:eek:

Funny how groundbraking this is, and seems not much people giva a damn...

"The planet is fine. The PEOPLE, are fucked!" ~George Carlin

Well of cause there where already a lot of clues, theories and some say proof, that there was/is water on Mars -and elsewhere.
But yeah, to see these pictures was not like anything else I seen.

Well, like most things its a steady increase of evidence, rather then a sudden "Here it is" thing.
Really, the shiny white surface they saw last week was pretty close, but there was still the posibility it was salt. Now we have it melting, we know its almost certainly water ice.

It also explains why the samples they tried too take were intialy lumpy and wouldnt shake free of the robotic scope, but after a few days they did.
Basicaly, the water evaporated off, and when it was dry it was free to fall down.

I mean I can't see it in the news here, anywhere. Some talked about it in the radio in the morning... and that's it. Instead they're talking about political shit all day...

The utter crapness of humanity that is.
No concept of whats important for the species, merely (at best) whats important for a sub-set for the next few months.

Disgusting really.

I completely agree, 100%.

With that, I'm sorry but I'm ignorant. Why is water so important? Because it means there could be life? If so, why does it mean that?

Life on a different planet would be in totally different conditions than the life of Earth anyway. What water means is just a step to that humans could live on this planet, (provided air).

funny how people can get so anxious about such an insignificant thing ... I mean the local newspaper is more interesting than this ... I mean what's the big deal ??? yeah, H2O is present on Mars ... wow .. so what ? like this is gonna prevent you from having a heart attack 2 weeks from now or like it's gonna help you not get hit by a car tomorrow morning ... this is stupid. Focus on everyday aspects people, cause chances are the ozone layer will get so thin, we'll all die quick, or some catastrophic event will occur and destroy life as we know it (because of our own doing, of course) and we will STILL not get to see the importance of Mars's water ... and back to the all so fascinating "alien" syndrome everybody seems to be affected by, let me tell u how I feel: sick ... I don't care about water ... that proves shit ... I wanna see an alien, not some substance which MAY HAVE been able to sustain a freaking life form ... everybody expects aliens in the presence of water ... I just expect veggies ;) case rested

Quetch, it's about possible future colonisation and possibly terraforming, everyone are keeping thumbs up for life, but that's just an option. I can't see how someone might think that the future act of creation that will be done by the human race is less siginificant then daily lives of individuals. Humanity has no goals and dreams - those could put us on the tright track.

And please... all that "we'll destroy ourseves" nonsense again... we didn't kill ourselves off during the cold war although it was close, we're not going to now. It's a naive thought actually, not really based on observation. If you examine the worldwide trends and advance in technology you can't feel pesimist about the race(trends! Less war, less poverty, more sustainable and open source technologies).

I'm so tempted to say this...
Can't resist... sorry. :o

NO. YOU'RE STUPID.

(that was refreshing)

Anyway... Some people see themselves as a part of something bigger. Big inspirations and taking care of future generation and that kind of weird stuff... go figure.

(edit: this might not be the best answer, reading it again... meh)

Speaking of human creation, I wonder what kind of a parent will the human race be when the singularity comes.

Care to elaborate?

http://i29.tinypic.com/4pwdnt.jpg

Lol nurture that. :P
Made the cartoon yesterday.:p

@CF: don't worry, I was expecting an answer like that :p actually many more :D but I do expect some proof reflecting the fact that what I've said is a childish and narrow-minded nonsense :p
@Jas: are you referring to the point where the human race will be on the verge of having a single individual left standing ?

"The technological singularity is a hypothesised point in the future variously characterized by the technological creation of self-improving intelligence, unprecedentedly rapid technological progress, or some combination of the two."

Basicly it's a term used for the time computational power will be great enough to contain a consciousness, wich will then self improve itself beyond whatever a human can possibly conceive.

Nonsense! No such thing happening. The Human race has progressively gone better, not worse. Really, where does that view come from - like there was a time in history we (as a species) where better off...

Well what I meant to write was,

Mars is so far the only planet we can reach, besides our home planet.
Even though I don't know why specifically water is so important, I do understand it's important on a whole other (bigger) scale than finding the cure for heart attacks.
Expanding our information of the world and finding new things is the kind of stuff that can lead to finding a cure to heart attacks.

Ah.

Nonsense! No such thing happening. The Human race has progressively gone better, not worse, really, where does that view come from - like there was a time in history we (as a species) where better off...

Would be an interesting experience to preform though, killing all humans except one and see what happens.

Well not really that hard to predict... he/she'll roam the ruins for a few years... become a little more savage, and then die from some silly disease or in an accident...

Well that's your hypothesis.

Well what else? No way that person could recreate the species... you'd need at least like 300... if not more.

mine too ... you would survive a couple of weeks, until all supplies would get rotten , smelly and uneatable ... they would not run out, just rot duh ... and since one man cannot maintain a factory to produce food (whatever that is), he'll just eat what he still has ... eventually, just fruits and perhaps he'll die due to inadaptation ... who knows ..

CF: well I know it seems like scratching the surface of something which has HUGE potential of getting us further somewhere in the future, but that's just theory ... meanwhile, my universe revolves around me, those around me and the normal stuff ....I don't care whether Apathos will crash into the Earth in 2029 or 2036, I don't care if Planet X aka NIBIRU will also crash on us .... I don't care ... that's beyond my power of acting so I'm (we all are, even though we think we aren't) helpless when we're faced with the whole Universe ... so until people can manipulate matter and shit, thus ruling the universe, I'll worry about my exams, my health, the wellbeing of my home, my friends, family, loved ones and I'll work hard to graduate and finish the game I'm working on with Jasiek :)

Jas: this is just me, don't say I didn't mention this :p so here it goes: we were wayy better off before ... again, just my opinion ;)

Before what? When? There is no golden age in the history of the humans species (non that we have proof of at least)... You want one, you work for it. Anyway I would like to add that it's people with their minds in the clouds who always push the species further, not the people who only look after themselves.

That's why we are stagnant these days. Back when the airplane was first made, it was something everyone was doing, 3 years after the Wrights' demonstration in Paris the world had thousands of airplanes. Now when it comes to airplane speeds we're stuck in the 60's.... also there are plans to repeat in 20 years what we achieved 30 years ago...

There will be no achievement, no greater world if people are not willing to commit to a romantic cause, be interested in it, instead of just going on by their daily lives...