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  • Barbara Walters Opens Up To Dr. Gail Saltz About Career, Family And Love

    Last night, in an interview at New York City’s 92nd Street Y, trailblazing journalist Barbara Walters sat down with psychiatrist and author Gail Saltz, MD, to share her thoughts on her life and career. She spoke candidly about women in the workplace, marriage, her controversial affair with married Senator Edward Brooke, and the highly successful career she began in 1961 and continues to build today.
    As the child of a father whom she said attempted suicide and whom she described as a “gambler” and a mother with “a lot on her plate,” Walters said her family’s uncertain financial status led her to seek a serious career: “I always felt I had to work. Women of my generation didn’t have to work but I did, and that made a difference.”

    ‘There Was A Feeling I Could Cover Other Things’
    Walters described the beginning of her career as an accident. “I never thought it was going to happen. I was a writer,” she said. “I wasn’t beautiful. I didn’t sing or dance. Most women on the TODAY show were models and actresses… I didn’t pronounce my Rs…” On that show in 1961, she said, “there were eight writers, seven male one female.” Walters joked, “The only way to get that writing job was if that one woman ‘got married or died — preferably both.”

    The sexism she was initially up against was apparent in a video shown before Walter’s entrance on stage. The film traced the trajectory of her career, going from shots of her in full Playboy bunny getup in what she called “fluffy TODAY show pieces,” to her breakthrough as a hard news reporter and the emotional footage of her covering the funeral of John F. Kennedy, Jr., a moment which Barbara identified as the “first time there was a feeling I could cover other things.”
    And what didn’t she cover? After ten years, Walters became the first female co-host on network TV at the TODAY Show, then, with 1967’s “Not for Women Only,” she changed daytime TV, becoming the first female anchor on a major network. She has interviewed every American President and First Lady since Richard Nixon, as well as countless celebrities like Christopher Reeve and Barbara Streisand and other major figures on the world stage, such as the Dalai Llama.

    The Trade-offs
    Walters also spoke to the choice women make in order to have successful careers: “I think that there still is this feeling, to some degree, that the successful woman, the ambitious woman, what has she given up?” and added, “I don’t think a career is necessarily the greatest thing in the world. I think you do pay a price.”

    Walters recalled working on her birthday, working on New Years Eve, and having to send a producer to interview one of her idols, Nelson Mandela, because she — echoing the words she used to describe her mother — “had too much on her plate.”

    She said it was difficult on her daughter to have a mother who was always traveling, and admitted that her career has led her to pay a price in her romantic relationships. Walters was married four times to three different men. “Whether I did it deliberately or not, my career came first,” said Walters. “Whether it’s good or bad I don’t think it’s [marriage] as necessary for women who have careers,” adding, “I certainly don’t want to get married now.”

    At the end of the day, Walters recognizes, “My life is not like most women’s of my age.” She described her lunches with a dear friend with many children and grandchildren whom she always tells “you are so rich!” before her friend insists, “no, you are so rich!”
    The most tense part of the evening came when Dr. Saltz asked Walters point-blank about her affair with married U.S. senator Edward Brooke, the first African-American to be popularly elected to the senate. When asked how it felt to her at the time, Walters replied:
    “He was fascinating. It was a dangerous thing to do and he knew it and I knew it and eventually we had to break up … I think that there would have been a lot of affiliate stations that would not have been very happy with me.”

    How More Women Can Get a Seat on the Board, Lead to Success

    How More Women Can Get a Seat on the Board, Lead to Success:
    Participating at the board level of our portfolio companies is one of the most interesting and enjoyable roles I have as a venture capitalist.
    A significant portion of building value at a portfolio company happens within the board of directors. As a part of this group, you advise and guide strategy, tactics and outcomes for the company.
    In my opinion, there are two key jobs for a venture capitalist: The first is picking great investments, and the second is being influential in the board room as you actively guide the direction of companies. While the first job is important to start the company-building process, the second is where company value is created.
    Earning a seat at the table of the board of directors is important for anyone who wants to be a part of guiding a company toward its future, not just for venture capitalists. It is especially important for women, who are largely underrepresented on corporate boards, to think strategically about how they can add value to companies on a broader scale.
    In 2010, only 15.7 percent of Fortune 500 company board seats were held by women, according to research by Catalyst. With women holding 51.5 percent of the management and professional positions in the U.S. labor force, there is an increasing pipeline of qualified women to fill these seats. But many women may not be cultivating the skills they need to obtain board positions.

    Based on my own experience and through working with other successful women, I have identified some areas where women can focus to prepare themselves to sit on boards:
    • Develop a career plan – It is crucial to manage your career and be in positions where you can demonstrate your leadership skills. Starting with a strong educational background, such as a degree in economics or engineering followed by an MBA, is a great foundation for building a career in technology and/or venture capital. Don’t be afraid to take a risk. Get out of your comfort zone, perhaps by joining a smaller organization where you can showcase your skills. Be mindful of what professional positions you take on and make sure that each

      position adds value to your personal skill set.

    • Get relevant experience – The most effective company boards include a diverse set of people with a diverse set of skills. It includes experts from each relevant sector or position teaming up to provide advice for the companies. Finance and technology backgrounds are especially pertinent for venture capitalists. Actively focus on areas of learning that prepare you to analyze business models. Operating experience that can translate to the board room is highly sought after. Companies want advice from people who have strong track records of success and practical experience, not just people who can theorize.

    • Specialize – When our portfolio companies want to add board members, we look at candidates who have the experience that we need to make that specific company successful. This could be in sales or ecommerce, for example, or operating experience in a particular sector, like mobile. For public companies, we may need a corporate governance expert who is or has been a general counsel, or an audit committee member who is a current or former CFO. Be a master of your position, gaining the experience and knowledge that will cause boards to look your way.

    • Be a leader – The most effective board members are effective leaders. Don’t be afraid to be assertive and exercise your ability to lead in various positions. Take a leadership role in industry-related activities, such as networking groups, or join a non-profit board and start actively learning how to effect change and influence an organization. Use these experiences to cultivate your leadership skills and practice wielding influence at the board level.
    Earning a seat on the board of directors is just the start. To be effective on the board and help lead the company to success, you need to use your voice and get your opinions out there. Drive the discussion and make sure your concerns and thoughts are addressed. Don’t wait for other people to call on you and ask what you think. When other people perceive you as a leader, they will respect your opinions and want you to be part of their boards too.
    Always take a broad view. As a board member, you have a responsibility as a fiduciary, as well as to the constituency you are representing. You often need to balance competing objectives to achieve the right decision for the company.

    Why Women Need to Be At Tech Conferences


    I have to admit I was a little shocked after initially reading this article titled “Why Women Shouldn’t Go to Tech Conferences” (can you blame me?) featured on Forbes Woman.
    The article followed Susannah Breslin who was asked to speak on a women-panel about how to make a living blogging as a career. She was annoyed at the fact that the panelists discussed how they got brands to sponsor their blogs:
    “They allude to getting paid what I assume everyone imagines are large sums to work with these companies and I start to wonder if this is what social media and blogging have become. Ways to make money.”
    You know, the same way you are annoyed when you are at a fitness convention and the panelists start talking about different kinds of elliptical machines. It’s a panel about blogging for heaven’s sake, yes you will find “young, cute chicks” discussing how they turned their love for fitness, shopping, or music into a money making website. Is that the only topic women have to offer on a tech panel? After reading this quote I really start to wonder if this is Ms. Breslin’s first tech conference:
    “I wonder what all the men in the other rooms of this conference are doing. I imagine they are talking about apps they have created, and companies they have founded, and complicated technology things that they want other people to buy. I wonder if anywhere at this conference men are talking about whether or not they have feelings.”



    I imagine women at other conferences talk about the apps they have created, companies they have founded and very “complicated technology” that yes, women can understand too. See: Marissa Mayer, Caterina Fake, Elizabeth Crawford, Sara Chipps, Hilary Mason (the list is a long one).
    It is unfair to make assumptions about the credibility of women in tech based on one genre of the tech industry. It’s the panels titled “A Woman’s Touch” or topics like “what its like to be a women in tech” are definitely part of the problem. Women as a whole shouldn’t be singled out or labelled, a smart idea is a smart idea regardless of the gender or the source that it originated from.
    Susannah, if you’re reading this, I get it.
    The post was about how we should use blogging not only to advance our own careers but to help others as well. Point well made. But the way you first started with a controversial title and then twisted the article to paint a picture of women contributing nothing but a superficial agenda and ‘feelings’ is a bit absurd. I feel many people who read this article may have missed your point and left feeling justified that women do not have a place in tech.
    I’ll admit, there may be female panelists at conferences that bring nothing to the table, but to be honest, there are men who don’t as well. To single out all women and label them the way articles like this just did is what groups like Women in Wireless, Women 2.0 and Girls in Tech work to turn around.
    Rachel Sklar (@rachelsklar #changetheratio) is considered a “women in tech watchdog”, calling out men-dominated panels and working to get the voices of female leaders heard in the tech industry.

    She’s Always Watching: The Impact of Fathers on Daughters’ Self Esteem

    I was recently speaking with a teen aged girl who said: “I adore my father but I would never date anyone like him. He treats me like a princess, but I don’t like the way he treats women.”
    I was blown away by her ability to so succinctly articulate the complexity of her emotions about the two sides of her father; the man who loves her and the man who seemingly treats women as disposable, interchangeable, companions for the purposes of physical and social convenience. It’s not that he’s blatantly disrespectful on any level and as a single man, his behavior is far from inappropriate, yet she has learned well, and recognizes the contrast between how he has taught her to be loved and how he treats women in general.

    Her father lavishes her with affection and attention, so she feels cherished. Before she even understood what it meant, he told her she was beautiful, smart and worthy. This makes her relatively immune to the compliments of boys who try to impress her with words that would make a girl deprived of such reinforcement swoon or flee. Ambition, intelligence and good communication are her basic requirements. The young men courting her understand the bar has been set high and vie for her respect and friendship.

    Our exchange prompted me to think about the fathers in my life: my father, my friend’s fathers, my brothers, colleagues etc. and what their daughters could possibly be learning from them about their self image and how they should be treated as women. Everything from what love looks and feels like, to the value of intelligence and definition of physical beauty are transmitted from father to daughter in verbal and non-verbal cues.
    When I was about five years old, my father looked at me and offered a stern warning, “You have fat potential!”
    At the time, I had no idea what he meant, but I could tell from his tone, and the way he looked at me, it was not good. I eventually learned what it meant and became obsessed with my weight. I was terrified of gaining weight. It took me many years, a handful of therapists and even more self-help books to get myself firmly on the path to reversing the damage inflicted upon my self image by my father’s well received words.



    A colleague of mine recently bragged “I’ve been married 18 years and never once cheated!” I laughed and asked if he was impotent. Of course he wasn’t, but he did boast that his wife could wear his fourteen year old daughter’s bathing suit. This was his reason for fidelity; having a wife in her 40′s, with three children, that does God only knows what, to fit herself into clothing belonging to her child, barely two years into puberty. I could only hope that she was modeling healthy choices to her children in her efforts to keep herself this size.
    I congratulated him and wondered if he would take responsibility if he were to discover his daughter throwing up her meals to meet his weight requirements. Could he even see how with all the pressure surrounding young girls to look like airbrushed, anorexic models, that his comments might have a detrimental effect on his daughter?
    Another father, married 20 years with two teenaged daughters, has a beautiful family, whom he professes to love deeply and value greatly. Yet, he has been having an affair for almost 10 years. I asked him if he really believed his daughters and wife were clueless about his clandestine activities. He looked at me earnestly and nodded yes. I told him I disagreed and shared with him my understanding of the uncanny ability of children to know all things that parents try to hide. He admitted that he watched his own father’s infidelity throughout his parent’s marriage.
    Then he mentioned a cousin of his who serially cheats on her husband; she attributes this to watching her father cheat on her mother and she realized in therapy how this experience left her with trust issues. Subconsciously, her cheating is her way of avoiding the heartache and humiliation she watched her mother endure. He became introspective when he realized how many of our friends are dealing with the fallout of their father’s affairs playing out in their relationships.

    Video Music Awards’ Executive Producer Talks Lady Gaga And No Host; VMA Preview


    The VMA’s always get people talking and this year is no exception.
    Except that it is. This year the award show is boldly choosing what few shows have chosen before: no host.
    The Hollywood Reporter sat down with executive producer, Jesse Ignjatovic, to explain why they made the choice that they made and to give us a head’s up on what else we can expect.
    THR: So no host, huh? Ignjatovic: We talked to different people and ultimately, it just didn’t feel like we needed one this year. Other years, like in 2007, we’ve gone host-less and it worked. If it’s not the right person then [we feel it’s] better to go without. It means better presenter moments potentially, but I don’t think it necessarily changes the landscape of the show.

    THR: The VMA build-up has been largely focused on Lady Gaga, who’s opening the show. What does she mean to MTV?

    Ignjatovic: She’s a gem. She’s that muse. She’s sort of the artist that’s really pushing boundaries that mean so much to our audience. And she is the artist that everyone is looking to. Like, what is she going to do next to outdo herself and take it to another place? I think she’s inspired other artists to push themselves. I know she’s inspired me and the VMA team.

    The new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch Release Date, Specs and Price


    BlackBerry has just unveiled the new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch Release Date, Specs and Price. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 Touch smartphone features a stunning new design that evolves the iconic BlackBerry aesthetic a step further. The easy to use BlackBerry keyboard is kept in tact on the new 9900, while a new brilliant high resolution, capacitive touch screen has been added, all of which running on a new performance-driver platform powered by the BlackBerry 7 operating system.
    The new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch is an amazing new device that combines the best of performance, functionality, and style according to Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO of Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of BlackBerry since 1999.
    The new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch Specs and Features
    The new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch is the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone yet at only 10.5mm. It runs the latest BlackBerry 7 OS and come with 5.0 MP cameras with flash and 720p HD video recording capability. Lets have a detailed look at BlackBerry Bold 9900 Specs and Features Released so far:
    115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, approximately 130 g
    2.8″ capacitive touch screen display – VGA (640×480), 287 dpi resolution
    Ultra-easy QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad
    1.2 GHz Processor, 768 MB RAM
    8 GB on-board memory, plus microSD slot supporting up to 32 GB cards
    NFC technology
    5.0 MP camera, supports 720p HD video recording
    Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), Digital Compass (Magnetometer), Proximity Sensor
    Built-in GPS / aGPS
    Dual-Band Wi-Fi® – 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz
    Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support
    Wireless Network support: Tri-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE
    1230 mAh removable, rechargeable battery
    BlackBerry 7 OS
    OpenGL 2.0 support for developers.

    The new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch Release Date
    The new model of BlackBerry 9900 to be available at 225 carriers, later this month of August 2011. According to RIM Release documents, the new Blackberry Bold 9900 will be made available to business class customers on August 17th and to general public on August 31st.
    The new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch Price
    If leaked T-Mobile documents are to trusted, the new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch Price range is set to $249.99 to $349.99, depending upon the carrier contract and country.
    The new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch UK Release Date and Price
    The new Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch Release Date in UK is 12th August and price plans will start at £31.
    The £31 a month deal offers the handset for free on a 24 month contract with 300 minutes Anytime, Unlimited texts (subject to the fair use policy) and 500 MB Blackberry Data.

    Tina Fey Talks The Next Season Of ’30 Rock’, Emmy Nominations, Alec Baldwin Leaving And Tracy Morgan

    Tina Fey Talks The Next Season Of ’30 Rock’, Emmy Nominations, Alec Baldwin Leaving And Tracy Morgan:

    With the looming threat of Alec Baldwin’s ending tenure and Tracey Morgan recovering from his mishap, Tina Fey’s role as the captain of “30 Rock” has become a lot more strategic.

    As she is readying herself for the upcoming season (and as the Emmys grow closer), the new-mom sat down with Deadline to talk about how to navigate the show’s past and what she plans on for the future.

    DEADLINE: Do you think that Tracy Morgan’s seemingly anti-gay jokes in his standup routine [“I’ll kill my son if he acts gay”] will hurt the show’s Emmy chances or its reputation in general? TINA FEY: Because of my real-life pregnancy, we don’t go back on the air until January. I’m hoping that Tracy will have, and the world will have, forgotten about that by them. He from the first has gone around very sincerely and done his best to try to make up for the foolishness.


    DEADLINE: Will you write the controversy into the show?

    FEY: It’s the kind of story that even if it happened to someone else, we would probably turn it into a Tracy story. So we may use it.

    Boy dies after Masturbating 42 times Staight Photo

    A 16-year-old boy died after masturbating 42 times without stopping in Rubiato town, in Goiás region, Brazil. His mother told a local newspaper that she already knew about his son’s addiction and that she planned to see the doctor, but the decision came too late. The young man began to masturbate at midnight and spent [...]

    Nancy Grace joins ‘Dancing With the Stars’ season 13

    Nancy Grace joins ‘Dancing With the Stars’ season 13: Nancy Grace is part of the lineup for season 13 of Dancing With the Stars, which may be the biggest DWTS casting head scratcher since Kate Gosselin. Grace, 51, is the host of her own show on HLN, where she covers current events and frequently highlights cases of missing persons. Her often acerbic and schoolmarmish [...]

    Lacey Schwimmer & Chaz Bono paired on ‘Dancing with the Stars’

    Lacey Schwimmer & Chaz Bono paired on ‘Dancing with the Stars’: Author and activist Chaz Bono, the transgender son of pop icon Cher, has been paired with Lacey Schwimmer on the U.S. series “Dancing with the Stars.” ABC announced the pairings of the celebrities and their professional dance partners for Season 13 this week. In addition to Bono and Schwimmer, NBA champion Ron Artest was paired [...]

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