Yes, there was a fear that detonating an atom bomb could vaporize the atmosphere through a chain reaction of the accelerated particles.  Of course, this never happened.

Well, think of it this way.  If the CERN Hadron collider experiment creates a black hole (i.e.: tears a hole in space-time), you won't be any the wiser as you and the rest of Earth will be shredded into subatomic particles before you know it.

True, the gravitational destruction will propagate at the speed of light (at best) but for the size of the planet that would only be a few seconds.  And most likely, after it gobbles the Earth and Moon, the small amount of matter injested won't be enough for it to effect the rest of the solar system in the short-term (only in the long term since there wouldn't be an Earth orbit and gravitational system anymore).  Just as proposed for galactic black holes, once the matter within a distance is devoured, other matter further out will be relatively safe (until the black hole starts moving).

Nice knowing you all. ;)

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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