Is there any way to convince the "LHC will kill us all" folks it won't happen?

In addition to the media fueling this, there are people who are actively anti-science. These people search the scientific literature for interesting stuff. It's best if they can quote an actual scientist. So a scientist speculates on what one might get at high energy. They ask other scientists in public forums about it. People do the math and notice that 1) it's harmless, and 2) cosmic rays have been doing it for eons, so it's safe. But there's still the question which is quotable and attributable, even if it's obsolete. So armed with a quote, they feed it to the media, which never checks to see that it's obsolete, or even sends a note to the quoted scientist to check. Out the story goes.

Here on Y!A, you get not just adults who have some clue that all this happens, but 13 year olds who haven't had time to have much science background. It's largely these that are posting the questions. We could get pissed off that we're answering the same question over and over, or we could generate reasonable replies, put it in a file for repeated posting, and be polite. This is an outreach opportunity. So do outreach. Was there some other progress you thought you might accomplish? It's not like we're going to do Nobel Prize work here.

Put all your appointments with them on thursday. ;)

No honestly, I think you have to differ between two kinds of people here:

Trolls - don't look if the question they want to ask has been answered before, don't actually want a answer, but they just want to see their stuff in the WWW. Vain like hell.

Smart people: Ask different questions, don' repeat stuff and are really interested into learning new stuff.

It is the trolls, which makes this site a bit annoying currently. Lets throw them into a Black hole.

nope... it's not just the media... it's a few dipwads who like to feel important and 'big' by posting dumbass questions about it with "OH, I"M so SCARED" attached.... while the really scared kids sit there and read and believe it all..... how I wish I had a 'delete this crappiola' button!!....

we just have to keep repeating the same stuff... it's NOT going to make a black hole that will eat the world.... you still have to pay the rent this month.... and no, you're not going to die.... hopefully those who need to know the truth will go look for real info and realize that the idots who are pushing this stuff are dorks.............

Even if the LHC created a black hole, the black hole would be too small to cause any damage. It would just pass through the earth and nobody would notice, and even if it did grow in size, it would take billions and billions of years to become enough to pose a threat to the Earth.

No.... they're usually the same people who take the "we never landed on the moon' arguments seriously. They'd rather be suspicious and not believe than research & find out.

And, like the man said... "You cain't fix stupid."

Yes. I said, "Cain't."

Burn down FOX News...

Yea. Tell them to chill until Thursday. Then they will wake up and realize that we are all still here.

If these people would actually look it up and read about it they would not be worried. Here is a link.

http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/Welcome.html

http://www.lhcfacts.org/