Jokes aside, doesn't anybody else find it ridiculous that almost 10 billion
dollars is being spent on an experiment that will have absolutely zero
practical benefit to mankind (even if it's spectacularly successful beyond
imagination)? To keep things in perspective, the total annual funding for
cancer research in USA for the four most common cancers is around a billion
dollars. I cannot imagine how much benefit to humanity would result in
channelling all that money, time, resources and especially brainpower to
worthy causes. Everyone needs health care, without exception. Even if you
never get sick, there's much medical science could be doing to improve
quality or quantity of your life. I'd even be tempted to say 10 billion
dollars in the next 10 years spent on fighting aging could have the
potential to add 10 years to the lifespan of our species, to my and your
life. Sure, someone will comment how US wastes 100s of billions in Iraq, but
what irresponsible polititicians do should not excuse what supposedly smart
scientists do. Science without ethics and mismanagement of resources, to me,
is just as much a crime against humanity. What's even more frustrating is
that the media is brainwashing the masses into believing that this
experiment will have earth shattering (no pun intended) results. Nobody
seems to stop and ask, for instance, what the discovery of the top quark did
for humanity? What remotely practical consequence did it have? What remotely
practical consequence *could* it have? High energy physics operates in a
domain that has no connection whatsoever with anything applicable to
everyday life. It's the same kind of meaningless pursuit as analyzing the
makeup of a galaxy 5 billion light years away. There can be no application
whatsover, even in one's wildest dreams. It's about satisfying empty
curiosity (and pushing papers).

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