We don’t want this shit. Please, take care of it.
Dinnae fret thesen laddie! At WND they think a hadron is some sort of a dinosaur.
“Brussels reportedly being one of two ugly cities in the whole of Europe”
Inquiring minds want to know: Which is the other one?
Frankly I’m astonished that WND doesn’t think a hadron is what one gets when the devil fondles one’s genitals.
All science anger IDiots!
re: #78
Oh, Skwee. LMAO
For the ‘unwashed masses’ and even scientists who are trained in different disciplines, the science going down at the LHC is indistinguishable from magic. Perhaps that’s why having faith in the scientific community is so important. Of course, it would be even nicer if people stopped just having faith and used some common sense instead. ;)
@81 Canuck. Careful there, Bud. We’ve got neocon, fascist, Steven Harper running roughshod all over our country, & from reading current blogs, it seems there are all sorts of dumb as a post, bible thumping morons in our own country willing to re elect him.
David, #5
Not if it’s real small. :)
I confess, I used to vote in this poll and always picked the most insane answer. My goal was to highlight how unhinged its readers were. Unfortunately, the most insane answer always seemed to be the one that won. So my vote was superfluous.
FYI, the world won’t end, the universe is getting an upgrade. And this time around neanderthals, Java Man, and Flores Man survive to modern times.
OTOH,religious fundamentalism is shit out of luck.
The most correct answer to the quiz is:
No, this kind of catastrophe doesn’t fit into Bible prophecy
First the Rapture needs to occur, then the seven year tribulation, then the 1000 year reign of Christ, then the current universe is disposed of when CERN finally gets their Large Hadron Collider working properly –
“the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!” 2 Peter 3:12. (Actually, was just kidding about CERN.)
Then, “behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind”. Isaiah 65:17. (A sad day for historians, I expect…)
I had not been on WND before, my goodness those forums have some scary people posting to them (and thankfully a few rational peeps holding up sanity!)
I thought PZ already found (and defiled) a “God-particle” a couple of weeks ago…
Given the ‘beauty’ of the politics and lawmaking it sounds like a prefect fit.
Iono – presumably they do see the point of centralising. Everything else is in Bruxelles already.
Don’t care, though. They can stay in Strassbourg for all I care. As long as they bloody stay in one place!
@ canuck,No 81 :
//But when you look past that, she’s a lying, distorting, fundamentalist republican shitbag//
And the rest of your post….
Well said mate,someone give that man a Molly !
And for this:
//What the fuck is going on down there? Whatever it is, you need to get it under control or you’re going to fuck yourselves and the rest of the world in the process. We don’t want this shit. Please, take care of it.//
Give him the Nobel Price or something….
100 out of 100 mate.
Thanks clinteas. I’m pretty distressed about the world my four kids are going to face and after a few drinks the typing almost does itself. The kind of shit that was going on in the twin cities during the GOP convention is just mind numbing.
As someone up thread pointed out, we have our own captain of sleaze, Stephen Harper, who would like to take Canada in the same direction. If Blair was Bush’s poodle, then Harper would be his doberman. Harper is dangerous because he’s more vulpine, cunning, strategic, and vicious, and he may have put a sleeper on the country in order to gain a majority government. In our favour I think that if he tries to take us too far right by following his ideological fantasies, the electorate here will haul him back rather quickly. We aren’t short of our own fundie nutjobs, but on the whole Canada is pretty ruthlessly centrist, so a serious swing to either right or left is not very likely.
Meanwhile, I watch your election with dread.
My guess would be Hamburg. Or any city in the Ruhr like Duisburg, Essen and Dortmund. Hull, Portsmouth, and Slough, England are rather grotty. I don’t imagine Sarajevo looks too nice nowadays.
I agree that all the far-fetched prophesies of the LHC creating a blackhole that will destroys us all, and the like, is a load of rubbish.
However because of the high energies used, the low temperatures required and the massive magnets used the equipment does pose a risk to those working on and with it.
#97: Pompey isn’t so bad. It has that smart new shopping area by the water and the old docks with the Victory and stuff, and… OK the rest is fugly, but it doesn’t deserve listing alongside Slough.
Here is a poll we need to fix. Nice and easy
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Poll.aspx?ekfrm=239870
Do reports of Sarah Palin’s professed Christian faith cause you to be more likely to vote for the GOP presidential ticket?
Yes or no.
Can we please have a special place for the current polls?
thank you kindly
Wingnut bashing is a pleasant diversion, but still: we should be mindfull of the Fermi Paradox when discussing this issue. While we’re homing in on the nature of matter in our universe, we still don’t have all the answers, and we should not assume that physicists have considered all of the possible outcomes of high-energy experiments. Unintended consequences are just that, and we can never be completely certain that our experiments are safe. Still, we’re a risk-taking species, and I say: fire that sucker up!
See, I’d just assumed they’d switched the thing on ages ago.
Go CERN, it’s you’re birthday …
I thought the “it would ruin my day” response was pretty funny. Sort of an “this is so stupid, why are you even bothering to ask” sarcastic answer. I didn’t know the Nut did sarcasm.
Clermont-Ferrand.
Fermi paradox? Are you familiar with the Rare Earth hypothesis?
And when I click on “Vote”, nothing happens!
Okay, it has been almost 30 years since I was in Hamburg, but back then I was amazed at how spotlessly clean it was, being a major industrial city. Having been approximately 90% destroyed in WWII and completely rebuilt, they were determined to keep it clean. I would expect that to still be true today, but is it?
I was inclined to say “too much science fiction”, but I will NOT register there, so I can’t vote.
I got a couple polls for ya:
http://thefrustratedteacher.blogspot.com/
Sure I’m familiar with the rare Earth hypothesis, but it’s not nearly as entertaining as assuming that we might be the flick of a switch away from unraveling the planet!
There is only one word to apply to a situation like this one….and Douglas Adams, I believe, coined it: “ABOYNE (a verb) The act of beating an expert at a game of skill (in this case, poll crashing) by playing so appallingly that none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him.”
PS How do you block quotes and use the other HTML tags? I’m new at this.