8390 now, so that rate has kept up so far. Hopefully it doesn't taper off though.

And there's the car analogy to top it off.

Perhaps a Slashdot poll is in order?

Sooner or later though, they will all have problems. Murphey's Law will see to that.

If short term space missions are not worth bothering, the question becomes, when have we reached the long term? If we don't try anything new now, then there might not be any significantly different technology in a hundred years. I agree that this particular project sounds a bit too grand for our current level of technology, but I hope that doesn't stop us from continuing to travel further and further from home (Mars, Titan, etc.).

...on the Internet.

The red heading means you're a logged in user with enough karma to get a preview of the story before it goes live for everyone. I've seen it a few times, but it usually doesn't take long before its public and open (typically by the time I've refreshed the page).

More like, have fun typing.

Missed step:

6) PROFIT!

Why is there not a 'Sad Truth' moderation?

Thank you for teaching me this magic.

Even more confusing, the firmware used by the Wii is referred as IOS as well.

Could this end up being the first instance if a Slashdotting affecting a physical location? What would happen if all of us went to Subway today?

According to the patent office, it sure seems to be.

OK, glad to hear it. Thanks for putting that side out there though - I'm guessing the average Slashdot user (myself included) gets annoyed any time politicians try to do something that seems 'obvious' to us in one way or another. Its always good to remember both sides. I probably should work on that.