| Monday, December 8, 2003 |  |
| A Christmas Calendar - Babes Against Bush | 1 comment |
| 8 Dec 2003 @ 20:13 A Christmas Calendar from BABS (Babes Against Bush) More > |
| Push Local Foods | 0 comments |
| 8 Dec 2003 @ 13:24 Activists and small-scale farmers are going "beyond organic" to push local foods |
| BRAINS DRAINED BY HIDDEN RACE BIAS | 0 comments |
| 8 Dec 2003 @ 13:22 This was originally posted on Letecia Layson's blog. BRAINS DRAINED BY HIDDEN RACE BIAS By Shaoni Bhattacharya New Scientist November 17, 2003 People with implicit racial prejudices are left mentally exhausted after interacting with someone from a different race, perhaps because they are trying to quell their feelings. The new study, the first of its kind, shows that areas in the brain associated with self-control light up in white people with implicit racial biases when they are shown images of black people. Furthermore, the study showed that the level of this brain activity correlated very closely with poor performance in a test of thinking ability given right after a face-to-face interview with a black person. The researchers believe this indicates that the subject's mental resources have been temporarily drained by their efforts to suppress their prejudices. Jennifer Richeson, who led the study, was surprised by the results. She believes it is now important to understand these neurological responses. "If we can understand the mechanism underlying this effect, we may be able to do something to intervene," Richeson, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told New Scientist . William Gehring, at the University of Michigan, agrees that the study raises "critical issues" that should be addressed by future research on how races interact. "It is indisputable that prejudice exists, and the scientific study of its cognitive and neural underpinnings is exceedingly important," he writes in an article accompanying Richeson's paper in Nature Neuroscience. Positive and negative In the study, 30 white students were given computer test asking them to classify names as those of black or white people, and words as being positive and negative concepts. "Some people find it easier to pair black with negative than black with positive," says Richeson. Those taking longer to press the key for positive words after a black name were scored as having implicit biases. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is controversial. Gehring says "one must be cautious" regarding any claims that a test is a direct measure of racist attitudes. The second part of the study involved the students interacting with either a black or white interviewer on controversial topics and then immediately afterwards being given an unrelated cognitive test. Finally, two weeks later, the students were shown photographs of unfamiliar black and white men, while in an MRI brains scanner. A "robust" link was seen between the IAT-measured racial bias, poor cognitive performance after interview and brain activity in the scanner. When viewing photos of black individuals, all the students' brains lit up in the frontal lobe area -- known to be involved in cognitive control, says Richeson. In sharp contrast, this area did not light up in any of the students viewing pictures of white individuals. "It's pretty amazing," she says. Executive function The frontal lobe is associated with "executive function", which allows people to control their emotions and thoughts, says Richeson. The team does not know exactly why this brain area should light up in people with biases. "They are either trying to inhibit or control something -- but we don't know what that something is," she says. "It could be an emotional reaction, or thoughts that come to mind. Or it could be something as benign as simply trying not to make errors." Richeson notes that those with low implicit bias showed no drop in their cognitive performance in the post-interview test. In a modern multicultural world, "being biased has negative consequences for us", she says. An editorial in Nature Neuroscience calls the work both interesting and ambitious. But it stresses that while the study links certain brain activity with implicit bias, it says nothing about what causes that bias or how the bias affects behaviour towards people of other races. And on the possibility of a brain scan to detect racism, the editorial says: "This prospect is remote." Journal reference: Nature Neuroscience (DOI:10.1038/nn1156) |
| Injectable Bio-Chip Implant For Cashless | 4 comments |
| 8 Dec 2003 @ 13:18 This is a follow-up article to one I posted earlier in the year. Injectable Bio-Chip Implant For Cashless Transactions By Sherrie Gossett © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com 11-22-3 At a global security conference held today in Paris, an American company announced a new syringe-injectable microchip implant for humans,designed to be used as a fraud-proof payment method for cash and credit-card transactions. The chip implant is being presented as an advance over credit cards and smart cards, which, absent biometrics and appropriate safeguard technologies, are subject to theft, resulting in identity fraud. Identity fraud costs the banking and financial industry some $48 billion a year, and consumers $5 billion, according to 2002 Federal Trade Commission estimates. In his speech today at theID World 2003 conference in Paris, France, Scott R. Silverman, CEO of Applied Digital Solutions, called the chip a "loss-proof solution" and said that the chip's "unique under-the-skin format" could be used for a variety of identification applications in the security and financial worlds. The company will have to compete, though, with organizations using just a fingerprint scan for similar applications. The ID World Conference, held yesterday and today at the Charles de Gaulle Hilton, focused on current and future applications of radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies, biometrics, smart cards and data collection. The company's various "VeriChips" are RFID chips, which contain a unique identification number and can carry other personal data about the implantee. When radio-frequency energy passes from a scanner, it energizes the chip, which is passive (not independently powered), and which then emits a radio-frequency signal transmitting the chip's information to the reader, which in turn links with a database. ADS has previously touted its radio frequency identification (RFID) chips for secure building access, computer access, storage of medical records, anti-kidnapping initiatives and a variety of law-enforcement applications. The company has also developed proprietary hand-held readers and portal readers that can scan data when an implantee enters a building or room. The "cashless society" application is not new it has been discussed previously by Applied Digital. Today's speech, however, represented the first formal public announcement by the company of such a program. In announcing VeriPay to ID World delegates, Silverman stated the implant has "enormous marketplace potential" and invited banking and credit companies to partner with VeriChip Corporation (a subsidiary of ADS) in developing specific commercial applications beginning with pilot programs and market tests. Applied Digital's announcement in Paris suggested wireless technologies, RFID development, new software solutions, smart-card applications and subdermal implants might one day merge as the ultimate solution for a world fraught with identity theft, threatened by terrorism, buffeted by cash-strapped governments and law-enforcement agencies looking for easy data-collection, and corporations interested in the marketing bonanza that cutting-edge identification, payment, and location-based technologies can afford. Verichip Cashless payment systems are now part of a larger technology development subset: government identification experiments that seek to combine cashless payment applications with national ID information on media (such as a "smart" card), which contain a whole host of government, personal, employment and commercial data and applications on a single, contactless RFID chip. In some scenarios, government-corporate coalitions are advocating such a chip be used by employees also to access entry to their workplace and the company computer network, reducing the cost outlay of the corporations for individual ID cards. Malaysia's "MyKad" national ID "smart" card is the foremost example. Meanwhile, privacy advocates have expressed concern over RFID technology rollouts, citing database concerns and the specter of individuals' RFID chips being read without permission by people who have their own hand-held readers. Several privacy and civil liberties groups have recently for a voluntary moratorium on RFID tagging "until a formal technology assessment process involving all stakeholders, including consumers, can take place." Signatories to the petition include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Privacy International and the Foundation for Information Policy Research, a British think tank. Commenting on today's announcement, Richard Smith, a computer industry consultant, referred to what some "netizens" are already calling "chipectomies": "VeriChips can still be stolen. It's just a bit gruesome when to think how the crooks will do these kinds of robberies." Citing MasterCard's PayPass, Smith pointed out that most of the major credit-card companies are looking at RFID chips to make credit cards quicker, easier, and safer to use. "The big problem is money," said Smith. "It will take billions of dollars to upgrade the credit-card networks from magstripe readers to RFID readers. During the transition, a credit card is going to need both a magstripe and an RFID chip so that it is universally accepted." Some industry professionals advocate having citizens pay for combined national ID/cashless pay chips, which would be embedded in a chosen medium. Identification technologies using RFID can take a wide variety of physical forms and show no sign yet of coalescing into a single worldwide standard. Prior to today's announcement, Art Kranzley, senior vice president at MasterCard, commented on the Pay Pass system in a USA Today interview: "We're certainly looking at designs like key fobs. It could be in a pen or a pair of earrings. Ultimately, it could be embedded in anything someday, maybe even under the skin." More > |
| Christmas Party December 1 TO: All Employees | 2 comments |
| 8 Dec 2003 @ 12:04 Christmas Party December 1 TO: All Employees I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23rd at Luigi's Open Pit Barbecue. There will be lots of spiked eggnog and a small band playing traditional carols...feel free to sing along. And don't be surprised if our CEO shows up dressed as Santa Claus to light the Christmas tree! Exchange of gifts among employees can be done at that time; however, no gift should be over $10. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Patty Lewis Human Resources Director ---------------------------------- December 2nd TO: ALL EMPLOYEES In no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees. We recognize that, Hanukkah is an important holiday that often coincides with Christmas (though not this year). However, from now on we're calling it our "Holiday Party." The same policy applies to employees who are celebrating Kwanzaa at this time. There will be no Christmas tree and no Christmas carols sung. Happy Holidays to you and your family. Patty Lewis Human Resources Director ---------------------------------- December 3rd TO: ALL EMPLOYEES Regarding the anonymous note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table, I'm happy to accommodate this request, but, don't forget, if I put a sign on the table that reads, "AA Only," you won't be anonymous anymore. In addition, forget about the gifts exchange-no gifts will be allowed since the union members feel that $10 is too much money. Patty Lewis Human Researchers Director ---------------------------------- December 7th TO: ALL EMPLOYEES I've arranged for members of Overeaters Anonymous to sit farthest from the dessert buffet and pregnant women closest to the restrooms. Gays are allowed to sit with each other. Lesbians do not have to sit with the gay men; each will have their table. Yes, there will be a flower arrangement for the gay men's table. Happy now? Patty Lewis Human Racehorses Director --------------------------------- December 9th TO: ALL EMPLOYEES People! People! Nothing sinister was intended by wanting our CEO to play Santa Claus! Even if the anagram of "Santa" does happen to be "Satan," There is no evil connotation to our own "little man in a red suit." Patty Lewis Human Rat-races ---------------------------------- December 10th TO: ALL EMPLOYEES Vegetarians! I've had it with you people!! We're going to hold this party at Luigi's Open Pit whether you like it or not, you can just sit at the table farthest from the "grill of death," as you put it, and you'll get salad bar only, including hydroponic tomatoes. But, you know, tomatoes have feelings, too. They scream when you slice them. I've heard them scream. I'm hearing them right now... Ha! I hope you all have a rotten holiday! Drive drunk and die, you hear me? The Bitch from Hell ---------------------------------- December 14th TO: ALL EMPLOYEES I'm sure I speak for all of us in wishing Patty Lewis a speedy recovery from her stress-related illness. I'll continue to forward your cards to her at the sanitarium. In the meantime, management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd off with full pay. Happy Holidays! Terri Bishop Acting Human Resources Director More > |