From: kfl@KeithLynch.net   
      
   Don_from_AZ  wrote:   
   > Gary McGath  writes:   
   >> I'm reminded of a George Carlin talk where he pointed out that   
   >> "saving the Earth" is nonsense.  Earth will survive anything we   
   >> can do to it.  We might not.   
      
   > Well, perhaps not the Earth either.  In David Brin's aptly named   
   > "Earth" novel, scientists have created a micro black hole that gets   
   > loose and starts orbiting within the Earth itself, slowly accreting   
   > mass.  Eventually the Earth will implode.  It has been a long time   
   > since I read the novel:  I think they finally managed to save the   
   > planet, but if some real-life supercollider manages to make a black   
   > hole, we might not be so fortunate.   
      
   When I experienced the 2011 earthquake here in Virginia, that was   
   my first thought:  That those who warned that the LHC or some other   
   collider would create a black hole that would swallow up the Earth   
   were right, and I was about to fall 4000 miles straight down, along   
   with everyone and everything else on Earth.   
      
   It retrospect it's a rather silly idea.  Every day for billions of   
   years, Earth has been exposed to cosmic rays with far higher energies   
   than LHC could ever reach.  If planets could so easily collapse,   
   our solar system would contain a lot fewer planets and a lot more   
   planetary-mass black holes.  And yes, someone would have noticed   
   such black holes by now.  Just ask Adams and Le Verrier.   
   --   
   Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/   
   Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)