Making America Great -- First US LNG Shipment To Lithuania -- August 22, 2017

From Reuters via Rigzone: Lithuania receives first LNG from the US. Data points:

• first spot shipment of LNG from the US to Lithuania
• result of a deal to reduce dependence on Russia, yada, yada, yada
• Lithuania will import half its required LNG; most from Norway (Statoil)
• US firm: Cheniere Energy; LNG tanker from Sabine Pass
• LNG for clients in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia

Europe's future.

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 Ford-Zotye In Joint Venture To Build Coal-Powered Cars

Link at Reuters. This is huge. The biggest market for EVs in the next decade, 2030 - 2040, will be China. That's a given. The Chinese government mandates it. The Chinese government has established a virtual waiting list for its citizens to buy an automobile. The list is very, very long and many Chinese will wait years to get to the front of the line. However, China will move car buyers to the head of the line if they buy coal-powered cars.

My hunch it will be China, not the US, that will become the coal-powered car center of the universe.

This is a huge, huge deal for coal, of which China has a lot. And if they don't have enough, Wyoming does.

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Preaching to The Choir -- Again

I don't want to post the link to this story, but if I don't, I will be deluged with notes from readers asking if I saw this story: new study -- earth was warmer during medieval times.  The only thing "new" is that this is a "new" study. Doing a google search reveals that almost everyone (except Algore) knew of "Medieval Warm Times" or the "Medieval Warm Period."

By the way, just to remind folks like Algore, the "Medieval Period" preceded the Industrial Revolution by some centuries.

By the way, just for the record, a "CO2 blanket" works both ways. It reflects heat from the earth, back to the earth. It also reflects sunlight (heat), back -- away from the earth. Just saying. Manmade greenhouses are enclosed with glass. Venus is a tad closer to the sun. Did you all note how fast the temperature of the place you were standing fell yesterday if you were in the path of totality of the August 21, 2017, solar eclipse? As much as 5 to 10 degrees. Sort of like being in the shade. Just saying.

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American Whisky, Bourbon, and Rye

A Guide To The Nation's Favorite Spirit

Clay Risen

DDS 641.2RIS

1st edition, 2013

Apparently a second edition was published in 2015 

In his history of American history, Clay Risen writes, p. 2,  --

Canadian distilleries, which had done quite well during Prohibition as one of the few sources of quality whiskey, retained a sizable share of American market. The writers of Mad Men have Don Draper drinking Canadian Club for a reason" that's what everyone drank.

On page 214, Risen continues --

Best known these days as the rye whiskey of choice for Mad Men's Don Draper, Old Overholt (Straight Rye Whiskey) is one of the last brands left from the old days of Pennsylvania rye distilling -- though its recipe has long since changed and its no longer made in Pennsylvania.

The whiskey has its roots in early nineteenth-century southwestern Pennsylvania. It was produced at the time by A. Overholt & Co. at the Broad Ford Distillery (originally called simply Overholt, the "Old" was added in the late nineteenth century to honor the company's founder, Abraham Overholt).

The distillery fell into the hands of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, who later sold it to his younger business partner Andrew Mellon. His ownership of the distillery during Prohibition, when it continued to produce whisky for "medicinal' purposes, caused some amount of scandal during the 1920s.

Mellonw was for a time secretary of the Treasury and thus officially, in charge of enforcing the ban on liquor production. (Old Overholt also plays a recurring role in HBO's Boardwalk Empire, with Mellon played by James Cromwell.

Further history of Old Overholt:

• like many medicinal whiskeys during Prohibition, Old Overholt ended up in the ownership of the American Medicinal Spirits Co
• the latter evolved into National Distillers after Repeal
• in 1987, National becamse a part of the Jim Beam portfolio under Fortune Brands, which split into Beam, Inc
• along the way, production shifted to Kentucky, and today it is produced at Beam's plant in Clermont

Today, according to Risen, Old Overholt is indistinguishable from the generic ryes on the market -- he says it is largely the same as the standard Jim Beam Rye.