Ben Taylor @VoxDei@qoto.org

@cstross I saw this. I figured it might well have a beacon, but water blocks EM radiation very effectively, so if it's in a lake...

@freemo @sdgathman You two as gun lovers think open carry is reassuring. I as a person who doesn't interact with them much find someone carrying a gun intimidating. If I ask you why you are carrying one, you will say "For protection", or similar, but that reassurance from someone I don't know means nothing. Are you drunk? Are you a drug dealer? Are you psychotic? If I disagree with you? If I cut you off in the car? If I spill your beer or trip over your foot or turn out to think Trump is the antichrist? Safer simply not to interact with you, so I won't unless I have to.

@freemo A license requiring you know what you're doing and know how to be responsible in no way infringes on the right to bear arms.

@cstross @Menhit @feorag My pedantic brain's inevitable first response to this was "They have vegan cats?".

Sorry. Though I'd like to see what a vegan cat looks like. 😹

@garius Thief was awesome. Never played anything else like it.

@freemo Firstly, this is from last year, it's not new. Secondly, it's based on some bizarre legal theory, creating a legal principle that did not previously exist and does not make sense: specifically, that the state can pass gun control laws only if there is are "historical roots" for the law in question. So it's (again) the court making up the law it wants, rather than the law it's got.

Thirdly though, and most importantly, why is this a good thing? You're a gun nut, I get it, and that's fine - you're a responsible gun owner and all that.* But why does the fact that responsible owners are responsible mean that it's a good thing for everyone to be given a gun for the asking, even if there is no reason to believe they know what they're doing or will be responsible? We don't give cars to people who haven't demonstrated they can drive safely, for the good and sufficient reason that in incompetent hands they're lethal, and cars aren't even designed to be lethal weapons.

*Personally, I don't get why you would have a need to carry a gun in public, and open carry in particular is physically intimidating to others in the same way that walking around with a large and aggressive dog is. So I must say I think it's particularly anti-social. But that's not a safety issue, merely a courtesy one.

@kissane TVS (www.violetsector.com). It's a website for a browser-based game that runs for a couple of months at irregular intervals. Small community and devolves into argument and personal insults towards the end of every game (nature of the game always seems to result in sour grapes), but despite that the game and the community have been running for over twenty years while otherwise all remaining friends.

@lurk_morrison @dungeons Yup, I was going to say the same thing. Retire!

@garius I have no historian spidey senses, but that's quite a record. I'll bite, who was it?

@futurebird @drandrewv2