12:17, Saturday 15 Jan., 2005 Link

Images from Titan. A sound from Titan. Titan! A probe landed on Titan! That's mighty impressive. The picture I'd really like to see is Saturn-rise. (I did some back of the envelope calculations with a friend back at college. If you were standing on Ganymede, Jupiter would loom 20 times wider than the Moon in the sky, four palm-widths wide (at arm's length). If the world was flat, from London you could see Paris the same size as the Moon, on the horizon. I think those were the figures.)

I do wonder whether the ability to probe has reduced the likelihood of actually visiting (whether it's the Moon, Mars or Titan). Before probes you had to just say, Hey, let's take a ship and go over that ocean to see what's there, and so seeing was isomorphic with bodies moving. It's a shame really, and it feels like it might be true--but does risk and adventure at the cinema put a stop to taking everyday life risks, and does talking stop you doing? Well.