Mutiny as passengers refuse to fly until Asians are removed | the Daily Mail:
Monarch said last night: “The captain was concerned about the security surrounding the two gentlemen on the aircraft and the decision was taken to remove them from the flight for further security checks.

“The two passengers offloaded from the flight were later cleared by airport security and rebooked to travel back to Manchester on a later flight.”

A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Malaga said: “These men had aroused suspicion because of their appearance and the fact that they were speaking in a foreign language thought to be an Arabic language, and the pilot was refusing to take off until they were escorted off the plane.”

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This is what happens when people are afraid… they turn into racist pigs. The fear of other people speaking in foreign languages is completely unjustified. The real thing to fear are the people who are afraid… Those people will act like herd animals and seriously injure themselves and others…. given the slightest provocation.

Of course, the moral judgement of this situation and the scared people caused the wrong people to be booted from the plane by the airline. The people that should have been left behind are those who refused to board or disembarked without cause. But because there were more of them, they got to fly, and the gentleman who looked scary were booted. I would have done the opposite. I would have said, ‘these gentleman are fine, you do not have to board the flight, and you can purchase a new ticket at your leisure’, that in my mind would have been a good response from the Airline.

CPU ONLINE TRAINING TOOLKITS: Gender For Journalists: Setting the Scene:
This ‘Gender for Journalists’ toolkit is based on those training workshops. It is designed to make you aware of the areas where women are disadvantaged and the role that men can play in bringing about change. I also give guidance on information sources and websites that you can turn to and have attempted to credit the sources I have used. However if I have missed any please accept my apologies.

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gender awareness in journalism…. that would be an excellent point to push for. I hope people take advantage of this toolkit. especially the a-list bloggers should take it into account.

In Search Of Scientific Excellence: L’Oréal USA Announces Call for Applications for 2007 Fellowships for Women In Science Program:
NEW YORK, NY, August 14,
2006 – L’Oréal USA announced today the start of the application period for its esteemed L’Oréal
USA Fellowships for Women in Science program. Now in its fourth year, this national program
aims to annually recognize, reward and support five women post-doctoral researchers in the U.S. who
are pursuing careers in the life and physical/material sciences, as well as mathematics,
engineering and computer science. As part of its commitment to further help exceptional women
scientists reach their goals, L’Oréal USA has doubled the value of its fellowship grants from a
current $20,000 to $40,000 for the 2007 program.

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this looks like a great program, I think we need more programs like this. science starts with having a plurality of scientists with a plurality of life experiences and modes of understanding the world. intellectual diversity is the backbone of science, because it rounds out the ways people can understand and use scientific knowledge. With a heavily male oriented scientific practice, you end up cutting off many of the possible insights about the world, this programs that support increasing the number of women and minorities in science are, in my mind, important.

Wondermark by David Malki ! – 220: In which a Plan comes together:

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its about how many millions you can inconvenience. why? because if you inconvenience them, then they will remember why they are inconvenienced. ‘for their safety’ against … someone. Great cartoon.

Idealware: Candid Reviews of Nonprofit Software:
Idealware provides candid Consumer-Reports-style reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits, centralized into a website. Through product comparisons, recommendations, case studies, and software news, Idealware allows nonprofits to make the software decisions that will help them be more effective.

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This is a great idea…. Lets just hope they keep their biases transparent which has been the bane of many review site.

Scaremongers dub RFID passports as potential bomb trigger:
There’s nothing much special about RFID in this regard, other than some security “experts” trying to cash in on the hysteria. Check the video after the break, and judge for yourself whether or not RFID is going to be the hip-cool new detonation system of the decade. We’re thinking no.
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i’m thinking that if i wanted to kill someone and i knew that they had a unique radio id on them at all times that would respond within 6 meters… it might be very useful. RFID could be used to trigger bombs, just like using a credit card swipe through at a bank could be used to trigger a bomb to target a single person.