Researchers Try To Cure Racism In case anyone thought i was just pluckin ideas out of the wind, on my 'are you racist?' thread... bear in mind that i 'failed' the racism IAT. :crazy:
Researchers Try to Cure Racism | Wired Science from Wired.com
from the article...
Quote:
As the first African-American president in United States history takes office, researchers have shown that it may be possible to scientifically reduce racial bias.
After being trained to distinguish between similar black male faces, Caucasian test subjects showed greater racial tolerance on a test designed to to measure unconscious bias.
The results are still preliminary, have yet to be replicated, and the real-world effects of reducing bias in a controlled laboratory setting are not clear. But for all those caveats, the findings add to a growing body of research suggesting that science can battle racism.
"Any time you can get people to treat people as individuals, you reduce the effect of stereotypes," said Brown University cognitive scientist Michael Tarr. "It won't solve racism, but it could have profound real-world effects."
Underpinning this research is the Implicit Association Test, used by psychologists to measure deep-rooted, often unconscious biases. During the test, subjects are measured on the time it takes to associate faces with positive or negative words. If, for example, someone more quickly associates negative words with minority rather than white faces, they're likely to have a bias — a bias that translates into a tendency to hire same-race workers, choose same-race partners, and find minority defendants guilty.
If the bias can be changed, perhaps the behavior will follow.
The article explains stuff better than i ever could :wink:
Gotta Admit The French Have Style! Just watching the French riot on the news atm. I admire the French, When they ain't happy with something they actually let their Govt know by taking to the streets! Different here tho innit, When the British ain't happy we just grumble and get on with it, What a difference eh?! :wink:
Quote:
Huge crowds have taken to the streets in France to protest over the handling of the economic crisis, causing disruption to rail and air services.
Unions said 2.5m workers had rallied to demand action to protect wages and jobs. Police put the total at 1m.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said concerns over the crisis were legitimate and the government had to listen and act.
He will meet union and business leaders next month to discuss what programme of reforms to follow this year, he said.
Overall, the government estimated that a quarter of the country's public sector workers had joined the action, which was called by eight major French unions. The unions put the figure higher.
A spokesman for the CGT union told AFP that 2.5m people across the country had taken part in the day's protests. French police put the number at just over 1m.
Huge crowds join French strikes
UK : East : Man jumps out of moving car on the A12! nutter - this sort of stuff usually only happens in movies... and Capel is normally a sleepy place where nothing like this happens...
AMBULANCE crews treated a man at the side of the busy A12 after he jumped from a moving car.
Police said the incident happened at Capel St Mary about 4pm on Saturday.
A spokesman said emergency crews attended the incident on the Colchester-bound carriageway after receiving a phone call from a passing motorist going in the opposite direction.
EADT - Man jumps from moving car on A12
Finally it’s Official, We’re in a Recession I don't claim to know alot about this issue but thank god they've finally come out with it. I've hated all this talk in the media about a possible recession, it's been going on and on and now that we are in one we can now work towards getting ourselves out of it.
Any idea? :weee:
Complain to the BBC about them being Rubbish! After three weeks of intense fighting and the loss of thousands of civilian lives, a Gaza ceasefire was finally agreed on the 18 January. Now the fighting has stopped, life-saving supplies are desperately needed, hospitals need to get up and running again, and people - whose water has been cut off during the bombing - are in dire need of clean drinking water.
Many aid organisations - including British Red Cross, Christian Aid, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Oxfam, and Save the Children - have together launched an appeal
However, for the first time in more than 40 years, the BBC has REFUSED TO RUN THE APPEAL on TV - effectively meaning that appeal will fail to raise the money needed to save people's lives.
No matter what your views of who's responsible for the fighting, one thing is clear - people are in dire need of our help, and without the BBC's help, the appeal will not raise as much as it should.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP?
1. File a complaint on the BBC website:
BBC - Complaints - Make a complaint
2. Have your say on BBC decision (scroll to end to post a message)
BBC NEWS | UK | Pressure still on BBC in Gaza row
3. Donate to the appeal
https://www.donate.bt.com/bt_form_gaza.html
Template letter you might want to use:
Just copy and paste and if you would like to add some thing then please do so...
*BE POLITE AND RESPECTFUL*
I am outraged and utterly disappointed after learning that BBC corporation has refused to broadcast a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza, leaving aid agencies with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in donations. Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), is an umbrella organization for 13 aid charities and with the level of suffering and humanitarians crisis on the Gaza strip BBC should alter their policy to help raise money and goods for the people of Gaza. The DEC has no political affiliation and is driven by the principles of the Geneva conventions in terms of impartiality and neutrality. Due to this decision all broadcasters have refused to carry the appeal and this is hampering the efforts of the DEC. I sincerely hope that BBC will reconsider this decision other wise this will leave the aid agencies with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in donations. Please for the sake of humanity give DEC the necessary Air time needed to appeal to your viewers. Thank you
Link to the complaint section (same as the one posted on the front page of the group)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_stage1.shtml
What people are saying about this decision by the BBC:
Daily Mail
The Green Party
BBC Blog
The Times
The Guardian
Welcome to the White House Barack Obama It was amazing to see the crowds who travelled to Washington to hear his inaugural speech :weee: If nothing else his electorate is involved in the process. :bounce_fl:bounce_fl
The speech was awesome too raaa
Death toll in two ‘US missile strikes’ in Pakistan rises to 21: official It seems that the infidel sponsored Hellfire missile permanent retirement package™ has been graciously accepted by another gaggle of eager participants.
There’s an obvious expectation that acts of terrorism are inevitably acts of islamist inspired terrorism. There is an inevitability that acts of terrorism are associated with people whose islamist religion is the source of their inspiration. What we see with alarming regularity is a fanatical bunch of psychotics who either want to blow the world up or enslave the population under medieval draconian laws.
Not only is Islam the one Abrahamic faith that exhorts its faithful to slaughter the unbelievers who will not submit (Islam is not called submission for nothing) to its supremacy, but it is also the only one with its original, primitive ideology still intact. The principles and values embodied in Islam were relevant to medieval Arabia. In those brutal and nasty times, a brutal and nasty theocratic order was effective in cohering illiterate, warring tribes and providing the draconian stability to build an empire. This is what happened. But times have changed—much of the world is now civilized, free, technologically capable, literate, and tolerant. Until Islam meets with a massive reform and enlightenment movement, it will continue to be unfit for the modern world, and we will continue to see a steady uptick in the devastating terror attacks of Islamic gee-had.
Death toll in two 'US missile strikes' in Pakistan rises to 21: official
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.f0535773d1a3f8152cda2b8c05239f06.571&show_article=1
Quote:
Six more bodies were recovered from the rubble of an Al-Qaeda den hit by a suspected US missile, pushing the death toll in two separate strikes to 21, security officials said Saturday.
"Six bodies of local tribesmen were found in the rubble of the house which was destroyed in a US missile strike on Friday just outside the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan district," the official said.
On Friday officials said eight people including five foreigners -- Pakistani officials use the term "foreigners" to describe Al-Qaeda militants -- died in the missile strike at the house of a pro-Taliban tribesman near Mir Ali.
Hours later another suspected US drone fired two missiles into a house in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, killing seven people.
The strikes were the first under new US President Barack Obama and effectively dashed any hopes that Pakistani officials were nurturing that the new administration in Washington will halt such strikes.
Dozens of similar strikes since August have sparked government criticism of the United States, a close ally fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan and believed to be firing the missiles from unmanned CIA aircraft.
Pakistan has repeatedly protested to Washington that drone strikes violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the 160 million people of the nuclear-armed Islamic nation.
President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani were quoted as telling top US General David Petraeus in Islamabad on Tuesday that they hoped the Obama administration would take their concerns into consideration.
Gunmen in Iraq kill family One of the unfortunate results of bringing representative voting to people who have only understood totalitarianism is that these same people tend to be the ones who become the totalitarians they have replaced.
It goes beyond naïve to think that an islamist majority culture would ever allow representative voting to actually represent anyone but a particular tribe of islamists. This dynamic of perverting the ideals of democracy operates right down to the internecine hatreds that separate the shia majority and the sunni in Iraq. The shia have a vested interest in promoting their clans and tribes. The wonderful liberty of democracy cannot be created ex nihilo overnight, and it cannot happen without the first faint ripples of respect for equality, embracing the sanctity of life and respecting the rule of law as opposed to the rule of the largest mob or the mullah with the largest cadre’ of goons with weapons and ammo. I don’t think Westerners had any clue as the internecine hatreds between the different sects of Islam. But school is definitely in session now.
Gunmen in Iraq kill family
Gunmen in Iraq kill family - Yahoo! News
Quote:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Gunmen shot dead eight members of a family, including a 12-year-old girl and five women, in an overnight raid on their home in Iraq's volatile northern Diyala province, police said.
The attackers abducted two other family members, a man and woman, from the house in the village of Maamil near Balad Ruz, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, Balad Ruz police Lieutenant Abdul Jabbar Raheem told Reuters.
He did not know who was behind the attack or why the family, all Arabs from the Sunni sect living in a largely Shi'ite neighborhood, were targeted a week before provincial elections seen as a key test of Iraq's growing stability.
Taliban demands end to music on Pakistan buses Here’s some news that affects the ummah. What's that godawful smell? I know it, but can't quite put my finger on what it is. Oh yeah, now I know: It's the smell of sneering disdain and thoughtless insult of the modern world that passes for rationality in the Islamic psyche. You might even call it “real islam”.
The madness of threatening suicide / mass murder attacks of the innocent as per the backward social order of seventh century Arabia is showing up more and more here in the 21st century West.
Taliban demands end to music on Pakistan buses
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090121/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_no_music
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Bus drivers in northwest Pakistan have begun removing audio and video equipment from their vehicles after Taliban militants threatened suicide attacks against those who played music or movies for their passengers, an industry official said Tuesday.
Transport workers in Mardan town received letters this week from militants saying that buses offering such entertainment were guilty of spreading "vulgarity and obscenity," Walid Mir, general secretary of the town's transport union, told The Associated Press.
The militants said they would check the buses and that suicide attacks would be carried out against vehicles that still had audio and video equipment — prompting union members to act quickly, Mir said.
The Taliban letter complained that traveling in buses that provide audiovisual entertainment was a "source of mental agony for pious people," according to a text obtained by AP.
"It is obligatory on us to stop such violations. We request you to remove the vulgar systems ... otherwise suicide bombers are ready," the letter said.
Mardan lies in the Northwest Frontier Province just outside Pakistan's volatile tribal belt where extremists among the Taliban, al-Qaida and local groups are waging a violent campaign against authorities in a bid to impose their strict interpretation of Islam.
BBC Block an Appeal for Aid to Gaza STOP THE WAR COALITION
NEWSLETTER
No. 1077 23 January 2009
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
Tel: 020 7278 6694
Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
1) BBC BLOCKS AID TO GAZA: PROTEST 24 JANUARY
2) A LIFELINE FROM BRITAIN TO GAZA
**********************************************
1) BBC BLOCKS AID TO GAZA: PROTEST 24 JANUARY
BRING DOLLS TO LAY OUTSIDE THE BBC
BRING SHOES WITH A MESSAGE FOR GORDON BROWN
(Full details below)
If the BBC was not tarnished enough by its coverage of
Israel's attack on Gaza -- in the words of Tony Benn, "often
looking like a propaganda wing of the Zionist lobby" -- its
decision yesterday to block an appeal for emergency aid to
Gaza would be reason enough for making the BBC a focus of our
demonstration on Saturday 24 January.
While the media is now saturated with reports showing the
scale of Israel's barbarism over the past three weeks and the
humanitarian disaster it has created, and while the United
Nations, the Red Cross and all the other aid organisations
involved are saying that immediate emergency aid must be
rushed to Gaza, the BBC has blocked a joint appeal by a wide
range of organisations from being broadcast after all the main
news programmes on every TV channel.
These emergency appeals to populations in desperate need of
aid have been organised frequently in the past 48 years and
not once in that time has one been blocked. It is agreed by
all the channels that a decision to support an aid appeal must
be unanimous among the broadcasters and so the BBC's decision
not to agree scuppered the whole aid appeal, which it is
estimated would have raised at least £10 million -- aid which
would have been used immediately to help Palestinians in Gaza,
now barely surviving in catastrophic conditions.
One in six buildings have been destroyed or badly damaged by
Israel's bombs and missiles, many dead are buried underneath
and still being dug out, the country's infrastructure has been
destroyed, one million people have no electricity, half a
million people have no access to clean running water, the
hospitals are crammed with people who have suffered horrific
injuries without enough basic medical supplies for them to get
the treatment they need.
A spokesperson for the organisations which wanted to broadcast
the prime time appeal, said, "Agencies are already providing
food, drugs and blankets as well as delivering clean water.
But we will soon reach the limit of what we can do, without
more money."
And the BBC's response? "The decision was made because of
question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile
situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public
confidence in the BBC's impartiality in the context of news
story."
This has nothing to do with "impartiality" - the appeal was
for humanitarian aid to a devastated people. How can you be
"impartial" about that? Either these people need the aid or
they don't.
We have seen throughout these weeks of barbarism how Israel's
spin machine has been indulged by the BBC in particular. We
know, as the Guardian reported two weeks ago, that the BBC
management instructed its journalists to enable this to
happen. The result was Israeli spokespersons given frequent
opportunity to justify mass slaughter, including the deaths of
over 400 children.
Our demonstration on Saturday assembles outside BBC
Broadcasting House. To register our disgust at the BBC's
capitulation to Israel's manipulation and intimidation of the
media, we are asking protestors to bring children's dolls,
wrapped if possible in white shrouds, to be laid on the steps
of the BBC, as a memorial to the hundreds of children who died
and as an act of solidarity with the Paletinians in Gaza
denied urgently needed aid because of BBC "impartiality".
DEMONSTRATE FOR GAZA: SATURDAY 24 JANUARY
END THE BLOCKADE: STOP ALL ARMS SALES
BRING THE WAR CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE
Assemble 2.00pm BBC Broadcasting House for rally
Portland Place, London W1A 1AA
Nearest tubes: Great Portland Street or Regents park.
March starts at 3.00 pm. Ends with rally in Trafalgar Square
4.30 pm.
BRING CHILDEN'S DOLLS WRAPPED IN WHITE SHROUDS TO LAY ON THE
STEPS OF THE BBC
BRING SHOES WITH MESSAGES TO GORDON BROWN INSIDE TO DELIVER AS
WE MARCH PAST DOWNING STREET
Instead of banning all arms trade with Israel and breaking all
diplomatic relations, Brown has offered to send the British
navy to help Israel tighten its blockade on Gaza.
MARCH ROUTE:
Assemble and rally Portland Place, March to Regent Street,
Piccadilly, Lower Regent Street, Trafalgar Square,
Northumberland Avenue, Embankment, Parliament, Downing Street,
Trafalgar Square (End rally)
**********************************************
2) A LIFELINE FROM BRITAIN TO GAZA
A Lifeline for Gaza aid convoy will leave Britain on Saturday
14 February 2009. It has been initiated by George Galloway MP,
who writes:
We will not look away. The Palestinians in Gaza need our help
now, just as they did when Israel's bombs and illegal weapons
were dropping.
Thousands of people have contacted me to say that they have
marched, cried at the television pictures and feel helpless in
the face of the suffering.
That's why I have launched a major initiative in response to
the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. I will be leading an aid
convoy from London to Gaza leaving on 14 February and
travelling through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,
Libya, Egypt and through Rafah and into Gaza. It will bring
material aid and raise the banner of Palestine in all the
countries that we visit.
The convoy will be led by a British fire engine, ambulances,
and many trucks full of practical aid given by the various
communities in Britain.
FOR FULL DETAILS OF THE AID CONVOY, SEE THE VIVA PALESTINA
WEBSITE: Viva Palestina - a lifeline from Britain to Gaza
Democracy Now: Obama Closes Guantanamo, Ends Tortute and Speaks on Gaza Democracy Now covers Obama's early moves to stop torture everywhere (except Iraq and Afghanistan), orders the closure of Guantanamo within a year, hears Helen Thomas' first question to the new president and hears commentary from Noam Chomsky on Obama's early position on the Palestinian / Israeli crisis...
Listen to it: http://media.libsyn.com/media/democracynow/dn2009-0123-1.mp3
Watch it: http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2009/jan/video/dnB20090123a.rm&proto=rtsp
More formats: Democracy Now! | Listen/Watch Today's Show
Homepage: Democracy Now! | Radio and TV News
Democracy Now: Hamas Offer Ignored by Israel Democracy Now covers a Hamas offer to continue the ceasefire before fighting broke out with Israel as reported by a former Carter administration official...
Listen to it: http://media.libsyn.com/media/democracynow/dn2009-0122-1.mp3
Watch it: http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2009/jan/video/dnB20090122a.rm&proto=rtsp
More formats: Democracy Now! | Listen/Watch Today's Show
Homepage: Democracy Now! | Radio and TV News
Democracy Now: Barack Hussein Obama Inauguration Special Democracy Now covers this important day...
Listen to it: http://media.libsyn.com/media/democracynow/dn2009-0121-1.mp3
Watch it: http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2009/jan/video/dnB20090121a.rm&proto=rtsp
More formats: Democracy Now! | Listen/Watch Today's Show
Homepage: Democracy Now! | Radio and TV News
UK petition to place an arms embargo on Israel please sign before 27th January
Petition to: do everything in his power to impose an arms embargo on Israel in light of the recent Israeli offensive in the Gaza strip and to apply pressure on countries supplying Israel with arms that breach international agreements with the intenti
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