Shmoon?
Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 8:24 pm
http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/lola/index.html wrote:
Van de Graaff Crater - The Lunar Figure 8
<<5.07.2010 - Van de Graaff Crater, located on the lunar far side north of South Pole-Aitken Basin (172.08, - 26.92), has an unusual figure 8 shape (~240 km x 140 km) that has long caught the eye of lunar scientists. Its shape suggests that it was formed by two separate impacts even though there is no crater wall separating its two halves. LOLA data indicate that the floor of the crater is relatively flat except for the presence of several smaller impact craters. Portions of its rim reach almost 1000 m above lunar mean elevation level, while its floor is near - 2100 m. Van de Graaff is a region of interest for robotic and human exploration of the Moon due to its location in a magnetically and geochemically anomalous region. The Moon does not have a global magnetic field like the Earth, thus the origin of its small, localized magnetic fields, such as the one near Van de Graaff, is of scientific interest. Van de Graaff and the surrounding region are also slightly enriched in thorium, an element found in lunar KREEP (potassium (K), rare earth elements (REE), and phosphorus (P)) terrain. Most of the Moon's KREEP-rich materials are found on the lunar near side, thus the presence of enhanced thorium in the Van de Graaff region is intriguing.>>
![Image](http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/lola/images/weekly/20100507.jpg)
![Image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/06/Lifeshmoo.jpg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmoo wrote:
<<A shmoo (plural: shmoon, also shmoos) is a fictional cartoon creature. Created by Al Capp (1909 - 1979), they first appeared in his classic comic strip Li'l Abner on August 31, 1948, and quickly became a postwar national craze in the USA. A shmoo is shaped like a plump bowling pin with legs. It has smooth skin, eyebrows and sparse whiskers - but no arms, nose or ears. Its feet are short and round but dexterous, as the shmoo's comic book adventures make clear. It has a rich gamut of facial expressions, and often expresses love by exuding hearts over its head.
Cartoonist Al Capp ascribed to the shmoo the following curious characteristics:
Superficially, the Shmoo story concerns a cuddly creature that desires nothing more than to be a boon to mankind. Although initially Capp denied or avoided discussion of any satirical intentions, he was widely seen to be stalking bigger game subtextually. Shmoos are officially declared a menace, and systematically hunted down and slaughtered — because they were deemed "bad for business". The much-copied storyline was a parable that was interpreted in many different ways at the outset of the Cold War. Al Capp was even invited to go on a radio show to debate socialist Norman Thomas on the effect of the Shmoo on modern capitalism. "After it came out both the left and the right attacked the Shmoo", according to publisher Denis Kitchen. "Communists thought he was making fun of socialism and Marxism. The right wing thought he was making fun of capitalism and the American way. Capp caught flak from both sides. For him it was an apolitical morality tale about human nature… I think [the Shmoo] was one of those bursts of genius."
- * They reproduce asexually and are very prolific. They require no sustenance other than air.
* Naturally gentle, they require minimal care, and are ideal playmates for young children.
* Shmoos are delicious to eat, and are eager to be eaten. If a human looks at one hungrily, it will happily immolate itself, either by jumping into a frying pan, after which they taste like chicken, or into a broiling pan, after which they taste like steak. When roasted they taste like pork, and when baked they taste like catfish. (Raw, they taste like oysters on the half-shell.)
* They also produce eggs (neatly packaged), milk (bottled grade-A), and butter — no churning required. Their pelts make perfect bootleather or house timber, depending on how thick you slice it.
* They have no bones, so there's absolutely no waste. Their eyes make the best suspender buttons, and their whiskers make perfect toothpicks. In short, they are simply the perfect ideal of a subsistence agricultural herd animal.
* The frolicking of shmoon is so entertaining (such as their staged "shmoosical comedies") that people no longer feel the need to watch television or go to the movies.
* Some of the more tasty varieties of shmoo are more difficult to catch. Usually shmoo hunters, now a sport in some parts of the country, utilize a paper bag, flashlight and stick to capture their shmoos. At night the light stuns them, then they can be whacked in the head with the stick and put in the bag for frying up later on.
The actual origin of Capp's word "shmoo" has been the subject of debate by linguists for decades, leading to the misconception that the term was derived from "schmo" or "schmooze". However, "shmue" was a taboo Yiddish term for the female reproductive organ, the ultimate fertility symbol. It's one of many Yiddish slang variations that would find their way into Li'l Abner. Revealing an important key to the story, Al Capp himself wrote that the Shmoo metaphorically represented the limitless bounty of the earth in all its richness — in essence, Mother Nature herself.
In Li'l Abner's words, "Shmoos hain't make believe. The hull [whole] earth is one!!">>