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Comment Re:A first (Score 1) 750

I find it interesting that Bond never has gadgets left over. It must be a corollary to Chekov's Gun; "Any device or tool given to a character must be utilized or expended." I presume it's because the script writers end up painting themselves into corners frequently.

Writer 1: "So wait, he doesn't have a way out of the cell?"
Writer 2: "No, and the girl can't get him out because she's also locked up."
Writer 1: "OK, so go back to page 3 and have Q give him a tooth bomb..."

Comment Re:My First Rifle (Score 1) 750

Yes, the "My First Rifle" as you say is a real firearm and everything. As a result, it is subject to all the laws, rules, and regulations as all other firearms are - e.g. only adults (18+ years of age for rifles) can legally purchase and own one. This unfortunate accident is entirely the parent's fault. We even have criminal charges for these kind of accidents so they carry the weight of legal repercussions; criminal negligence and negligent homicide.

Comment Re:A Better Idea (Score 1) 750

If I still had the points from earlier this morning, I would mod you up.
Education on firearms safety is an extremely valuable subject. Teach them that they are dangerous, not toys, and definitely not OK unless they are under responsible adult supervision. If I take my kids to the range to fire a few rounds, they're not going to be curious about what it does - because they KNOW. It destroys things. I remember shooting jugs of water as a kid with my dad; it makes an impression.

This very mentality is why - despite my strongly conservative upbringing - I have no qualms about the importance of proper sexual education as well. I have multiple children and at some point they are going to find out about all of that. I refuse to lie to them and would rather they gain that knowledge from a trusted and knowledgeable source. Of course, tact is required in responding in an appropriate way to their questions at their current age - but that's all parenthood is anyway.

Note of course that I'm responsible for my children, not the government.

Comment Re:What the US gets we all get (Score 1) 318

It's even further a problem for the import/export market than just sourcing. Other countries will demand unique products to ensure that their big brother friend the USA can't spy on them freely - while probably requesting permission to do just that as well to their own people. Now you have a breakdown where markets are fractured and nobody will want the "USA-compliant model", costs rise and thus so do prices, and in the end no problems get solved because all the truly dangerous ones are so paranoid anyway that they're not going to trust our current options much less something that they know is rigged.

Comment Re:The reason they vote that way is... (Score 1) 578

I think the AC is right. If 3D printers were as ubiquitous as the PC has become, opinions would be different.

I could see my wife doing 3D printing if it were made easy enough to just do. That dress that never hangs in her closet right because there's never a properly sized hanger that can hold it in the right places? No problem, make a new hanger in a unique style just for that dress - more likely she would sketch out an idea and ask me to do it but the concept remains. 3D printing is a useful technology.

Comment Re:Well... (Score 2) 578

Yes, unfortunately the summary is not very clear about this; a percentage said that "yes we should be able to have 3D printers" and of that group they asked the relevant question about firearms. So not even the full 1,003 got to answer that question at all. It is indeed a shame though that there's a percentage that doesn't believe in the enabling power of technology. Basement/garage inventors are a cornerstone of innovation - people that haven't been told what "can't be done".

Comment Check out Stencyl (Score 1) 185

You should really check out Stencyl (www.stencyl.com). It sounds like it fits your needs perfectly.

It uses a visual programming language that is based on Scratch (although not one-for-one). It's gained some attention from educators and has been used by all age ranges (and commercial developers as well). Better yet, you can use it completely for free (if you don't mind a preloader splash screen) to export to Flash - which means easy sharing and playing of the games over the internet. If you want, subscriptions would increase your publishing options as well.

Best of all, to meet your language request, not only are Danish and Dutch translations started (along with, currently, 26 other languages) - you would have the ability to contribute to them yourself to complete the translation. A crowd-sourced translation effort was very recently started (www.stencyl.com/translate) which already has two completed translations and several others nearing completion. Any user can submit translations and assist with this with no special privileges or permissions required.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am on the forums (as just "Hectate") as a "Master Stencyler" where I have access to the full version of the program due to my extensive support of the community. The role is purely voluntary and I receive no monetary compensation.
Given that it's free, I would really recommend at least checking it out. Please send me a PM (here or there) if you have any questions. Good luck to you!

Comment Not Money != Best Form Of Money (Score 3, Interesting) 692

I'm sure the storm above this post has already pointed this out, but just because something is not the best form of it's kind does not automatically mean that it is not of that kind.

Gold, while extremely useful in many ways, is less useful for everyday transactions than our fiat dollar. That doesn't make it any less of a monetary base though for transactions. Bitcoin is no different.

Some people really can't get over the hump of intangible objects. You'd think with thousands of years of intangible religious experience behind humanity that virtual property wouldn't be that much harder either...

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