Found: One Troll

Cephalopods know more than they’re letting on. (via Tam and Breda)

WANT

LEGO is doing some really cool stuff lately.

Lots of bloggers have favorite charities. In the gun blogosphere you’ll often see Soldier’s Angels or The NRA Foundation, which are both excellent programs. Right now, though, I’m going to plug my favorite charity: Child’s Play. Child’s Play was started in 2003 by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade fame.

Child’s Play assists Children’s Hospitals around the country by donating video games, movies, board games, books, and other forms of entertainment to help children keep their minds off the pain and loneliness of extended hospital treatment, similar to what Project Valour-IT does for wounded soldiers. Here’s how it works: each participating hospital sets up an Amazon.com wish list which anyone can use to purchase the items the hospital needs. This is, in my opinion, the one of the best things about the charity. With the Amazon wish lists, I know exactly where my donation is going, because I choose the hospital and buy the items with my own money, and then they get shipped directly to the folks in need. There’s no worry about how much of my donation is being spent on the children, because I decided how the money is spent. Genius! Better still, there are participating hospitals all over the US and Canada, so there’s probably one near you that you can help.

In addition to the wish lists, you can always donate cash at the main site, or at the Desert Bus For Hope fund drive, or if you’re in the Seattle area there’s a pretty sweet charity dinner and auction hosted at the same venue as PAX. All the cash collected (less 2-3% for administrative costs) goes straight into the hospitals.

Head over to the website. Check it out. I dare you to read the letters from grateful children and parents and not contribute.

I don’t think anyone can accuse Joe Huffman of a lack of thoroughness. RTWT, but the money quote for me is here:

Ultimately we want carry of all types completely legal and a non-issue in all jurisdictions. As long as it is done safely it should be a personal choice. I don’t know of any gun rights activists who disagrees with that goal. It’s simply a question of how or if we can get to that point.

We can attack the problem in a brute force manner or with a more sophisticated approach that arrives at the solution quicker and with less expenditure of resources. Let’s not be so stupid as to think the same solution is appropriate for every situation.

This is certainly true. I advocate open carry because I think it’s a good way to show folks that normal people carry guns. It can be a conversation starter. As Alan pointed out in Joe’s comments, it’s comfortable in the desert heat when covering clothes are not practical. If your state is at a point where it’s not even in the public mindset that normal people own guns, you might be skipping a step.

Probably some readers are aware of Australia’s idiotic video game censorship system. Unlike movies, which can be classified up to a level of R18+ (suitable for adults only), the video game classification system in Australia only scales up to M15+ (suitable for teenagers). My understanding is that altering this policy requires the unanimous consent of Australia’s various State Attorneys General.

The inevitable stuck pixel, in this case, is Attorney General Michael Atkinson of South Australia. AG Atkinson wrote a letter recently to Grow Up Australia (Via GamePolitics) explaining why he wouldn’t vote aye for an R18+ classification to be added to the system for games. It reads, in very small part: “I cannot fathom what State-enforced safeguards could exist to prevent R.18+ games being bought by households with children and how children can be stopped from using these games once the games are in the home. If adult gamers are so keen to have R.18+ games, I expect children would be just as keen.”

Well, Mr. Atkinson, that’s none of the State’s gorram business, is it? I can see how an official from a government with State-enforced firearm safety checks would think that censorship and “saving the children” is part of its mission, but you are wrong. Let me put it plainly: how your citizens choose to entertain themselves is none of your concern until they start hurting each other. Without mutual consent.

Kevin Baker wants to organize an Arizona blogshoot for next month in Casa Grande. It looks like Saturday the 12th may be the date. Whenever it is, I’ll be there. Spread the word, ‘Zonies.

Update: Blogshoot is on for the 12th.

To all of our veterans, and especially to Mom (USAF) and all of my friends currently serving.

I have returned from Detroit. NANOG was full of great networking stuff, I picked up a bunch of good security tricks. ARIN was boring as hell, it was all nerd politics. I had lunch with TD on Monday at Miller’s Bar, which serves very good burgers. I’d say the burger was right on par with the burgers over at the Heart Attack Grill, which serves the best burgers in Phoenix. In other news I just installed Windows 7, which upgraded my 64-bit Vista install with zero problems. I haven’t done any extensive testing, but so far, so good. Also, the topic of this week’s Vicious Circle is open carry. Hie the hence and listen.

I have arrived in Detroit for NANOG 47. This is the first event I’ve attended where there is an actual PGP key signing party. I think that makes this the nerdiest place I’ve been since college.