Could There Be Life Elsewhere? I don't know who said it first, but it seems UFO, Nessie, and Bigfoot sightings have trailed off considerably in the age of ubiquitous camcorders and cellphone cameras. The skeptic in me tends to see this as a refutation of crackpot theories of the universe, but recent discoveries on Mars make the possibility of life elsewhere other than earth seem increasingly plausible. NASA's top scientists are basically saying, "all bets are off". The UPI's Phil Beradelli takes crafts a philosophical report on the latest from the red planet: "The British social historian James Burke is fond of saying any time humanity's view of reality is changed by new knowledge, reality itself is changed. That is exactly what has happened with the discovery by the Mars rover Opportunity that the red planet once harbored liquid, flowing water.... In the case of Opportunity's discovery at Meridiani Planum, suddenly that site has become the prime target for NASA's next Mars rover mission, the Mars Science Laboratory. About the size of a VW Bug, the nuclear-powered craft is currently planned for launch in 2009. There may be other, major discoveries awaiting the rovers or their successors, such as finding fossils of ancient Martian organisms or, even more dramatic, finding living creatures. Still, the seawater-sculpted shapes on the rocks photographed by Opportunity promise to furnish the material for a new chapter in Burke's classic book, "The Day the Universe Changed." Because now that it has been shown there are two planets where water once flowed, there no longer is a reason to doubt hundreds -- or even thousands -- more might exist right within our own Milky Way galaxy. Farther out in the universe -- which, thanks to images from the Hubble Space Telescope, contains perhaps several hundred billion galaxies -- there could be a huge number of planets holding water even now. It is intriguing to imagine water lapping against unimaginably distant shorelines upon which water-based, DNA-structured beings build their vacation homes and dock their sailboats. Once any condition can be shown not to be unique, it can be commonplace. That is a profound realization by anybody's standard". Read the Article Meanwhile, Back on The Mother Planet Why bother exploring the surface of Mars or peer into the deepest recesses of space while we have so many problems here? One simple reason: Self-preservation. WE HAVE TO. Humankind is the equivalent of a swarm of locusts, and soon our planet will be a barren field. Case in point: The International Federation of Competitive Eating. At the official IFOCE store on their website, you can purchase a subscription to their quarterly newsletter "The Gurgitator". By purchasing this fine publication, you can "...get the latest news from the circuit, follow your favorite eaters, keep up with scheduled events and world records, receive special offers and tips and more." You gotta love those goofy, gluttonous bastards...they have a link to "America's Second Harvest"--a fine charity that must feel pretty ambivalent about having the IFOCE's support. I'll have a rack of lamb with a side order of guilty conscience, please...and supersize it! Visit the IFOCE store!