1. Dash cams are fixed and (usually) only see what is happening in front of the police car, which is normally on a public right-of-way and therefore where the public could also observe and record*. What happens elsewhere, like when an officer goes inside a private residence, isn't captured by dash cams. A body cam on the other hand would frequently be recording events that are not occurring where the public can see, and this is a significant difference for accountability.
This is the aspect that worries me. Privacy goes out the window with body cams. Anyone close to the "suspect" can get caught up in the same video, whether they have anything to do with it or not. As the parent points out, dash cams are used in public places; but body cams would be able to go into private places.
We know how well governmental bodies do with protecting private data (that is to say: poorly); imagine someone stealing a video about a controversial event, and there's your face in the video. You can get implicated by association, even though you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do you think your boss would be happy? Or your spouse?
This is even worse if you are a public person, where there would be even more of an incentive to steal the videos.
Two Rivers Fisheries is already doing this - they fish for Asian Carp, and sell it overseas.
Actually my granddaughter loves legos, and includes things she builds out of legos in her plays. But legos can be clunky and time consuming to put together (especially if you are trying to follow a complicated layout).
I think she would prefer to build it virtually first, and hit a key and have what she built come out.
You are right however - I have no idea about the general public. I do think that if a kid is already into minecraft (and it is pretty popular among my granddaughter's friends), they would be a good candidate for 3d printing from that kind of approach.
I think this is a key question for any 3d printer / software setup. Most of the posts on Slashdot seem to center around "designing something for real" (prototyping, replacing a part, etc.)
But I think a recreational version would take off if done right. For example, my 7 year old granddaughter loves minecraft, and spends hours building things there. I think she would love the ability to print out stuff she has built there. She also likes to make her own videos. She will arrange her dollhouses and stuff animals and make up a story involving them, and record it. I think she would love the ability to design her own dollhouses, sets, etc.
For her, a minecraft approach of dropping and destroying pre-made blocks, etc., would work very well. Especially if she can paint and color her model of whatever after it is printed. She won't care about the exact dimensions, etc., as long as it fits together. Let the software handle that.
So the problem becomes, I think, "know the audience" and design appropriately for that audience.
... I am sick and tired of the overreaction to these random events whether it be aircraft crashing into a building, a workplace shooting, a bomb detonation at a public event, etc...
Yeah, me too. To tell the honest truth, when I heard about the shooting at the LA airport my thought was "Oh, this is California, where they shoot at each other on the highway. Sounds like one of those people made it into the airport". While that was probably unjust (sorry, California), the point remains. We have plenty of nuts in America that will do stupid things. Let's not overreact and swat a fly with a Buick, so to speak.
... I do not feel safe with roaming machine-gun-toting police officers or military in any venue
Me either, but that's a little extreme. I'm perfectly fine with armed police officers doing crowd control at events, etc. I guess it's a matter of degree of arming for me. When police officers, etc. start carrying RPGs or the like, that's when I start staying home
Lethal injection is not humane
I don't think it's silly at all that the EU does this
On the "humane" aspect, I have been under anesthesia for surgery. I can testify I knew nothing, I felt nothing. If it's a question of administrating it properly, hire a anesthesiologist for the job, instead of ol' Tom down in the prison pharmacy.
To clarify my "silliness" comment, I am not mocking the EU for wanting to not have the death penalty. I have mixed feelings about the death penalty in general - some days I'm for it, some days I'm against it.
I was just commenting on the EU expecting it to matter by passing a magic law that will have no result whatsoever. I just find "make me feel good but do nothing practical" laws in general to be silly.
No. Europe's position is a longstanding one. And as the EU is a larger market than the US, an EU law forbidding a drug company to help with capital punishment carries weight.
In theory, I suppose. To me, this is just more legislative silliness. How are they really going to affect anything? There are still guns/ropes/gas chambers/rabid weasels/etc. The only thing this silliness can do it prevent using a more humane method over possibly a less humane one.
If all else fails, lower your standards.
