Stevie, at work

STEVIE IS AT IT AGAIN. Doesn't like science, and is really going after the Quebec vote. CBC reports "Famed star observatory in Quebec loses federal support".

The Mont Mégantic Observatory — about 250 kilometres east of Montreal, in the Eastern Townships — is the largest astronomy centre of its kind in eastern North America, and a popular destination for researchers and star enthusiasts alike.

But funding cuts at the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) mean the centre is losing half its annual budget this year, leaving the observatory’s future in peril, said director Robert Lamontagne.

Apparently, the rationale is that we're doing so much elsewhere. However, the outfit is doing good science, and it's available to students, unlike Hawaii and S. America.

And we do good science. Here's another CBC report about the data results from a baloon flight from two years ago, where a deep-infra-red sensor package observed more galaxies in 11 days than had been detected in the previous decade. These are huge galaxies that formed in the very early universe. Not only that, but we did it for $49.95, relativistically, so to speak.

Do click on the picture — it's kinda cool.