famine

Fixing famine: what it will take
Glenda Kwek
August 15, 2011 - 3:12PM
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA - AUGUST 14: Gaunt and malnourished, Farhia Abdule, 5 months, awaits medical attention at the Banadir hospital on August 14, 2011 in Mogadishu, Somalia. The US government estimates that some 30,000 children have died in southern Somalia in the last 90 days due to famine and drought. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) *** BESTPIX *** Click to play video
Somali food aid under threat

Somalia calls for the creation of a humanitarian task force to help protect food aid convoys.

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ESTIMATES OF A DEADLY CRISIS

12m severely affected by drought
29,000 Somali children under five dead in last 90 days
640,000 children acutely malnourished
400,000 in world's largest refugee camp, built for 90,000
How you can help


"Too little, too late." That's the phrase that's often been used to describe the international response to the famine in the Horn of Africa, where more than 12 million people need food aid because of a severe drought.

But what can be done now?
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Halima Hassan comforts her severely malnourished son Abdulrahman Abshir, 7 months, at the Banadir hospital in Mogadishu.

Halima Hassan comforts her severely malnourished son Abdulrahman Abshir, 7 months, at the Banadir hospital in Mogadishu. Photo: Getty Images

What will it take to mitigate the impact of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in parts of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Djibouti?

And what can be done to ensure a disaster of this scale doesn't happen again?

What can be done now
One who is getting help ... Aden Salaad, 2, at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kenya, where he is being treated for malnutrition.

One who is getting help ... Aden Salaad, 2, at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kenya, where he is being treated for malnutrition. Photo: AP

* More aid money

The United Nations said last week that, of the $2.4 billion it has requested from donor countries to tackle the crisis, it has received only $1.1 billion, or 46 per cent.

* Where will the money go?

The money is being used to provide people with basic needs - food, shelter, water supply and sanitation, Andrew Hewett, the executive director of Oxfam Australia, said. Importantly, the aid is also being used to try to keep people where they live presently, rather than have them move towards refugee camps that are already overflowing.

"The next rains are not due until October so people are going to be at risk in the next three months, assuming the rains arrive in October," Mr Hewett said.

"So we've got to try to keep people alive and focusing on those basic needs and getting the resources in to cope."

UN agency the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was trying to keep people on their drought-stricken farms by paying them cash for small jobs as, once they left their farms, they became very dependent on aid for a long time, a spokesman for the FAO, Luca Alinovi, told the Associated Press.

* Managing the conflict and maintaining dialogue with militants

Somalia has been without a stable government since the early 1990s. A protracted conflict within the country - involving at different times Islamic militants such as the al-Shabaab, the armies of regional countries and the Transitional Federal Government - has left local pastoralists, farmers and others cut off from aid agencies and struggling to move from place to place during periods of drought.

United Nations representatives said last week that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a peacekeeping force that was launched in 2007 and staffed by troops from neighbouring countries such as Uganda, needed more military and financial support from the UN Security Council in order to help guard food convoys travelling within the country.

Marc Purcell, executive director of the Australian Council for International Development, an umbrella organisation for Australian aid agencies, added that maintaining political dialogue with countries such as Somalia, through international bodies such as the African Union, was essential to help keep humanitarian corridors open. Such dialogue was often placed in the "too hard basket", he said.

* Sourcing food aid locally

Food aid is essential to save lives, but, if some of the food brought into the five countries was sourced in other parts of Africa, rather than flown in from Western countries, it would help build local markets, Mr Hewett said.

"Much of American food aid is dispatched from the United States. What that does is effectively subsidise American producers and it misses out on the opportunity to help build up local capacity, strengthen local markets and encourage production at the local level," he said.

"And it misses the opportunity to make sure the food aid that is delivered is cultural appropriate."

* Regulating excessive speculation in agriculture commodities

One of the reasons that the food crisis in the Horn of Africa is so acute is because of soaring food prices. The price of sorghum, a staple food, has risen by 240 per cent in south-central Somalia in the past year, Mr Hewett said. The price of maize has also risen by 20 to 40 per cent from last year.

A key reason that prices are soaring is because of speculation in agriculture commodities, Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement, told the BBC in June.

"If you are in a developing country, what we're seeing is a big connection between the money that is flooding the commodity market and the actual price that you pay for your loaf of bread, for your wheat, for your corn on the ground.

"It's the world's poorest that are seeing the worst of this."

* So what can be changed?

Mr Purcell said governments such as Australia and other G20 developed nations can work together to limit speculation in basic food communities, and so keep prices from soaring out of the reach of the poor.

How can we stop this from occurring again?

* Increasing investment in African food production

There are parts of Africa that are known to face chronic food shortages, and so are very sensitive to even small fluctuations in harvest yields, Mr Hewett said.

If smallholder farmers and pastoralists in these areas are given more support - such as through helping them plant hardier crops and getting cheaper inputs into their farms, as well as improving their access to disaster risk management tools and insurance programs - this gives them a better chance of coping with droughts or other natural disasters, he added.

* Easing rural African poverty

This seems like an ambitious task, but through an increased investment in physical infrastructure, future generations of Africans may be able to get out of the vicious cycle of drought, conflict, famine and poverty, Mr Hewett said.

That would include building up grain reserves to counter volatile prices, constant social assistance (rather than assistance only in a major crisis) to poor households so they can access food at all times of the year, and an insurance scheme (sometimes cash, sometimes food) that kicks in when there is a humanitarian situation.

* Educate the young, especially girls

This lack of education starts from the basics - such as knowledge about family planning and the need to wash hands to limit the spread of diseases, said Norman Gillespie of UNICEF Australia.

So in developing countries where more than half of the population is below 18, even a few years of education for a young girl can change how soon she has children and how many she has.

"As you get more children into school and as you empower more girls, the social fabric starts to change," Mr Gillespie said.

"She'll be more empowered, she's got a voice, there will be less of that cycle and pattern of how women are just really the workers and the producers of babies instead of being part of the democratic process."

* Respond faster and better to early warning systems

Satellite imagery was already showing last year - soon after the rains failed to fall from October to December, coupled with data on rising food prices - that a severe food shortage was on the horizon, but the international community failed to act quickly to prevent the crisis from becoming a full-blown famine, Mr Purcell said.

Part of the problem, he said, was the international community was more effective at responding to sudden and catastrophic disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, as seen this year in New Zealand and Japan, rather than for "slow onset disasters" such as drought.

Attention from international governments and media was mobilised very quickly for these calamities, whereas aid agencies were less equipped to respond to the unfolding disaster in the Horn as it shifted from malnutrition to famine, especially since many of them had limited access in Somalia due to the conflict and knew little about what was actually happening on the ground, Mr Purcell added.

He said that could change through diplomatic efforts by members of governments sitting on regional bodies or larger international ones to maintain constant dialogue with states placed in the "too hard basket", such as North Korea, Burma and Somalia, so that their populations would have contact with and can be monitored by local and international aid agencies.

So what can Australia do?

Mr Purcell believes Australia, which recently became an observer at the African Union (AU), can help to encourage countries in the region to open up their humanitarian corridors.

The key, he said, was long-term political attention that went beyond the current emergency.

"[Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin] Rudd has been rapid in responding on this particular instance and his type of energy can assist in getting other countries to react," he said.

"And it's not just about monetary resources, it's about having bodies like the AU intercede with al-Shabaab or warlords to guarantee humanitarian access."

Both Mr Purcell and Mr Gillespie believe concerted and long-term political persistence and action would help prevent such a crisis from recurring, the way it has this year after the famines in Somalia in the early 1990s and in Ethiopia in 1984-95 (which killed nearly 1 million people). In the past five years, east Africa has experienced two other food crisis - in 2006, 11 million were hit by drought; in 2009, more than 20 million were affected by drought.

"There is evidence that the humanitarian community does learn from each crisis and that prevention is working more effectively," Mr Purcell said.

"In Bangladesh, the humanitarian workers have really worked to reduce the number of people killed in cyclones and we are seeing a massive drop in the tens of thousands of people affected in the past 20 years because of investments in disaster reduction.

"Of course some people will despair but what's the alternative? The alternative is turning away and that is not an option."

How you can help

UNICEF Australia: online or phone 1300 884 233
World Vision Australia: online or phone 13 32 40
Oxfam Australia: online or phone 1800 088 110
Australia for UNHCR: online or phone 1300 361 288
CARE Australia: online or phone 1800 020 046
World Food Programme: online
Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia (Doctors Without Borders): online or phone 1300 13 60 61
Australian Red Cross: online or phone 1800 811 700

About the countries affected (Reuters)

Ethiopia

Population size: 84.9 million (UN 2010)
The Marxist policies of Mengistu Haile Mariam, which he began abandoning in 1990 with some economic reforms, left a country ravaged by economic decline, famine and regional conflicts that consumed half the state budget. In 1984-85, in the famine, up to 1 million Ethiopians starved to death.
For months in 1984, Mengistu denied the devastating famine in Ethiopia's north. Aid workers later recalled he flew in planes loaded with whisky to celebrate the anniversary of his revolution, as hunger deepened.
Bob Geldof, after watching pictures of the famine, organised Live Aid in 1985 to try to alleviate the hunger. Watched by 1.5 billion people, it raised $100 million for Africa's starving.

Somalia

Population size: 9.3 million (UN 2010)
The United Nations said on July 18 it had started airlifting food aid to rebel-held parts of drought-hit Somalia and that Islamist insurgents had abided by a pledge to allow relief workers free access.
About 10 million people are affected in the region, dubbed the "triangle of death" by local media, that straddles Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. Somalia has had no effective central government for two decades, worsening the impact of recurring droughts.

Further reading

Series of reports by Fairfax's Matt Wade and photographer Jacky Ghossein, who travelled to the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya in July.
Q+A: How bad is the Horn of Africa drought?
Why is it so hard to get into Somalia to deliver aid?
What is the impact of Islamic militant group al-Shabaab pulling out of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital?
Who has donated what and where is the money going to?
Ten worst famines of the 20th century.
The role of commodity markets.

twitter Follow this reporter on Twitter @curious_scribe

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/fixing-famine-what-it-will-take-20110815-1iu0f.html#ixzz1V4gFnZBc

Super Clinic

Super Clinic opens months late
EMMA HOPE | July 05, 2011 12.01am

SOUTHERN Tasmania's first GP Super Clinic finally opened its doors yesterday -- but patients were unable to phone to make appointments as the number was not listed.

And the new Rosny centre, which was already five months behind its scheduled opening, began with a completely new staff after all the previous clinic's doctors took redundancies.

Royal Hobart Hospital spokeswoman Pene Snashall said phone calls to the old Rosny clinic were supposed to be diverted to the new clinic.

"There was an error with the diversion of the phone that has now been rectified," Ms Snashall said.

"There is a new number but patients won't have to know it for a while as the phone will continue to be diverted."

The $5.5 million Federal Government-funded Clarence GP Super Clinic is being run by the Independent Practitioners' Network, though the network does not list the new clinic on its official website and staff contacted at its other Tasmanian clinics had no information or contact number.

None of the doctors from the previous Rosny GP clinic are employed at the new GP Super Clinic.

Ms Snashall said it was their decision to take voluntary redundancies.

"Six or eight GPs were employed at the old clinic," she said.

"About a year ago we started discussions with them about what they might like to do.

"All the permanent members of staff were offered the opportunity to get a comparable job in the department or the other offer was that they could apply for a position with the new provider.

"They all chose to take a voluntary redundancy.

"It doesn't prevent them in the future from applying to the new provider.

"I think over time that logically that will happen.

"They've got that good local community knowledge about that cohort of patients. I think some of them will say 'we've had a bit of a break and now we'll go back'.

"There was one overseas-trained doctor who had a temporary contract that expired at the end of June and that contract was not renewed."

The GP Super Clinics were a 2007 election promise by federal Parliamentary Secretary for Community Services Julie Collins.

The Clarence clinic was about five months behind schedule opening.

GP Super Clinics are running in Devonport and Burnie.

Work on a $2.7 million Super Clinic at Sorell has not begun.

hopee@news.net.au

libs plan to save schools

Libs' plan to save schools
DANIELLE McKAY | July 04, 2011 12.01am

LIBERAL leader Will Hodgman has challenged his political foes to join forces and support legislation he will table this week that could save 20 schools from closure.

Mr Hodgman has asked his Greens and Labor counterparts to put their "money where their mouth is" and support the Bill that backs savings outlined in the Liberals' alternative budget.

Mr Hodgman said by accepting sections of the Liberals' budget, including sacking the state architect and abolishing the fox taskforce, the Government could meet necessary savings and keep the 20 rural and suburban schools open for at least the next year.

"The savings that are necessary to keep these 20 schools open, just over $3 million in this coming year, can easily be found in other areas," he said.

"In our alternative budget we have identified a number of savings measures, places we would rather cut funding before you start shutting schools.

"We will move to amend this Budget and that will give members of this Parliament, both Labor and Green, an opportunity to say and to show clearly that they are serious about keeping these schools open."

Premier Lara Giddings said until the exact proposed amendments were seen, she could not speculate on the Government's position.

However, Ms Giddings said immediate action was necessary to avoid a $4 billion debt and an annual interest bill of $300 million in four years' time.

"It would be unusual to amend the State Budget, which is based on careful research and financial modelling," she said.

"The Opposition's proposed amendments would have to be based on real economic and educational sense, not just more shallow populism and opportunism.

"The Liberals' track record doesn't inspire confidence on that front."

Mr Hodgman's challenge comes as Education Minister Nick McKim faces angry protests from communities as he meets school associations at the 20 schools flagged for potential closure.

Hundreds of parents, friends and students have met at Save Our School public meetings statewide over past weeks, many addressed by Liberal, Labor and Greens MPs.

Mr Hodgman said that if his political counterparts were genuine in their belief that schools should not be closed, he would give them the chance to express that this week.

"They've been running around the state for the last week saying they want to support these schools, well this is their chance," he said.

"We'll see whether or not their priority is keeping schools open or if they'll keep wasting money."

mckaydm@news.net.au

Facebook and teenagers

http://images.smh.com.au/2011/07/01/2466798/ipad-art-wide-pg3-parents-420x0.jpg


Parental guidance is recommended: the Riddle children (from left) Charlotte, Oliver and Georgina with their mother Sharon Williams, CEO of Taurus Marketing. Photo: Brendan Esposito
PARENTS must teach children as young as eight how to craft a ''personal brand'', as social media sites threaten to record the worst of adolescent behaviour, says mother and brand manager Sharon Williams.
Parents need to take a greater policing role, argues Ms Williams, with schools and lawyers struggling to keep up with the malicious behaviour of children online.
Ms Williams, a corporate brand manager, has applied her work to her children, teaching her teenage daughters to avoid posting comments and photos that would cause a future self to cringe.
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''It's like a tattoo,'' Ms Williams, of Artarmon, said.
Not only do Charlotte, 15, and Georgina, 14, consider their own feelings in years to come; the teens pause to think about the reactions of a withering host of strangers.
''Imagine sitting on your shoulder as you're typing the local justice of the peace, your future boyfriend, the man you're going to marry, the mother-in-law of the man you're going to marry and your future employer for the job of your dreams,'' Ms Williams said.
Both girls said they used social media but updated their status less frequently than friends. Ms Williams said Charlotte had been oblivious to the potential dangers of an internet trail before the coaching.
''Her online brand is available for all time,'' Ms Williams said. ''Parents need to take control and be responsible for their personal brand because as a child, you have no idea that in 15 years' time or five years' time, the effects of what you're doing today will be wide-ranging and have the most extraordinary repercussions.''
This week, the Herald exposed school students using a website to rate each other's sexual performance and bully some students. Principals at the five schools that form the Northern Beaches Secondary College emailed parents to emphasise school cyber-bullying policies.
The head of St Andrew's Cathedral School, John Collier, said parents should not let children use social media sites without physical supervision - at least until the ''later teens''. The principal of the Northern Beaches Christian School, Stephen Harris, said it was an ''immense parenting mistake'' for parents to allow young children to use Facebook.
Legally, children are not meant to use Facebook until age 13 but Ms Williams said teaching on image control had to happen from about age 8.
Bullying victims are embracing social media to fight back. More than 3000 people joined the Facebook community, 'Draw a heart on your wrist if you're against bullying' with photos of decorated wrists posted by affected students and adults from all over the world.
Kari Anne Begg, of Kellyville, said she and her husband were both bullied as children. They chose a school for their eldest daughter on the basis of a strong stance against bullying.
''Mrs Begg was concerned cyber-bullying presented an added threat for her children but planned to teach them how to use Facebook responsibly.
''It's up to parents to talk to them,'' she said.
edu@smh.com.au


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/styled-by-mother--children-taught-to-build-online-brand-20110701-1gv6j.html#ixzz1Qu7H9Zgh

Gay marriage

The Gillard government’s anti-gay marriage policy goes global
by gay rights campaigner Rodney Croome
As well as not allowing same-sex couples to marry in Australia, the Gillard government does its best to block Australians from entering same-sex marriages overseas.

It does this by refusing to issue same-sex partners with the key document they need to marry in another country.

That document, known as a Certificate of No-Impediment to Marriage or CNI, confirms to a foreign government that the Australian who wants to marry under its laws is not already married in Australia.

The Australian government routinely issues this document to heterosexual Australians marrying overseas, but it has an explicit policy of refusing them to same-sex partners.

This causes an array of problems for Australians entering legal same-sex marriages in other countries. Many same-sex partners only find out about the CNI problem at the last minute and either have to call off their wedding or go through with the kind of unofficial commitment ceremony they wanted to avoid.

In many of the countries that allow same-sex marriages, marriage brings rights and entitlements not available to cohabiting couples. This leaves Australians whose same-sex marriages the Gillard government has blocked without recognition or protection in health care, pensions and immigration.

Then there’s the pain of being denied the same rights other Australians take for granted. According to Chris Murray, whose legal marriage to his Portuguese partner, Victor, could not take place because the government would not give him a CNI, “As much as I appreciated the support of friends and family, no amount of ‘don’t worry – it’s only a piece of paper’ or ‘but it’s your love that counts’ made up for the fact that my country was saying that my relationship was not only not worthy of recognition, but I had to be prohibited from having this relationship recognised elsewhere in the world.”

Because of these problems the Netherlands gives Australians an exemption from its CNI requirement (along with Zimbabweans). Meanwhile, the Norwegians are so angry that the Gillard government is pushing its prejudices down their throats, they attacked Australia’s same-s-x marriage ban at a recent UN human rights review.

But for the most part there’s nothing that countries who allow same-sex marriages can do about Australia’s CNI policy, and as their number increases so does the number of Australians who face the inconvenience, insecurity and indignity this policy creates.

The Australian government says it refuses to issue CNIs to same-sex couples because same-sex marriages aren’t recognised in Australia. But no-one is swallowing this.

According to Senior Lecturer in Law at the ANU, Wayne Morgan, “There is nothing in Australian law that would prevent a Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage (being issued) to a same-sex couple marrying under the laws of another country. This is an internationally accepted document that has nothing to do with the validity of the marriage back in the couple’s own country.”

A 2009 Senate Committee inquiry into same-sex marriage agreed. It found that, “A decision by a sovereign nation to allow marriage between a couple of the same sex should be a matter for that nation, and not a matter against which Australia should throw up bureaucratic barriers.”

Since then the Government’s discriminatory policy has suffered another blow.

In 2010 Tasmania became the first Australian state or territory to acknowledge overseas same-sex marriages as state civil partnerships, giving them all the same rights as married couples in state AND federal law.

This creates an absurd situation where the Australian government is giving full marriage entitlements to legal unions it has tried to block on the basis that they are not recognised in Australia.

So why does the Gillard government maintain such a ridiculous, harmful and discriminatory policy?

It’s hard to see the current bureaucratic block to overseas same-sex marriages as anything but another mean-spirited attempt by the government to convince right-wing Christian lobbyists it despises same-sex marriages as much as they do.

Yet again loving, committed same-sex partners have been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

I’m confident this won’t last much longer.

With Galaxy Research finding that 75% of Australians believe same-sex marriages are inevitable, history is clearly on the side of equality.

If the Labor Party doesn’t reverse its discriminatory stance on same-sex marriages at its National Conference in December, the next generation of Australians will condemn it in the same way we now condemn those Labor governments that upheld the White Australia Policy.

*Rodney Croome is the Campaign Director of Australian Marriage Equality and the co-author of Why v Why: gay marriage.
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9 Comments
JOHN
Posted Tuesday, 14 June 2011 at 1:22 pm | Permalink
Julia Gillard appears to be the most homophobic prime minister in Australia’s history. The absurd aspect is that people on the other side of politics, such as those who criticised her for being “deliberately barren”, have been conducting a whispering campaign that she is a closet lesbian and that her hairdresser consort is just a handbag.

9302202E5A6ABD06A6B4260EAD62EE10
Posted Tuesday, 14 June 2011 at 1:30 pm | Permalink
well really after getting the farmers off side, the miners off side, the refugee advocates off side,the clubs offside,kevin rudd offside,she really doesnt want another enemy like the churches offside does she?

ALLISON
Posted Tuesday, 14 June 2011 at 1:43 pm | Permalink
the law is an ass (or arse)

JOHN
Posted Tuesday, 14 June 2011 at 2:49 pm | Permalink
Hooray for Andrew Wilkie in QT this afternoon.

LADYSTARDUST64
Posted Tuesday, 14 June 2011 at 3:15 pm | Permalink
PM Gillard is really making it difficult to raise empathetic, morally conscious teenagers.

Grow some Julia and stop toppling towards the right wing nutbags. Enough is enough, beyond a joke, blah blah blah. This issue is not going to go away because as it currently stands it is wrong. Everything about it is wrong. Fix it and your legacy will be long and fondly remembered. What if your Tim was a Tammy and you loved her just the same. She might even have a shed too. Would you want anyone else telling you what to feel - how to be you?

I don’t think so.

CHARLES RICHARDSON
Posted Tuesday, 14 June 2011 at 3:27 pm | Permalink
To be fair, it should be pointed out that this isn’t something the Gillard govt introduced: it’s a Howard govt policy and dates to at least 2005, as this _Age_ article documents: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/gays-hit-in-overseas-nuptial-bid/2006/01/13/1137118970292.html . That’s no excuse for Gillard, but she shouldn’t cop all the blame.

SUSIEQ
Posted Tuesday, 14 June 2011 at 3:30 pm | Permalink
I never knew this happened (CNI’s) and its appalling, but hardly suprising, especially when you have people like the right wing faction of the ALP doing its Chicken Little routine at the mere mention of gay marriage. This issue is such an easy fix for the government- much less complicated than carbon taxes and mining taxes - surely it would pass through parliament easily enough? We may not have many pleasant memories of the Rudd govt, but everyone remembers the apology to the stolen generation don’t they?
Who cares what the Christian Lobby thinks - why should they have everything their way all the time?

F531F3B28AE6B07F01AD44BF62360840
Posted Tuesday, 14 June 2011 at 4:27 pm | Permalink
Interesting article.

I did have a question regarding the whole same sex marriage debate.

If we did get same sex marriage into law, as per many other countries,
would be willing to discriminate against groups who are calling for FULL marriage equality, as per the definition below:

“Advocating for the right of consenting adults to enjoy love, sex, and marriage without limits on the gender, number, or relation of participants. Full marriage equality is a basic human right”
(Source: marriage-equality.blogspot.com).

If we are willing to discriminate against, and exclude such groups, from the institution of marriage, on what grounds would we exclude them?

twitter for tv

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« OLDER ENTRY

BY CYNTHIA BORIS ON JUNE 13, 2011
Fans Find TV Tweets Very Engaging
1

Ten days ago, Jared Padalecki, one of the stars of the CW series Supernatural got a Twitter account. He started it after years of saying he never would and couldn’t even get his own name because of there are so many imposters on Twitter. He settled on @jarpad, announced it at a fan convention, then took a photo of his co-star at the convention as proof that it was really him.

As of this morning, Jarpad has 94,132 followers and they aren’t just sitting idle. Many of them complied with Jared’s wishes to vote for a band he produces in a House of Blues contest, shooting them up to number one.

Then there’s Jared’s co-star Misha Collins. He has 219,000 followers and parlayed his Twitter fame into a charity that raised around $100,000 last year for an orphanage in Haiti.

Oh yes, and The CW is reaping the rewards, too. Their audience is young, mobile and active in social media, so they’ve made it extremely easy to follow any of their celebrity tweeters. They have a full page of one click links to the Twitter accounts of more than 75 of their stars. That’s massive for such a small network. They also have a clever iPhone app that allows you to follow the Tweets of the stars or the fans of a given show so you can Tweet while you watch.

TV and Twitter isn’t just for the young. CBS, which has the oldest demographic of big five networks, has been using Twitter chats to spur on their audience.

George Schweitzer, president of the network’s CBS Marketing Group, told eMarketer;

“Social media has allowed us to have a voice in interactivity, in that we can be part of the conversation while it’s all happening. It’s really shown, yet again, another thing that was supposed to be a negative for our industry has become a huge positive. More people are watching television than ever before, and they’re enjoying and talking about it.”

Schweitzer goes on to say that CBS was very happy with the response to their recent Tweet Week where stars of their shows Tweeted while watching. The “however” is that they can’t directly correlate the success of that event with a rise in ratings. But as we’re always saying here, measuring social media isn’t about the numbers, it’s about brand recognition and buzz.

On June 4, “jarpad” was a trending term on Twitter. You can bet that thousands of people who weren’t Supernatural fans clicked through to see what all the fuss was about. That’s the kind of publicity that the CW can’t afford to buy and they got it totally free thanks to their newly Twitter-obsessed TV star.

SIMILAR STORIES IN: SOCIAL | FORWARD: EMAIL THIS POST
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1 comment on “Fans Find TV Tweets Very Engaging”


Frank Reed Says:
June 13th, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Young, mobile and active in social media. With the CW being a bit player in the TV wars if they can corral this group they might have something even more valuable than the 4 major networks do: a passionate (albeit smaller) group that hangs on every word of their favorite stars.

It’s really what social media is truly about. Forget the big numbers. Find those that are passionate and play to their interests then don’t get greedy!

Looking forward to seeing what happens (or has happened) six months from now due to this type of interaction.

[Reply]

girl exposed

Gay Girl in Damascus is a man called Tom
Asher Moses
June 13, 2011 - 9:07AM
Comments 2

Tom Macmaster ... wrote under the pseudonym Amina Arraf.
Amina Arraf, the "Gay Girl in Damascus" who sent the world into a frenzy after she was reportedly kidnapped by Syrian security forces, has been outed as a 40-year-old American man.

A new entry on Sunday in the blog, which for months has claimed to be written by a lesbian Syrian-American living in Damascus, asserted that the entire saga was a hoax.

The post, which came days after an entry saying the blogger had been arrested, was signed by "Tom MacMaster" in Istanbul, Turkey.

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Jelena Lecic ... the Croat living in London said the Gay Girl in Damascus blog was carrying a picture of her.
In it, the author says the narrative was fictional but insists it "created an important voice for issues I feel strongly about."

It says the author never expected so much attention.

It is not the first time a a blog has been exposed as an elaborate fiction. In 2004, the Plain Layne blog, purportedly the diary of a bisexual young woman, was revealed to be written by a man, Odin Soli.


A grab from Gay Girl in Damascus.
Additionally, from 1999 to 2001, Debbie Swanson convinced the world that she was a terminally ill teenager, Kaycee Nicole, who was stricken with leukemia. It was one of the most high profile cases of Munchausen by Internet, a disease where people feign serious illnesses online.

On Tuesday, a blog post on the Gay Girl in Damascus site, supposedly written by Amina Arraf's cousin, said she had been detained in Damascus after weeks on the run. The story unraveled quickly after a woman in Britain said the photos on the Facebook account of the blogger known as Amina were actually of her.

The author of the blog post on Sunday titled it Apology to readers but wrote "I do not believe that I have harmed anyone". There was no listing for MacMaster in Istanbul.


Stolen identity ... a grab from Jelena Lecic's Facebook page.
MacMaster, a 40-year-old American from Georgia, is a Middle East peace activist who has been studying for a masters degree at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is reportedly on vacation in Turkey with his girlfriend.

The Washington Post was able to track MacMaster down before he outed himself on the blog but he initially denied any connection to Arraf, saying if he were the "genius" who pulled it off he would write a book.

MacMaster when posing as Amina had given people postal addresses for Christmas cards which were registered in his name. He and Amina were on the same Yahoo message group about "alternate history" and frequently engaged each other in discussions about the Middle East.

Many biographical details about Amina that were published online also matched MacMaster's own life story. These are detailed in an extensive Washington Post article, which highlights MacMaster's deep knowledge of Syria and long affinity with the Middle East.

In the blog post purportedly by Arraf's cousin, Rania Ismail, it said Arraf was last seen on Monday being bundled into a car by three men in civilian clothes as she was on her way to meet someone at the activist Local Coordination Committees. Ismail said a friend accompanying her was nearby and saw what happened.

A reporter for The Associated Press, who maintained a month-long email correspondence with someone claiming to be Arraf, found the writer seemed very much like a woman in the midst of the violent change gripping Syria. The writer spoke about friends in Damascus, and outlined worries about her father and hopes for the future of her country.

In the emails, the person acknowledged fudging some details of escaping from Syrian security officials to protect herself and her family, and painted a harrowing picture of fleeing her home.

Jelena Lecic, the woman whose photos were linked to Arraf's Facebook profile, said the London woman first learned her likeness was being used when it was linked to an article about Arraf in the Guardian newspaper, her spokesman has said.

The spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lecic, a Croatian woman working as an administrator at the Royal College of Physicians in London, reportedly had her identity stolen about a year ago. MacMaster had been circulating photographs of her to people asking for pictures of Arraf.

On the blog, Arraf was known for frank posts about her sexuality and open criticism of President Bashar al-Assad's autocratic rule.

In February, an American blogger named Paula Brooks began communicating with Arraf via email but became suspicious when her IP address was traced back to Edinburgh in Scotland.

Arraf sent Brooks a photo of herself that matches the photos Lecic claims were taken from her Facebook page.

She told Brooks that her IP traced back to Scotland because she used a proxy to hide her identity. However, an email Arraf sent to Brooks discussing plans to study in Britain led her to suspect Arraf might have been blogging from the University of Edinburgh all along.

Media scoured records for confirmation that Arraf existed and also attempted to confirm biographical information found in her blog, but came up empty. No one, including the US State Department, was able to confirm her arrest.

NPR reporter Andy Carvin said he had spoken to a number of people who claimed to have met or interviewed Arraf but found that nobody had even met her in person or spoken to her on the phone. Even a purported girlfriend in Canada said she had only had a text-based relationship with Arraf.

Arraf's Canadian friend, Sandra Bagaria, who started a campaign to have Arraf released, was last week dismayed at suggestions she may have been deceived or that her Syrian friend might have been using a false identity.

''I don't know. I really can't tell. I would love to tell you I know," she said.

"I just want it to be clarified, and then I will deal with what I should and should not feel. But for now I just want it to be a little more clear."

- with AP

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Comments

2 comments so far
See how the media jumps onto unverified, made up rubbish posing as news? The days of "journalists" actually researching stories are long gone, Signed by Berkel, a bisexual, pot smoking parrot in detention on Xmas island

Shemp | melbourne - June 13, 2011, 9:20AM
This man, Tom, claims he hasn't hurt anyone and says he created this blog for Syria. What a crock, why then did he have dating site profiles up with the photos of jelena? Why did he create a relationship with a woman in Montreal? He wasn't blogging for Syria, he was blogging to live out a lesbian fantasy. He'll be doing an interview soon and I hope the interviewer asks the hard questions and doesn't let him get away with saying "I did it all for Syria".

Juno. - June 13, 2011, 9:30AM


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/gay-girl-in-damascus-is-a-man-called-tom-20110613-1fzmw.html#ixzz1P6nNjDJz

twitter info

Twitter forced to identify user who tweeted about council
Nigel Green, Josh Halliday
May 31, 2011

Ryan Giggs ... the Manchester United footballer named as the plaintiff in a gagging order. Photo: Reuters
THE online battle over freedom of speech has taken a dramatic turn with the revelation that a British local authority had forced Twitter to hand over the details of a user the council had accused of defamation.

Twitter, based in San Francisco, was ordered by a Californian court to disclose to South Tyneside Council in northern England the name, email address and phone number of a councillor it accused of libelling the council with a string of anonymous postings.

Last year both Google and the blogging platform WordPress were similarly forced to hand over to the council the IP address of an online whistleblower.

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Lawyers acting for the council went to California in April to order Twitter to hand over the details, which could set a precedent in the spiralling row over privacy and free speech online.

Ryan Giggs, the Manchester United footballer named as the plaintiff in a gagging order preventing reporting of an alleged affair with a reality TV model, is separately attempting to unmask Twitter users accused of revealing details of the privacy injunction. Giggs brought his lawsuit at the High Court in London. Use of a California court is likely to be seen as a landmark in the internet privacy battle.

Twitter is a microblogging service enabling its users under their pseudonyms to send and read messages, known as tweets, of up to 140 characters.

Ahmed Khan, the South Tyneside councillor accused of the Twitter postings, described the council's move as ''Orwellian''. He received an email from Twitter earlier this month to say it had handed over his information. He denies being the author of the allegedly defamatory material. ''It is like something out of Nineteen Eighty-Four,'' Mr Khan said. ''If a council can take this kind of action against one of its own councillors, simply because they don't like what I say, what hope is there for freedom of speech or privacy?''

Guardian News & Media



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/twitter-forced-to-identify-user-who-tweeted-about-council-20110530-1fcz9.html#ixzz1P2ctF6Sp

ricki martin

Ricky took his message directly to his fans.
(Anonymous)
2010-04-03 06:38 am UTC (link)
LAST week the Latin pop star Ricky Martin — to the surprise of perhaps almost no one — came out of the closet. Did he give the exclusive to People? Nope. Whisper it to Page Six? Nuh-uh. Submit to a tearful interview with Barbara Walters? Not a chance.

Instead Mr. Martin posted a statement on his fan Web site, rickymartinmusic.com. “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man,” he wrote.

It was a departure from the typical celebrity coming-out, which goes something like this: find a sympathetic publication, say, The Advocate (Sean Hayes), Time (Ellen DeGeneres) or People (Lance Bass, Clay Aiken and Neil Patrick Harris); give a soul-baring interview; and watch the story land at the same time you are promoting a new show, album or book.

Mr. Martin is one of a growing number of celebrities who, fed up with being hounded by tabloids and Internet gossip, want to control their public personas by addressing personal issues directly with their fans.

Members of a new generation of actors and musicians have embraced Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare to promote themselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/fashion/04ricky.html

facebook

Summonsed by Facebook
June 7, 2011 - 4:55PM
Two years after an Australian lawyer caused a stir by sending a foreclosure notice via Facebook, the practice of online legal service is spreading as a means for courts to keep their dockets moving.

Courts in New Zealand, Canada and the UK have adopted the Australian example to avoid having cases stall when people can't be located and served in person. Lawyers said the US may not be far behind in using the world's most popular social- networking service.

“There are people who exist only online,” said Joseph DeMarco, co-chair of the American Bar Association's criminal justice cyber crime committee, and a lawyer at New York-based DeVore & DeMarco LLP. Being able to serve documents by social-media networks would be a useful tool, he said.

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While Facebook is under regulatory and legal scrutiny in countries including the US, South Korea and Germany for failing to protect user data, privacy advocates said that serving court notices by mail or in person often already provokes privacy complaints. Therefore using Facebook doesn't raise any new issues.

“There are going to be privacy concerns, but in some respects they're almost inescapable,” said Mark Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. Someone “is going to be subject to legal service, even though they may not be happy about it. But if they are properly notified the law's primary concern is addressed,” whether the notice arrived via Facebook or not.

Reliable, secure

California-based Facebookmay find legal papers served via its system a welcome recognition of the security of its internal messaging function.

Following the 2008 foreclosure case, spokesman Barry Schnitt said the company was pleased to see the Australian court validate Facebook as a reliable, secure and private communication medium, the Associated Press reported. Andrew Noyes, a Facebook spokesman, declined to comment on its recent use as an alternative means of delivering court documents.

“It seems only logical now that tools like Facebook or Twitter be used” to contact people who can't be traced using traditional means, said Daniel Hamilton, director of Big Brother Watch in London, noting such efforts don't violate personal privacy. “Now is it desirable? No.”

The judge in the Canberra case required lawyers to serve a foreclosure notice on the couple at their home address and a secondary address, as well as via Facebook, said Archie Tsirimokos, a managing partner at Meyer Vandenberg Lawyers who represented creditor MKM Capital.

Calls, faxes

Since then, courts have grown more lenient in approving the use of Facebook. In March, Hilary Thorpe, a lawyer in East Sussex, England, persuaded a British court to allow her to serve a woman solely through her Facebook account, after showing that calls, faxes and visits had failed to track her down.

The people in both the UK and Australian cases were successfully notified in the eyes of the court, the lawyers said. Tsirimokos said that “within a day” of sending the notice, the recipient's privacy settings in the Australian case were tightened, showing the debtors got the notice. MKM won a court order and then seized and sold the house.

Thorpe, who sent the notice via Facebook's private message system, said “it was a matter of minutes for the debtor to respond to the e-mail,” allowing the case to move ahead.

US lawyers say it would be helpful if their courts allowed the practice, and privacy experts don't see it as concern because US court documents are already public.

Unethical friending

The challenge would be to collect enough proof to convince a court the accountholder is the right person and the page is checked often enough to ensure it's a fair path of notification, DeMarco said. This would need to be done without violating ethics codes that would prevent lawyers from “friending” the target under false pretenses to get past security settings.

“Nothing on its face in New York state or federal law precludes it,” DeMarco said.

There are countries, like France and Germany, where electronic delivery isn't allowed in any form. French law requires delivery in person.

“It wouldn't be admissible procedurally to send a message by Facebook,” said Matthieu Bonduelle, head of France's Magistrates' Union.

English court rules permit electronic document service, said Danvers Baillieu, a technology-law specialist in London.

“As far as the law is concerned, it's just a method of delivery,” he said. “The precise form of technology is neither here nor there.”



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/summonsed-by-facebook-20110607-1fqnr.html#ixzz1Oa6Kauzh

twitter info

'They Hate Niggas Out Here': US hip hop star labels Brisbane racist
Georgia Waters
June 7, 2011 - 8:53AM
Comments 185
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Tyler unleashes on Brisbane
Odd Future singer, Tyler Okonma launched a Twitter tirade against Brisbane, saying it was a city of racists.
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A US hip hop frontman has called Brisbane a city of racists after performing to a sold-out show in West End on Sunday night.

Tyler Okonma, of Los Angeles group Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (otherwise known as Odd Future), posted a series of comments on Twitter over the weekend and yesterday.

Okonma, 20, who's also known by his stage name Tyler, The Creator, has nearly a quarter of a million followers on Twitter.

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Tyler Okonma on stage in Brisbane. Photo Justin Edwards
He told them people in Brisbane were "racist as f---" and he was "uncomfortable" and wanted to go home.

"I get this weird vibe," he wrote.

Later, he added "Im in Brisbane Right Now....They hate Niggas Out Here...." but added that MLBRN (Melbourne) "was cool".


'Weird vibe' in Brisbane ... Tyler Okonma said he had a run in with a 'racist' at KFC. Photo: Facebook
Okonma later told the crowd at his sold-out show at West End's The Hi-Fi on Sunday night that he'd had a run-in with a ''racist asshole'' at a KFC in Brisbane.

Do you know more? Email us

He told the crowd he wouldn't judge Brisbane on one person's behaviour, however his earlier tweets remain in his stream.

Regardless, Okonma seemed to enjoy the show: "F---ing Brisbane Show Was F---ing SICK!", he tweeted later.

"So F---king Happy. Australia Was F---king Fun Over All. Thanks To The White People Down Under (Except For Them Hating Racist From Earlier)."

Okonma, who is now happily back in the US ("Its Been A Week Since I Had My Phone, So Happy To Be Home"), later wrote that he was taking the popular Australian pastime of "planking" back with him.

He's a prolific tweeter, constantly sharing his thoughts with his nearly 250,000 followers on everything from his taste in women - "I Am On The Search For A Freckled Girl My Age" - to his conversations with other musicians "I Asked Chris Brown If He Liked Soup".

At the time of writing, his most recent tweet was that he had just taken a nap.

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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/they-hate-niggas-out-here-us-hip-hop-star-labels-brisbane-racist-20110607-1fpt9.html#ixzz1Oa4qMTx4

rooney hair transplant story thru twitter

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/wayne-rooney-reveals-new-look-after-hair-transplant-20110607-1fpsf.html

Safe sex ads to be reinstated

Safe sex ads to be reinstated
Staff reporters
June 1, 2011 - 4:33PM
Comments 484 Vote
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Billboard star 'fuming' over pulled ads
The star of a billboard campaign promoting safe gay sex is demanding an apology and for the ads to be reinstated after they were withdrawn due to complaints.
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An outdoor advertising company has reversed its controversial decision to pull down safe-sex awareness signs featuring a hugging, gay couple.

Adshel, which copped widespread criticism over the removal of the signs from Brisbane bus shelters, announced this afternoon the signs would be reinstated after accepting complaints had been “orchestrated” by the Australian Christian Lobby.

'Why the fuss?' asks poster star
“Adshel earlier responded to a series of complaints by removing the campaign from its media panels yesterday,” the company said in a statement on its website this afternoon.

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Protesters gather outside Adshel’s Fortitude Valley headquarters. Photo: Katherine Feeney
“None of the complaints indicated any liaison with the ACL, so Adshel was made to believe that they originated from individual members of the public.”

Adshel chief executive Steve McCarthy said it was now clear that Adshel had been the target of a co-ordinated ACL campaign against the “Rip and Roll” advertisements designed by the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities.

“This has led us to review our decision to remove the campaign and we will therefore reinstate the campaign with immediate effect,” he said.


This safe sex advertisement has been pulled from Brisbane bus shelters after the Australian Christian Lobby complained it was offensive.
ACL Queensland director Wendy Francis, who earlier said there had been a co-ordinated attempt to have the ads removed, condemned the decision to reinstate the ads.

Ms Francis denied she led an orchestrated ACL campaign against the billboards, saying she had personally raised concern about the ads on her Facebook page promoting G-rated outdoor advertising and contacted her friends about the issue.

She blasted the decision to reinstate the ads as a “loss for our children” but said it reflected people power.


Michael O'Brien, right, and his partner star in the ad.
“I really think people power is what is winning in this particular case and it’s who’s got the most people complaining about it,” she told this website.

“I think people would be supportive of the message it [the advertisement] is promoting but I don’t think ... people want safe-sex messaging placed on bus shelters where schoolchildren wait for the bus.

“The message is OK, the placement of the message is not OK.”

Ms Francis was last year forced to apologise publicly after a Tweet likening gay marriage to legalising child abuse. Then a Family First candidate for the Senate, she claimed the tweet was sent from her office, but not by her.

Earlier today, about 30 people attended a protest, organised on Twitter and Facebook in a matter of hours, to condemn the company’s decision to pull down posters from the Rip and Roll anti-HIV campaign.

Led by Queensland Association for Healthy Communities general manager Paul Martin, the group appealed to executives inside the Adshel office to come forward and apologise, replace the posters and offer some compensation.

Mr Martin said the total spend for the campaign, which included billboards on Goa sites as well as the contested AdShel bus shelter locations, was about $60,000.

About $45,000 of that budget went to the Adshel campaign, which was due to end in a matter of days.

“We actually only booked the campaign for two weeks, that’s all the time we had money for,” Mr Martin said.

The adverts feature a black and white image of a gay couple embracing, holding an unopened red condom packet.

It includes the website address and hotline for Healthy Communities, which has been receiving state government funding for sexual health promotion since 1988.

Earlier, an Adshel spokeswoman defended its decision to remove the posters and denied it had been lobbied by the Australian Christian Lobby, saying it responded to a “series of individual complaints”.

“The decision to remove the posters was made on the basis of the large number of complaints received,” she said in a statement.

“Adshel does not take a position regarding the views or position of various community groups.”

Treasurer Andrew Fraser said ACL needed to get with the times.

‘‘Check the calendar, it’s 2011,’’ he said. ‘‘I think we should call it for what it is and this is basic homophobia.

‘‘These ads have been a part of public programs for a long time, they serve a public interest.

‘‘Anyone who suggests that these are explicit I think is not telling the truth.’’

Earlier, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh leant her support to the Rip and Roll campaign on Twitter by retweeting a comment from a Gold Coast resident who stated: “Dear #adshel, thousands of united Australians are stronger than a handful of homophobes. RT [retweet] if you agree #ripnroll.”

Advertising Standards Bureau chief executive Fiona Jolly said the organisation had no part in the removal of the advertisements, saying it had so far acted only as “conduit” for complaints.

Ms Jolly said complaints received by the bureau were passed on to the advertiser, but not the owner of the advertising space, in this case Adshel.

“We made the advertiser aware of complaints as they come in, but the advertiser isn’t obliged to remove an ad unless the board decides that the ad breaches community standards,” she said.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said he personally had no issue with the campaign, which took place on Brisbane City Council-owned infrastructure.

"It is my job to represent the whole of this city. It’s a broad city, and I think the message of health is an important message," Cr Quirk said.

“Was the advertising provocative? Well some might suggest that it was but the message is the important thing and I think that the message is very important.”

Queensland Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman was reluctant to weigh into the ad controversy, saying he had not yet seen the signs.

However, Mr Newman reminded reporters that he supported legalising gay marriage and called on the community to show tolerance.

“I have a very open mind about these things and I urge other people to be tolerant and open-minded as well,” he said.

Australian Sex Party Queensland Coordinator Rory Killen said homophobia, rather than concern for children, had driven the removal of the advertisements.

Healthy Communities said 2010 saw a higher number of people diagnosed with HIV than at any time since testing began in the mid-1980s.

With 65 per cent of those diagnoses among gay men, it was more important than ever to talk openly about safe sex, it said.

Brisbane City Council, which owns the bus stop panels, declined to comment on the removal of the advertisements, saying “the council had no involvement in this matter”.

- with Marissa Calligeros, Katherine Feeney, Rachel Batzloff, Daniel Hurst and AAP

Poll: What do you think of the Rip and Roll ad?
It's very offensive
7%
It's somewhat inappropriate for public spaces
7%
I don't feel strongly either way
5%
It's a great ad and should have been kept
81%
Total votes: 17538.Poll closes in 3 days.
Disclaimer: These polls are not scientific and reflect the opinion only of visitors who have chosen to participate.


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/safe-sex-ads-to-be-reinstated-20110601-1ff7u.html#ixzz1O1UNp4Kg

inspiration

Think you've left it too late to lose that lard? Kate shed FOUR STONE in mid-life... and it's not just her figure that's been transformed
By KATE BATTERSBY
Last updated at 10:06 AM on 19th May 2011

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A few months ago, an old friend got in touch who I hadn’t seen in ten years, and we agreed to meet for a drink. As I arrived at the bar, my mobile rang. It was Jonathan. He was there too, but he couldn’t find me even though I could see him.
‘Turn around,’ I said. ‘You’re standing ten feet from me.’
I watched as he scanned the faces near him until his gaze settled on mine, smiling straight at him — then his eyes moved on. Laughing, I walked up to him. He looked at me blankly. Then it dawned. To say he was shocked doesn’t quite cut it. His jaw actually dropped open, as if he was in a third-rate sitcom.


Looking great: Kate, aged 47, at 9st 9lb, left, and overweight in her thirties, right
‘Kate?’ he queried in disbelief. ‘My God. You look . . . different. Really great. Absolutely fantastic, in fact.’
Rare is the woman who could hear such words and not feel good about herself — I felt fabulous. Such is the effect of losing more than 4st in middle age, after more than a decade in Fat City.
Only a few days before, I was obliged to reintroduce myself to a male colleague who I hadn’t seen in five years, after I twigged that he kept blanking me because he literally didn’t grasp who I was. When I enlightened him, he peered at me for several seconds and said: ‘Really? I would never have known you were you.’

More...
How to look as fab as Fonda at 73 (warning: it's a lifetime's work)
Michelle Mone: You should wear whatever makes you feel good
I am 47, and it is three years since I arrived at 9st 9lb, a weight I had not visited since I turned 21. (Like many women, I can recall what the scales have told me on a weekly basis since age dot.) In childhood and my teens, I was reed-like, and for most of my 20s I hovered around 10st. It was only in my 30s that my personal flab acquisition got out of hand.
I’d like to claim that it was eating the children’s leftovers that did it for me, but as I don’t have any children, I can’t use that old chestnut. The unglamorous fact is I just ate too much. Some people like to unwind with a drink at the end of a stressful day. Others have a cigarette. I eat.
'The winning formula comprised just three steps — eat less, move around more and don’t lie to yourself'
Before 30, I could get away with it. Afterwards, not so much. Greed plus habit equals fat, ultimately translating in my case to 13st 10lb of it, and a size 18.
I became steadily disenfranchised from the clothes most women want to wear. Identifying what I liked wasn’t a problem. Tracking it down in my ever increasing size was trickier. But the killer was trying clothes on.
This was the time when the High Street was beginning to plaster its changing rooms with multiple mirrors, all the better for seeing oneself from every ghastly angle. At least it simplified the shopping process, to approximately nil. I didn’t want to see what I looked like, and I didn’t want to be seen. I mastered the fat person’s signature of swathing myself anonymously in shapeless garments.
Every day, I ticked one of three mental boxes. Either I (a) made an overwhelming effort not to think about what I looked like; (b) invented some nonsensical rationalisation as to why I was overweight; or (c) lied to myself that I didn’t care. As you might imagine, (a) and (b) were way too difficult, leaving me with (c).
Yet in the end, it was the lying that proved my saviour. It was so futile. Nobody listened to these lies but me. Wouldn’t it be simpler all round to stop?
In the summer of 2006, at the mighty age of 42, I reached the point where I knew I did care. Without fanfare, I made a start. I had no target weight in mind. My only goal was to feel better.
I kept things simple, doing only what I could sustain. I realised there were a surprising number of healthy foods I liked, so I ate them instead of the junk. If I lapsed and ate too much for a day or a week, I did it guilt-free, with enjoyment. Then I went back to the good stuff.

Weight Katey: The pounds crept up on her as she got older
The idea of going to the gym bored me — I knew I would never stick with it. Instead, my dog was thrilled by my new-found taste for brisk hour-long walks every afternoon. The mental relaxation was as valuable as the exercise.
The winning formula comprised just three steps — eat less, move around more and don’t lie to yourself. Not quite in the league of Jean Paul Getty’s famous advice on getting rich — ‘rise early, work late, strike oil’ — but our slogans have something in common. The key point in both is the third. By not lying to myself, I struck oil.
To lose just over 4st took two years. Each pound off was a pleasure. I remember the strange confusion the first time none of my clothes fitted. It took me a while to figure out the problem. I needed a size down.
Going from an 18 to my current 8/10 was an expensive business, since on the way down I had no desire to wear the flapping costumes I had acquired on the way up. That was when I discovered eBay. Excellent.
Whenever I became discouraged, I followed the marvellous advice of my best friend. ‘Go to the supermarket,’ she said. ‘Fill up your basket with the amount you have lost in lard. Even a little will look like a lot. Then carry it around for a while and remember that all that horrid gunge used to be welded to your body.’
That was how I came to be at Sainsbury’s cramming two baskets with 55lb of lard. Butter won’t do. It has to be lard, the sheer volume of the glistening white goo (even in a wrapper) makes you want to heave.
The baskets were so heavy I could barely pick up them up before I had to put them down. But two years before there was no setting the burden down.
Many women in their 40s know the experience of becoming apparently invisible. My journey has been in the opposite direction, and even now its effect has the power to surprise me. If I become aware of others looking at me, I assume I have paint in my hair or spinach in my teeth, before it occurs to me they might be looking in appreciation.
But the pleasure of losing weight in my 40s is that I want to enjoy it. Even those changing-room mirrors can’t hurt me now.
Just as important, in the last month I have discovered there is most definitely such a thing as being too thin. A sudden illness saw my weight drop to 9st and concerned friends have left me in no doubt that it is too low.
Happily, I am not seduced by this sight on the scales or in the mirror. While — oh irony! — it is proving difficult to regain weight, I am looking forward to being back at 9st 9lb.
So is being thin the perfect answer to all life’s ills? If only. I still battle daily to straighten my haystack hair, and without make-up I look just as much like a boiled egg as ever. Work is a tad unpredictable, ditto my love life. But what I can say is that being thin is the perfect answer to being fat.
Three years down the line, I still get a buzz all over again when I remember I don’t look too bad for an old broad.
‘You’re a hot catch,’ insisted a male friend the other day, adding brightly: ‘I mean it. Possibly second only to Pippa Middleton.’
And ladies, which of us would not settle for that?


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1388465/Think-youve-left-late-lose-diet-Kate-shed-4-STONE-mid-life.html#ixzz1MnFmZN6j

jokes on us

Joke's on us if we can't make fun of pollies
Craig Reucassel
May 19, 2011
Comments 141

Comedians gagged, pollies protected
Comedians wanting to poke fun at the parliamentary antics of federal politicians are hobbled by archaic laws from a different political era, says Tim Lester.
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When The Chaser was banned from using the broadcast of the royal wedding for satirical purposes, some suggested the ban was un-Australian. Kevin Rudd said the BBC should "lighten up" and "get an Australian sense of humour". Nick Minchin said that although he wouldn't have watched it, "taking the mickey out of things is such a great Australian institution".

In fact the ban was not un-Australian. It was entirely Australian. And both Rudd and Minchin have been protected by the very same kind of law. Because as the Federal Parliament's resolution on broadcasting of proceedings specifies: "Broadcasts . . . shall not be used for . . . satire and ridicule.'' This restriction has existed since proceedings were first televised from the Senate in 1990 and the House of Representatives in 1991.

The political commentator Annabel Crabb says most politicians "tend to be utterly surprised to learn of the rule's existence. I suspect most Australians would be similarly surprised, and more than a little cheesed off."

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Sealed with a kiss ... but the Chaser were prevented from satirising Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding. Photo: AFP
Television producers are certainly aware of the rules. The ABC has consistently denied parliamentary footage to Chaser programs, even election shows, and to Hungry Beast, a show that does contain comedy, but also some of the best journalism going around today.

Even Channel Ten's 7PM Project, which offers a mix of news and comedy for a younger audience, feels constrained by the rule. The host, Charlie Pickering, admitted to me that they no longer watch Parliament because their lawyers fear that if they use footage, Ten News could be denied access to it.

This rule doesn't prevent shows that aren't categorised as comedic or satirical from broadcasting the gaffes, funny clips and earwax snacking. News programs, from Today to Insiders always play the mess-ups of the week.


Kevin Rudd said the BBC should "get an Australian sense of humour". Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Parliamentary footage is regularly used in satirical and humorous mash-ups that are forwarded endlessly around the internet and featured on news websites. So the embarrassing footage gets out anyway. What this law does prevent is thorough satirical analysis of the issues dealt with in Parliament.

Viewers of the American Daily Show will be aware of Jon Stewart's masterful melding of comedy and in-depth analysis of Congressional issues. Perhaps the best example of this was the debate over healthcare for the September 11 rescuers. A bill seeking to give healthcare to those who first arrived at the World Trade Centre was being filibustered by Republicans because it raised the $7 billion needed by cutting a tax loophole for foreign companies. The mainstream media had been ignoring it, but Stewart covered the story repeatedly in considerable detail. Yet at all times the audience was laughing. Satire was being . . . satired. And yet no one was being misrepresented. By contrast, a Fox News commentator covered it by saying: "I have no idea what they are talking about."

And there is one of the problems with the satire-versus-news dichotomy imposed by the Australian regulations. As in the September 11 rescuers case, humour can sometimes be a better way of dealing with a complex issue, because it can keep people's attention while dragging them through the boring procedural subsection that is actually ruining their life.


Outspoken ... Craig Reucassel. Photo: Marco Del Grande
What can we do about this? Now that he's the Leader of the House, Anthony Albanese - another of those who was surprised to learn of the restrictions - has told me he will write to the procedural committee to ask for reform. "Anything that stops The Chaser hiding in bushes is a good thing," he said.

Across the divide, the manager of Opposition Business, Christopher Pyne, disagrees. "I haven't noticed the rules regarding the broadcasting of Parliament have slowed down the fun comedians have with pollies. So I don't see any reason to revisit them."

His point may be partly right - that comedians' fun has not been reduced - but their capacity to critique has been.


Illustration: Edd Aragon
Nor is it an adequate substitute to use footage from politicians' press conferences and doorstops. Those ''staged for the news'' events generally contain as much substance as a wrestler's stage patter. Ironically, many question time stunts are designed to be funny so they make the 6 o'clock news, creating the impression that Parliament is always that glib. But there are other occasions where substantial policy debate occurs and this is the kind of material that comedians and satirists should be covering as thoroughly as possible.

This is not to imply that comedians are our greatest political analysts. We like an earwax-eating pollie as much as the next person, but the most valuable function of satire is it allows a critique to be communicated to a different audience. To prevent the use of parliamentary footage for satire denies the younger audience that watches 7PM Project, Hungry Beast or The Chaser from finding out more about an institution in which we should be encouraging their interest.

The rule is a tired remnant of the days when monarchs were untouchable and should be removed. Giving our politicians the protection of parliamentary privilege, so they can say what they like without fear of legal sanction, but then seeking to protect how their decisions are discussed is total hypocrisy. It is far more ''un-Australian'' that satirists can't sink their teeth into their own Parliament than a stupid royal wedding.

Craig Reucassel is a member of The Chaser and a writer of self-serving opinion articles.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/jokes-on-us-if-we-cant-make-fun-of-pollies-20110518-1esyb.html#ixzz1MnAQNBEy

twitter

Twitter outings undermine 'super injunctions'
May 10, 2011 - 3:27PM

Jeremy Clarkson ... at the centre of an injunction storm. Photo: Craig Abraham
Twitter revelations of alleged attempts by British celebrities to cover up sexual indiscretions show that "super injunctions" to gag the press are unsustainable, lawyers say.

A Twitter user posted details on Sunday of six instances of what the blogger said were injunctions obtained by television and sports stars to cover up affairs or prevent the publication of revealing photographs.

One of the celebrities named, socialite Jemima Khan, used her own Twitter feed to deny an allegation that she had obtained a super injunction to prevent intimate pictures of her and TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson from being published.

"OMG - Rumour that I have a super injunction preventing publication of 'intimate' photos of me and Jeremy Clarkson. NOT TRUE!" she tweeted.

Super injunctions prevent the media from reporting not only details of a story but even the existence of the injunction.

They have their legal basis in Britain's 1998 Human Rights Act but have given rise to concerns of a creeping privacy law made by the courts and favouring the famous and wealthy.

"It's rich man's justice," said media lawyer Mark Stephens, a partner at London-based law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, noting that not a single woman was known to have obtained such an injunction.

Stephens estimated that 200 super injunctions had been issued in the past three to four years. Their cost of more than £100,000 ($152,000) each puts them out of most people's reach.

Public debate over super injunctions was rekindled last month when prominent BBC journalist Andrew Marr confessed that he had obtained one in 2008 to prevent reporting of an extra-marital affair he had had.

Stephens, an outspoken pro-media lawyer who has represented celebrities including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, said incidents such as the weekend Twitter leak showed the super injunction was outdated.

"The superinjunction is becoming unsustainable because people are just breaking it," he said.

His sentiments were echoed by intellectual property and media lawyer Keith Arrowsmith, a partner at Manchester-based law firm Ralli Solicitors.

"The fact that anyone can set up these feeds without anyone checking the identity of the author undermines the credibility of super injunctions. People on Twitter feel as though they can publish anything and it doesn't matter," he said.

Twitter had no immediate comment on the matter. The tweets were still on the site on Monday afternoon, almost 24 hours after they were first published.

Echoes of spycatchers

Both lawyers compared the current situation with the notorious 1980s Spycatcher case, in which the British government tried to ban former intelligence officer Peter Wright from publishing his autobiography.

The book was published in Australia and in many other countries and was smuggled into Britain. The British government eventually gave up its attempt to ban it.

One of the best-publicised uses of a super injunction was the case of shipping company Trafigura in 2009, which forbade discussion of allegations the company had dumped toxic waste in Ivory Coast.

"The underlying problem with the current law is that the courts are being used to conceal the truth," Liberal Democrat member of parliament John Hemming wrote in an email. Hemming is compiling a report on super injunctions.

"I know of a number of cases where the truth that is being concealed involves serious misbehavior by the authorities rather than the peccadilloes of celebrities. That is where there is a real danger in the current position," he added.

Stephens said the author of the weekend tweets could expect "a knock on the door from the lawyers" in the next 48 hours for contempt of court.

But Arrowsmith stressed that this would not help the people who had been outed.

"In the past, for example, if someone had got wind that the News of the World was planning to break a story on Sunday, we could try to agree a way forward, and, if that failed, approach the court for a ruling."

"With international instant messaging it's too late, the cat is out of the bag," he said.

Arrowsmith said Twitter itself, as a US-based organisation, would be hard for British courts to pursue.

"If you're going to have a super injunction, you've got to have a international super court to enforce it," he said.

Reuters



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/twitter-outings-undermine-super-injunctions-20110510-1eg7r.html#ixzz1LwLwyLlr

Canadian Blogger last post

Canadian blogger Derek Miller's final message draws millions
Charmain Noronha
May 10, 2011 - 9:14AM

Derek Miller's about page on his blog. Photo: Screenshot by Fairfax
A Canadian blogger's moving last message of love and hope published after he died from colon cancer last week has drawn millions of hits from people everywhere inspired by his grace.

Derek Miller, 41, ends it with a declaration to his wife of 16 years: "I don't know what we'd have been like without each other, but I think the world would be a poorer place. I loved you deeply, I loved you, I loved you, I loved you."

The message entitled "The Last Post" was added to his site penmachine.com last Wednesday, one day after Miller died in Burnaby, British Columbia.

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Derek Miller, 41, died from colon cancer last week. Photo: AP Photo/Courtesy of the Family
Miller, who been blogging for 10 years, had been one of the best known bloggers in British Columbia. He was diagnosed with stage four metastatic colorectal cancer in 2007.

Miller's post-mortem message May 4 went viral, drawing 143 comments from friends and strangers. The heavy traffic caused the site to crash, forcing a friend of Miller's to move the site to another server.

"Here it is. I'm dead, and this is my last post to my blog. In advance, I asked that once my body finally shut down from the punishments of my cancer, then my family and friends publish this prepared message I wrote the first part of the process of turning this from an active website to an archive," read the post.

"It turns out that no one can imagine what's really coming in our lives. We can plan, and do what we enjoy, but we can't expect our plans to work out," he wrote in his final post.

"I think and hope that's what my daughters can take from my disease and death. And that my wonderful, amazing wife Airdrie can see too. Not that they could die any day, but that they should pursue what they enjoy, and what stimulates their minds, as much as possible they can be ready for opportunities, as well as not disappointed when things go sideways, as they inevitably do."

His wife, Airdrie Miller, said she believed the site had about 3 million hits after his last post. Alistair Calder, the friend who moved the site to a larger server after it crashed, said it could have been as high as 8 million hits, but it was hard to pin down the number because of the crash.

Airdrie Miller, who also blogged about her experience dealing with his cancer at talkingtoair.com, said her husband had lost his voice for the past two months and his blog helped her cope, knowing that though he couldn't speak, his mind was still active.

"When he lost his voice is when I really started reading his blog so I could know what was going on in his head. We used text messaging, Twitter, all forms of social media to connect," she said. "And even now, when my daughter is finding it hard to cope, she'll text me in the middle of the night and sometimes I wake up to 43 texts from her. All these modes have allowed us all to communicate while going through such a difficult time. His blog will become a memorial for me."

Friend and fellow blogger Mark Blevis said Miller's death caught him off guard.

"I didn't expect his decline in health over the last few months to be so fast. More importantly, you realise how small the world has become and how close we've all become through our online relationships, which become real world relationships," said Blevis.

Miller wore many hats in his lifetime. He had a marine biologist degree, but had worked as a writer and editor since the 1980s. He was also a musician and photographer.

In his blog's bio section, he wrote that he discovered his cancer was terminal late in 2010 and that he expected it to kill him sometime in 2011 or early 2012.

The father of two daughters, aged 11 and 13, blogged about everything from getting his voice back to sipping cherry cola at 3am in his hospital bed to his realisation that death was impending.

In a post entitled "A wondrous place" Miller wrote, "The world, indeed the whole universe, is a beautiful, astonishing, wondrous place. There is always more to find out. I don't look back and regret anything, and I hope my family can find a way to do the same."

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/canadian-blogger-derek-millers-final-message-draws-millions-20110510-1egaa.html




Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/canadian-blogger-derek-millers-final-message-draws-millions-20110510-1egaa.html#ixzz1LwLGTtBW

Travel solo ideas!!

Adventure need not be solo
Michael Gebicki
April 3, 2011
I am single and in my 40s. Can you recommend websites or other means of finding travel partners of a similar (ish) age?

- A. Michaels, Potts Point.

Sites such as Travel Friend (travelfriend.com.au) or Travel Buddy (travbuddy.com) might help you track down a suitable partner. Another option is Singles Travel Connections (singlestravel .com.au), which operates singles-only, small-group tours. Then again, you might not need a special website or tour company that caters specifically to single travellers. The simplest solution is to join a group adventure tour.

The reason is that most adventure tour groups consist of single travellers. Couples are in the minority and comparing blisters from paddling a kayak or fighting over the last chapati in a Nepalese yak-herding village is a fantastic bonding exercise.

Adventure tours come in all possible configurations. While some are hardcore treks, there are plenty that require nothing more strenuous than an occasional stroll from your converted fishing boat to the nearest bar.

If you would prefer to travel in a group with more males or more females, call the adventure travel operators and see what they suggest. Hit the websites of World Expeditions (worldexpeditions. com), Peregrine Adventures (peregrineadventures.com) or Intrepid Travel (intrepidtravel.com) and see what appeals.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/traveller-tips/adventure-need-not-be-solo-20110331-1ch8s.html#ixzz1LEj9K9hK

Traveling solo

Solo travel will boost your confidence. Photo: Getty Images
Travelling solo brings challenges from luggage logistics to long-distance navigation.
Whether it comes naturally or not, most people could use a few tips when it comes to hitting the road on your own.
Solotravelgirl.com's Jennifer Huber has travelled on her own through Afghanistan, Cuba and the United States. Huber took the plunge after realising how many adventures she was missing out on by waiting for people to follow through on plans. This is her advice to fellow solo travellers:
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CONFIDENCE
You may need to start with baby steps, but solo travel will definitely boost your confidence, according to Huber. So take yourself out to lunch, see that museum on your next business trip or take a brief road trip on your own. Before you know it, you'll be taking a page from Huber's book and camping in California or hopping on a plane to Kabul.
DRIVING
Planning and preparation are particularly important for road trips, warns Huber, who never heads out without a GPS or having Google Maps loaded on her smart phone. She also believes in tyre and fluid checks, as well as an old-fashioned road map for backup in case of technology failure. When road tripping in the United States, Huber stresses the power of AAA memberships for discounts and tyre-changing support.
SAFETY
Huber advises common sense for the budding solo traveller. "If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't," she says.
To avoid risks during hotel stays, Huber only books rooms with interior entries and makes sure the desk staff doesn't mention her room number out loud while she checks in. Journeywoman.com's Evelyn Hannon also sees hotels as a hot spot for safety concerns, and cautions against telling new friends where you are staying. If you want to meet up for an activity, says Hannon, choose a neutral and busy spot.
DINING
Hannon has faced the solo-dining conundrum and suggests that until you're comfortable eating alone in restaurants, reading materials will help pass the time. They are also, says Hannon, a helpful conversation starter. She advises that while eating in a cafe, solo travellers keep an English language book or newspaper on their table. English is an international language, and if you have reading materials close by, someone will inevitably strike up a conversation. Likewise, says Hannon, you can be the first to initiate an exchange if you notice someone with a book title you've previously enjoyed.
MCT
Follow Traveller on Twitter @FairfaxTravel


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/traveller-tips/top-tips-for-solo-travellers-20110414-1dfa9.html#ixzz1LEix56Zm

Masculinity Crisis

Home > Opinion > Article
Here is the real masculinity crisis

April 2, 2004

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Behind the arguments of Latham and Howard lie sexism and homophobia, writes Brian Greig.

What is this "crisis of masculinity" we keep hearing so much about, and where do we locate it?

Mark Latham says it's about single-parent families, and you find it where boys grow up without dads. John Howard says it's about same-sex couples adopting children, and you find it with lesbians raising sons. The Catholic Church says it's about an abundance of women teachers, and you find it in classrooms without male role models.

Scratch the surface of these arguments, and what you really find is good old-fashioned sexism and homophobia. The unstated concern about boys being raised by single mums, living in lesbian households and taught by female teachers, is the notion that this produces an "effeminisation" of males, and the fear it may lead to homosexuality itself.

The myth of the "overbearing mother and distant father" as the cause of male homosexuality is alive and well. Thus, the "crisis in masculinity" is little more than a diversionary debate that hides what more properly might be regarded as the real crisis of masculinity. That is, many men's general anxiety about homosexuality and discomfort with female authority.

Neither Howard nor Latham have expressed any concern about girls being raised by dads or girls not having a balance of male teachers in the classroom.

Neither Howard nor Latham has expressed any concern about the glass ceiling for women in the workplace, nor the low numbers of women found in areas such as science, engineering or politics.

The Catholic Church sees no hypocrisy in having only male popes and refusing women into the priesthood.

Role models, it seems, are only important for males.

The church compounds its hypocrisy with its successful demand for special rights in employment law. Only religious organisations have the lawful exemption to refuse homosexual teachers employment. The result is that it turns away many decent male teachers and at the same time perpetuates the myth that gays are a physical and moral threat to children.

And then it conveniently overlooks the shocking levels of sexual abuse by its own clergy.

The rampant sexual assault of women and children by men is a very real example of a "crisis in masculinity", that could be better addressed by our political leaders, rather than them pursue the nonsensical notion that having male teachers produces more "rounded" boys.

We should acknowledge also, that a key reason for the low numbers of male teachers is the profession being perceived as "caring and nurturing", and thus the domain of women.

This sexism in workplace relations has also conditioned women to be more accepting of casual, part-time and insecure employment.

Curiously, at a time when several rugby league and AFL players are accused of being rapists, there is a deafening silence about the crisis of masculinity that underpins this. Is anyone going to seriously suggest that this misogynous aggression is the result of single mums, lesbian parents and female teachers?

The disturbing levels of male violence and appalling rates of male suicide are indicators of the real crisis in masculinity. Nowhere is this more evident than in domestic violence and the explosive results from relationship breakdown, child custody disputes and battles in the Family Court.

We are repeatedly told by sincere and well-meaning men's groups that suicide by aggrieved dads is a national tragedy, and it is. But it does not follow that the Family Court and its alleged "female bias" is to blame. The cause rests with many men's difficulties with interpersonal skills, inability to work through relationship issues and an almost complete paralysis when it comes to addressing emotions and expressing feelings.

Here you will find a crisis of masculinity.

This is where we can learn from women. I'm being careful not to generalise gender traits or polarise the sexes, but often women deal with issues quite differently from men. In the home, the workplace and the classroom, women tend to be less confrontational, more inclusive, less egotistical, less hung up about sexuality, more conscious of not causing people to lose face, more in touch with their emotions and less inhibited about expressing them. Not always, but often.

Men should recognise these qualities, not fear them.

Women's roles as mothers and teachers is a positive influence on boys, and is a small counterbalance to the masculine imagery and ethos that floods their senses daily through popular culture, sports, and television.

Masculinity is not defined by an absence of things female, but in the comfort and confidence that comes with embracing the yin and yang of the sexes.

The real crisis in masculinity is the knee-jerk reaction to any perception of "female" thinking and behaviour, the accepted culture of male violence and power, and the psychosis many men have towards sexual difference.

Senator Brian Greig is the Democrats spokesman on sexuality issues.

Fandom

Fandom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2008)
Fandom (from the noun fan and the affix -dom, as in kingdom, freedom, etc.) is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the object(s) of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices (a fandom); this is what differentiates "fannish" (fandom-affiliated) fans from those with only a casual interest.
A fandom can grow up centered around any area of human interest or activity. The subject of fan interest can be narrowly defined, focused on something like an individual celebrity, or more widely defined, encompassing entire hobbies, genres or fashions. While it is now used to apply to groups of people fascinated with any subject, the term has its roots in those with an enthusiastic appreciation for sports. Merriam-Webster's dictionary traces the usage of the term back as far as 1903.[1]
Fandom as a term can also be used in a broad sense to refer to an interconnected social network of individual fandoms, many of which overlap.
Contents [hide]
1 Organized subculture
2 Fan activities
3 In film
4 Relationship with industry
5 See also
5.1 Fandoms by medium
5.2 Notable fandoms
6 References
7 External links
Organized subculture

A wide variety of Western modern organized fannish subcultures originated with science fiction fandom, the community of fans of the science fiction and fantasy genres. Science fiction fandom dates back to the 1930s and maintains organized clubs and associations in many cities around the world. It has held the annual World Science Fiction Convention since 1939, along with many other events each year, and has created its own jargon, sometimes called "fanspeak".[2]
Media fandom shot off from science fiction fandom in the early 1970s with a focus on relationships between characters within TV and movie media franchises.[3] There is still much overlap in fannish culture and activities between media fandom and its science fiction fandom parent; media fandom derives some of its jargon, customs and practices from its science fandom roots. Vidding fandom, the fandom related to building and watching analytic music videos based on images, emerged from media fandom in the late 1970s.
Anime and manga fandom began in the 1970s in Japan. In America, the fandom also began as an offshoot of science fiction fandom, with fans bringing imported copies of Japanese manga to conventions.[4] Before anime began to be licensed in the U.S., fans who wanted to get a hold of anime would leak copies of anime movies and subtitle them to exchange with friends in the community, thus marking the start of fansubs.
Related to similar media sources, the cosplay community forms a subculture centered around wearing costumes and reenacting scenes or inventing likely behavior inspired by their chosen sources, usually from Japan, South Korea, China, and Philippines media. Cosplay at fan events in Japan is thought to have originated in 1978.[5]
Furry fandom refers to the fandom for fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. The concept of furry originated at a science fiction convention in 1980,[6] when a drawing of a character from Steve Gallacci’s Albedo Anthropomorphics initiated a discussion of anthropomorphic characters in science fiction novels, which in turn initiated a discussion group that met at science fiction and comics conventions.
Additional significant types of fandoms include comics fandom, sports fandom, music fandom, literature fandom, soap opera fandom, celebrity fandom, and video game fandom.
Fan activities

Members of a fandom associate with one another, often attending fan conventions and publishing and exchanging fanzines and newsletters. Originally using print-based media, these sub-cultures have migrated much of their communications and interaction onto the internet, which they also use for the purpose of archiving detailed information pertinent to their given fanbase.
Some fans write fan fiction, stories based on the universe and characters of their chosen fandom. This fan fiction can take the form of video-making as well as writing.[7] Some also dress in costumes ("cosplay") or recite lines of dialogue either out-of-context or as part of a group reenactment. Others create fan vids, or analytical music videos focusing on the source fandom, and yet others create fan art. Such activities are sometimes known as "fan labor" or "fanac", an abbreviated form of the phrase "fan activity." The advent of the internet has significantly facilitated fan association and activities. Activities that have been aided by the internet includes the creation of fan "shrines" dedicated to favourite characters, computer screen wallpapers, avatars. Furthermore, the advent of the internet has resulted in the creation of online fan networks who help facilitate the exchange of fanworks.[8]
Fandom is sometimes caricatured as religious faith, as the interest of fans sometimes grows to dominate their lifestyle,[9] and fans are often very obstinate in professing (and refusing to change) their beliefs about their fandom. However, society at large does not treat fandom with the same weight as organized religion.
In film

Feature-length documentaries about fandom (some more respectful of the subjects than others) include Trekkies, Ringers: Lord of the Fans, Finding the Future: A Science Fiction Conversation, and Done the Impossible. "Fandom" is also the name of a documentary / mockumentary about a fan obsessed with Natalie Portman.
Relationship with industry

The entertainment industry refers to the totality of fans devoted to a particular area of interest, whether organized or not, as the "fanbase".
Fans, have, on occasion, organized on behalf of canceled television series, with notable success in cases such as Xena: Warrior Princess, in 1995, Star Trek in 1968, Cagney & Lacey in 1983, Roswell in 2000 and 2001 (it was canceled with finality at the end of the 2002 season), Farscape in 2002, Firefly in 2002, and Jericho in 2007. (In the case of Firefly the result was the movie Serenity, not another season.) Such outcry, even when unsuccessful, suggest a growing self-consciousness on the part of entertainment consumers, who appear increasingly likely to attempt to assert their power as a bloc. Fan activism in support of the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike through Fans4Writers appears to be an extension of this trend.
See also

Fan (person)
Fan convention
Fan labor
Fan fiction
Otaku
Fan Film
Fandoms by medium
Anime and manga fandom
Furry fandom
Media fandom
Science fiction fandom
Vidding fandom
Notable fandoms
Browncoats (Firefly fandom)
Doctor Who fandom
Furry fandom
Harry Potter fandom
Janeite
MSTie (fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000)
Trekkie (Star Trek fandom)
Tolkien fandom
Trilby (Early example)
References

^ [1]
^ "Dr. Gafia's Fan Terms"
^ Coppa, Francesca (2006). "A Brief History of Media Fandom". In Hellekson, Karen; Busse, Kristina. Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 41–59. ISBN 978-0-7864-2640-9.
^ Bennett, Jason H.. "A Preliminary History of American Anime Fandom" (PDF). University of Texas at Arlington. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
^ Thorn, Matthew (2004) Girls And Women Getting Out Of Hand: The Pleasure And Politics Of Japan's Amateur Comics Community in Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan William W. Kelly, ed., State University of New York Press
^ Patten, Fred (February 2, 1999). "Chronology Of Furry Fandom". YARF! The Journal of Applied Anthropomorphics. Retrieved 2006-07-15.
^ Jenkins, Henry. "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture". http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/starwars.html
^ See Kyle Nicholas's “The Work Which Becomes a New Genre Itself:” Textual Networks in the World of Cowboy Bebop, Paper presented at the 2006 International Communication Association conference
^ http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-15383489.html
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fandom
Look up fandom in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
"Who owns fandom?" - Salon.com December 13, 2000
"Rank and Phile" - Arts Hub feature, August 12, 2005
"Gaming's Fringe Cults" at The Escapist
[2] - "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture" by Henry Jenkins