Starship Asterisk*

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002189/ wrote:
Cassini's Enceladus encounter,
Nov. 2, 2009 | 21:10 PST | Nov. 3 05:10 UTC

Just as all the American space buffs were preparing for bed (and after Europeans should have been asleep), raw images from Cassini's close pass by Enceladus today started appearing on the JPL raw images website, and some less-compressed versions of a few of them showed up on the CICLOPS website. As usual, Enceladus presents a spectacular landscape. First, here's a lovely one with the crescent barely sunlit, the night side glowing with Saturnshine, and the south polar plumes brilliantly lit with backlight. (I rotated this one 180° to put south at the bottom.)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gxSxLLTwPhBu7ElkqNJnYR84fJjwD9BNKAU80 wrote:
Crews containing geyser from broken LA water main (AP) – 17 hours ago


LOS ANGELES — Work crews have significantly reduced a towering fountain of water gushing onto a Los Angeles street from a ruptured water main. The city's Department of Water and Power says the 54-inch water main sent thousands of gallons of recycled water pouring onto Van Nuys Boulevard on Monday. The break sent water far above the roofs of nearby businesses. No injuries or building damage were reported. Utility spokeswoman Gale Harris says the cause is being investigated. She says the pipe carries recycled water for irrigation and industry.

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002189/ wrote:
Cassini's Enceladus encounter,
Nov. 2, 2009 | 21:10 PST | Nov. 3 05:10 UTC

Just as all the American space buffs were preparing for bed (and after Europeans should have been asleep), raw images from Cassini's close pass by Enceladus today started appearing on the JPL raw images website, and some less-compressed versions of a few of them showed up on the CICLOPS website. As usual, Enceladus presents a spectacular landscape. Here's one with some cool contrast between the fissured and folded terrain of the south and the cratered but still mildly tectonized terrain of the north (rotated again):

geckzilla wrote:That first photo of Enceladus is great. I am trying to picture in my mind how the light could possibly be bouncing from Saturn but can't seem to figure it out. I must have some basic piece of the puzzle wrong but I don't know which.

geckzilla wrote:That first photo of Enceladus is great. I am trying to picture in my mind how the light could possibly be bouncing from Saturn but can't seem to figure it out. I must have some basic piece of the puzzle wrong but I don't know which.

canuck100 wrote:By the way, I assume that those points of light on Enceladus must be noise in the picture -
- unless cities have been built there and no one is telling us

neufer wrote:There is an extensive Mexican restaurant chain on Enceladus:

bystander wrote:

neufer wrote:There is an extensive Mexican restaurant chain on Enceladus:

Just Mexican food?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchilada wrote:
<<Enchiladas originated in Mexico. Anthropological evidence suggests that the indigenous people living in the lake region of the Valley of Mexico traditionally ate corn tortillas folded or rolled around small fish. Writing at the time of the Spanish conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo documented a feast enjoyed by Europeans hosted by Hernán Cortés in Coyoacán, which included foods served in corn tortillas. Enchilada is the past participle of Spanish enchilar, "to add chile pepper to.">>

bystander wrote:There are some opportunities here for some enterprising entrepreneurs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_in_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Milliways wrote:

• “ "Ladies and gentlemen," he said,
  "The Universe as we know it has now been in existence for over one hundred and seventy thousand million billion years and will be ending in a little over half an hour. So, welcome one and all to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!" ”

<<Milliways, also known as The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, can only be visited practically by time travel, as it exists at the end of time and matter. Marvin the Paranoid Android is one character who manages to reach Milliways without the use of time travel, merely by being very patient. One of the restaurant's major attractions is that diners can watch the entire universe end around them as they eat. The terminal moment is followed by dessert. Reservations are easily obtained, since they can be booked once the patron returns to his or her original time after their meal, and the restaurant's bill can be paid by depositing a penny in any bank account of the present time: by the end of the universe, Compound interest will be enough to pay the extremely high bill. Near-instant transportation to the restaurant can be achieved in certain rarefied circumstances, such as being next to an exploding hyperspatial field generator on the planet where Milliways will eventually be built several billion years after the explosion occurs. Among the items on the menu are various cuts of meat from the very obliging Ameglian Major Cow and the slightly less obliging vegetables in a green salad.>>

geckzilla wrote:Enceladus does make me think of the Spanish word for salads.

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002225/ wrote: