... Wow, curiosity is really not your forte, is it?

"Because it's there and we haven't been/know close to nothing about it" is a _perfectly_ good answer. This is science we're talking about, and raw research and exploration don't need another reason.

Here's a hint: no one's been there yet.

yes. hundreds of thousands of minor planets. 5 dwarf planets AND EIGHT FULL FLEDGED PLANETS.

... [pluto] was a bit of an oddball compared to the other eight, with a highly eccentric and tilted orbit, a diminutive size.

That is actually the best argument to avoid such hardware. Rely on hardware that is open standards based, then you can reduce dependency on proprietary drivers

The reason they have to stay with XPe is because there probably aren't any drivers for Vista/Win7/Win8/Win8.1 So much for the benefit of reusing XP drivers

... this is like saying "I stopped watering my houseplant, and at some point, it died. We don't know there's any relationship there."

F-18E/F will likely outperform it [F-35] as an air superiority fighter, as will Eurofighter. All of these are cheaper and proven to work.

But now, the F-22 must be upgraded through a costly service life extension plan and modernization program because, “If I do not keep that F-22 fleet viable, the F-35 fleet frankly will be irrelevant. The F-35 is not built as an air superiority platform. It needs the F-22,” says [Chief of U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command Gen. Michael] Hostage to Air Force Times.

F-22 ... designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but has additional capabilities including ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles.

F-35 ... designed to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability. ... The design goals call for the F-35 to be the premier strike aircraft through 2040 and to be second only to the F-22 Raptor in air superiority.

Blame the voters - they put those politicians into office.

Just a quick googling reveals that Python has "list index out of range" errors. So. The difference is one of consequence, not of type. In C you get undefined behavior.

Heck, why not a premium hike for owners of this or that "aggressiveness gene"? What if in the future we got a quick "+50 cents" tweet for every scoop of ice cream?

The Beam Brush checks up on your teeth-brushing technique. "... What I cannot understand is how politicians fail to understand what a future Kenneth Starr is going to do with data like this."

The Airbus patent shows a windowless cockpit that removes the windows or reduces them to partial views of the outside world. Instead, exterior views are provided by a display formed by back projection, lasers, holograms, or OLED imaging systems fed by cameras outside the fuselage.

Sure, if you want to be Mr. "glass half empty."

...most of the human race will have more leisure time...