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posted by martyb on Sunday April 12 2015, @05:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the looking-for-answers dept.

The construction of the 18-story, $1.4 billion Thirty-Meter Telescope atop the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii has been temporarily halted due to protests.

The campaign has garnered celebrity support and participants across the world:

Supporters of the project point out that there are already 13 telescopes built within that conservation zone. But none are as large as the latest planned structure, dubbed the Thirty-Meter Telescope, which would require the destruction of five acres of land.

The Honolulu-born Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa posted pictures on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #WeAreMaunaKea, That and the hashtag #ProtectMaunaKea have seen big jumps in use this week. San Francisco Giants' pitcher Madison Bumgarner, Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger and Momoa's on-screen spouse, Emilia Clarke, and real-life partner, Lisa Bonet, also got involved.

Momoa's Instagram account is currently dedicated to the issue with a link to an online petition pasted as his status. The Instagram account @ProtectMaunakea also hosts pictures of hundreds of people who have posted signs in support of the conservation efforts. Organisers protested off social media as well by holding a worldwide sign waving with participants from Hawaii, Alaska, New York City, Las Vegas, Kentucky, Arizona, Tahiti and Tonga.

The Thirty-Meter Telecope's web site also has coverage.

 
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  • (Score: 0, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday April 12 2015, @06:33PM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday April 12 2015, @06:33PM (#169374) Journal

    I suspect this place never did have any significance to Hawaiian natives. Nor was it sacred in any way.

    Its just another way to for self appointed culturists to cement their "leadership" among the uncaring populace by creating a sense of racial victim-hood. Can Al Sharpton be far behind? Will throwing money at Jessie Jackson's "rainbow coalition" shakedown make the problem go away?

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    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @06:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @06:44PM (#169378)

    What a very strange thing to say. And of course, without a shred of evidence.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @07:46PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @07:46PM (#169389)

      What a very strange thing to say.

      No so very really, in my experience. Hawaii is a very special place, and is also a part of the United States, but this causes all kinds of confusion when racists try to apply their mainland post-slavery post-civil-rights movement black/white racism to Hawaii.

  • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @09:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @09:08PM (#169412)

    > I suspect this place never did have any significance to Hawaiian natives. Nor was it sacred in any way.

    Of course you would suspect that.

    Here's something you can learn to better understand the world. Any gut-level ideas you have about how human culture works, flip them 180 degrees in order to come to the correct conclusion.

    That's not a joke and while your callous dismissiveness of any human endeavour that you don't have direct personal experience of is profoundly irritating, my irritation does not cloud my analysis. I was the same way as you when I was a teenager, it took me a decade of questioning why I was so frequently wrong to figure out that my aspie tendencies made my social intuition not just useless, but actively misleading.

    • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by frojack on Sunday April 12 2015, @09:29PM

      by frojack (1554) on Sunday April 12 2015, @09:29PM (#169423) Journal

      my irritation does not cloud my analysis.

      Then I can only assign your total self loathing and continual deference to imaginary ancient sacred sites to innate gullibility.

      A million dollars to the lead protester's favorite (and captured) "charity" makes this whole thing go away. Then what of your racist pandering?

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @09:47PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @09:47PM (#169434)

        > A million dollars to the lead protester's favorite (and captured) "charity" makes this whole thing go away. Then what of your racist pandering?

        See, that's exactly what I mean about trusting your gut. All your hypothetical scenario proves is that you pick stories that rationalize your own social incompetence.

        I tried to give you insight into yourself. You won't have it. Maybe I should just stick to insulting you because at least you understand that.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @10:36PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @10:36PM (#169451)

        It is odd that the fact you were wrong, as proven by c0lo's post upthread, hasn't given you any pause for self-reflection at all. If calling them liars fabricating outrage for money isn't racist pandering then I don't know what is.

        Are you doing that thing where you've been accused of something so often that you think its a generic and meaningless insult so you use it on anyone who criticizes you?

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Sunday April 12 2015, @09:46PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 12 2015, @09:46PM (#169432) Journal

    I suspect this place never did have any significance to Hawaiian natives. Nor was it sacred in any way.

    Isn't Wikipedia a nice and quick place to reach for the basic info? One click away: [wikipedia.org]

    The summits of the five volcanoes of Hawaii are revered as sacred mountains; and Mauna Kea's summit, being the highest, is one of the most sacred. For this reason, a kapu (ancient Hawaiian law) restricted visitor rights to high-ranking tribal chiefs. Hawaiians associated elements of their natural environment with particular deities. In Hawaiian mythology, the sky father Wākea marries the earth mother Papa, giving birth to the Hawaiian Islands. In many of these genealogical myths, Mauna Kea is portrayed as the pair's first-born son. The summit of Mauna Kea was seen as the "region of the gods", a place where benevolent spirits reside. Poliʻahu, deity of snow, also resides there.[40] In Hawaiian, Mauna Kea means "white mountain",[13] a reference to its summit, which is usually snow-capped in winter.[43] The mountain is also known as Mauna o Wākea ("Mountain of [the deity] Wākea").

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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @10:22PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @10:22PM (#169446)

      > Isn't Wikipedia a nice and quick place to reach for the basic info? One click away:

      Reality doesn't matter to frojack.
      Reality has a well-known liberal bias and he can't have the correctness of his thoughts polluted with liberal bias.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @10:57PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @10:57PM (#169455)

        Reality has a well-known liberal bias and he can't have the correctness of his thoughts polluted with liberal bias.

        I really fail to get the difference between "well-known liberal bias" and the plain just-"liberal bias" (perhaps because I ceased paying attention to what exactly the "liberal" term means).

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @11:24PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @11:24PM (#169460)

          Google the phrase.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @03:26AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @03:26AM (#169530)

          Reality has a "liberal bias" because nothing in reality goes along with any viewpoint or policy put forth by conservatives; nothing, literally nothing they do, think, or push for is supported by anything in reality, but rather than accept the facts, they claim its a giant conspiracy working against them.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @09:09AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @09:09AM (#169601)

            nothing, literally nothing they do, think, or push for is supported by anything in reality

            Given that Republicans support what they do, think or push for, I therefore conclude that Republicans are not anything in reality. While it is nice to know that Republicans don't actually exist, I wonder then who currently holds the congress that allegedly is held by Republicans.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @11:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @11:13PM (#169458)

    The triumph of another fake religion over science

    Um, why the distinction?
    I mean, is it meant to contrast with the triumph of The True Religion over science?

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @11:56PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @11:56PM (#169468)

      contrast with the triumph of The True Religion

      Yep, that's the ticket! The One True Religion where Intergalactic Badguy Xenu stuffed all those poor thetans into Hawaiian volcanoes millions of years ago. Hey, wait a minute! Maybe the whole thing is just a plot to extort money for a "religion", or on the other hand maybe an attempt to build a telescope large enough to locate the site of Xenu's imprisonment! Well, I for one welcome, etc, etc. . .

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @03:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @03:28AM (#169531)

      I mean, is it meant to contrast with the triumph of The True Religion over science?

      Of course. Capitalism is the True Religion, and it triumphs over science all the time.