Gizmodo had a story up today about a woman who got a $1 million bid on her late husband’s Transformers collection. Follow the link and check out the photos - it is a truly impressive cache of vintage Transformer goodness.

What struck me, however, was the mention that this woman could not legally sell the original Megatron as it resembled a Walther P38 and lacked the blaze-orange barrel tip. As a result, she is “giving” those items away with the auction.

Surely it can’t be illegal to sell vintage goods that bear a mild resemblance to a pistol? That can’t be right. Turns out though that it is. You pretty much have to read the entire chapter 76 of 15 USC to understand it, so go check that out.

If the toy gun is a replica of a firearm manufactured after 1898, it must have the orange tip. If it doesn’t, it can’t be sold after November 5, 1988 (reselling the item, even if it was manufactured before that cutoff, qualifies as “entering commerce”). It’s worth noting that this version of the restrictions implies that toys whose manufacture and initial sale predate May 5, 1989 are exempt from the requirement in perpetuity.

Interesting, then, that there are no restrictions for selling real firearms in a private sale beyond believing that the buyer is 18 or older and that the buyer claims to have no legal restrictions regarding the purchase and ownership of said firearms (eg, no prior felonies).

Let’s recap: toy gun from early 80’s that turns into robot - possibly illegal to sell to anyone; real gun from any year that can put a hole in a target at 300 yards - legal to sell to nearly anyone.

I’ve been puzzling this out a bit and here’s the only conclusion I have reached: the sale of real guns is acceptable because at least then police will know it’s a real gun and can shoot at will. The sale of unmarked toy guns is unacceptable because then police will have to think twice about shooting and that would be awful. As long as only real guns are in the hands of the public, we’ll know exactly who to shoot.

Assuming gun owners don’t paint their firearms orange. Oops.

One of the things I did once I got back into biking was look into local resources for cycling. The big kahuna group was easily the Centre Region Bicycle Coalition, so I joined their mailing list.

Before too long, I pissed off everybody in the group with my outsider perspective on an emotionally charged topic (the death of Bohdan Kulakowski and the resulting light sentence of his killer), but I stayed in there and defended my position. Eventually, things quieted down.

Then, this week, one of the group posted a note about a citybike program in Tulsa and how it was the first in the US. Well, it sounded a lot like the Yellow Bike programs, so I responded with that info along with info about a “green bikes” program in Oregon and the Free Wheelin’ program in Annapolis, MD. What followed was a response from this person basically calling me out for having not gotten the point and providing bulleted lists of why the Yellow Bikes programs are nothing like the European citybike programs, on which the Tulsa initiative is based. Ah, okay, sorry for not keeping up on European urban bicycling programs. How lax of me.

Of course, it’s tough to read intent and tone in any electronic message, but I’ve decided that I’m having too much fun actually riding bikes to want to deal with folks who are militant about them. It’s a real shame, too, because I would like to think that there are other casual riders out there like me who could really benefit from access to a centralized resource of information but who might also be scared away by the prevalent attitudes among individuals in the community.

Bike-in Movie night, while more relaxed, still carried with it a social message of the world’s reliance upon oil and how it drives men to madness (hence the movie choice of The Road Warrior). I just thought it was cool to be parked in my trike at the top of a garage watching a movie and eating popcorn out of my panniers. I didn’t really go for social commentary.

So, I removed myself from the CRBC mailing list tonight. There’s enough strife in my everyday life that it makes little sense to have to worry about who I might set off next with a well intentioned though possibly naive submission to the list.

Certainly, I respect and support the CRBC’s mission to make Centre County a more bike-able place, but I just don’t have a skin thick enough to actually walk the walk and talk the talk among those folks.

I don’t want to join an army. I just want to ride my bike.

UPDATE: The discussion has now spread to other list members and has taken a more even tone.  Still quitting the list, though.

If you’re looking for a little regional mountain bike action but don’t feel like actually riding a bike, you’re in luck. The Wilderness 101 organizers are looking for a variety of volunteers for this year’s event. Here’s the info straight from them:

It’s that time again! The Wilderness 101 is creeping up on us and we are putting the call out for volunteers! This year the 101 will be held on Saturday, August 4th. Last year we had over 300 racers compete in this 101-mile course. Please check out www.mtntouring.com for race details.

We’re lucky to have the use of Coburn Park again this year for the start-finish and for weekend-long camping. As usual, we rely heavily on the volunteer effort to make this race happen! Every year the response is great and we couldn’t do it without you! The racers really appreciate everybody’s hard work and they ask us how we get so many nice people to come out and contribute their time and energy to make sure everybody makes it through the day safely and well-fed!

Volunteers are welcome to camp in beautiful Coburn Park on Friday and Saturday nights and to join us for a delicious post-race dinner (and beverages, of course). You will also receive a t-shirt. But most importantly, you’ll be helping put on this fantastic race for hundreds of appreciative cyclists.

This year, we’ll be having volunteer meetings ahead of time (one in Coburn and one in State College for those of you who won’t make it to the campsite). We’ll get your volunteer t-shirts to you ahead of time so that you can wear them on race day and be readily identifiable by the racers.

I’ve listed the different volunteer tasks below. Please take a look and let me know if you’ll be able to spend your day or weekend with us. You can reply to me at cathy@mountaintouring.com. Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Registration in Coburn (Friday, Aug.3rd, 5-11pm)
Aid Stations:
1. Penn Roosevelt (mile 20)
2. Whipple Dam (mile 40)
3. Greenwood Furnace (mile 60ish)
4. Stillhouse Hollow Rd/ Old 322, Milroy (mile 74)
5. Poe Paddy (mile 89)
Post-race dinner help at Coburn
Course Sweeping
Course Marshalls

So there you go. If any of those positions appeal to you, contact cathy@mountaintouring.com.

So the big ol’ PA budget was signed into law yesterday. Building on my earlier entry regarding Bush’s vow to veto increases to child welfare/medical insurance programs, here’s a portion of what just went into the new PA budget:

The $27.2 billion budget will boost spending by 3.2 percent and includes no increases of broad-based taxes or fees. Substantial increases are included for pre-kindergarten programs in public schools, laptop computers in high schools, day care for children of low-income families and home and community services for thousands of elderly and mentally and physically disabled people. (The total excludes about $300 million that is being diverted into a special fund. Adding that would push total spending to $27.5 billion - an increase of 4.4 percent.)

The fact sheet over at the PA Budget web site breaks things out a little bit more:

Cover All Kids – Second-year funding to provide access to affordable, comprehensive health care coverage for all uninsured children in Pennsylvania. Includes $99 million in state funds and $212.5 million in federal funds to provide access to affordable, comprehensive health care coverage for 75,000 children, an enrollment increase of 10 percent. Since Governor Rendell’s plan for universal health care for children was adopted last fall, 7,900 additional children have been signed up for health insurance.

Early Intervention – $292.8 million in state funds, an increase of $48.8 million or 20 percent, to serve 6,325 eligible at-risk infants, toddlers and children up to age five with developmental delays. Early intervention services minimize the need for special education and related services and assist families in meeting the special needs of their children.

Autism – $23 million in state and federal funds, an $18.2 million increase, for autism programs for adults, including prepaid inpatient health care, statewide training and technical assistance, information outreach, assessment procedures and program monitoring.

Note the $215.2 million coming from the federal government. That’s a majority chunk of the Cover All Kids initiative. Congress would like to increase that amount. Bush would like to dump it for tax incentives to prod families to buy their own health insurance. Reducing the allocation of state funds would have a negative impact on PA’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and leave some kids in the lurch.