[ExI] The Thirty Meter Telescope is now officially dead

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting John Clark:

> Although it comes as no surprise yesterday it became official, Jason Momoa
> (aka Aquaman) has won and destroyed the largest telescope in the northern
> hemisphere rendering us blind to the most distant objects that exist in
> half of the universe, and all because of an invisible man who hates
> telescopes and lives at one of the 3 best observing sites on planet Earth
> and the only one in the northern hemisphere. Not exactly a triumph of
> rationality or a day the human race can be proud of.
>
> Even though the telescope's suporters won every court battle the power of
> Aquaman proved to be just too strong, the Governor of Hawaii said the
> telescope "would not be proceeding with construction at this time". The
> Governor also said "law enforcement will be removed from the site"
> apparently thinking that now that they've won the protestors will just go
> home. I hope he's right but, although nowhere near the thirty meter
> category, that mountain still has the largest telescopes in the northern
> hemisphere, and the entire observatory was shut down for over a month
> because the astronomers feared for their lives, and now that the mob has
> tasted blood I don't know what's going to happen. I do know that if I was
> an astronomer on that mountain I'd be scared right now.

This is especially troubling considering that we have stars  
disappearing. We need that telescope for national if not planetary  
security. I also agree with what Adrian Tymes said in another thread  
that we need to start putting observatories everywhere, including the  
dark side of the moon.

Stuart LaForge