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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Annexed to northern Virginia!

*Found this item at space.com's "Astronotes" (column format, updated frequently...must copy and paste).  Great idea. 

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Little League is Off to Mars

McLEAN, Virginia (AP) -- Whether life exists on Mars is an endless source of speculation. But if there is life, and if those life forms can hit a curveball, then northern Virginia has dibs on their Little Leaguers.

That's because Little League Baseball this year granted its northern Virginia district jurisdiction over the planet.

District Administrator Michael Pobat wanted a theme this year as northern Virginia prepares to host the annual state tournament, whose champion competes for the right to represent the United States in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

He thought a Martian theme might be a way to get kids excited about science and technology, so he petitioned Little League to annex the planet into the northern Virginia district, which serves about 5,000 boys and girls on teams in the Washington suburbs of Arlington, Alexandria and northern Fairfax County.

He had the idea several years ago, and said it is "pure serendipity" that his idea coincides with recent news about discoveries on Mars suggesting the past presence of water, which would indicate conditions on the planet were once favorable to harboring life.

"It sounds soupy, but you never know what will get a kid charged up about something," Pobat said. ``If one or two kids get turned on to science because of this, great. If not, we still had a lot of fun with it."
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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)