Hawaii board OKs plan for giant telescope

It's incredible that someone could view an instrument of such beautiful complexity and purpose to be a defilement in any way.

Is it hard to understand that every time we do something or build something, it also has negative influences. And some people value differently those aspects that you may like. Just consider someone wanted to build something on a place that you want too keep as it is, like your sacred site. How about steel factory as your nearest neighboor? As a local resident you may not like the changes in environment despite the fact that others could think that it's great advancement for the rest of the world.

This is the Greens agenda...you have to understand it. They are putting green shackles on the Blue planet. Against consumption of everything from water, to energy of any type. You got to see the resistance to allow some solar panels in the desert of California! You should not move from where you were born and live close to work so you walk! Not to mention all misguiding news about global warming. It is spreading in all directions and even tries to prevent such a beauty as this new telescope. They are fanatics and act as such. Unfortunately for all of the others in the planet.

This is the Greens agenda

Horse manure.

Some Native Hawaiians say the construction would defile Mauna Kea's summit, which they consider sacred.

That is RELIGION. Its a dead volcano and they think its sacred. There are over a dozen scopes up there already so they are a tad too late for their agenda in any case.

You got to see the resistance to allow some solar panels in the desert of California!

Like it or not that is NOT a religious issue as opposed to the complaints about Mauna Kea. Mixing up completely different reasons is a sign of fuzzy thinking.

They are fanatics and act as such.

I think that covers you based on this post. The people complaining about Mauna Kea are being silly. The other stuff is often but not always based on reason. I suspect that your problem with the green movement is the same.

Not always based on reason.

Ethelred

Oops. I am loosing track of which thread I am posting on. They blocked one with links and that messed me up.

Now if only they would allow a CANCEL as well as an EDIT.

Ethelred

Can't pay for a kids immune suppressive drugs but can pay for a telescope. A telescope ?

what is the practical use of this?

Its basic research. The "practical" use is to increase our knowledge of the universe.

Which incidentally is the same reason for the work which led to the thousands of other discoveries that allow you to sit in front of an electrically powered computer is a heated home rather than sitting in a mud hut wondering if you'll be able to glub enough food out of the ground to feed your 8 surviving kids.

Yes I'm a bit touchy when people ask for 'practical' uses for basic science when our entire civilization is based on discoveries made by physicists doing work that had no imaginable practical use at the time they did it.

what is the practical use of this?

TMT will be a general purpose observatory capable of investigating a broad range of astrophysical problems including:

* Dark energy, dark matter and tests of the Standard Model of particle physics
* Characterization of the first stars and galaxies in the Universe
* Characterization of the epoch of reionization
* Galaxy assembly and evolution over the past 13 billion years
* Connections between supermassive black holes and galaxies
* Star-by-star dissection of galaxies out to 10 million parsecs
* Physics of planet and star formation
* Exoplanet discovery and characterization
* Kuiper belt object surface chemistry
* Solar system planetary atmosphere chemistry and meteorology
* The search of life on planets outside the Solar System

enough ?

To Ethlred: I found out that one can cancel a post (within those "three minutes") by clicking on Edit and then emptying the text and saving. (Of course, it would be nice to cancel later, too, especially since the site knows you are the author.)

To PPihkala: I too have a problem with nature. The way to my in-laws' cottage goes through a sand field where giant ants roam. It's impossible to drive through or walk through without killing a bunch of the ants. The in-laws think I'm crazy. And sometimes in the summer when it rains in the night, the road is full with frogs. I hate it. It's just impossible to avoid them all.

But the TMT telescope, I'm all for it -- and so should you.

The puprose of building this scope is so we could find another planer to move to and leave greenies on the blue one, so when the sun goes supernove they can get sacrificed to their sungod... :P

they'll have a loooong time to wait.