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Another Science Facility Bites the Dust, Temporarily

An anonymous reader writes "Today, the latest victim of the U.S. government shutdown, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory shut its doors and essentially mothballed all three of its radio telescope facilities: the Very Large Array or VLA (think Jodie Foster, Contact); the Green Bank Telescope, and the Very Long Baseline Array or VLBA. While the ALMA telescope is not yet affected (mainly due to it being run by a consortium of European, Japanese, Chilean and U.S. organizations), the U.S. funds for that will soon also dry up. Not only does this furlough most of the ~550 employees, it has also thrown a monkey wrench into many long-term carefully planned observations (to the tune of wasting half a million dollars and a year's worth of work). Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society also has a commentary on the closure — and a plea to 'stop the madness.'"

4 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What's out there? by Mitchell314 · · Score: 4, Funny

    If an alien were to judge us based on slashdot, they'd strike immediately no matter what. :P

    --
    I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
  2. Re: What's out there? by allan572 · · Score: 5, Funny

    If aliens read slash dot they would skip earth and move on to find intelligent life! :-)

  3. Re:that's Obama's choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Barry-caded, haha. Next thing you know, the evil dictator for life will be putting Barry-cuda in all of our drinking water. He'll outlaw Straw-Barry milkshakes, and Barry-cade your local breakfast aisle at the grocery so you can't buy your Boo-Barry Crunch cereal.

    I wouldn't be surprised if all the Barrs in the national parks were being outfitted with Obama masks and provoked into killing intruders. Next he'll repeal our right to Barr arms right before the miliBarry takeover!

  4. Re:What's out there? by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 5, Funny

    They would strike, then strike again 12 hours later, then spend the rest of the millennium bickering about arcana while one idiot bastard alien kept sending messages saying "Hi I'm from earf, you missed one," and "Commander Xeebo is a diddlepeen who eats natalie portman for frosty piss."

    Oh sorry, that's what would happen if slashdot attacked aliens.