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The Swirling Vortex of Titan
sighted writes "New images from the robotic spacecraft Cassini show the ongoing formation of a massive vortex in the atmosphere of Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan. (See also this animation.) The same moon has recently provided tantalizing hints of an underground ocean as well. Future missions, if any are ever funded, will have plenty to explore."
Because corporations realize that it is more profitable to make pain pills for old people, and enforce IP on movies than explore new worlds. A wise government opens the ways which private enterprise will follow, collecting taxes on the successful businesses to recapture the costs of exploration, education, and research. However, as long as minting billionaires is our economic priority, neither government, nor private enterprise, will be interested in new worlds, since all the money is here on this old one.
Fugue for Aaron Swartz
Please mod this entire fucking thread offtopic before it engulfs a potentially interesting discussion about Titan.
You may not have noticed this due to your ample failure, but Slashdot features a threaded discussion model. If you don't like a thread, move over. Nothing is being engulfed here.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Note that when I am an old person (and I am not required by the government to spend a portion of my income on pain pills! But that would get us totally off-topic), I will be free to contribute that money to something like space exploration voluntary, oh, heck, sign up for a one-way trip to Mars! ;-)
But, I guess, I am already old enough by now (and lived under too many nominally different governments) not to have high hopes for having a "wise one" anymore any time soon...
Also, "all the money is here on this old one" -- only for your definition of "money", pieces of paper which might or might not buy anything at any given time or location, or, even more current, some trailing zeros in a 64-bit number on a bank computer. If one defines money as something that people are willing to use for exchange, I can see how He3 would work nicely, and there is much more of it up there than down here...
Paul B.
P.S. To two other people who replied -- yes, this is off-topic, but invitation was built right into the summary, in the form of "if any are ever funded" whining. And no, I was not talking about space businesses (though, I'm all for that!), but possible non-profit exploration -- thus, estimated possibility of chip-in funds from individuals to fund equivalent of NASA, not possible business investments! For the record, I did join at a very early stage a risky private start-up operating on the fine edge between science and science fiction, putting my life efforts and possible $$ where my mouth is, thank you! ;-)
P.P.S Why does /. allow for "Overrated" mods on comments which have *not* been positively rated, except for karma-bonus modifier, I have no clue!