Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
The military is still being paid, but they are no longer sending feeds of sporting events ( including the NFL ) to the soldiers.
They are however, keeping Camp David and military golf courses open ( which he plays a lot on ).
On other notes. Republicans in the House passed a resolution to keep funding NIH research ( into things like childrens cancer ), but a party line vote in the Senate killed it. They also "shutdown" the WWII monument. This despite the fact that it remained open during other shutdowns. This despite the fact that it is open 24/7 but only manned during working hours. Veterans arriving found the monument blocked off by "Barry-cades". They were not to be stopped and simply went around. So to save the money for the shutdown the adminstration hired people to wire the Barry-cades together.
Oh and the White House chefs are considered essential. They have not been furloughed. Guess they are needed to bake the cakes.