Goats are the GOAT be sure to tell Elon – Real Change News

Cognitive dissonance is making news today. One headline says the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the vaccination mandate issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for large businesses. Another headline says one-in-seven ICU beds in this state are occupied by COVID-19 patients, and Inslee is getting the National Guard to help out at the hospitals. A third headline pops up and says most of the COVID-19 patients being hospitalized are those who havent been vaccinated.

Inslee has also been talking about limiting non-emergency procedures at hospitals. I suppose the National Guard is meant to mitigate that. I have to wonder what he means by non-emergency treatment. Would breaking both arms like I did in 2006 constitute a you can wait situation? Maybe in a month well have enough staff to look at that?

In other dueling news, the past seven years are now being called the hottest in recorded history just as Elon Musk is stepping up the talk about colonizing the moon and Mars.

Im really skeptical about the plans to colonize Mars. My feeling is it may be a ruse to distract the competition while Musk goes about doing what he really wants to do, namely take over all the best contracts available from NASA. Mars is so far, and for what? Wheres the payoff? Earth already has potato farms.

At least Musk is considering having humans spend only short periods of time at a moon colony where most of the work could be done by robots. Any humans planted on Mars are necessarily not going back very soon. Theyll have to sit there literally waiting for the planets to realign.

It will be easy to confine most of the crewed missions to a lunar base to robot maintenance and repairs. Land, bring fresh robots, fix the old ones, go home. Oh, maybe there could be rotating crews monitoring the construction of habitats for later visitors. That would provide people with the experience that would help them build habitats on Mars, should that ever happen.

Ive often said Id rather see colonies built in orbiting space stations, but Im warming to the idea that a lunar base could be a good first step. It will be easier, at the beginning, to get materials from the moon, including water. A lunar base could grow fish and plants and supply orbiting stations with water and fertilizer for habitants, in addition to letting them have some of the excess fish.

We think mainly of colonized space as a way of preserving a remnant of humanity. But with global warming continuing apace, we need to start thinking about preserving fish. I dont mean fermenting and salting. I mean as species. If we can ever colonize the moon with people, theres no reason we cant colonize it with fish. And goats. We need goats so we can have cheese. The moon has to have cheese. There is no point living anywhere that doesnt have fish and cheese, potatoes, vodka, grapes, bread, hummus, olives, rice, seaweed, hominy grits, chickens and eggs for omelets. Also many kinds of peppers. We have to take these matters seriously right now while Musk is still planning a moon colony. Since Musk may very well be a space lizard for all we know, the time to let him know that humans need goats is now. I think he will listen, because I know he smokes pot. So he is part human.

Im not so sure about Jeff Bezos. Bezos I like because hes with me on colonizing orbiting space stations. But other than that Im afraid hes like the T-rex in Jurassic Park: His only interest in goats is as an appetizer before a plate of BBQ elephant.

Bezos has his own ruse similar to Musks involving Mars. Bezos has this totally bonkers idea that he can replace all the polluting factories of Earth with factories orbiting Earth. This will never happen, I say with the confidence of a man who knows hell be long dead before he can be proven wrong. Go on, try to prove me wrong youll die before he does it, too. Bezos will also die before he does it.

The point of building factories in orbit isnt to replace Earths polluting factories. Its to build better factories than the ones on Earth. I think Bezos knows that. Hes also probably thinking he can keep the unions out.

Dr. Wes is the Real Change Circulation Specialist, but, in addition to his skills with a spreadsheet, he writes this weekly column about whatever recent going-ons caught his attention. Dr. Wes has contributed to the paper since 1994. Curious about his process or have a response to one of his columns? Connect with him at drwes@realchangenews.org.

Read more of the Jan. 19-25, 2022 issue.

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Goats are the GOAT be sure to tell Elon - Real Change News