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Old 2010-02-13, 03:00   Link #6081
Haruka_Kitten
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx View Post
Actually.. its hilarious how no one almost ever thinks of them as actual weapons. I've carried swords and nasty pointy things into some amazing places with security not even blinking (Halloween, SCA events after work, NASA locations, Air Force bases, school talks for medieval history, etc).
That's strange. The gun is the more obvious weapon it seems. You'd think there was a serious problem when security won't stop you for carrying a sword.
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Old 2010-02-13, 03:06   Link #6082
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Confiscating obviously fake weapons is still part of protocol I guess. You can't even bring bottles into concerts in case you *throw* them at the performers. (nothing stopping you from buying some marked up once inside tho >_> pay for the priviledge?)
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Old 2010-02-13, 03:34   Link #6083
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Seitsuki View Post
Confiscating obviously fake weapons is still part of protocol I guess. You can't even bring bottles into concerts in case you *throw* them at the performers. (nothing stopping you from buying some marked up once inside tho >_> pay for the priviledge?)
Arenas have used the *EXCUSE* of "security" to enhance concession sales by using that bogus reason. Much of what passes for "security" in the US and elsewhere is simply a theater-of-the-absurd with no relation to real security measures.
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Old 2010-02-13, 04:36   Link #6084
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx View Post
Actually.. its hilarious how no one almost ever thinks of them as actual weapons. I've carried swords and nasty pointy things into some amazing places with security not even blinking (Halloween, SCA events after work, NASA locations, Air Force bases, school talks for medieval history, etc).
The biggest problem security officers have today is that criminals get smarter. Anything can be a weapon, even a pen. As atrocious as it sounds, you CAN kill a person by stabbing him in the kidney with a pen.

Heck, I once spent a whole week with my left elbow in a bandage due to a wooden kebab skewer because my friend had a dirty mouth.
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Old 2010-02-13, 08:13   Link #6085
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I believe tenure is not limited to America. Maybe it is more informal, or due to them belonging to the public service, but here in Europe I think professors enjoy similar benefits.

Maybe something that wasn't highlighted is that despite feminist efforts, equal representation of women in senior academic positions have to face the fact that in some areas there are still way fewer females who continue on a PhD, but also the fact that the mechanism of cooptation, and a non negligible part of the decision making in the academics is still done during what we could call "male socializing", and not during formal reunions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamui4356 View Post
Funny, I've seen the opposite happen. Someone in my anime club at college was going around dressed as a ninja with an obviously fake sword, a small, fat plastic thing, at some halloween event, only to find himself quickly surrounded by armed security responding to reports of a maniac armed with a sword.
Well, I don't know how it is in the US, but in many countries the length of the blade you are allowed to carry in public is seriously limited. Of course here, people will carry historical weapons during historical events or at the Landsgemeinde.

The gun issue is a heavy cultural one, for all I can tell. Here in Switzerland we have a strong gun culture that traces back to the middle age militias, with shooting festivals using military weapons being sometimes the major event in rural area (and almost all village have their 300m high tech shooting practice). And BB and crossbow are a classic of parochial festivals.
Sighting a 16 or even 14 year old coming back from practice with it's personal military grade weapon is not uncommon. And every man who went trough the mandatory military keeps his weapon home to go to practice every year till his late 30's, and was even issued a can of ammo.

Yet most of the gun casualties are suicide and family dramas (which periodically relaunch the regulation debate, generally opposing a women association with Pro-Tell).
I don't know how the widespread possession of firearms factor, but we have only little criminal use of those, mainly by non-citizen using illegal weapons.
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Old 2010-02-13, 08:37   Link #6086
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Quote:
Originally Posted by justinstrife View Post
They really need to allow people to carry legally at colleges. At least those with CCW permits/licenses. The fact that colleges are gun free zones doesn't stop shootings from happening. And maybe, just maybe if a professor or faculty was armed, there'd be less killings(looking at Virginia Tech as a prime example).
... The idea of people, even those with concealed weapon licenses on campuses worry me. While I agree with the sentiment that "guns don't kill people (by themselves), people kill people", that is precisely why I would much rather have just those who (1) know how to use a gun and (2) have at least trained through live fire in the past - being allowed only. Preferably with that person having shot someone, been shot himself or both. The average Joe Six-pack who knows - and can loudly declaim - his "rights" but not served/trained regularly and consistently... Got to pass on him being allowed.

Back to the original article, though... From the more recent update... hmm. Things like "the husband of one of the victims describing the shooter as 'not being able to deal with reality' and 'not as good as she thought she was'" and from one student, "she's a genius, but she really just can't explain things."

Probe: Olympic track did not cause luger's death
Quote:
Olympic officials decided late Friday night against any major changes in the track or any delays in competition and even doubled up on the schedule in the wake of the horrifying accident that claimed the life of a 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia.

They said they would raise the wall where the slider flew off the track and make an unspecified "change in the ice profile" — but only as a preventative measure "to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again."
Hopefully, no one else gets hurt during the Olympics...
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Old 2010-02-13, 09:55   Link #6087
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx View Post
Lynnie already answered the "tenure" question. Its basically a civilized agreement with the university that the professor will not be booted out what they research or what they teach or the way they do it. It has the intention of preventing the destruction of academic freedom and is much coveted. In these crappy economic times, tenure is almost impossible to get. Not to justify her violence, it probably erupted in pure frustration and a feeling of victimization.

I'd rather this thread not derail into gun rights theory arguments.... I grew up with guns (been in my family and my wife's family for generations), trained with guns (school rife club, scouting, my dad), and know them for the tools they are. In the US, the police are NOT REQUIRED to prevent crime - that's settled legal precedent. Most police officers WANT the public to be *knowledgeably* armed for self-defense (only politically appointed police chiefs toe the PC anti-gun line).

That said... there are parts of the US where I don't feel the need for a gun and parts where I do. Both my wife and I have CCW permits, both my sons are trained in the subject. If I don't have access to a gun - I have access to many other tools as almost anything can be used as a weapon. But only guns permit you to derail a threat at a distance. Well... crossbows and bow (which I also know how to use... as well as mace and sword for closer issues).

Frankly, I don't know what to do with crazy people other than get everyone else out of their "bubblewrap" mentality about their surroundings and how-to-be-aware.
Very well said Vexx. I feel the same way you do. Thank you.

Remember people. When the bad guy is knocking down your door or approaching you outside of a store at night, the police are only 20 minutes away. Your 1911 .45acp is only a half second away.
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Old 2010-02-13, 10:36   Link #6088
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Sea Shepherd Stinkbombs Ship
Sorry, couldn't resist the alliteration.

This is pretty bullshit. Both sides are at fault and none of them want to take responsibility. And to clarify some facts :

1. Butanoic acid is not harmful. Just don't be stupid and keep them away from your eyes, lips and sensitive areas.

Reason : Butanoic acid (C3H7COOH) is monoprotic (1 mole of that dissociates into 1 mole of RCOO- and 1 mole H+), has a pKa value of 4.82. At its pure state, its molar value is 10.9. Supposedly the pirates attack with 625ml glass bottles of that stuff in pure, the pH of the solution would be :

pH = pKa + log ([A-]/[HA]) = 4.82 + log (10.9 M x 0.625 dm^3) = 5.65

The neutral level of pH as set by pure water is 7.0, and battery acid, which can dissolve skin, has a pH close to 0. Coffee is between 4-5, orange juice is between 3-4. Use these as a gauge and see if they are really correct.

Quote:
Wikipedia describes the acid as “corrosive to skin and mucous membranes, and hazardous to marine life.”
Yeah, at 0.0000000000001 ppm, butanoic acid can kill many fishes. And pepper spray can burn people too.

2. Sea Shepherd is not an UN recognised organisation nor a state, therefore, under the Law Of The Sea which quotes

Quote:
All States enjoy the traditional freedoms of navigation, overflight, scientific research and fishing on the high seas; they are obliged to adopt, or cooperate with other States in adopting, measures to manage and conserve living resources;
They did not go through their state for such activities, thus under Article 101 where :

Quote:
Piracy consists of any of the following acts:

(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:

(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;

(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;

(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

(c) any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (b).
and under Article 73 where

Quote:
1. The coastal State may, in the exercise of its sovereign rights to explore, exploit, conserve and manage the living resources in the exclusive economic zone, take such measures, including boarding, inspection, arrest and judicial proceedings, as may be necessary to ensure compliance with the laws and regulations adopted by it in conformity with this Convention.
This took place in the Southern Ocean, and the AustralianNZ government should actually send their ships to help. If the place is outside of the 200 nautical mile limit, of course, this will be a private dispute because nothing in the entire bloody Part 13 of the UNLOS stated anything about research in international waters.

But SeaShepherd's acts are still considered piracy.

3. There is such a thing as the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which Japan is a signatory (an an original too!).

Unless they don't meet the guidelines under Articles 61 - 65, Part V of the UNLOS, within the guidelines of Article 6 of the treaty

Quote:
The provisions of the present Treaty shall apply to the area south of 60° South Latitude, including all ice shelves, but nothing in the present Treaty shall prejudice or in any way affect the rights, or the exercise of the rights, of any State under international law with regard to the high seas within that area.
Hatoyama will be required to go to a coffee session with the rest of the UN.

I doubt this will be solved anytime soon because under Article 59 of the Law Of The Sea :

Quote:
In cases where this Convention does not attribute rights or jurisdiction to the coastal State or to other States within the exclusive economic zone, and a conflict arises between the interests of the coastal State and any other State or States, the conflict should be resolved on the basis of equity and in the light of all the relevant circumstances, taking into account the respective importance of the interests involved to the parties as well as to the international community as a whole.
This means, despite all the words : Take it to the ICJ.
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Last edited by SaintessHeart; 2010-02-13 at 17:16.
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Old 2010-02-13, 13:31   Link #6089
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The Gun Thing:

I do carry a gun and talked about it in another thread (rape/abuse/negelect). I took the state required mandatory 40hr. course to get my CCW permit and also a ladies only course taught at Gunsight in Arizona. I own 3 guns and consider mysf a responsible adult.
However some folks just can't bring themselves to use deadly force in their own defence because of the way they were brought up or personal beliefs,I too was not a "gun person" until one of my closest friends was brutally raped and assaulted! My father was the one who saw too it that "Ain't no mfing animal gonna touch my daughter!". Thus my getting my first gun,a 45 like Justinstrife described.
Guns ain't for everybody and I can respect their wishes,just don't tell me I can't have one cause you don't like 'em!
On a side note one of my instructors told us that a gunshot wound WILL send you to the hospital,but a knife can send you to the hospital in PIECES!
So what did you guys think of the opening of the 2010 Olympics? I thought it was incredible!
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Old 2010-02-13, 18:14   Link #6090
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The tenure shooter killed her brother when she was a teenager.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/us/14alabama.html

How would more guns have prevented this?
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Old 2010-02-13, 18:28   Link #6091
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Autumn Demon View Post
The tenure shooter killed her brother when she was a teenager.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/us/14alabama.html

How would more guns have prevented this?
She should never have been able to even own a firearm. The justice system failed. Like it has failed so many times in the past. How people can put complete faith in it, is completely beyond my ability to comprehend.
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Old 2010-02-13, 22:12   Link #6092
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Japan worried that Toyota woes could hurt US ties
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Old 2010-02-14, 00:37   Link #6093
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Toyota

It's funny that this is just now showing up here. Two of my girlfriends have expressed an interest in trading in their Toyotas(one Prius&one Tacoma)for something else. Me,I own a Jeep Liberty and it has been totally reliable!
Actually I was under the impression that Japan would like the U.S. troops there to leave totally?
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Old 2010-02-14, 00:47   Link #6094
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Japan isn't "one monolithic voice" anymore than the US is. Lots of different opinions abound there about the US. Okinawa residents don't necessarily hate the US ... they're just freaking tired of the base, the uncouth behavior of some of our poor choices in recruiting, and the "bad neighbor" problem.

Anyone who lives near a military base will tell you its a huge impact on local life --- particularly if its a base of a foreign nation with a foreign culture with foreign expectations and foreign attitudes.
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Old 2010-02-14, 07:11   Link #6095
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China's Tiger Farms Causes Uproar
Sorry, I can't resist punning this too!

Quote:
BEIJING—The Year of the Tiger starts Sunday. But China's dwindling population of wild tigers faces an uphill battle in making it through the next 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.

With international attention focusing on the tigers' plight—including an international summit to be hosted in the fall by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin—a pair of economists are proposing a market-based preservation solution that has riled some conservationists.

To curtail demand for poached animals, the economists suggest legalizing the sale of bones from some farm-bred tigers. In China, the bones are in high demand for use in traditional medicines such as rheumatism cures. Richard Damania, the World Bank's lead environmental economist in South Asia, estimates that tiger parts, including claws, skin and bones, can fetch up to $70,000 on the black market.

Such sales have been illegal in China since 1993, when Beijing joined a ban on international trade in tiger products. Before then, many tiger farms fed a demand for bones; after the ban, poachers and habitat destruction thinned China's ranks of wild tigers down to a few dozen. China today has about 6,000 tigers bred in captivity; world-wide, there are around 3,500 tigers in the wild, down from 100,000 a century ago.

"No matter what you do, the economic models show this," said G. Cornelis van Kooten, a professor at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, who studies conservation economics. "If you have these farmed tigers and you let them out into the marketplace, you could save the wild tigers."

In a paper last year , Mr. van Kooten and his co-author, Brant Abbott, proposed granting exclusive rights to a few of China's tiger farms to sell the animals' bones for medicine. The sales would help the farms fight poaching and smuggling, the authors say, adding that along with tougher enforcement and government backing, the legal tiger trade could ease poaching pressure enough for wild tiger populations to recover.

Many disagree with this thinking. "Proponents of tiger farming have based their support on flawed assumptions and on studies which do not fully grasp or reflect the realities of the illegal wildlife trade," said the Environmental Investigation Agency, a non-profit wildlife group. Many conservationists favor closing the farms, seeing efforts to preserve wild tigers as a step toward protecting broader eco-systems.

Conservationists want China to shutter its tiger farms, which range from serious research centers to commercial concerns where tourists can pay to feed the animals live chickens or cows. Larger farms have giant walk-in freezers filled with hundreds of tiger carcasses—which breeders say they are holding on to in case the ban on selling parts is lifted.

Many tiger-farm managers declined to comment on the matter.

The World Bank's Mr. Damania said, "Tiger farming simply cannot solve the problems. Tigers are dying in the wild and breeding slowly because of insufficient prey—food that they need to survive—that is being poached and hunted."

The idea of culling a species to save it has some historical precedent. Messrs. van Kooten and Abbot point to the divergent fates of the sea otter and beaver. For 200 years, the Hudson's Bay Company held a monopoly on the beaver-pelt trade east of the Rocky Mountains in Canada. Pelt prices were high, the company was profitable, and beaver populations remained viable because the company had a vested interest in sustainable harvesting.

West of the Rockies was a different story. There British, American, Spanish and Russian trappers competed to kill sea otters. But in 1824, the Russian-American Convention on trade and changing consumer habits in China where the pelts were sold began to slow hunting. The economists say the competition drove the otter to the brink of extinction.

Mr. Damania questioned the assumptions underlying the argument for raising tigers.

"Farming works if the price of the poached product falls sufficiently so that poaching is no longer profitable," he said. " That's why you don't go hunting in the jungle for wild chickens—because it's cheaper to go to the supermarket. In essence. You've got to get wild tiger bone cheaper than the farmed bone—a big ask."

It costs at least $2,000 to raise a tiger bred in captivity—and $200 or less to kill a tiger, the World Bank estimates.

Mr. van Kooten disputes those figures, saying that poaching is much more costly and that farms could achieve economies of scale to decrease the price of raising a tiger.

China rejects efforts to close the tiger farms as beyond the scope of international endangered species trade bans. So far, Beijing has supported bans on selling parts, but suggests that more research is needed to see if partial lifting could work. In a recent interview, Yin Hong (surname: Mr. Yin), deputy director of the State Forestry Administration, China's wildlife conservation agency, described China's ban on tiger bone medicine as a great sacrifice of ancient tradition that cost China's traditional medicine industry 2.3 billion yuan, $337 million, in losses.

Some Chinese zoologists say traditional preservation methods such as trying to enforce poaching bans or stop smuggling of tiger parts have failed to save the tiger, forcing a reconsideration of alternatives such as legalizing trade. The SFA began looking into the issue in 2005 after tiger farms petitioned to reopen sales. Clinical trials of tiger bones' medical efficacy are also under review.

"To date, the result of these protection measures for wild tigers is unsatisfactory," the administration said in a written response to questions. "The number of wild tigers is declining rapidly, and they have come to the edge of extinction. In order to turn round the trend, we have to reflect on our current policies and measures aimed at protecting and managing tigers, and maybe to revise and better improve the current policy and measures."

The statement added that the government is cautious but continues to asses its options.
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Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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Old 2010-02-15, 03:06   Link #6096
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Toyota's deadly secrets

Quote:
Toyota had known about the gas-pedal problem for more than a year. Its silence with U.S. regulators, and other newly uncovered details from the crisis enveloping Toyota, reveal a growing rift between the Japanese automaker and NHTSA, one of its top regulators. Regulators came to doubt Toyota's commitment to addressing safety defects, according to interviews with federal officials and industry executives, and accounts of Toyota and NHTSA interactions the past year.
Quote:
The heart of Toyota's problem: Its secretive corporate culture in Japan clashed with U.S. requirements that automakers disclose safety threats, people familiar with the matter say. The relationship soured even though Toyota had hired two former NHTSA officials to manage its ties with the agency.
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Old 2010-02-15, 03:36   Link #6097
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
China's Tiger Farms Causes Uproar
Sorry, I can't resist punning this too!
Why wont anyone think of the chickens and cows? Couldn't care less here... i don't see how wrong it can be when the outcome means tigers wont be hunted into extinction.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mg1942 View Post
Weird that this came up when me and mates were talking about car reliabilities between different countries' car. Most of us decided that Japanese car were still more reliable and economical compare to other countries. Guess Toyota had to just go blow away our conclusion
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Old 2010-02-15, 06:06   Link #6098
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Kid kills parents to avoid chores
Quote:
It's not uncommon for a teenager to go to extreme measures to avoid having to do chores: Television and the Internet are far more appealing than taking out the trash and loading the dishwasher.

Nonetheless, most kids slog through it, if only for the sake of getting their parents off their backs. That, however, was not the case with a Colorado teen who police say fatally shot his mother and stepfather to get out of doing his household duties.

The 14-year-old boy, John Caudle, has been charged as an adult with two counts of murder. He is being held at a youth center and is due in court next week.
I know, I know, you can slap my hand for this later Vexx, since you didn't wanna get into it much (albiet, the news thread allows for more freedom to discuss post related news for a while before dying out)
I'm tossing in my two pence just to manipulate the scales a little on the 'less guns the better' side.
I guess it could simply be one of the major cultural differences between the UK and US for the supposed similarities we have (namely the use of English), but given this story, I still probably until the day I die think that the liberalness of guns for "protection" just cause more harm for ordinary citizens than less.
Ironically not from the 'bad people you wanna protect yourselves from', but the numerous accidents and seeing red moments between friends and family.
That kinda news, I find tragic beyond tragic and totally pointless.

A gun was originally created with 1 sole purpose: To main (and/or) take a life.
To kill.
That purpose alone is why so many people are up in arms about its existence more than cars, a bat, a knife or any other tool that has initial purpose other than causing harm.
And while I'm learning about the entire "the US police don't have to protect its citizens..."
(Say what now!? )
- It's too, too easy or tempting just for 1-2 mins of anger to take over rational thought, where kids or adults, reach for the safe/drawer/cupboard of their parents, release the safety and pull a trigger.
Very impersonal, very cold, at a distance and pretty easy if the intent is there.

There is most likely more to that story with the kid in question and his mental state than the use of the weapon of choice, but I think it's a safe bet to say (given that you had a choice between the two, to save your life)
That to grab a carving knife in your very hands and ram it true into an organ of another, up close with the intent of debilitating someone is a lot harder to do than to pull a trigger of a tool and let the bullet hit home.
Quote:
Originally Posted by justinstrife View Post
Very well said Vexx. I feel the same way you do. Thank you.

Remember people. When the bad guy is knocking down your door or approaching you outside of a store at night, the police are only 20 minutes away. Your 1911 .45acp is only a half second away.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lost Cause View Post
I do carry a gun and talked about it in another thread (rape/abuse/negelect). I took the state required mandatory 40hr. course to get my CCW permit and also a ladies only course taught at Gunsight in Arizona. I own 3 guns and consider mysf a responsible adult.
However some folks just can't bring themselves to use deadly force in their own defence because of the way they were brought up or personal beliefs,I too was not a "gun person" until one of my closest friends was brutally raped and assaulted! My father was the one who saw too it that "Ain't no mfing animal gonna touch my daughter!". Thus my getting my first gun,a 45 like Justinstrife described.
Guns ain't for everybody and I can respect their wishes,just don't tell me I can't have one cause you don't like 'em!
On a side note one of my instructors told us that a gunshot wound WILL send you to the hospital,but a knife can send you to the hospital in PIECES!
So what did you guys think of the opening of the 2010 Olympics? I thought it was incredible!
Taking into account justin's and Lost Cause's examples above, I am speaking from someone who has grown up all her young life watching her back (as a girl at a height of 5'4, walking the streets of London on her own), the odds then work against me, add kidnap, rape, mugging or death to that mix.
- And ironically at no point did I feel the need to go 'I wish I had a gun to feel 'safe' with’, rather I appreciate the police visiting our schools and teaching us girls at age 12 onwards how to be street smart in order to minimise getting into situations that are risky, in other to be aware of our surroundings and listen to our instincts of potential danger..
In addition, we were taught how to work the law so that we can use items (keys, umbrellas, etc) as weapons without being prosecuted for GBH/ABH should we need to defend ourselves.
Also being offered and attending self defence courses so we have a choice, a way to get out of being raped, should we be unfortunate to be attacked.
Having the police work with the community to get guns off the streets, not to equip everyone with one.

It just reminds me of the way the big countries of the world are pointing nuclear warheads at each other at present, red firing buttons at the side.
Just in case~

And so on.
I know it won't stop a nation of gun lovers or with an affinity with guns as part of 'normal life', to survive the peril that is America (freedom at its finest?)
It’s not so much "you can’t" Lost Cause, as much as its "you shouldn’t", since there are other ways around this.’
(Think Jackie Chan and Sammo Law) xD
But coming from a world where in an attempt to tackle the same issues of protecting yourself and the community of which involve methods that work around decreasing the amount of firearms on the streets, I generally see that as a better solution.
There is a choice.
I personally would rather try to survive and defend myself as I've had to do anyways, under lesser odds of being hit by a stray bullet from some idiot who decided to pepper spray a place and drive off.
Gun with you or not, there isn't much defence against those kind of attacks...

To give the pro gun lot some leeway though, I will be the first to admit that while less guns on the streets is nice and a direction I prefer, it doesn't instantly guarantee fewer murders on each other, especially within the Black community of London given the fatal stabbings of 2008. And no, guns would not have given those dead much of a chance, as the attacks were usually gang ones or literally stealth as reported to us, it seemed.
(Modern day ninjas)
A few things run deeper and much more disturbing with the mentality of the teens these days in London, that some can take lives so silently and mercilessly without being held back by the repercussions no matter the weapon.

As for the kid himself, I guess he'll be getting all the chore time he likes while in jail.
Once you've killed someone once in cold blood, the rest I assume is easy.
Here's hoping he doesn't get the chance to take the life of another.
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Last edited by Mystique; 2010-02-15 at 06:31.
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Old 2010-02-15, 06:16   Link #6099
Haruka_Kitten
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jazzrat View Post

"Toyota's Deadly Secrets"

Weird that this came up when me and mates were talking about car reliabilities between different countries' car. Most of us decided that Japanese car were still more reliable and economical compare to other countries. Guess Toyota had to just go blow away our conclusion
Can't quote a quote inside a quote, so had to use the italics

Uh oh. This can only end well. Before we lose all confidence in the motoring giant, does this particular issue only concern the United States?
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Old 2010-02-15, 09:48   Link #6100
LynnieS
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This seems to be making the rounds a bit. Anyone from Rhode Island (U.S.) here who can give some flavor to the story?

Central Falls HS to fire every high school teacher [staff]
Quote:
Under threat of losing their jobs if they didn’t go along with extra work for not a lot of extra pay, the Central Falls Teachers’ Union refused Friday morning to accept a reform plan for one of the worst-performing high schools in the state.[...]

After learning of the union’s position, School Supt. Frances Gallo notified the state that she was switching to an alternative she was hoping to avoid: firing the entire staff at Central Falls High School. In total, about 100 teachers, administrators and assistants will lose their jobs.
Reading through the article, the school isn't ranked high in graduation (less than 50%?) or test scores, and has been mandated by the Education Commissioner(?!?) to improve. There are six points that need to be signed off:

- Adding 25 minutes to the school day
- Providing tutoring on a rotating schedule before and after school
- Eating lunch with students once a week
- Submitting to more rigorous evaluations
- Attending weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers and participating in two weeks of training in the summer

Pay increase for this is going to be low, but the teachers supposedly make US$70K to 78K per year where the median income in the town is US$22K.

The administration seems to be a bit heavy-handed in directing the changes to be made, and is not offering to improve the teachers'/staff's income through their extra work. The union is being painted, in the article anyway, as wanting change but want to have input as well. Given the current status of the school, I'm more in favor of the administration's side since the teachers/union haven't done much to improve so far, it seems. Thoughts?
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