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Carl was pretty sure that some water from Mars' former atmosphere was still on the planet somewhere, "in sub-surface ice, surely". And as often is the case, some 30 years later, Carl Sagan was again proven prophetic.

We all wish Carl was here for this news. Little doubt he would have been excited, and excited for his friend Wolf Vishniac. It's a long way from finding life- and even if there is no life to be found, it puts us just a little bit closer to having a fallback position in case of a global disaster on Earth. Therein lies the most pragmatic reason for space exploration- a backup planet in case this one becomes further compromised. The dinosaurs had no such option.

I heard the news tonight around 6:15 or so, and sent a txtmsg to Tompkins County area science reporter Larry Klaes and an email to Ann Druyan (who might have had gotten the word long before the media even got ahold of it).

Thanks to Nancy and Andy, I first heard the band "Boy With a Fish" at Ithaca's Lost Dog Cafe, host to Ithaca's Science Cabarets. I rarely like a song on the first play, but "Water on Mars" was an exception, at least as far sonics go. But as with some of the Horseflies' music (a band whose membership is largely the same as "Boy With a Fish") the melody/arrangement is far more impressive than some of their lyrics (the song "Road Kill" comes to mind). How ironic that even in Ithaca, many people don't care if there's Water On Mars.mp3 VBR-MP3 Proof that science education has a long way to go. Carl can still school Boy With a Fish. Have some Excluded Middle at 1:55 with that roadkilled crow too.

And yes, it is ironic that a band called "Boy With a Fish" doesn't care if there's water on Mars. Did i mention that I disagree with many of their lyrics? I just want that on my permanent record.


"If there is life, then I believe we should do nothing to disturb that life.

Mars then, belongs to the Martians, even if they are microbes."

-Carl Sagan, COSMOS, episode/chapter "Blues for a Red Planet"

A clever reinterpretation of song lyrics to "Sill Alive" exists in an Eric Schwartz cartoon music video produced on an Amiga. (Notice the tombstone for "Mitchie" in the video- wait, there's symmetery coming.) The song was intriguing, so a check of the Portal songwriter's site http://www.jonathancoulton.com mentioned a Masters of Song-Fu contest- a sort of Iron Chef for songwriters. The latest challenge required something of an homage to David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Songwriting masters Jonathan Coulton and Jeff MacDougal were pitted against one another in this final contest - which we are breaking the results for here, ahead of anyone else:

Coulton won. MacDougal's music was very good, but Coulton won (by a wet nose) probably due the lyrical content. Here's how Coulton described his approach to this song challenge:

"Her name was Laika and she went up in Sputnik 2. In doing my “research” I discovered that Russian scientists recently released the truth about what happened to her during the launch, which is that she died just a few hours into it, and not after a week as they originally claimed. She died from stress and overheating (the cooling system malfunctioned and it was 104F in there) but mostly she died from being LAUNCHED INTO SPACE IN A FUCKING ROCKET.

I thought it would be much nicer if instead Laika gave scientists the finger, stepped out in a spacesuit and then disappeared. Whereabouts unknown…

You can read the rest of Coulton's comments here.

The Space Doggity song screams out for music videos. You can download/hear the Coulton song for free here.

There are all kinds of Laika-themed videos on youTube including an original instrumental called "Laika Lost In Space" and another instrumental-using video called "No More Animal Space Heroes". One of the more definitive Laika web sites is LaikaSpace.com which is the flashy launchpad for the book "Screwed Pooch". It is (tales of an afterlife aside) a historically-based novel about the life and killing of Laika. The author has a Youtube page worth viewing. There's also an unrelated wishful-thinking plasticine animation dealing with Laika's afterlife and what some call the rainbow bridge. I don't know of any actual suicides related to the historical Laika story.

A little-known and amazing fact is that Laika's story has insprired many songs about her and her ultimate fate. The song and music video Laika Star uses a clever turn of phrase ..."...Like a star". That one is notable because months after she died in orbit, her capsule burned up like a shooting star while entering Earth's atmosphere. Spanish-speaking group Mecano also has a Laika song and YouTube has the expected music videos.  Even in death, Laika is being exploited again. Commercial interest Zune offers a touch of Lucy In the Sky With Diamond meets Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble" to produce a fanciful version of what happened to Laika. Ro Rao is the creator of this Laika animation and the music is from"The Aliens: I am The Unknown".   Better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion...

The name "Laika" is being depricated by some because it's considered more of a generic Russian term for a type of dog, rather than the proper name for that first, small defenseless being who was shot into space. Kudryavka (Russian: Кудрявка Little Curly-Haired One) is the more accurate name as are Zhuchka (Little Bug) and Limonchik (Little Lemon).  Count me among those who wants to try to rememeber her by a more personal name.

On that note, it's time to walk the dog.

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Soaringword provided this photo of JPMorgan Summer Associates at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore. Note the sign in the background. Click image for higher-resolutions.