Future Dimming for Puerto Rico Telescope (Arecibo) - AP

[Eugene]

Future Dimming for Puerto Rico Telescope

By BEN FOX

ARECIBO, Puerto Rico Dec 6, 2006 (AP)— At the world's largest radio telescope,
astronomers searching for asteroids on a collision course with Earth are bracing
for a more worldly threat: The steepest budget cuts and first layoffs since the
observatory opened in 1963.

Managers are warning staff and outside astronomers to prepare for a leaner future,
with fewer research projects and less telescope time available as they finish a
costly repainting job amid a looming cut in U.S. government funding.

-snip-

As the world's largest, it is more sensitive than any other radio telescope and can
detect more and fainter objects in space. By bouncing radio waves off asteroids,
it also charts their location, speed, course and some other characteristics.

-snip-

The telescope is so prized that astronomers let out a collective shudder in November
when a review panel recommended the U.S. cut 25 percent of the observatory's $10.5
million astronomy budget next year and consider eliminating it entirely at the end
of the decade. The panel suggested that the private sector or overseas institutions
could pay part of Arecibo's costs

-snip-

Full article: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2703723

[htuttle]

1. That $10.5 million dollar annual budget gets spent every 30 minutes in Iraq

We are idiots.

Just plain idiots.

[acmejack]

3. Kind of makes you want to cry, doesn't it?

[JHB]

4. No, not to cry...

...maybe want to hit things (hard!), and certain people, but no, not to cry.

[acmejack]

2. It's just science-everybody knows that stuff ain't credible!

Put yer trust in the Lord...





Arecibo Observatory

[lapfog_1]

5. Cheapest insurance the human race ever had.

never mind the "science stuff"... because it can track objects like asteroids... and there is this very very small chance that the earth could have another species killing encounter, $10.5 million a year is cheap cheap cheap. unbelievably cheap. It's about 1/10th of a penny for every person on earth. Per year. And if they found one that will collide with earth someday... well, words fail me.

We can spend billions on earmarks for useless bridges and interstate off ramps, 100s of billions on a stupid war, and this, one of the things that actually might save the planet (unless we kill ourselves first), is getting cut from the budget. Fuckity fuck that.

I'm sending a letter (not an email) to Boxer and Feinstein and whoever else I can think of.