On September 6th, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) made the decision to temporarily vacate the Sunspot Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico as a precautionary measure while addressing a security issue. The facility closed down in an orderly fashion and is now re-opening. The residents that vacated their homes will be returning to the site, and all employees will return to work this week.
AURA has been cooperating with an on-going law enforcement investigation of criminal activity that occurred at Sacramento Peak. During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents. For this reason, AURA temporarily vacated the facility and ceased science activities at this location.
The decision to vacate was based on the logistical challenges associated with protecting personnel at such a remote location, and the need for expeditious response to the potential threat. AURA determined that moving the small number of on-site staff and residents off the mountain was the most prudent and effective action to ensure their safety.
http://www.aura-astronomy.org/news/news.asp?newsID=389
(Score: 4, Informative) by ikanreed on Monday September 17 2018, @03:50PM (11 children)
Literally nothing in the world mollifies conspiracy theorists. That's practically their defining characteristic: evidence and arguments against the conspiracy are, in fact, more conspiracy.
As to memers: I think I'm only concerned about the opinions of the sapient. Merely responding to their environment and repeating back everything they hear is more parrot than human.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Monday September 17 2018, @04:51PM (7 children)
I have no idea where that leaves the few that actually are on to something, but I suspect it involves those black helicopters that you occassionally see overhead...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @04:59PM (5 children)
Reminds me of GR and dark matter/energy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @08:44PM (4 children)
Well, you clearly don't understand anything about GR if that's what you get out of it because that's one of the best-tested models of all time. When you're verifying predictions today that were made many decades ago because only now you have the precision to make the measurements, that's a pretty damn impressive theory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @08:49PM (3 children)
Yep, the predictions are all perfect (if you allow for otherwise undetectable matter anywhere the predictions are wrong)... how can anyone say this seriously?
The fact is there is still zero evidence for dark matter besides GR making the wrong predictions. ZERO, and its not for lack of trying.
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Monday September 17 2018, @09:56PM (2 children)
You're correct. There is no such thing as dark matter. The actual solution is simple, Hawkins Radiation emits more mass than astrophysicist are ready to admit.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @10:20PM (1 child)
I woudln't have the slightest clue about if your favorite explanation is correct. But, make a prediction about something and then we can see.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:02PM
nothing to see here, just your ol' interstellar squid feasting off some solar prominence-to-be before warping to better, less radioactive pastures. suns with orbiting planets having active neutron generation mechanisms don't make for tasty meals, it is understood ...
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday September 17 2018, @05:07PM
Re black helicopters: I was gassing up by the airport this morning and saw an osprey take off(not VTOL, just off a runway).
Because I have a half-remembered news story that they're deathtraps and were discontinued, I'm going to conclude that it was a secret government organization intent on impairing my god-given right to order chicken sandwiches from sheetz for breakfast. They're no doubt now hovering out of sight watching me eat my lunch I brought from home.
(okay, maybe I just saw something strange and wanted to talk about it)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:49PM (1 child)
Sorry to the one, but you meant sentient, right? Just fits better. Sorry.
(Score: 4, Informative) by ikanreed on Monday September 17 2018, @05:53PM
I recently learned the distinction between sentient(as it's commonly used) and sentient(psychological jargon) and shied away from it.
So, sentient as we commonly understand it means "intelligent and self-aware", but in psychology, the scientific meaning is just "possesses senses" which is exactly what I didn't want to say. So I chose the less common, but technically accurate term sapient.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by urza9814 on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:25PM
The problem is that this is literally a conspiracy regardless of the facts. Because there must be some group of people who know what actually happened, and they must be working together to keep that information out of the media. That, by definition, is a conspiracy. The only alternative to "conspiracy theories" is that every single person involved is completely incompetent and literally doesn't have any idea what they're doing up there. Doesn't seem very plausible.
So by definition, any attempt to battle a conspiracy theory generally means proposing an alternative conspiracy theory.
That's all a bit obvious of course, but consider where that gets us in a situation like in TFA. The people who officially know what happened won't say, they won't provide any evidence to support THEIR conspiracy theory, but they expect us all to blindly accept it. Meanwhile, the "conspiracy theory" folks are out there presenting their own "evidence", which doesn't have to be all that convincing to be more compelling that the absolutely nothing that the official theory has put forward. Why should we criticize people for gravitating towards the theories that are actually supported by some amount of evidence?