Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
smithsonianmag.com
smithsonianmag.com
[1] https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/belka-and-strelka-sovi...
EDIT: Nice YT vid with footage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCBWIi2vQ4k Looks like they took it in their stride!
https://flickr.com/photos/incanus/10332309885/in/album-72157...
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_...
[1] https://c7.alamy.com/comp/D0GC31/postage-stamp-from-mongolia...
[2] https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~KgAAOSwySVaHdDz/s-l1600.jpg
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?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 Sovětští mužici Those Soviet chaps
vypustili družici Let out a satellite
Lajku do ní nacpali They stuffed Laika into it
a nažrat jí nedali. Not giving her anything to eat
Na kytaru trsaj rock'n'roll. Strum rock'n'roll on your guitar
Lajka letí k Měsíci Lajka's flying to the Moon
hlady žere družici Eating the satellite out of hunger
Lajka volá SOS Lajka's calling "SOS"
ať tu chcípne jinej pes! "Let another dog croak here!"
Na kytaru trsaj rock'n'roll. Strum ...
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
https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html is a more straightforward recounting of the various tests and animals involved, including the V-2 tests.
1) Farming at least serves a purpose (food for humans).
2) The vast majority of people who eat meat do not support the farming and slaughter of dogs. They're tremendously emotionally intelligent, social creatures.
3) Sacrificing an animal for science may be morally justifiable if it saves human lives, but this was not one of those situations. A quote from one of the scientists assigned to Laika’s program:
> “The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog.”
How about farming those pigs?
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/2013...
If dogs rather than pigs and octopuses gain human empathy through the appearance of understanding the emotions of humans, is intelligence in this sense equivalent to manipulative capability?
https://www.bigplanetcomics.com/category/comics/the-alternat...
[1]. https://www.nickabadzis.com/laika-graphic-novel
[2]. https://www.bigplanetcomics.com/category/comics/the-alternat...
The real problem was that the training they did was so superficial that the dogs made more harm than good.
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
• copied the Soviet anti-tank dog programme[0];
• glued bags filled with napalm to bats bodies and caged the live bats inside a bomb casing[1];
• used foxes caught in China and Australia whose fur was painted with a radioactive radium paint[2] to have them released on Japanese shores to unleash rampant fear onto the superstitious Japanese;
– the US did it in the name of democracy and freedom of humanity. And when the British procured and euthanasied hundred of rats to fill their bodies with explosives[3], they did it in the name of His Majesty the King and to defend and to save the British Empire.
Granted, the Soviets were the preantepenultimate evil with their anti-tank dogs, and nothing else counts.
[0] «In 1943, U.S. forces considered using armed dogs against fortifications. The aim was for a dog to run into a bunker carrying a bomb, which would then be detonated by a timer. Dogs in this secret program were trained at Fort Belvoir. The dogs, called "demolition wolves", were taught to run to a bunker, enter it, and sit while waiting for a simulated explosion. Each dog carried a bomb strapped to its body in canvas pouches, as with the Russian method» – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog#Use_by_other_cou...
[1] «The bat bomb was conceived by Lytle S. Adams (1881-1970), a dental surgeon from Irwin, Pennsylvania who was an acquaintance of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt […] In his letter, Adams stated that the bat was the "lowest form of animal life", and that, until now, "reasons for its creation have remained unexplained". He went on to espouse that bats were created "by God to await this hour to play their part in the scheme of free human existence, and to frustrate any attempt of those who dare desecrate our way of life." Of Adams, Roosevelt remarked, "This man is not a nut. It sounds like a perfectly wild idea but is worth looking into» – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb#cite_note-Couffer-4
[2] «The United States Radium Corporation provided an answer in the form of its glow-in-the-dark paint, which contained radium. The health risks associated with the paint weren’t unknown. As early as 1917, women detailing watch dials with the luminous paint suffered from anemia, bone fractures, and necrosis of the jaw, a result of them using their pursed lips to shape the contaminated brush tips into a fine point. Despite that danger, the OSS continued with Operation Fantasia» – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unsuccessful-wwii-plo...
[3] «But the most exotic device was the "explosive rat". A hundred of the rodents were procured by an SOE officer posing as a student needing them for laboratory experiments. The rats were skinned, filled with plastic explosive, and sewn up. The idea was to place a rat among coal beside a boiler. When they were spotted, they would immediately be thrown on to the fire, causing a huge explosion» – https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/oct/27/richardnortontayl...
It sounds rather similar to how the Russians treat their mobilised soldiers to this day.
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/remember...
Look at that good girl :-( We really don't deserve dogs.
She also survived.
it was so wholesome up until that point
"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...
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljKPnQNp_kA
It is beautiful even if you choose any random moment in the middle.
Remembering Laika, Space Dog and Soviet Hero - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15620340 - Nov 2017 (51 comments)
(Same musician who wrote Still Alive and Want You Gone for Portal)
> One of the technicians preparing the capsule before final liftoff stated that "after placing Laika in the container and before closing the hatch, we kissed her nose and wished her bon voyage, knowing that she would not survive the flight."[16]
One of the lead scientists involved expressed regrets over Laika's sacrifice,
> Oleg Gazenko, one of the scientists responsible for sending Laika into space, expressed regret for allowing her to die:
> "Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak. The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it ... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog."
"We treat them like babies who cannot speak."
The US Air Force's aeromedical research division, under the aegis of the Air Force Missile Development Center, became the first entity to send an animal (fruit flies) into space on a captured Nazi V2 rocket. They also became the first to send a mammal into space, Albert II. A rhesus monkey who suffered the ignoble fate of dying on impact after a parachute failure.
These experiments led to the development of the first aeromedical research studies that supported the eventual development of crewed capsules. NASA has a great series on the topic, https://history.nasa.gov/afspbio/part1.htm
You can also watch an early film made by the USAF describing their research, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSBO0haqAwc
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
hahaha. Let me laugh more: HAHAHHAHAHA.
You are the kind of guy who believes that American sanctions against Venezuela are "well-meaning", that the bombing of civilian populations are "shameful errors", that lying about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was "an honest mistake", that the invasion of Afghanistan was done to "combat terrorism" and that the bombing of Syriah was to "promote democracy and freedom", right? You sincerely believe that, correct?
So you’re implying that US should cooperate with autocratic regimes and empower their rulers to further oppress the people living there? Obviously they tried that as well and I’m sure you’d criticize it as much. So which one is the right option?
They should’ve hanged Sadam back in 91, the only problem is that it took two wars for that to happen. Getting rid of the Taliban was the right thing to do as well, but again the fucked up there miserably as well. Same in Syria (obviously you have the Russians involved there to which complicates things)
Communist governments are not "autocratic regimes that oppress the people living there". That's propaganda. They are socialist governments where the proletariat controls the State through its Vanguard, which is the Communist Party. If there is a fact that distinguish socialist countries is the desire to provide a high standard of living to their citizens, with a special emphasis in education, health care, and erradicating poverty. The USSR, Cuba, China, and all socialist countries were extremely successful in that, so no, they don't "oppress" their people, the people actually govern the State, and not the capitalists.
Comunist states are very sucessful, that's why the West needs to invest so much in wars, propaganda, coup attempts and economic warfare to try to destroy them.
Think for a millisecond, if socialist states weren't sucessful, why the US would spend so much effort in trying to destroy them? It doesn't make sense, simply let them fail, after all, communism doesn't work, right? Why would someone dedicate any effort to destroy something that is already doomed? The answer is simple: communism DOES work, IT IS sucessful, and if let alone would quickly become unstopable. That's why the West has always tried to destroy it, because they don't want the world to realize that a viable option to capitalism exists.
No it doesn’t. Communism destroyed itself, at the end western powers had very little to do with it directly.
Honestly I can’t tell if your whole post is sarcasm. Tanks go brr, amirite comrade?
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
Edit: For anyone wondering what this poster is about, take a look at their brief comment history and all will be cleared up.
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?
> legalized abortion in 1920,
and later banned it. But then again tankies tend to be quite lose with facts
> Provided a decent standard of living to all their citizens while also suffering inmense pression from the First World?
What?! Is this sarcasm? Millions of people starved to death to a large extent due to misguided bolshevik policies between 1917 and the 1940s. That is arguably true only starting in the 50s and 60s.
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.
Laika was an important stepping stone towards humans in space. It's sad a dog died, but some people are a bit melodramatic.
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.
https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html is a quick summary.
After all, the goal was to have humans go into space and survive the trip back.
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.
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!
That was my point, yes.
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.
>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.
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?"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Russia != Soviet
Russians != Soviet
This story != anti soviet