Astro-image of the day: newest Cassini flyby of Titan

[mckitterick]

I love living in the Space Age (I know we live in the Information Age, but the Space Age is concurrently building to a crescendo):

Click the image to see the story.

In other news, just got back from Thanksgiving with my Dad in Minneapolis. The drive up there was HELL, as in Hell has frozen over - and not just because the University of Kansas football team is at least #2 in the nation.

Yes, even though the forecast was for dry roads and snow ending by 3:00pm, the roads from about Lawrence to, oh, say, Minneapolis were either covered in ice or obscured with blowing snow. Except for about 50 miles north of Des Moines, Iowa. I must have repeated the mantra, "I'm so glad I didn't try to drive the Crossfire" about 50 times along the way. I rented a car, instead, for less than $20/day with free unlimited mileage. I calculated that it was cheaper to do so than add miles to my car, plus about 1000% less likely to go off the road in case of snow. Even so, the large-ish front-wheel-drive sedan did go a little sideways in northern Missouri when I first discovered that the roads were icy.

At least I wasn't one of the people in the ditch facing the wrong way, or rolled-over a number of times down the slopes around the road, or nose-to-nose in the middle of the road with another car, or so on. Yikes, it was ugly. I hope that all of you out there who drove to visit family made it there and back safely.

But - oooh! - shiny new Titan pictures! (Oh, and it was really nice to visit my Dad and see my Grandma again.)

Chris

Comments

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that you made it home okay. Driving on ice has to be the worst driving possible!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

It was severely un-fun. One of the worst feelings is watching cars ahead of you hitting their brakes, forcing you to have to do the same. On ice. With more cars behind you facing the same adventure. For nine hours.

Oof. I was so tired by the time I pulled into my dad's driveway.

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when we get ice here, it always amazes me how many people are out there driving their giant SUVs like the laws of physics just won't apply to them. Me, I keep my happy butt inside on those days.

Oh, and sorry about tonight's game. Mizzou looked pretty solid. But who'd have thought Kansas was going to have such a successful season?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, almost all the cars in the ditches weren't cars at all but oversized SUVs whose drivers felt invulnerable... thus ending up backwards in the snow. One had rolled multiple times down a long hillside, and another had flipped in the center ditch along I-35. Yikes. The car drivers seemed, on average, more sensible.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how many people think that because four-wheel drive is good for extra traction getting going, it's also good for extra traction stopping. No such luck, fools. Pretty much all four-wheel vehicles have four-wheel brakes. And cars weigh less, so they have less inertia, and they're not nearly as top-heavy. They need to remember that their penis-extension does not have magic brakes.

As for the Titan picture, wow.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

No kidding. Big dummies. SUVs are the Volvos of this decade - used to be that Volvo drivers thought they were invulnerable and drove like idiots; now it's the new, bigger, more dangerous lumps that SUV owners drive.

[shellyinseattle.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a good (and safe) time.

I think renting a car was a wise move given how often cars seem to break down on you when you road trip.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Indeed! And the not-worrying was worth something, too.

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

No studded snow tires out there in rent-a-car land?

- E

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Heck no - when we moved to Seattle, I was so surprised to learn that studs were still legal out there. In the Midwest, they're strictly verboten.

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested to know the aggregate cost of with-studs (extra road repairs and the associated costs of traffic diversions, etc.) versus the aggregate cost of without-studs (increased wrecks, hospitalizations, work hours lost, etc.)....

- E

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

I would think that the extra accidents related to road construction hazards would be a lot worse than the accidents that could have been prevented by studs. Like four-wheel drive, studs are a whole lot better for getting a car moving when it's stuck than they are at helping an out-of-control car stop. And like four-wheel drive vehicles, they tend to inspire driver hubris.

[chernobylred.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm very glad we didn't wind up in a ditch. Rolled over. Bleh.