With the astronomy thread going up, here's a new open thread for political discusion and the rest. more...

Posted by: CAC at 04:03 PM | Comments (264)
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.

[We Politely Request That All Off-Topic or Political Comments Be Directed to the Thread Directly Below This One, Which Will Serve Officially as the Current "Active Conversation" Thread for All Discussions Not Related To This Topic.

-- Sincerely, the Fascist MGMT]

Welcome again to the Spaced-Out Challenge. Whether you have a question about a scope, a new astronomical discovery you want to expand on, or just want to kick back and enjoy the cosmos above, come one come all on our weekly journey through space and time.

This week, I'll show you how to take advantage of the beautiful rendezvous of Mars with Regulus to find brightening Comet ISON in a small amateur telescope this week; and better introduce you newbies to the most famous damsel in distress, Andromeda. more...

Posted by: CAC at 04:05 PM | Comments (83)
Post contains 879 words, total size 9 kb.

The Senate is in session today. You can catch the action on CSpan-2. And, as always, Robert Costa, at Twitter, is providing updates.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:56 AM | Comments (367)
Post contains 36 words, total size 1 kb.

Football's nice.

Hockey is better.

In every way. The pretty women don't just dance and jump around, they provide a vital service to the game.

But hey, enjoy your games.

Related...2nd look at the Columbus Blue Jackets!

For the Giants fans among you, John E. has some good news.... more...

Posted by: DrewM at 08:45 AM | Comments (208)
Post contains 85 words, total size 1 kb.

By "celebrate", I mean hew with a war ax, inflicting upon it an attack not unlike a Viking blood eagle execution.

For the normally staid BBC, this...I guess you could call it a "cultural review", has a tone one might reserve for extolling the virtues of Ebola and Dengue Fever.

...Transplanted to modern-day Paris, the caricaturist William Hogarth could have done a wonderful drawing there on the evils of cocaine, violence and electronic music played at very loud volumes. The young woman I saw urinating in the gutter at 7am last Sunday would probably have featured...

Apparently the Champs Elysees of yesteryear, lined with attractive trees that allowed the Germans to march in the shade, is a wistful distant memory.

One could write a similar review of America.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 01:40 PM | Comments (261)
Post contains 161 words, total size 1 kb.

The Million Vet March is going on right now in D.C.

Livestream here.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:21 AM | Comments (202)
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

Salute To The Big Guns

Happy 238th Birthday, US Navy.

"Internet Loophole" FTW!

The left goes on and on about buying guns over the Internet, but it's mostly BS (shocking, I know). To legally purchase a firearm from an out-of-state seller, that seller has to ship the gun to a federally-licensed firearms dealer (FFL) in your state to complete the transaction. With one single exception, that is.

If you were just taking a wild guess, what entity would you think would be outside this requirement?

If you said "the Federal Government", go to the head of the line. (Or a federally-chartered corporation, anyway ... it's the Corporation for Public Broadcasting of Guns)

The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is a national organization dedicated to training and educating U. S. citizens in responsible uses of firearms and airguns through gun safety training, marksmanship training and competitions. The CMP is a federally chartered 501(c)(3) corporation that places its highest priority on serving youth through gun safety and marksmanship activities that encourage personal growth and build life skills. Links on this page will lead you to more detailed information about the CMP and its programs.
Statutory mission. The federal law enacted in 1996 (Title 36 U. S. Code, 40701-40733) that created the Corporation for the Promotion of Rifle Practice and Firearms Safety, Inc. (CPRPFS, the formal legal name of the CMP) mandates these key “functions for the corporation:

(1) To instruct citizens of the United States in marksmanship;

(2) To promote practice and safety in the use of firearms;

(3) To conduct competitions in the use of firearms and to award trophies, prizes, badges, and other insignia to competitors.

The law specifically states: In carrying out the Civilian Marksmanship Program, the corporation shall give priority to activities that benefit firearms safety, training, and competition for youth and that reach as many youth participants as possible.

One way they pursue this mission is by selling surplus firearms to US consumers. Earlier this week, a FedEx truck pulled up at my house with one ... an M1 Garand with a receiver made in the late 50s (H&R) and with a brand new barrel and stock affixed by CMP's armorers. No FFL required, although they do a NICS check and require membership in an affiliated club.

I'll be heading to the range today to run some rounds through it.

Gun Of The Week

(answer below)
more...

Posted by: andy at 05:43 AM | Comments (207)
Post contains 909 words, total size 8 kb.

Homer: But every time I learn something new, it pushes out something old! Remember that time I took a home wine-making course and forgot how to drive?

Marge: ThatÂ’s because you were drunk.

Homer: And how!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:39 AM | Comments (205)
Post contains 44 words, total size 1 kb.

Japan loves their Pokemon (it's completely sold out)

This is from the launch of the Vita 2000 on Thursday (half hour before opening)

and here is the same place for the release of Pokemon X & Y

Will be interesting in seeing the chart in a few days to see how many copies were sold. more...

Posted by: Gang of Gaming Morons! at 11:34 AM | Comments (110)
Post contains 975 words, total size 9 kb.

The Obamacare Kitchen Regulations Did Not Work Out As Planned

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to AoSHQ's prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread.

What's Cookin'?

Rapper Coolio is apparently quite the sous chef. Has his own online cooking show and everything. Last Christmas, one of my kids received his book, Cookin' With Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price, as a gag gift. But after all the gift-opening was concluded, I got a chance to leaf through some of the chapters, and you know what, it's actually not half bad. It starts you out with a list of utensils and knives (for cooking) every "kitchen pimp" should have on hand, as well as some basic necessary ingredients. The gangsta slang is annoying (and also NSFW), but if you can get past that, the recipes look uncomplicated and very doable, i.e you don't need a bunch of obscure and hard-to-find ingredients to make them.

For something more conventional, I recommend America's Test Kitchen. Their Quick Family Cookbook contains a wealth of good information and recipes We've always had good luck with recipes from the ATK books and TV program, and several of them have become staples at our family table.

Mrs. Muse used to use Woman's Home Companion Cook Book back in the day. It was a good cookbook back 50 years ago, but it's pretty much outdated now, she tells me.

And you have to wonder how the internet is changing things, even here. Mrs. Muse doesn't really use cookbooks any more. Yesterday, for example, she wondered if anyone had a recipe for a reuben sandwich, only developed as a casserole. So she simply did a Google search for "reuben sandwich casserole recipe" and was presented a pageful of results out of which she was able to extract a couple of promising recipes.

In the old days, she would have had to either buy a cookbook or develop her own recipe. But it looks like those days are gone.

And speaking of outdated cooking, I heartily recommend James Lileks' Gallery of Regrettable Food. It's not a cookbook, but rather a compilation of pictures from recipe books and advertising from 40s-60s ("The Golden Age of Salt and Starch"), mixed with the author's acerbic commentary. And what pictures:

The pictures in the book are ghastly -- the Italian dishes look like a surgeon had a sneezing fit during an operation, and the queasy casseroles look like something on which the janitor dumps sawdust. But you have to enjoy the spirit behind the books -- cheerful postwar perfect housewifery, and folks with the guts to undertake such culinary experiments as stuffing cabbage with hamburger, creating the perfect tongue mousse when you have the fellas over for a pregame nosh, or, best of all, baking peppers with a creamy marshmallow sauce. Alas, too many of these dishes bring back scary childhood memories.

One thing I find refreshing about James Lileks is this: as hard as he ridicules the hideously unappealing pictures and stomach-turning recipes, his laughter never turns into sneering. A liberal would take the same material and write a book out of which you'd be able smell the hatred and contempt boiling off from every page. Lileks, on the other hand, is not driven by hate. He wants us to "enjoy the spirit behind the books", even while we're retching at the contents. And that makes all the difference.

So what cookbooks do you morons like? Which ones do you keep coming back to over and over?
more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:23 AM | Comments (267)
Post contains 1286 words, total size 9 kb.