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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Libya Set To Build Largest Telescope In North Africa

Paris, France (AFP) Jan 4, 2005
Libya has ordered a 13-million-dollar telescope from France, a facility that will give it the finest astronomical views in North Africa, the French magazine Ciel et Espace (Sky and Space) reported Tuesday.

The telescope, costing nearly 10 million euros, was ordered by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who has a passionate interest in astronomy, the monthly said in its January issue.

More here: www.spacedaily.com/news/telescopes-05a.html

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Yea, I know his background and a lot of it not good at all. But, he did turn over the Weapons of Mass destruction to the U.S. and IS building this massive scope. Think of the dark skies there!

Perhaps he has become a humanitarian...gee I hope so.

[starbux]

An often overlooked side-effect of many, if not most dictators (and de-facto/quasi dictators) is that they occasionally do some good things along the way. Which doesn't excuse the other things they may do.

The problem is not so much WHO ends up as head-of-state so much as the amount of POWER that the people confer/allow/authorize to that office of head-of-state. And I'm obviously not necessarily talking about Libya here, if you get my drift.