End of the universe?

Earlier this month, a billions of dollars (Euros, Francs, and a bunch of other monies) came to fruition as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) officially came on-line. The intention of those billions of dollars is to smash a few itsy-bitsy particles into each other and make a big bang. OK, I'm paraphrasing.

This project is not without its detractors, though. There are many that think that the billions of dollars, and millions of man-hours could be better spend on ending global warming, feeding the hungry, or even paying down the nations' debts. There are over 80 countries with their teeth sunk into this thing. In addition to concerns over the use of all that money and other resources, there are those that fear we're messing with the universe in ways that we don't understand. In the same was as those who were alive at the time of the dawn of atomic energy (and bombs) there are those that think that this "experiment" will run amok and out of control, consuming a lot more than just public scrutiny. Some have even gone so far as to predict the end of the world. Who knows, maybe their right. The scientists tell us not, but if their wrong, who's gonna be around for us to blame?

There are several sites on the Web that have posted real-time web-cams of the LHC. Most of the "official" (read: Government Sponsored) sites are still hard to get to because of all the traffic generated by the press, but I found a couple cams that are still on-line. The fastest one is available at http://lhc-live.com/. They've got a camera aimed at one of the collision points (they say you might even be able to see a tiny flash during the actual collisions). The other camera looks more like a security camera from a guard house of the parking lot or something.

I'm not sure what to think about the whole project. It might lead to some interesting science, but is it really worth Billions, with a B, at a time like this? Tell me your thoughts...