http://forums.nossaonline.org/ NOSSA is a united organization of short men and women from around the globe, promoting the message of self-empowerment for all of its members, providing a supportive environment in which to share experiences, and committed to opposing heightism in society. en Fri, 18 May 2012 07:43:26 GMT vBulletin 60 http://forums.nossaonline.org/images/misc/rss.png http://forums.nossaonline.org/ http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1670-Height-discrimination-in-pnp&goto=newpost Tue, 15 May 2012 00:07:49 GMT http://www.zambotimes.com/archives/47399-Honasan-wants-to-repeal-height-requirement-for-PNP-applicants.html MANILA — Senator Gregorio Honasan... http://www.zambotimes.com/archives/4...pplicants.html


MANILA — Senator Gregorio Honasan II on Monday introduced an act which seeks to repeal the height requirement for applicants to the Philippine National Police (PNP).


“Heightism or discrimination based on height is a reality today that has been widely practiced among law enforcement agencies and armed forces worldwide,” Honasan pointed out as he explained Senate bill 3184, known as the Police Height Equality Act of 2012.

In a meeting of the Senate's public order and dangerous drugs committee on Monday, Honasan said the bill pursues to repeal the height requirement imposed on the Section 30 (h) of Republic Act (RA) 6975 or the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Act of 1990, as amended by RA 1998.

As provided in RA 1998, known as the Philippine National Police Reform and Reorganization Act of 1998, the height must be at least 1.62m and 1.57m for male and female, respectively.

The bill explains that the height discrimination unnecessarily limits quality choice while promoting social prejudice.

Honasan said the committee studies on the possibility of imposing no height limit within the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) still depends on their standards.

“We will wait for their reports probably within the next two weeks so that we can prepare a committee report,” Honasan said.
The proposal of Honasan to repeal height limit for PNP applicants drew support from the PNP officials who attended the public hearing. (PNA) ]]> mattfromnossa http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1670-Height-discrimination-in-pnp http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1669-nossaonline-Twitter-exposes-heightism-http-heightism.blogspot.com-2012-05-twitte&goto=newpost Sat, 12 May 2012 08:26:53 GMT nossaonline: Twitter exposes #heightism @http://heightism.blogspot.com/2012/05/twitter-exposes-heightism.html?m=1 More...... nossaonline: Twitter exposes #heightism @http://heightism.blogspot.com/2012/05/twitter-exposes-heightism.html?m=1

More... ]]> Announcements mattfromnossa http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1669-nossaonline-Twitter-exposes-heightism-http-heightism.blogspot.com-2012-05-twitte http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1658-Holding-a-gun-makes-you-look-taller-(umm...ok)&goto=newpost Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:29:00 GMT http://nerdwithswag.com/vertically-challenged-studies-show-holding-a-gun-makes-you-look-taller According to new study by a team of UCLA... http://nerdwithswag.com/vertically-c...ou-look-taller

According to new study by a team of UCLA researchers, an individual holding a gun appears taller and more muscular in the subjects’s mind than a person holding any other object. Lead author Daniel Fessler, an evolutionary anthropologist and director of UCLA’s Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture, hypothesizes that our threat interpretation within our brain may be as simple as an image of the person’s size and strength.




“To test this theory, researchers set up a series of experiments in which they had hundreds of participants look at photos of hands holding different objects: handguns, handsaws, power drills and caulking guns. (The hands matched one another in size and appearance.)

Participants were asked to look at the photos and estimate the size of the person holding each object and how muscular he was by choosing one of six body types.

In one round of the experiment involving 628 viewers, the researchers found that men whose hands held a .357-caliber handgun were thought to be almost 5 feet, 10 inches — more than 2 inches taller than men whose hands held a caulking gun.

Men with drills were also on the higher end of the height and strength scale — perhaps because of viewers’ estimates of the strength it would take to hold a drill — but they were still judged to be about half an inch shorter than the gun toters.

To make sure the viewers were not simply judging based on the weight of the objects, the researchers ran another test using a paintbrush, a kitchen knife and a squirt gun. Even though for some reason the viewers associated the kitchen knife more with women and the paintbrush more with men, the kitchen knife still made the holder seem bigger and stronger than either the paintbrush or the squirt gun did.

On average, Fessler said, viewers thought gun wielders were 17% taller and stronger than those holding the caulking guns ]]> Chrisof BK http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1658-Holding-a-gun-makes-you-look-taller-(umm...ok) http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1649-Are-shorter-people-better-for-the-climate&goto=newpost Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:19:19 GMT http://reason.com/blog/2012/03/12/the-short-people-solution-to-climate-cha The Short People Solution to Climate Change Ronald Bailey | March... http://reason.com/blog/2012/03/12/th...to-climate-cha


The Short People Solution to Climate Change

Ronald Bailey | March 12, 2012


Short people are more climate-friendly argue researchers at New York University and Oxford University in a provocative new paper, Human Engineering and Climate Change, to be published in the journal Ethics, Policy and the Environment. This is not the first time that environmental concerns have motivated such a suggestion. For example, back in 1967 Technology Review published an article which argued:


A reduction in man's size might be compared to an increase in the size of the earth....Consider, as but one example, the relation of man's size to the facilities provided for his transportation. Smaller man could mean smaller vehicles, either smaller highway rights of way or greater capacity for existing highways, easier provision for off-street parking ... Similar benefits of smaller human size become apparent in buildings.

In 1984, the Washington Post in article on how to feed an allegedly overpopulating world cited futurist Graham Molliter as envisioning "an outer-limits scenario: using genetic engineering to produce smaller people--who need less food."

In the new article, the researchers point out that international treaties and markets have not had any real impact on the amount of atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide humanity is producing by burning fossil fuels. So perhaps something more drastically creative should be done - thus their proposal to shrink the average size of human beings. As their article points out:


[One] more striking example of human engineering is the possibility of making humans smaller. Human ecological footprints are partly correlated with our size. We need a certain amount of food and nutrients to maintain each kilogram of body mass. This means that, other things being equal, the larger one is, the more food and energy one requires. Indeed, basal metabolic rate (which determines the amount of energy needed per day) scales linearly with body mass and length. As well as needing to eat more, larger people also consume more energy in less obvious ways. For example, a car uses more fuel per mile to carry a heavier person than a lighter person; more fabric is needed to clothe larger than smaller people; heavier people wear out shoes, carpets, and furniture more quickly than lighter people, and so on.

Reduced average human size might be achieved by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis of embryos in which only those expressing genes for shorter stature are implanted; using hormone treatments to stop growth earlier in children; or encouraging low-birth weight infants.

In addition, the researchers suggest deploying pharmacological treatments to induce meat aversion in people since livestock production results in a lot of greenhouse gas emissions per calorie. We could also use less electricity for lighting if humans were genetically modified to have eyes more like those of cats that can see better in the dark.

Another possible technique would be to treat people with cognitive enhancements since a side effect is that smarter people tend to have fewer children. Also, it might be possible to pharmacologically boost empathy in people so that they will cooperate more easily to address environmental problems.

I am not sure what pharmacological treatment might be implied by the authors' observation that "testosterone appears to decrease aspects of empathy." Why pull punches when it comes to saving Mother Earth: If men are bad for the planet, why not suggest getting rid of the bearers of Y chromosomes?

What about the ethics of meddling in this way? The authors stress that adoption of all of their proposals should be voluntary ]]> Chrisof BK http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1649-Are-shorter-people-better-for-the-climate http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1647-nossaonline-Double-Standard-of-weightism-vs.-heightism-http-t.co-zHBAt4lz&goto=newpost Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:49:02 GMT nossaonline: Double Standard of weightism vs. heightism? @ http://t.co/zHBAt4lz More...... nossaonline: Double Standard of weightism vs. heightism? @ http://t.co/zHBAt4lz

More... ]]> Announcements mattfromnossa http://forums.nossaonline.org/showthread.php?1647-nossaonline-Double-Standard-of-weightism-vs.-heightism-http-t.co-zHBAt4lz