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Archive for November 19th, 2015
Hawaii court halts construction of world’s largest telescope on volcano
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 19th, 2015
Reuters: The Hawaii supreme court has temporarily blocked construction of one of the world’s largest telescopes on a dormant volcano, following a challenge by Native Hawaiians and environmentalists who say the project would damage sacred lands.
The state high court handed down the order late on Tuesday, suspending until 2 December the permit for the project near the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, court papers said.
The order follows an announcement by TMT International Observatory,...
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50% of world’s natural history specimens may have wrong names
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on November 19th, 2015
Mongabay: Study found widespread mislabeling and misidentification of plant specimens.
Too few taxonomic revisions over the years, and a doubling of specimen collections and herbaria could have resulted in these errors, researchers write.
Study suggests use of remotely accessible digitized specimens, instead of traditional practice of expert taxonomists visiting herbaria to name specimens.
Most of us expect museum specimens to be accurately labelled and meticulously catalogued. But up to half of the...