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NASA Mars Press Briefing & "Significant Findings"

An anonymous reader writes "NASA will have a press briefing today at 2 p.m. EST to announce "significant findings". Salty liquid water maybe? Bacteria? This meeting will also be broadcast on NASA TV."

130 of 485 comments (clear)

  1. They've found life! by log0n · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bow down before your Martian overlords!

  2. Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Salty liquid water... bacteria... they didn't need to go to Mars for that, I have it right under each arm.

    1. Re:Hmmm... by Walkiry · · Score: 3, Funny

      If they're running you can bet your ass those are not bacteria.

      --
      ---- Take the Space Quiz!
    2. Re:Hmmm... by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 2, Funny

      Indeed. All this talk about water on Mars. Now if they found a trapdoor, THAT'd be something!

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
  3. Now if cable TV companies were only smart enough by Mycroft_514 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    to carry NASA TV. I swear, the closer you get to Kennedy Space Center, the less chance they will offer it.

  4. Martian life found by poptix_work · · Score: 4, Funny

    For Immediate Release: NASA in conjunction has forged a treaty with the Martian people, part of this agreement stipulates that they will no longer steal our probes for fun, in exchange, the USA has agreed to prevent the Brits from sending any more beagles.

    --
    Just because you disagree doesn't make it offtopic or flamebait.
    1. Re:Martian life found by cozziewozzie · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually, the recent spirit photos seem to indicate that the Martians are not really interested in a treaty!

  5. Significant findings: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Help, we run out of money !

  6. Waldo? by Guy+Innagorillasuit · · Score: 5, Funny

    They found Waldo? Or did they find Carmen Sandiego?

    1. Re:Waldo? by krzysztof · · Score: 3, Funny

      Spirit...it could survive being flung across the cold vacuum of interplanetary space, but it couldn't survive even one hit from the Illudium Q36 Space Modulator. Sigh.

    2. Re:Waldo? by keester · · Score: 2, Funny

      Or did they find Carmen Sandiego? Come to think of it, she did say she was going to the 4th planet from the Sun. Now, is that Rio de Janeiro, Rome, or Mars? Picking Mars is obviously risky as it will take a few weeks to return and by that time Carmen will likely be long gone.

      --
      Take it easy? I'll take it anyway I can get it . . .
  7. NASA TV by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Funny
    Salty liquid water maybe? Bacteria? This meeting will also be broadcast on NASA TV."

    Darn. If it's broadcast on NASA TV, then there's no way on Earth (or Mars, for that matter) that it could possibly be anything of interest.... Forget C-Span, if you want boring TV just be sure to tune in to this.

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  8. Clearly... by Quantum-Sci · · Score: 5, Funny

    They've photographed the Martian who destroyed Beagle II, and other prior landers.

    --
    Campaign finance reform is national security.
    1. Re:Clearly... by Threni · · Score: 5, Funny

      "We got 'em."

    2. Re:Clearly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      News of life on Mars will be rebroadcasted to the world at large by Fox News once they figure out a way to make it agree with the Bible and make very sure there are no WMD's there either.

    3. Re:Clearly... by buckeyeguy · · Score: 2, Funny

      and the Martian looks suspiciously like Carrot Top. Hmm... at least he has an endorsement deal waiting for him.

      --
      I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
  9. NASA discovers mission by swschrad · · Score: 2, Funny

    uh, thank you for coming, folks. we have, ahhh, found a place to send things today.....

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  10. I know what it is! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    One of the chief scientists saved a bundle on his car insurance.

  11. Seriously, any NASA geeks got the scoop? by jayhawk88 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A lot of people are saying "salty water", but damn...microbes....it's just too much to hope for.

    1. Re:Seriously, any NASA geeks got the scoop? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It isn't life. Look at the list of scientists - not a biologist among them. Also, rotini-pasta-shaped rocks nonwithstanding, the rovers simply aren't equipped to detect life. This announcement is just about modern-day (i.e. not just historical) water. Don't get your hopes up.

      That being said, it means there is a possibility there was past life, and perhaps some future probe (or manned landings) will discover microscopic fossils.

    2. Re:Seriously, any NASA geeks got the scoop? by Marnhinn · · Score: 3, Informative

      It definently has to do with water - not microbes, and almost certianly saltly water at that. This article on MSNBC talks a fair amount about it.

      More or less, the appearence of the martian bedrock appears to be sedimentary in origin, with a clumpy, sticky soil that hints at a bit of brine. While it's not life, water is one of the building blocks of life.

      --
      There is always a frontier where there is an open and willing mind
    3. Re:Seriously, any NASA geeks got the scoop? by dellis78741 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think they will announce both that the bedrock originated in a watery environment and that there is water in liquid form right now in the soil under the Rovers' wheels (in the form of brine). That white 'frost' we have often been seeing in the tracks the Rovers make will turn out to be water that got squeezed out of the soil (and immediately froze).

      --
      ======= ~\_/~\_O Burmese
    4. Re:Seriously, any NASA geeks got the scoop? by CXI · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This seems like a lot of hype for just that kind of announcement. NASA looking for a PR boost I guess.

      A lot of hype?! Are you kidding? Liquid water has never been seen naturally anywhere but on Earth. This IS a big deal! It's like the difference between deciding the Earth wasn't flat and actually sailing all the way around it. Yeah, "everyone knows" Mars probably had water, but no one has ever proven it, which is the important part.

    5. Re:Seriously, any NASA geeks got the scoop? by luna69 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > This seems like a lot of hype..

      Mod me as flamebait, but...

      Do you know ANYTHING about planetary science? The discovery of liquid water (briny or otherwise) is a huge discovery, and changes a great deal of what we've assumed about conditions on Mars (and thus its evolution, potential for life, available resources, etc.).

      --
      No gods, no demons, and no masters. Secular Humanism!
    6. Re:Seriously, any NASA geeks got the scoop? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      What do you mean "not a biologist among them"? John Grotzinger of MIT, who's going to be on the panel, does "biogeology". Check out his research at:

      http://www-eaps.mit.edu/sedlab/projects.html

    7. Re:Seriously, any NASA geeks got the scoop? by njchick · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Actually, it would be more exciting if they found evidence of lakes in the past than traces of water now. Presence of liquid water is almost a certainty. Pathfinder and Viking 2 showed frost on the surface. We know the temperature of the soil, we know that it has salts, we know the atmospheric pressure. It can be modelled on Earth.

      Now, if Mars had lakes, it would indicate that it was warmer, that its atmosphere was more dense, that it could have harbored life and that the water is trapped somewhere in large quantities.

  12. Maybe? by ambisinistral · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Maybe they finally found a giant butt to go along with the giant face.

    Hey, don't blame me for the bad joke... what are you supposed to say regarding a news conference about an unknown topic?

    --

    deserve's got nothing to do with it...

  13. Significant finding? by Zone-MR · · Score: 5, Funny

    They've found the Beagle :=)

  14. Re:Now if cable TV companies were only smart enoug by notque · · Score: 5, Funny

    I swear, the closer you get to Kennedy Space Center, the less chance they will offer it.

    Of course. If Kennedy Space Center isn't sold out by the Thursday before the week, Nasa TV is blacked out for all the surrounding areas.

    Go Support your local space exploration!

    --
    http://use.perl.org
  15. Or maybe.. by MalaclypseTheYounger · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Bugblatter Beast of Traal destroyed both of our Mars Rovers because we did not equip them with towels to wrap around their video cameras.

    --
    Check out the best P2P sharing website: MEDIACHEST.COM
  16. I hope it's not life by crymeph0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's right. Because you know what will happen then don't you? The more aggressive environmentalists will say we can't send people there, and no way in hell can you colonize Mars, because we'll screw up the Martian bugs' habitat. And then even our robotic missions will have to go through some sort of expensive sterilization to make sure they don't squish anything. It would, in short, take all the fun out of the final frontier.

    --
    It should be illegal to say that freedom of speech should be limited.
    1. Re:I hope it's not life by 23skiddoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah. Check out the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. One of the interesting things was the bacteria and molds that the scientists hid within some of the probes to "seed" Mars. And in defiance of some of their collegues that wanted a pristine Mars.

      --

      [ insert your own witty .sig here ]

    2. Re:I hope it's not life by tmasssey · · Score: 5, Informative
      Mars probes already go through some sort of expensive sterilization process. They want to avoid contamination.

    3. Re:I hope it's not life by Mean_Nishka · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I agree.. Beyond political concerns finding life (especially microbial) adds an entirely new level of danger to astronauts visiting the planet..

      If we all came from the same 'stuff,' it's likely these microbes could be compatible enough with humans to cause some nasty infections.

    4. Re:I hope it's not life by lambent · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Right. Because the government has a great track record of respecting the environment and listening to scientists.

      If it is the sort of "mars can support life" thing, you can expect SimMars style terraforming to begin any minute now.

      If it has ANYTHING to do with money (the manufacture of), you can bet the gov't will be all over that like stink on shit.

      /and yes, i'm mostly joking. mostly.

    5. Re:I hope it's not life by gl4ss · · Score: 2, Interesting

      they already get sterilised.

      moreover, it's very unlikely that stuff from here would contaminate whole mars anyways.

      and even moreover, so what if it would contaminate most of it? isn't that the whole point of dreaming about terraforming?? if there's signs of life there it means other, much more significant things! answer to things like "is earth the only place in the universe with life?" and other 'little' things.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  17. News Flash! by NSash · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pressing news: later today, pressing news will be announced.

    1. Re:News Flash! by Samrobb · · Score: 2, Funny
      Pressing news: later today, pressing news will be announced.

      You're confusing the NASA announcement with the SCO announcement.

      Then again, maybe that's what's going on... SCO will announce a partnership with NASA, by which means they intend to:

      (a) Discover life on Mars,
      (b) Introduce said life to Linux, and then
      (c) Sue them into submission to their new Earth Overlords.

      Actually, that sounds a whole lot more plausible than what SCO's done so far...

      --
      "Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement." Job 32:9
  18. News about Mars. by Dark+Lord+Seth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, they found remnants of bacterial life and water but...

    ... not on Mars. The probes navigational systems malfunctioned and they spend the last few weeks driving around Nevada instead.

    1. Re:News about Mars. by chamilto0516 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wow, I've seen the images sent back from the rover. Nevada is cool.

      --
      Magic Eight Ball: Outlook not so good., Hmmm, how about Excel and Word?
    2. Re:News about Mars. by argStyopa · · Score: 5, Funny

      Malfunction?

      Heck, I thought that was the mission plan. The "Mars" set is in the building right next to the "Apollo" set.

      --
      -Styopa
    3. Re:News about Mars. by Wakkow · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're looking at it wrong.. The rover malfunctioned and drove across the lot to the "Apollo" set. The big news is that it's now "exploring the moon"...

  19. NASA TV via Internet - RTFA by michael+path · · Score: 5, Informative
    1. Re:NASA TV via Internet - RTFA by mycr0ft · · Score: 3, Informative

      at the risk of being a Karma-whore, I should point out that xine plays the ASX stream just fine. No need for any non-free stuff to watch NASA TV wih bated breath.

      --

      Me physicist. Me make rockets.
  20. Microbes? I doubt it. by tgd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think either rover had any instruments designed for detecting any form of life. Unless it was significantly bigger than a microbe and could be seen with the relatively low-power microscope on the rover, I suppose.

    1. Re:Microbes? I doubt it. by BRSQUIRRL · · Score: 5, Informative

      You are correct...I don't believe the microscopic imager has the magnification muscle to view something as small as bacteria, and the Mossbauer spectrometer is very specific in what it can analyze (iron-bearing minerals). These rovers are, as designed, primarily geological instruments.

      For details about what the rovers are carrying, instrument-wise, see this page.

    2. Re:Microbes? I doubt it. by ENOENT · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, it would have to be bigger than a microbe. Like maybe shai hulud.

      --
      That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
    3. Re:Microbes? I doubt it. by asa · · Score: 2, Informative

      Along with it's drilling tools and such, it carried a spectrometer (or something of the sort) to detect mineral and chemical composition.

      Actually, several spectrometers. There's the Mossbauer spectrometer, designed to identify iron-bearing minerals. There's the APXS (alpha particle x-ray spectrometer.) which performs elemental chemistry analysis. And there's the Mini-TES (thermal emission spectrometer) which studies infra-red spectra to help determine type and abundance of minerals.

      Then there's the arsenal of 9 cameras on each rover, including the stereo panoramic cameras which have filters from far IR to near UV (980 nm, 930 nm, 900 nm, 860 nm, 800 nm, 750 nm, 670 nm, 600 nm, 530 nm, 480 nm, 440 nm, and 430 nm).

      Yes, we've got spectrometers :-)

      Are they likely to be the required tools for confirming the existence of life? No. These are geologic and rock chemistry tools.

      Is it possible that we've got MI pictures that suggest life? Yeah, it's possible. Is it possible that our wider-angle cameras spotted some Martian beast moving across nearby terrain? Yeah, possible, I suppose. Is it likely that they've got anything close to definitive proof of life on Mars? I don't think so.

      I'm going to take a guess and say that they're likely to tell us that they've got a pretty good handle on the local geology at Opportunity's crater in Meridiani Planum and that the rocks they've analyzed most likely formed in large bodies of standing liquid water.

      As a bonus, it would be nice if they also announced that they've found more than trace amounts of liquid water just under the surface or large amounts of water, frozen above the surface (could those spherules be ice cubes? Ray did say that they were the "grayest" think they'd ever seen on Mars, though that could be a signal that they were the coarse gray hematite they're looking for.)

  21. What they found. by neodymium · · Score: 5, Informative

    German newsmag "Der Spiegel" has the story: They found a certain kind of iron sulfate compound, which forms only in bodys of standing water. Discoveries were made using the MIMOS-II Moessbauer spectrometer and the APXS x-ray spectrometer. Images are available in the article.

    1. Re:What they found. by addaon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The parent is correct, but should be revised to say "is thought to form only in bodies of standing water." I promise we'll hear lots of arguments about that very issue in the next couple of weeks.

      --

      I've had this sig for three days.
    2. Re:What they found. by Darken_Everseek · · Score: 2, Informative

      This makes sense. One of the panelists for the press release is Professor John Grotzinger, MER science team geologist from MIT. I'm looking forward to hearing the discussion.

  22. The BIG News by ralf1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    They found Dick Cheney's undisclosed location.

    --
    "Would you, could you, with a goat?" Dr Seuss
  23. hi. I'm Troy McClure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hi. I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such Mars discovery videos as "So That is where My Car Keys Went" and "The Proper Classification of BEM Scat"

  24. OIL!!! by jimmyCarter · · Score: 5, Funny

    They found oil underneath the surface of Mars!! Haliburtan probe to be launched at 4pm Friday.

    --

    -- jimmycarter
    1. Re:OIL!!! by pubjames · · Score: 3, Funny

      Haliburtan probe to be launched at 4pm Friday.

      To be paid for by the US tax payer at a cost of (pinkie to corner of mouth) one hundred billion dollars!!

    2. Re:OIL!!! by amabbi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      you're obviously being facetious... but if oil were discovered... that would be a monumental discovery scientifically, since oil is formed by decayed organic matter under high pressure...

    3. Re:OIL!!! by kevlar · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There's a school of thought that believes that oil exists on Jupiter, where no organic life has ever existed. This came about when comet shoemaker-levy 9 crashed into Jupiter and created that "big black eye".

      http://www.the-planet-jupiter.com/Shoemaker-Levy -9 /g-impact-Shoemaker-Levy-9.jpg

  25. Finally! They found copied SCO code... by ferratus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yep, here's the scoop. Illegal SCO code was found today, but it wasn't easy. They had to search Mars to find something.

    No wait, that would be rather far fetched. I mean, it probably doesn't exist anyway. It's probably something mundane and obvious like water or proof of life.

    DAMN. so close.

    --
    IP Therefore I am.
  26. Just out of interest by pubjames · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just out of interest, does the media in the USA cover space news from other countries? For instance, was the launching of the European "Rosetta" probe today covered?

    It is a fascinating project. Take a look at the "Animated guide to the Rosetta mission" about half way down the page on this BBC news item).

    1. Re:Just out of interest by Serk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      For what it's worth, yes, the Rosetta launch was covered... At least, it was covered by the local AM news station here in Dallas, Texas that I listen to every morning...

      Fascinating project, but 10 years to wait for results... Man, it takes patience to do this kind of science!

      --
      Never ask a geek why, just nod your head and slowly back away. -Rob Malda
    2. Re:Just out of interest by adpowers · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, as a citizen of the USA, I heard about it from my number one news source: Google News

      I don't know if it was covered in local media like the evening News. However, I'm sure it was mentioned, at least in passing.

    3. Re:Just out of interest by CXI · · Score: 2, Informative

      I don't know you tell me

    4. Re:Just out of interest by chamilto0516 · · Score: 4, Funny
      Our media only covers rocket news where:
      • We shot it up 30% chance
      • We shot it up and it blew up 100% chance
      • Someone shot it at us 90% chance
      • We shot it down +5%
      • Someone shot it at us, we failed to shoot it down and it hit something noteworthy:
        • Goverment building 100%
        • Republican Goverment Building -5%
        • Some place that, now out of commision, will put us at risk of not getting our soda, beer or pizza 100%
        • Just some field 50%
        • Just some field where the owner is as backwoods country ast they come 90%
        • Just some field where the owner is as backwoods country ast they come and he thought it was a UFO100%
      --
      Magic Eight Ball: Outlook not so good., Hmmm, how about Excel and Word?
  27. Val Kilmer's robot dog by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm placing my bets on Val Kilmer's robot space-dog.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  28. Leaked image! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny


    To ruin US surprise, France has released image of the announcement:

    http://www.humour.com/Image/AffichageImage.asp?VID Image=5682&VIDThemeImage=2

  29. Uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Probes already undergo severe sterilization procedures prior to launch. For the very simple reason that you don't want earth microbes in outer space places when you're looking for bugs there in the first place.

  30. Satellite option by Attaturk · · Score: 4, Informative


    NASA Television can be found on the satellite AMC 9 Transponder 9C, 85 degrees west longitude, vertical polarization downlink frequency - 3880 MHz, Audio is at 6.8 MHz.

    1. Re:Satellite option by Unoti · · Score: 4, Funny

      This is the kind of stuff that makes slashdot so magical for me.

  31. "Onion"-style Version by RyanFenton · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Guys. Really. Mars is REALLY boring." Says Scientist studying Mars.

    "It's not funny anymore guys! I was into the whole robot thing for a while. That was cool. But it's been like, weeks now, and the that time delay thing is REALLY getting to me." Says Mark McGraffy, associate technician on the Spirit & Opportunity Mars data-gathering projects.

    "Look... see! There it is ... more ...ROUND THINGS! I mean geesh - you want us to just sit here and guess and dream about them more? Ask me last week, and I would have been able to give you 5 theories, but... I just don't want to play the game anymore. They're round things... really boring... round things. Just because they're red and uniform doesn't make them magic people! Hey - maybe they're altoids, great! Let's dream about that for a while!"

    Mr. McGraff then ran off screaming. More news as it happens.

    Ryan Fenton

  32. Re:NASA TV streaming by sam1am · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can view NASA TV online, as well, it seems... (The page also has satellite coordinates, and alternate sources for NASA TV)

  33. Okay, WTF. by tgd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What the heck has happened to the caliber of readers on /. if "A lot of people are saying "salty water", but damn...microbes....it's just too much to hope for." is considered Insightful?

    Its a reasonable comment to make, and I agree with it, but come ON. How is that insightful? That should imply it saying something interesting that perhaps the moderator didn't think of. Who here didn't think that same thing? Lets see a show of hands.

    Pickles are green.

    Now moderate me insightful. :)

    Oh yeah, Martians are green too, so no moderating me off-topic.

    1. Re:Okay, WTF. by FroMan · · Score: 3, Funny

      And here we have proof, that 80% of your moderators find green pickles and martians insightful.

      Perhaps NASA TV needs to cover slashdot more often.

      --
      Norris/Palin 2012
      Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
  34. No bacteria by Eloquence · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The present Mars Rovers, like all successful NASA Mars missions since Viking, does not have instruments to detect life. Its payload is designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to detect whether there has been "ancient water" on Mars, i.e. whether oceans flowed billions of years ago.

    It would be regrettable if this annoucement only amounted to "We have evidence from the rock layers / erosion patterns / spherule concretions that water must have been involved in the creation of these features", as we already know that water can today exist in liquid form on 30% of the planet's surface, and that water has been active on the Martian surface in the recent geological past (source). But given NASA's reluctance regarding all things water-related, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what it's going to be.

    The really interesting stuff is the things they have avoided talking about, like the "mud-like texture". But most interesting in terms of water evidence is the trench dug by Opportunity. If you look at the fairly solid wall of soil at the right you will see a slightly dark streak on it. That streak leads directly to a puddle on the floor. Given this visual evidence, and the structure of the soil, it is pretty obvious that this stuff is wet.

    The simple reality is that Mars is a wet planet. The oceans didn't just vanish, they went underground into the porous subsurface world of Mars. That's where the real action is, not on the UV-sterilized surface. All we see of Mars' underground water world on the surface is the occasional puddle or pond, the black streaks and Malin's famous gullies. If you want to see Martian life, find wet underground regions with geothermal activity.

    1. Re:No bacteria by mongbot · · Score: 3, Informative

      Geothermal activity on Mars? All the volcanoes are long dead. Mars cooled down long before Earth, because it's hot core is ten times smaller. I'm pretty sure most scientist think Mars is geologically "dead".

    2. Re:No bacteria by CXI · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It would be regrettable if this annoucement only amounted to "We have evidence from the rock layers / erosion patterns / spherule concretions that water must have been involved in the creation of these features"

      Actual real proof of liquid water is a big deal! It has never been scientifically proven to exist other than on Earth. If you read your source link you will discover that your 30% figure is just speculation: "There are 5 five distinct regions where we might sometimes find surface water... Together they comprise about 30% of the planet's surface. That's not to say that liquid water really does exist in those places, just that it could." Regardless of your opinion, this is a major discovery.

      If you look at the fairly solid wall of soil at the right you will see a slightly dark streak on it. That streak leads directly to a puddle on the floor.

      No, it looks more like some of the obviously darker surface material slid down the side of the trench to form your "puddle", otherwise known as a pile of dirt.

  35. Europeans: by Sarin · · Score: 2, Informative

    EST = GMT - 5 hours. (unless it's summertime then it's 4 hours)

    so 2 p.m. EST should be 19.00h (GMT) in the UK and 20.00h in Amsterdam/Paris/Berlin (GMT+1).

  36. The BBC carried this yesterday by Albanach · · Score: 4, Informative
    in this article they said NASA will announce "Significant findings" about water on Mars at a Press Conference today [Tuesday] in Washington DC.

    So exciting stuff, but probably not any microbes.

  37. Re:Religion by Ricin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sure. Earth was a 7 day contract. He did Mars to get some practice, and Venus out of curiosity ("Hmm, let's have more greenhouse effect"). Mercury, well, we all get drunk now and then. And as for the giant planets, He's still looking for whoever it was that misappropriated His IP.

    (In my defense: Well, what do you expect with a story that says there's going to be a story...)

  38. Big Black Monolith by mrycar · · Score: 5, Funny

    A Big Black Monolith, 1x4x9.

    --
    Gator/Claria is Spyware.
  39. A typo by shawn(at)fsu · · Score: 5, Funny

    What we meant to say was that Nasa needs significant funding. Funding, not finding. Sorry for any confusion, but since you all are here we are going to pass around these offering plates and feel free to give what ever you can spare.

    Who said science can't learn from religion?

    --
    500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
  40. Re:Religion by JPelorat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    World != planet Earth.

    --
    Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
  41. And last night he slept at a... by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: 5, Funny


    ...Holiday Inn Express!

  42. "Significant findings" by BobGregg · · Score: 4, Funny

    >>NASA will have a press briefing today at 2 p.m. EST to announce "significant findings".

    (from the press conference:)

    "The bad news is, no, we haven't found water."

    "But the good news is, we just saved up to 15% on our car insurance by switching to GEICO."

    "Hey, come back..."

    1. Re:"Significant findings" by Peyna · · Score: 2, Funny

      With the number of accidents NASA has had, I doubt GEICO would save them any money. They're probably labelled high risk.

      --
      What?
  43. If you don't speak german. by Darken_Everseek · · Score: 2, Informative
    1. Re:If you don't speak german. by cK-Gunslinger · · Score: 3, Funny

      First suspicion confirms

      The "tuxedo Gun", the irrefutable proof for the existence of past tides on Mars, is one in the stones discovered sulfate connection, which can be formed only in the environment by water.

      ??? The "tuxedo Gun" ???

  44. Re:Religion by Rostin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually, I doubt it. One relatively famous "day-age" creationist I know of (who, incidentally, all the "real" creationists hate) speculated years ago that we would probably eventually find evidence of life on mars. Here's a link to a more recent statement his organization has made. Quote: "Will NASA ever find evidence of life on Mars? I expect so, if NASA searches with sufficient diligence. Just as meteors travel from Mars to Earth so also do they travel from Earth to Mars. Over the past four billion years at least several billion tons of Earth material, much of it life-carrying material, has landed on Mars."

  45. Yes, we're quite aware by tjic · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Just out of interest, does the media in the USA cover space news from other countries? For instance, was the launching of the European "Rosetta" probe today covered?

    Instead of putting in us the burden of disproving that we ignorant provincials, look at news.google. It's the top Sci/Tech story.

    Every American space enthusiast I know is quite interested in Russian, ESA, Chinese, Indian, etc. space programs.

  46. It's water - says SPIEGEL magazine's exclusive by xTina · · Score: 4, Informative
    ... it claims to have a source inside NASA.
  47. NASA TV is viewable with mplayer! by david.given · · Score: 5, Informative
    Do this:

    mplayer mms://wmbcast.nasa-global.speedera.net/\
    wmbcast.nasa-global/wmbcast_nasa-global_jan\
    212004_1021_53608

    (Watch out for the \ that mark line continuations!)

    Frame rate is low, but the audio's nicely in sync and is certainly decent enough for watching press releases.

    Beware, though, that as I post, NASA TV is broadcasting some ghastly children's programme. You have been warned...

  48. Re:Religion by mirio · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'll bite.

    As a Christian and believer in God, I find your comments to be ignorant and intolerant.

    You should know that I of course believe that God created the world in 7 days. Why not? If there is an omnipotent God, why could he *not* do it in 7 days? Put it this way, if you were God, and you created a mountain, then you allowed a geologist to immediately examine the strata in in the side of the mountain, would the geologist be able to determine that it was only minutes old? Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

    The fact is that I am also a believer in science. Anyone who is a Christian will quickly realize that our beliefs tell us only about goings-on in Heaven and Earth, and contains no references to other planets or other extra-terrestrial life forms. I believe that there are probably many other intelligent and unintelligent life-forms in the universe.

    I would bet that most Christian-bashers on Slashdot would consider themselves great, tolerant progressives, yet they seem to only be tolerant of the cause du jour. How sad.

  49. Water means manned missions by scottennis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Everybody is all excited about finding water on Mars because that increases the odds of finding life on Mars.
    But the big excitement of finding water on Mars means that manned missions are possible. Not the one-way missions that were discussed previously here on slashdot, but the kind where we go in light and process our own fuel for the return trip.

    1. Re:Water means manned missions by isaac · · Score: 2, Informative
      But the big excitement of finding water on Mars means that manned missions are possible.

      We've known there's plenty of water on Mars for years, in the polar ice caps. (No, they're not all frozen CO2.)

      The excitement is over finding liquid water (or evidence of same). -Isaac

      --
      I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
  50. Re:Religion by TrevizeNet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Unfortunately just the opposite would probably happen, look at the Book of Mormon. When life is found somewhere else, Jesus is going to have to save them too you know.

  51. Ooh, ooh, Mr. Kotter, Mr. Kotter!! I know... by Wun+Hung+Lo · · Score: 2, Funny

    MARS NEEDS WOMEN!!!

  52. They found him! by valjean78 · · Score: 3, Funny

    They finally found Osama bin Laden. He's been on Mars the whole time!

  53. NASA TV also available via Internet2 Multicast by Danathar · · Score: 5, Informative

    NASA does not put it on their page (I emailed them asking them to), but if you are on an Internet2 enabled + multicast enabled network (college/university) it is available via MPEG1 multicast feed.

    You can view it with Quicktime, Real 9 (real 10 crashes with SDP), VideoLan and CISCO IP/TV.

    To view it on Videolan start the player with

    --extraint SAP

    and look at the playlist....it can take up to 10 min before you'll see the NASA listing.

    If anybody wants the sdp file I'll try and find a way of posting it. I tried to...but the slashdot forum filters killed my post!

  54. "Significant Findings" by rindeee · · Score: 2, Funny

    They found AOL CDs no doubt. God knows that Earth couldn't contain them all.

  55. Re:Religion by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Funny
    I would bet that most Christian-bashers on Slashdot would consider themselves great, tolerant progressives, yet they seem to only be tolerant of the cause du jour. How sad.
    There's no intolerance here. We just find creationists hysterically funny, that's all.
    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  56. Re:Keeping the French off mars by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Informative

    They're keeping busy with comets comets (with Europe) and the most distant galaxy in universe (with Swiss).

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  57. Problem with NASA by Roofles+the+Clown · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's rather sad that NASA's discoveries and such rarely make even the back page of the newspapers. There was a big hype right after the two rovers successfully landed, but note how about two weeks afterwards, people forgot that they even landed. The American public grows bored with things very fast unless it is something that has to do with a sex scandle involving a politician or someone famous. When NASA announces something like "We found more of these smooth shiny spheres in the soil!" people often shrug and have no interest at all. All the people want are quick thrills and "big" discoveries. They overlook the fact that most science and groundbreaking discoveries only happen due to small realizations and lots of little facts pieced together slowly. I bet when the discovery of this mineral that only forms in water is announced at the press conference, most Americans won't even know that there was a press conference. The small discovery of this water-forming mineral will lead to more accurate theories that will lead to bigger discoveries. Such things shouldn't be downplayed, as this small discovery raises the chances of past/present life on Mars by an enormous amount!

  58. Anniversary by pete-classic · · Score: 4, Interesting
    According to Wikipedia, today is the anniversary of the discovery of liquid water on Europa.

    March 2 - Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a think crust of ice.


    Might make for interesting synchronicity.

    -Peter
  59. Re:NASA TV streaming by Danathar · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's also available via Internet2/Mutlticast advertised via SAP. If you have an I2+Multicast feed you can view it with the VideoLan client or Quicktime if you have the SDP information.

  60. Re:Religion by gratefully+dead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, I guess I have to poison my karma to post this. Sorry, but I have to point out that you are using circuitous logic.

    Ex...
    I beleive in an omnipotent God because he must have created the universe. Therefore God created the earth in 7 days because he is omnipotent.

    Creationism is a farce, and is easily debunked by someone with sufficient knowledge of biology. Only quack scientists are advocates of it as a theory. However, this is a free country and you can believe whatever you want. Just realize you are deluding yourself.

    This is just one facet of the greater problem of religious fundamentalism.

  61. Re:Water means manned missions( not really ) by A55M0NKEY · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Most plans for manned mission to mars call for sending a nuclear powered fuel factory to transform indigenous martian resources into rocket fuel. Any people going to mars would probably be anxious that the robotic factory that was supposed to be manufacturing their air supply and fuel for the return trip had been working correctly for the past year it took them to reach marz. You could just as easily send the fuel factory, and unmanned probes that would refuel on marz as send manned vehicles that would refuel on mars. And if the factory wasn't working after all, then you could send another one and the probe could wait happily for it's arrival.

    --

    Eat at Joe's.

  62. Re:no life by TheOldFart · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually no. What they found was traces of SCO code on Martian soil. They are now wondering about the license fees.

  63. The Flood kills that, though by Qinopio · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because we would see evidence for it.

    Instead, we see miles and miles of sediments stacked up on top of each other, many full of animal burrows, others requiring deposition in still water, others are deserts, others have dessication cracks.

    There is a difference between what you say and the evidence. God sure did a good job of making the earth look old.

    --
    __________
    [Big Brick Wall]
  64. Press Already Leaked by Der Spiegel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Der Spiegel has already leaked the story.

  65. Other possibilities... by Punchinello · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There are many ways the instruments on the rovers could be used to detect life, but mostly they are for finding geological evidence that the planet could have or could now support life.

    One possibility not yet mentioned (and what to me would be the most exciting news) is if they peeled apart some of the sedimentary layers and found fossilized microbes or evidence of former sea life. That would blow me away.

    --

    Remember... ZG9uJ3QgZm9yZ2V0IHRvIGRyaW5rIHlvdXIgb3ZhbHRpbmU=

  66. Re:Religion by nightsweat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Parent is not flamebait. Mod is a poopy-head.

    --

    the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
  67. Who cares if water has been found? by BigBadBus · · Score: 2, Funny

    What they need to do is uncover some BEER and the place'll be half way decent! ;)

  68. Re:Religion by VanillaCoke420 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To say that creationism is a huge bunch of baloney is NOT intolerant, it's the way it is. Creationism is NOT science, and if you are a creationist who still "believe" in science, then that means you have chosen to disregard certain parts of biology, geology, cosmology and paleontology, because it doesn't fit well with your beliefs. And if an ignorant moderator wish to mod me down, please go ahead; I'm not the one making an ass out of myself by cowardly modding people down becuase you feel insulted.

  69. Re:Religion by zephc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    to bite for the troll who bit for another troll...

    By your own admission, your own supposition that God put this false evidence in place serves to do nothing to further your ideas of divine intervention. It becomes a matter of merely "believing" that God put all this false, divinely created evidence in place, which is a matter of taking to heart a book which has changed dozens of times since a bunch of desert nomads wrote it.

    The reason that there are no references to other worlds or ETs is that these desert nomads didn't have the vaguest concept that such things might exist.

    --
    "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
  70. Brine/life/Martian OverLords by Cosmonut · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This announcement will probably mention that evidence has been found that hematite deposits were created in a wet environment and that the Martian surface was once warmer and wetter than it is now. I doubt that any mention will be made of brine, although it's possible that a carefully phrased statement such as "the surface characteristics *suggest* the *potential* of brine" may be made. Why hedge? Simple. If definitive findings are announced solving various Martian mysteries there's little or no incentive to send the next rover... There will be NO mention of bacteria/fossils/our Martian Overlords. Look at the list of announcers, there's no biologist (and no real biology experiments on the rovers anyway).

  71. Re:Religion by 0x0d0a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You should know that I of course believe that God created the world in 7 days. Why not?

    Why?

    It does not seem that there is any more evidence for the existence of an omnipotent, omnicient Christian God than there is for Shiva.

    I have heard some Christians claim that evidence is unnecessary, that pure faith, faith pure of grounding in evidence is necessary. I the fail to see how any Christian can criticize someone for entering, say, David Koresh's cult. There is as much evidence for Koresh being Christ as there is the content of the Bible being true (and, heck, the Bible is self-inconsistent in many places). The same argument a Christian uses to argue in favor of his beliefs being reasonable seems to also justify, say, Satanism.

  72. C-SPAN by ThomasFlip · · Score: 2, Informative

    www.c-span.org usually carries all of the NASA rover briefings live as well.

    --
    If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
  73. Re:Life on Mars by SB9876 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Although most of the evidence for martian life in the meteorite was later disproven, the magnetite crystals still stand as a fairly persuasive argument for martian life. There was a rebuttal to the magnetite particles but I'm not at all convinced by it - researchers have been trying to make magnetic particles like the ones in the meteorite/Earthly magnetotactic bacteria for decades without success. I'm very dubious, therefore about the report that a simple geology simulation can form those particles. Given that a significant fraction of the Martian particles are identical to Earthly ones to the atomic level, we can't throw out the meteorite evidence just yet.

  74. Puddle or Shadow ? by ntsucks · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Are you referring to this image ? That dark streak and "puddle" are a shadow from a contact prob on the arm.

    --
    Those who can do. Those who can't sue.
  75. Re:Religion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Why 7 days and not 6? Or 1? Or instantly? Sounds to me like a man made fairytale.
    Especially considering that before Earth existed, there was no definition of "days"... Unless we're talking 24 hours x 7 "units".
  76. manual translation by Apogee · · Score: 3, Informative

    Disclaimer first: I am not an astronomist, but at least, I am a german native speaker...

    SPIEGEL ONLINE EXKLUSIVE

    "Opportunity" finds proof for martian floods
    by Thorsten Dambeck

    The mars rover "Opportunity" managed to find proof that once upon a time, there was flowing water on mars. As SPIEGEL ONLINE heard from sources within NASA, the US space agency will make this discovery public tonight.

    [caption]Water trace: Light stones close to Oppotunity's landing spot (NASA/JPL)[/caption]

    "I am flabbergasted, I am astonished", said Steve Squyres, scientific head of the rover mission, in face of the pictures from the second mars vehicle "Opportunity". No other landing zone is similar to the broad plain Meridiani Planum, where Spirit's sister probe landed. The scientist was especially taken in by the light rock formation that appeared in front of the rover's camera eyes, peering out of the dark martian sand.

    After thorough mineralogical and chemical analysis of the rocks in the past few weeks, it seems clear now that Squyres spontaneous excitement was justified. As SPIEGEL ONLINE found out from sources within the US space administration, the rock formation is sedimental stone which was definitely built up in a stagnant body of water.

    First suspicion hardened

    The "smoking gun", the irrefutable proof for the existence of past floods on mars, is said to be a sulphate compound that was found in the rocks, and which can only come into existence in the presence of water. NASA will present these results tonight, Tuesday, at 8 PM german time on a press conference in Washington.

    Already the first close-up pictures of the formation fed the suspicion of planetologists, that the rock formation may have been built by sedimentation, by the process of deposition. The single strata were clearly visible on the high-resolution snapshots from Opportunity's panoramic camera. An important contribution to the discovery can be assumed to have been made by the Mossbauer-Spectrometer "Mimos II" , built by the physicist Gostar Klingelhofer from Mainz, which is responsible for the mineralogical analysis of ferrous martian rocks.

    Breakthrough with german instruments

    Already on the 9th of February, German members of the rover research team reported surprising results from their APXS ("Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer") instrument. According to these reports, analyses of a light rock named "Robert E." using the spectrometer found substantially higher levels of zinc and sulphur than in all previously investigated mars rocks. "This indicates that the rock is a hardened, salt-containing sediment, and not of volcanic origin", said a member of the Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, where the APXS spectrometer was built.

    But even if non-volcanic processes are being favored more and more: Until last week, NASA scientists emphasized that various formation mechanisms -- including variants without the influence of liquid water -- are possible. Now, it seems, liquid water made the race.

    With this, the US-rover would have confirmed from the ground what the european probe "Mars Express" already discovered from orbit: End of January, ESA scientists interpreted the breath-taking pictures of the red planet as clear evidence that once upon a time, rivers and seas existed on mars.

  77. Missed the point by hey! · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You are missing the point.

    Imagine, for a second, God has just crated Adam.Boy, is he ever hungry! Because his digestive tract is completely empty. In fact, he has a blood sugar level of zero. He goes unconscious and his brain dies in a few minutes. Obviously (taking one possible creationism standpoint for a second), God created Adam as if he had eaten meals in the recent past, had been innoculated with the appropriate intestinal flora, had grown through the normal proceseses of metabolism, had had the amount of exercise that would be normal for an adult human being. In other words, with all the hallmarks of a history that never actually happened. A lemma, if you will, of this viewpoint is that Adam had a belly button.

    Same goes (in this theory) for the world at large. It was created as an ongoing affair, complete with geological features (including fossils) that are indicative of a history that never happened. This history can be studied in any level of detail you wish, because it is perfect and indistinguishable from the results of an actual history. In fact it is an actual history in every respect other than it did not happen.

    "But, but," you will object, " this kind of theory is not scientific."

    Exactly.

    All long term successful relgions go through periods where they "go back to basics". Ad fontes -- "to the wellsprings" was the cry of the Reformation theologians. The Cluniacs of five hundred years earlier in their own drive to recreate primitive Christianity inaugurated many of the institutions that the Reformation theologians rejected as corrupting innovations.

    The problem is that you can never truly go back.

    Fundamentalism is just a more recent variation on the same theme. They are following ad fontes impulse to try to recreate what they believe to be a primitive literal belief in the scientific truth Bible. Another, perhaps more hostile view of the Bible is that it is a pre scientific view of the world, and therefore it is obsolete. Personally, I think both viewpoints are misguided. Premodern religious people were not concerned with scientific truth, with its standards of evidence and negatability. To make the Bible "scientific" is both to add something to it that was outside the kenn of its creators, and to obscure its real value. By in large early religious people were concerned about the inner quality of human life. You can see this in the rather free way they treated their myths.

    The Lurianic Kabbalists, for example, completely overlayed the Torah's account with their own highly detailed and symbolic creation myth. On the Christian side, much of what we receive as standard myths about Angels, particular Lucifer, is extra-Biblical. Almost every Chrisitan takes it for granted that the serpent in the Garden was Satan. In the Genesis account, the status of the serpent is much more ambiguous; while he is cursed in the end, he is certainly no Prince of Darkness -- he is a bringer of knowledge with all its attendant pain. Furthermore, read critically and in the cultural context in which Genesis was likely written, it would appear to be a gloss of earlier creation myths and shares many familiar symbols.

    Why do people need a creation myth? In part, to address their curiosity about origins, a need that is now better satisfied through palentology, geology and cosmology. But curiosity about natural history is only a secondary reason; after all most people can make it through the day, the year, perhaps even their entire lifetime without giving any through to the creation the universe. The reason people need creation myths is that they need some kind of working hypothesis to questions that have no final answer: Why am I here? Why is life the way it is, full of pain and suffering?

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  78. Re:Religion by xao+gypsie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's no intolerance here. We just find creationists hysterically funny, that's all.
    as a student of religion and mathematics, and a confessing Christian, I'd have to agree with you...

    --


    xao
    http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
  79. They've found life! by kogalurshear · · Score: 4, Informative
    Back in 1976, the LRE experiments on Viking were consistent with evidence for microbial life on Mars. These were dismissed as false positives by some in the community, despite the protests of Gilbert Levin, one of the original researchers on the project. Fortunately, he saved printouts of all the data, and these were later used in 2001 by Miller, a biologist at USC. The new study showed evidence of a periodic gas release according to circadian rhythms consistent with microbial life. In retrospect, Miller said there was a 75% chance of life, given the data in 1975. After his study in 2001, he said there was a 90% chance of life.

    The summary of the study can be found at USC here.

  80. NASA TV Programming - The Information Age, not yet by CKW · · Score: 3, Interesting


    I think I know what they did with the apes that came back from the early spaceflights.

    They put them in charge of NASA TV programming.

    I mean, J.H.C, when the "big spacewalk" was happening a week or two ago I tuned into NASA TV, and what did I get to watch?

    **NOTHING**

    Well, not quite nothing, a grainy image of the command center with an even grainer occasional camera view of a bigscreen projection of their track, which was 100 times worse than simply going to J-Track. Do you seriously mean to tell me that NASA controllers did not have a video feed of or from their own astronauts outside the station, and that all they had was nearly unintelligable acryonym laced audio? Or is it that they simply can't afford a $5 video splitter?

    ( During the hubble repairs a few years ago at one point they showed nothing but a video feed of an inanimate obscure connector between the shuttle and the telescope. Apparently the shuttle didn't have enough downlink bandwidth, and they needed them all for the job at hand. )

    In any case if NASA and the administrationis so concerned about public image and if they really want people to get enthused about spaceflight, how about simply spending an extra $5000 for a single extra camera on the station to provide a view of the interesting things going on?

    Throw in another camera to give us a LIVE view of the earth on another channel - 24/7. How many of you wouldn't LOVE to see a 400 mile wide live video feed from space of the earth, and follow it along with J-Track, a recent GOES image, and your atlas / globe, dynamic topographic and/or terraserver reference feed?

    Isn't this supposed to be the information age?

    Can you imagine how utterly amazing it would be for science teachers to be able to plan a science/geography class around an hour of that each couple weeks with a few groups of kids around 5 PCs all watching the different feeds and trying to match them to the live feed? Add in a few kids using google groups and google news to provide live socio/political/weather commentary, etc etc.

  81. With no biologist? by zCyl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Following is the panel they will have available for interviews in an hour. Note that there is a geologist, but no biologist or anything similar. Thus I would guess that they found strong evidence for water, rather than stumbling across bacteria.

    # Professor Steve Squyres, Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Principal Investigator, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
    # Professor John Grotzinger, MER science team geologist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
    # Dr. Benton C. Clark III, MER science team member and Chief Scientist of Space Exploration, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Astronautics Operations, Denver
    # Dr. Joy Crisp, MER Project Scientist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
    # Dr. Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist for Mars and the Moon, NASA Headquarters

  82. Surpring find... justified trip by theendlessnow · · Score: 2, Funny
    1. 200 cartons of biological chemical agents.
    2. 400 delivery canisters
    3. 50 lead lined radioactive transport carriers
    4. 5 rocket propelled grenades
    5. 10 fake pilot id's
    6. 25 bacteria growth containers
    7. 100 gallons of unidentified chemical
    8. 6 packages of unidentified white powder
    9. 25 expelled radioactive cores
    10. 1 picutre of Uday and Qusay
    11. 1 picture of Beagle II
    12. 1 magnetic dart board with George Bush Sr's picture.
    13. 1 picture of Sadaam Hussein and apparently an Elvis impersonator.
    14. Many pictures of an Elvis impersonator together with someone who looks similar to JFK.
    15. 2 pictures of Jimmy Hoffa playing Nintendo.
  83. Re:Now if cable TV companies were only smart enoug by Zerbey · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I swear, the closer you get to Kennedy Space Center, the less chance they will offer it.

    Have you asked? We used to have it on Time Warner and it was removed in favour of WB (I kid not). So, I went down to the local store and put in a request for it to be re-added. 2 months later, they added the channel again.

  84. Re:Religion by JonKatzIsAnIdiot · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "pour massive resources into propaganda against those who have other beliefs?"

    see: public school system
    see: universities
    see: mass media
    see: Slashdot

  85. "Drenched" by flanker · · Score: 2, Informative

    They just announced the surface where Opportunity is was "drenched" with water for an extended period of time.

    --
    Left shift 1 for e-mail...
  86. Re:Religion by funkydom · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So evolution is statistically impossible, but Noah managed to get two animals of every species on his wooden ark and survive the greatest flood the earth has ever seen. And no evidence of this flood has ever been found.

    And that makes more sense to you than evolution?

    Crazy, the lot of you.