OMAHA, Neb. -- A gun in a high school student's pocket accidentally discharged during class Thursday, injuring the teen, police said. The 10th-grader at Northwest High School was not threatening anyone with the gun when it fired, police said. The 17-year-old's injuries, which were not life threatening, were in the thigh and finger. That's really too bad.
The boy went to a hospital, hiding the gun somewhere between the school and the hospital, officials said. Police found the weapon Thursday afternoon. Police didn't know whether the student drove himself to the hospital or got a ride, Officer Chuck Casey said. "Where y'headed, kid?"
"To the hospital."
"Oh. Shot yerself, huh?"
"Yeah. I hate it when I do that."
"Ummm... Yer gettin' blood on the naugahyde."
The teen has not been arrested but may face weapons charges, police said. The school was locked down after the morning shooting, and students were allowed to leave after police found the gun. Investigators were trying to determine whether the boy is connected to gangs. "You in a gang, kid?"
"No. I'm just really stoopid."
"There's gang issues all across the city," said Omaha Public School District spokeswoman Luanne Nelson said. "This is a question about guns in the community, not guns in the schools."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Playing pocket pool with a loaded gun in his pocket... Probably not on the Honor Roll... Ms Nelson, of course, wants to shift the focus to the community - and is prolly a gun-grabbing Liberal NEA shitwit. Win-win from her pointy-headed perspective.
#6
Jeebus, Gorb. Methinks that guy wouldn't last too long in Nebraska, lol!
Posted by: BA ||
12/08/2006 9:17 Comments ||
Top||
#7
If the purpose of sex education was to reduce the then explosion of teenage pregnancies and drivers education was to reduce adolescent vehicular accidents and deaths, then might not the same logic be put forward that Arms [as in right to bear] education is needed in our public school systems. Wont cost the local district anything if you let the local JROTC do it. Gun control is keeping a weapon up and down range at all times, squeezing the trigger, not pulling, and getting a good sight picture.
The nanny staters and lefties often use rare instances to justify implementing involuntary 'education' programs upon our youths. Why not use their methods here?
A TREE frog has miraculously survived after being frozen rock solid. The tiny frog was found covered in a layer of ice in a walk-in freezer - set at -18C - at a Darwin cafeteria.
When put out to defrost it fully recovered and started breathing. "I couldn't believe it," Sue Hoddinott, who found the amphibian, said. "He was completely frozen rock solid.
"When I found him I thought 'Poor little thing', and I went to put it in the bin.
"But a friend said not to, as she had seen on TV that they can come back to life when defrosted.
"I told her she had been watching too many movies, but I did it anyway.
"She ran her finger over his back to wipe the ice off and he started breathing again -- it was amazing."
Ms Hoddinott, 47, of Karama, is a chef at Charles Darwin University. The frog was thawed back to life on Monday morning but its frost-bitten toes and feet are not functioning.
FrogWatch NT co-ordinator Graeme Sawyer said it was an unusual story. But he did not rule out the possibility of a frog being revived after it was frozen. "I've never heard of it happening with Australian species but there are American frogs that can be defrosted and come back to life," he said.
Mr Sawyer said the tree frog looked like the litoria rothii species. "(But) it may be an import from Queensland or somewhere," he said. "If it was in a freezer it may have come in the same way the 'banana box frogs' turn up at markets around Australia."
STAFF at an Irish riding school were forced to postpone festivities after Gus the camel chomped his way through 200 mince pies and guzzled several cans of Guinness intended for their Christmas party.
Gus, starring in the riding school's Santa's Magical Animal Kingdom show, helped himself to the feast while staff were getting changed for the party.
"Gus found his way out of his pen and helped himself," Robert Fagan, owner of the Mullingar Equestrian Centre in central Ireland, said.
The 11-year-old camel, originally from Morocco, cracked open six cans of Ireland's famous stout with his teeth after the door to his stall was left open.
Gus appeared well after Monday evening's feeding frenzy, Mr Fagan said, adding: "We were all looking forward to it, but
#1
The 11-year-old camel, originally from Morocco, cracked open six cans of Ireland's famous stout with his teeth after the door to his stall was left open.
About 75 percent of China's 20,000 natural lakes are suffering algae pollution, while the nation has lost nearly 1,000 lakes in the last 50 years due to human activity, state press said Wednesday. The major causes of the losses were industrial farming, overuse of water and pollution, which destroyed ecological systems in lake and wetland areas, Xinhua news agency said, citing Zhu Guangyao, Vice Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration.
In addition, increasing population, industrialization and urbanization have had a severe impact on the biodiversity of lakes, it said.
Algae pollution, which saps the oxygen out of water and kills fish and aquatic life, was caused by an influx of waste water containing nitrogen, phosphorus and other harmful substances, it said.
In central China's Hubei Province, known as the "paradise of lakes", 217 lakes with an area larger than one square kilometer (0.4 square miles) and 522 smaller lakes have disappeared since the 1950s, Xinhua said.
The total size of natural lakes in Hubei had shrunk to 2,438 square kilometers, 34 percent less than 50 years ago.
More than 70 percent of rivers and lakes are polluted, while underground water supplies in 90 percent of Chinese cities are contaminated, previous reports have said.
Nearly 25 years of unbridled economic growth in China have come with little regard to the environment with the nation's water resources severely depleted and air pollution covering most of the country's urban areas.
#2
China has set itself up for a "perfect storm" of catastrophic economic, societal and environmental disasters.
1.) During China's recent privatization, the vast majority of government-run big business was essentially handed over to the PLA's military elite at fire sale prices; Who promptly proceded to run them into the ground. All the while consuming massive loans from banking cronies to prop up these over-staffed and under-equipped enterprises.
END RESULT: This has left China with an estimated $500 billion to $1 trillion worth of bad debt that their own prohibitions on foreign majority bank ownership prevents any bail-out of.
There exists pandemic official corruption that is tacitly accepted by the government resulting in substandard civil engineering and a host of other dangerous or counter-productive practices.
2.) These same industries have historically operated with total disregard for environmental impact or pollution laws due to their immunity through contacts within the PLA. Examine the near-total absence of significant prosecution for the constant coal-mining fatalities and egregious lack of mine safety.
END RESULT: Massive damage to vital natural resources, air quality and some of China's most precious historical locations or archaeological sites.
3.) China's "one family - one child" policy has led to endemic gender based abortion and female infanticide. This lopsided demographic is already beginning to affect Chinese society with the "Little Emperor" syndrome of intensely spoiled male children.
END RESULT: Extreme potential for a major upswing in male homosexuality. Complicated by:
4.) China's medically caused HIV/AIDS epidemic is the largest in world history. Henan province plasma buyers re-injected aggregated red blood cells back into similar type donors, thereby spreading the virus like wildfire. Corrupt government officials more concerned about covering up their connections to these plasma buyers, did little to quarantine or contain the crisis, allowing infected individuals to migrate into large urban centers.
END RESULT: A time-bomb of gigantic proportions that may be facilitated through a host of other societal factors including heavy discrimination against HIV positive people, intense shame over homosexuality and government suppression of publishing any medical statistics regarding this as being damaging to China's image.
5.) Chinas ratio of urban versus rural earning power is incredibly lopsided. Conservative estimates place 1995 rural earnings at 40% of that paid to urban workers. The global figure for that time was 60%. Other estimates place China's earnings gap at seven to one and even an astounding ten to one ratio. This disparity encourages migration to city centers in search of higher pay. Maos promise to break all chains binding peasants to the land was a tremendous lie that found farmers imprisoned by even more intense poverty than before.
END RESULT: Breakdown in agricultural productivity and lack of regulatory oversight in the haste to avoid food shortages. This creates vast potential for tainted goods, which has already manifested in dead infants killed by being fed fake baby formula, fake rabies vaccines and eggs injected with toxic industrial dyes.
All of the above factors are converging to combine into an onslaught of destructive forces that bode exceptionally ill for Chinas future. Such internal pressures may drive China to territorial aggression in order to relieve demand for dwindling resources, marriageable women or simple living space. Taiwan, Eastern Russia and Southeast Asia all fall under the shadow of China's looming crises.
#3
Nice analysis, Zenster -- truly a value-added comment! The question then becomes: will China's self-made problems combine to take them out of the game before or after they attempt to take over the world? Because I don't see that they can succeed, with all that starting to distract their attention within the next generation.
China seems to be designing and implementing it's own catastrophies at record speed. Not sure about the upswing in homosexuality due to lack of females, but I would definitely expect an upsurge in violence and prostitution, and possibly male prostitution.
Some ramblings for all you bible thumpers out there re: Revelation--3 million soldiers from "the king of the east" eventually set out on a land march toward the Middle East. One might presume this will be China's way of balancing the population situation, and their way to wrest the oil reserves from Russia and its Middle Eastern allies. Russia and China are both working furiously behind the scenes to secure the oil they need from the Arab countries, and it's only a matter of time, IMO, before the Arabs make the play to pit the two against each other in an attempt to get themselves the better deal. Problem is, China does not forgive and restrategize when it is offended/ripped off, and will demand payment for their humiliation. The Chinese take humilation a lot more seriously than do the Arabs, which the Arabs are destined to discover the hard way at some point.
But, back to the article. It's insane how LITTLE of this kind of hideous third-world mismanagement of natural resources is ever covered in the MSM. You'd think it was only the US that ever does anything bad, environmentally speaking, when in actuality we have better laws in place and better systems for protecting the environment than does most of the world. We should improve ourselves environmentally because we all have to live here, but the full-scale rampant destruction of the world by these other countries is reprehensible and cannot be repaired. At least it should be reported on regularly.
#5
I think China will try to keep a lid on its internal problems and steer clear of too much international strife until after the Beijing Olympic games are over in late Summer 2008, and the nice ocean of foreign currency they will be swimming in will be safely tucked away, and the international media will have gone home.
I'm not sure whether they will wait for the US election season to conclude before they start whatever mischief they have planned.
#8
will China's self-made problems combine to take them out of the game before or after they attempt to take over the world?
Your's is the $64.00 question, tw. I say that the time is now to begin a trade embargo which precipitates China's collapse. Their triangulation in the Middle East must be brought to a halt. Much of the wealth Iran diverts into developing nuclear weapons comes from China. We need to do all of this before Europe finally shakes off any moral or ethical compuctions and begins selling China advanced military hardware.
China's steadfast refusal to rectify the North Korean nuclear crisis (which they could do in a New York minute), is solid evidence of their intention to destabilize the entire East Asian economic sphere. Their persistent artificial valuation of the Yuan perpetuates horrific trade imbalances that are decimating American and international manufacturing capacity.
The massive cash flow into China only fuels further environmental damage as the politburo struggles to milk every last possible military and economic advance out of their faltering resources and economic base. As ex-lib correctly points out the Chinese concept of 'tiu lien' (losing face), makes Arab humiliation look like the tantrums of a two year-old. China's is a high-context society and loss of face bears prohibitive social stigma.
a high-context negotiator's nightmare is loss of face. As listed above, there are many ways in which this might happen, and he or she will do everything in order to ensure that it will not happen. A high-context negotiator prefers to take as much uncertainty as possible out of the picture. Even failure to reach an agreement can result in loss of face, so he or she will try to foresee and plan every aspect of the ensuing negotiation in order to prevent failure. Cohen lists China and Japan as two different strategic examples for how this is done. Many Japanese negotiators engage in extensive information gathering, so that they know the positions ahead of time and can then adjust their own position to what they think will be realistic. Chinese strategy is the exact opposite. They make sure that the other party is quite aware of nonnegotiable positions ahead of time. They will only come to the table if these terms have already been implicitly accepted. Most likely, they will not come to the table if they think there is too much potential for humiliation and loss of dignity. The common denominator between these two positions, according to Cohen, is "avoiding a leap into the unknown" and diminishing the possibilities for loss of face ahead of time.
Connect these factors into the current issues confronting our relationship with China and the cost/benefit of trying to appease them diminishes dramatically. China will never respond to appeals for cooperation or fair play. Much like the Arab cultures, only undeniable economic or military force will prove to be persuasive.
If we pander to China's desire to save face, we limit all functional options in curtailing the threat that they pose. This is an almost self-fulfilling prophecy in that China presets these disadvantageous conditions specifically to guarantee itself a more favorable outcome. In this respect, their concerns over dignity are much like that of the over-sensitive Arabs. Both are exceptionally high-context cultures, after all.
The difference is that China is playing a much deeper game than the Arabs who merely seek global domination through sheer (and markedly insufficient) force of arms, whereas the Chinese are willing to wage a much more protracted economic war to achieve their ends. While China's hand may be forced by the list of cumulative effects I noted above, it is the height of foolishness for us to simply wait and see what the end result will be. Again, this is much the same as with Islam, except that militarily defeating Muslim aspirations for global supremacy will look like a walk in the park compared to taking on China in the same fashion.
#9
Zenster... there was a time when all investments, from the US, in China had to go through a partnership of Deng and one of Bush 41's brothers. (I forget which one.) Both of them got a slice of all the action. Its one of the reasons I voted for Perot in 92. (I heard all the snickers from the chinese.) Then Clinton turned around and sold China anything they wanted so I guess it is heads you loose tails he wins....
If we pander to China's desire to save face, we limit all functional options in curtailing the threat that they pose. This is an almost self-fulfilling prophecy in that China presets these disadvantageous conditions specifically to guarantee itself a more favorable outcome.
China always plays with a stacked deck. They will not participate in anything that isn't a surefire win for them. See the block quote in post # 8 about Chinese negotiation methods.
American politicians on both sides of the aisle are so busy selling this country down the Yangtze River that they could care less for the little guy. They already have their wealth (or access to it) and could give a shit if America's industrial core is left a rotting husk. None of these turds have ever had to build anything in their entire lives; Most of them know squat about running a profitable business; They don't even know how a computer operates and their sole concern is where the next campaign contribution or lobbyist's gift is coming from.
The only thing worse is that this economic betrayal is peanuts in comparison to how our national security and individual safety is being compromised by personal agendas, political correctness and outright spinelessness. America's current (and recent) crop of politicians have much to answer for when the post 9-11 era of history is entered on the books. They make our WWII leadership look nothing short of heroic beyond measure at all turns.
The incredibly wider military options presented to them by enhanced mobility and technological advances makes their inability to combat Islamic terrorism a display of moral cowardice and craven self-interest that would shame even Casper Milquetoast.
#11
Sounds like someone(s) finally saw the film footage of Chinese kiddies playing amidst massive trash/waste debris stockpiles in rivers + streams. Too bad it took decades + recent industrial/toxic chemical spills to notice.
#12
To be fair, Zenster, most people don't know how to run a profitable business -- certainly the only bit I've mastered is spend less than you take in, look for cost savings, and try to invent new products that people will buy. Oh, and treat people fairly, whether customers, suppliers or employees. And I've only the vaguest idea how my computer works -- my brother who built U of Oklahoma's supercomputers and my sister the programming PhD candidate smile gently at me when the subject comes up.
But those are just quibbles. ;-) On the other hand, China is facing increasing competition from Viet Nam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Egypt and other places, especially as the large companies that first moved their manufacturing capabilities over there have come to realize the risk of concentrating under the thumb of one not-completely-stable regime. Also, the bigger players are getting tired of seeing their products
a)falling off the back of the truck, and
b)being copied and sold as if real by local manufacturers (and sometimes even their own manufacturers!).
I think part of what we aren't seeing is the turnover as the early initiators diversify out of China and the later adopters start up in China. That turnover must be making the Chinese nervous, the wiser ones realizing that they aren't going to be able to make the same kinds of deals with the latecomers as they did with those desperate to access the relatively monied burgeoning Chinese middle class... or so it seems to me.
#13
With all due respect, trailing wife (and that is no small measure), you are not responsible for passing laws about the Internet, software copying or piracy of intellectual property. Our leaders are, yet frequently have little to no understanding of even the most rudimentary principles of operation involved.
All sausage-making analogies aside, the passing of laws should be a much more well-considered action than the mere loosing of so much methane that it too often resembles.
In October 2003, however, Motorola abandoned its MOS-17 plant, into which it had already sunk $1 billion, swapping it to SMIC for a 10% share in SMIC -- a deal that market-watchers estimated was a loss of about 90 cents on the dollar. In February 2005, Motorola sold its SMIC shares expecting to raise about $115 million.
That is essentially a ONE BILLION dollar loss by a leading American silicon foundry. This, due to frustration about equipment importation and piracy issues. Another critical item of note from the report:
Since 1986, the technology gap between U.S. and Chinese semiconductor manufacturing capacity has narrowed almost to zero. The current industry standard semiconductor fabrication dimensions are now around 0.18 and 0.13 micron line-widths, and Chinese wafer-fabs already produce DRAMS with these design rules. The current U.S. state-of-the-art is now 0.09 microns -- or 90 nanometers -- and at least one Chinese fab is said to be installing a 90 nanometer production line now. U.S. semiconductor manufacturers are now working on 65 nanometer design rules -- in concert with a French fab.
In February 2005, the Defense Science Board issued a report on "High Performance Microchip Supply" which -- to me at least -- seemed focused on the security challenge posed by the explosion in Chinese microchip design and production and th eimpact on America's strategic position. Alarmed by the leakage of U.S. technology to China, the DoD report even proposed bilateral Wassenaar-type agreements with Japan and Taiwan on SME exports to China. Incidentally, the DoD report also bemoaned the fact that Commerce Department microchip export rules are always out of date, and hence there is business pressure on the licensing offices to bend their own rules to "keep up with the times."
According to the Defense Science Board report, the strategic threat to the United States in the semiconductor sector is significant in two contexts: 1) the globalization of the microchip supply chain is draining production capacity from the United States and in a crisis it would be difficult to ramp up domestic output; 2) there is a real threat that microchip supplies from overseas -- particularly from China -- would be untrustworthy; that "opportunities for adversaries to clandestinely manipulate technology used in U.S. critical microelectronics applications are enormous and increasing."
In other words; not only is the Pentagon finding fewer and fewer sources for application specific integrated circuit microchips for highly classified defense applications (such as signals processing, encryption, guidance systems, etc.) but the US military already relies heavily on China for the unclassified laptops and PCs that are the bulk of the nervous system of our network-centric warfare doctrine. It is all well and good to say that the US simply won't buy Chinese-made computers for our military, but what happens when the global supply-chain means all laptops and PCs have some Chinese components in them?
Simply answering that 70 percent of China's advanced technology exports are made by non-Chinese companies is inadequate. As microcircuitry architecture becomes orders of magnitude denser than today, it becomes ever easier to hide lines that serve as Trojan Horse circuit designs, radio-frequency receivers and other "backdoors" to circumvent encryption, muddle signals, induce data failure and the like.
Are Chinese semiconductor firms capable of such chicanery? Chinese advanced technology companies have already proved themselves adept at down-loading and pirating tapeouts and masks that have been sent to contract fabs for mass production. And there are already several hundred semiconductor design labs in China -- sponsored and paid-for by foreign firms including America's top microchip corporations. While one American semiconductor design engineer told me this week that he did not think the Chinese designers he worked with were "smart enough" to handle the task of sabotaging circuit maps, he admitted that his Israeli colleagues were.
This is hardly reassuring. I suspect that US-sponsored semiconductor design labs in China lose engineers as they gain experience only to have them replaced by inexperienced engineers in need of new training. No doubt, experienced engineers are siphoned off by Chinese government, military and academic units to work on more advanced projects.
High speed microelectronics are the heart and soul of America's highly modernized war technology. Outsourcing the production of certain widely used and critical components like DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), ultra high speed CPUs (Central Processing Units) and hybrid mixed signal DSPs (Digital Signal Processors) represent a direct and dangerous compromise of national security.
Yet, because our politicians know no more about these vital electronic components than they do about the chemical composition of lunar soil, they feel free to permit continued erosion of America's preeminence in chip design and fabrication. This, when our government should be retaining all aspects of this critical industry on American soil.
As noted in the quote above; The more we become dependent upon foreign sourced solid state components, the more vulnerable our technology dependent military becomes. Yet, little if anything is being done about this in the face of massive direct and indirect influence peddling by China.
Please make a point of reading the six page report. It is a real eye-opener.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
OMAHA, Neb. -- A gun in a high school student's pocket accidentally discharged during class Thursday, injuring the teen, police said. The 10th-grader at Northwest High School was not threatening anyone with the gun when it fired, police said. The 17-year-old's injuries, which were not life threatening, were in the thigh and finger.
A TREE frog has miraculously survived after being frozen rock solid. The tiny frog was found covered in a layer of ice in a walk-in freezer - set at -18C - at a Darwin cafeteria. 
