"Just as long as you don't make me smell Uranus' [atmosphere]"

Come on that is definitely an alien in a cloaking device legging it to the pub before closing time....

First, the Great Water hunt - in search of non-existent water.

Second, the Great Atmosphere hunt - in search of non-existent atmosphere.

It can't be long now before NASA announces the Great Martian hunt. Some clown will stand up and say "Look here are the footprints", a financial bun-fight will follow, and NASA will despatch space probes with robotic legs having various sized plastic feet to see if any fit the evidence. The conclusion is foregone.

They should stay at home untl they can explain just how an atmosphere 1% as dense as that on Earth, and with considerably less incipient solar radiation, can generate dust devils that grow to envelop the planet. Where is the energy coming from? The answer is not Martians with dust-making machines, war-dancing, or hiding from NASA. And it's not jinn, or micro black holes, or HIggs bloody bosons.

P.S. Need 3 icons, like snafu, etc, but flagging pissed-offedness - Snapo, Tarpo, Pobar. This comment is only Tarpo. I'd have to be a professional physicist to justify Pobar, but I'm seriously tempted by this Mars racket.

There is water on Mars... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/01/phoenix_finds_water/

I'm just pissed we're not already terraforming the place.