[HN Gopher] Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbi... ___________________________________________________________________ Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018) Author : cinbun8 Score : 179 points Date : 2022-11-11 13:28 UTC (9 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com) | Lapsa wrote: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vkj-t1ytzo | bjt2n3904 wrote: | Jonathan Coulton has a great take too. | | https://youtu.be/zsV-qozMz9A | ubermonkey wrote: | I clicked through to this thread to ensure someone linked | that. | porkbrain wrote: | Sticky Fingers have a great take too. | | https://youtube.com/watch?v=N3zMmc8UG2g | rags2riches wrote: | My life as a dog | | https://youtu.be/xsIef9QqE30?t=2m00s | abnry wrote: | Cunk on Laika: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AScMTzoDCrk | marginalia_nu wrote: | Motorhomes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4vUQz-1i5o | pipeline_peak wrote: | Laila come home https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_Come_Home | throwaway742 wrote: | RIP Comrade Laika. | belval wrote: | > Soviet physicians chose Laika to die, but they were not | entirely heartless. | | This tone is really harsh, animals dying to push science forward | is still common today and acting like they were "heartless" for | it is disingenuous. | | Laika got to be remembered, which his already much more than can | be said of most test subjects. | dontlaugh wrote: | More than that, there was a lot work put into keeping the dogs | alive and healthy. In fact, most did survive and lived on after | their flight. | | After all, the goal was to have humans go into space and | survive the trip back. | Taylor_OD wrote: | Is it that harsh? The line ends with they were not entirely | heartless. | [deleted] | psyfi wrote: | Exactly! I'm getting sick of seeing all that kind of double- | standards BS all around the internet. Things are OK until | someone we don't like does it | missedthecue wrote: | I've got to agree with you here. Every day, animals around the | world are given cancer, AIDs, heart attacks, and all manner of | diseases in the name of advancing science. As many as 12 | million animals are dissected or vivisected in US schools alone | annually. | | Laika was an important stepping stone towards humans in space. | It's sad a dog died, but some people are a bit melodramatic. | psyfi wrote: | > but some people are a bit melodramatic. :D many people are | absurdly melodramatic.* | pipeline_peak wrote: | Did the US sacrifice any animals before they sent a human to | space? | boulos wrote: | Yes, mostly mice and primates. | | https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html is a quick summary. | euroderf wrote: | IIRC Ham was a returning hero. | Retric wrote: | NASA also used quite a bit of Airforce research that used | Bears: https://medium.com/@shermikeholmes88/why-the-u-s- | air-force-e... | kcartlidge wrote: | I gain all the advantages of modern medicine etcetera that | come from animal research. I'm not blind to that fact. I'm | also aware that my empathy levels vary according to the | animal in question, which is awful (but true for | many/most/all people). | | And yet, given the power to make such a decision I'd ban all | animal experimentation without question (and I'd include | Laika's situation in that). | | _If it is so vital that an experiment be performed, then a | willing human volunteer should be found. If no human is | willing to undergo these tortures in the name of science and | for the sake of humanity, then the experiment in question is | apparently not that vital after all_. | | In these situations, humans have the choice and humans have | the benefit. We should leave other species out of it. | HeyImAlex wrote: | And we kill 80 billion animals a year for food. | uwagar wrote: | this is what is called an elephant in the lift. | PhasmaFelis wrote: | > This tone is really harsh, animals dying to push science | forward is still common today | | That doesn't really change anything. | | > Laika got to be remembered, which his already much more than | can be said of most test subjects | | I doubt that was much comfort to her. | psychphysic wrote: | She's a dog. She wasn't capable of being comforted (or | worried) by abstract concepts in the way humans can. | | She wouldn't understand what it means to live or die for | something. | | Still being the first mammal in Earth orbit is wild. Man's | best friend indeed! | PhasmaFelis wrote: | > She's a dog. She wasn't capable of being comforted (or | worried) by abstract concepts in the way humans can. | | That was my point, yes. | iamapassenger wrote: | animal abuse | smm11 wrote: | Mousetraps, man. | lgessler wrote: | Zbigniew Herbert wrote an excellent poem commemorating Laika and | her grim treatment: https://www.best-poems.net/poem/first-the- | dog-by-zbigniew-he... | uwagar wrote: | this story is ridiculous when so many monkeys are / have been | killed right here on earth victim of various drugs, vaccines and | cosmetic tests. | | they'd squeeze anything to make russia/ussr look bad, however | little. | bobthepanda wrote: | It is possible for multiple things to be sad. | wiseowise wrote: | > they'd squeeze anything to make russia/ussr look bad, however | little. | | You don't need to squeeze anything to make Russia/USSR look | bad. | my_city wrote: | You do. How would you otherwise demonize a Country that | reached peak industrialization in a couple decades starting | from a rural, semi-feudal society? | | - That established the 8 hour work day in 1917, | | - legalized abortion in 1920, | | - erradicated illiteracy and achieved a literacy rate of 75% | starting from 25%, | | - Was the first country to build satellites and men to space? | | - Provided a decent standard of living to all their citizens | while also suffering inmense pression from the First World? | | You really have to grasp straws to criticize a country that | made such enormous progress in such short time and that | improved the lives of millions while also being attacked from | left and right. | muaytimbo wrote: | Things you forgot: | | - the murder of millions of innocent people | | - the worst nuclear accident on the planet | | Russia was bad then and continues today. Nothing needed | other than history to make that case. | my_city wrote: | The mythical "they murdered A GAZILLION PEOPLE". Yeah, | totally made up numbers made by anti-soviet historians | that inflated numbers and considered natural causes as | "murder". You can say what you want about the Soviet | Union, but thinking that they ORDERED the killing of | millions is complete derangement. | | Were there economic problems and famines? Yes, of course, | all countries with a rural economy are exposed to | famines. Let me introduce you to the Irish famine, that | killed millions in a capitalist country, such as Ireland. | | Can we count the millions dying of hunger is capitalist | countries as victims of capitalism? | | "O'Leary pointed out that the decision-making by the | government of the day was based on capitalist principles | rather than ethnicity; its aim was to reduce the tax | burden on the middle-class (who were of both main | ethnicities) by clearing the 'unproductive' landless poor | from Ireland." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland) | | - the worst nuclear accident on the planet | | Thats a funny way of calling the bombing of Iroshima and | Nagasaki. Iroshima and Nagasaki were not accidents, they | were the purposefully killing of millions by an atomic | bomb. They were not accidents, THOSE were murders. | rurp wrote: | There is a guy named Stalin you might want to look up. I | think it would change your mind on a few things. | wiseowise wrote: | > The mythical "they murdered A GAZILLION PEOPLE". Yeah, | totally made up numbers made by anti-soviet historians | that inflated numbers and considered natural causes as | "murder". | | Tankie with his "made up numbers" again. What next are | you going to say? Holocaust is made up to mud the name of | the glorious Reich that lifted Germany out of poverty? | lostlogin wrote: | Bringing up the atrocities committed by others as a | defence of Russia is an interesting angle. You know that | more than one country can do bad? | | The killing of millions is hard to dispute. Take just one | incident, the Holomodor. That engineered catastrophe | killed millions and Russia now appears to be trying to | wipe out Ukraine again. | | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor | stonogo wrote: | Fewer than a quarter of a million people died in both | atomic attacks combined, including post-war illnesses. | Why is your desire to defend the Soviet Union more | important to you than accurate information? | guntars wrote: | Fucking USSR apologist. The regime was threatened by | poets! Like how could you possibly argue that sending | poets to a labor camp to die was for the betterment of | the people? | | Edit: For anyone wondering what this poster is about, | take a look at their brief comment history and all will | be cleared up. | muaytimbo wrote: | Are we really to the place where people are openly | denying Stalin and the Bolshevik revolution each killed | millions? You should go to 4chan with the other Qs and | revel in your conspiracy theories. | shagmin wrote: | Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but to me and I | think a lot of people that are likely to be on this site | the Soviet Union just doesn't conjure up many rosy images | or anything - no squeeze is needed. | | Having a list of accomplishments doesn't negate criticism. | I'd actually argue going from a semi-feudal rural society | to a hyper military-industrial one in such a short timespan | and in a forced top-down approach actually made things | worse in the long run. I'm biased though, since the only | people I know from the Soviet Union were the ones who | escaped. | wiseowise wrote: | Millions starved to death in collectivization, even more | millions displaced from their homes and sent to gulags. | Intelligentsia eradicated as a class. The biggest and | potentially richest country in the world collapsed due to | planned economy. And that's just my layman knowledge typing | on a phone, I'm sure many historians can decimate your | comment even harder. | ozzythecat wrote: | > Millions starved to death in collectivization, even | more millions displaced from their homes and sent to | gulags. Intelligentsia eradicated as a class. The biggest | and potentially richest country in the world collapsed | due to planned economy. | | Communism didn't work, for sure, but I'm not sure how | this takes away from the things that the Soviets _did_ | accomplish, which op listed above. | | I also find it interesting the standard we judge the | Soviets by. Millions have starved under capitalism, but | in comparison to what? the Western world where we've been | constantly at war with some country in the world, | treating brown people as less than humans, causing | refugee crises in the millions and civil wars? | | I know the typical response to this comment is something | like, "Oh but that's whataboutism". Well the reality is | that as an American, I we should have the self awareness | to recognize that we're like a skunk complaining about | the stench from another skunk. | | Back to the original topic - the anti Russia frenzy is in | full swing. This much should be clear to anyone, based on | the tone of this article. | asdff wrote: | The economy arguments always annoyed me about communism. | No country would have an easy time avoiding economic | collapse with a US and all her allies global embargo | going on for decades. Plus we probably would not have won | WWII so quickly if we had not resorted to using a planned | economy to turn the nation from an economically depressed | state still in the great depression into a global | superpower. | rurp wrote: | The embargos weren't out of spite; the Soviet Union was | an aggressive bad actor in a myriad of ways. | | I'm not sure why implementing a wartime economic measures | is supposed to be a knock. The US economy is _far_ from a | textbook definition of capitalism, just like Communist | China is nothing like the dictionary definition of | Communism. All economic systems are hodgepodge of | economic systems, full of good and bad ideas, some with | more good than others. | m000 wrote: | If you like happy endings, also check Belka and Strelka [1]. Not | only did they safely travel to space and back, Strelka later gave | birth to 6 pups, and one of them went on to live in the JFK White | House. | | [1] https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/belka-and-strelka- | sovi... | feintruled wrote: | Oh my goodness I knew all about Laika of course but I had never | heard of this! And they gave JFK one of their pups! What a | wonderful story. | | EDIT: Nice YT vid with footage. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCBWIi2vQ4k Looks like they | took it in their stride! | kazinator wrote: | saalweachter wrote: | Technically, any present given "to" a US president is White | House property; presumably, it became Johnson's dog after | Kennedy's assassination, and, assuming the dog was still | alive, later Nixon's. | jrockway wrote: | I'm honestly taken aback at the poor taste of this comment. | The dude adopted a cute puppy and cared for it. That's not a | good reason to be murdered. | | I don't know exactly when this happened, but tensions were | high after the Cuban missile crisis, and a peace offering in | the form of a cuddly creature to love doesn't really seem | terrible to me. | kazinator wrote: | > _not a good reason to be murdered_ | | Nobody said it was; and he wasn't murdered for any good | reason. | joshjdr wrote: | [1] the article | incanus77 wrote: | I have seen Belka and Strelka. They are stuffed and on display | in the Cosmonautics museum in Moscow. | | https://flickr.com/photos/incanus/10332309885/in/album-72157... | Jun8 wrote: | This is appalling but at least, as others commented, Laika got to | be celebrated. For an example of _real_ heartless exploitation of | animals, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_of_despair. This | psycho is still held in high esteem. Not only that, many such | experiments continue to be made for research. | doorman2 wrote: | What was it about the 20th century that produced such heartless | people? Lead exposure? I understand that the 20th century is | far from an aberration in terms of human cruelty, but there is | an element of sadism that feels different than other centuries. | | For instance, read the first sentence from Harlow's Wikipedia | page: | | > Harry Frederick Harlow (October 31, 1905 - December 6, 1981) | was an American psychologist best known for his maternal- | separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments | on rhesus monkeys, which manifested the importance of | caregiving and companionship to social and cognitive | development. | | Did we really need to torture these creatures for decades to | understand the importance of care giving? The experiments seem | like a flimsy pretext for torture. | philwelch wrote: | I don't know about you, but when I think about the cruelty | and sadism of the 20th century, I think about all of the wars | and mass murders. Animal cruelty sort of pales in comparison | to all of that. I'm not saying this to _deflect_ from your | question; I literally think this is part of the explanation. | | Going back to poor Laika for a moment, you could adapt an | old, morbid joke: "we're going to murder all the kulaks and | one dog." "Why the dog?" "Why the kulaks?" | psyfi wrote: | 2022 and some people are still being tortured for more than | 20 years in Guantanamo bay without charge or a proof of | committing a crime, we can just blame lead exposure of | course. | [deleted] | whatshisface wrote: | You can't really explain these things, but you might be able | to explain this guy. | | > _In 1971, Harlow 's wife died of cancer and he began to | suffer from depression. He was treated and returned to work | but, as Lauren Slater writes, his colleagues noticed a | difference in his demeanor.[6] He abandoned his research into | maternal attachment and developed an interest in isolation | and depression. _ | | From the wikipedia page. | ars wrote: | > Did we really need to torture these creatures for decades | to understand the importance of care giving? | | Yes, we did. Look at: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitalism people didn't even | understand how much humans need care, never mind animals. The | people placing these babies into care did so with the best | intentions, but insufficient knowledge. | | Your knowledge _comes_ from these experiments. | [deleted] | doorman2 wrote: | > In 1945, the psychoanalyst Rene Spitz published an | article in which he explained how deprivation of social | interactions can lead to a condition named "hospitalism" in | infants. According to Spitz, young children who are cared | for in institutions can suffer from severe impairment in | their development because they are not provided with | sufficient maternal care. | | We figured this out without needing to torture monkeys. | Apparently, though, this was not sufficient for Harlow, as | he created his pit of despair almost 30 years later. | asadotzler wrote: | We could have done most animal experiments on humans | instead but our species has long set up rules that favor | the exploitation of "other" over ourselves. | shagmin wrote: | Just anecdotal, but some older people I've known who grew up | on farms are probably the most indifferent to animal | suffering, as long as the animal provides meat or whatever | their utility is. Animal welfare is only a thing kids are | concerned about that they need to grow out of. Combine that | attitude with the growing scientific revolution and desire to | partake in scientific experiments and such, and I could see | how this emerges. | 5e92cb50239222b wrote: | I don't know about the US, but in my neck of the woods | that's still the case. Rural folk don't care about animal | welfare at all -- you'd be laughed out of the room for | trying to discuss something like that. Feeding chickens and | pigs for meat and then slaughtering them is just something | you normally do. | | Having spent a decent chunk of my childhood in a rural area | (and seen many pigs being killed by various methods, none | of them very humane), I also don't care about this stuff | too much tbh. | GoodbyeMrChips wrote: | ars wrote: | To them animals are tools, not feeling creatures. And in | their defense for virtually all of human history, except | for recently animals were _always_ tools. | | Judaism actually has a law called "Tza'ar ba'alei chayim" | which prohibits unnecessary suffering to animals, and | mandates a procedure for painless slaughter. This was | unprecedented for its time - back then no one cared at all. | [deleted] | cenal wrote: | I always hate to say we need regulation around something but | then someone evil does something evil and the need for | regulation emerges again... | kibwen wrote: | Ethics review boards these days understand that potential | outcry is proportional to the amount of empathy the public | has for a specific type of animal. Even beyond the "potential | outcry" angle, universities understand that such experiments | threaten to reduce the public's ability to trust in the | scientific process itself, which they rightfully recognize as | an existential threat. I've taken the mandatory animal ethics | course as a result of doing consulting work at a large | research university, and it's clear that getting approval for | an experiment involving any kind of primate is essentially | impossible. Dogs and cats would be extremely difficult, | random mammals like pigs and rabbits would be quite | difficult, even arbitrary rodents would be non-trivial. As a | result of seeking the path of least resistance, most | experiments took place on flies, bees, worms, spiders, fish, | mice, and the one specific breed of rat that is more-or-less | automatically approved for all experiments | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_rat). | narahs wrote: | She has thousands of dogs named in her honor now - that makes me | smile. | jmkb wrote: | And an excellent Finnish surf band: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_%26_the_Cosmonauts | bitwize wrote: | And an animation studio: | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_(company) | shautvast wrote: | the other band called Laika is one of my favourites https://w | ww.youtube.com/watch?v=MfHKP2lw7vk&list=OLAK5uy_meM... | fnfontana wrote: | At least Laika server for a noble cause. What I think is terrible | is the fact that Soviet Army tied up bombs on dogs and let the | run after enemy tanks on the WWII. Humans sometimes acts | disgustingly. | npteljes wrote: | I don't think we even need to go as far as the second World | War. Animals get shit treatment all day, every day, everywhere. | Even if you look at pets, which are supposed to get the best | treatment of them all, even they are often mistreated or | outright abused. And then we can into other territories like | service animals, meat and fur, and lab animals. There's so much | horror going on at any moment that I think if we treat one | right, that's the exception, not the other way around. | psyfi wrote: | Horses and camels were being used for wars for centuries and | they were occasionally killed in action, it is not disgusting | at all if you think of it objectively | lordgroff wrote: | The German death machine grinds down circa 30 million Soviet | people, majority of them civilians, the hot take is being mad | the red army for tank dogs. Sometimes the comments here are | really special in their lack of context. | vogt wrote: | Or maybe both of those things are shitty and it isn't | mutually exclusive. Sometimes the binary thinking here is | really special. | lordgroff wrote: | I'll take the 30 million dead over a relatively small | number of dogs killed as the greater evil thanks. | guntars wrote: | It wasn't one or the other, it was both 30 million dead | AND some unknown number of dogs killed that very likely | didn't make a meaningful difference in the Soviet war | effort. Congrats on getting down to the level of your | enemy, I guess. | BurningFrog wrote: | Sometimes you're faced with a binary reality, and have to | decide between several shitty things. | asdff wrote: | Like strapping a bomb to a dog that might very well just | run off into the woods or throwing it with your arm like | everyone else, right? Somehow I feel like the tank dog | idea didn't come up from cutting edge military science | but rather some drunken soldiers with a bomb and a stay | dog and a fucked up sense of humor. | BurningFrog wrote: | It was a serious Soviet military program. The dogs were | trained to run under tanks. | | A dog can run much further than a soldier can throw, | which was pretty much the point. If you're close enough | to throw something at an enemy tank, you are typically | dead. | | That said, this had limited success at best: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog | themitigating wrote: | Soldiers and civilians are aware of risks and have the chance | to mitigate them. Animals aren't aware and can't do anything. | commandlinefan wrote: | Yeah, pretty sure both sides did those things to people, | too... | BurningFrog wrote: | Most of us consider defeating Hitler's genocidal Nazi regime a | noble cause. | themitigating wrote: | Did the dogs think that? | npteljes wrote: | I don't think dogs think. | agentwiggles wrote: | You must not have a dog | asdff wrote: | I forgot Stalin was such a nice guy too | orthecreedence wrote: | He did hold the door open for women. | psyfi wrote: | It is ok to use kamikaze dogs in war only if your leader is | a nice guy | gadders wrote: | I saw the picture at the top of this article on facebook a few | weeks back and for some reason it really affected me: | | https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/remember... | | Look at that good girl :-( We really don't deserve dogs. | arjvik wrote: | We genuinely don't. I treasure every minute with my dog. | mahoro wrote: | Not completely related, but here a mockumentary movie about | Russians visiting Moon in ~1910-1920s (I guess) | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljKPnQNp_kA | | It is beautiful even if you choose any random moment in the | middle. | lgats wrote: | Further topic tangent, if you're into Sci-Fi shorts, | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ePy1a4Uxo | nimbius wrote: | Laika is memorialized in the form of a statue and plaque at Star | City, the Russian Cosmonaut training facility. | | https://dynamic-media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-o/08/b... | | The Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow, constructed in | 1964, also includes Laika! | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Conquerors_of_... | Rebelgecko wrote: | Another great place to visit honoring her is the Soviet space | dog portrait gallery in the Museum of Jurassic Technology near | Los Angeles | coolspot wrote: | Very unusual museum, highly recommend to visit. They even | serve tea from Samovar on the top floor. | erwincoumans wrote: | Laikago, the quadruped robot from Unitree is also a homage to | Laika: | http://www.unitree.cc/e/action/ShowInfo.php?classid=6&id=1 | paganel wrote: | There were quite a few postal stamps featuring Laika. I had | these two in my stamps collection when I was a kid: [1], from | Mongolia, and [2], from Romania. | | [1] https://c7.alamy.com/comp/D0GC31/postage-stamp-from- | mongolia... | | [2] https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~KgAAOSwySVaHdDz/s-l1600.jpg | markoman wrote: | Let's not forget Sharon Van Etten's tribute song to Laika, | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZixNE7NEJ4 | yunwal wrote: | Arcade fire too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8AArhhjo44 | BlueBall wrote: | There's a song from Mecano. Two lines always hit me. I will try | to translate it. And while Earth was trowing a | giant party where happiness mixes tears in the | champagne Laika just was looking out the window | What could be that giant colored ball? And why do I | keep spinning it around? | Symmetry wrote: | Akino Arai also had a haunting song about the Sputnik 2 mission | as a metaphor for a breakup. | | Translation: With enough air and water for | seven days And someone's uncompromising wishes The | laika dog on Sputnik Doors which will never again open | now close To think that I must go on living In some | distant place unfamiliar to you That we can never feel | the same things | kazinator wrote: | In the Czech Republic, they have an oldie 50s style rock tune | based on "Rock Around the Clock", with lyrics mentioning the | Laika. Sovetsti muzici Those | Soviet chaps vypustili druzici Let out a | satellite Lajku do ni nacpali They stuffed | Laika into it a nazrat ji nedali. Not giving | her anything to eat Na kytaru trsaj rock'n'roll. Strum | rock'n'roll on your guitar Lajka leti k Mesici | Lajka's flying to the Moon hlady zere druzici | Eating the satellite out of hunger Lajka vola SOS | Lajka's calling "SOS" at tu chcipne jinej pes! | "Let another dog croak here!" Na kytaru trsaj | rock'n'roll. Strum ... | | The Prague Spring events put a damper on this kind of thing. | sampo wrote: | Here is "Laika Laika" (1985) from Finnish rock musician | Jussi Hakulinen. | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpwfDTPX2Ek | mvaliente2001 wrote: | The best part is the last lines: | | If we pay attention to the legend then we'll have to accept | that in Earth is one less dog and in heavens one more star | Victerius wrote: | Don't forget Felicette, the first, and so far the ONLY, cat | launched into space: | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9licette | | She also survived. | smoothgrammer wrote: | Killed 2 months later to examine the brain. | throwaway0x7E6 wrote: | >Felicette was killed two months after the launch so that | scientists could perform a necropsy to examine her brain.[29] | | it was so wholesome up until that point | bombcar wrote: | It's interesting the changes in tone in that article. | Felicette was killed, but the other 11 cats were | "euthanized". | tim333 wrote: | >one meal and only a seven-day oxygen supply | | It sounds rather similar to how the Russians treat their | mobilised soldiers to this day. | psyfi wrote: | They can breath as much as they want to | JoeDaDude wrote: | Author Nick Abadzis created a graphic novel of the story of Laika | [1]. While I expect it includes some fictional elements, a lot of | the story in the graphic novel was true, including Laika's | unfortunate demise. He got so many comments about the sad ending | that he wrote several alternate endings to placate his readers. | You can se them in reference [2]. | | [1]. https://www.nickabadzis.com/laika-graphic-novel | | [2]. https://www.bigplanetcomics.com/category/comics/the- | alternat... | mikeInAlaska wrote: | > They expected Laika to die from oxygen deprivation--a painless | death > within 15 seconds--after seven days in space. | | So after seven days, the oxygen level would instantly drop to | zero? I would think the Oxygen supply would run out, leaving the | dog to slowly suffocate as the O2 supply of the capsule space was | consumed. | Pigalowda wrote: | I would think the CO2 gets too high before oxygen runs out too, | but maybe they had CO2 scrubbers? If not, I think the pCO2 | would go beyond 40 mmHg and the dog would die of metabolic | acidosis instead of hypoxia/anoxia. | Kaibeezy wrote: | 2007 graphic novel. Lots of awards. | | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_(comics) | JoeDaDude wrote: | Author Nick Abadzis got a lot of responses about the factual, | sad fate of Laika in his graphic novel. So much that he wrote | several alternate (entirely fictional) endings to the story to | make readers feel better. | | https://www.bigplanetcomics.com/category/comics/the-alternat... | dclowd9901 wrote: | Also in the category of fictional references to Laika, a | wonderful episode of Space Dandy ("The Lonely Pooch Planet, | Baby") | JKCalhoun wrote: | I was hoping someone would mention. Here is another link: | https://www.nickabadzis.com/laika-graphic-novel | mikehodgson wrote: | There is also this one written by Jeff Lemire, though it is | obviously a work of fiction. It also features the American | monkeys Able and Baker: | https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/primordial | JKCalhoun wrote: | Able and Baker newsreel: https://ia902803.us.archive.org/28 | /items/Jeff_Quitney_me/201... | boulos wrote: | This got asked deep in a comment, but NASA also used animals in | space tests as briefly mentioned in the article. | | https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html is a more straightforward | recounting of the various tests and animals involved, including | the V-2 tests. | misiti3780 wrote: | so messed up. | standardUser wrote: | Seems more humane than factory farming (shruggy emoji). | dang wrote: | Related: | | _Remembering Laika, Space Dog and Soviet Hero_ - | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15620340 - Nov 2017 (51 | comments) | my_city wrote: | Anti-Soviet propaganda is reaching levels that I thought were not | possible. | fnordpiglet wrote: | Really? You must not have been alive during the Cold War 1 | | Edit: watch Red Dawn, read the article, and comment back with | your comparison of treatment of Soviet Russia. | | In my reading of the article the only negative statement about | the Soviet society was the statement that they lied about the | time of death and fictionalized the science for propaganda. The | rest of it reads as a humanizing story of the dog and it's | experience without a specific political agenda. I could very | well have imagined any other society as the context. I feel you | must be overly sensitized to have read this as anti Soviet. | azubinski wrote: | The best anti-Soviet propaganda so far is the experience of | life under Soviet rule. Try to avoid this as much as possible. | squarefoot wrote: | I also found the timing of the post a bit odd. Given the recent | events I would think twice before publishing or linking to | anything that could be interpreted as propaganda in either | direction. I am writing this as a 100% pro-Ukraine guy. | philwelch wrote: | Ukraine was also part of the Soviet Union, so it doesn't | really make sense to try and equivocate between the USSR and | modern Russia. | JKCalhoun wrote: | I definitely see your point, but hate self-censorship for | "perceived reception". | [deleted] | [deleted] | psychphysic wrote: | I'm sure this is controversial but she did so much for dogkind. | FollowingTheDao wrote: | Scientists are some of the most sadistic people. | tibbon wrote: | A character you meet early in the game Pathologic 2 is named Lika | (Liza), and wears a dog head. I thought it was just a neat name | until my friend who is Russian pointed out the background and | reference to Laika. | | https://pathologic.fandom.com/wiki/Lika | shakow wrote: | That looks like a mistranslation, Liza translates into Lisa. | unnouinceput wrote: | *Liza | | "3" like letter in Cyrillic alphabet is "z" in Latin. You can | hear it when pressing the sound button in here: | | https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&text=%D0%9B%D0%B. | .. | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze_(Cyrillic) | shakow wrote: | I know, I speak Russian. That's why I wrote ``translate'' | and used the most common writing of the name in English, | rather than ``transliterate''. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-11-11 23:00 UTC)