PBS has launched a four part series under the Nova banner called “Making Stuff”, hosted by New York Times Tech columnist David Pogue. If you didn’t catch last Wednesday night’s first installment, you can watch it here.
Especially if you like goats, and I know a few of you do.
About three quarters of the way through the hour, Pouge’s search for the strongest stuff on the planet, which has already covered steel and Kevlar, finally comes around to some extremely tough, undeniably natural stuff – spider silk. And he introduces us to a University of Wyoming scientist named Randy Lewis who is trying to solve the problem of producing massive amounts of spider silk without having to rely on finicky, famously uncooperative spiders. Instead, he’s working with genetically modified, finicky, famously uncooperative goats.
Yes, there are goats in his lab that produce the right protein for making spider silk as one component of their milk. Spider Silk Goat Milk!
It’s all part of an ambitious dream of mass-producing super strong materials. Two ambitious dreams, actually – the other one being to make goats the engine behind the next major global industrial manufacturing revolution. Three ambitious dreams if you consider what it would mean for goats to be returned to their rightful place at the center of our crucial economic revitalization and national security efforts. (Ambitious dreams #2 and 3 aren’t part of the official goal, but why not?)
Think of it – factories springing up out of nowhere to process goat’s milk into super-duper strong cables for bridges, components that far exceed steel in terms of durability and flexibility, and all manner of impervious materials. With vast amounts of goat cheese as a by-product.
The upside? Those who already have advanced animal husbandry skills could form the next global cartel to manage a vital resource – GOATPEC (Goats Organized to Assert Total, Permanent, Everlasting Control).
The downside? Bigger webs in the barn rafters.
Do you have a good real-life example of the truth (or irrelevance) of the standard caution “Be Careful What You Wish For”?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Shine Baboonis:
This news certainly does goats proud! Barb and Cynthia, here is your chance for fame and fortune.
So how long a list of “Be Careful What You Wish For” would you like? Child rearing provided ample opportunities, as has marriage (X2). Then there is the ever popular Home Owndership. There was a time I thought I would never get to own a house. And that was all I wanted. So now Ihave owned a house for 20 years, 13 years in the same little suburban rambler. Which has sucked time, money, and patience throughout multiple remodeling projects, several ill-fated.
So now I own a house. The bedrooms are still too small….. Maybe we could take two bedrooms and combine them to make 2 bedrooms… What ideas does HGTV offer?
LikeLike
I see my spelling and typos are in fine form this early a.m. Oh Well.
LikeLike
Having HGTV make-over your house may well be one of those things you shouldn’t wish too hard for. People seem delighted when it comes time for “the reveal” of the remodeling project, but I wonder if they feel the same way after a week of living in a space that was “improved” with the type of dramatic, last-minute, slapdash hysterics often depicted in these shows.
LikeLike
OMG! gasp.
LikeLike
My son once long ago sent me an online article about people who had been interviewed after the fact for having This Old House in. Apparently they by contract are not supposed to say much, but the little the said indicated it was all sort of overwhelming and some decisions were made sort of without them.
LikeLike
And, as I’ve read in the news more than once… when you get a made-over house, you also get a made-over tax hike to go with it!
LikeLike
A friend of mine got to work with the Muppets (and build a couple of props) when one of the home makeover shows worked on a house in St. Paul. He said it was a very cool experience – but mostly I think b/c he got to work with and puppeteer real Muppets (a lifelong dream). Didn’t say much about the homeowner’s take on the whole thing (which may be telling in itself).
LikeLike
In conjunction with Anna’s comment, I work with someone who lives a couple of houses away from the made-over house in St. Paul and her child goes to that day care. I can tell you that she was unimpressed by the whole circus.
LikeLike
Connie it is nice to see you as a regular, you do have a baboon spirit
LikeLike
thanks for the update and links, Dale – i’ve been hearing about this from folks (and on the blog) last week. the goats look like Saanen breed (well, not anymore – more like Orb Weaver Sannen) – kind, gentle goats like Charlotte in the book. folks would not use Alpines for spider silk milk because the Alpines are smart enough to become Brown Recluse Alpines or Black Widow Alpines because of their ability to be born in so many different colors. thanks for showing the picture of Crema with her web. she is so sweet that her milk would weave soft, mohair-type webs and if used for bridge cables everyone on the bridge would just sink down into a pocket of velvety softness and go to sleep.
i’ll have to think about your question, but one thought comes to mind. i know all have done this – as a teenager i’d wish it were next month or next year or summer or simply that time would go faster. now i can’t believe that January is almost over and the days fly by so quickly.
a gracious good morning to You All
LikeLike
A hearty good morning to all baboons! Enjoy this heat wave.
Jacque has provided excellent examples of how things we wished for can later reduce the quality of our lives. We live in a consumer society where advertisements of all sorts try to dupe us into thinking we’ll be happy if we buy this product or that. Every marriage that ends in divorce is a cautionary tale. There is a divorce in our family that exemplifies love gone wrong: the man involved recently said to his former wife, “Now that I’m unemployed I have nothing better to do all day than lie around thinking of new ways to make your life miserable.” That wasn’t what she had in mind when she brought him into her life.
And yet oddly enough, I’d like to make a pitch for having the courage to continue wishing for things. Some man is going about getting famous now for research that shows having children makes us miserable, but fatherhood is the glory of my life. The fact of divorce doesn’t deny the exquisite passion some couples find in love and marriage. Houses are expensive in ways we don’t anticipate, and yet the right home can protect us and serve as a joyful backdrop for the drama of our unfolding lives. I once wished for Barack Obama to lead this country, and I continue to think that I will someday be proud of that act of faith.
Be careful what you wish for? Sure! Of course, you should be careful about your dreams! In general, be skeptical about claims that buying anything will make you happy. Guard against the tendency to let adopt someone else’s dream. Study yourself until you know what makes you happy, and then don’t be afraid to dream that dream.
LikeLike
agreed steve, nice opening to the day thanks. to live without a dream is not a concept i can get very excited about. you’ve got to try to live the dream, then try again…and again…and again…
LikeLike
Thanks tim. The key, I think, is to know yourself well enough to know what will actually make you happy. That’s a fascinating life-study sort of question that we never can put aside. My sister thought inheriting our parents’ home would make her happy. I told her she would be the same person in that new home that she has always been, not a particularly happy person. Happily enough, I was wrong and she was right.
LikeLike
I have to admit to shooting for “content” vs. “happy.” Happiness, to me, comes in specific moments in time – moments when time seems to stand still. Contentment is more long lasting, and at least to me, more sustaining and sustained.
Dream a dream, make it big. As Bloody Mary sings to us in “South Pacific,” “You got to have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make your dream come true?” (And thanks for the poetic early morning reminder, Steve.)
LikeLike
the list of watch out what you wish for is almost mind boggeling. the motivational guys i enjoy talk about taking a risk of failing in ordernto know you have stretched far enough to reach the max. i tend to find a new max regularly. my business, my kids my politics are all great examples of stretching to the max. it would be mice to have a moderate example to post but nothing comes to mind except maybe exercise, that i can keep under control.the goat web is good but i wonder it they have checked the spit of misquitoes to see if the qualities are conducive to building skyscrapers from spit mixed with the wings of dragonflies and acorns. we really should check these things out. it will be interesting to look back at all the things we took for granted and tossed in the trash before the anaylsis of all mater became the normal way to do things. fingernails go into the recycling bin along with bread crust and coffee grounds. now about that “mom” tatoo…
LikeLike
tim, I have decided I would like to base my global consulting firm in lavish offices on the very top floor of Mosquito Spit Tower. Thanks for the image!
LikeLike
Aedes at Your Aid: “We bring harmony to your life.”
LikeLike
I will call HGTV and have them remodel the suite!
LikeLike
Hmmm…Jacque already has the joys of homeownership covered (I have had a couple of remodels at two different houses due to water from the bathroom traveling to places where it ought not to be…like in my kitchen).
I suppose what has backfired on me most often was meeting authors I quite liked: Walter Mosley and Marge Piercy left me almost tongue-tied, Miss Manners was quite gracious while I babbled, and Krista Tippet saw me cry while she signed my book (I was trying to thank her for a lovely show about Alzheimer’s disease…my dad had recently died and he had dementia…I sideswiped myself…). I managed to hold my own when I met Neil Gaiman, though (long, geeky store, but I sat on a panel discussion with him). He’s super nice.
LikeLike
I read poetry on a panel with Neil a long time ago at Southdale Library (he’s quite a good poet), and I’ve had a couple of other encounters with him at various conventions. He comes across as very British, nice and self-effacing, and from what I hear he has a truly horrendous memory for names and faces. I’m also terrible at remembering people, and tend to be vaguely polite to everyone in the terror that not only am I supposed to know them, I’ve met them more than once and still have no clue. Often I find myself making small talk to someone I suddenly realize I can’t stand and intended to snub the next time I saw them. I fail at social interaction!
LikeLike
oh, CG – i have the same affliction. everyone looks familiar (after all i’m pretty old and have worked lots of places). and i always do same as you – smile, greet, be nice. one day someone said “oh, HI BARB!!” and i said “HI! how are you??” (big smile) and she said “you haven’t the faintest idea who i am, right?” yup, i said.
LikeLike
Barb Same affliction here. I worked two years in a flyfishing shop in Brule, Wisconsin. Partly because I have a beard, people coming to the shop found it easy to remember me, but they were part of a sea of humanity flowing by. You learn to talk to folks without betraying how confused you are about their identity.
LikeLike
I have trained several friends to introduce themselves when we are out and about and I run into someone. I’m the same way with people – I can often place where I know them from, but that’s on a good day. Friends know that if I haven’t introduced them in the first two minutes, for the love of Miss Manners, please introduce themselves so I can hear the name of the person I’m talking to…(my pal Deb is especially good at the, “Anna can forget herself and her manners sometimes, I’m Deb – and you are?…”)
LikeLike
I believe he lives over by Hastings, does he not?
My son and friends once went a Douglas Adams book signing in bathrobes. He treated them at first as weird for doing it, but then laughed about it.
LikeLike
Just outside Menominee, WI.
LikeLike
It’s funny… just last night TPT called me to try to get some of my money back and I had to tell the guy that I hardly ever watch Channel 2 these days because they hardly have anything on that I want to watch. But now I want to watch this show… I skipped ahead to the goat part, but now I’m wishing to see the whole thing!
LikeLike
A guy I used to work with went to a book signing by Annie Leibowitz when she had just published a collection of portraits, maybe 25 years ago, He brought one of those instamatic cameras of that era, and asked her to take a picture of him. She had a good laugh and took his picture and signed it.
LikeLike
That’s perfect
LikeLike
Good morning, all. A rare appearance from me here at the blog today. 🙂
I often wish for more free time, since my bandwidth is pitifully oversubscribed, but unemployment could turn out to be the means to more time for myself, so I try to refine my wishes. Specifics are key!
Also, on the rare occasion that I wish someone out of my work life, I focus on the wish that the individual would win the Powerball, making it unnecessary for him to share the “same bit of carpet” 8 hours a day 5 days a week with me. My personal karma’s outlook seems like it would be a lot rosier that way than were I to wish him ill, and besides I never wish people ill. That would be mean.
But back to my own wish for time to spend with my children and to make art… I should spend more time wishing that I win Powerball than I do wishing the same for certain co-workers. It would be more efficient just to wish myself out of the veal fattening pen. Meuh.
See you later. Off to buy a Powerball ticket.
LikeLike
Oh very well said, equivoque!
alas, I cannot bring myself to invest in the Powerball ticket!
LikeLike
Like the old joke about the guy complaining to god asking to win
the power ball and god says” could you help me out a little and buy a ticket?”
LikeLike
At certain points in a life, a person tends to rethink–maybe re-wish–the life they led. Retirement is one of those points. I have been avoiding doing so but lots of think-time driving straight dull roads with repetitive scenery, if if the scenery is rather engaging. I do not regret much I wished for and only a few I worked for. I only regret decisions I made, I would not even call them all mistakes I made, rather which path I chose when two roads diverged in a yellow wood. I have trouble seeing them as mistakes because I made choices on best information of the time, maybe not the right choice but any regret as such comes from how things worked out. One of the hardest thing for me to watch right now is for my children, really one child, and the grandchildren exhibit my personality faults, or thinking faults, or emotional weaknesses. I keep my mouth shut every time, which is the best choice.
LikeLike
I’m getting frustrated with my new non computer reply . I had a comment for clyde at once saying I did not believe the retirement would take. I understand the frustration with the company you brout into the world going down for whatever the reSon and the hard feelings about the partners wife being enough to leave a sour taste but that with all there is to contribute I am feeling there will become a way to harness the energy and the good and find a way to do something with it. My not gt wealthy but that is not the object of the truly lucky people who get it. Simple as that. Try to avoid bing meaningful Clyde, just try it.
LikeLike
Oops, forgot to move myself in virtual terms to Farmington. Speaking of authors as above, I will spend the next couple days in Hillerman country.
LikeLike
Walk in beauty, Clyde and Sandy!
LikeLike
I will seek Horzoi today.
LikeLike
What I really want to do is visit the Short Mountain Trading Post and the old man who owns it, except both are fictional.
LikeLike
“Short mountain?” Very close to an oxymoron!
LikeLike
Clyde – if you do find that trading post, report back. It was a favorite spot of mine, too, in Hillerman country.
LikeLike
love hillman and the arroyos. enjoy
as for the regrets, the things you learned along the way are the mortar that made you who you are and had you taken the other road, lord knows what would have resulted. i for one don’t believe you are done yet, i think it may take a while for you to figure out how to get to the next phase and how to do a start up at a level that is tolerable but I don’t see retirement as a quiet time in a chair for you. enjoy the meditative drive and the great vacation.
LikeLike
Steve, on the drive over to here from Jimez, they show on the state map a mountain at 6900 but the road almost all that way is over 7000. Now there’s a geographic oxymoron.
LikeLike
Hillerman said he made a point of not using real specific locations on the reservation. He said the Short Mountain Trading Post was one people most wanted to be real and go see. But speaking of one real thing in his books, right outside my window, I see a Blake’s Lottaburger. But my wife is not buying the connection as worthy of a purchase.
LikeLike
Clyde I always noticed that a villain in a Tony Hillerman novel was not likely to be such a bad person. My sense is that Hillerman himself was such a good guy that he had trouble inventing villains.
LikeLike
My impression is that he wants to explain his characters motivations in human terms, so his villains get more fully rounded. The hired killer hit man in one of the books (they do blend) is pretty nasty.
LikeLike
Hillerman wrote a GREAT memoir. The story of his shower during WWII is an image I will never forget.
LikeLike
I always rejoice when the first year the invasive plants I put in fill up the flower bed. The next years are not so enjoyable, and then I regret my impatience and dig them out. Weather is absolutely septic here. Daughter is stuck in Bismarck with her high school group that attended the UND Honor choir/Band festival in Grand Forks over the weekend. We hope they can make it home today. No violin lessons since I can’t get to Bismarck and her teacher’s husband was in a MVA in Fargo last night and broke his arm and all lessons are canceled while she tries to get him home. The roads have been horrors of ice and snow for about a month, and now we are told that an “arctic blast” may hit this coming weekend. Enough already!
LikeLike
My neighbor still has stray lamb’s ear in her yard from a white garden I once had.
LikeLike
Let’s see, Snow on the mountain, spider wort, campanulas, cat nip, a repulsive light purple iris we got from a friend that took over and crowded out all the hybrid German bearded iris we had planted, sage ( the flowering kind). All were good ideas to start with and then went out of control.
LikeLike
I have some kind of hearty oregano that won’t quit. Oh, and a giant butter bur that is marching through the backyard when given a chance!
LikeLike
Missouri Primrose….
LikeLike
Tansy, and Japanese knotweed.
LikeLike
This made me think of the kudzu they planted in the Deep South to protect the land from erosion. It’s killing the trees.
LikeLike
globe thistle, “Johnny Jump-ups” and we had yellow “siberian” irises that sound like what you had in purple, Renee! weather sounds icky.
LikeLike
On the positive side, North Dakota was one of only four states widely touted over the weekend as having no need to slash budgets to deal with mammoth deficits. Septic weather is bad, but there are benefits to being a North Dakotan.
LikeLike
Thank you for saying that, Dale. We may be cold and isolated, but the State coffers have money to burn. When I lived in Canada, there was much animosity between the Albertans, who were rich with oil, and the Federal government, which wanted a cut of the proceeds and the conitinued power to set policy. I believe it was an Albertan provinical premiere who said that “the Eastern bastards could freeze in the dark.” I think we are kinder here in North Dakota, and will willingly sell the oil (but not share the proceeds).
LikeLike
Some invasive species come into the state in subtle ways hard to stop (milfoil, zebra mussel), but some come in because we imported them at great expense. Pioneer era Minnesota had many Germans who had fond memories of their favorite fish back home, so the state created a special commission that was tasked with establishing a population in MN of carp. Year after year the commission released a report boasting of their success, and then one year they just quit reporting. The damage done to lake systems by carp is now incalculably high, a classic case of wanting something we should not have wanted.
LikeLike
Didn’t dandelions start out as an imported flower for some posh lady’s garden?…
LikeLike
Harriet Godfrey. I think they still have Dandelion Days annually at the Ard Godfrey house.
LikeLike
I remember visiting Seattle in 1992. While I was there, I got a coffee at a Starbucks shop. It was the best coffee I’d ever had. The barista told me it wasn’t how the coffee was brewed, it was the way they roast the beans. I walked out of there thinking, Wow, I wish we had a Starbucks in Minnesota! I’d go there all the time!
Yes, you can blame me.
LikeLike
Funny.
LikeLike
I thank you. I do prefer Dunn Bros, but Starbucks is next on my list. I love Starbucks.
LikeLike
I love it too. I like to support local businesses on principle, but Starbucks really knows how to make coffee.
LikeLike
Better than Caribou or Dunns?
LikeLike
Caribou and Dunn Brothers both come close. There is something about the beans at Starbucks, though…roasted within an inch of their lives, with a little bit of smokiness.
LikeLike
This is why I like Starbucks a little less than Dunn Bros or Caribou – to me, the beans always taste a little over-roasted. I also admit to liking the dark dark roasts less than others (Caribou has one called Obsidian that is a very dark roast that Husband loooooves. I only tolerate it. There is one that is almost as dark, but not quite as dark called Mahogany that I like much better – I want to taste the bean, not the roast.)
LikeLike
You guys are making me laugh out loud today. Fine, fine examples.
LikeLike
Voting for Jesse Ventura comes to mind… I know it seemed like a change of some kind was needed, but what WERE we thinking? Will consider this and add more later.
LikeLike
A friend of mine voted for Jesse. She later explained, “I thought he was the common man. It turned out he was just the common a**hole.”
LikeLike
Someday I’ll have to tell you all about the “Jesse Ventura Look Alike Contest” that I actually won here at my office. Yes, those of you who have met me are saying “She doesn’t look ANYTHING like Jesse Venture.” But I did win….
LikeLike
For those who are thinking of it in conjunction with today’s topic, the story The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs appears online in its entirety.
LikeLike
I read that story in a compilation of mystery stories editied by Dorothy L. Sayers in the 1930’s. It sure is creepy!
LikeLike
“The Omnibus of Crime”
LikeLike
I’m not sure exactly why and how it ended up in an anthology about crime….but, okay.
LikeLike
The hard days on our trip will be Mondays. My wife has to sleep in almost every day (I have awoken her early twice and then she sleeps in the car), but Mondays she has a three-hour regimen of taking drugs. Take pills waits an hour, eats, waits an hour, takes more pills, rests and then takes the last of the many many pills. So thus I am on here today this late. Tomorrow I think will be our full Grand Canyon day.
LikeLike
It’s fun to be able to hear where you are, Clyde; glad you got all your electronics.
LikeLike
Done for a week eh? Enjoy grand canyon am
LikeLike
Good morning to all,
I’m a little behind today because I had some things to try to get straightened up. After many months of waiting for an answer about what went wrong with my link to a membership list on the internet, I now have it and I am much happier about that.
I am kind of a drifter and don’t really make any big wishes that don’t work with at least one exception. I do have at least one big wish which is for a big change in our government. This wish for change does lead to a lot of frustration. It seems one shouldn’t make a wish of this kind because our government is very resistant to making any significant change. No matter how frustrating, I am preaty sure I will continue to make my big wish.
LikeLike
We’re off to az
Go get ’em, Jim.
LikeLike
My non-practical suggestion is that all presidents be made immortal upon inauguration so they’ve got to live with the results of their regimes for the rest of their eternal lives.
– Stewart Brand
LikeLike
Reading huck Finn with BBC and paps rants about govt Segway to guv’ment from Roger millers “big river” my favorite musical not yet seen, check John goodman version on utube. Did you hear garrisons joke show,,, YouTube, twitter and facebooknare going to merge. Gonna call it you twit face.
LikeLike
Just thought of another one. I’ve known so many people who wish, “If she/he would just sober up my life would not be so miserable.” And guess what? He/she goes to AA and does the requested sobering. The requester is still miserable.
“Why?” you ask.
Now said wisher for sobriety has to clean up her/his act, too. Stop nagging. Stop blaming. Stop his/her own problematic using (it is just less problematic than that of the identified problem person). Stop acting superior.
And that is pretty hard to do.
LikeLike
Nicely observed, Jacque.
LikeLike
Ooooh! Whole novels have been written about the complexities of human nature you describe, Jacque.
LikeLike
When I first met Husband, I was also attracted to his large family, which reminded me of my mom’s large family where we got to have fun Thanksgiving dinners, etc. I wished I could be part of this large, boisterous, complex family. Was granted that wish with a vengeance. Enough said.
LikeLike
Saw that Nova, Dale (we are big fans).
I don’t know about anyone else, but I thought I heard a little thunder and the gleeful chuckle of Dr. Larry Kyle in there somewhere.
LikeLike
Oh no! Another opportunity for Dr. Kyle. I don’t even want to think about what he would create with goat milk of the kind that was in that news story.
LikeLike
I was gonna mention that, but I started my morning post determined not to talk about the most negatory aspects of modern life: Larry Kyle, Michele Bachman, the Haiti earthquake, the ethics of modern bankers . . . life is too short to talk about such things.
LikeLike
However, having just finished a book about the Mongol queens, I think it’s safe to say that life certainly isn’t any WORSE than it’s ever been for most folks on the planet. Phew… I’ll take the 21st century over that time any day!
LikeLike
Completely OT… Liberty Custard’s flavors today are “Butterfinger” and “Chocolate Oreo”. AND… they are now fudging on when they will actually be closing. They may be open another few days past the 28th. Depends on “product”. However, the great sale from last week went ka-put because there were too many folks (like me) going in and loading up. The price is still good, but now there is a limit of 1 quart per customer (per day/visit).
LikeLike
I nabbed a quart of French Silk over the weekend – figured I’d go back at least once more…good to know they may be open past the 28th. Thanks for the update.
LikeLike
They’re open at least through the weekend it says on the sign (“closed” date now reads 1/30). When we went in tonight, the owner thought maybe even into next week, depending on ingredients and product availability. Yay!
Perhaps a field trip for Baboons is in order this weekend?
LikeLike
Yes… that’s what he told me this afternoon as well. They’re expecting more product (or they won’t even make it to this Friday) which should let them be open until maybe next Thursday. If they make it to Saturday… I would be up for a late Saturday afternoon caramel & cashew sundae!
LikeLike
I am currently anytime after about 10:30 am on Saturday. Chances are good I will have Darling Daughter with me – but I doubt she’d protest being dragged off for *more* custard.
Anyone else? Is 4:00ish, maybe 4:30ish good?
LikeLike
On the calandar
LikeLike
I’d like to come too!
LikeLike
I’m meeting my son for lunch nearby Saturday. We could be there! Let me know if this is for real.
LikeLike
I’m confused….Given the challenge of milking a goat (well-documented on this blog), how do they get the webs into the pail???????
LikeLike
I suspect it is made useful in the same way ordinary milk is made into yarn:
http://www.teonline.com/articles/2008/11/wear-milk-if-you-cant-drink-it.html
Have seen it, have never knit with it.
LikeLike
Numerous times I have wished for cake and to eat it too. And you know what? It came true. What’s so special about that? Isn’t that the whole purpose of buying a cake? Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to say, “you want to have your bowel movement and eat it too”??
LikeLike
WOW
LikeLike
Achieved sedona, enjoy clyde sounds like a great trip so far, may the rest go smoothly and enjoyably . Donna i remember the secret to a happy life as told by an old fart was to have a full stomach and an empty bowel. Words to live by
LikeLike