zero random effect sizes with binomial lmer

Daniel Ezra Johnson <johnson4 <at> babel.ling.upenn.edu> writes:
...

If one compares the random effect estimates, in fact, one sees that  
they are in the correct proportion, with the expected signs. They are  
just approximately eight orders of magnitude too small. Is this a bug?

...

BLUPs are essentially shrinkage estimates, where shrinkage is determined with
magnitude of variance. Lower variance more shrinkage towards the mean - zero 
in this case. So this is not a bug.

Gregor