Wednesday - January 06, 2010

Well, the weather guy said SNOW and I though, NAH. He’s almost always wrong. Not this time.

It was snowing last night when I shut down (thinking btw that I had FFox fixed.NOT) Well it’s still snowing.  No big deal to folks who live on the east coast like CT,NJ,NY etc.  Or Mont or the mountains of Calif. this time of year.  But this kind of snow is a mite much for this part of England and things have a tendency to grind to a halt.  Our milk delivery came last night at around 9pm instead of the usual 5 to 6am.  No newspapers delivered so far this morning. Would have been nice to have em on a day like this.  So I thought I’d share the photos I took about an hour ago at 9am. Nothing arty. Just snow.

That’s our front and part of the driveway.

That’s our house.  It just occurs to me. I should have left a few lights on in the area of the porch. And upstairs too. Might look better. Next time.

Posted by peiper     on 01/06/2010 at 05:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • Personal •  
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   Tuesday - January 05, 2010

D’oh!

Irish authorities say a Slovak man unwittingly carried hidden explosives on board a weekend flight to Dublin after a Slovakian airport-security test went awry.

The 49-year-old electrician was arrested Tuesday, but released without charge after Slovak security officials alerted their Dublin counterparts to the screw-up.

Officials had surreptitiously placed different bomb components in the check-in luggage of nine passengers to see if security screeners would spot the contraband. The bag containing 90 hidden grams (3 ounces) of plastic explosive got through—and then wasn’t stopped from traveling to Dublin.

Irish Army explosives experts stressed the explosive posed no threat to passengers because it was stable and not connected to other essential bomb parts.

Yeah, but still.  Is it un-PC to tell Slovak jokes? It seems they write themselves!

Posted by Drew458     on 01/05/2010 at 10:59 PM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People • War On Terror •  
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ANOTHER DAFT IDEA FROM THE LEFT NANNY STATE WHO WILL INSPECT YOUR KITCHEN.

Well maybe not quite literally but it comes close.  Of course, there’s an election coming up in 5 months and so the pols are breast beating and tossing out ideas and claiming they’ll save not just the UK but ze verld as well.  Sure they will.

Grow ur own veggies they say. Uh huh. Like everyone is in a position where they can.  And even where some can, they may not be able to. Anyway, everyone knows veggies come from supermarkets so what’s this talk about growing ur own?

This govt. does tend to get into everyones lives. We already have two bins in our kitchen.  This loony tune wants to add a third?  Good luck with that. Can’t even imagine what they might come up with next. Hey I know.  Lets all collect it and then forward on to Al Bore’s house. Now that’s a positive thought.

by the way ... This idea has it’s origins in the EU, I have read. What a surprise.

Hey ... it’s still snowing.  Could be this time the weather guy has things right.
Our milkman made his 5am delivery at 9pm tonight.  I had him leave some extra eggs and bread for us. 

Hooray ... I think I may have my browser working at long last.  Still checking things out but apparently it was one of the add-ons causing a problem.
Now all I need to do is get more memory.  Ok, here’s the story.  Jerks!  No not you. Them. These guys.

Householders to be forced into using slop buckets for waste food or face penalty fines

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 8:34 PM on 05th January 2010

Householders could be fined hundreds of pounds if they throw food scraps and vegetable peelings into the dustbin, it has emerged.

Instead they will be forced to use slop buckets.

Environment Minister Hilary Benn wants to ban food going to landfill sites - and for leftovers to be collected by dustmen and used to generate green electricity.

The move, which would see compulsory buckets in every kitchen, came as the Government published a major report on the future of food and farming.

The report - aimed at boosting food production, tackling climate change and improving the nation’s health - called on consumers to buy more British food, eat more seasonal food and grow their own fruit and veg.

And it controversially claimed that GM crops had ‘potential’ to help feed the world’s booming population.

But it also called for less food to go to rubbish dumps, where it releases greenhouse gases.

Before launching the report, Mr Benn went even further - and gave his strongest backing yet to a ban on food landfill sites.

‘I’m going to consult a little later on this year on getting to a point where we say we’re not going to put food in landfill anymore where we know we can turn it into energy through anaerobic digestion,’ he told the conference.

If the ban gets the go-ahead, slop buckets - already used to collect food scraps in millions of homes - would be extended across the whole country.

The proposals were condemned by critics.

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Time and again these new recycling policies always end up being based on punitive fines, which is the last thing ordinary families around Britain need.

‘It is fine to aspire towards more recycling, but any attempt to start policing people’s kitchen bins and registering their potato peelings will be a costly farce.’

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 01/05/2010 at 05:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Environment • EUro-peons • Fine-Dining • Nanny State • UK •  
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LIKE RATS DURING THE PLAGUE AND JUST AS FILTHY, AND THEY’RE LIVING AMONG US. AND MORE COMING.

Actually started putting this together about five hours ago. One interruption after another, helped friend gather logs for his fireplace, then browser trouble again.

Took a short time to get used to FireFox but once I did, I kissed IE goodbye.  Then FF had an upgrade of some kind and things have been wonky since.
So now using Chrome which I find generally is faster.  Hey, whatever works and right now Chrome does. But I wish FF did.

Started snowing just after I posted last and it still is. But lightly.

OK, this is a follow up to yesterday wherein I posted about some rat droppings (muzzies) who are planning another protest re. the awful crusade that the west has launched against islam.  Oh, only if.  The guy organizing same is a former lawyer, and he plans to carry empty coffins thru the town where so many fallen Brits are carried.  He is scum and so are those around him.  They pull this sort of crap here and sure as hell if they tried similar in their own damn countries, they’d lose their heads.  They come to the west where they have more freedom without any responsibility, and carry signs damning their host countries. I will not call em stupid cos rats are smart as we know.  Devious, cunning, sneaky and deadly and not to be trusted. However ...

THEY HAVE RIGHTS HERE THEY’D NEVER HAVE AT HOME. Including the right to march anywhere they want to and provoke outrage.

This is all quite interesting to me because I know that folks who’ve had their feelings hurt have sued successfully and the person doing the hurt has actually been prosecuted.  So then ... with so many families who have lost kin, surely their feelings must be raw watching and hearing walking, talking rats denigrate thier military and those who’ve fallen.  But that law I think only applies to certain ppl.  Namely, easy targets and not usually members of favored groups.

So then this is where Brits are today and this is what they are facing.

Court hears Muslims calling British soldiers ‘rapists’, ‘cowards’ and ‘scum’

By LUCY BALLINGER and MARK DUELL

Shocking films of a group of Muslim protestors shouting ‘rapists’, ‘scum’ and ‘burn in hell’ at soldiers on a homecoming parade were played to a court today.

The mob of Muslim anti-war protesters screamed hostile chants including ‘baby killers and murderers all of you’ and ‘British army murderers’ at 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment - which had lost 12 soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

Holding signs made from cardboard boxes denouncing soldiers as ‘Butchers of Basra’ and ‘war criminals’, the group of men jeered ‘murderers’ as they marched past.

What should have been a joyful homecoming spilled over into violence as angry members of the public there to give the soldiers a heroes’ welcome shouted insults back at the protestors, Luton Magistrates Court heard.

The court saw video footage of the protestors being circled and protected by police. They were later joined by a group of 20 women dressed in full hijab coverings, as well as children and babies in buggies.
A Muslim woman, clad from head to toe in black, carried a placard that read ‘Muslims rise against British oppression’.

THE FULL STORY IS HERE

MEANWHILE ....  This is a continuation of yesterday and has caused much angst.  Which is fine as long as nobody insults or causes hurt to these life forms.

Top officer says Muslim hate preacher ‘DOES have right to march’ as 400,000 join Facebook group against Wootton Bassett protest

By IAN DRURY
Last updated at 6:04 PM on 05th January 2010

A senior police officer has called for a provocative march by Islamic extremists through Wootton Bassett, the town renowned for honouring Britain’s war dead, not to be banned amid fears it could further inflame tensions.

The Home Secretary Alan Johnson yesterday reacted to mounting public anger at hate preacher Anjem Choudary’s plan to stage the stunt, by saying he would support any request to ban the march.

Gordon Brown had earlier declared that he was ‘completely disgusted’ at the ‘abhorrent’ protest proposed by the firebrand cleric.
But Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said he would be ‘surprised’ if senior officers in Wiltshire block the protest.

THE REST IS HERE

IN HIS COLUMN TODAY, Richard Littlejohn had this to say.

THE NAME’S CHOUDHARY ... RAM JAM CHOUDHARY

I fell about laughing when I saw Ram Jam Choudhary on Sky News justifying his plans for a Muslim march through Wootton Bassett in the name of British ‘freedom and democracy’.
This is a man who heads an organisation dedicated to destroying freedom and democracy, not just in Britain but around the world.

Remember those ‘Free Speech Go To Hell’ and ‘Behead All Those Who Insult Islam’ banners carried by Ram Jam and his disciples on the anti-war march in Trafalgar Square?

What astonishes me is that we are expected to pay him to troll round Britain preaching holy war.

On what grounds does he receive unemployment and welfare benefits, which allow him to live in a £350,000 house in North London?

He is 42 years old, apparently fit and healthy, and a trained lawyer. Even in these difficult times, he ought to be able to find a job. There may not be a lot of call for a full-time jihadist, even in Haringey, but surely a little light conveyancing shouldn’t be beyond him. Maybe the Wicked Witch could sub-contract him a bit of yuman rites work. If all else fails, he could always get a job as a security guard at the Home Office. They don’t seem fussy, judging by the number of illegal immigrants they employ.

Some people ask why he’s still at large, given that he spends most of his time stirring up hatred. His legal training tends to keep him just the right side of the incitement laws.

To be honest, I’ve always assumed that Ram Jam is an MI5 double agent, recruited by the Funnies while he was still at university, where he was known as ‘Andy’ and was partial to birds, booze and the odd spliff.

If you were looking for someone to discredit the cause of militant Islam, you couldn’t make him up.

LITTLEJOHN, THE MAIL

Posted by peiper     on 01/05/2010 at 01:16 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • DIVERSITY BS • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • RoPMA • Terrorists • UK • War On Terror •  
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THE COLDEST WINTER IN THE FIVE YEARS WE’VE BEEN HERE.

It’s super cold with very light something falling but not snow so far. Isn’t exactly rain as we know rain either. Whatever, be interesting to see what it looks like 2moro morning.
One of our neighbors called to say he was going out to the market to stock up. So is everyone else.  We did ours yesterday but not in anticipation of snow. Just freezing cold that was originally forecast. 

This is our fifth winter here and I promise you it has not been like this in the past five yrs.  This weather is a good excuse to doctor the coffee with Irish Cream booze tho.

This is why the religion of gore doesn’t use the term global warming as much as they did. Now the mantra is climate change.

One huge downside for us is electric.  You folks in the USA don’t know how lucky you are even though your rates are high.  Try living here with our rates. There’s a good reason (actually there are a number of them) that this is referred to as Rip Off Britain.

Extreme weather warning as Met Office forecasts 16 INCHES of snow across southern England tonight
By SOPHIE FREEMAN
Last updated at 3:18 PM on 05th January 2010

* Fears Britain could run out of gas after surge in demand to heat homes

* Entire bus networks suspended, binmen diverted to gritting duties

* Lorry driver killed, thousands caught up in tailbacks

* Two people die in frozen lakes, one man missing

*Shoppers begin panic-buying winter food and salt to clear paths

*Thousands of pupils told to stay home as snow shuts schools

An ‘extreme weather’ alert was issued for southern England today as snow and ice brought transport networks to an abrupt halt.
Heavy snowfall is expected across southern areas of England that have not seen snow so far during this cold spell, as freezing conditions persist across the country.
The heavy snow that has been affecting Scotland and northern England is moving south and the heaviest falls over the next 24 hours are expected across parts of central and southern England and southeast Wales.

Posted by peiper     on 01/05/2010 at 11:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • UK •  
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   Monday - January 04, 2010

USA LIFTS BAN ON HIV TRAVEL.  VISITORS AND IMMIGRANTS WELCOME.

I think it’s time for me to ask, anyone with some knowledge on the topic since I only know what I’ve read or heard on the news, does this put anyone at any extra risk?  Was the US justified in the ban?  Does the US have it correct now?

U.S. takes positive step of lifting entry ban on foreign nationals with HIV

By Daily Mail Reporter
04th January 2010

The US government has lifted an ban on foreign nationals with HIV entering the country.

For the past 22 years, people who are HIV positive have needed a special waiver to visit, or travel through, the US but the requirement will be dropped from Monday.

THT said some of its staff with HIV have, in the past, been refused entry to the US as a result of the policy.

Lisa Power, THT head of policy, said: ‘It’s ridiculous that for over 20 years people living with HIV have been banned from entering the US simply because of a medical condition.

Whoa .. that’s some kinda medical condition.  We already know from past experience that an awful lot of these folks take on new partners without saying a word about, their condition.
And further to the question, exactly from where are these new immigrants gonna come from?
Any guesses?

I know it’s perverse but, I hate making foreign libs happy even more then our home grown ones.  I always feel like they’re sticking their collective noses in our business.  So if they congratulate us for something, I always think whoops. We got things wrong again.
We shouldn’t be doing things that the left approves of.  Just on general principals.

‘Removing the ban is long overdue and we congratulate the US government on seeing economic and medical sense.

‘THT and many others have campaigned against the ban since it was introduced. Blanket entry bans have no justification on public health grounds and only increase stigma.

‘We hope other countries with similar bans in place will now remove them too.’

President Barack Obama announced in October last year that the ban would be lifted.

‘Twenty-two years ago, in a decision rooted in fear rather than fact, the United States instituted a travel ban on entry into the country for people living with HIV/Aids,’ he said.

‘Now, we talk about reducing the stigma of this disease - yet we’ve treated a visitor living with it as a threat.’

The 2012 World Aids Conference will be held in the US in recognition of the lifting of the ban.

SOURCE

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Your diseased, perverted sodomists; your criminals; your ignorant, thieving, insane, moon god worshipping misogynists. Your Oh Lord I can’t go on.

Posted by sig94 United States

I just HAD to come back and do this. Couldn’t resist. Thanks Sig94

Posted by peiper     on 01/04/2010 at 01:05 PM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Health-Medicine • USA •  
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muslims plan march thru city of fallen Brits.  Strong word from #10 is, “inappropriate.”

A “former lawyer” and so I guess he knows what his group rights are. This wasn’t a planned post BUT again, it is so damn frustrating to witness this crap while the powers that be do nothing. Well, as yet they haven’t.
The PM, Gordon Brown says, the march planned by the muslims is “completely inappropriate” Hey, how’s that for really strong I’ll show the bastards wording.
The scum organizing the march through the town openly says he can’t be sensitive to the feeling of the townsfolk. Interesting that the Brits are ALWAYS expected to show the same toward others.

Make no mistake about these turds, these filthy lice infested sub humans with food in beards collecting bugs, these scum do want to take over the west and through breeding like the insects they are, and through force and terrorism, they eventually will succeed because the west will continue to treat them as tho they are civilized equals worthy of respect. The west will continue to pass laws that make talking about them in a negative way, a crime.  Good grief, it already is that in some places.

Here are the faces of a few of the lower life forms demonstrating against the western and Christian “crusade” against islam.  Brits once interned folks less dangerous then these rats while fighting another war.  But then again, that was a different generation.  They didn’t do everything right, but they did what they felt they had to do at the time, in order to defend their country.  Nowadays all sorts of ppl makes excuses and find way to “understand” the enemy and see things the way he does.  Yeah. That’ll help.  The other side.

Where are the Thatchers and Churchills. Wish the country would produce another one of those and maybe a Bismark too. Wishful thinking.

If you have never seen it before, here’s what rat droppings look like when appearing as humans.

Choudary compares British troops to Nazi stormtroopers as 210,000 sign Facebook bid to stop his Islamic extremist march

By Ian Drury and Andy Dolan
Last updated at 3:43 PM on 04th January 2010

The hate preacher organising a march of Islamic extremists through the streets of Wootton Bassett sparked outrage today by comparing British troops fighting in Afghanistan to Nazi stormtroopers.

As more than 210,000 people signed an internet petition objecting to the march, Anjem Choudary said he had chosen to protest in the town - renowned for honouring soldiers killed in Afghanistan - because it would attract ‘maximum attention’.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today such a march would be ‘completely inappropriate’.

But in remarks designed to cause maximum offence, Choudary compared fallen British heroes to Nazi stormtroopers and the September 11 and July 7 terrorists. He even claimed his plan was backed by families of servicemen and women.

Admitting a march through the town would be ‘provocative’, he launched into a bizarre explanation of why he opposed crowds honouring fallen British soldiers.

‘The same could be said about the Germans fighting for Nazism in the Second World War,’ he said. ‘Those involved in 7/7 and 9/11 considered themselves to be soldiers.

‘How would the British people feel if there was a parade for those who carried out 9/11 or 7/7?’

Choudary said 500 of his radical group Islam4UK would carry ‘symbolic coffins’ in memory of the Muslim civilians ‘murdered by merciless’ coalition forces.

The firebrand cleric this morning tried to defend the march in an open letter published on his website, entitled ‘To the families of British soldiers who have fallen’.

Choudary, a former lawyer, said today: ‘The procession is not actually about the people of Wootton Bassett and it never was about them.

‘We are having a procession, it’s in Wootton Bassett but it’s not about the people there and it’s not against them personally - rather it’s to highlight the real cost of war in Afghanistan.

‘The sad reality of the situation is that if I were to hold it somewhere else it would not have the media attention that it has now.

‘If I am to balance between the sensitivity of having it in Wootton Bassett and the possibility of continuing the quagmire and cycle of death in Afghanistan, then quite honestly I’m going to balance in favour of the latter.

NO LINK available. Sorry. Having weird problems with FireFox I have never seen before.
For the rest of the article go to http://www.dailymail.co.uk

JUST SOME OF THE BRITS THE muzzies ARE PROTESTING AGAINST.

Posted by peiper     on 01/04/2010 at 11:20 AM   
Filed Under: • DIVERSITY BS • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • Military • Outrageous • RoPMA • Terrorists • UK •  
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more ceiling, better string

For those not in the know, the Udvar-Hazy Center is the gigantic airship hanger next to the National Mall in Washington DC. Part of the National Air & Space Museum, it’s chock full of historic aircraft and spacecraft, displayed on 3 levels. It’s huge. I gather that these craft are actually extras that couldn’t fit in the display area at the Mall.

Admission is free but parking is $15.

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics.

The Museum has two display facilities. The National Mall building in Washington, D.C. has hundreds of artifacts on display including the original Wright 1903 Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 command module, and a lunar rock sample that visitors can touch. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center displays many more artifacts including the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay and Space Shuttle Enterprise.

The Museum currently conducts restoration of its collection at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, MD. For years, this facility also displayed many of the Museum’s artifacts kept in storage. Only guided tours allowed access to this portion of the collection. The new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center displays most of the aircraft and spacecraft previously stored at Garber, many never seen before in a museum setting. The Center will also eventually become the Museum’s primary artifact restoration facility.

You can get close enough to smell them, but all the aircraft are behind railings or up in the air. Strictly a hands off experience. Understandable, but sad.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/04/2010 at 10:35 AM   
Filed Under: • History • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
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membership issues

Ok, this adampastec guy, or whatever name he was using, is gone. I have deleted an active user. First time ever. But I’m 99.8% certain that this was a spambot.

Fair Warning: If your comments are little more than linked advertising for your product line, your account will be deleted. If you want advertising, go buy some.

I have to think up a better way of adding members. Maybe I should have them send me an actual email request. I went with the automated system because it’s so much easier; we get dozens of applications a day. I have plenty of work to do, thanks. I can’t sit around being the secretary here. But it is a tempting solution.

And it’s hard to run through the list and just snip off the pending applications that don’t look right. There are lots of oddball urls out there these days that are completely valid. “attentionseekingdevice.com” is the site one of our newer members emails from. It’s an odd page, under construction I think, but it’s valid.

I wish I could just ban .ru and gmail accounts. 90+% of the crap comes from them. And ban seemingly crazy user names like “asdf9876j”. We actually have several members with those kind of user names or those email servers, and they’ve not been any kind of problem.

However, I have detected that applications from “7mail” are bogus. Especially when their dumbot makes 3 different attempts in a group every 37 hours. Bye bye!

I really don’t want to have to put in one of those “security word” thingies. And I despise the kind of comment system that forces you to choose from a small set of “professional membership groups” like Google Accounts. No, I’d rather allow my members the freedom to sign up personally. Just as long as they don’t abuse my system by dumping advertising links on the rest of us.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/04/2010 at 09:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff •  
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Awesome find in arctic …. come fly with me …

Gee, what a great find this is.  Hope I’m not alone in finding this exciting. Buried all those years.
Typical of the Telegraph as I am forever saying, that I had to find the on line version someplace else. Ditto the photo which I had to enlarge, so I hope it’s clear enough on your screens.

I was on hold to the doc’s office waiting to confirm some sort of exam and while waiting on hold I was thumbing through the morning paper when I spotted this story.  So I hung up and found it on line so I could post it early. Neat Stuff!

`Blue moon’ luck leads to historic find in ice

Monday, January 04, 2010

Australian explorers yesterday credited record low tides and a blue moon for the “one-in-a-million” discovery in Antarctica of one of the world’s first aeroplanes, found buried in ice.
The monoplane, which was the first aircraft off the Vickers factory production line in Britain just eight years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, was taken to Antarctica by Australian explorer Douglas Mawson in 1911.

Mawson hoped to stage the first human flight over the Antarctic ice cap, but his dreams were dashed when the pilot who accompanied the craft from London crashed it during a demonstration flight.

“He’d had a rather long night at the local [armed forces] club in Adelaide the night before and apparently was not in the best of shape when he first flew it,” Australian conservationist David Jensen said.

Its wings were so badly damaged they had to be removed, but Mawson decided he wanted to take the Vickers to the Antarctic to use as an “air tractor” to pull his sledges with a specially made tail rudder and skis, Jensen said.

However, its engine seized up and Mawson abandoned the Vickers at Cape Denison in 1914, said Jensen, chairman of the government-backed Mawson’s Hut Foundation charity. The explorer paid a brief visit to the craft when he returned on a two-year territory-staking mission in 1929, before giving it up for good in 1931.

Three successive teams of conservationists and scientists from the Mawson’s Huts Foundation searched for the fusela
ge, which was last sighted almost totally buried in ice in 1975.

But it was the combination of historically low tides, prompted by a blue moon - the second full moon in a calendar month - and unprecedented melting of the ice that led to its chance discovery on New Year’s Day, Jensen said.

“It was probably one chance in a million that these conditions allowed us to spot it,” he said.

“One of our heritage carpenters was just wandering along the edge of the harbor and he by chance spotted the piece of metal amongst the rocks.”

“You talk about once in a blue moon, well it was so true.”

Team leader Tony Stewart said: “Luck has been on our side, and it’s a great episode in the history of Antarctic aviation.”

Had the carpenter failed to spot the relic, which was under “just a couple of centimeters of water” in rising tide conditions, it would have likely been lost forever, he added.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 01/04/2010 at 06:02 AM   
Filed Under: • Archeology / Anthropology • History • UK •  
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   Sunday - January 03, 2010

impress the ladies

Other than chocolate, nothing seems to excite the female sense of epicurean adventure more than cheesecake. It’s some kind of forbidden pleasure that they will go out of their way to find. It’s not enough to always have some on hand. Any cheesecake will not do. You need to have good cheesecake. Great cheesecake. And they’re damned expensive. But why buy when you can build? The things are bloody easy to make. And a man who is dependable, skilled and inventive in the kitchen ... may not always wind up doing the dishes alone.



Stuff you will need:

• Teakettle full of boiling water
• really big ass frying pan, like the one you can do up 8 pieces of fried chicken in. Figure 12-14” across and almost 3” tall
• large mixing bowl
• electric mixer with clean beaters
• a baking spatula. Those silicon ones are great
• aluminum foil
• 9” non-stick spring form pan
• a lemon zester, aka your wood rasp

The non-stick spring form pan is about $8-12. You can get one at Walmart. Or at Amazon. You won’t use it for much other than making cheesecake. Yeah, so?


The recipe:
a generous 1 1/3 cups of cane sugar
4 large or extra large fresh eggs
a generous 1/4 cup of sour cream (about all the sour cream you can splotz onto a tablespoon)
4 8oz packs of cream cheese. Get the Philly brand. Do NOT cheap out with the store brand
1/3 cup fresh heavy cream
2 teaspoons of quality vanilla. Double strength Bourbon vanilla is the total shizz
a fresh lemon, washed and dried, stickers removed
1 or 2 pre-made graham cracker crusts, or a box of graham crackers for the adventurous
a partial stick of butter straight from the fridge



Part 1:
Set the oven to 325°F and put the giant frying pan in the oven to warm up.
Put the spring form pan together. The base fits in the little groove in the ring, and the ring tightens down like one of those old lever oil filter wrenches with a snap shackle.
Scrub the inside of the pan with the stick of butter. You don’t want any large glommy bits, but you want to give it all a good covering.
Take 3 lengths of tinfoil off the roll, and wrap the bottom of the spring form pan. Each length goes on at a 60° angle to the previous piece. Scrunch the top of the foil around the top of the pan, but not down into the pan. Scruch the foil fairly tight against the sides of the pan. You do this because all the spring form pans are advertised as water proof, and none of them actually are.
Remove the plastic lid from one pre-made crust, and bend the tinfoil edges back. With one smooth motion, invert it into the buttered spring form pan. Remove the tinfoil. The crust will break, but you now have a nice even layer of crumbs on the bottom of the pan. If you bought the 2nd crust, break bits off and stick them in the butter on the sides. If you’re advanced enough to make your own graham cracker crust from scratch, you don’t need me to tell you what to do. Just don’t over do it with the crumbs. A little 1/8” layer is fine.
Set the pan aside.


Part 2:
Open up all 4 packs of cream cheese and drop them in the big mixing bowl. Go at them for a minute or two with the mixer. Cream cheese is pretty solid stuff, so use a higher speed than necessary. All this step does is further soften it up.

Measure out your sugar and pour half of it in. Start mixing. After half a minute you will notice that all the cream cheese has climbed right up the beaters and the side of the bowl. Stop the mixer, and use the spatula to push everything off and back down. Mix again. Repeat as needed for about a minute. Add the rest of the sugar and mix some more. Suddenly it will smooth out. Stop mixing.

Crack in an egg. Avoid getting any shell in the bowl. Mix it in for 15 seconds. Add another egg. Mix. Add another egg. Mix.

Pour in the heavy cream. Drop in the sour cream. You used the good brand of sour cream, right? The real stuff, not the low-fat plastic crap that was on sale? Good. Splash in the vanilla. If you use a bit much, that’s fine. The above recipe already calls for double the original amount, but it’s almost impossible to have too much vanilla. Don’t test that theory here. Try and keep it to 2 tsp or less. Mix things up again. Vanilla smells like angel sex, but tastes like crap. And it’s 96% straight grain alcohol.

Take the lemon and add 1-2 teaspoons of zest. Zest? WTF is “zest”? It’s lemon rind. How do you get it? Take your wood rasp to the lemon. Seriously. No, not the Stanley Surform. This thing. It’s a wood rasp, but it’s also the world’s most kick ass zester. And cheese grater. And ice sculpture tool. If yours actually lives in your toolbox, make sure to wash it first when nobody is looking. Hold it over the bowl and scrape off the outer rind of about 1/2 the lemon. Maybe 2/3 if it’s a small one. Don’t plane the lemon down so far you hit the insides. Mix the zest in.

You now actually have a bowl full of custard. So mix it thoroughly at the highest possible speed for another minute to get it as smooth as you can. Try not to splatter the stuff onto every last square inch of the kitchen. Remember that spatula? Sure comes in handy, don’t it?

Pour the mix into the spring form pan. Move it around, like your laying out paint into the roller tray. Unless you have an assistant with you, you’ll have to figure out how to hold the bowl over the pan and use the spatula to scrape out the bowl.

Ok, that’s about it. The water should be boiling, the oven is up to temp, the pan is ready, and so is the mix. Let’s do it.

Part 3:
Open the oven. Slide out the rack with the frying pan on it. Put the spring form pan in the frying pan, but off to one side. Gently pour the boiling water into the frying pan - this is the important bit! - while not pouring any water into the spring form pan that’s full of batter. Fill the frying pan up with water until it’s the same level as the batter in the spring form pan. Now center the pan. Smoothly slide the rack back in, close the door. Set a timer for 70 minutes. ( the original recipe calls for 55-60, but if you were extra generous with the heavy cream and the sour cream it will need a bit of extra time) Check the cheesecake at 50 minutes. It should be pale and watery looking. Check it again at 55 and 60 minutes. Is it done? At 70-80 minutes it will be slightly brown in spots on top, and most of the water will be boiled off. Some people prefer theirs less done than this. Does it look set? Not hard set like yesterday’s concrete, but set as in “solid but still jiggly, like Jello or thereabouts when you smack it lightly”. If it isn’t, cook it for another 10 minutes. When set, turn off the oven and prop the door slightly open with a spoon or something. Leave it to slowly cool off in the oven for another hour. Then take the whole thing out of the oven, take the ring form pan out of the frying pan, peel off the tinfoil, and leave it on top of the oven for another hour. Ok, fine, if you’re Mr. Fancy and have actual cooling racks, use them. Just leave the cake in the spring form pan. When it’s cool, cover it with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge on the middle shelf. Come back tomorrow and it will be ready to eat. At that point you can slide a thin plastic knife around the perimeter and unlatch the ring and remove it. It’s ready to go.

Fancy folks, or those really looking to impress, can top one of these with fresh fruit. A nice mix of hulled and sugared strawberry halves, some blueberries, maybe some raspberries if you can find them. Lay them out in a nice design, gently pressed into the top of the cheesecake. If you’re using sugared strawberries, give them at least 2 hours to sweeten up first.  You don’t have to top the whole damn cheesecake with fruit. Just make sure you don’t use the nasty bruised berries. Pick the good ones, and give them a rinse in cold water, then dry on paper towels.

And it comes out grand, every time! Now that you’ve made this great hulking thing, she’ll want the narrowest possible slice, as if you can carve cheesecake like proscuitto. But she’ll want another slice probably. And several much larger slices to take to her girlfriends at the office. Who will be ever so envious. And you will get a big gold star. Or something equally desirable.

Being an old married guy, I would never think of telling you single dudes what to do. But ... if you have her over for dinner, make the cheesecake together before the meal. It only takes 20 minutes. Have a couple aprons ready, and everything cleaned and dried and organized ahead of time, and the cream cheese out of the fridge for an hour beforehand. It will be her job to wield the spatula the 3 or 4 times it’s needed, and to taste the custard to see if it needs a little more sour cream or lemon. You do everything else. While it bakes, serve dinner. While it cools, serve dessert. Your entire house will smell like cheesecake baking. This is a GOOD THING. Don’t waste the moment. And yes, on the weekends, it’s perfectly fine to have cheesecake for dessert after breakfast. They do need to mature overnight for the best flavor you know. Gold star, indeed!

Posted by Drew458     on 01/03/2010 at 09:44 PM   
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining •  
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SCHOOL DAZE, SCHOOL DAZE, GOOD OLDE FASHIONED SCHOOL DAYS GONE FOREVER.

But all is not lost.  Just ask elf ‘n’ safety.

I wanna write hundreds of words on this but I can’t think of one outside of ... HUH? Gee, in our day 100 yrs ago a sand box was fun. Now it could be a danger. And sadly, it really could be considering the times and the kind of ppl roaming about who shouldn’t be. Jeesh.

Health and safety rules to guard pupils against dangers of singing and spicy food
Schools are being warned to follow new health and safety rules designed to protect pupils from musical instruments, singing with a dry mouth, spicy food, a helicopter landing in the playing field and other bizarre hazards.

By Julie Henry, Education Correspondent

The guidelines produced by councils highlight a whole range of unlikely threats to be guarded against.
Headteachers are told to carry out “risk assessments” for scenarios ranging from a pupil injuring himself with a musical instrument, to a helicopter landing on school grounds.

Policies are having to be drawn up to meet health and safety diktats which are unnecessary, state the obvious or relate to incidents that are never likely to happen, according to headteachers.

One council has produced more than 70 risk assessment forms for schools, one of which focuses on “voice care” for teachers. It lists “hazards” including “throat clearing, failing to lubricate the mouth, singing in too high or too deep a tone, using a forced whisper or talking too quickly”.
It even advises against “hot spicy foods, very hot drinks and breathing continually through the mouth”, which it says can “have an adverse effect on the voice”.

Another authority has a 35-page health and safety code for primary schools which points out that hemlock and deadly nightshade plants should not be grown by children.
Headteachers said last night that the health and safety culture had gone too far.

“Schools used to feel under pressure to have a policy for everything that moves, now they have to have a policy for everything that might move and even for things which don’t,” said Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers. “This guidance is produced by local authorities in the guise of being helpful but it is all about the transfer of responsibility.
“Schools do have to keep sites safe but this deluge of paperwork goes beyond that. It’s just too much information. These things need to be nailed down to sensible risk assessments. Time shouldn’t be wasted producing a policy on everything.”

Local authorities say the risk assessment guidance is sent to schools to in a bid to keep staff and pupils safe, as well as to protect officials from being sued if accidents occur.

FOR MORE ON THIS SUBJECT CLICK HERE

Posted by peiper     on 01/03/2010 at 01:05 PM   
Filed Under: • Education • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • UK •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

ANOTHER WORD BANNED?  YUP.  “ MOTORIST “ TO BITE THE DUST.  HEY, I JUST PASS THIS STUFF ON.

I’d bet money that not one single person at this site is surprised in any way.  And that fact alone says how bad things have become.  Surely there should be some things we can look at and be surprised by.  But these days?  Now if this isn’t stupid and made up by folks with nothing to do, I don’t know what else is.
And they get paid!  These loooney tunes get a salary.  Or the quango that dreams it up.  Was a time ppl like this would be tossed out on,, wait. No. Was a time they’d have never thought of it and if they did they’d be laughed at. 

There might be a few things here that make sense, but overall? Don’t think so.

Highways Agency staff told not to use word ‘motorists’

Government officials have banned Highways Agency staff from using the word ‘motorist’, saying they should say ‘road user’ or ‘driver’ instead.
By Ben Leach
03 Jan 2010

The edict is included in a lengthy set of guidelines issued by the Agency, setting out what language its employees should and should not use. Other terms to be avoided include “winter maintenance”, “off-peak hours” and “the travelling public”.

The move has brought an angry response from motoring campaigners.

“We’ve had years of increases on fuel duty and policies that have worsened road travel for the majority of people because ministers are wedded to the idea that public transport is good, while most forms of private transport are bad.”

James May, the television presenter, called the guidance a “complete waste of time and money”.

“It’s pretty preposterous,” he said. “It’s not the Government’s job to tell their staff how to speak. They should tell them not to be racist or not to incite murder, but not the correct word for someone who happens to be in a car. For God’s sake, we’re all grown-ups.

“The word ‘motorists’ covers people driving cars very well. Admittedly it doesn’t cover people on bicycles but then we have the word ‘cyclists’ for that, and ‘pedestrians’ for people who are walking.

“They’re very useful words with very definite meanings that have been worked out over many centuries so I’m quite happy to stick with them. With the weather we’ve been having they should spend the money on some more salt.”

Asked to justify the ban on “motorists”, a spokeswoman for the Department for Transport said: “The dictionary definition of a motorist is a car driver. As an agency we target all road users, including those in vans, buses and on motorcycles, not just those that travel in cares. The word ‘driver’ is a more inclusive term.”

The Highways Agency lexicon, released by the Department for Transport in response to a Freedom of Information request, also suggests that staff required to write about roadworks should avoid the word “works” as a general term and instead “describe what is happening so the reader can visualise it”.

Under a section entitled “Words and phrases to avoid” the guidelines state: “Don’t slip into jargon by thinking that’s how it ‘ought to’ be said. We are trying to get away from agency speak. Think of our customers out there on the network.

“Above all, if a word or phrase doesn’t make sense, or if it seems wrong, then don’t ignore it. Question it.”

The five-page note to Highways Agency staff advises that the phrase “winter maintenance” should be replace with “agency winter services”, “off-peak hours” with “outside of peak hours” and “the travelling public” with “road users”.

“Speed up” should be dropped in favour of “accelerate” and “manned” in favour of “staffed”.

The rule book also advises staff to avoid using “access” (to be replaced by “travel to"), “carriageway” ("lanes"), “improving congestion” ("reducing congestion") and “improve safety” ("make the route safer").

It also includes sections entitled: “How do we sound human?”, “How do we sound helpful?” and “How do we sound active?”

Guidance in the first section includes: “Empathise with your reader. Acknowledge their feelings and show we have them too,” “Include references to our concern for the environment where appropriate,” and “Choose active verbs to make us sound involved. Passive words can make us seem more distant.”

Meanwhile, staff at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) have been told not to use the word “unfortunately” along with the phrases “I’m afraid ...”, “not possible” and “I can’t”.

Other words and phrases to be avoided include “no problem”, “yeah”, “bear with me”, “What’s your problem?” “I will pop you on hold”, “maybe”, “probably” and “basically”.
SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 01/03/2010 at 12:49 PM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Daily Life • Stoopid-People • UK • work and the workplace •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

WEDNESDAY , JANUARY 3, 1940.  LITTLE FINLAND AT WAR, NO PUSHOVER AS SOVIETS LEARN

This war started about 1934 between the Russians and Finland.  PROUD little Finland who before they were forced by numbers and I forget what else to conceed the field, gave the Soviets a very bloody nose.
How damn depressing and sad then to know that today, after all they fought for, they’ve become as PC as the rest of Europe.  God that thought is depressing.
Talk about a band of brothers. well we weren’t were we? I just brought it up.
That’s cos the Telegraph has been charting the course of the Second World War day by day in these little boxed blurbs. You can go to their site for lots more on the subject.  But this caught my eye. And so I share as usual, my interests with you.

I hope that shows up readable on your screens. If it doesn’t, here’s what it says.

The Daily Telegraph is able to publish today the first detailed account which has yet appeared of the great Russian rout on Finlands eastern front.

In a graphic message from the scene of the fighting, our special correspondent describes below how a Soviet division of about 18,000 men, including picked shock troops, was virtually annihilated by a small Finnish force.
Many of them were trapped on a narrow peninsula at Lake Tolva and were tricked into fighting with each other, following a brilliant pincer movement by the Finns.

The engagement lasted ten days, from Dec 13 to Dec 23, in temperatures ranging from 13 to 30 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit.  When our correspondent visited the scene, the road was still littered with frozen Russian bodies and disabled tanks.

Yesterday the Russians, having reorganised their forces after repeated reverses, launched a further attack on the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus with 200,000 men.
Their onslaught was everywhere repulsed.

Britain at War
Telegraph.co.uk is publishing daily articles from the archive 70 years ago chronicling the build-up to the Second World War, as well as 10 features by leading historian Andrew Roberts, illustrated with video. Readers can share their recollections at the end of each article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/

Posted by peiper     on 01/03/2010 at 10:46 AM   
Filed Under: • History • UK •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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