Sometimes you read something that - to be perfectly honest - leaves you feeling hopeless and doomed. Something so depressing it makes you want to throw up your hands, shout "to hell with it all!" and head straight to the nearest bar. Something like this, from the LA Times.
 
The latest figures from Nielsen have children's TV usage at an eight-year high. Children's health advocates warn of adverse effects.
 
More than an entire day -- that's how long children sit in front of the television in an average week, according to new findings released Monday by Nielsen.

"They're using all the technology available in their households," said Patricia McDonough, Nielsen's senior vice president of insights, analysis and policy. "They're using the DVD, they're on the Internet. They're not giving up any media -- they're just picking up more."
 
While this has obvious implications for the future of hunting and fishing, it also goes beyond that and straight to the core of our fundamental appreciation for nature itself. No one is born a hunter, an angler or a hiker. We all start life as a blank slate and what gets etched on that slate in our early childhood shapes who we will eventually become. You, I and everyone else who enjoys the outdoors, be they a hunter, an angler, a hiker, a birder or whatever, didn't get that way by mainlining 32 hours of high-definition methadone: we got that way by crawling around in the dirt catching bugs, climbing trees, building forts in the back yard and stomping around in creeks. You know, being kids. That childlike wonder, the curiosity, imagination and self-guided exploration of your surroundings. That's the base from which everything else rises. Lose that - as we most assuredly are - and you've lost an entire generation of children. And for what? So they can grow up to be the same mindless, self-absorbed zombie consumers their parents obviously are?
 
Seriously, anyone who lets their small child watch 32 hours of television, video games and Internet a week should be smacked in the head with a rolled-up copy of Richard Louv's "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder."
 
American parents, WTF are you thinking? Put down your go*****ed cellphone, get your fat a***s off Facebook, turn off the TV and pay some attention to your kids. Take them outside, let them get dirty. Let them think and explore for themselves without the help of corporate-sponsored storyline.
 
Good gawd, didn't this used to be called common sense?

Criminal charges are often not filed hunting accidents, but what if the people involved were not so much hunting as poaching? Should that make a difference?

From The Oklahoman:

John A Morgan, 44, was shot and killed by Jack Zearley, 69, while they were hunting deer. . .

[Sheriff Israel] Beauchamp said while the Saturday shooting appears to have been accidental, the two Hartshorne men were hunting illegally when Zearley fired a high-powered rifle at a deer that was between the two men. The shot struck Morgan. . . .

Because the accident involved a high-powered rifle [during an archery- and muzzleloader-only season], the men weren’t wearing hunter orange safety clothing and neither man had a hunting license, the incident could result in criminal charges once the information is presented to the district attorney, he said.

Check out the full story and tell us your reaction.

From a company press release:

In support of the fight against breast cancer, GunBroker.com® is hosting a charity auction of . . . a pink AR-15 style DPMS Panther Lite rifle was donated by DPMS Panther Arms.

All funds from the auction will go to the Atlanta Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk, to be held Oct. 23-25.  The GunBroker.com Family Team will participate in the walk, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust.

Click here for details and to bid on the rifle.

Do you constantly fret over the adequacy of your gun collection? Are you worried there's a gaping hole in your hunting arsenal? Do you have guns for small game, upland birds, waterfowl, turkeys, predators, deer, elk, moose, bear, dangerous game, plains game, and pretty much anything else that walks, crawls or flies, but you still think there's something missing for the really, really big game?
 
Well, fret no more, because for the low starting bid of $19,950 you can complete your ultimate hunting battery with this, the Kongberg 90mm Harpoon Cannon, complete with everything you see here (crusty Norwegian whaler dudes sold separately).

 
Yes, that really is a genuine deck-mounted harpoon gun offered for sale on Gunbroker.com. And yes, if you really wanted it and had the coin to buy it and have it shipped to the states it could be yours. The question is, what the hell would you do with it? Is it the ultimate bowfishing rig? Could you bolt it to the bed of your truck to scare off annoying tailgaters? Lawn darts? Or is this the ultimate post-apocalyptic weapon for protecting your home?
 
What would you do with this thing? Click through this gallery of more photos of the harpoon gun for inspiration, then give us your best and most creative answer. Bonus points awarded for those that are written in a fake Norwegian accent, make some reference to Moby Dick, or include the term "thar she blows!"  
 
Unless I get lucky and draw for, say, a humpback tag, I believe I'd simply mount the thing in my front yard to deter vacuum cleaner salesmen.