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This blog is about uniting sexual and gender minorities in the fight for equality. We are about calling out those who discriminate, boycotting and protesting against those that seek to destroy our lives, and showing appreciation and support for those who have been allied with us in our fight for true liberation.
It is without doubt that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are fighting for genuine rights, such as the right to marry, adopt, serve openly in the military, donate blood, and be free from discrimination and hate. Likewise the transgender movement is about creating acceptance for gender diversity, obtaining the rights listed above and in addition fighting to change the notion that gender identity variance is a "disorder" make sure sex re-assignment is affordable, safe, and approved. There are also efforts to make the process to change the birth certificate, passport, license, etc to reflect the new gender identity of the individual. The intersex movement does not have to fight for medical care in the same way the transgender community does, instead they are fighting against childhood genital mutilation of intersex babies. They are also on a mission to create awareness, advocacy, and acceptance of third gendered people.
That leaves us with one group under the queer umbrella that begs to question if it is indeed a civil rights movement. Asexuality is a legitimate sexual orientation, one that needs awareness and understanding within society. The question is, will there be an asexual rights movement and what would the fight be for?
Some things to consider about the current movement and status of asexuality:
-It is newly organized and just beginning to receive publicity, due to the internet people are learning about and coming out as asexual and/or questioning.
-There is a division within the movement over whether asexuality falls under the queer umbrella and whether it should be added on to the LGBTQ acronym.
-Asexuality is not being taught in sex-ed or in books with regards to human sexuality.
-There is a complete lack of resources available for an asexual or questioning asexual person.
-Laws which mandate marriages be consummated are discriminatory against asexual couples.
-The Diagnostic Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association lists asexuality as "Hypoactive Sexual Desire isorder"
-Asexuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or intersex face additional struggles and lack of equal rights.
Those points being noted, do you think that asexuality is the next battle on the civil rights front? Is this a battle for some degree of equal rights and recognition or more a battle for acceptance and understanding?
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Open Forum: The Asexual Rights Movement?
This blog is about uniting sexual and gender minorities in the fight for equality. We are about calling out those who discriminate, boycotting and protesting against those that seek to destroy our lives, and showing appreciation and support for those who have been allied with us in our fight for true liberation.
21 comments:
- ACH said...
I think that it is mostly a matter of understanding and acceptance. A funny thing about the marriage laws is that they may become a bigger problem in the future than the are now. Asexuals are fighting against the belief that we don't exist, and this belief has done a good job of preventing us from coming together. As a consequence, there have been pretty few marriages between asexuals just because we didn't know each other existed until recently. As this changes and there are more asexual-asexual marriages, this is likely to become a bigger issue.
The DSM is a really complicated issue because HSDD pathologizes asexuals, but the diagnosis is mostly for sexual couples where one person has lost interest in sex, and having the diagnosis--at least in the US--is important for those couples to get reimbursement for therapy to help their relationship.
The asexual community's issues are a lot different than the other members of the queer community with respect to civil rights. However, I think that there are a lot of similarities in terms of acceptance and the coming out process. Asexuals face a lot of the same dismissive attitudes and insulting questions that other queer people face. Parents asking what they did wrong. People assuming you must have been abused. People saying that you just haven't met the right person yet or been in bed with the right person yet. (Very similar to telling a lesbian that she just thinks she's a lesbian because she hates men, or hasn't met the right man yet, or hasn't been in bed with the right man.) Challenging the assumptions underlying these sorts of questions, providing resouces for asexuals, including more information about asexuality in sexual education--all of these are important goals, but I think they are more about understanding and acceptance than civil rights.
- November 29, 2008 at 12:39 AM
- Queers United said...
Thanks for a really eloquent and thought out comment. I wonder though if the gay movement could have started out as an acceptance movement, but once reality hit and people weren't accepting and refused to change their notions of gay people and culture, that it became a battle for rights among the lgbt community.
I wonder if the same could happen to asexuals? Right now I agree I think it is a more an issue of educating, and asking for understanding and acceptance. What happens though if organizations refuse to add asexuality, under the false pretense that asexuals don't exist or that it is just a psychological problem. What if even when presented with scientific evidence to support the notion that asexuality is a healthy sexual variant the APA still refuses to budge.
Do you think if that occurs that asexuality will move beyond a education movement and become a battle for certain rights or to overturn certain stigmas?
- November 29, 2008 at 12:54 AM
- Diane J Standiford said...
Good questions, wish I had good answers. I feel like many rights have been taken from all of us over the last 8 years...how to prioritze? I'm 50 and tired; I almost want to pass the baton to younger folks.
- November 29, 2008 at 2:02 AM
- Emma said...
There definitely needs to be an asexual awareness movement, but a rights movement implies specific legal goals-- what would those be?
- November 29, 2008 at 3:35 AM
Asexuals are at an interesting spot. We've got the beginnings of a community and we're beginning to ally ourselves with LGBTQI (it's only a matter of time before it's formal) and we're still unknown enough that we only face passive discrimination. So yeah, a lot of our focus is on education and standing up against the general gender discrimination and sexuality discrimination that makes everyone's lives harder, but eventually we're going to hit a point where we face active discrimination and we'll have to be ready.
It's not a matter of it but rather when, because asexualities by existing challenge a fundamental assumption underlying power structures: that lust/sex and love are separate concepts. Much like LGB challenge the gender roles of men and women and TI challenge the immutability god-given role myth, As break down an assumption that patriarchs use for control, the idea that pair-bonding requires sexual sacrifices and sexual obligations. As such, we will face persecution once the power structure figures out we exist. There are already hints of that with angry psychologists ranting about how asexuals are just repressed deviants living unhealthy and destructive lives as well as "jokes" about how the Priest Child Abuses are a result of the asexuality rather than the power structure and lack of oversight.
Of course, it's possible we'll have it a lot better because of all the work that's come before us. Marital consummation is seen as far less of a mandatory than it used to be thanks to second-wave feminism, non-traditional sexuality and the lingo for it has been staked by the LGBTQI, and polyamorists are already beginning the groundwork towards explaining and allowing freedom for asexuals in sexually-incompatible relationships.
- November 29, 2008 at 9:14 AM
anon is me.
Also, I think for now, a lot of the active work in our direct rights movement will be related to feminism and more focused on the women. Male asexuals have issues (coming out, assumptions of homosexuality and subsequent discrimination, disbelief, etc...), but female asexuals have the most on stake from cultural ignorance, because it makes them more susceptible to rape and sexual assault. Female asexuals are often berated to have sex against their will "to be sure" and because of a lack of lust are unlikely to produce enough natural lubricant to make penetration even bearable much less enjoyable.
Add to that assumptions as to a women's natural role and cultural mistrust of bachelorettes who seem happy (a man can be a bachelor and seen as a stud or "wise", whereas a female bachelor is seen as crazy or evil and often faces direct discrimination because of those cultural views). Also add to that an inadequate language for women to say no or express their desires in general. Especially in terms of expressing a lack of desire. Add all that together and you've got a system ripe for a greater incidence of sexual abuse that can be turned around and used as "proof" that asexuals are just sexually abused sex-haters.
I think on top of coming into our own, spreading visibility, and fighting for general sexuality and poly rights, we need to also strongly stand up for feminism especially where it intersects (females the above, men the assumption of being broken, gay, or less of a man for lacking heterosexual lust) and educating our young questioners as to their rights to say no.
I think it's also the main reason why visibility is such a big cornerstone right now. The younger and more easily a youngster can find out about what they're feeling or not feeling, the more easily they can resist conformist social pressure to do things they don't want.
But anyways, thanks for the post and all the effort you've contributed to asexual rights. No one else seems to be fighting as hard for our inclusion into the queer umbrella as you. Speaking as an asexual queer activist, thank you.
- November 29, 2008 at 9:30 AM
- Raphael said...
I understand that asexual people may face a number of rude and prying questions, as well as nagging relatives who don't understand. But is this the same as discrimination? What rights are they specifically being denied? The law is crystal clear that we do not have to engage in sexual or marital relationships if we don't want to.
I also question the assertion that asexual women are more likely to get raped than other women, or it is somehow more traumatic for them. Rape can be a horrible experience for anyone of any orientation (or gender).
I haven't thougth much about this issue, and I'd like to think I have an open mind. But a lot of the problems listed above don't really strike me as discrimination. I welcome an asexual person to share his or her story. A lot of the problems that were mentioned are actually faced by all single people of any orientation.
And I strongly believe the "queer" umbrella is big enough to cover asexual people (as well as heterosexuals too). I mean, is this point really controversial?
I am also strongly against the notion that a listing in DSM-IV is itself a civil rights issue, and I think some trans activists are far off the mark in trying to get gender identity disorder de-listed. I'd rather fight against the stigma of mental illness. I fear that if GID were declassified, trans people would be denied access to (or insurance coverage for) treatments, like therapy, hormones, or surgery, which they may need to be happy with their bodies.
- November 29, 2008 at 10:25 AM
@ Raphael
We could solve that trans problem by having actual health care in this country so that insurance loopholes didn't impede actual human rights. Being pathologized is a human rights issue. Having your immutable identity turned into a disease means that it is a disease requiring treatment. In simpler terms, if who you are is a disease, then you will be approached as if you need to be fixed and face discrimination on that score. All marginalized groups have a point in their history where normal behavior was seen as psychotic.
Slaves who resisted their masters were sent to specialists who would "cure" the "tempers" from them with whipping and torture.
Women who had sexual desires, reacted poorly to the expected marital rapes, or disobeyed their husbands or fathers were routinely locked away in mental institutions.
Gays and Lesbians were often institutionalized for their "abhorrent" desires.
Trans and asexuals are still to this day seen as psychoses and there are still psychologists who argue that what they need is intensive therapy to be the psychologist's idea of normal. Though to be fair, other queers still have to deal with this in the form of "ex-gay therapy" and it's runty faith-based children.
Turning an identity into a disorder is passive discrimination and as any trans person can tell you, having the world deny who you are is taxing on one's mental health and fortitude.
On asexual women, they are NOT more traumatically raped and I'm rather appalled that I came off as arguing that. Rape is a universally horrifying experience and a frankly common one.
I used the term "more susceptible", but I intended it in terms of being more likely to "consent" to the more basic forms of rape or being less hyperaware. I don't know if they are statistically raped more often, because I imagine many knock off all sex pretty quickly or avoid entering it entirely (not an uncommon phenomenon among asexuals). Nor is it "more traumatic" in the psychological sense. There is no good rape or bad rape, all of it traumatizes pretty brutally because it is the removal of consent and agency.
In fact my statement is simply that without visibility, self-understanding, etc... an asexual woman is more likely to be brow-beaten to "consenting" to her own rape because she'll feel like she is supposed to be having sex and because she'll feel like there is something wrong with her from lacking sexual desire. It is similar to pre-out homosexuals. They have "sex" with a partner without any attraction or informed consent because they are expected to and because the alternatives are not well understood or greatly stigmatized.
Many asexuals have to go through a period where they face such an empty forced interaction with both sexes before they are even aware and even if they are, everyone they meet will assume that it can't be true if the person hasn't physically tried it with both sexes and even then, it will be assumed that it was with people who "were bad at it".
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what you actually want, Raphael. I mean it's definitely true, and you'd be hard-pressed to find an asexual who'd deny it, that asexuals are not yet actively discriminated against. Most people don't believe we exist, so they don't bother trying to specifically target us though we definitely are caught up in all the side-lash against feminism, queer rights, poly rights, etc... We're not big enough yet to be seen as a threat, as we're not even formally allies yet of the organization we will be and are allied with.
But it's also true that we will be. We will face ACTIVE persecution in the not-that-distant future (certainly in my lifetime) and we certainly do face the passive discrimination that results in not being recognized in policy.
Now, it may seem like a lesser thing, but it does effect people. Look at assumptions of sexuality or the statements that without sex one is somehow less than or unfulfilled or worse one step away from killing people. I'm sure that you can see how the latter will be problematic once we are more recognized in society. Look at assumptions of love that require or are based on sex and sexual attraction. Not only does it not apply to us, but we by our existence, prove it wrong. Once we demonstrate that publicly, there will be a backlash as has been seen on the few tv programs we've been on (each had a psychologist berating us for our sick relationships and the pathetic justifications).
Is it less than, is it future? Does it really effect our employment, our ability to marry (if like bisexuals we have the good fortune to fall in love with the "right" sex), or even that much in the here and now outside adding an additional layer of conflict, potential menace, and strife to relationships? Not really. Which is why I devote the majority of my time to queer rights, feminism, and racial and class equality and only a minority of my time to asexual and polyamory activism.
Not only is it the right thing to do to resist an active current bigotry, but in very selfish terms, the more we do know to fix that shit, the easier it'll be for us once the haters figure out we exist.
- November 29, 2008 at 12:32 PM
- Unknown said...
I dunno.
I scrolled back up to read Anonymous' comment again and my fist thought was, are you kidding me? You use "we" over and over again like you're speaking for a movement. "We're doing this and that," "We're forming an alliance with the GLBT's," "We're breaking down barriers, making a difference."
With all due respect, there is no "we." There's Anon and maybe two other lost souls. Three people with a computer and too much time on their hands.
This is not a mighty wind. No one has to break out the storm windows.
- November 29, 2008 at 1:48 PM
Cerberus & pretzelboy: Thank you so much for your comments. I learned quite a bit from you both.
With the DSM-V coming out in 2012, perhaps it would be a good idea to petition the APA? Right now Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder is classified as a disorder "if it causes distress for the patient or problems in the patient's relationships". The wording of that is quite problematic.
Emma: Not all movements have legal goals in mind; many of the goals of feminism, for example, involve trying to shape public opinion.
It's important for us to inform the communities we're in, both queer and non, about misconceptions about asexuals. As long as the majority of people believe that asexuality is an unwanted disorder, there's not likely to be many changes.
- November 29, 2008 at 2:18 PM
That would be me. Hi. You have a point that my use of "we" is possibly presumptuous. I don't have the permission of my asexual overlords from our Fortress of Doom and I am speaking hideously evilly with my humanizing scientific look at the evolution of public opinion of people like me and our place in the movements.
It's also true that we're not a mighty wind. Unlike LGB, we're only likely 1% of the population rather than 10% or possibly as high as 50% if we were to be truly honest about bisexuality, especially Kinsey 1. We'll never have organizing power. We're diffused. Outside of an online community, we're usually only a handful in any given city who are out. There are no asexuality specific stores or communities. We are a fragment, much like trans-people or intersex. No, we aren't a mighty wind.
But then, I also exist. And I'm also not alone. In this queer orientated thread, asexuals just averaged 2 out of 7 of the commentators which is way higher than the 1% we make up. On other boards, I've mentioned my sexuality and had 2-3 others give outting high-fives. This in threads closer to 50 distinct commentators. So being people who exist, we inevitably give voice to ourselves.
Now, from there you jump to us crowing about power and wasting time on computers. I'm currently bed-ridden already today with a cold and a backlog of emails, so it really wasn't out of my way. On power, we're nascent, the "we" is nascent, our secret evil "we" activities are nascent. On alliances, LGBTQI activists have extended hands, but many of us were already part of the community at large. I myself self-identify Q due to asexuality and devote a large amount of time to education and activism on behalf of LGBTQI rights.
But yes, I'm curious as to your response or further exposition on the topic. What were your motivations towards your post? What are your views on "our" "us"?
- November 29, 2008 at 2:28 PM
With regards to the DSM and APA we have to remember that as long as diagnosis for "sexual & gender disorders" are in the DSM they can always be used to abuse minorities (or those with the least power) in society. A good example would be how McCarthy(ism) used the DSM, APA, & AMA against the gay and lesbian movement. Also read "The Last Time I Wore a dress" by: Daphne Scholinski very sad and powerful! The Queer community faces so much ethnoviolence and lack of opportunity to speak in our own context, what ever our identity might be within the Queer spectrum. One way to broaden understanding in order to overcome inter-group conflict might be to advocate for "Queer Studies" programs at universities!
- November 29, 2008 at 6:52 PM
- Ily said...
Another asexual here...
I find the "there is no 'we'" comment interesting...people have told me before that there are no other asexuals, as a way of discounting my orientation, whereas I've met dozens of asexuals offline and AVEN has thousands of members. When you have 1% of a population, I suppose it can be tempting to round down, but 1% is still millions of people. I don't think acknowledgment of our existence is a "right", but it's important anyway.
- November 30, 2008 at 12:34 AM
As a 76 year old male doctor, this discussion is a Godsend, for it points out my ignorance. I'm in the process of writing my book on Woman's Sexuality, the culmination of over 50 years of work with women and am embarrassed to admit that I'm not even aware of the situation. No woman over this time (over 7,000 to date) has ever mentioned it to me in those terms; although now that you have enlightened me, I can see the hidden references they gave--unfortunately, they fell on deaf ears. I need an education
Cerberus and QU, will you educate me further please so that I may include it in my writing? I realize that my personal education can't take up valuable blog space, so if you would consider expanding my knowledge, you can reach me directly at email@example.com and I welcome all of you who are interested to erase this area of ignorance and open new vistas for me. Thanks.
- November 30, 2008 at 8:56 AM
- Ily said...
Hey Dr. G, you should definitely check out www.asexuality.org. You'll find it very informative!
- November 30, 2008 at 8:11 PM
Im for the asexual people!
- December 3, 2008 at 12:16 PM
Tonight on GRITtv with Laura Flanders, a preview of a documentary in progress "Asexuality: The Making Of A Movement."
The show is on DISH ch 9415 at 8pm EST - the segment will be available online at grittv.org
- December 4, 2008 at 10:29 AM
I've been spending some time trying to educate myself on the topic of asexuality and have learned a lot from several of you and I thank you for the help. As yet, I haven't found a link in understanding the process and have returned for more assistance. If the definition of asexuality is "someone who does not experience sexual attraction", is there any proposed mechanism? For those of you who experience this normal continuum of human sexuality, would you venture to postulate whether you feel it's a biologic phenomenon or is it more psychic in nature? I realize this is a wild openended question, but only you can answer it for only you experience it. Genetically and biologically, you are "normal"; that is you have your XX or XY and all the associated anatomy/physiology that goes with it. What then, in your opinion, makes you feel differently? If you don't want to post your answer on this forum, but would like to contribute to my better understanding, please just e-mail me directly at email@example.com
I would like to thank all of you for your efforts.
- December 7, 2008 at 10:38 AM
- Queers United said...
Dr. G we do have quite a number of asexual readers here, but my suggestion is to post on the asexuality.org forum which has thousands. You will certainly be able to connect with many people and get an array of feedback.
- December 7, 2008 at 11:23 AM
Thanks everyone and I posted the above on the web site as suggested and hope that someone will respond. This is too important an issue to push under the rug and I would like very much to address it in our upcoming book, so I keep looking to educate myself appropriately.
- December 7, 2008 at 3:03 PM
- Mackenzie said...
A gay man sexually harassed me when he found out I was asexual. Not just verbally, like...dropped his pants and entered my dorm room telling me I just needed "a long hard cock" up my "pussy" to cure me, as he approached.
- August 19, 2009 at 7:46 PM


text:
Doc-Lab Tübingen – a longitudinal skills lab curriculum
Search Medline for
|May 5, 2009
Context: Practical abilities are essential to keep up with good clinical standards. Skills labs provide a defined and protected learning environment for continuous training of both clinical technical and communication skills.
Question: What does Tübingen's Medical Faculty do to train its students in hands-on abilities?
Methods: A special questionnaire was created to assess the current skills lab activities of each department in order to establish a defined curriculum (Doc-Lab Tübingen). The items included ongoing teaching programs as well as planned future projects. It was assessed whether student or faculty staff instructors were responsible for teaching current training sessions and whether there was a wish to integrate more student instructors in future. Additionally, skills were assessed according to the following categories: basic (obligatory, to be learned until end of the 3rd year), advanced (obligatory, learned within the 4th and 5th year) and elective (on a voluntary basis, chosen to deepen knowledge or orientation).
Results: A total of 188 distinct skills were named in the questionnaires obtained from 14 distinct departments, comprising 14 main categories (e.g. communication, endoscopy, injection procedures, crisis resource management, etc.). Of these skills, 76% are already taught in the current curriculum. We assigned 50% of the skills to the basic curriculum, and 25% each for the advanced and elective curriculum, respectively. Established institutions like the Tübinger Experimental-OP (http://www.experimental-op.de) or the Tübinger Patientensicherheits- und Simulationszentrum TüPass (a simulation centre for intensive care and emergency medicine; http://www.d-i-p-s.de/Tupass2008) were also integrated into the Doc-Lab concept.
50% of teaching sessions are planned to be instructed by student peers. They are trained in methodology by the Baden-Württemberg competence centre for medical didactics and receive additional training from each clinical department to acquire the relevant medical techniques.
Continuous training for central skills will be provided at the end of the Doc-Lab curriculum within simulated ward rounds or an outpatient healthcare setting to practice the main situations doctors are faced with.
Conclusions: The Faculty of Tübingen provides a broad spectrum of different skills labs. The new Doc-Lab curriculum will provide a central didactic, administrative and financial platform to optimize the curricular skills training and to offer targeted sessions to deepen the practical capabilities of our students. Different skills categories form a classical learning pyramid and the integrated Doc-Lab scenarios provided directly before the final year of medical education will facilitate the integration of final year students into the clinical ward routine and later professional life. Doc-Lab students will be able to join a currently designed web-based script and video centre that will ensure proper standardization within the Doc-Lab syllabus.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sub-Cell GT Horizontal Electrophoresis System
Manufacturer: Bio-Rad Laboratories
Model: 1704401
Condition: New
Seller InformationBio-Rad Laboratories - Gene Expression
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All Goods shall be suitably packed in Bio-Rad's standard shipment packaging, marked, and shipped in accordance with Bio-Rad's applicable specifications (or if no specifications are provided, in accordance with reasonable commercial practices) using a carrier of Bio-Rad's choice. Goods may be shipped, depending on lead time and availability, in installments. Each installment shall be invoiced and considered a separate sale. Unless otherwise agreed, Buyer shall clear any imported Goods at the point of import and pay all relevant duties. Delivery terms (Incoterms 2010) shall be set forth in any Quotation.
View our full Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale at www.bio-rad.com/SaleTerms
For more information, contact your local Bio-Rad Customer Care office at www.bio-rad.com/Contact
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All Bio-Rad products are guaranteed to meet the specifications listed in our catalog. Should a Bio-Rad branded product fail to meet specifications during its warranty period, it shall be repaired or replaced at Bio-Rad's discretion.
- Warranty periods are listed on quotations for specific products; however, instruments generally receive 1 year of warranty coverage from the date of shipment or installation. Instrument warranties do not include consumable parts, such as lamps, lasers, and platinum wire.
- Repairs have different warranty periods.
- Chemicals and other consumables are warranted through their expiration date, or for 1 year from shipment if no expiration date is indicated.
- Non-Bio-Rad branded products, such as computers and computer peripherals, are covered by the original equipment manufacturer's warranty.
- Warranties are not transferable from the original purchaser.
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Ad Details 10000107


text:
So that's it, our new home for our ever growing Christmas Snow Village.
May you be a little inspired!
Linking to some of my favorite parties
I love the idea of buying one new thing each year. It's my husband and my first Christmas as a married couple and I think I'm going to copy your idea. I also love the display. It looks like that space was built for it.ReplyDelete
LOVE it! My mother started buying us Snow Village houses in 1970 - one each year. After I was married, my husband and I continued the tradition and when we had children we started them on the North Pole village. Needless to say, I have tons - too many really! I haven't put them out in many years and will soon be dividing them up among the boys for their own homes and to rekindle the tradition with their own families.
Your village is beautiful... may it bring you many years of happiness!
It's absolutely beautiful!! I love them in the bookshelves. It so beautiful. We started villages for our girls and each year they get to pick out a new piece. They have theirs in their rooms. I have a mini village in our living room with pieces that were handed down from my mom.
First off, I LOVE the units themselves!! Beautiful job you did refinishing them!
AND the village looks stunning here!! So very pretty!! I have one village that always goes on a platform under my tree and I ran out of room in the house this year so I did not put out my second village this year. I will be thinking about something like this for next year now....
Thanks for the inspiration!!
Love your idea of putting them in the bookshelves. I do have a question, how did you elevate the houses, etc.? I have tried purchasing the foam as risers from the craft store and have been unable to get them. What did you use?ReplyDelete
I use the foam that the houses come in to elevate them.
Beautiful!! You always have such great ideas.ReplyDelete
That is just so lovely!ReplyDelete
I'm not a big on the snow villages (only because I don't have anywhere to store and display them), but wow! I love this! What a perfect home for your villages and you did such a nice job painting the cabinets! Very nice and Christmasy!ReplyDelete
I absolutely love it!!!ReplyDelete
So beautiful! I love Christmas villages! :) Merry Christmas!


text:
In a slight change in policy, Twitter has enabled the ability "to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country—while keeping it available in the rest of the world." Basically, if a tweet is illegal in a certain country, it will be censored in that country. In the rest of the world, it'll still be completely visible.
Previously, Twitter had no control over tweets other than removing them globally (which they don't do). Twitter says it's introducing this policy because Twitter is growing internationally and into countries that have "different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression". If Twitter didn't change the policy to include the ability to censor, Twitter wouldn't be able to exist there. But how different would the Arab Spring upheavals in the Middle East have been if Twitter had adopted this policy last year?
Twitter hasn't censored any tweets yet but it'll likely happen as new countries get a hold of the service. Once the tweet is censored, it'll be clearly marked with a link to an explanation. For what it's worth, Google and other search engines already participates in a similar policy for certain countries. It'll be interesting to see how this affects tweet-roots campaigns in other countries. [Twitter via MarketingLand]


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8 SNL Audition Tapes
Saturday Night Live cast members go through a tough on-stage audition process, and it's taped. Sometimes those tapes make their way onto YouTube (and then they're almost always removed). Here, enjoy all the legitimate audition tapes I could find on YouTube. Check out your favorite SNL stars back when they were twitchy and super-young! (And if you want more actual info about the process, read Orrin Konheim's article How to Get on Saturday Night Live.)
Phil Hartman
With Jon Lovitz towards the end. Love his high-waisted trousers. I miss this guy.
Dana Carvey - Choppin' Broccoli
"If I didn't know her, she'd be the lady I didn't know...cold as ice...whoa yeah!"
Dana Carvey - Impressions
Unless you're over a certain age, you'll have no idea what's going on here.
Jimmy Fallon
Lots of impressions and lots of nervous energy. Around 6 minutes in, a sort of "you had to be there" 90s song parody segment.
John Belushi
Starting with some exercises, including eyebrow lifts. Starting around 2:08 the Brando material arguably goes a little too far.
Dan Aykroyd
"I have some very interesting personal news for men."
Jim Breuer
"You're all dummies." See also: part 2 and part 3 and part 4.
Cookie Monster
Poor Cookie Monster. It turns out he's just a Sometimes Host.


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Girlfriend wanted fairy tale, but gets drama instead
DEAR ANNIE: I am a 68-year-old twice-divorced woman who has made some unwise decisions in my life. I'm single (which is fine) and will be retiring at year's end. I'm currently living with an egotistical, frugal, cold-as-ice 75-year-old man who claims he loves me, yet he dominates every conversation, lacks social skills, ignores etiquette and attempts to control me.
I didn't know him long enough before I moved to be with him. We met at a dance when he was in town visiting friends. I still couldn't discern infatuation from love. I wanted a fairy tale. I thought with my heart instead of my head. After a while, dancing four nights a week wears thin when that's all there is to enjoy together. I haven't been happy for several years. We've made some nice friends, but if I don't suggest getting together, they never would. My children and siblings live out of state, and I want to move back home. How can I do that and save face with my family and friends? They warned me that I was rushing into things. — DANCED ENOUGH
DEAR DANCED: You'd rather be unhappy than admit you made a mistake? It could be very freeing to say to your friends and family, "You were right. I should have listened." Then it's over. Just make sure you don't repeat the mistake. Take some time to figure out what is best for you, without focusing on the next man in your life.
DEAR ANNIE: I've been married for 45 years. I love my wife, but I like to flirt with women.
Last year I did more than flirt, and my wife found out. I asked her to forgive me, and she did. But when she keeps asking for an explanation, I blow her off, leave or get upset until she quits asking annoying questions. Should I tell her to get over it, or sit down with her and tell her the entire truth, even if it is more than she can handle? — WONDERING
DEAR WONDERING: You cheated on your wife, and you find her questions "annoying"? Your wife deserves your complete honesty. It's not up to you to decide what is too much for her to handle. She might forgive you, but she will never be able to trust you again if she doesn't believe you are totally truthful, answering any questions she has for as long as it takes. Ask your doctor to refer you to a marriage counselor so the two of you can hash this out and truly start fresh.
DEAR ANNIE: I read the letter from "Need Help in Jacksonville, Fla.," the elderly couple who could use some help with the housekeeping, but felt that cleaning service personnel could not be trusted to keep their hands off of their valuables. There is another side to that story that needs to be mentioned.
My 80-year-old parents often tell me that "someone" who visited their home must have stolen various items, because they could not find these things. My friends with parents that age tell me the same thing. They are convinced someone has stolen everything from watches and money to kitchen utensils and cookie sheets. My mother even accused a family member of stealing a watch that she later found right where she had misplaced it. As you can well imagine, that did some damage to their relationship.
At the age of 50-something, I spend a good deal of time looking for my own misplaced things. Thank goodness I am not yet at the point where I am convinced these things were stolen, but I suspect that time will come soon enough. — A WEARY DAUGHTER
Annie's Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please email your questions to email@example.com, or write to: Annie's Mailbox, c/o Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.


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According to the latest update from Drake [MP3], the following are to be arrested any day from now:
- Nancy Pelosi
- Michelle and Barack Obama
- Eric Holder
- Timothy Geithner
- Joe Biden
- Harry Reid
- George HW Bush
It was said that of the eight listed above, Nancy Pelosi has been arrested already according to the arresting officer himself. This is yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, over in Italy, Cabalists are killing each other, according to the latest report by Benjamin Fulford.
We also need to watch the upcoming activation of an International Common Law Court that will hear complaints against the Crown, Big Pharma and the Vatican on September 15, 2012.
One of the significant sources of funds for the Cabal is the healthcare industry which registered a whopping $2.7 trillion in 2011, and is projected to soar to $3.6 trillion in 2016, in the US alone. We believe that this is just a conservative figure.
You can join the fight against the Dark Cabal and accelerate its demise just by boycotting Big Pharma. You can effectively do this by downloading "Towards Healthcare Emancipation", a fully illustrated do-it-yourself instructional eBook that will help you in implementing all eClinik methods that would negate the use of expensive medicine, avoid radioactive diagnostics and treatments in completely defeating cancer, AIDS and all other parasitic diseases. These methods, when faithfully followed, work 100% all the time. Find out more about this here.


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Story by
Courtney Boyd Myers
Courtney Boyd Myers is the founder of audience.io, a transatlantic company designed to help New York and London based technology startups gr Courtney Boyd Myers is the founder of audience.io, a transatlantic company designed to help New York and London based technology startups grow internationally. Previously, she was the Features Editor and East Coast Editor of TNW covering New York City startups and digital innovation. She loves magnets + reading on a Kindle. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter @CBM and Google +.
The early days of New York's Internet scene were similar to the early days of the Industrial Revolution. The men and women who pioneered the Internet in the mid-late 90s lived in a time marked by freneticism, enthusiasm and rapid hiring. Innovation was celebrated and there was a real spirit of anything's possible.
For any parents out there who think Facebook is dangerous, these entrepreneurs know it pales in comparison to what went down in AOL chat rooms. This was a time when Google wasn't yet on anyone's radar and most people performed searches using AOL and Compuserve. The sound of the dial-up 56k modem was exciting, not agonizing and certainly not laughable like it is today. But the high of the craze was quickly deflated by the dot.com bubble's burst. Companies that had IPOs in the multi-millions found themselves bankrupt. And if that didn't kill spirits, New York City was brought to a standstill when it watched its two towers come crashing down. It was a very dark time.
Last week, we interviewed dot.com pioneers Stephan Paternot, Robert Levitan, Rich Forman, Jeff Stewart and Andrew Weinreich who didn't let the collapse of the market and the implosion of the Internet space stop them from continuing to conquer. Never straying from Silicon Alley meant that they found something incredibly special about the small, collaborative and supportive milieu that is still pervasive in New York City's tech scene today. This week we feature the second half of our intrepid entrepreneurs: Murray Hidary, Steve Krein, Cecilia Pagkalinawan, Jeff Dachis and Laurel Touby, who are all up to new and exciting endeavors.
Murray Hidary of EarthWeb
Murray Hidary is a photographer, a composer, a world traveler, an athlete and an entrepreneur. His photography has been on display at the San Francisco MoMA, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the San Diego Art Institute and the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. At the age of 23, he co-founded EarthWeb, one of the first Internet companies. Since then he has been starting company after company with his brother, Jack Hidary while continuing his creative work in music and photography. "It's about the excitement of creating something new, that hasn't been done before, that's the common denominator," he says.
Art can be an isolating process but the business world is about collaboration, and working with your team. That's exciting for me. New ideas don't happen in isolation.
EarthWeb, which both Murray and Jack Hidary founded in 1994 along with Nova Spivack, served as an IT information portal. When EarthWeb's IPO took place on November 11, 1998, it was the largest first-day return in NASDAQ history. After the dot.com crash, Internet.com acquired EarthWeb's content properties and EarthWeb changed its name to Dice Inc., which Murray left in January 2001. Later that year, the Hidary brothers co-founded Vista Research, which connected hedge funds with a network of industry experts in technology, media, telecom, energy, aerospace, healthcare, etc. The company was acquired by the S&P division of McGraw-Hill in 2005.
That same year, the two Hidary brothers founded their next venture– iAmplify, a Web-based content publisher and syndication network for professionals that takes the publishing industry "beyond the book." Clients ranging from individuals to large corporations include Bloomberg, David Allen, Yoga Journal, author Eckhart Tolle and Condé Nast's Golf Digest. The two brothers are also cooking up another new company called Primary Insight, which is a 2.0 version of their original hedge fund-expert network Vista Research.
Murray Hidary isn't your corporate 3-piece suit kind of guy. He strolls into the office dressed in a plaid shirt and Converse sneakers. "It's about ideas," says the man with the most well-balanced left and right brain I've ever encountered.
CBM: What was it like working with your brother for so many years?
Murray Hidary: It was pretty natural. My father works with his four brothers. I grew up experiencing all of my uncles and first cousins in the business. So working with Jack was a very easy decision to make.
CBM: What are the big differences between working in the Internet business today versus the '90s?
MH: It's gotten a lot easier, and less expensive to launch companies today because so many of the platforms and web tools are commoditized and cost-effective now. What's really cool today, is that I work with many people who were with me 15 years ago. They've been with us through several companies and are part of the family.
CBM: What's your favorite new technology that you wish you'd had your whole life?
MH: My BlackBerry.
CBM: Your BlackBerry?
MH: I tried to switch to the iPhone! But I can't type as fast on the iPhone's keyboard. I have an iPad for all the fun apps.
CBM: How much of what you do is driven by the desire to be an entrepreneur?
MH: I always had that bug in me, and I've been driven primarily by my own individualism and desire to control my own destiny. When I was 15, every Sunday I'd go to the flea markets in Brooklyn and Queens and sell everything from t-shirts to snow suits. I'd walk away with $300-400 every weekend. I learned more about negotiating and getting a deal done doing that than in any of my schooling.
CBM: Where's your favorite place to travel?
MH: Traveling is my absolute love. When I was 18, I left NYU and spent a year riding a bicycle over 10,000 miles throughout Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. I love exploring this planet that we all share. One of my most recent, and favorite trips was going to Iceland for 3 weeks and doing a lot of hiking in the glacial region.
Steven Krein of Promotions.com
Steven Krein has been building Internet companies for 15 years. He was the co-founder and CEO of the first Internet promotion and technology company, Webstakes, which was founded in 1996. The name changed to Promotions.com when it went public in 1999, and achieved a market capitalization of more than half a billion dollars. At the time of IPO, Krein was just 29 years old. In less than 4 years, Promotions raised $45 million in venture and strategic capital and grew to more than $27 million in annual revenue and attracted some of the largest brands in the world as clients including Kraft Foods, Citibank and NBC. The company was acquired by iVillage in 2002.
While it's very cool now to be in New York and building a company, it wasn't always that way. We were pushing back on the incentive to move to the West Coast. None of us were willing to give up the New York name. Despite the urge to, none of us left. So it's great that it finally is cool now, but we were all people who worked here, played here, and raised a family here. It wasn't easy to fight that urge. You had to find talent in New York in a time when there wasn't a lot of it.
-Steven Krein
Krein left iVillage and began coaching entrepreneurs, as well as investing in venture businesses. Then, in 2007, one of his investors from Promotions was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he saw first hand how discombobulated the health care system is in our country. Shortly after, Krein launched Organized Wisdom to close the gap between doctor visits and the health care online. "I'm turning my talents, networks and relationships towards these bigger, more meaningful problems," he says.
His latest venture, Startup Health is geared towards health and wellness entrepreneurs and it's a fitting compilation of everything he's done until now. "Everything I've done has been practice for Startup Health: raising capital, IPOing, selling, hiring and firing, navigating the obstacles that are thrown your way as an entrepreneur… it's all culminating into this initiative," he says. "There's a concept I like, 'Unique Ability' it's doing what you love and what you're great at. I look at Startup Health as truly one of my unique abilities in life– running a program to teach health and wellness entrepreneurs and help connect them with capital."
CBM: What's the coolest thing you've done recently as an entrepreneur?
Steven Krein: I recently had the chance to meet with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office with just my partner. It was the four of us talking about Startup Health. Having a chance to pitch the President of the United States on a concept and a business that we created was just off the charts incredible. And he was incredibly supportive.
CBM: What are you most proud of having accomplished in your life?
SK: I'm a father of 3 beautiful little girls, ages 3-8 and I have an incredible wife. Without a doubt, I'm most proud of my family. I've been able to be both an entrepreneur, have a family and live in New York– what an incredible gift all of that is.
I've also been very fortunate to have had incredible mentors around the way. In the last year, I've gotten to know Jerry Levin, the former CEO of Time Warner. He's the chair of Startup Health and an incredible mentor. When you don't have a boss, you have to look to other people who have qualities that you admire. I've been fortunate; Levin is humble, family focused, wildly successful yet still very grounded.
I surround myself with other entrepreneurs who are doing amazing things. I tend to be attracted to types of people who are "batteries included" vs. "batteries not included".
CBM: When did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?
SK: When I was 9 years old I started my first business as a magician clown doing birthday parties for kids in the neighborhoods. I typed up my cards on a typewriter and started my own business.
Cecilia Pagkalinawan
During "New York tech 1.0" Cecilia Pagkalinawan was perched at the crux of fashion and e-commerce. While working at an ad agency in 1994, Pagkalinawan was referred to as "The Internet Expert." She was taken to numerous Fortune 500 companies to discuss what the Internet was and how they should use it. The CEO of an early Internet company called K2 offered her a job to join as its 6th employee. 2 years later, the company went public and she became the VP of Client Services. In 1997, she was hired away by a Canadian company to start its U.S. operations. Within 6 months, the financial backers pulled out and she acquired the company she had started in New York and found herself suddenly an "accidental CEO."
She called the company BoutiqueY3k, and raised $150,000 in angel investment to run what became the Internet's first digital agency focused on fashion and shopping. At a time when less than 2% of investment was going to women and when Silicon Valley VCs were ignoring New York all together, Pagkalinawan raised a whopping $6.5 million dollars from the West Coast based Vantage Point Venture Partners. Within two years, she grew the company to 26 people with almost 2 million in billings. But then life for Pagkalinawan came to a screeching halt. The bubble burst, but even more tragic was the sudden death of her sister, who at age 33 passed away from a prescription drug overdose.
Pagkalinawan says it took her at least 7 years to feel semi-normal again and that her sister's death caused her to go through a bout of depression. An interested acquirer offered to buy BoutiqueY3k on the condition that Pagkalinawan stay on for 3 years. At this point, she needed time off so she shut down the company and took a road trip with two girlfriends who were unemployed during the dot.com crash. They drove across America, hit up Jazz Fest, went snowboarding in Telluride, and tried to recapture their lives. At some point after the trip but during her sabbatical, Pagkalinawan became pregnant. And in preparation to become a single mom, she returned to the city and got herself a job. She worked in fashion for Burberry and then for Frette and La Perla, all the while keeping close tabs on the tech industry. Wanting to apply what she'd learned working for multinational brands to the class of young designers, she created a platform to enable talented entrepreneurs to sell their fashion products directly to consumers.
Cecilia Pagkalinawan is now the founder and CEO of StyleTrek, an online boutique featuring independent designers. I first covered StyleTrek last November when it opened its doors internationally, expanding beyond the U.S. to 91 countries. The site currently has designers from 5 continents, and is taking on about 25-50 new designers each year. Her son Mateo is now 9 years old.
CBM: It sounds like you had a very early mid-life crisis, what can you tell others about the importance of slowing down?
Cecilia Pagkalinawan: We were all really young, working crazy hours and trying to do everything. We had to convince our investors, partners, even our family that this whole Internet thing was going to be a part of everyone's lives. Clients asked me, 'Will people put their credit cards online? Will they buy clothing without trying them on?' We had to do a lot of convincing.
My sister passing away gave me a wake up call. Within 4 months of the event I had to shut down my business. At that point I knew how important it is to pace yourself, as well as maintain your personal life and relationships with close friends and family. This time around I've kept that in mind. We're not super heroes. Sometimes we have to slow down.
CBM: Do you think you could've created StyleTrek 15 years ago?
CP: There was no cross border technology available, in fact most payment systems were still restricted to U.S. only. Most of the companies now doing cross border ecommerce services have grown or surfaced in the past 2 years and the momentum to further grow in that area is about to happen. We're still in the infancy.
CBM: What's your favorite new technology that you wish you'd had your whole life?
CP: I'm slightly embarrassed to say this but– Facebook– it's a great networking tool for business, for friends and a great way to keep track of your favorite brands, whether they're artists, musicians, designers, you name it.
CBM: What do you think of Google+?
CP: I'm on Google+ but I have not made a single update. I go to Google+ on occasion but it's the same feeds I'm getting from friends on Facebook. I think Google+ got the early adopters, but I also have nieces, nephews and cousins who haven't migrated to Google+. I prefer to interact with Facebook right now because everyone important to me is there.
CBM: You've watched men in this scene for many years now and seen the arrogance that comes with success. Everyone handles success differently, regardless of sex, but have you seen women become as arrogant as men in this industry?
CP: There are some who are, but they don't publish it, they don't talk about it to the press. We don't have female Zuckerbergs or Jason Calacanis's out there yet and that's fortunate to some degree. I mean, it's unfortunate we haven't had female entrepreneurs with that great of success or huge exits that can walk around and say anything they want without worrying about offending anyone. Who knows, maybe in 2 years we will. Today, 15% of investment dollars are now going to female entrepreneurs. It was only 2% when I started.
Jeff Dachis
In 1995, in an apartment in Manhattan's Alphabet City, Jeff Dachis and his partner Craig Kanarick started their first company Razorfish, to pioneer the new media field. After a few months, Time Warner hired the team to build a website for the New York Botanical Garden, which was one of the first companies to have an animated homepage, utilizing the "server-push" capabilities of the latest Netscape browser. With strategic investment from Omnicom, Razorfish moved to new offices and redesigned its branding to include the slogan "Everything that can be digital will be."
Over the next several years, Razorfish acquired several companies and expanded internationally. In April 1999, the company had an IPO which raised $48 million at $16 per share. Now, Razorfish is one of the world's largest interactive agencies. Dachis left Razorfish in 2001 and has since started The Dachis Group, an international services firm focused on developing the future of social businesses.
"There wasn't a Web when we first started. Craig and I were the first few folks in New York, or anywhere really, who were involved in creating things on the Internet. It was a strange moment in time when all of the facets of the media industry -production and distribution, music, books, magazines, television, radio, video games etc. and a variety of other subsets all came together as multimedia. It's hard to imagine what the world was like. I didn't know I wanted to be in the multimedia business until it all came together," says Dachis.
CBM: Looking back how do you feel about the changes happening then and what's happening now?
Jeff Dachis: First, we thought the world was going to change in a matter of two years. We'd say, 'By 1996 everything is going to be digital, and everyone is going to be doing business on the Internet.' But it took so much longer. Now when I think about the future of network and telecommunications, I'm much more stoked than I've ever been. All the things I dreamt about, all of what this revolution was going to create, it's here now, and now it's going to happen.
CBM: What did you envision in the late 90s that you are most pleased exists today?
JD: Everything you see today, we envisioned back then. The smartphone is a wonderful, wonderful part of my life. We were working on one of the first smartphones, envisioning a personal communication device that enabled you to tap into the network to browse the web, check email and do cool stuff. Over the years, we've seen dramatic increases in processing power, battery life and network connectivity and speed. Now, you can video chat with people using a supercomputer in your pocket. We dreamed about that but now it's a reality.
CBM: What will the iPhone of 2025 look like?
JD: That I don't know. While we've been right in a lot of ways, I'm not one to make predictions anymore.
CBM: What's powerful about your work with The Dachis Group and social business?
JD: The trends of connection, communication and engagement that the Internet promised 18-20 years ago are only now becoming a reality given the advances in technology, the work place and society.
People connect, communicate and share more now than ever. I mean, right now, in August 2011, we're in the largest shift in the communication landscape in the history of mankind. How exciting is it to be in this moment right now, right where you are!?
That's why I'm more excited now than I've ever been. We want to help big companies connect and engage. The network effects of businesses becoming social businesses will be amazing. I get to keep doing what I love to do, being on the edge of that wave, that revolution wave. There's something so amazing about being able to do that. I feel so lucky and so blessed.
CBM: What are you most proud of having accomplished in your life?
JD: My two children. There's nothing better than that. My son Julian is 9 months old and my daughter Ruby is going to be 8 soon. Having a wonderful, warm family is a huge blessing. My parents are still alive, I have great brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews. It feels like such an accomplishment, I don't know what I'd do without it.
Professionally, I've been in B horror films, danced to classical ballet, been a waiter, produced films, been a DJ…I've done a lot. Razorfish as a collective body of work, working alongside Craig Kanarick is a huge accomplishment. Our IPO was very exciting. But I'm most proud to be a good dad. At least, I hope they think I'm a good dad. I'm very proud of the journey that I've created for myself.
CBM: Why do you love being an entrepreneur?
JD: My ability to have an impact on the small, little universe that I'm affiliated with is best optimized when I'm able to do what I do unfettered. I can create jobs, I can do interesting things. Whatever small impact I may have on the universe I'm best suited doing that with the support of people around me and running my own company. The thing that I love most is that I can take a lightning bolt of an idea that happens in an epiphany, in a moment of silence or that happens while I'm running and I can take that and turn it into a company that becomes the world's leader in social business, something that could change the world.
I can't remember a time when I did not want to be an entrepreneur. I think I'm largely unemployable. All of my older brothers–all 5 of them– are entrepreneurs, so I had many role models. I learned to eat what you kill and be able to sustain yourself independently of anyone else's decisions.
Laurel Touby of Mediabistro
In 1994, Laurel Touby was 30-years old, living in Manhattan's East Village, working in media and feeling lonely. To cheer herself up, she started hosting cocktail parties for similar young media types and realized other people had the same need to commune and be together. The parties grew into a community, and soon a newsletter was born. A friend suggested putting the newsletters online so Touby started collecting email addresses. This community that Touby had sparked was suggesting several ideas to her, asking for job boards, asking for classes, asking for more parties. She listened and iterated a decade of suggestions into a multimillion dollar media festoon.
"I didn't think I was going to run a company, I just thought I was going to throw parties. The cocktail parties turned into a newsletter. People said, why don't you put all this stuff online? I started collecting people's email addresses in 1995. Most people didn't know what a domain name was back then…
As soon as I realized there was a business, I wanted to go global immediately but NYC is the heartbeat of America's creative class- at least the writers and journalists so we knew this would always be our biggest market…
The next challenge was surviving the crash. That was big. That separated the real companies from the dreamy, idealistic ventures that didn't last. When 9/11 hit, we had a party scheduled for the next night. We had to figure out, do we keep going with the party? The world seemed to be ending. No one wanted to do anything frivolous. People were dying. I had to question the existence of a business around parties. So, I quickly maneuvered the business to be seen as bringing the community together.
Then the economy crashed, the Internet crashed. Everyone said I should take .com out of our name. People were scared. Working on the Internet became uncool. For the next few years we suffered and struggled to become profitable. We had to be smart about how we stayed alive. I don't know many that did.
In July 2007, Touby sold Mediabistro to Jupitermedia, a digital content and research company, for $23 million. Just over one month ago, on June 30th, Laurel Touby officially left Mediabistro. She's finally moved out of her 6th floor walk-up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and bought herself a beautiful loft space just off Union Square, complete with skylights, a rotating art wall and an outdoor shower on her private roof terrace.
CBM: So, what is Laurel Touby up to now?
LT: I think I can say, I have three things going but I don't want to say what they are exactly yet. I don't want to be that person at a tech meetup who stands up and says, 'This is what I'm doing!' only to have it fail and everyone asks what happened a year later. One is a website I'm co-founding, one is a book and one is an online TV show. The book is definitely going to have a lot of interactive elements. On the topic of the website, I don't want to go there, but it's not competing with Mediabistro. Each of them could be a full-time job but I don't know if any of them will pan out.
CBM: Which of the three are you most excited about seeing come to fruition?
LT: All of them. I have way too many options now. Way too many options. The problem is, as soon as you sell your company, everyone says, 'What's your next company? What's your next thing?' Everyone forces you to start another company so you feel inadequate.
I say, 'I just sprinted for 10 years or more and now you're asking me what's my next race?' It's like great. You know, I sprinted and I won the race! But it keeps pressure on you because if you're next thing isn't as big as your first thing, it's like you're a failure. So I'd rather under promise and over deliver.
CBM: What would you tell yourself, 17 years ago, when you first started Mediabistro?
LT: Probably not to be so hard on myself and not to be intimidated by real business people. I always thought, like many women do, that I was not legitimate unless I had a business degree, or I had management experience. Really, I suffered from all of that. I thought, 'I better read a lot of books, I better bone up'. But those weren't the critical things to learn in small, entrepreneurial ventures. The critical things were being able to identify a good product for the customer and being able to motivate and inspire people to help harder than they normally would.
CBM: You've seen digital media change drastically over the past decade. What do you think will be the next big thing?
LT: The Internet of Things is going to be huge. It's just a matter of time. RFID chips are not going to be chips, they'll be RFID sprays that you just spray onto something. Maybe it's permanent or not and it's visible or not but then that thing becomes part of the Internet of Things.
CBM: You've been playing in a boy's world for quite some time. What's it like being the only woman in the room?
LT: I've always enjoyed being the only woman in the room. It's fun. You stand out, people pay attention to you. And if you're smart, you can use it. That doesn't mean I wouldn't help bring women up in this scene. But I didn't have the time or energy to go out pulling them in. It was great to see women like Dany Levy [of Daily Candy] in the room or any other women I could find. But I wasn't like, 'Let me go out and scour the landscape for females'. I know that might sound anti-feminist but it's not, it's every man for himself. And I went to Smith, so I'm aware of all this! I don't bear the responsibility of helping every woman around. I'm always helping people but not women more than men.
*For Part One of Where are they now? New York City's Dot Com Entrepreneurs, click here.
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PocketNow has shots of what appears to be the Nokia N9, which kinda looks like an elongated and oversized iPod Nano. Beautiful (and probably well-constructed) as it may be, I don't give a damn about it. Why? It runs Meego, not Mango.
When Microsoft and Nokia announced a partnership at the beginning of the year to put Windows Phone 7 on the majority of Nokia devices, it was exciting because it meant the end of crappy Nokia software, but not their excellent hardware. That Nokia gave up on Meego after so much time and money had been poured into its development doesn't inspire much confidence in its quality. Staring at this just gives me blue balls, technologically speaking. [Pocket Now]


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Search Buddhist Channel
The Dambulla Rock Temple of Sri Lanka
Lanka Mission, December 31, 2007
Dambulla, Sri Lanka -- Dating back to the 1st Century BC, The Dambulla Rock Temple is the most impressive cave temple in Sri Lanka. It has five caves under a vast overhanging rock, carved with a drip line to keep the interiors dry. In 1938 the architecture was embellished with arched colonnades and gabled entrances.
Inside the caves, the ceilings are painted with intricate patterns of religious images following the contours of the rock. There are images of the Lord Buddha and bodhisattvas, as well as various gods and goddesses.
The temple is composed of five caves, which have been converted into shrine rooms.
The caves, built at the base of a 150m high rock during the Anuradhapura (1st Century BC to 993 AD) and Polonnaruwa times (1073 to 1250), are by far the most impressive of the many cave temples found in Sri Lanka.
The largest cave measures about 52m from east to west, and 23m from the entrance to the back, this spectacular cave is 7m tall at its highest point. Hindu deities are also represented here, as are the kings Valgamba and Nissankamalla, and Ananda - the Buddha's most devoted disciple.
Within these shrine rooms is housed a collection of one hundred and fifty statues of the Buddhist Order and the country's history. These statues and paintings are representative of many epochs of Sinhala sculpture and art. The Buddha statues are in varying sizes and attitudes - the largest is 15 metres long. One cave has over 1,500 paintings of Buddha covering the ceiling.
The Dambulla cave monastery is still functional and remains the best-preserved ancient edifice in Sri Lanka. This complex dates from the 3rd and 2nd Centuries BC, when it was already established as one of the largest and most important monasteries. King Walagambahu is traditionally thought to have converted the caves into a temple in the 1st century BC.
Exiled from Anuradhapura, he sought refuge here from South Indian usurpers for 15 years. After reclaiming his capital, the King built a temple in thankful worship. Many other kings added to it later and by the 11th century, the caves had become a major religious centre and still are. King Nissanka Malla gilded the caves and added about 70 Buddha statues in 1190. During the 18th century, the caves were restored and painted by the Kandyan Kings.
The first cave
The first cave is called Devarajalena, or "Cave of the Divine King." An account of the founding of the monastery is recorded in a first-century Brahmi inscription over the entrance to the first cave.
This cave is dominated by the 14-meter statue of the Buddha, hewn out of the rock. It has been repainted countless times in the course of its history, and probably received its last coat of paint in the 20th century. At his feet is Buddha's favorite pupil, Ananda; at his head, Vishnu, said to have used his divine powers to create the caves.
The second cave
In the second and largest cave, in addition to 16 standing and 40 seated statues of Buddha, are the gods Saman and Vishnu, which pilgrims often decorate with garlands, and finally statues of King Vattagamani, who honored the monastery in the first century B.C., and King Nissanka Malla, responsible in the 12th century for the gilding of 50 statues, as indicated by a stone inscription near the monastery entrance.
This cave is accordingly called Maharajalena, "Cave of the Great Kings." The Buddha statue hewn out of the rock on the left side of the room is escorted by wooden figures of the Bodhisattvas Maitreya (left) and Avalokiteshvara or Natha (right). There is also a dagoba and a spring which drips its water, said to have healing powers, out of a crack in the ceiling.
Valuable tempera paintings on the cave ceiling dating from the 18th centurydepict scenes from Buddha's life, from the dream of Mahamaya to temptation by the demon Mara. Further pictures relate important events from the country's history.
3rd, 4th and 5th caves
The third cave, the Maha Alut Vihara, the "Great New Monastery," acquired ceiling and wall paintings in the typical Kandy style during the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747-1782), the famous Buddhist revivalist. In addition to the 50 Buddha statues, there is also a statue of the king.
The fourth and fifth caves are smaller; they date from a later period and are not of such high quality. A small Vishnu Devale between the first and second caves attracts many worshipers.


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System Optimization and PC Performance
Type: Posts; User: Midknyte
Hmm, I typed X:\ and Y:\, but for some reason the slash was removed.
X: is the source, and Y: is the target.
You could use Robocopy.
#6 Mirror directories
Robocopy "X:" "Y:" /MIR /FFT /Z /XA:H /W:5
What are the make/model of the motherboard and video card?
Things to try:
System Restore is DISABLED by default in...
Oh no! That's so sad :( RIP
What browser and version are you running? Are you using any adblocker addons?
I'm still getting the certificate error every so often. I have uBO disabled for Sysopt.com, but I still get the error. Usually, I have to close Firefox completely and then try again. Refreshing the...
Which filter lists are you using? All defaults?
Try disabling uBlock filters - Privacy.
Note that Malware Domains was recently replaced with Online Malicious URL Blocklist
I still keep coming back to the ads. The https link works sometimes, but other times it has the certificate error I posted earlier. Sometimes disabling uBlock and refreshing works, but not always....
It's weird that I don't get the error when using http:, which redirects to https. If I use the https link directly, I get a security error in Firefox and Chrome. I also tried clearing the...
Just go the 404. 6:30pm PST.
Restarted Waterfox and I was able to get in. uBO was already disabled.
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- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 recipe Bittersweet Ganache
- Sprinkles, jimmies, nonpareils, etc., as desired for decorating cookies (optional)
In a small bowl, rub zest and sugars together with your fingertips until the mixture is moist and aromatic.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend zest, sugars, and butter until the mixture becomes smooth and creamy. Add egg yolks one at a time, mixing until each addition is fully incorporated. Add vanilla extract and mix until just blended.
Add flour, cardamom, and salt and blend on low just until dough begins to come together. (The dough should be worked as little as possible.)
Scrape dough onto a lightly floured work surface and, if necessary, gently knead it so it comes together. Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (The dough may be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or made ahead and frozen for up to 1 month.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Remove one portion of dough from refrigerator and place on a well-floured surface so dough will not stick -- alternatively, you can roll the dough between 2 sheets of plastic. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness and, using a 3-inch cat-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Place cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, repeat this process with remaining portion dough. Gather any scraps, wrap them in plastic, and refrigerate at least 15 minutes before rerolling.
Bake cookies one sheet at a time for 13 to 15 minutes or until they are a light golden brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely and repeat with remaining cookies. Once cookies are completely cool, use an offset spatula to spread ganache on cookies; decorate as desired.
Recipe Details
- Source: Emeril's Table: Halloween Treats for Kids
- Dish Type: Baked Goods
- Cuisine: American
- Cooking Method: Baking
- Occasion: Any
- Effort Level: Moderate


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- Night Musk fragrance: Sandalwood, eucalyptus, cedarwood, orange peel, patchouli, and musk
- Made in the USA
- Melts do not have a wick and are made to be used with a warmer. A great alternative when flames are not allowed or desired. All the fragrance, none of the flame!
- Melt burner required and sold separately
- Approximate usage time varies according to warmer used
- 2.5oz
- 12 individual rectangle wax cube melts; break apart and melt one at a time or several at once
- Melts are: flameless, wickless, no wick, no flame
Melts are a great addition to our best selling TimberWick™ line. Now you can get melts to match your favorite TimberWick fragrances, and you can melt them in places where a flame is not preferred.
Our Timberwick Melts require the indirect heat of a melt warmer for best performance. We have a great selection of melt warmers available here.


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The Credibility of a product is absolutely critical, whether it is coming from a brand-new startup, or an established corporation. There is a great deal that goes into the Credibility of a product, from the people that hype it, to its visual presentation. However, there are a few basic elements that go directly to the foundational aspects of product Credibility upon which the rest of the product's truthfulness is built.
Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product's User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products.
Establishing and maintaining Credibility is the removal, or minimization of concerns arising from these types of questions. Many elements (design, accuracy, usability, timeliness, advertising, etc.) contribute to the positive, or negative, perception of overall product Credibility, but for Quick-UX's evaluation we assess only the most elemental. For a refresher of the Quick-UX Credibility Rubric visit: Quick-UX & Credibility: Do you believe?
Today, we will look at the second of a set of two products that achieved a solidly Low Credibility value of 0.325.
Low Credibility
Each of these 0.325 scored websites leaves an incomplete feeling of Credibility, in-part due to design, marking, color choices, etc. But, overall this set of products with solidly Low Credibility were assessed low values due to a lack of fulfilling some of the most basic, and easiest to achieve, fundamental elements inherent to any quick assessment of a product's Credibility.
Example 2: Chart.ly
Chart.ly is a "business built on top of a business built on top of Twitter," essentially a "TwitPic for stock market investors."
The benefits of this business model are in the partially inherited Credibility of all the connected businesses. Another positive can be seen in Chart.ly's design, which is very much inline with the product that this product connects to and works with, Twitter.
Real People
Chart.ly does have a lot going for it, from the thorough support forum to the links to a couple of the founders' Twitter accounts.
It is a boost to its Credibility to see other seemingly real people working with the product, having issues, discussing them, resolving them, etc. The UserVoice forums go far in showing that there is, at least, a real community of people using this product. It would be even better to see, and have easily conveyed to the potential user, information about the real founders and other people behind this product.
There are some well recognized names within the market space standing behind the product. However, it is unfortunate that the product does not actually explain this, or tell anything about these people/companies, anywhere.
Another mixed positive counting towards the Credibility value of Chart.ly is that on one hand, an email address is provided, but on the other hand it is associated with a completely different domain than that of Chart.ly. This discrepancy will give some users pause before either emailing or making use of the product.
Name and Password, Please
At the top of the Chart.ly's homepage the user is prompted to login and provide their username and password. For individuals not independently familiar with the listed twitter accounts or Howard Lindzon or Timothy Sykes, providing such sensitive information to a 3rd-party service is a scary prospect to the typical consumer — most especially within a product that has not previously established its Credibility, its trustworthiness.
Should Do
The professional design goes far in bolstering the case for a credible site, but without the other basic components that constitute Quick-UX's Credibility value, even more critical in a finance oriented product, the foundation upon which the "trusting" relationship exists is a sparse one, but one that with a little bit of focused effort can be easily solidified.
One such prime example of solidifying the foundation of Credibility can be seen in having what would be commonly referred to within other products as an 'About Us' page. Users should not have to work to establish a product's Credibility. The information (about, contact, corporate headquarters, etc.) should always be within easy reach.
The easier it is for the user to establish the Credibility within the product (verses searching via Google), the quicker the user can simply get to the core value being offered. Those individuals behind this product have very strong biographies and can start enhancing the Credibility of this product by making them more evident and accessible to visitors of Chart.ly.
Quick & Useful
Over the next few weeks I will be exploring and ins-and-outs of Credibility, walking through real-world examples of the Quick-UX evaluation of Credibility …
No Credibility
Barely Low Credibility (part 1, 2, 3)
Solidly Low Credibility (part 1, 2)
Average Credibility & Tech News (part 1, 2, 3)
More Average Credibility (part 1, 2)
High Credibility
Update: Renewed Pogby
Update: Likexo
Quick-UX Credibility, In Conclusion
Subscribe now (click here) to make sure you don't miss any part of this series exploring the Usefulness and Credibility components of Quick-UX, the quick and easy method of generating quantifiable and comparable metrics representing the understanding of the overall User Experience of a product, as well as other insightful posts from The Product Guy.
Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy
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Is the GOP Moving to the Center? Or Just Getting Sane?
It is no secret that President Obama plans to move the country to the left, demanding "collective action" in his Inaugural Address to curb global warming, buttress the middle class, regulate guns and ammunition, defend Medicare and Social Security, and extend gay rights.
The question is whether, behind the scenes, Republican leaders have recognized an opportunity to counter Obama's liberalism with ever-so-slight jogs toward the center "" if not ideologically, at least pragmatically, to a position the GOP all but abandoned in recent months: political sanity.
I ask because of three important developments:
- The GOP-controlled House passed a bill Wednesday that effectively extends the debt ceiling limit until May 19. It was a major capitulation to Obama, who publicly declared he would not negotiate with the nation's credit held hostage. Rep. Paul Ryan, the party's vice presidential nominee in 2012, cited the "realities of divided government" when he urged his rank and file to effectively eat crow.
- Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, another likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate, is quietly and (so far) effectively lobbying conservative lawmakers and commentators to consider immigration reforms. In the not-to-distant past, Rubio's proposals would have been fatally labeled as stalking horses for amnesty.
- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is expected to tell the Republican National Committee tonight that it's time for the GOP to focus less on political battles in Washington. "A debate about which party can better manage the federal government is a very small and shortsighted debate," he is expected to say, according to the The Washington Post. "If our vision is not bigger than that, we do not deserve to win."
If these developments don't represent a tentative step to the center, they are at least deep bows to reality. Polls showed that the public was braced to blame Republicans for any economic fallout over a debt-ceiling fight. Election results from November underscored the GOP's existential image problem in the fast-growing Hispanic community.
There could be something else going on here: If Obama overestimates the amount of political capital he collected upon reelection (a common mistake for second-term presidents), he might go to far with his liberal agenda, alienate moderate and independent voters, and leave a vacuum for Republicans in the middle.
Yes, Republicans in the middle. It could happen.
In making the rounds on Capitol Hill, I've been struck by the recognition among GOP lawmakers that their party must adapt or perish. Some paint a broader picture, pointing out that both political parties need to be better attuned to the public will.
"The American people are not fearful of solutions to the big problems facing our country," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. "They are fearful that American leaders don't have the capacity to act."
Failure to respond to issues such as the national debt, Dent said, could force voters to seek alternatives, even an independent presidential bid. Citing the organic creation of the tea-party revolt, Dent ominously added, "The next movement to come along might not align itself with one of the two existing parties."


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Why Choose A Platinum Engagement Ring?
Platinum is a white metal which is highly sought after for its rarity, long-term durability, non-reactive properties and most importantly, its beauty. A symbol of unsurpassed quality and prestige, platinum's low reflection rate acts as the perfect canvas for the icy brilliance of diamonds, making it the preferred white metal for engagement and wedding rings.


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The Coöp thanks Tim Buchanan for this #blog4nwp guest post.
I just spent a week in Mexico. I read curriculum whenever reading time popped up. Thanks to the National Writing Project (NWP) and a study group of Teacher Consultants (TC) I was into a fascinating book, Hidden Gems, which steers us towards a new focus for engaging students in authentic writing. It is just one of the changes in my life brought about by my participation in a Summer Institute with the Great Valley Writing Project. My life, my career, and my personal satisfaction have blossomed since then. I now am more involved in the profession. I hang frequently with other teachers motivated to be more successful and to share new research and understanding.
The school where I teach has undergone significant change since I brought Day of the Writer and lessons for fellow faculty members on how to begin enacting writing across the curriculum to the campus two years ago. The students are simply writing more and enjoying it more. The focus to make writing an art form is still in its infancy, but with the professional support and collaborative actions of TCs and the NWP change is being created.
Nothing I have been involved in over the past twenty years has been as enjoyable and promising. NWP is a great hope for human growth and experience, in school and beyond.
We must continue to focus on writing and democratic growth in the classroom, National Writing Project is doing that.


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Afghan parliament approves US partnership
KABUL, Afghanistan – Legislators say Afghanistan's parliament has approved a strategic partnership agreement with the United States.
The approval came in a vote Saturday and by a simple majority of those present in the 249-seat body.
Parliamentarian Mohammad Iqbal Safi from Kapisa province and others say more than 150 representatives were present.
He said the vote was by show of hands, with an overwhelming majority approving and less than a handful rejecting.
Serious opposition to the measure had not been expected. The strategic partnership will now go to the Afghan senate, where it is also expected to be approved early next week.
President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed the agreement in Kabul on May 1.
It governs the relationship between the two countries through 2024.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — French President Francois Hollande for the first time provided details of his plan to pull France's combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, saying Friday he would leave around 1,400 soldiers behind to help with training and logistics.
The new French leader, making good on one of the major foreign-policy promises of his campaign, confirmed in a one-day visit to Afghanistan that all of France's 2,000 combat troops would be brought home by the end of this year — putting France on a fast-track exit timetable that sparked consternation among some allies at a NATO summit in Chicago early this week.
Hollande's comments marked the first time that he had put an exact figure on the French deployment after the combat troops leave, suggesting that logistical necessities for France as well as its support for Afghanistan's hoped-for transition to peace will go well beyond the year-end target.
"The time for Afghan sovereignty has come," Hollande said during a meeting with French troops at a base in Kapisa province's Nijrab district. "The terrorist threat that targeted our territory, while it hasn't totally disappeared, is in part lessened."
Hollande, who took office last week, said that after more than a decade in Afghanistan, French combat troops had carried out their mission and it was time for them to leave in an early pullout coordinated with the United States and other allies. He said some trainers would remain to help Afghanistan's nascent security forces. NATO has set a pullout date of 2014, when Afghan troops are to take over security control.
The French leader met with troops and discussed plans with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to withdraw French combat troops two years faster than NATO's 2014 pullout schedule. Hollande's visit was not announced ahead of time for security reasons.
France now has 3,400 troops and 150 gendarmes in Afghanistan. Under Hollande's plan, some would stay behind to help send military equipment back to France, and others would help train the Afghan army and police. He did not provide a breakdown for the roles of the 1,400 soldiers who will remain past 2012 or how long they would stay.
"We won't have any more combat forces in Afghanistan after Dec. 31, 2012. I say specifically combat forces," Hollande said during a function at the French Embassy. "We will still have a military force that will be dedicated to the training of Afghan army officers — that will also be present at the hospital, the airport and also will allow the Afghans to have a police force that is the most effective possible."
Hollande insisted France was not abandoning Afghanistan.
"This is a continuation, and there will be further engagement — but in a different form," he said, such as in cultural and economic matters. "We want France to have a presence in Afghanistan differently from how it did in the past."
France has troops in the capital Kabul, in the Surobi district and Kapisa province to the east, and at Kandahar air base in the south — where it has three fighter jets. A French military spokesman, Col. Thierry Burkhard, said most of the 2,000 who will leave will be those in Kapisa and Surobi. He said "hundreds" of trainers would remain, and soldiers conducting pullout logistics will leave bit by bit along with the withdrawing troops.
Hollande warned of possible problems in the pullout. "We will have to take every precaution. We must limit as much as possible our losses, make sure that there is no risk for our soldiers," he said.
Hollande said French equipment would be taken out by ground routes, but he did not say which ones. Pakistan closed overland supply routes to Afghanistan for NATO after a U.S. attack on the Pakistani side of the border killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November. The decision has forced NATO to use a more costly route running through the north.
Reflecting increasing French disillusionment with the war, Hollande's conservative predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, had pledged to withdraw all troops by the end of 2013. Tension over Hollande's pledge to end France's combat mission a year earlier than that dominated the NATO summit, unleashing fears of a domino effect of other allies withdrawing early. France is one of the top troop contributors.
Hollande's campaign platform had first indicated that all French troops would be out of Afghanistan by then end of 2012, but in the late stages of the race he softened that to specify only combat troops. Guy Teissier, a lawmaker from Sarkozy's party who heads the defense commission of the National Assembly, pointed to a "contradiction" between Hollande's campaign rhetoric and his withdrawal plan after his election.
Teissier also said the quick pullout would expose French troops. "Once the combat troops are gone, who's going to protect the 1,000-odd soldiers responsible for bringing home the equipment we've left behind?" he said on BFM Television. "It's a very big risk for our soldiers ... It leads me to believe that Francois Hollande doesn't understand defense matters and world geopolitics."
"France gave its word to a commitment of the (NATO-led) coalition, and taking it back weakens it," he added.
President Barack Obama last year decided to pull out 33,000 U.S. combat troops by September. Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said this week that on Sept. 30 there will be 68,000 U.S. and about 40,000 other coalition forces in Afghanistan — compared to more than 130,000 last year.
The coalition has started handing over security control to Afghan army and police in areas home to 75 percent of the population, with a goal of putting them in the lead for all the country by mid-2013. NATO and other foreign forces would then be in a support role for the 352,000-strong Afghan National Security Forces.
Kapisa, where French forces are based, is one of the areas now being transferred to Afghan control. Ashraf Ghani, head of a commission overseeing the transition, said earlier this month that "the risks in Kapisa are containable and within our capability."
Keaten reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Mirwais Khan in Kandahar, and Angela Charlton and Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris, contributed to this report.


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I've just finished reading Game of Thrones, the first book of George R. R. Martin's fantasy series. I really enjoyed the HBO series, but I didn't feel like waiting years to learn the rest of the plot. The same thing happened with Lord of the Rings – I saw the first movie, then quickly gobbled up the trilogy, the Hobbit, and even the Silmarillion. And I'm pretty sure I don't have to point out that I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I enjoy fantasy novels.
But it's always a little weird reading fantasy as a feminist. I know other feminists lament the lack of strong female characters in traditional fantasy novels. I mean, does Arwen serve any purpose other than marrying Aragorn? Eowyn is badass as she slays the Lord of the Nazgul, but then she loses all her fighting spirit to marry Faramir and have babies.
Harry Potter left me similarly disappointed in the end. Hermione was such a strong female character throughout the series, but ultimately the end is all about getting married and having babies. Rowling discusses her accomplishments in the Ministry in interviews, but in the book her future is represented only as a mother. And really, when you think about the series, it's all about dudes. Harry, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Snape. I love Hermione, but sometimes I can't help but see her as a useful plot device, the clever one who will serendipitously figure out all the puzzles and advances the plot.
So far, I'm enjoying Game of Thrones. There are many strong female characters. But more importantly to me, they're not The Strong Female Character. I hate when a book or movie is so obviously trying to introduce a strong woman to the plot, that she ends up a flat caricature without flaws or weaknesses. It makes the viewer feel like there really are no such thing as strong women in the real world – otherwise why would they be so hard to write?
And that's why I like this series (so far, at least). The strong women still aren't perfect. Daenerys takes a terrible situation (which is an understatement) and uses it to grow into a powerful, confident woman. I think she's one of the most compassionate characters in the series, yet that compassion is also her undoing. Cersei Lannister is powerful and recognizes how unfair it is that her power is curtailed by her bad luck of being born female – but she's also tremendously evil. Catelyn Stark takes matters into her own hands when her family is threatened, but the same emotions that drive her also cause her to make mistakes. And do I even have to say anything about Arya? She's stubborn and hot headed, but she's as much as a feminist as I've ever seen.
But I also like the series because there are some terrible women. Lysa Arryn is… a little off her rocker. Sansa fills me with a rage that's only surpassed by how much I hate Joffrey (or as I like to call him, Malfoy 2.0). If there are supremely flawed male characters, I want supremely flawed female ones. Women aren't perfect.
I've heard some argue that the series isn't feminist because the women, in their culture, are basically seen as second class citizens. But when you have a series that's basically medieval Europe placed on an imaginary map, I'm not sure what you expect. It's inspired by history, where woman were treated that poorly. I find it refreshing that the plot doesn't accept that (like in Lord of the Rings), but rather multiple woman try to overcome it.
But I see the point. How many more fantasy novels do we need that perfectly mirror medieval Europe, with women having the roles of wives and nothing more? If it's fiction, why not make them equal? Or why not make them the ones in charge? It would be refreshing to see that occasionally.
I'm sure it's out there, but I'm not as prolific of a reader. What fantasy novels do you think have feminist ideals? Who are your favorite strong female characters? What do you think about the women of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones? Does one do a better job than the others? Am I totally full of it with my opinions of these characters?