Sad news

Sorry I've been AWOL on the blog, folks. Laziness. And I'm afraid my first post since the hiatus isn't a cheerful one.

My former girlfriend, Dr. Beth Holmes, died suddenly on Tuesday from a congenital heart problem. She was a fellow astrophysicist, a post-doc at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. She was 30 years old.

I'm going to her funeral and viewing Sunday and Monday. I'm sure this isn't going to be easy.

I'll be back with more to write in the very near future.

Mars, the angry, red, squishy planet?

So NASA is supposed to make a "major announcement" about Mars today! The speculation is that it's water, or evidence of past water.

A friend says that last week, they (yes, the ubiquitous "they") dug a trench with the rover's wheels and found the soil "sticky," like beach sand. And Space.com had an interview with a PI from the Viking project, who says that early morning images of the rover tracks show "high reflectivity," as if water had seeped up (and frozen, of course) overnight.

Of course, we'll know for sure what they're thinking in a few hours...

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more!

So Aristide has been overthrown twice, now. Is that some kind of a world record?

I'm actually asking--is there any other national leader who has ever been overthrown twice, by coup, rebellion, or whatnot? Historically or in the modern world? And I don't mean through legal means, like losing an election or being impeached and kicked out.