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‘Zombie’ greenhouse gas lurks in permafrost beneath the Arctic Ocean

Millions of tons of organic carbon and methane beneath the Arctic Ocean thaw out and ooze to the surface each year. And climate change could speed up this release of greenhouse gases, new research suggests.

The carbon tied up in organic matter and methane (a carbon atom bound to four hydrogen atoms) are currently trapped in subsea permafrost, which is frozen sediment that became covered by 390 feet (120 meters) of seawater toward the end of the Paleolithic ice age about 1,800 to 1,400 years ago, according to the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS). Most subsea permafrost sits on the continental shelf under the Arctic Ocean, said study author Sayedeh Sara Sayedi, a doctoral student in the department of plant and wildlife science at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City.

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Trump signs Space Policy Directive-6 on space nuclear power and propulsion

One goal laid out in SPD-6 is the testing of a fission power system on the moon by the mid- to late 2020s.

Nuclear power will be a big part of the United States’ space exploration efforts going forward, a new policy document affirms.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Dec. 16) issued Space Policy Directive-6 (SPD-6), which lays out a national strategy for the responsible and effective use of space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP) systems.

“Space nuclear power and propulsion is a fundamentally enabling technology for American deep-space missions to Mars and beyond,” Scott Pace, deputy assistant to the president and executive secretary of the National Space Council, said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “The United States intends to remain the leader among spacefaring nations, applying nuclear power technology safely, securely and sustainably in space.” Continue reading “”

Dr. Rand Paul Introduces HEMP Act to Relieve Unnecessary Constraints on Hemp Industry, Provide Transparency and Certainty

Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) continued his efforts to address Kentucky hemp farmers’ concerns with federal overreach and bring clarity, transparency, and certainty to regulation by introducing the Hemp Economic Mobilization Plan (HEMP) Act of 2020.

In response to concerns raised by Kentucky hemp farmers and processors, Dr. Paul’s HEMP Act would change the legal definition of hemp to raise the THC limit from 0.3% to 1%. Currently, any hemp crops testing above 0.3% have to be destroyed.

The legislation would require testing of the final hemp-derived product instead of the hemp flower or plant itself, as the 15-day window for testing the hemp flower or plant does not take potential testing backlogs, lack of personnel to collect samples, harvesting time, or environmental factors that farmers cannot control into account. Continue reading “”

President Trump makes Christmas Eve a federal holiday.

President Trump on Friday signed an order giving federal workers a paid day off work on Christmas Eve.

The news was a welcome surprise for workers who expected at most a half day.

Trump’s order says, “All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Thursday, December 24, 2020, the day before Christmas Day.”

Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton only gave half days when Christmas fell on a Friday, as it does this year.

Obama allowed a half day in 2015 and 2009, GovExec reported. Clinton also allowed a half day in 1998.

Trump has been a big advocate of celebrating the holiday proudly and maintained before taking office that politically correct Democrats were waging a “war on Christmas.”

At a Saturday rally in Georgia stumping for two Republican senators in runoff races, Trump warned that his political opponents still want to erase the holiday.

“Let me begin by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. Remember the word?” Trump told the crowd. “Remember? We started five years ago, and I said, ‘You’re gonna be saying ‘Christmas’ again.’ We say it proudly again. Although they’ll be trying to take that word again out of the vocabulary.”

Goya Foods CEO: We Made AOC Employee of the Month After Her Boycott Boosted Sales

Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue said his company named Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) its employee of the month after an increase in sales following the New York Democrat’s call for a boycott of his firm.

“She was actually our employee of the month,” Unanue said on Monday’s edition of the Michael Berry Show. “I don’t know if you know about this, because when she boycotted us our sales actually increased 1000 percent, so we gave her an honorary — we never were able to hand it to her — but she got employee of the month for bringing attention to Goya and our adobo.”

Unanue added, “Actually, our adobo sales did very well after she said make your own adobo. … She’s our hero. She helped boost sales tremendously.”

After Unanue praised President Donald Trump’s leadership, Ocasio-Cortez joined other Democrats and celebrity leftists in calling for a boycott of Goya products.

McDonald’s fries used to be a treat. Now, in Germany (at least in the Germany of 30+ years ago) they’re still fried the ‘old fashioned’ way.
And I did a comparison ‘taste test’ – with about a 20 hours time lag – between the two when my Battalion re-deployed to the U.S.
I hit the McDonalds at Frankfurt/Rhine Main airport just before we left and the one in Lawton Oklahoma’s downtown mall when our trip finally ended.
2 things told me I was back home. The 1/4 pounder & fries’ taste reminded me of cardboard, and the prices on everything were posted in dollars.

My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe.

From Julia Child to Paul Bocuse to James Beard, some of the biggest names in food history are also people who have professed their love for the same french fry—a french fry that, in no exaggerated manner, birthed an empire. A french fry that no one has eaten in more than 30 years.

McDonald’s original french fries were cooked in beef tallow. For that fact, they were bullied out of production by a well-funded, well-intentioned businessman and self-proclaimed health advocate named Phil Sokolof, who unknowingly dethroned what many fans claim was the greatest french fry to ever meet mass production. “The french fries were very good,” Child said in a 1995 interview, “and then the nutritionists got at them … and they’ve been limp ever since … I’m always very strong about criticizing them, hoping maybe they’ll change.”

Child never lived to see McDonald’s fries return to their former glory, and sadly, and there’s no indication they ever will. That’s why I set out on a quest to find the original recipe.

My hunt for the lost McRecipe took me up the corporate ladder and to obsessive corners of Reddit. I spoke to fast-food experts, super-fan museum curators, and a 79-year-old former employee of the very first McDonald’s. After weeks of digging, I procured a recipe for the original fries that one fast-food historian believes to be the real deal, one I recreated several times to ensure its legitimacy. I sweat over hot tallow, bled from cutting perfect shoestrings, and literally got pulverized salt in those wounds. But according to at least one expert, I have reason to believe the recipe I’ve uncovered is authentic.

Before you recreate a masterpiece, it bears knowing from whence it came. Continue reading “”