I love the Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis. They're one of the rare exceptions to the Rule of Two Kinds of Brewpubs: the kind with good beer and the kind with good food. They aren't 5-star on either front, but both their beer and their food are welcome after-work-happyhour or lunchtime fare. Then I got this tweet:

Rational folk not welcome at Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis. http://j.mp/cLRZQA

The event in question is for Sam Singleton: Atheist Evangelist.

Sam Singleton Atheist Evangelist likes to point out that “unlike you” he has a creator. That’s why he claims to identify with God. “We’re both totally made up,” he explains. Brother Sam, as his friends refer to him, considers himself inevitable. “Sooner or later somebody like me was bound to happen if families kept (messing) with their children’s heads. I’m surprised it took this long. You know what Hosea 8:7 says about reaping the whirlwind. Well, here we are.

They had apparently had an agreement for a time and date in the Town Hall back room that was later canceled by Town Hall. As a result, Sam sent out some vague information about Town Hall being anti-atheist/rationalist, but with no real information. I contacted a representative of Sam Singleton and received this response:

Thanks for your interest. Simply put, they made an agreement, reneged on it, and did so without going to the trouble of contacting this office for clarification as to nature of the event. The owner left a very long, rambling, unpleasant voice mail on my cell phone, making clear that we and ours are not welcome at the Town Hall Brewery, which now joins the growing list of venues that have first agreed to, then backed out of providing a place for Brother Sam and his fans too spend their hard earned money.

That irked me quite a bit to read. But I do still like Town Hall, so I had to give them an opportunity to respond. I called them, left a message and received a pretty prompt return phonecall. I won't quote the conversation because I wasn't recording it, but they basically told me that Town Hall would not have sponsored any religious or political event either, that they don't want to offend anyone, regardless of their beliefs, and that all they want to do is "brew beer and serve food." I can respect that as long as it's honest.

So, until Town Hall Brewery sponsors a political or religious event in their back room, I'll continue to let them brew beer and serve food to me.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I recently received my permit to carry a pistol in the state of MN, a permit that is accepted by many other states. During this fairly long process, I realized that this is not something within the reach of the average citizen.

In order to get a permit, Minnesota State Statute 624.714 requires that you take a class from a certified firearms training instructor. This class can cost anywhere from $75 to $150, depending on where you take the course and what services are offered with it. The class also includes a live-fire qualification test. For that test, you'll need a gun ($15 to rent), ammunition ($8-20), a target ($2), and a place to shoot ($15-30).

Once you have your certificatate you have to go, in person, to the sheriff's office in your county to present your application, certificate (and your own photocopy), and pay an application fee. The fee is typically $100 since the law states that is the maximum that a county may charge. The various sheriff's offices have different, restricted hours for accepting these permits that tend to be during business hours. For example, the Hennepin county sheriff will only accept applications between 8:30 AM and 3:30 PM (exactly) Monday through Friday. So you have to have the flexibility to take time off during the day. (This might actually be an advantage to the unemployed and people working low-wage, off-hours jobs.)

At this point, you get to wait up to 30 days for your permit to be mailed and delivered. This is effectively the same as the two-week waiting period for a permit to acquire a handgun. Once you receive your permit you're permitted to carry a pistol, rifle, or shotgun openly or concealed throughout the state of Minnesota. So, if you don't already own one, maybe it's time to buy a gun.

There are cheap guns out there, but you don't want to buy any of those because they might blow up and kill you or they might misfire or something else might happen that keeps you from protecting yourself with them. So you'll want to spend at least $300 for a gun, probably closer to $600 or $800 for something that's really worthwhile. Luckily, your permit to carry also counts as a permit to acquire, so you can just go into any gun shop and buy whatever you want, probably .45 caliber.

Now that you have a gun, there are things to think about when it comes to ammunition. You probably don't want to worry about hitting people behind your attacker…like your family and friends in the next room or that nice couple 18 blocks away, and you'll probably want to make sure that whoever you start shooting at goes down for the count, and you probably don't want to get sued by your attacker because of some crazy, unexpected problem with the bullets. This means buying ammunition other than full metal jacket (FMJ) and it means you need high-quality. You're looking for something that a. expands or breaks up on impact and b. does as much damage as possible, c. doesn't come out the other side of a target (person, chair, building, 2x4) in any condition to cause unplanned damage and d. is as reliable and consistent as possible. If you bought a .45 as your carry weapon, that means you're going to pay through the nose for FMJ, not to mention hollow-point. $30 for a box of 20 is not unlikely.

Putting a gun in your waistband is a bad idea. You don't want it to snag on something and shoot you in they whatever-it's-pointing-at and you don't want it to fall out while you're not looking...or while anyone else is looking for that matter. Like guns, cheap holsters are exactly that: cheap. Spend $50 at least for something that's shaped to your gun and fits you well.

Now that you have a gun and ammunition and a way to carry it, you want to have experience with it. You'll want to go to the range every few weeks to make sure that using your gun is second nature to you. You want to be able to reload, clear jams and work the safety as easily as you breathe. So you'll need a lane and 50-100 rounds every time you go (not all of them have to be your carry ammunition, but some sure should be.) So expect to spend between $50 and $200 every few weeks.

And, if you ever do shoot someone, you'll want a lawyer on retainer so you don't have to spend too long in jail. That's going to cost you another $350, minimum.

What's that add up to? Around $1000 initial outlay and up to an additional $1000 per year every year you have a permit. In Minnesota, you have to renew every 5 years. That means taking the course over and paying another, smaller, permit fee. I don't know what the legal income requirements are for poor people carrying guns, but the practical, financial requirements seem pretty high.

Update: Some friends have pointed out that I missed a few things relating to the total cost of ownership of a gun. These were mostly on the issue of safety; things that I didn't think about because they were so obvious (to me).

If you have a gun in the house, it needs to be kept safe. Since guns are inherently dangerous objects, 'safe' has a pretty broad meaning. It should be kept where it cannot be stolen or picked up by children and in a way that it cannot be used if it is stolen or picked up by someone. If you are merely owning a gun, you can accomplish this with a fairly inexpensive safe or heavy lock-box. If you are carrying a gun, you will also need a way to lock it in your car and, most likely, near wherever you get dressed. A home safe could cost anywhere from $30 to several thousand dollars (if you have a lot of guns) and lock-boxes for the car and your closet will cost about the same.

Greg Laden also mentioned in his link to this article that I failed to mention liablility insurance. He makes a good point, and it's something that I hadn't even considered.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

On July 16, 1969, the first spacecraft to take humans to the moon launched from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot 'Buzz' Aldrin made history but camera E-8, pointing at the launch pad, made historical video of the event. This film was transferred from the original, 500fps, 16mm film by Spacecraft Films and artfully narrated by Mark Gray.

Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 from Mark Gray on Vimeo.

And, as an extra bonus, here's a quick video showing the 'reboot' of European airspace after the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull.

Airspace Rebooted from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

And don't forget to check out the photos of the volcano itself by Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

Here are some cool pieces of art around the web:

Kasy McMahon has found a great use for all those CAT 5 cables nobody needs now that we're all wireless. We are all wireless now, right? In her self-portrait "Connected," she implies that we're all more connected than we think.

From the same source comes "Pants Optional - A Relatively Civilized Fashion Primer for the Well Clad." I'm not sure that much explanation is necessary.

Not satisfied with just drinking coffee (maybe it's Starbucks?) these intrepid artists decided to draw the Mona Lisa using nothing but their imagination and cups of coffee and cream.

And last, but not least, DJ Rana Sobhany was able to fix herself up with an impressive, high-tech system for under $1300. She's got two iPads and a microphone?

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

You may not have realized it but I wasn't always as cool as I am now.

When I was a kid, I had a small group of friends who didn't always fit in with the rest of the school. We were the nerds. We used computers, played video games, and brought calculators to class. We owned digital watches and used email.

Today, not only does that describe pretty much every schoolkid, but it describes pretty much everybody, period.

Almost everything I did as a kid that got me labeled as a nerd is a common thing today. Everyone I know has a calculator in their pocket. Don't believe me? Check your cellphone. Do you know anyone without an email address? Anyone who doesn't use a computer at least once a day? Anyone who doesn't play video-games (yes, bejeweled counts.)

The big difference between us nerds and the rest of the technology users out there is that they think about the activity, while we also think about the tool. Did you buy the wrong phone or computer? You wouldn't have if you were one of us because LEDs, terrabytes, and capacitive touch-screens are always on our minds. Is facebook slow or is it your ISP? We already know (it's facebook.)

You are the consumers of the Internet and of gadgets and video games just like we are. We just happen to be the ones that make them work in the first place.

Now if I could just figure out why it was all the non-nerds who went into technology management...

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I'm all for the US having an advantage on the battlefield, but this technology has too many illegal (currently) civilian and police applications to make me really comfortable.

It definitely makes me want to harden my office against RF and EMP so that no broadcasts can get out.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I spent the better part of my day yesterday listening to well-paid people talk about effective leadership. There was some good information:

Management and leadership are different things. Management is concerned with keeping the trains running on time; Leadership is concerned with where the trains are going. I would add, though it was not mentioned, that people in management positions can be leaders and that people in leadership positions need to be able to manage. Their trains might have new destinations, but they have to be able to get to them in order to get to them on time.

To effectively lead people somewhere, they have to want to go there. The trick is identifying and explaining the problems with the current system so that people will see that it needs to change. How many leaders ignore this step? From what I've seen, most of them make changes without mentioning why they're doing it. The followers end up seeing the problem with the current system as 'it changes too often and never improves.'

There was also a lack of one critical piece of information:

Effective leadership is not always good leadership. I heard a lot of talk about how to get your way and about constantly evaluating if your way is the right way. I heard nothing about figuring out what your way is or why it's better (not just different) from the current way. It's one thing to keep checking the GPS to make sure you're heading toward your destination, it's another thing entirely to make sure you're heading in the right direction to begin with.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I've been looking forward to Apple's entry into the netbook market. They've said in the past that they'll enter the market if they can make a unique contribution to the field and I think the iPad pretty much fits the bill. If you haven't seen it yet, there's a video over at Apple's website. It's much more impressive than any words or simple pictures can describe. I have a few thoughts:

• The name is extremely unfortunate and spawned a slew of Max iPad and 'heavy flow...of data' jokes on twitter. Would iSlate or iTile or iThingy have been better? Probably not. Slate is already considered a form-factor, so they'd lose brand recognition with that.
• The screen feels like the wrong shape to me. I'm a photographer and 35mm (2x3) is what feels right to me. Widescreens are too wide and 4x3 just reminds me of outdated technology.
• The bezel is super wide. It reminds me of netbooks where they skimped on screen size but couldn't fit the innards into a matching package. This could be for technical reasons though; maybe it was too hard to hold if the screen went all the way to the edge.
• It's basically a giant iPod Touch. This isn't exactly a bad thing, but I already have an iPod touch. Actually...it's really not a bad thing and it's a big improvement on the iPod. The interface is amazing, and it runs smooth as butter...but I already have an iPod touch.
• It would be great for taking notes in meetings. My laptop gets way too embedded on my desk with peripherals and extra monitors to unplug and take to meetings for notes; an iPad would be perfect.
• It would make a great monitor for a tethered photoshoot. I can already shoot tethered with my laptop but the iPad is really sleek, so it would look great sitting on its stand so my client could see exactly what I shot. It would also be doing only and exactly what it needed to do; a laptop is overkill.
• $500 is not a bad price, but a little higher than I'd want to go for a 16GB device right now. I can fill 16GB with photos very, very quickly.
• I want one.

That's more or less what I was thinking during the keynote.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I'm not one to keep a large number of coins in my pocket so that I can have exact change when I buy something. In fact, I like to have empty pockets whenever I can. This is, oddly, not in conflict with my desire to see the $1 bill be completely replaced by the $1 coin. I'll have to consider why that is at some other time.

For more years than I can count, I've been emptying my pockets of change every day and putting the coins into a quart jar that sits in my bedroom. I remember my father used to do the same thing; I don't know if that's related. At some point, I decided to save this change to spend on things that I wanted to buy but didn't have the money for. It started with camera gear and, when I started to buy that gear out of the business fund, it moved on to whatever about $100 can buy me.

It's worked out well and I get a nice bonus every once in a while, but recently I realized that it has a fatal flaw. This method of "saving" money actually encourrages me to make cash purchases. Cash purchases are impossible to track from a budgeting standpoint and even if you track cash as a budget item, saving the change like this still means that spending more now means getting more later.

In November, I pretty much stopped spending cash and at the same time, my change jar pretty much stopped growing. Actually saving money meant not "saving" any money.

I still have the jar. I'll still put my change into it every day. I still won't really think about it until I need quarters for parking meters or I take it to the bank to cash it out. But I'm going to think more about actually saving money and knowing where my money is going.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

This weekend, we're treating two teenaged girls who have never seen the original Star Wars to a screening of the original Star Wars. Coincidentally, Gizmodo reminded me of these Star Wars / Television mashups.

The A Team:

MacGyver:

Han Solo, P.I:

Bonus Magnum P.I. Side-by-side:

Have fun with that.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble