I like how they keep the controls simple.

lohphat: Your shallow conservative view is why this country is mired in ignorance and fear of the unknown and unexplored.

Speaking of shallow minded, I never claimed it was my view. I was just explaining that it's not some invalid fallacy, but more simply a different view of priorities.

Yes, the moon landing was inspiring. That this hasn't been is not an indication of society getting less intelligent, but that society is less awed at technology. We're no longer the savages that we once were, so in a sense, it's an indication that society is more intelligent. We've acclimated to breakthroughs, and they're no longer mesmerising. That's a good thing, unless you really don't want to know how magnets work because you enjoy the euphoria that comes with wonderment.

Also, I am not being confrontational here. I'm actually on the side of understanding other people, you're the one miring the situation in vitrolic speech and promoting ignorance and fear by way of not examining why people don't care, or why they think the funds could be spent elsewhere.
Please take your fundamentalist-type anger elsewhere.

Just incase you're able to calm down, let me explain it this way. It "might" be something that's beneficial to human kind in the near future, it "might" take generations. But there are things we could do instead of investing in science on that level that would yield more immediately useful information.

If you're starving now, you don't start farming, you won't survive the growth cycle. You do that after you've secured enough food to live for a while.
If you're broke right now, you don't go out and gamble what little you do have.

It's not fear and ignorance, nor is it conservative, to hold such an view. It's just (un)common sense.

Personally, I think we're far enough along to have some time and resources to spare, but I won't vilify people who think differently, because society does have some rather large problems that would benefit from a little bit of intelligence and effort. Some of these things do continually fall by the way side and get progressively worse.

Take off the rose colored glasses.
It's not "conservative" by way of politics to care more about what is in front of your face than fantasize about what might come of a scientific discovery, it's survival instinct. Care for yourself, then for your offspring until they can themselves, then your neighbor, and if that doesn't fill your day, then care for the future.

Is's that whole neighbor part that too many people like you lose sight of. What you don't seem to get, is that when people don't get along, they eventually become a threat to you and your offspring. It's also of benefit because you're not immune to falling down and injuring yourself, odds are it will happen at some point in time.

We still can't educate our kids worth a shiat, and you think people are mired in ignorance and fear for wanting to deal with that issue instead of wondering how to build a better TV.

That's the definition of shallow, you've just got a different set of tastes and criteria for your status.

Big_Doofus: The other problem is there are plenty of people in our great country who would would consider something like this to be a complete waste of time and resources.

That is actually a valid opinion.

Science for sciences sake isn't very useful or relevant to many of societies current problems, and may not be for decades or centuries, if ever.

This discovery has so little to do with everyone's daily lives and the social problems of today, like welfare, catholic priests molesting kids, vaccines causing autism, etc etc etc. This discovery is not relevant to those things, and will not be relevant to anything even remotely associated with those things for decades or centuries, if ever.

It's a matter of priorities, which boils down to morals, and how what everyone thinks life should be like is a different thing.

No less valid than your love of pizza or dislike of veggies. It's an opinion, and in a sense, cannot be wrong, ever.

It's your opinion that it's a problem, and is just as valid as their opinion of you being the problem when it comes to the national healthcare system(or whatever topic of choice).

Grable's Future Son-in-Law: I'm so glad I'm not the only one fixated on that. Seriously, WTF?

I'm not sure if it's the "oh crap, dump the beam" button or the normal "power off" button, but if it's the former then the system needs to dissipate a huge amount of energy: the LHC beam dumps must absorb 362 megajoules in 90 microseconds, which equals a power of 4 terawatts. The beam dumps need to absorb that amount of energy and dissipate it as harmlessly as possible. With those energies, it's likely to produce all sorts of nasty crap like radioactive particles, high-energy neutrons, etc. Not fun, and it's quite possible to break expensive stuff.

I imagine the computer has all sorts of sensors to detect when things are going wrong and dump the beams automatically, but it's also nice to have a Big Red Button.

I've untangled some ugly cabling knots in my time. Like shiat you wouldn't believe, almost wrapped around the room and behind panels no lone man could lift. What they strung up at CERN? That's not science, that's farking art. That's a museum for how to do it right the first time. You farking lazy asses.

lohphat: Meanwhile in Amerika we can't maintain our infrastructure, upgrade our rail systems, repair our roads, and have to hitch rides on Russian rockets to get into space.

We've forgotten how to lead the modern developed world.

I disagree! We didn't forget anything. We just realized it's simpler to subcontract to a cheaper workforce than to put it together yourself. We didn't forget, we got lazy. There's a distinction.

Looks more like Black Mesa.

Conspicuously absent...

Imagine a very tiny wormhole opens, causing a complete set of blueprints for the LHC to fall back in time and land on the desks of the world's foremost engineers of the moment.

What would engineers of the 1930s make of them? Of the 1830s? Of the 1630s?