Potpourri LIII

I'll be heading off to KSC for Ares I-X work, the STS-127 launch, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)/Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) launch. Busy, but fun! Anyhow, I should have all sorts of fun pics to post, either during the trip or afterward.

My Google Alert feed turned up a few more Ares I-X stories:

• From the Times of the Internet from North Olmsted, Ohio.
• From the Bad Astronomy blog.
• From UPI.

News from Hu: North Korea plans another nuke and missile test (not yet a nuke missile test) if the U.N. decides to clamp down on them with sanctions.

Stuff from Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE):

• Want to win a three-month vacation? Become an expert on New Zealand.
• A summary of European Union election results...go figure. America shifts to the left, and the rest of the world goes conservative, or at least center-right.

And some additional thoughts about the goat blog:

• The Mitsubishi ad link will probably stop working next month when they “run out of Tritons.” Here’s a link that’ll probably survive longer, and the picture is bigger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Qs1A07RPo&feature=related
• The “Not much else? You can drink it.” Was in reference to you saying something like “There’s not much else to do with that much milk.” Maybe change it to “Not much else? You can drink the milk.”
• Where I say “Bring the buck in for two weeks every year,” it would be more accurate if I had said “Bring the buck in for a week twice each year…”
• The sentence “An average-size back yard will provide enough forage for a goat but not a cow.” would read better if I had written “An average-size back yard will provide enough forage for a goat but not for a cow.” [Note: the DUDE is a much better semanticist than I am.]
• To be completely grammatically correct you’d want to say “It is not TMI, he said petulantly.” he said petulantly. Or “He quoted himself in his reply: It is not TMI, he said petulantly…
• Don’t forget to credit Monty Python for my non-petulant comment or their attorneys will descend upon you and “…make castanets of your testicles already.”
• “That sort of farmers…” should have read “That sort of farmer…”
• You could put a bit more emphasis on the para-survivalist angle. That’s what got me started on the subject with you. Look at it this way: you only need five or six silver dollars for a healthy, milking doe.
• And how does one become an expert on goats? I’m certainly not one. But my friend's mother taught me some of that, there’s a goat cheese operation just down the hill from me, and Mrs. DUDE's bro keeps a couple of goats.

From Father Dan, a YouTube video of a turboprop model King Air.

A variety of links from Lin:

• http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090611/pl_ynews/ynews_pl383/print
• http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090610/pl_mcclatchy/3249623/print
• http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20090609/cm_uc_crpbux/op_3310250/print
• http://news.yahoo.com/s/weeklystandard/20090602/cm_weeklystandard/sayitaintsolarry/print

From Fred, a story about a world-record number of people dressing as Smurfs. Yiiiii.

SpaceX has been assembling its Dragon spacecraft.

From Sarah Palin's Twitter account a link to a Heritage Foundation report on why we should drill for oil in that postage-stamp section of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Our government is becoming certifiably insane on energy matters. They don't like oil companies drilling in American territory, but insist on energy independence. They complain about higher food prices, but insist on ethanol subsidies and higher energy taxes. They don't want to damage the environment, but they support windmills, which kill birds and bats, and ground-based solar, which is subject to weather and nighttime darkness. Oh yes, and they don't want to hear about space solar power, helium-3 fusion, nuclear power, or any other high-energy alternative. Like I said: insane.

NASA announced the results of their lunar art contest.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is now declaring the H1N1 (swine) flu virus a "pandemic." As I understand it, this does NOT mean the virus has gotten more dangerous. It just means that it's now appearing in more places on the planet.

Arthur Laffer, inventor of the Laffer Curve, warns us about oncoming inflation and increased interest rates. This was predictable, of course, if you were watching Obama's budget balloon.

The Obama administration is looking at reading captured terrorists at Guantanamo Bay their Miranda rights. Look for civil trials and acquittals in the next couple of years.

Oh yeah, and the Obama administration has this idea of capping executive salaries throughout the private sector, even in companies that the government does not currently control. That means, if you're an executive and you don't have a government job, President Obama thinks you're probably making too much money and need to have that money taken away from you. You laugh now, and say, "Good! Stick it to the man!" But if the government is willing to pass these kinds of laws on "executives," however defined, it isn't that big a stretch to say that they'd be willing to pass them on every job.

And rather than end on that downer, let's try ending on a high note.

Goats?

I hadn't planned to write about goats this week. However, when people ask writers "Where do you get your ideas?" a conversation with South of the Equator Scott provides an object lesson. It started with a humorous Mitsubishi ad Scott sent me from New Zealand. I asked Scott if anyone was d@mnfool enough to take Mitsubishi up on their offer of a free goat rather than an extended warranty, roadside assistance, etc. To which Scott replied,

That’s a good question; I wonder if anyone calls their bluff. You’d have to be a knucklehead to forego thousands in extras on the truck for a $25 goat, though. Even a doe nearing the final few years of her milk production can be had for $50 and you’ll get at least 4 litres/day from her.

I really didn't need to know how much milk a goat produces. No, really. Ever. But anyway, I responded that a goat might be useful to have around for making feta cheese, and not much else. Scott took some umbrage:

Not good for much else? You can drink it. Once you’re converted to goat’s milk you won’t drink cow’s milk anymore. You can make almost any type of cheese with it, not just feta. Don’t forget butter, yogurt, and ice cream.

Fat globules in goat milk are much smaller than in cow milk. That allows for a natural homogenization, which causes less cholesterol to get into your system than with cow’s milk. The pH is slightly alkaline, as is human milk; compared to the slightly acid pH of cow’s milk. That makes it handier to feed babies. The lactose is different and there’s less of it which helps the lactose-intolerant.

Goat milk has many more trace minerals, way more Vitamin A, and some other stuff I can’t remember just now. Survivalists and para-survivalists prefer goats because a gallon of milk per day is much handier for a family to use compared to the 6-7 gallons you get from a cow. An average-size back yard will provide enough forage for a goat but not a cow. It doesn’t need to be flat ground, either.

Goats just don’t lend themselves to large-scale commercial milking which is why you don’t see much of it in stores. The mother of a longtime buddy of mine had a day job at MSFC and founded Fromagerie Belle Chèvre just up the road from you in Bethel. She retired and sold it; apparently it has expanded and is doing well. Mrs. Scott and I visited her when she still owned it; I can tell you the cheese was great. See http://www.bellechevre.com/index.php.

So, okay, there ya go. More useful information on goats. Plus, I now have a day trip to try when I get back from Florida to try out some goat cheese. But I've never heard good things about the taste of goat's milk, and I said as much to Brother Scott. Silly me.

It does taste nasty if the buck is around. Bring the buck in for two weeks every year, and then send him back to the stud farm you rented him from. When they mate it’s the doe’s dry period anyway (you allow the doe's system 40-50 days’ rest each year) so there’s no milk to taste bad at that time. Once the does are back in milk it’ll taste fine.

Um, yeah. That really WAS too much information, and I said so. The barrage continued:

It is not TMI, he said petulantly.

A cheap source of good fresh milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream. Just the thing for a para-survivalist with a decent-sized back yard. And you don’t need a lawn mower, but you do need a good fence. Something you can put into your blawg.

TMI indeed! I am forced to call your cheesy-leather second-hand electric donkey-bottom-biter animal-food-trough wiping TMI appellation a silly thing and blow my nose at you.*

That'll teach me. I thanked Scott and offered to throw another goat on the barbie for him. You know this is only going to end badly, right?

Goat on the barbie indeed. I also sent the ad to a rancher buddy in Texas. He told me the price of goat meat is holding up well, fresh meat going to Mexico and frozen to the Middle East.

I should have thought to tell you that when I listed the benefits, but the meat you eat (includes cattle, sheep, etc.) comes from young castrated males, not intact females. Buy a doe and milk her. Buy meat at the butcher’s. It’s much less hassle.

And don’t forget you can mix their poop with their stomped-down used bedding straw and sell it. Gardeners pay big for that stuff because it’s non-stinky, non-gooey, and is the second-highest in plant nutrients after sheep poop.

Next time you have a free couple of hours and are headed north stop in at Fromagerie Belle Chèvre and tell them you know somebody who’s a long-time mate of the son of the founder emeritus. That oughta be good at least for an extra mouthful of sample cheese if not for a discount. That sort of farmers is the type who’ll be glad to show you around provided they’re not rushed off their feet.

When my buddy’s mother had the operation she was milking Oberhasli goats. The breed originated in Switzerland and they’re exceptionally sure-footed, even by goat standards. They’re also cute, in a goofy, brown with black, ears-like-handlebars sort of way.

How the heck does this guy know so much about goats? I have no clue. Scott's a good friend. He's a retired military dude. Mensa-smart, as his writing makes clear. But really--goats? How does one become an expert? I guess we read different books. Or he's become a goat herder in New Zealand. Anyhow, the point is not to mock Scott, but to share a little of his knowledge and sense of humor. I really do have some interesting friends. And yes, I expect a follow-up message or two in response to this blog. It's almost inevitable.