Water on Mars and a Cool Historical Link

In case you've been living on the Moon and haven't heard, they've found evidence of possible liquid water on Mars—water that flowed, not in the geologically recent past, but over the lifetime of one of our probes. If it proves out, that's just plain cool. Maybe next we'll find a Martian frog.

Also, a friend sent along this link, to a Flash display on the Maps of War web site showing all of the various empires that have controlled the Middle East over the last 5000 years (including a few I'd never heard of). It takes 90 seconds to play, and is well worth it.