Sunday, October 4, 2009

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David Kirby: Kathleen Sebelius: Autism Now Hits 1 in 100 Children, We Have No Idea Why Top
Washington loves to dump its bad news on a Friday afternoon, and on October 2 it confirmed that one percent of American children (and by extension, perhaps 1-in-58 boys) has an autism spectrum disorder. On a hastily arranged telephone "visit" with US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the autism community, the health chief announced that "the prevalence of autism might be even higher than previously thought." But, she added, "We don't know if it has gone up, and we are hoping to unlock these mysteries." The Secretary then declared autism "An urgent public health challenge," proclaimed that President Obama was "right to make it one of our top health priorities," including research into "treatments and a cure" for the disorder, and then promptly ended her visit. Helping to fill in some of the details was Dr. Thomas R. Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and Chair of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, who confirmed that CDC data to be published later this year will estimate the current childhood ASD rate at 100-per-10,000 children. The data, collected from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, shows a significant uptick in ASD prevalence estimates in just two years. According to ADDM, the average rate of autism among eight-year-olds across all study sites was 67-per-10,000 in 2000 (the 1992 birth cohort), and 66-per-10,000 in 2002 (the 1994 birth cohort). Only six sites were included in both studies, and their average prevalence rate increased by 10%, from 67-per-10,000 to 74-per-10,000. Now, CDC has announced that among the 1996 birth cohort, the estimated rate of ASD is 100-per-10,000 -- a staggering 50% increase over the 1994 birth cohort. It is easy to understand why the Feds would call autism an "urgent" issue, but any sense of urgency by the officials on the phone was clearly absent, at least from my perspective. In fact, much of the discussion was centered around providing services and education to the growing ranks of Americans with ASD, an entirely laudable goal, to be sure. But no one expressed any alarm that up to 1-in-58 boys in this country is now on the autism spectrum. The officials on the call seemed to think that wider diagnostic criteria - such as adding Asperger Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) -- to the concept of an "autism spectrum disorder" vastly inflated the rate of ASD in the United States. There was no alarm, and little time for questions from the community that was invited to "visit." After about 15 minutes, questioning was cut off, and the call abruptly ended. I tried three times to ask a question (via a telephone switching system) and so did many other people on the call, which lasted a total of 39 minutes. And so, here is my (expanded) question, directed to Dr. Insel: Dr. Insel, thank you for arranging this call. I understand that the estimated average ASD rate increased from 66-per-10,000 to 100-per-10,000 between the 1994 and 1996 birth cohorts. Officials on this call believe this increase could be attributed purely to expanding diagnostic criteria and greater awareness, though they don't know for sure. But how could you attribute a 50% increase in just two years to wider diagnostics, especially when the 1994 cohort would have been diagnosed, on average, in 1999 and the latter cohort in 2001? The expansion of the ASD definition to include Asperger and PDD-NOS occurred in the early 1990s, so how can you explain this sudden and delayed explosion in the numbers? Also, you have declared that the vaccine-autism link has been disproven, yet all the studies you cite have only looked at MMR and thimerosal. But why is the IACC, which you chair, not investigating the possible role of Hep-B vaccine , given the following facts?: 1) For the 1994 birth cohort, Hepatitis-B vaccine was given to 27% of all newborns, but in 1996 it had jumped to 82%, according to CDC data. 2) An abstract just published in the Annals of Epidemiology said that giving Hepatitis B vaccine to newborn baby boys more than triples the risk of ASD. 3) A study just published in Neurotoxicology reported that infant male primates who received one dose of the Hepatitis-B were far more likely to display developmental delays than unvaccinated controls. 4) A study last year in Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry showed that boys getting the 3-shot HepB vaccine series were eight times more likely to require early intervention services than boys who did not have the series. 5) A study in the journal Neurology found that children who received the Hepatitis B vaccine series were 50% more likely to develop "central nervous system inflammatory demyelination" than children who did not receive the vaccine. For Merck's Engerix B brand vaccine, the elevated risk was 74%. Finally, why did you jettison the vaccinated-vs.-unvaccinated study that your own committee had previously voted to recommend, and why are you spending only 39 minutes speaking with the community that represents, according to your boss, one of the nation's "top health priorities?" I am also sending this question to HHS, to see if I can get a proper response. But I am not holding my breath. More on Health
 
David Dayen: Sometimes The People Win - 100,000 MoveOn Members Force CIGNA To Provide Health Care To Woman With Brain Tumor Top
In a post at Brave New Films' blog about closing in on the insurance industry , I mentioned the case of Dawn Smith, a MoveOn member and CIGNA who suffers from a treatable brain tumor. She spent two years being denied treatment for her tumor, and has seen her premium costs rise consistently since being diagnosed, and then, CIGNA raised her medication a whopping 10,000%. Dawn wrote a letter to CIGNA's Chief Medical Officer asking how they could do this: Dr. Kang: As you probably know, your company has denied me needed care for two years while I suffer from a debilitating but treatable brain tumor. I pay my $753.47 premiums. I follow the proper procedures. But CIGNA refuses to give me the care I need. Instead, you keep increasing my prices. First my premiums rose by hundreds of dollars, and now my prescription costs are going up by more than 10,000%. What makes you think you can treat sick people this way? When will you stop doing this to me and the thousands of people like me who are suffering? And if you solve this latest problem, how do I know you won't do this to me again next week--that you're actually changing your ways and not just trying to make your PR problem disappear? Please answer these questions. I need to know, for the sake of my health and my life. Many others have signed this letter too, to support me and make sure I get answers. Respectfully, Dawn Smith MoveOn asked people to join Dawn in signing the letter, and over 100,000 did. In the comments to the post asking people to co-sign Dawn Smith's letter, a representative from CIGNA responded in the comments: CIGNA has spoken with Ms. Smith and successfully resolved the issue pertaining to this matter. We originally filled the prescription as prescribed by Ms. Smith's doctor. CIGNA learned through a third party political organization that Ms. Smith's prescription mistakenly did not specify "brand name needed". We have been in contact with both Ms. Smith and her physician and have corrected the inaccuracy. Customer service and satisfaction is important to us, we remain committed to working with our customers and physicians to ensure they receive the highest level of service. Without that third party political organization - MoveOn - raising the profile of Dawn's case, there is probably no chance CIGNA would have responded so swiftly. But there's more to do. CIGNA may have agreed to lower the drug costs, and allowed various tests to go forward, but she is not giving up the fight. She wants answers about why she was denied treatment for two years, and why she and so many others have to suffer because CIGNA wants to maximize their profits. Dawn talked about her story in this video, and how it's not unique, but sadly the norm for a rapacious insurance industry that happily takes premium cash but resists giving it out in health care costs. You can help Dawn by adding your name to a statement of support for her that will be delivered to CIGNA CEO Edward Hanway. Fighting the insurance industry is a game of inches, but a collection of voices can make a difference. With some help from Congress, we can move toward a system of health care that doesn't involve ganging up on the insurance industry to force them to do the right thing. More on Health Care
 
Supreme Court To Hear Animal Sex Fetish Case; "Crush Videos," Dogfighting Footage May Be Treated Like Child Porn Top
Kittens, brutality, fetish videos, and dogfighting--these aren't the elements of a twisted cable-television show; they're just some of the factors in one of Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court cases that will kick off the court's new term. The court will hear the federal government's appeal of U.S. v. Stevens, a circuit court's overturning of a 1999 federal law that makes it a crime to create, sell, or possess depictions of animal cruelty for commercial gain. More on Supreme Court
 
Jeff Antebi: Voting and Violence in Thailand Top
Thailand held sub-district, local government elections in September. I went to South Thailand and observed a little bit of what voting was like in that troubled part of the region. I don't know how to explain what I saw in South Thailand because I witnessed only 72 hours in what has been a five-year insurgency. In a span of less than three days, I visited several bombing scenes and a man I was supposed to meet was assassinated, gunned down along with his daughter and son-in-law. The towns I visited, Pattani and Yala, were veiled in fear. Somber during the day; at night, spectral and deserted. Darkened, overcast skies. Driving from one town to the other, I had to pass through five separate checkpoints. The killings in Thailand's three southern provinces are a slow, steady trickle. About 4,000 murders since 2004. That's an average of one or two insurgency related murders a day, every day, every week, every month for four years. While the insurgency is portrayed as a separatist movement, with ethnic Malay Muslims wanting the South to become its own state along an ethno-religious fault line, it's mostly Muslims who are being killed, not Buddhists, who represent the authorities of Bangkok. Rather than taking the fight to the seat of power in Bangkok, the separatist fighters kill locals. They blend in as regular citizens. A grocery store clerk. A waiter. A DVD bootlegger. Every village has a handful hiding in plain sight. The three southern provinces have a population of around 1 million people. Mostly ethnic Malay Muslims. Of that 1 million, maybe 100,000 are sympathetic to the mujahideen cause. And of that 100,000 only about 5,000 are hardcore insurgency soldiers. But those 5,000 are able to keep a stranglehold on half a country by patiently sewing a shroud of terror. In Pattani City, a bomb was planted in a motorcycle and detonated in front of a Buddhist restaurant on Naklua Soi 6 Road. 27 people were wounded and a 65-year-old man was killed. In Yala City, a Buddhist restaurant called Yim Yim was bombed, but the target might have been the store across the street selling police uniforms. Twelve people were wounded and a policeman was killed. I visited a hospital in Pattani where some of the wounded were taken and discreetly spoke with some of the victims while hospital administrators were distracted. One woman I spoke with was a waitress. Her face was massively swollen and stitched where shrapnel had dug deep into her forehead, narrowly missing her eyes. Another woman had been across the street, selling fried bananas. Her legs were smeared black with bruises. Both seemed in fairly decent spirits, but it was hard to maintain while a third woman nearby, held down by nurses and doctors, moaned in excruciating pain, her belly ripped open by the blast. My fixer and interpreter set up a meeting for me with Waedolah Wae-u-Seng, a local government leader in the Tanjong district. In the 60's Waedoah had been part of the first real separatist movement. As he got older, his politics mellowed. I arrived at Waedolah's daughter's house. The bodies were gone, replaced by large pools of blood on the ground. Kids peered through open windows into the house. People hung around outside, lethargic from shock, the heat, and the mourning. I went to one of Waedolah's son's houses so I could take a photograph of a photograph of Waedolah. The son explained what unfolded at the daughter's home, saying that a group of men in a pickup truck arrived at one of Waedolah's other son's homes. They wore Thai Border Police uniforms and spoke Thai, not the more common Malay dialect of the South. They asked the son where Waedolah was. He said he didn't know. They drove to another of Waedolah's son's houses, the son who was recounting the story, asked the same question and was given the same response. They drove to a third son's house. They were told Waedolah was possibly at the house of his daughter Dariyal and her husband. It was Ramadan and everywhere in the provinces, friends and families were breaking their Ramadan fasts. I was told that as a former guerilla, Waedolah was savvy about personal security. If someone he didn't know called out his name, he never replied. Who knows why after all those years he made the mistake. Maybe it was the uniforms that threw him off, because when this group of men called out, asking for the local leader, he stepped outside. His daughter followed. Both were gunned down on the spot. Dariyal's husband Muhammad ran outside and he, too, was murdered. Seated in the son's small house, listening to him recount the story of what had transpired only hours before, I couldn't ignore the obvious. He had spoken with the killers. He had seen their faces. He had seen what they were wearing. He had seen their truck. He had nowhere to go. This was his home. And they had every reason to murder him next. It was in their best interest to do so. His eyes were glazed over. He managed a brief and dreadful smile. We both stared at one another for a second. We both knew he was a dead man. For updates, please see www.twitter.com/jeffantebi and www.jeffantebi.com for photos Jeff is currently at work producing book of photographs of elections taken during times of war and conflict. Photo excerpts of the book can be seen at www.jeffantebi.com . More on Thailand
 
Erica Abeel: Splendors and Challenges at the New York Film Festival Top
Perhaps no film event, with the possible exception of Cannes, comes in for more scrutiny than the New York Film Festival. Unlike other fests, the NYFF has no agenda other than to present what its selection committee considers the best in global cinema. So the lineup inevitably invites the question, Why this film and not another? But this year's 47th edition, unspooling from September 25th to October 11th at a spiffed-up Alice Tully Hall, has engendered outright bursts of hostility. And this despite an exciting lineup of films by artists working deep within their own vision. Last Saturday's screening of AntiChrist by Lars Von Trier was greeted with derisive titters and groans of disgust. And at the Q & A following the screening of The Art of the Steal , Don Argott's doc about the priceless Barnes collection of art, one audience member yelled "elitist bullshit." The perception of elitism has long dogged the fest, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, because, except for donors and other deep pockets, tickets have been hard to score. (Mara Manus, the Society's new Executive Director, is working to expand access, beginning with a half price rush line). Then, too, the fest's lineup is heavily tilted toward the work of European auteurs -- an "elite" of filmmakers -- many drawn from Cannes, and often perceived as inaccessible to all but initiates. Yet why the hostility among the event's usually reserved audience? Chief among the reasons, I suspect, is that this year's films are especially challenging, both formally and thematically. For the culturally insecure, the implication might be, You don't like "the best?" Then you're an idiot. For every batch of culturally savvy New Yorkers, you can find another out of touch with their own taste, who rely on the judgment of a few critics to tell them what they think. Other attendees are turned off by the relentlessly dark tenor of the films dominating this year's edition. After viewing in succession AntiChrist , Lebanon by Samuel Maoz, and Trash Humpers by Harmony Korine you might conclude the planet is one great hell-hole. Cinema, though, has a way of reflecting back the state of the world. Some of the best films out of Toronto slammed economic inequities and corporate skulduggery in America. But those films' revelations were offset by the implicit hope that lucidity -- the ability to name the enemy -- lays a seedbed for change. No such hope offered by one of my faves at the NYFF, Harmony Korine's nightmarish Trash Humpers . But it's a confoundingly original -- and often funny -- nightmare, a one-of-a-kind "found object" that captures an underbelly of America you never dreamed existed -- or exists only in the fevered imagination of its creator. "The title is to be taken literally," reads the deadpan description of Trash in the Playbill. It follows a band of loonies in grotesque masks as they also hump trees, hydrants, whatever; spank the upended bottoms of fat ladies in garters; brutalize dolls -- taking time out for the odd tap dance -- all the while reciting moronic ditties, cackling insanely, and grunting like rutting boars. The film is shot with cruddy disposable cameras to echo the degraded content. Korine was inspired by a place he grew up in near Nashville and some shady locals who scared and horrified him, he told Richard Pena, Programming Director of the NYFF, during a Q & A. "I don't even want to call it a movie," Korine added. "I wanted to make an artifact that was found, like, in a ditch." Some viewers saw echos of the painter Francis Bacon, others saw elements from Freddy Krueger horror movies or The Theater of Cruelty. But Korine claims he was referencing no one, just into the idea of making a film "as quickly as I could think." A damn shame Trash hasn't yet been picked up by a distributor. Any takers out there? Fortunately for cinephiles, the peerless Sony Pictures Classics has stepped up to the plate and acquired Venice's Gold Lion winner Lebanon by Israeli Samuel Maoz. The entire film unspools deep inside the iron belly of a tank imprisoning four Israeli soldiers during the '82 Lebanon war. The dynamic is altered by the arrival in their midst of a Syrian captive. Revisiting the same conflict so memorably limned in Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir , Maoz draws on his own trauma sustained during that war. With claustrophobic intensity and a thunderous soundtrack, the film offers a snapshot of camaraderie and terror, spiked with gallows humor. It's so vivid you all but smell the stench inside that tank. Inevitably, Lebanon will trigger comparisons with that other account of wartime horrors, Kathryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker . But Lebanon is the larger film. Hurt Locker examines a particular -- masculine, I might add -- adrenalin rush that addicts fighters to living a heartbeat away from death, while Lebanon is emotionally compelling and more in the mode of classic humanism, exploring matters of conscience and the ironies of fate. In a wrenching moment at the end, a character in the tank pisses at length and in real time. How, you ask, does a filmmaker get an epiphany out of that? Trust me, he does.
 
Geoffrey R. Stone: Free Ibrahim Top
Ibrahim Parlak is a Kurd who was born and raised in southeastern Turkey. As a young man, he became active in the Kurdish human rights movement both in Turkey and Europe. He was arrested in Turkey in 1988 and held incommunicado and tortured repeatedly in three different Turkish police stations. He was then tried and convicted of "separatist activities" by one of the notorious Turkish security courts. After serving a sixteen-month sentence, he was granted political asylum in the U.S. in 1992 on the ground that he had "established a well-founded fear of persecution" if he were to return to Turkey. During his seventeen years in the U.S., Ibrahim has been a model member of his community in Michigan. He has established a very successful restaurant, has a twelve-year-old daughter, and contributes actively to charitable and civic activities. After 9/11, however, the Department of Homeland Security initiated proceedings to have Ibrahim deported back to Turkey, where he is very likely to face imprisonment and torture. His many friends and admirers, including members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate, have actively and generously supported him throughout this ordeal, but in a recent (and, in my view, ill-advised) two-to-one decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that it could not block Ibrahim's deportation. I have known Ibrahim for several years and I am convinced to a moral certainty that his deportation would be a grave injustice. I therefore encourage you to consider signing a petition to President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano asking them to allow Ibrahim Parlak to remain in the United States. Learn more about Ibrahim and his plight (including the legal proceedings) here . Sign the petition here . Thanks so much for considering this. (I would also encourage you, if this persuades you, to bring this to the attention of others.)
 
ESPN Fantasy Football Down: Check Status Here Top
ESPN's Fantasy Football site went down on October 4, according to web users who reported trouble logging into ESPN.com's Fantasy Football website. Mashable.com also noted that users had been having problems accessing their accounts on the ESPN fantasy football page, and suggested that high traffic volume may have been behind the outage. No word yet on when ESPN log ins will be working again. For real-time updates on the status of ESPN's Fantasy Football site (and to see what people have to say about the outage) check out the Twitter feed below. Follow HuffPostTech On Facebook And Twitter!
 
Matt Osborne: Obama is Not God: the Projection Principle Top
There is a limitless supply of videos chronicling the August teabaggery, but this is the one I found most interesting: a woman declaring that "Obama is not God." It perfectly encapsulates the mind of the American right: She was repeating a meme given voice by Jon Voight in June at a Republican fundraiser. The actor, who hosted the dinner, delivered a particularly harsh rebuke to Obama, saying he was "embarrassed" by the president and that Obama's leadership would cause the "downfall" of the country."We are becoming a weak nation," he said, calling Obama a "false prophet" and his administration the "Obama oppression." Of course, this meme is really an exercise in psychological projection . Denying their own mental habits, the wingnut ascribes those habits to the president. Projection is a profoundly subtle psychological process because it takes place internally, yet it is an important way the closed mind keeps itself uninformed about itself -- as well as the larger world. In other words, it helps them avoid facing facts. "Belief" replaces facts, such as this one: to date, no one has quoted Obama claiming to be God. In his speeches, calls to divine authority have been limited to scriptural allusions on such issues as reducing poverty. None of them posit a special calling for himself. Indeed, he has yet to claim any special powers of communication with the divine. On the other hand, right-wing conservatives make exactly these claims all the time . Michele Bachmann, for example, has been courting the teabagger demographic. In an interview with the arch-birther website Wing Nut Daily World Net Daily, Bachmann claimed -- amidst quotes about abortion, "death panels," and the moral danger of compact fluorescent bulbs(!) -- that God had "called" her to run for Congress and might yet "call" her to run for president. Bachmann, who regularly infuses her rhetoric with blood imagery and overwrought religious hyperbole , came to office via the message-machine of the evangelical church. Railing against the "attitudes, values and beliefs" of the Goals 2000 program, she was invited by other right-wing education activists to run for Congress. It's worth noting that the Goals 2000 curriculum seems rather uncontroversial: getting guns and drugs out of schools, emphasizing math and science skills, etc. Presumably, Bachmann was upset by the part where students were asked to identify with children from another culture and religion -- like, say, Hawaii. We can't have the kids think of other people as human , after all. The representative from Minnesota is perhaps the best example of this, but by no means the only one. Indeed, the entire " C Street Family " story is about public piety matched by private self-dealing and hypocrisy. One need only watch video of Senator James Inhofe talking about a trip to Africa and contrast it with his denialism of global warming to see that his agenda is faith-based. Like so many on the right, science is made to serve belief, and that science which contradicts belief is to not to be believed. Of course, this meme has actually been with us a long time. It's the latest manifestation of the "Obama is antichrist" meme: This silliness is a direct result of manufactured fear within the evangelical movement. "Informed" by films like Left Behind and The Omega Code , the wingnut mind has seized on Obama's global background and middle name to invent a narrative of Satanic influence. Xenophobia is a consistent strain of modern apocalyptic narratives. This meme is a form of wishful thinking from the party of faith-based policy: if Obama is illegitimate in the eyes of God, then it is a Christian's duty to oppose him, no matter what he actually does. Thus questions of policy, like scientific studies, are no longer argued on their own merits, but on the sole merit of opposition to the evil president. This delegitimating of a president -- and, by extension, his agenda -- explains the odd crowing reaction of Republicans to the failed Chicago Olympic bid. It is as if Obama has lost some sheen of idolatrous perfection and been "revealed" as a fraudulent prophet; but only a wingnut would ever think of a politician as a prophet. This meme also shows up in right-wing coverage of various nontroversies. For instance, Obama's announced back-to-school speech brought condemnation for encouraging " a worship-like reverence " and " indoctrinating " students. None of those fears materialized. Glenn Beck used a video of high school step-dancers to promote the idea of a secret Negro army of Obama goons , claiming -- again -- that "indoctrination" was going on. More recently, we've seen a video of schoolchildren singing a song about the country's first black president (during Black History month) given national exposure as "proof" the president is encouraging an actual cult of personality, and video of a mock funeral for wealthcare portrayed as prayer to Obama . Yet the origin of this narrative has nothing at all to do with anything the president has said or done. Nor can it be traced to any actions of his supporters. Indeed, "The One" was a satirical meme from the right in last year's election. So where do they get these cockamamie ideas? Maybe this video can explain it:   Osborne Ink is a Website of Media Deconstruction   More on Barack Obama
 
Rachael Chong: To be a woman entrepreneur - what does it take? Lessons from Coco Chanel, a self-made woman. Top
My Saturday night was spent enthralled by Audrey Tautou's rendition of Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel's incredible rags to riches story. After hours of my afternoon had disappeared in frustration as a result of entrepreneur's block (like writer's block except worse because there's just no time to wait for creative genius to strike), I decided to clear my head by going to the movies. Coco before Chanel could not have been a better choice. Here I was, an aspiring woman entrepreneur in 2009 learning from and relating to a woman entrepreneur who existed at a time when I'm sure that "woman" and "entrepreneur" were never uttered in the same sentence. Coco Chanel, the epitome of a self-made (wo)man, singlehandedly redefined suffocating French fashion from constraining corsets and feathery displays of wealth to simple, feminine elegance that allowed a woman to breathe. A woman ahead of her time, Coco Chanel was a true entrepreneur, who brought women freedom through fashion. The relevant questions that this biography sparked for me were: Why was Coco so different from the male entrepreneurs of her time? A century later, why are women entrepreneurs still so different from their male counterparts? What makes a woman's journey to becoming her own boss so different from that of a man's? And, most importantly, why are there still so few of us? Sure, the first question may be easy to answer - Coco lived in a time when it was truly a man's world and women's rights were a thing of the future. Fine; but why is it that even today, in a more gender-neutral world, only 10 of the 1,125 Forbes 2008 billionaires are self-made women ? Why is it that only a minuscule number of women have made their fortunes by launching big companies? The fact that I can name many of the biggest women entrepreneurs of all time by their first names is clearly not a good sign. Hats off to Coco, Estee, Oprah, Martha, and Arianna. A USA Today article from last year asks a similar question: Why is it so rare to find women who have built big companies? Their explanation falls largely into two camps: 1) men have easier access to startup capital from banks and venture capitalists, and 2) that women are naturally more devoted to family, and "even those who out-earn their husbands often remain responsible for children and households." While I can understand anyone (man or woman) who chooses to make family a priority; I have trouble understanding why, all things being equal, women are not as fundable as men? The House of Chanel wouldn't exist if Coco's love, Arthur "Boy" Capel, hadn't provided her with the startup capital to fund her first hat shop. Back then, it wasn't even an option for women to get a loan to start a business from the bank, but today, banks (at least those in the developed world) don't discriminate based on gender, so why is it that women aren't getting funded as readily as men? Does the corporate glass ceiling for women also exist in entrepreneurism? Are women not getting the proper education or experience to succeed as entrepreneurs? Or are women just not coming up with as many good ideas as men? A bit of research reveals some startling statistics. Although women launch twice as many businesses as men , only 6% of all venture-backed startups are women-led , only 1.7% of venture capital-backed technology startups are founded by one or more women , and only three companies on the Fortune 1000 were founded or co-founded by women . The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) last month spotlighted the issue of women and girls in the developing world. Women perform 66 percent of the world's work, and produce 50 percent of the food, yet earn only 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property," President Bill Clinton said . I applaud the global companies, nonprofits and foundations that made over a dozen commitments to empowering women and girls in the developing world at CGI last month. But we also need commitments to help empower women and girls in the developed world, because even in the developed world, decreases in inequality can improve overall productivity. Goldman Sachs reported that different countries and regions of the world could dramatically increase GDP simply by reducing the gap in employment rates between men and women: the Eurozone could increase GDP by 13 percent; Japan by 16 percent; the U.S. by 9 percent. To learn more about the campaign for women and girls check out the Girl Effect . If I could make my own girl effect video to make the case for more women entrepreneurs, it would go something like this: "Woman Entrepreneur + No Funding = Glass Ceiling, Gender Imbalance, Lack of Role Models." But, "Woman Entrepreneur + Funding = Job Creation, Gender Equality, Better Role Models." The stark statistics of women being underrepresented in entrepreneurism is sad and disappointing, but I hope that these statistics prompt entrepreneurs out there to action. Entrepreneurs (women and men alike) have very little tolerance for what should be done, because it's all about what can be done. So as I reflect on the story of Coco and the sacrifices she made to build her empire (she never married or had children), I draw hope from the fact that despite all odds, Coco succeeded. I believe that this is a good sign for us women entrepreneurs of the 21st century. If Coco could do it, so can we. Resources for women entrepreneurs (again, there are too few): Women 2.0 in Silicon Valley , Young Women Social Entrepreneurs , Womensphere , and Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives . If you know of other websites, please share!
 
Anne Frank (VIDEO): Museum Posts Only Known Footage Of Anne Frank To YouTube Top
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — The Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam has begun airing the only known video of the teenage diarist on a channel dedicated to her on YouTube. The channel also features clips of others, including her late father Otto and Nelson Mandela, talking about Anne, museum spokeswoman Annemarie Bekker said Friday. "It is really a great platform to show all the different kinds of films and documentaries about Anne Frank," Bekker added. The channel shows footage taken during a neighbor's wedding on July 22, 1941. It briefly shows Anne before she and her family were forced into hiding to avoid the Nazis during their World War II occupation of the Netherlands. The fleeting moving images of Anne already are on display at the museum and on its Web site in slightly shorter versions. Bekker said the YouTube channel also has a video about the making of a 3-D virtual version of the secret annex concealed in an Amsterdam canalside house where the Frank family hid for 25 months until they were betrayed and deported. The virtual version of the secret annex is due to be formally launched next year to help mark the 50th anniversary of the museum's founding. Anne died aged 15 of typhus in the German concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, seven months after her arrest and just two weeks before British and Canadian troops liberated the camp. Her posthumously published diary has made her a symbol of all Jews killed in World War II. ____ On the Net: http://bit.ly/ubOYb
 
Michael J. Panzner: More Dependent on the Consumer than Ever Top
America's over-reliance on consumer spending helped create the mess we are in. To finance our spendthrift ways, we borrowed more than we could afford. We also saved less than necessary and bet that rising home and stock prices would make up the difference. In addition, our willingness to consume more than we produce led to unhealthy imbalances with nations like China. Well, guess what. The latest data reveals that America is more dependent on the consumer than ever. Last Thursday, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) revealed that personal spending in August rose 0.9 percent, its biggest monthly jump since 2001. Reports suggest the increase stemmed from stepped-up purchases of durable goods like cars, aided by Washington's cash-for-clunkers scheme, as well as aggressive back-to-school promotions by nervous retailers. The BEA also announced that personal income -- the sum received from all sources, including wages, government transfer payments, and interest -- rose a more subdued 0.2 percent. While the result beat Wall Street's expectations, the gap between the two data points helped to highlight an unsettling development. More specifically, the relationship between the two has diverged to the point where personal spending is now at a record high relative to income, surpassing the level seen at the pre-financial crisis peak of housing bubble-induced euphoria. Other data paints a similarly troubling picture. Personal income relative to gross domestic product (GDP), the sum total of U.S.-produced goods and services, has also hit a record. Based on estimated data for third quarter GDP, the consumer now accounts for around 72 percent of output, a far cry from the 50-year median of 64.5 percent. That might not be so bad if the consumer was in better shape than he (or she) was in the past, but various data indicate that is not the case. For example, although household debt relative to net worth is marginally below the second quarter record of 26.9 percent, it is still two-thirds higher than its long-term average. Another series also shows that households remain stretched, despite some improvement from the record highs seen in the spring of 2008. According to the Federal Reserve, Americans devoted just over 18 percent of their monthly disposable personal income -- the amount left over after income taxes -- to debt, auto lease, rental, homeowners' insurance, and property tax payments in the second quarter. Aside from the fact that the median average of the Financial Obligations Ratio (FOR) since 1980, when the Fed started keeping tabs on it, is 17.3 percent, the measure is still above the range that prevailed prior to the accelerated lift-off in housing prices following the 2001 recession. And while the personal savings rate is no longer scraping along at the unsustainably low levels we saw in the middle of the current decade, at 3 percent it is still less than half of its long-term median and well below the more "normal" levels of 8-10 percent that were commonplace in the years since the Great Depression. It doesn't help, of course, that severe declines in stock prices and property values have undermined what economists refer to as "the wealth effect," which helped power a measure of past spending. The fact that American's net worth relative to GDP has fallen back to more normal levels while debt loads have remained high is not at all reassuring. This doesn't even take account of other developments that suggest the health of the consumer is seriously at risk. Along with data released this past week, which revealed that a growing number of Americans are losing their jobs , being forced into foreclosure , and filing for bankruptcy , new research also highlights the fact that income inequality has hit an all-time high. In the end, none of this bodes well for an economy whose fortunes are (still) so closely tied to the spendthrift ways of the U.S. consumer. In fact, once the man in the street figures out that, despite the sorry state of his finances, he is the one that is being counted on to rescue the economy, that's when the real trouble will begin. More on Economy
 
Greece Election: Socialists Projected To Beat Conservatives Top
ATHENS, Greece — Greece's Socialists trounced the governing conservatives in a landslide election Sunday, with voters angered by scandals and a faltering economy ousting Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis halfway through his second term. Humbled by his New Democracy party's worst electoral performance ever, Karamanlis, 53, resigned as its leader and said a new chief is needed for the party founded by his late uncle Constantine Karamanlis 35 years ago. George Papandreou, 57, now follows in the footsteps of his father, Andreas Papandreou, who founded his Panhellenic Socialist Movement party, or PASOK, and grandfather and namesake George Papandreou, both of whom served several terms as prime ministers. "We bear a great responsibility to change the course of the country. ... We know that we can make it," Papandreou, a former foreign minister, told jubilant supporters lighting flares and waving PASOK flags depicting the party's symbol of a green rising sun outside his party headquarters in central Athens. Results from 60.67 percent of votes counted showed PASOK winning with 43.72 percent, compared to 34.74 percent for New Democracy. The result gives PASOK a comfortable majority of about 159 seats in the 300-member parliament, bringing the party back to power after five years of conservative governance. Papandreou's victory, along with a recent election win by socialists in Portugal, bucks a European trend that has seen a conservative surge in the continent's powerhouse economies, including most recently in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election last week. "This is a historic victory for PASOK, which means great responsibility for us," senior party official and former minister Evangelos Venizelos said. Papandreou will now have to deal with a faltering economy that is expected to contract in 2009 after years of strong growth, while the budget deficit will probably exceed 6 percent of economic output. In contrast to Karamanlis, who advocated an austerity program of freezing state salaries, pensions and hiring, Papandreou has promised to inject up to euro3 billion ($4.4 billion) to jump-start the economy. However, his government will likely have to borrow heavily just to service the ballooning debt – set to exceed 100 percent of GDP this year – and keep paying public sector wages and pensions. Papandreou has pledged to limit borrowing by reducing government waste and going after tax dodgers. Thousands of cheering supporters mobbed a smiling Papandreou as he arrived at the central Athens headquarters while the results trickled in. Others drove through the city honking their horns. Karamanlis, looking tired and downcast, congratulated his rival. "From the depths of my heart, I wish to thank the voters who backed us in these elections. I wish to congratulate George Papandreou for his victory," he said in a brief speech in central Athens. "We hope he succeeds in the great challenge of facing the economic situation." Karamanlis announced the early election just halfway through his second four-year term in an ultimately failed gamble to win a strong new mandate to tackle Greece's economic woes. But he had already been trailing in opinion polls when he called the election last month, sparking criticism from within his own party. Karamanlis stormed to power in 2004 to become the youngest prime minister in modern Greek history after more than a decade of socialist rule. He was re-elected in 2007, but quickly saw his popularity eroded by several financial scandals, including a land-swap deal with a Greek Orthodox monastery that cost the state more than euro100 million ($145 million) and forced two of his close aides to resign. Authorities' failure to contain widespread riots sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager in Athens in December also undermined the conservatives' position, which the global financial crisis finished off. Many conservative voters were angered by rising crime and the riots, when anarchists rampaged through Greek cities, smashing shops and banks with little police intervention. "What I believe is happening today is that Karamanlis is paying for his past mistakes, for the financial situation," voter Alexandros Panagiotakopoulos said outside New Democracy's headquarters watching the results on a giant outdoor screen. The Greek Communist Party, far right-wing LAOS and the small Left Coalition are expected to retain their representation in Parliament, while the Ecologist-Greens were hovering on the fringe of the 3 percent threshold for entry. "Mr. Karamanlis brought PASOK into power," said LAOS leader Giorgos Karatzaferis. More on Greece
 

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