Houston officer kills double amputee in wheelchair

HOUSTON (AP) ? A Houston police officer shot and killed a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair Saturday inside a group home after police say the double amputee threatened the officer and aggressively waved a metal object that turned out to be a pen.

Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man cornered the officer in his wheelchair and was making threats while trying to stab the officer with the pen. At the time, the officer did not know what the metal object was that the man was waving, Silva said.

She said the man came "within inches to a foot" of the officer and did not follow instructions to calm down and remain still.

"Fearing for his partner's safety and his own safety, he discharged his weapon," Silva told The Associated Press.

Police did not immediately release the name of the man who was killed. They had been called to the home after a caretaker there called and reported that the man in wheelchair was causing a disturbance.

The owner of the group home, John Garcia, told the Houston Chronicle that the man had a history of mental illness and had been living at the house about 18 months. Garcia said the man had told him that he lost a leg above the knee and all of one arm when he was hit by a train.

"He sometimes would go off a bit, but you just ignore it," Garcia told the newspaper.

Silva identified the officer as Matthew Jacob Marin, a five-year veteran of the department. He was immediately placed on three-day administrative leave, which is standard in all shootings involving officers.

Houston police records indicate that Marin also fatally shot a suspect in 2009. Investigators at the time said Marin came upon a man stabbing his neighbor to death at an apartment complex and opened fired when the suspect refused to drop the knife.

On Saturday, Marin and his partner arrived at the group home around 2:30 a.m. Silva said there were several people at the house at the time. The caretaker who called police waited on the porch while the officers went inside, she said.

"It was close quarters in the area of the house," Silva said. "The officer was forced into an area where he had no way to get out."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/houston-officer-kills-double-amputee-wheelchair-222540280.html

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Suu Kyi: 'I just didn't know how to give up'

Aung San Suu Kyi shares her message for people around the world struggling for freedom and democracy. NBC's Ann Curry reports.

Ann Curry, NBC News Special Correspondent

NEW YORK ? Myanmar?s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was one of the world's most famous political prisoners until her release two years ago.

After 15 years under house arrest, NBC News? Ann Curry asked her Friday what her message is to other people all over the world struggling for freedom?

?It's the same struggle for everybody everywhere; because unless we are free we can't really realize our own potential. And if we can't realize our own potential we are like a crippled tree. It would be a stunted growth,? Suu Kyi replied. ?

Now on a 17-day coast-to-coast tour of the United States, earlier this week Suu Kyi met President Barack Obama at the White House and received the Congressional Gold Medal for her long fight for democracy in a country ruled by army generals since 1962.

She sat down with Curry on Friday morning and discussed her emergence from house arrest, her new political role in Myanmar and what kept her going all those years.

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'I just didn't know how to give up'
During her years under house arrest in the country also known as Burma, Suu Kyi was separated from her family, and unable to see her husband, British academic Michael Aris, before his death from cancer in 1999. Suu Kyi was released in late 2010 and has since joined hands with members of the former ruling junta that detained her to push ahead with political reform.

Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been presented with Congress' highest award, the Congressional Gold Medal in honor of her leadership and commitment to human rights in Burma.

Curry asked her what sustained her over all those years?

?Well, I just didn't know how to give up,? Suu Kyi said with a smile. ?I never thought of needing anything to sustain me. It never occurred to me that I should give up.?

?Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi calls for release of Russian punk band Pussy Riot

She also credited the perseverance she learned as a child from her mother and father, Aung San, a Burmese independence hero and founder of the modern Burmese army.

?I was brought up by my mother very strictly,? she said. ?She always spoke about the importance of a sense of duty and if you take up something you just don't drop it.?

She said she also felt an obligation to see her father?s dream of an independent country come true.

??My mother always brought me up to understand that my father loved his country and of course I always knew that he didn't live to see his dream come true. He died just before we regained independence. And I suppose always I wanted to realize his dream for him.?

Suu Kyi honored with Congress' highest award

MSNBC host Alex Wagner moderates a town hall with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and Amnesty International live from the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Possible presidential run?
Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for championing democracy in opposition to the military junta that held her under house arrest for years.?

Suu Kyi's election to parliament in April helped to transform the pariah image of Myanmar and persuade the West to begin rolling back sanctions after a year of dramatic reforms, including the release of about 700 political prisoners.

As for her house arrest, she said she learned at least one important skill during that time: how to listen.

?I learned to listen very well because I listened to the radio about five, six hours a day. And this ability to listen has stayed me- has stood me in very good stead,? she said. ?It helps you to understand how people's minds work. How other people think. What their point of view is.?

Ease sanctions on Myanmar, Suu Kyi says on U.S. tour

She is confident in her country?s future ? but did not rule out the possibility of ever running for president of Myanmar.

?No, if you're a politician you never rule out such a possibility,? she said.

Suu Kyi is currently in New York, where 40 years ago she worked for the United Nations. She'll then travel to Kentucky, Indiana and California to speak on campuses and meet Burmese expatriates.

See the full?invterview with?Ann Curry here.?

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/21/14015493-suu-kyi-i-just-didnt-know-how-to-give-up?lite

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Out of this world nanoscience: A computer chip that can assemble itself?

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) ? Imagine a computer chip that can assemble itself. According to Eric M. Furst, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware, engineers and scientists are closer to making this and other scalable forms of nanotechnology a reality as a result of new milestones in using nanoparticles as building blocks in functional materials.

Furst and his postdoctoral researchers, James Swan and Paula Vasquez, along with colleagues at NASA, the European Space Agency, Zin Technologies and Lehigh University, reported the finding Sept. 17 in an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) online edition.

The article details how the research team's exploration of colloids, microscopic particles that are mere hundredths the diameter of a human hair, to better understand how nano-"building blocks" can be directed to "self-assemble" into specific structures.

The research team studied paramagnetic colloids while periodically applying an external magnetic field at different intervals. With just the right frequency and field strength, the team was able to watch the particles transition from a random, solid like material into highly organized crystalline structures or lattices.

According to Furst, a professor in UD's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, no one before has ever witnessed this guided "phase separation" of particles.

"This development is exciting because it provides insight into how researchers can build organized structures, crystals of particles, using directing fields and it may prompt new discoveries into how we can get materials to organize themselves," Furst said.

Because gravity plays a role in how the particles assemble or disassemble, the research team studied the suspensions aboard the International Space Station (ISS) through collaborative efforts with NASA scientists and astronauts. One interesting observation, Furst reported, was how the structure formed by the particles slowly coarsened, then rapidly grew and separated -- similar to the way oil and water separate when combined -- before realigning into a crystalline structure.

Already, Furst's lab has created novel nanomaterials for use in optical communications materials and thermal barrier coatings. This new detail, along with other recorded data about the process, will now enable scientists to discover other paths to manipulate and create new nanomaterials from nanoparticle building blocks.

"Now, when we have a particle that responds to an electric field, we can use these principles to guide that assembly into structures with useful properties, such as in photonics," Furst added.

The work could potentially prove important in manufacturing, where the ability to pre-program and direct the self-assembly of functional materials is highly desired.

"This is the first time we've presented the relationship between an initially disordered structure and a highly organized one and at least one of the paths between the two. We're excited because we believe the concept of directed self-assembly will enable a scalable form of nanotechnology," he said.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Delaware. The original article was written by Karen B. Roberts.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. J. W. Swan, P. A. Vasquez, P. A. Whitson, E. M. Fincke, K. Wakata, S. H. Magnus, F. D. Winne, M. R. Barratt, J. H. Agui, R. D. Green, N. R. Hall, D. Y. Bohman, C. T. Bunnell, A. P. Gast, E. M. Furst. Multi-scale kinetics of a field-directed colloidal phase transition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1206915109

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/cZ0pJnEHsJ8/120919103138.htm

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