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Amid Controversy, Construction of Telescope In Hawaii Halted
An anonymous reader sends word that Hawaii Gov. David Ige has asked for a week-long hold in the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea. "After more than a week of demonstrations and dozens of arrests, Hawaii Gov. David Ige said Tuesday that the company building one of the world's largest telescopes atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea has agreed to his request to halt construction for a week. 'They have responded to my request and on behalf of the president of the University and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs have agreed to a time out on the project, and there will be no construction activities this week,' Ige said at a news conference. Thirty Meter Telescope is constructing the telescope on land that is held sacred to some Native Hawaiians. Scientists say the location is ideal for the telescope, which could allow them to see into the earliest years of the universe. Ige said he hopes the temporary pause in construction will allow the interested parties to have more discussions about the project. Native Hawaiian groups have been protesting the construction of the telescope since its inception last year."
What could be more honoring, holy and sacred than a telescope peering out into universe?
Doing it while paying a suitably large bribe and paying Hawaiians. Hawaii is one of the more corrupt places in the country, and there's a lot of anti-white racism.
Although in this case it may just be an anti-science woman who doesn't conceive of herself of anti-science using her religion to justify her not wanting change to the environment. Like a Wiccan fighting your attempt to sell a public park. It's hard to tell without being involved with the local politics. So long as we give religion an elevated importance in our society, this is the crap we have to deal with.
"The irony is, backward looking is a part of the astronomy paradox, in that the farther out into space we look the further back in time we are looking, so making bigger telescopes to see farther in time, means we are moving farther and farther away from modern relevancy, actually."
http://kahea.org/blog/mk-vigne...
I used to live in Hawaii. And I can tell you that native Hawaiians are always bitching. They also live on the beach and have nothing better to do all day than bitch, moan, and protest shit. It's just what they do.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
The natives should have said something before the Mauna Kea Observatory was constructed in 1968.
Most likely, they did complain. But the complaints were drowned out by all their complaining about everything else. Native Hawaiians are mostly anti-technology, anti-progress, anti-growth, anti-business, and anti-modern-world. They generally oppose anything that changes anything. They are also anti-education, with some of the worst schools in America, which just propagates the problem on to the next generation. The Big Island has a higher proportion of natives, which makes the problem there even worse than on Oahu. For instance, Hawaii has some of the best geothermal energy resources anywhere, and some of the highest electricity prices in the world. But geothermal energy is blocked because it "steals the breath of Pele", despite the fact that almost no one actually believes in Pele anymore. It is just used as an excuse to block progress. Oh, and one other thing: after blocking businesses from growing, electricity from being generated, and schools from being funded, they also complain that there are no jobs.
This is more likely an expression of Hawiian nationalism which has been on the rise in recent years.
In some cases it has crossed the line into race hatred as the Southern Poverty Law Center noted a few years back.
And there are several independence groups. China has even offered to arm them.
If you are a native of any kind, just start yelling that something is sacred, and nobody will be able to fight back against you.
Hate stuff being built near you? Just claim you can't build there because it is sacred ground.
Want something built, like a casino or giant housing development? Just claim the land is sacred and demand it back as 'sovereign' territory... so that you can build your casino.
You get to have it both ways!
I live in Hawaii and am excited for the new 30 meter telescope. There are currently 13 telescopes at the summit of Mauna Kea.
https://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/mko...
This project has been in the works for 7 years, The local population that is against the building of this telescope has had that long to protest, but didn't actually start protesting until the project was already underway.
From what I hear on my Facebook feed from my Hawaiian friends is that they oppose the building of this new telescope because they consider Mauna kea a sacred place, as well as the sheer size of this new telescope.
The summit is sacred to ancient Hawaiians, so much that a kapu (Ancient Hawaiian law) was made that only important tribal chiefs were allowed up at the summit. (Breaking Kapu usually meant death).
So in old Hawaii only a select few were allowed up on the volcano. I don't know why anyone is complaining. in new Hawaii anyone can visit the summit and see the majestic views of the island as well as some amazing star-gazing at night.
I don't speak up on Facebook even though many of my friends are asking me to sign a petition to stop the building of the telescope as well as protesting locally (I am on Maui). Its hard since most of my friends are not very techy or interested much in science. I keep my mouth shut since I fear I will be ostracized for speaking my true opinion.
Only complaint I have, I really wish most of these telescopes were open to the public. I have never had the opportunity to look through anything bigger than a backyard telescope and it would be amazing to be able to see what a thirty meter telescope can do.
Let me tell you that the issue is far more complex and far more nuanced than any of the comments here unveil.
For some background, read this perspective from the Native Hawaiian community (http://www.welivemana.com/articles/sacredness-mauna-kea-explained?hc_location=ufi) and then also read this history from Harvard (http://www.pluralism.org/reports/view/21).
Mauna Kea is a flashpoint for Native Hawaiians because, as the Harvard report notes "it is also one of the most sacred places in the universe for Native Hawaiian people." Imagine putting an oil refinery inside the Masjid al-Haram or cell tower anchored in the Western Wall.
Has what Marx proposed been tried on any scale larger than a hippie commune?
No. Why is that?
It's certainly not because Marx's ideas are new, or because there aren't a lot of devotees of them. I posit that the reason it hasn't been tried at scale is that every attempt to scale it up breaks down as soon as you get more than a few hundred people.
Marx was a decent economist for his day, but had no understanding of human nature. An understanding of game theory, had it existed in his day, would have tremendously improved his ideas, I think. In addition, his economic theories have holes you can drive a 747 through, mainly because they seriously underestimate the knowledge component of labor, and the resulting impact of innovation, and completely ignore the value of organization. It's the latter problem that results in imposition of heavy-handed, centrally-controlled economies in all attempts to build communal societies at scale. Since Marx's structure eliminates any reasonable mechanism for self-organization of a dynamic economy, implementers try to paper it over with central committees. Unfortunately, central organization is not only horribly inefficient because the complexity of a significant economy is far beyond the comprehension of any group of humans, it inevitably creates powerful, self-interested elites. That generates resentment among the populace, which provokes top-down imposition of population control systems... propaganda, powerful secret police, etc. -- the hallmarks of the real-world communist state.
It's pretty obvious why Marxism can't work at scale, once you recognize the fact that collective ownership eliminates the ability of the economy to self-organize for efficient production. As long as the economy is small and organization is simple and obvious, it works. But beyond a few hundred people... it can't. Perhaps after we've passed the AI singularity, when all production is automated, and all organization of production as well, then communal ownership will work, and may even be essential. Or maybe not.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
You obviously didn't bother to look up Mauna Kea or why it is sacred. It's more about it being sacred for the gifts it gave the early Hawaiians in the form of food, water and other resources than of it being because of ghosts.
The worst part of the reporting, and what nobody really wants to talk about, is the reason that the county and state pressured TMT for a 1-week hiatus - this is the week of the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival in Hilo, a time when hula halau (schools) from all over the state and several other places all converge on the Big Island. There's no way local authorities wanted to have images of 13-yr-old girls in hula costumes being arrested on the Maunakea summit. Bad for tourism, ya know...