Random Crap Discussion

September 11 2001 is probably one of the few events in history where I know exactly where I was when I heard about it. Apart from the tragedy of the event, I've never been able to have a chat with a commercial pilot during flight since. Last time I requested cockpit access was 2005ish and it was granted on the condition that it would have to be well after the flight had landed, all passengers had departed the aircraft. Not the same as having a chin wag with the pilot/co-pilot during the flight.  I've lost so many tools travelling because of stupid airport security rules not allowing me to take things in my carry on, screwdriver handles which go with my bits that went through checked in nope, steel ball point pen or some screwdrivers, that's ok. I think one year, I accidently had my swiss army knife in my toiletries bag, I went through 2 international airports before one person flagged it and that happened to be some backwater strip in the middle of nowhere with 2 flights a day. Being so small, it allowed me to say oh ooops, can you check that in please.  but anyway.... 

Something changed in relation to international travelers between USA and Canada in 2016 I think which increased some of the checks that they did for determining eligibility of foreigners to receive an eTA on the spot. 

What I have learned is The Canadian border police have shared access with the US DHS data sources which are quite extensive. I believe they have access to other US law enforcement agencies databases too. There's not really a central agency in Australia which holds my records but there's Chinese walls between different agencies which hold different sets of information about me and Privacy laws make things difficult. Admittedly it's also difficult to understand exemptions in relation to the freedom of information act. Compiling a profile about me will take considerable time though. Pre screening in advance is how it would work for me. 

As an Australian I'm pretty sure I do need a passport to enter most other countries. I could probably technically arrive at most foreign destinations without one but would not be able to move through customs.   I shouldn't need a passport to enter my country where I hold citizenship but it's easier with a passport to confirm that.
The legality of exiting the country without one I'm unsure of.  I think it is illegal as you have mentioned for a US citizen to leave the US without a valid US passport even when entering a country like Canada which technically doesn't require one if certain other ID is available but there's probably some exemption relating to what used to be NAFTA. Trump worked with Ca and Mex and made some changes to that a year or so back I think.

Dual citizenship is weird.
My father recently flew out of Australia without a valid Australian Passport and he normally flies out on his Australian one but it had expired a week or so earlier and he hadn't realised he entered the UK and exited the UK on his British Passport which is pretty normal. I don't know what rules exist for the countries of the UK and moving between them, say between England, Ireland, Scotland, Channel Islands, Wales, Shetland islands. The old man would typically move between the Channel Islands and England to fly out again but having never taken a ride by water to any of them myself I don't know if it requires moving through customs. It probably does. 
 
Things got a bit interesting when he re-entered Australia and went through the Australian citizen's line at immigration and only had his British passport with him.  Apparently that doesn't happen very often and they were a bit unsure how to process him but eventually did after half an hour or so of scratching heads and checking with supervisors. No fines. Technically, i'm a 2nd class British citizen by Birthright but I don't own a UK passport. I could exit Australia but i'm not sure what would happen. 

Interesting story of a guy from UK who travelled around for a bit on an expired passport
 
I accept that it is a condition of entry that I provide security of my identity as a citizen of another country including sensitive information from a trustworthy source and it's the prerogative of the country where I'm asking permission to enter to refuse or allow access for whatever reasons they decide.   In Canadas case an eTA application or Visa would provide Canada with the necessary information for prescreening and determine my access eligibility. I daresay it would allow them to build a profile about me to be forever stored in a database where privacy of the information within  would not be covered by Australian Law and likely shared with US authorities,.

I accept that refusal for me to submit to the conditions of the screen would simply deny me access to country and rightly so. 

I am doubtful that the Australian state or federal governments have provided Canada with access to my records directly and have a direct ability to lookup my personal and sensitive information beyond what customs officials are permitted to or beyond what US have compiled which is essentially the limited information that is contained within my passport and through the Travel Visa Application.  

I accept that armed with the information provided by me that they could perform some kind of check with a relevant Australian agency, electronically or otherwise. Said check might be able to determine whether I have a criminal record or not, the nature of which if they needed to find out would, as I understand the privacy laws of this country require a bit of paperwork and a bit of time.   

To my knowledge I've never been fingerprinted by an authority although I have used some biometric fingerprint security devices but information about extensive information about me is not stored centrally as a single record.  I do not know if it is a requirement of the US or Canadian Authorities to have my biometrics on file before a Visa were to be issued if I were to travel to that region.

If I were to travel through the USA to Canada, some of my details would be available to them directly via US records  from the time that I arrived in the USA including possibly my drivers license details and any information recorded by my movement through the USA and whatever is recorded in relation to my USA travel VISA. 

I was just looking at the graphic DW shared about the various guns and rounds they have. I'm just wondering about this, but what would the purpose be for someone to have an AR-15 and also have so many rounds? 

It seems too powerful to hunt with and I would think there would be a better gun to choose for personal protection unless you're trying to defend yourself from a terrorist group or something. Lol. Personally, I can only see them being useful to military and police, but maybe there are other good uses for them that I don't know of. I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to own one. I just don't get why it would be necessary or what you would use it for. 

Ok, that makes sense. I'm guessing that people who would use this for home defense probably won't be keeping that much ammo in it, but they could with however much it is capable of holding. I didn't realize it could be used in hunting either.

I have a wooden Louisville slugger for defense which is probably not that great. Lol.

LT

Im quite fond of the Louisville Slugger myself, particularly in the absence of a firearm for self/home defense. Another thing that is unique to my line of work is a piece of wire. I used to have a 3ft piece of 250mcm copper in my truck. The approx weight of it is about 3-4 lbs. It’s far more dense that a baseball bat and is very likely to cause significant injury to whomever it comes in contact with.    It’s mean stuff 

www.wireandcableyourway.com/250-mcm-thhn-building-wire.html

I know my experience probably isn't normal, but none of my boys played any live games until they were in at least 8th grade, and then it was only my oldest with some guys on his swim team. My middle son didn't play XBOX live until he was a Sophomore (Madden) and I'm not sure my youngest even played live at all. He does like games like Portal, but isn't really in to games...he is on a couple Reddit forums where they discuss coding and computer languages.

I would say 9 years is still a little too young (just my opinion). Our oldest is 11 and I still wouldn't be comfortable allowing him to play online, but he is autistic and we're probably a little overprotective due to that. 
I don't think I'd be ok with it until he was at least 13, which is about in line with what snore said ( I had to Google what age 8th grade was  ).

If in doubt, follow the age rating of the particular game, if it's older than your child just be cautious with what you allow. 

I don't know if this is a piss take or not but baseballeagle.com/best-self-defense-bats/

Don't underestimate the effectiveness of a balanced club timed right and aimed at the right places. A baseball bat will take the fight out of most man sized or smaller animals trying to do you harm and it provides considerable reach advantage over teeth, claws, knife.