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from the Why-couldn't-they-say-that-before? dept.
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, Insightful) by HiThere on Monday September 17 2018, @05:20PM (7 children)
The real problem is they've blown their credibility so thoroughly that it's quite reasonable to doubt any explanation they give.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Monday September 17 2018, @08:34PM (6 children)
.... any REASONABLE explanation.
The problem with this unreasonable explanation is I have first hand experience where some ex-husband down the street got really freakin drunk, broke into ex-wifes house (technically, he paid for it and is still paying for it, so not sure how its her house, but using the pronouns the newspapers use for convenience if not honesty). He wasn't really a threat, he literally broke the door down and passed out on the couch, cold. So the cops evac'd everyone from the house and locked down the neighborhood and sent in the SWAT attack APC (because they have it and need to use it to justify the budget, not because and unconscious drunk is a real threat). They waited around literally for hours to see if he'd wake up, then they got tired of waiting and rushed the house "Taze first ask questions later" literally. At least they didn't shoot him with pistols while he was unconscious, although it seems kinda brutal to taze an unconscious drunk apparently for the sheer hell of it.
Anyway everything was back to normal, aside from the smashed door lock, in about six hours.
So naturally, some nutcase on a mountain would take a week because, um...
I MIGHT give them credit if it was some nutcase claiming in writing he's gonna go for a high score with his rifle collection then runs off into the woods until he's caught or they find his body. That would be a reasonable explanation.
Its just a crappy press release anyway. I wonder if its fake news and someone on /b/ is just pulling journalists legs for the LOLs. For example of how crappy it is, they even call out in a paragraph something paraphrased to "we didn't want to draw any attention so we went all x-files on the town because we were SURE that would not provide any attention, LOL" I mean, come on, if you're making shit up, /b/, at least try harder not to be so silly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @08:51PM
Well, don't write off the fact that sometimes those astronomer-types are pretty high-strung and take it out on the telesope [astroanecdotes.com].
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 17 2018, @09:42PM
Not to police. Especially ones who would even use ex-military gear. And it depends on what part of the body the taser strike hits.
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(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday September 17 2018, @09:49PM (2 children)
No, that's not what I meant. Even when they give reasonable explanations, their credibility is so shot that it's unreasonable to put any trust in their explanation. It *might* be correct, but their saying it doesn't give it any significant increase in plausibility. Every time I've been able to check out an official story it's been significantly wrong. Often, admittedly, it appears that the wrong was because of laziness or (nearly benign) CYA, but it's still a reason to doubt the explanation.
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(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:29PM (1 child)
Explanation means nothing without evidence.
The "conspiracy theory" folks are providing some pretty crappy evidence, but the officials aren't providing a single damn thing, so it's not hard for crappy evidence to win that battle...
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:37PM
That's a reasonable point, but it can't stand in the face of information overload. The problem is that there isn't anyone trustworthy. Nobody has time to reasonably evaluate the evidence (assuming it were available) for even the news stories they judge important, so you need to rely on trustworthy spokesmen for those who honestly evaluate the evidence in some particular area. But there aren't any. The officials aren't trustworthy, and the rest don't have access to most of the evidence.
OTOH, I've almost gotten to the point of considering something less likely when an official states that it's true, because they've been caught lying so frequently, and usually you can't catch the lies because the evidence is hidden, so you wouldn't expect to be able to catch them most of the time.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @10:15PM
Landlord/tenant relationship - he can't enter unless she allows it.