NASA moon-bomb probe strikes rich seam of fruitcake
'As a woman I feel violated'
Nutjob Parade Those readers who've been following NASA's LCROSS lunar pole-prang mission, which saw a brace of spacecraft crash into the Moon's south pole earlier today, will be aware that the effort wasn't popular in all quarters.
In particular the self-styled "Chicago Surrealist Movement", claiming to speak for "surrealists, lunatics, astrologers, naturalists, anarcho-primitivists, Greens, werewolves, pagans, psychics, UFO groupies and other concerned members of the general public" launched an impassioned and beautifully written appeal to "Stop NASA Bombing the Moon!", which we enjoyed so much we reported it earlier in the week.
As a result we've had a good deal of feedback on the topic of moon assault, which we thought we'd share with you while the world waits for the results of the crater strike.
First up is commentard Bill Fresher:
The moon is a huge water balloon. If they pop it with a bomb it'll burst, the water will fall into Earth's atmosphere, heat up on entry and turn to steam, which will cook us all. Please stop NASA.
He wasn't alone, either, with various observers backing the surrealists' possible belief that NASA might inadvertently cause major havoc with their crater strike. This might seem to be impossible given the bigness of the Moon, the smallness of the LCROSS, and the laws of physics - but there were those who disagreed. Commentard Greenstar perhaps summed up this point of view best:
Think of the planets in terms of forming a sentence. The Earth is a noun. The moon is a verb. Its very existance creates action in the tides, the weather, and possibly human mood. It's perfection of rotation sets into play all the components that make it possible for life here to exist and yet no life exists there. How is that possible? Wouldn't it seem logical for the earth to have a reciprocal effect on the moon - but it doesn't. The laws of symbiosis don't apply. If the moon is nothing more than a big rock then it can be cleaved like a big rock. Laws of mass and density don't apply nor do they offer us protection from the idiots at NASA who have never watched a diamond cutter. They are big boys with BIG toys and brains the size of a TRex AND are running the risk of making us all extinct.
Many noted the traditional association of the Moon with femininity. An individual known as "Jemmifer Scott" wrote in on this subject, saying:
as a woman i feel violated that NASA feel it's acceptable to bomb the moon.i demand this is stopped. i think we should get an INJUNCTION against NASA.
And we received another splendid outburst from one "Martha Shepperd":
these are not treehuggers just consurrned citizens. the moon is not our property yet it helps us sustain ourselves. we dont own the moon! Why aren't core tests done before blasting it? blasting the moon could send it out of orbit which would kill us. Water would evaporate before being detected anyway. Either way you have no right to jepardize my kid's fate. the core of the moon could be ice and it would crack and send asteroids to us and throw the earth out of orbit. you do NOT have the right to decide it I will take that chance!
But it was left to commentard Maty to ask the obvious question which had indeed already occurred to us at Vulture Central as well:
There are members of the concerned general public who are not werewolves, pagans or anarcho-primitives?
We here on the Reg luna-tic desk would suggest that no matter whether it finds water or not, LCROSS has been a huge success in terms of entertainment. ®
COMMENTS
"Think of the planets in terms of forming a sentence."
It's called a newm, nemon, pneumo, nmem, memory aid.
My Very Easy Method: Just Set Up Nine Planets.
Where's The Moon Maidens?
Bombing the Moon. Finding Water? Or this--http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s5i61026
@jake (thumbs up) and really @sillyfellow, wolf and others
Quite rightly said jake.
I have been watching these moon bomb/blast/impact/oh-my-god threads. We should remember that the 'age of reason' is still so very young, perhaps 400 years at most. This is a tiny time in the life our our species (a really tiny time if you believe the world is 10,000, 6,000 or 4482 years old.
I am sure that reasoning ability has been with us much longer than that, however, reason has been shouted down (and still is, actually, reason is under serious threat, but I stae the obvious.). It occurred to me, how to start a religion? I know! See an implausible threat (like a moon splitting in half, blah, blah), test out your audience, seek reverence from said audience. Once the fear is in place, suggest there is a diety holding the power, and you can mediate on behalf of the feared.
Oh---by the way, I am not going to do any more hunting, you will have to feed me. Oh--by the way, I need one of the best huts around here, you will build it for me. Oh---by the way, I will have to ratify any/ANY decision the chief/king makes, be it war, wife or taxes (I am exempt of those of course).
We have had a lot of fun in this thread with the 'whacktards'. But, seriously, do these people hold the same genes that the founders of our religions also held? Does one not hear the same bleats? 'Do not be arrogant! etc.',
Acquisition of learning and execution of reason are not acts of arrogance. For this moon thing, as others had stated eloquently, there was no physics issue, no possible doomsday scenario. The gnat hitting your windscreen is a close approximation. For rights of NASA to 'bomb' the moon, see earlier posts that show this was planned and known for a very long time. For Noah, see Black Sea origins via the opening of the Dardenells in a sudden rush.
I am grateful to live in this time of reason, I grew up in it, it seems to be fading fast in the popular culture, which is a dire shame for the future. I am so happy that here, I see fellows, who hold the flag of objectivity, observation, experiment, result and conclusion still so high.
Remember folks, we are only 400 years old, my hopes for the future of mankind rest with reason surviving beyond all attacks and absurdities. It does not matter that I/we shall not witness the far future, but I hope we do not witness our deep dimise in our lifetimes.
Reason rules, 'cos it's reasonable innit :-)

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