To Mars Alice!

All bad sitcom references aside, I gotta say these are cool times, technologically speaking, we live in. Recessions, economic stimulus debates, & stock market implosions be darned. I was skiing with a buddy last week when he pulled out his I-phone and in about 8 seconds, we were looking at a trail map of the entire ski area. And on that map was a dot showing where exactly we were on the trail. From a satellite. My buddy was telling me his I-phone can tell him how fast he's skiing (although I'm not sure how you could actually pull it out, punch the keys, and look at it without crashing into a tree), point to which trail to take next, and give him the weather for the rest of the afternoon anywhere in the world, all the while playing his new Slightly Stoopid album in his ears. The future, it seems, is indeed here.

So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to read in today's news that you can now Google Maps of Mars. I'm not sure, aside from sheer curiosity and science trivia, why you'd have a need to look for directions on Mars. The housing market here on Earth is bad enough. And I suspect it's either really, really hot or really, really cold most places on Mars anyway.

In any event, in these times of technology explosion where you can punch in the name of your favorite band into Pandora and hear their songs in an endless mix of songs from bands that sound like them all day long without interruption (or cost!), why shouldn't we now have access to directions on Mars?

If only technology could progress as impressively on pressing matters such as curing cancer & other deadly diseases, developing alternative energy sources to power our cars & charge those I-phones, and even perhaps the discovery of a space age material to fix potholes that's better than that loose hot tar stuff that sticks everywhere but in the pothole...

Alas, such feats still seem elusive, so in the meantime I suppose a good game of Ilitebrite on your Iphone while drinking a cold one after a great day of skiing will just have to suffice.

And perhaps a virtual stroll on Mars... Google Earth 5.0