In order to push space mining, NASA seeks information on commercial cargo service to Moon

In a possible advancement towards space mining, NASA has started to seek information on commercial payload delivery services to moon.

This week, NASA issued a Request for Information (RfI) to the private industry for proposals related to cargo transportation to the lunar surface, as well as a potential mission to collect lunar samples and deliver them back to Earth, Inverse.com reported on Wednesday.

The exact purpose of such a request for information (RFI), like most of the agency`s RFIs, remains ambiguous, the report said.

"NASA has identified a variety of exploration, science, and technology demonstration objectives that could be addressed by sending instruments, experiments, or other payloads to the lunar surface," the RFI reads.

"To address these objectives as cost-effectively as possible, NASA may procure payloads and related commercial payload delivery services to the Moon," it said.

NASA said it is interested in assessing the availability of payload transit and delivery services from Earth to the lunar surface as early as fiscal year 2018 and through the next decade.

Black conservative woman’s column suspended by major paper after she blasts NRA-ISIS comparisons

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch suspended an opinion column by Stacy Washington, a black conservative commentator, after she blasted an op-ed in another newspaper that compared the National Rifle Association to the Islamic State.

The Post-Dispatch didn’t mention Washington’s opinion as a reason for suspending her column, but it did contend that her “active promotional activities and professional association with the National Rifle Association represented an unacceptable conflict of interest in her most recent column, which resulted in our suspension of her work.” After the suspension, “Washington chose to terminate her contract” with the paper, the Post-Dispatch said.

In Washington’s April 28 column — “Guns and the media” — she targeted an op-ed in the Columbia Missourian by George Kennedy, a professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism. His big question was, “Which organization is more dangerous to Americans — ISIS or the NRA?”

Kennedy argued that 15,000 Americans were killed by guns in 2016 and that each year since 9/11 an average of 11,737 Americans were killed by other Americans — but that each year since 9/11 an average of nine Americans were killed by Islamic jihadist terrorists.

In rebuttal, Washington offered a different kind of comparison between ISIS and the NRA: “[W]hen has a member of the NRA ever decapitated, set on fire, tossed from a rooftop or otherwise terrorized another American? The linkage is not only rife with improper context; it is false on its face. Yet the Missourian saw fit to publish it without question, I believe, because it suits the ideological bent of the opinion editor.”

More from Washington’s column:

This failure to represent the opposing, especially conservative, view is an increasingly apparent deficit in the news reporting apparatus in our country. Republicans seek other news outlets that don’t demonize them or compare them to terrorists, simply because they own a gun or support an organization founded to give blacks the right to own guns and use them to defend themselves. The NRA stood in opposition to the Ku Klux Klan. This clarifying historical detail on the founding of the NRA rarely makes it into news media characterizations of the organization.

It’s understandable that we seek out opinions and news that support our viewpoint. Confirmation bias is a very real part of how people consume news and media. However, we should be appalled to see neighbors with whom we work, attend church, people who have children defending this country through military service — in other words, good decent people — portrayed in the same light as demonic murderers for the simple act of owning a firearm.

Here’s the Post-Dispatch’s statement on its suspension of Washington’s column:

Stacy Washington’s column will no longer appear in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Her active promotional activities and professional association with the National Rifle Association represented an unacceptable conflict of interest in her most recent column, which resulted in our suspension of her work. Ms. Washington chose to terminate her contract. Columnists are expected to fully disclose conflicts of interest when writing about topics where such a conflict might arise. We apply this standard regardless of the lobbying or advocacy group being written about in a column.

Most commenters weren’t pleased with the paper’s suspension of Washington’s column — which she said occurred Friday — nor with its reason for doing so.

“Stacy has been a public figure for years. You didn’t know her affiliations? You call yourselves a news paper? … Another good example of why I cancelled my subscription,” Cathy Taylor McAfee wrote.

“This action by the Post Dispatch is just as bad or worse than the confrontations taking place at Berkeley,” James Hessler said. “Shut down conservative speech by any means necessary, even by thinly veiled attempts of explanations that do not ring true. HYPOCRITES.”

Linda Purk wrote, “This is exactly why most people don’t trust the media anymore. The left is always complaining about the free press being under attack…what about free speech? The tolerant left again…lol.”

Barbara J. T. Easom asked, “So what if she has ties with them? She’s sharing her opinion, which was well-argued. Have another writer share an opposing view if you don’t like it, but this just looks like you don’t agree with the NRA so had her fired.”

“What a cowardly way to deal with a truth you do not like,” Aebe Mac Gill offered.

After the Post-Dispatch published a letter to the editor calling Washington a “shill” for the NRA, she shot back with a tweet saying she informed the paper’s editorial editor that she’s not paid by the group.

And clearly her sense of humor hasn’t been squashed:

Washington also had this to say about the Post-Dispatch:

Principal resigns after making ‘smash space’ where teachers pummeled frustrations with baseball bats

Barbara Liess — principal of Kensington Parkwood Elementary School in Montgomery County, Maryland — said she got the idea “after reading some business articles” about companies creating them for stressed-out employees, WTOP-TV reported.

Typically called an “anger room” or “rage room,” the spot that Liess created on the school’s loading dock was dubbed a “smash space,” the station said. There, teachers could use baseball bats to pound away at their daily frustrations. The smashee? A rocking chair set for the scrap heap, Bethesda Magazine reported.

Well, Liess — who’s logged 10 years at her post — fell under criticism for her “smash space” and issued an apology about a week ago, WTOP said, adding that Liess called the idea “a lapse in judgment.”

But on Tuesday, she took things a step further, telling parents in a letter that she’s stepping down effective June 30, the magazine reported. She  noted that “recent events have been a distraction from the positive things we have been able to achieve.”

Liess started the “smash space” in March, Bethesda Magazine reported in an earlier article, where a sign warned partakers to wear goggles and closed-toed shoes before exacting punishment on the rocking chair. The school district indicated in late April that the “smash space” — which Liess said students couldn’t see or hear — no longer exists, the magazine reported.

It appears the “anger room” phenomenon has been growing in popularity, as some businesses have set them up for employees to destroy objects to their hearts’ content for stress relief. It’s also been reported that smash spots have popped up as businesses, and folks can pay for a few minutes of demolition.

While some say the rage venting is beneficial, others argue it’s not psychologically helpful.

“I absolutely regret my decision to provide staff with an opportunity to ‘smash’ the rocking chair. This decision was not in response to any teacher comment or behavior, rather a misguided attempt by me to provide staff with an outlet,” Liess wrote in her apology letter, the magazine said. “Our staff is committed to modeling for students and one another productive and appropriate ways for handling stress. I recognize that while well-intended, this scenario is counter to what we teach students and has no place in a school.”

PTA President Jessica Chertow noted that a rocking chair smashing took place during a staff meeting, the magazine added, but she wasn’t sure how many teachers participated.

At least one parent had no issue with Liess’ “smash space.”

“It’s a better thing to do than to take frustrations out on my kid,” Damjan Jevtic told the magazine, noting how difficult teachers’ jobs are.

Here’s a report on the “anger room” trend:

Pine Nuts: Are Their Health Benefits Worth The Cost?

Tasty, buttery pine nuts are considered one of the fanciest of all nuts. They are actually the seeds of pine trees and not really nuts. They are found in the pine cones but only 18 types of pine trees create pine nuts that are large enough to eat. Like most nuts, they are packed full of nutrition and health benefits.

Health Benefits

In numerous studies, the consumption of nuts was found to lower waist circumference, blood pressure, insulin resistance and increase high cholesterol.

Healthier Weight

Those who eat nuts regularly have been found to maintain a healthy weight, according to research. The thought is that those eating nuts regularly have a considerably healthy diet because they are getting more fiber, vitamin E, calcium, magnesium and potassium, according to statistics.

Bad Cholesterol Lowered

Mixed nuts (walnuts, peanuts and pine nuts), when included in a healthy diet for six weeks, showed an improvement in cholesterol levels.

Suppresses Appetite

The fatty acids in pine nuts help release an appetite-suppressing hormone (cholecystokinin). When women in a study consumed fatty acid (pinolenic acid from the pine nut) before breakfast it was found to lower the amount of food eaten throughout the day by 37 percent. Pine nut oil was found to help overweight, post-menopausal women suppress their appetite in this study.

Decreases Heart Disease Risk

There was a decrease in cardiovascular disease in participants that ate one-quarter ounce of nuts per day in a 1999-2004 study. 

Please Note: As with all nuts, they have been known to cause allergic reactions. There is a rare allergic reaction to pine nuts known as Pine Mouth Syndrome which can last a few weeks but it is not dangerous. This causes a bitter or metallic taste after eating pine nuts.

  

Growing and Harvesting Pine Nuts is An Expensive Process

There are about 18 pine trees that produce nuts worthy of harvesting. These trees are found in Europe, Russia, Mongolia, Eastern Siberia, North Korea and North America. There are eight varieties that grow in cold climates such as Canada.

It can take at least 10 years to get pine nuts from a tree; first, it takes between 6-8 years for the tree to mature fully and then 2-3 more years to develop the pine nuts. They ripen in late summer or early fall.

Next is the drying process: they are placed in a burlap bag and exposed to heat to dry out the cone for about 20 days. The outer shell must be removed, the cones are broken apart and the seeds are taken out. This time-consuming process makes it an expensive nut. Learn more reasons why pine nuts are so expensive.

Nutrient Dense

One ounce serving (165 pine nuts) contains a wide variety of nutrients (potassium, protein, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, niacin, vitamin E, vitamin K and more) Go here for more nutrition details.

History

Pine nuts have been consumed since Stone Age times; remains have been found in caves in southern France. The pine nut tree has been cultivated since about 4000 BCE according to Archaeologists.

They have been harvested for over 8,000 years. There is proof of them being found in excavations at Gatecliff Shelter, Nevada, 6,000 years BCE. 

How to Select

Shelled nuts are best in air-tight plastic bags in the stores. Make sure they are fresh, have not lost their light color and are not brown.

How to Store

Their high-fat content makes it important to store them in the refrigerator for 1 – 3 months or kept in an airtight container or in the freezer for up to 9 months.  At room temperature, they will only last for a week before going rancid.

Tips for eating or cooking

They are delicious raw, but you can also eat them roasted, adding a sweet nutty flavor and crunch to vegetable dishes and salads. And of course, there is delicious pesto.

What’s the Difference Between Sulfured and Unsulfured Fruit?

Dried fruit has many health benefits and provides a nutritious option when you’re looking for a sweet snack. But have you ever wondered why some dried fruit is sulfured and some isn’t? Read on to find out the pros and cons of sulfuring fruit, and what other choices you have.

WHAT IS SULFURED FRUIT?

Sulfured fruit has been dried using sulfur dioxide as a preservative. This should be listed in the ingredients on a dried fruit’s package, so you can check if a fruit has been sulfured before buying it.

Sulfur dioxide prevents dried fruit from spoiling and turning brown. It’s often used for brightly-colored fruit to keep them more attractive. Some of the most commonly sulfured fruits are dried apricots, peaches, apples, pineapple, papaya, mango and golden raisins.

Sulfur dioxide is a gas. It’s typically produced by burning elemental sulfur, which is a byproduct collected from burning natural gas and oil in industrial operations. Sulfur dioxide is also used in wine making, as a disinfectant or fumigant, in bleaching agents and processed into sulfuric acid. 

IS SULFUR DIOXIDE BAD FOR YOU?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers sulfur dioxide safe to consume when used as a food additive. Dried fruit contains very small amounts of sulfur dioxide, which are well below recognized toxic amounts.

Despite this fact, there is reason to be cautious about eating sulfured fruit. Sulfur dioxide can induce asthma when inhaled or ingested by those who are sensitive to it, even in small amounts.

Another concern is that sulfur dioxide is a type of sulfite. This means if you have an allergy or sensitivity to sulfites, avoid anything containing sulfur dioxide. It can cause symptoms like difficulty breathing, hives, skin rash or facial swelling.

In addition, sulfur dioxide is considered one of the top six most harmful air pollutants in the world. It’s a primary component of acid rain and causes many health problems globally. Sulfur dioxide gas in the atmosphere is primarily created by burning fossil fuels like coal and gasoline. This may not relate directly to your consumption of dried fruit, but using less of this chemical will only help the environment.

Inhalation of sulfur dioxide pollution can cause a burning sensation in your nose and throat or difficulty breathing, especially in people with asthma. Short-term exposure to high levels of sulfur dioxide can be life-threatening. And long-term exposure can lead to changes in lung function and worsen existing heart disease.

Also, exposure to high amounts of sulfur dioxide in air or food can harm the development of a baby during pregnancy.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

The natural alternative is unsulfured fruit, which has been dried without using preservatives. It’s usually dried by sun exposure, a commercial dehydrator or simply air drying.

You can look for unsulfured dried fruit in your local health food or other grocery store. The label will often state that the fruit is unsulfured. Another benefit of unsulfured fruit is that it usually won’t have any added sugar, which you can often find in sulfured fruit.

Organic dried fruit is guaranteed to be unsulfured as organic regulations don’t allow the use of sulfur or other preservatives. Organic dried fruit may not last as long because of this, but you can always freeze dried fruit to make it last longer if needed.

If you have an abundant source of fresh fruit, another great option is to dry your own fruit. That way you’ll know exactly what’s in it. Penn State Extension has a great overview of how to dry your own fruit and vegetables.

How the Industry is Making Money Off of Your Health

The whole food is greater than the sum of its parts. How, then, do unscrupulous marketers use evidence that ties high blood levels of phytonutrients with superior health to sell dietary supplements that may do more harm than good?

In my video below, I discuss a famous study that started so many down the wrong track. Thousands of men were followed for 19 years, and there was a stepwise drop in risk of lung cancer for smokers who got more and more beta-carotene in their diet. Researchers estimated this simply by adding up how much fruit, vegetables, and soup the men ate. So, did they start treating smokers with fruit, veggies, and soup? No, they gave them beta-carotene pills. However, those taking the pills got more lung cancer than those who didn’t, and there were more deaths from lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke, and a shorter average lifespan overall. This didn’t stop them from trying it over and over again, though. Six more studies were performed, and beta-carotene pills continued to increase mortality. In a compilation of 20 other studies in which they gave beta-carotene and other antioxidant supplements, mortality was significantly increased.

As one study pointed out, “An obvious conclusion is that isolated nutrients are drugs, but not studied or regulated as drugs, and perhaps they should be. Food, on the other hand, needs to be treated in a different way, cognizant of the food synergy concept.” The whole food is greater than the sum of its parts.

Yes, low beta-carotene levels in the blood increase the risk of heart disease mortality, but that’s basically just saying low intake of carrot, pumpkin, collard greens, and kale increases the risk of heart disease mortality or that there is a carrot, spinach, and sweet potato deficiency in the United States. 

It is true that the more carotenoids we have in our blood, the healthier we may be. However, we should consider the following cautionary advice: “Though unscrupulous marketers may use the carotenoid health index for selling dietary supplements, responsible scientists and food producers need to emphasize the use of foods and whole food products to improve [blood] carotenoid concentrations.”

Indeed, “[w]e can now see that giving supplements of [beta]-carotene was a misguided way to prevent cancer. Instead, researchers should have sought to determine which foods have the most convincing negative association with cancer” and then put those fruits and vegetables to the test in randomized controlled trials.

“‘Science’ tends to be reductionist, looking for discrete causes and effects. It is hard to get food studies past peer grant reviewers unless they take the food apart, which seems to us to miss the point.” “The key is to encourage consumers to increase the total amount to 9 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables” every day.

“The past 30 years have seen the development of an enormous body of evidence on the importance of plant-based foods in preventing or reducing the risk of chronic disease.” However, “despite broadly disseminated public information programs on how to eat healthily…it is extremely difficult to get people to change their diets.”

One proposed solution is to add back the health-promoting phytonutrients that are missing from many convenience foods. By eating more fruits and vegetables? No, silly, by genetically engineering phytonutrients into fast food.

People eat ketchup, not kale, so who needs greens when you can genetically engineer high-folate tomatoes? Why buy berries when you can make tomatoes purple by stitching in two genes from snapdragons to make transgenic tomatoes? Instead of soybean burgers, we can have soybean genes in the ketchup on our burgers. And you’ve heard of grape tomatoes? How about really grape tomatoes?

Pills are more profitable than plants, but when pills don’t work, industry will try patenting the produce itself.

8 Delicious Ways to Eat Less Salt

Most Americans eat far more than the recommended limit, but cutting back on salty food can be tough, especially if your palate has adjusted to a high-salt diet. Here are some ways to reduce the salt in your diet without sacrificing flavor.

Here in the U.S., we chronically oversalt our food. Whether we’re eating salty, processed foods or reaching for that salt shaker too often, all of that excess salt adds up. Too much salt makes us eat more and drink less water, and it puts us at risk for heart disease.

The recommended limit for salt is between 1500 mg and 2300 mg per day: between 3/4 and one teaspoon. The average American eats 3400 mg of salt per day, more than one-and-a-half times the highest recommended limit.

I cut way back on salt when I was pregnant to help ease pregnancy-related swelling. It was not easy at first, but over time I came up with a strategy and some tricks to make the transition more smooth. These are the things that helped me learn how to eat less salt.

1. Cut back gradually.

If you’ve been eating a lot of salt for a long period of time, your palate has likely adjusted. If you just cut the salt out of your food right away, it’s going to seem flavorless. Instead, try tapering the amount of salt you’re eating over a week or two until you reach your goals.  

2. Hide the salt shaker.

This is a great first step when you’re tapering. Try not salting your food once it’s prepared. Almost all recipes already call for salt in some form, and shaking on even more salt isn’t doing us any favors. 

If you really don’t feel ready to do this right away, try limiting how much salt you shake on. If you usually do three shakes, see if you can get by with two for a few days, then one, then get that shaker out of there.

3. Choose low-sodium soy sauce.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to use soy sauce more than table salt to add sodium to my dishes. We don’t always think of soy sauce as salt, but if you’re trying to get down to 2300 mg or less per day, soy sauce can be a big contributor.

Low-sodium soy sauce has about one third less sodium than traditional. Just make sure you’re not adding more low-sodium soy sauce to your food. Like the salt shaker, don’t reach for the soy sauce after you food is plated.

4. Cut back on processed foods.

Processed food tends to be high in salt for two reasons. First of all, salt is a cheap way to make things taste delicious. Salt is also a good preservative. Cutting out all packaged foods isn’t realistic for everyone, though, and that’s okay!

When you do buy packaged food, look for ones marked low-sodium or reduce sodium. And don’t let front-of-package labeling fool you. Turn that bag of chips over and read the nutrition label to see what percentage of your daily sodium is in that bag.

5. Cook at home.

You don’t have to give up all take-out forever when you cut back on salt, but cooking at home definitely helps you control how much salt is on your food. Restaurants love salt, because salt makes food taste good without adding much cost to a dish. The good news is, you can make home-cooked meals taste good with less salt!

6. Reach for the herbs.

Salt enhances your food’s flavor, but you can also add flavor by adding more fresh or dried herbs to your dishes. Try upping the herbs and spices in your favorite recipes while cutting back on the added salt. You may find that you didn’t need that added sodium in the first place!

7. Drop some acid.

Into your bowl! A squeeze of lemon juice or dash of vinegar was one of my favorite ways to compensate for the “missing” salt when I started cutting back. Acidic foods like citrus add a similar bite to your dishes, no sodium needed.

8. Choose low- or no-sodium broth.

Broth is a major culprit when it comes to added salt, but it doesn’t have to be! One of my favorite tricks for keeping the flavor while cutting the salt in my soups was to use no-sodium broth cubes, but use twice as many cubes as the package called for.

You can also use broth to add flavor to your grains, beans and stews. Almost any time you see water in a savory recipe, you can sub no-sodium broth for a flavor boost. This is really just a cheater’s way to add more herbs without having to chop more herbs.