Random Thoughts

Officer Loses Job Over Jail ‘Sex Show’
Philadelphia Officer To Be Fired Over Jail-Cell ‘Sex Show’
From CBS news:

PHILADELPHIA, Jun. 27, 2007
(AP) An officer who ordered two women to put on a “sex show” in a jail cell will be fired. Norberto Cappas, 32, was found guilty by a police tribunal of conduct unbecoming an officer and lying during a departmental investigation and will lose his job following a 30-day suspension, the department said Tuesday.

Internal Affairs investigators found that Cappas ordered the two women to kiss and touch each other and expose their breasts in September 2003. The two had been picked up on suspicion of drug possession, but they had no drugs and were not charged with a crime.

Cappas has denied wrongdoing and refused to talk to a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter seeking comment Tuesday.

The case sat idle for years until the Inquirer raised questions about it last year.

One of the women filed a civil lawsuit and was awarded $17,500. The city’s own lawyers concluded that she never should have been detained in the first place.

___

Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com

Think about how many people are not getting the medications that could make them better. All because of some greedy drug companies. This study may show some numbers, but it does show show how many people are not getting any medical care because of the costs associated with doctor’s visits, emergency room care, and drug costs. I know a lot of people that go untreated because of costs, and this tudy didn’t even look into that aspect of things.

Nonetheless it’s good to see some information being researched and reported.. heres the article from yahho news:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Pushing more of the cost of prescription drugs onto consumers causes patients to cut back, sometimes with adverse health consequences, according to a review of two decades worth of studies published on Tuesday.

Such devices as higher co-payments, monthly limits and benefit caps are “associated with lower rates of drug treatment, worse adherence among existing users, and more frequent discontinuation of therapy,” said the report from RAND, Santa Monica, California.

“For each 10 percent increase in cost sharing, prescription drug spending decreases by 2 percent to 6 percent, depending on class of drug and condition of the patient,” added the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

For some chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure, high cholesterol, diabetes, schizophrenia and perhaps asthma, higher cost sharing seems to result in increased use of medical services, such as visits to emergency rooms or hospitals, the report said.

The findings were based on a review of 132 studies done on the topic between 1985 and 2006.

“These findings make benefit design an important public health tool for improving population health. The challenge for public and private plans is to make patients more sensitive to the cost of treatment without encouraging them to forego cost-effective care,” the study concluded.

This woman apparently shot her husband in the head when he burglar alarm went off. the dangers of having a loaded pistol under the pillow, or under the pillow of the person laying next to you.

From CBS new web site:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla., Jun. 27, 2007
(AP) A woman held on a gun charge claims she accidentally shot her husband in the head after becoming startled when the couple’s burglar alarm activated, authorities said Wednesday.

April Moylan, 39, was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and ordered held Wednesday on $75,000 bond, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.

Prosecutors were not immediately seeking additional charges.

“The state attorney’s office continues to review the facts of the case, and that review is ongoing,” Sheriff Ken Mascara said Wednesday. “That means it is possible there could be additional charges in the future.”

It was not immediately clear if she had an attorney.

Michael Eugene Moylan, 45, initially told authorities he awoke early Tuesday morning with a severe headache. The couple went to a hospital where a bullet was discovered in the man’s head.

Investigators initially thought Moylan had been hit by a stray bullet, but later realized the couple’s story did not match up, Mascara said.

The couple finally told authorities that April Moylan sleeps with a loaded .32-caliber revolver under her pillow. They said that when the burglar alarm sounded at about 4 a.m. Tuesday, she grabbed the gun and it accidentally discharged, shooting her husband in the head just behind his ear.

Mascara said the couple told authorities they couldn’t simply call 911 because both are convicted felons and are not allowed to own a gun so they concocted the headache story.

April Moylan previously had been convicted of sale and delivery of cocaine in Palm Beach County, Mascara said. Her husband’s criminal record was not immediately available.

He was recovering Wednesday at a hospital. His wound was not considered life-threatening, the sheriff’s office said.

This may be a good idea, but I think it will be a long long time before robots are immune to malfunction, errors, and being hacked. This is pretty strange to see it being a reality today, when just a few years ago show like robocop and the terminator appeared to be far fetched science fiction.

From yahoo news / AP:

Taser, iRobot team up to arm robots

By MARK JEWELL, AP Business Writer Thu Jun 28, 11:04 PM ET

BOSTON - RoboCops and robot soldiers got a little closer to reality Thursday as a maker of floor-cleaning automatons teamed up with a stun-gun manufacturer to arm track-wheeled ‘bots for the police and the Pentagon.

By adding Tasers to robots it already makes for the military, iRobot Corp. says it hopes to give soldiers and law enforcement a defensive, non-lethal tool.

But some observers fear such developments could ultimately lead to robots capable of deciding on their own when to shoot and kill.

“It’s one more step in that direction,” said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, Va.-based military research organization.

“It is not the first step in that direction, but I think at some point toward the end of the next decade, you’re going to start seeing RoboCops, or a Terminator,” Pike said, referring to a pair of 1980s robot-themed sci-fi films. “We may see autonomous robots capable of inflicting lethal force.”

Jim Rymarcsuk, vice president for business development at Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot, said notions of armed robots acting on their own are far beyond what the company envisions for the partnership announced Thursday with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International Inc.

“Right now, we have no plans to take any robot with a lethal-weapon approach to the market,” Rymarcsuk said. “For this system, and all systems we have looked at, there is a human in the loop making the decisions. This in no way is giving the robot the capability to use force on its own.”

Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The companies said they have developed a model that will be demonstrated at a conference Taser is holding in Chicago on July 9-10. The model pairs iRobot’s existing PackBot Explorer with the Taser X26 in what iRobot calls “the first robot of its kind with an on-board, integrated Taser payload.”

There’s no word when the system will be offered for sale, or for how much.

The system isn’t entirely unprecedented. Foster-Miller Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based rival of iRobot, already offers a version of its track-wheeled Talon robot that can be fitted with a Taser with laser-dot aiming capability.

The Taser, used by thousands of law enforcement agencies, is an electric stun gun designed to help officers subdue violent suspects without nightsticks or guns.

However, some critics contend the weapon can be deadly, particularly on suspects who use drugs or suffer from heart problems. Taser International and police counter that no weapon is risk-free, and that Tasers actually save lives by helping officers avoid more dangerous weapons.

For iRobot, its Taser-equipped system will be the first robot capable of using force to disable a person, rather than a bomb. The 17-year-old company is best known for its mobile robots for the consumer market, including the disc-shaped, carpet cleaning Roomba.

But home robots account for only 60 percent of the company’s revenue. The rest comes from government and industrial customers, including the military and police.

Versions of iRobot’s PackBot have disarmed roadside bombs and searched caves and buildings in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some scout dangerous areas before soldiers or emergency responders go in.

With the Taser venture, iRobot “is testing a new market, and they’ve found a cheap way to do it,” said Alex Hamilton, an analyst with The Benchmark Co. “The PackBot works. You’ll need software to make it work with the Taser, but my guess is they will be able to achieve it.”

Pike at GlobalSecurity.org envisions police SWAT teams and prison guards using Taser-equipped robots to deal with hostage situations and unruly inmates. He also expects they could supplement — or even replace — human guards patrolling property.

“I could see rent-a-cop companies wanting to buy it, I can see corrections departments wanting to buy it, because it might be seen as a cost-effective alternative to having a human guard patrolling a perimeter,” Pike said.

Pike says Taser-equipped, remote-controlled robots are still a few steps away from becoming killing machines. If that happens, the development would run counter to a robots-should-not-harm-humans principle that classic science fiction author Isaac Asimov outlined in his 1950 anthology, “I, Robot” — the namesake of iRobot the company.

“For now, as soon as you let go of the joystick, the robot just sits there,” Pike said. “So questions of moral agency don’t arise — that is to say, whose finger is on the trigger. But a little further down the road, when these ground vehicles do achieve greater autonomy, the may be no human finger on the trigger.”

Haven’t checked to see how active it iss going to be a good resource, but the possibility is cool, so I am going to point out a new health community possible from usnews..