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I have to agree with comments in Tampa's thread cited above that this test is fundamentally flawed due to the stark difference in emissivity between stone and shiny foil.
IMO these results support the hypothesis that stones absorb moisture. The stone absorbed 0.1 g while in the oven, that evaporated in 30 s. You've been thinking of this as a problem of total stock, when instead you should be thinking as a flux (g H2O/cm2/s). For example, if the stone is fluxing 0.1 g H2O/cm2/30s, that could be a substantial amount of water in some cases.
Craig, "it would seem" that there is another test to be conducted. Make 2 pounds of dough. Evenly divided it. Shape and place 1/2 on the cold stone and 1/2 on a solid non porous surface. Keep the dough side by side and wait. Then weigh the dough. Maybe the results show the stoned dough weighs less in which case "it would seem" that the porousness of the stone impacted the dough. But weigh the stone before and after to check. Maybe the results show no difference in weight which would seem to mean water removal was not facilitated by the porousness. On the other hand we are not talking about a lot of water here. It would seem that the water on the surface is what we are talking about and, that the surface water may actually weigh too little to measure with a home scale.
Craig,I really don't understand, but think when I bake on a stone that is well seasoned (in my deck oven) the pizza seem to bake better than when baking on parts of the stone that are not well seasoned. Norma
By seasoned, do you mean darker in color?
Craig,Yes, I mean seasoned by darker in color and more worn.Norma
That would make sense in light of November's comments in Tampa's thread cited above. The darker surface is likely more emissive and therefore delivering more IR energy to the bottom of the pie than would a lighter colored surface.
Porosity aside, can someone explain how liquid water, which vaporizes at ~212F, can be absorbed by any unconfined mass that is heated to and kept at 500F-1000F? -Crispy
It doesn't absorb into the mass, it diffuses into the air within the pores, just like it diffuses into the hot air in the oven.
From the start of this thread I've felt absorbed is maybe a poor choice of wording. Allowing the bottom to breathe would maybe be closer to the mark with a more porous surface vs a sealed surface. I agree, a stone that's 600-800° is not going to absorb anything but a more porous surface will breathe better and give a more consistantly browned bottom. A sealed one or rather less porous surface will make steam pockets raising small areas of the crust that won't brown as well, paler, and other areas that brown fine or maybe too much. I hope this makes sense. That's the way I think of it anyway, crust can stay in more surface contact with the stone without being steam lifted up in spots. Agree, disagree?jon


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Kelly Sue DeConnick, Part 1: The Right Stuff
Kelly Sue DeConnick has quickly become one of the most popular writers in comics. With a resume that includes Avengers Assemble and Captain Marvel for Marvel Comics, Ghost for Dark Horse, and her creator-owned projects Pretty Deadly and the upcoming Bitch Planet for Image, Kelly Sue has gathered a passionate and vocal crowd of fans. Rarely has one creator and character inspired such an outpouring of fan approval and community building as Kelly Sue's reimagining of Carol Danvers, taking her from the days of Ms. Marvel into her new identity as Captain Marvel. With extremely active profiles on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram, Kelly Sue is constantly interacting with her fans. As one of them put it when he nominated Kelly Sue for the Person of the Year in the Comics Industry over at The Beat: "Kelly Sue DeConnick of course! For being a great role model for all comics creators, and a shining example of how positivity, classiness, and artistic passion make a difference in this world." In the first part of this two-part interview with our WonderCon Anaheim special guest (which was conducted in late January), Kelly Sue talks about breaking in, Captain Marvel, and that force of nature known simply as the Carol Corps. (As always, click on the images to see them larger on your screen and in slideshow mode.)
Toucan: Yesterday I was following you on Tumblr and I noticed you posted a number of Modesty Blaise drawings and I was wondering if you're dropping any hints for a future project?
Kelly Sue: I wish. Boy, sometimes I do do that. I did post an awful lot of Barbarella while I was working on Barbarella, well before that was announced, but no, so far as I know no one has relicensed Modesty Blaise to be put out, but if they do they should call me. I've got most of the novels, multiple copies of a couple of them, and I have less of the comic. I have The Gabriel Set-Up and the Top Traitor collections that were done by [Peter] O'Donnell and [Jim] Holdaway, the Titan Books ones.
I have an alert set up on eBay for Modesty Blaise original art, and most of the time when it comes up it's something to do with the movie and there's nothing original about it. Oh, the movie's terrible, but every once in a while something will come up and I'm never in a position to buy it but I pine for a few minutes and that's my experience.
Toucan: What are you doing with Barbarella?
Kelly Sue: I'm already done. I did it for Humanoids. The first volume there was a previous, English adaptation from, I believe, 1966. The second volume has never been in English and the second volume is nuts. That was the most fun I'd had. I think on the first volume I was a little stressed. I hadn't done any English adaptations for a while and it's a tricky job, because if you're doing your job well your hand is invisible. You want to try and intuit what the intention of the original author was and see how you can get that out in English in a way that flows and doesn't distract from the story. I had been asked to update it and so that was tricky too. How do I stay true to a book that was written in the '60s that is very firmly based in the '60s? What does updating it mean in that context?
Toucan: It's the same art? It's not being redrawn, right?
Kelly Sue: Oh no, it's not being redone. So it was a little tricky and I think I was nervous on the first one. I think I did a good job, I don't mean to undersell or anything. I think people will enjoy it. On the second one Jean-Claude Forest kind of cuts loose, you can tell he's just oh, you like that? Well you're going to love this! The second one is ever crazier and so I just kind of went with it. There are a couple songs so I got to do song lyrics, which is a thing I absolutely love doing. You have the puzzle of trying to adapt it and make it rhyme at the same time. So it was a good time. I really had fun with that book. I think people are going to love it, especially the second volume, because it's so new and it's so nuts. I don't know that there is a release date for it yet, although there is a television show in development. So if I were going to guess, my bet would be that it would come out about the same time as the TV show.
Toucan: How did all this comic stuff start for you? Were you a fan as a kid?
Kelly Sue: Yes. My dad was in the service, so I grew up on military bases and comics were very much a part of the culture. So I got to go to the Stars & Stripes and spend my allowance on comics every weekend and what I didn't get at Stars & Stripes I could get used by the handful at the Saturday swap meets.
Toucan: What parts of the country did you grow up in?
Kelly Sue: Germany was where I was probably most ardently a comic reader, both because of the age I was when we lived there and then also because we didn't get American television and I am not fluent in German, so comics were sort of my TV and that's just very much the sort of thing that appealed to me.
Toucan: What were some of your favorites?
Kelly Sue: Wonder Woman, which my mom would buy for me frequently because it was the '70s and it was a national feminist movement and without ever reading any of them, I think she thought, "Wonder Woman . . . that's feminist." I liked the DC horror anthologies. I loved Vampirella. My mom did police my reading. I got to read Vampirella. I liked the Archie Digests. I mean I remember after school I would go over to the Edmonson's house and they had a basement. First off, they lived off base, which was a luxury, and the basement was kind of the kids' area. It was just beanbags and boxes of comics and we would just kind of read everything we could get our hands on. It was just like, "Well what haven't I read down here yet?" The favorites were probably the DC horror anthologies and Wonder Woman.
Toucan: Is there one comic book from you childhood that you'd always want to keep?
Kelly Sue: No, nor can I name, like someone will—it's a frequent question—what was your first comic book, and I have no idea. I have no idea. They were kind of always around and they were always disposable. You know, we cut them up and remixed them. They weren't things to be put away or treasured or saved to put anybody through college, and you know the weight limit, too, when you're moving. The Air Force will only move so many pounds of your stuff when they move you around and they tell you that the lowest person on the totem pole when they're weighing this stuff is the kid. So anything I owned I only kept for two years because the next time we moved very little went with me.
Toucan: So when you say you remixed them, you cut up the panels and rearranged them to tell different stories?
Kelly Sue: Yeah, and it's kind of a weird thing to do, I don't know why we did this, but you couldn't put stuff up on your walls. I don't know, you probably could, but our parents wouldn't let us, they were worried about putting lots of holes in the walls or getting a lot of tape on the walls because you take down the paint or whatever. And I mean there was this constant impermanence to everything. So for that reason we would cut things out and make these giant collages on poster board, which we could then prop up or convince them that we're putting up this big piece of poster board with just this one bit of tape and so we would cut out pictures of like the members of KISS. I had a poster board that was all pictures of Ace Frehley that I found everywhere and then I would also have one that had a part on it that had pictures of Nocturna, who I was super into for some reason, or villains, or Batman doing this or whatever. Sometimes we tried to tell other stories with them—that makes a better story—but I'm afraid we did less of that and more of just categorization.
Toucan: Was there a point when you were a kid reading these comics that you felt like you wanted to be a part of this, that you wanted to be a writer when you grew up?
Kelly Sue: No, it never occurred to me that that was a thing anyone could do. I think I thought that there was like a group of people in New York who did this and you had to be part of that group.
Toucan: Which wasn't too far off the mark back in the '70s.
Kelly Sue: No, that's probably true, yeah . . .
Toucan: When did you decide that you wanted to write comics?
Kelly Sue: I don't know if I ever did.
Toucan: It just kind of happened?
Kelly Sue: Yeah, I mean that sounds so absurd in light of all the conversations about what a difficult industry it is to break in to, but I have a theater degree. I pursued acting for a time. I found that I didn't have the right temperament for that, I think. I'd done some writing. I don't know exactly, I think I had to trick myself into pursuing writing by saying that I wasn't really pursuing writing, because I think otherwise it was too scary a thing to do, that I would most likely fail at making a profession of it. So if I didn't declare that intention, then I wasn't both a failed actor and a failed writer. It's scary and to people in my family it seemed as though I had flaky ambitions. I know they had my best interests at heart, but I kind of resent that, honestly, because I think that there's an assumption that—and maybe this isn't just my family—but I think there's this idea that if you want to pursue any of these more artistic career paths that that equals laziness, because my experience in it is quite directly the opposite. You will have to do more, harder and longer, than anyone on a conventional career path. So yeah, that kind of sticks in my craw still.
Toucan: Was there pressure for you to follow a backup plan, like be an accountant or a schoolteacher or something?
Kelly Sue: Attorney. It was always attorney, because I've always been an adamant arguer and so it was always, everyone in my family wanted me to become an attorney.
Toucan: So you kind of backed into comics. What was your first job in comics?
Kelly Sue: My first paid work in comics was writing very small blurb reviews, but they weren't even reviews, they were like almost catalog entries or recommendations for Artbomb.net. I had been an active participant on the Warren Ellis message board and was doing a lot of writing at that point but not in comics and Warren and Peter Rose were starting this site and they needed to bulk it up and so I started writing . . . I think they were 300-word pieces and it was great. It was the kind of thing where we only covered books we loved so I never found myself in that awkward position of having said something unpleasant about someone's work who later became a colleague. If we covered your work on this site we loved it and I only said nice things. So that worked out well for me.
Toucan: How did that get you comics writing assignments?
Kelly Sue: It didn't directly. I feel as though I have broken into comics like three or four different times. That was my first paid work in comics. I went to a book signing for Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and at the front of the line I think I just got flummoxed and I didn't really say anything or I didn't feel like I'd said anything particularly witty or something, I don't know. So I wrote Mr. Gaiman a note and gave it to the bookstore owner and said would you please give this to him and he was like, yeah I'll put it with the rest and it wasn't like a mash note; I was doing a lot of research for other writers at the time and also temping a lot as a secretary and so, I almost said executive assistant as though that's different. I was a secretary and so I offered to send in my CV. I knew he didn't live in New York, but I knew that he was in publishing and had occasion to be in New York frequently and if he needed an assistant in New York I wanted to apply. And I didn't hear from him and I thought well, that was silly. I'm embarrassed and let's just all move on. Then well after his tour, he must have like gotten home and was going through all of his things, he wrote to me and said I have a very capable assistant, I don't know need an assistant in New York, but it was a pleasure to meet you and are you a writer, what do you do, and that sort of opened up a conversation and we had a correspondence for a while. And at some point when he was working on American Gods he let me make like three phone calls for him or something. So I did some research for him, but it was so little that it was probably more of a favor to me than it was a timesaver for him and it was on two different issues, but I was so excited to have done it that I told literally everyone I knew that I had "worked with Neil Gaiman." You can't see me making the bunny ears [air quotes] right now. At the time my friend Jamie Rich was working, he was the editor-in-chief, I believe at the time, at Oni Press, and he was also writing English adaptations of manga in his spare time for Tokyopop, and Tokyopop was looking for someone to do a book called Demon Diary. They wanted it done in the fashion of Princess Mononoke, which Gaiman had done. So they asked Jamie who he would recommend and Jamie said I think my friend Kelly Sue worked with Gaiman and that was enough to get me a tryout. So I did a couple of pages of adaptation. That got me the job and then pretty much after that work begets work and then pretty soon I was writing English adaptations full time and I was a full time writer. That was my main gig for years before I thought of myself as a professional writer.
Toucan: Why is that?
Kelly Sue: I have no idea, but you know it's interesting. It's a thing I see when I meet people at signings. I don't know maybe they call it "imposter syndrome" or something, but I'll ask people what they do and they'll tell me that they're a writer and they flinch and I recognize that impulse so much. I did exactly the same thing. I still do it when I'm filling out forms for some reason. I'm a well-established professional writer now and I think there's still a part of me that feels like I'm going to get caught.
Toucan: What do you think the punishment is for that?
Kelly Sue: I don't know. Maybe they'll make me write something.
Toucan: What was the first work you did for Marvel?
Kelly Sue: So the first thing I did for Marvel was part of the "Women of Marvel" initiative. I was already married at that point [Kelly Sue is married to fellow comics writer Matt Fraction; you probably already know this]. It actually hasn't been that long ago. I've only been working for Marvel, I think, since 2009. I believe that's right. It seems like a minute ago. I had done a five-issue mini at IDW with Steve Niles, 30 Days of Night: Eben & Stella. Alejandro Arbona was Matt's editor, I believe, on Iron Man at the time and he had these female character one-shots and he wanted to staff them with as many women as possible. He asked Matt if he could think of anybody and Matt was like you should talk to my wife. So I talked to Alejandro and I was very wary of nepotism accusations. I didn't want to put anybody in a weird spot. It was awkward, so what we decided to do was I sent Alejandro Eben & Stella to read and he liked it. My last name is different from Matt's so we decided we would blind submit it to Ralph Macchio, who was his senior editor at the time. So he gave it to Ralph to read and just asked what do you think about her and Ralph said sure let her pitch. So he gave me two books to pitch on. I pitched on Sif and I pitched on Rescue. He approved them both and at that point we told him hey, by the by, I'm Fraction's wife, if that's a problem you are far enough out that you can replace me and that is totally okay, we don't want to put anybody in a weird position, but we also didn't want you making the decision based on anything else, and Ralph—I wasn't involved in this conversation—but he apparently thought it was funny and it was a nonissue. So my first two books were Sif and Rescue. I believe Sif was the first one out. I think Rescue was the first one I wrote. Then after that was Osborn: Evil Incarcerated and a whole bunch of different shorts here and there and then my first ongoing was Captain Marvel.
Toucan: So let's talk about Captain Marvel, which is about to relaunch. The phenomenon around this character that you've recreated for Marvel has inspired a whole group of fans to band together as the Carol Corps, which has grown to become this amazing community dedicated to your version of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel. What is it about this particular character that inspires fans?
Kelly Sue: I think it's that she's so flawed, quite frankly. I think the thing that people relate to about Carol is that she's aspiring to be a thing that she is not at present and that's okay and I think everyone kind of relates to that. I think everyone who finds appeal in superheroes—and the kind of superhero that Carol is, those sort of heart-driven, head-up superheroes [as opposed to a] kind of dark superhero . . . everything about Carol wants to go up. Carol is very much on the Superman side of the Superman/Batman equation, but I think that people who find appeal in that very easily identify with that struggle to be better, to do better.
Toucan: How does something like the Carol Corps make you feel as a creator?
Kelly Sue: Incredibly lucky. I am so genuinely moved by this group of people that it's hard to talk about it without sounding overly sentimental or cliché. They are genuinely beautiful human beings. You know, some of the things that they've done for outreach—and there's this thing now called the Carol Corps Yarn Brigade—the thing I think that people don't understand is I didn't organize this. I don't have anything to do with this. The most I do is "signal boost." Somebody will tag something for me to see and I'll retweet it so that it gets more eyes on it or re-blog it or whatever, but I'm not an organizer of Carol-Con or any of these things. It has been completely fan driven which is beautiful and amazing.
The Carol Corps Yarn Brigade are people that are knitters and crocheters. I don't know if there's any other needle art hobbyists, but I know it's knitters and crocheters and they make Carol-themed pieces, Captain Marvel lucky hats or towels or scarves or mittens and send them out in what they call "yarn bombs." They have little stickers printed up that go on the packages, too, and they send them out to people who are having a rough time for one reason or another as a kind of "you're not alone, we're all here, we've all struggled, warm yourself" kind of thing. It's really beautiful. In the second arc of the series that we did, Carol has a thing growing in her brain that limits her ability to fly and it's very frightening. You can't punch a brain tumor, you know. I got two different letters from people who have MS diagnoses who have not shared with everyone around them that they're living with that diagnosis because they haven't come to a place where they're willing to accept the help that they're going to need. They're used to being very self-sufficient and they're feeling right now angry and betrayed by their bodies. It was very much parallel to what Carol was going through. Carol wouldn't accept the limitations that her doctor gave her. She had trouble asking for help. She pushed herself well past what she should have, foolishly, and played right into the hands of her enemy, because of parts of her character that are both fantastic and a little bit self-destructive. That part of her that can make herself get up when her body is telling her don't get up, that's admirable, but it also needs to be overridden by the part of your brain that says you need to stay down or your brain is going to bleed out. Carol can't let anybody else do anything for her. She has a really hard time with that, and I got so many letters from people who were able to identify with that and that somehow seeing this person who was a superhero going through this thing that they identified with so strongly gave them permission to feel the fear that they were feeling and that just because you're afraid and angry at your condition doesn't mean that you're doomed. Those letters taught me so much about what fiction does for us and also about the power of representation. Seeing ourselves in fiction, I think, is so much more important than I ever imagined.
Toucan: But obviously you're doing something beyond the love of the character that is inspiring these people to band together. I mean, let's face it: Marvel's version of Captain Marvel has been around for almost 50 years now (starting as a male character); Carol Danvers (as Ms. Marvel) has been around for almost 40 years. Never before has a character inspired this kind of devotion and this kind of fan following so quickly. I see the way that you relate to these people on a daily basis on Tumblr, but you have to realize that they're reacting to you and what you're doing as a writer as much as they are the character.
Kelly Sue: Well, I have a genuine affection for them. I think people know when you're faking it. I've met some super, super cool people in the Carol Corps. We have an actual rocket scientist in the Carol Corps, an actual, for real, live rocket scientist who has asthma and is a runner and so she has something to overcome when she runs. She runs wearing a Captain Marvel outfit that she made herself, which is pretty incredible. There's a woman who just got her pilot's license. I got so chocked up, a woman came up to me at Emerald City, and told me that she was in the Navy because Carol had inspired her, kind of gave her permission to apply for flight school. Yeah, I mean I get choked up talking to you about it. I don't know . . . they're pretty cool people.
Toucan: It's definitely amazing the way people relate to comics characters. Going back to the Legion of Superheroes when it first started and then the Uncanny X-Men when Chris Claremont started writing it and Dave Cockrum and John Byrne drew it, and the New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. It just seems like the characters in comics inspire people, maybe because they're all so different.
Kelly Sue: Oh my god, I love those books! I love those books! I think that there is something very lizard brain about it. I mean I think these characters are the ones that persist are almost like Jungian archetypes. I love superhero comics with the same part of me that I love Greek mythology and melodrama and commedia dell'arte. I think that they are things that reflect our humanity back at us in ways that naturalism kind of can't. It's almost more direct.
Toucan: Let's talk a little bit about where Captain Marvel is now, because as we speak the book is on hiatus and about to be relaunched in March. Can you tell us a little bit about what's coming up?
Kelly Sue: Yeah, the first new issue is in March and she's going cosmic. So there's this book when I was researching Captain Marvel . . . I've always been kind of fascinated by pilots and pilot culture probably largely because I grew up with my dad in the Air Force. Captain Marvel [the Carol Danvers version] started out as Ms. Marvel and at her start was an unapologetic attempt to make a feminist icon. She was the female fury. So this is the kind of cross section of two things that were very interesting to me.
Predating my pitch, I learned about this group of women called the Mercury 13. At the same time that they were testing male pilots all over the country to try and find the seven that would become the Mercury 7 astronauts, they also tested a group of the best female pilots in the country and it was done in secret. It was an official NASA program. It was bank rolled by Jackie Cochran who later testified against women being in the program because Jackie Cochran was crazy and someone should make a movie about her. Anyway, these women, all of them were phenomenal. I read this Martha Ackmann book that I cannot recommend highly enough that's simply called The Mercury 13, and the first paragraph of the second chapter of that book is one of the loveliest paragraphs I've ever read in a nonfiction book. It's really beautiful. She's talking about where Jerrie Cobb grew up in Oklahoma and she says no wonder she became a pilot, everything in that part of the world is trying to take flight. And she goes on to describe how the wind there is such that if you drop a candy wrapper, it immediately is up in the air and how when you're driving down the road it seems as though the signs are trying to take off like rockets. There was something about that image that made me think of Carol. That everything about Carol just wants to go up, like everything about her faces up. Chin up, heart up, head up, she just wants to go up.
So when I got the news from Wacker [Stephen Wacker, Marvel's former senior editor] that what they wanted to do is relaunch Captain Marvel to get a new number one because the numbers on the book haven't been bad but the book has an incredibly vocal, incredibly dedicated fan base, and they're much more present than the numbers would indicate. So Wacker was like, let's see if we can get the book a boost and get it in front of more eyes by giving it a new number one. So then it becomes this sort of backwards construction thing which nobody wants to do. Now you have to come up with a story reason for there to be a new number one. I would rather have a story reason and then make the following decisions, but this is sort of backwards engineered. So it was like well, she wants to go up, let's let her go. Let's take her cosmic. At first I was really emotional about it because I felt like it was the right thing to do, but at the same time I was so invested in her supporting cast in New York. We spent too much time building up these people and they feel real to me and I don't want to leave them. We spend some more time with them in the first issue to make sure we know where everyone is while she's gone and that their lives are continuing, so that she will rejoin them eventually.
Toucan: Let's backtrack for a second because you mentioned during what we were just talking about that Captain Marvel was a pitch that you did. Were you asked to pitch for this specific character, or was this wholly on your own? Had you gone to Marvel and said I want to take Carol Danvers from being Ms. Marvel to being Captain Marvel?
Kelly Sue: No, it was sort of a little of column A, a little of column B. I was looking to pitch, I wanted an ongoing series. I had set a goal for myself; I wanted to see if I can do an ongoing series—although hilariously I was pretty sure that whatever my ongoing was, it was going to get cancelled at six issues anyway, but I wanted something coming out that was going to be called an ongoing. So I was looking for something to pitch and I don't know where I heard it, but they were looking for a Ms. Marvel pitch: "Hey, anybody got anything on Ms. Marvel?" and nobody had anything that really worked for anybody. So I called Wacker, I think, and said "Can I pitch you on Ms. Marvel?" and he was like, "Yes, you can." So my pitch was Carol Danvers as Chuck Yeager. My pitch was Carol Danvers as adrenaline junkie pilot, very Type A, a very driven human being, and he really liked that. Then the new costume and the new title were both him. I'm not responsible for either of those things, though I love them and would like to take credit for them. I'm a little bit responsible for the costume, but the way the Captain Marvel thing happened was he literally called me and said you're not writing Ms. Marvel and I was oh, okay, that's cool, I understand. I had other pitches that didn't go. And he says, "because you're writing Captain Marvel," and then I cursed his name and stuff. Then we were emailing about it and he wrote at one point and said and if we're going to do this I want to put her in pants and I wrote back and said I cannot tell if you're kidding. Then my only contribution to that was I lobbied very hard to get Jamie McKelvie to do the redesign. So much so that I basically made a bet. They said they weren't going to go out of pocket to do a redesign, but that we would have to work with the designs that we had from inhouse, and I didn't like any of those designs so I said to Wacker, "What if I paid Jamie to do one?" and he's like no, I'm not comfortable with that, but maybe if Jamie did one and everybody here happened to see it and everybody here loved it, maybe we could buy it. So I wrote to Jamie and said, hey, why don't you make this bet with me? If you're willing to do this, if they don't buy it, I will, and he said let's just see what happens. I don't know if he would have called me on it or not, but luckily he's kind of amazing and they recognized that and found the money to buy it. So that's my tiny contribution to the costume design.
Toucan: Why were you convinced that if you got an ongoing it would be cancelled after six issues?
Kelly Sue: Because my husband is a comic book writer for Marvel comics and is very, very good at it and he had . . . I don't know if Defenders had been cancelled at that point but I think The Order was, and The Order was his first ongoing. I've seen him have a couple books cancelled without making it to a year or just making it to a year and finding out they were cancelled and I thought, well, then I'm doomed.
Toucan: Well, ironically, by the middle of the year you'll have three ongoing series: Captain Marvel, Pretty Deadly, and Bitch Planet. Avengers Assemble is over, right?
Kelly Sue: It's almost over. I have one more to do, but I co-write that with Warren Ellis.
Toucan: Well, that's not a bad gig, is it?
Kelly Sue: No, no, it's quite all right, and I have learned so much from that experience and also just had so much fun. It's kind of . . . I can't really even describe it. [Working with Ellis] has been one of the greatest pleasures of my professional career.
Toucan: But even at three books and your social media and a family and everything else, what is your day like? Do you wake up and say "Today I'm going to write Captain Marvel"?
Kelly Sue: Yeah, I usually know what I need to work on. Christmas has thrown me off. I haven't quite gotten back to like my pre-holiday schedule. I usually get up at 3:00 AM.
And the first thing that I do is make my coffee and fill my Tumblr cue. So a lot of what you see going up during the day [on Tumblr], I'm not actually on. That's all automated. I'll check in when I go upstairs to make my lunch. I have the laptop on the kitchen counter. I'll pull up Tumblr and take a look at stuff then or respond to things or at night when I'm making dinner. The radio's on and I can do two things at once, but most of the time I get up at 3:00. I have my coffee and fill my Tumblr cue, try to do a little bit of reading and then I try to get to work as quickly as possible and I work until the kids wake up, which can be anywhere between 5:15 and 6:30. Then I get them dressed and off to school and, depending on the day, I'm back at my desk. If it's a day when they have another ride in—three days a week they have another ride in to school—then I'm back at my desk by say 8:30, 9:00; otherwise I'm back at my desk by 9:30, 10:00. The most productive writing time I have is those couple of hours from 3:00 AM until 5:15 or 6:15. That is when I'm the least disturbed and I would say my inner editor is still asleep at those hours and so that's the best writing time that I have, but then I get back to it during the day. During the day though is when you get interrupted by editorial calls or quick, we need a solicit for this or we need a letter pass of that or all the business of writing comics that isn't actually writing comics. So I go back and forth between working on whatever I need to script that day and dealing with the fires that come in during the day. Depending on the day—again, is it the day where I need to go get the kids or is it a day where my husband goes and gets the kids—I work until either 4:00 or 5:00 PM and then I go upstairs and start dinner and when I put dinner on is when I'll open Tumblr up again and load up more stuff or answer questions or whatever. Then we have dinner together and then we have family time and we do homework and what not and then Matt does their baths and I have a couple minutes to myself and then the kids and I are in bed at 8:00 and Matt reads to us and I go to sleep with the kids.
Toucan: Wow, we're coming up on your bedtime then . . .
Kelly Sue: We would be if I was back to my normal schedule, but I slept in until 5:00 this morning
Yes, we're leaving you with a cliffhanger! Does Kelly Sue get to bed on time? Click here to read part two of our Toucan interview with Kelly Sue when she talks about Pretty Deadly, Bitch Planet, the joys of creator-owned books, and the real force behind the comic books produced in the DeConnick-Fraction house!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Missing Picture
By Rithy Panh 2013 L'Image manquante Feature Film Completed
90 min
For many years, I have been looking for the missing picture: a photograph taken between 1975 and 1979 by the Khmer Rouge when they ruled over Cambodia... On its own, of course, an image cannot prove mass murder, but it gives us cause for thought, prompts us to meditate, to record History. I searched for it vainly in the archives, in old papers, in the country villages of Cambodia.Today I know: this image must be missing. I was not really looking for it; would it not be obscene and insignificant?So I created it.What I give you today is neither the picture nor the search for a unique image, but the picture of a quest: the quest that cinema allows.


text:
Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir could easily be filed away under any or all of the following genres: documentary, autobiography, memoir, journalism, and nonfiction. If there's one thing all of these have in common, it's that none make for natural cartoons. The exception that proves the rule is Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, which began life as a pair of graphic novels before being adapted into an animated feature film. Waltz With Bashir takes the opposite route, starting as a film and ending up as a book. Could animated versions of Joe Sacco's Palestine and Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale be far behind?
Folman has lost his memories of a key experience during his service in the Israel Defense Forces during the 1982 war in Lebanon. A conversation with a friend sparks a fragment of memory involving the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The Israeli Defense Force surrounded Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, but stood by as the Phalangists, a Christian Lebanese militia, entered and massacred a still unknown number of Palestinian civilians. Was he really there, as he now seems to recollect? Did he have anything to do with it?
Folman speaks of memory as "something stored in my system," as if his brain were merely a computer, disassociated from any culpability in the massacre. He merely witnessed it, but it was enough for him to subconsciously erase his memories over the intervening years. He seeks out old comrades in the search of someone else who served with him and may help fill in the blanks in his memory. Like a detective story, the search for clues provides a useful storytelling device while providing an episodic narrative structure.
The title refers to a fellow soldier that madly waltzed with a machine gun while surrounded on all sides by Lebanese fighters. "Bashir" is Bashir Gemayel, the assassinated Phalangist commander lionized by Lebanese, and a celebrity on a scale that one Israeli likens to how he felt about David Bowie.
Folman is an artist as well as a filmmaker; at one point he asks one of his old friends if it's OK to sketch his family during their interview. His visual sense manifests in Waltz With Bashir's stunning images, composition, and color. Like Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, it features stiff, simplified characters atop fully-rendered 3D environments. Human faces are crudely rendered with small looped expressions, when not totally still (note that the 2D vector animation is not the same technique used in Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly). They contrast sharply with the fluid movement of the detailed, complexly lit vehicles, backgrounds, and weapons. If such stylized human figures were a deliberate artistic choice, what is to be gained? A few possible explanations:
- As recent CGI movies like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Polar Express, and Beowulf have proven to their detriment, the uncanny valley (the point at which a simulation of a human becomes almost, but not quite, realistic and thus creeps audiences out) is a very real problem facing animators as technology progresses. All three of these are technological marvels, but the human characters are still just one step away from dead-eyed zombies.
- In the most practical sense, animation is useful to create images of historical events where no cameras were present. Folman does recount seeing journalist Ron Ben-Yishai boldly film the aforementioned firefight in which his friend had his machine-gun-waltz with Bashir, so perhaps some actual footage existed for reference.
- The dreamlike unreality of animation plays into Folman's theme of the mutability of memory.
- Like Isao Takahata's stunning Grave of Fireflies, animation makes it slightly easier to watch painful events. Takahata's emotionally draining film involved a little girl slowly starving to death after the World War II firebombing of Japan, and Waltz With Bashir features such images as a field full of dying horses and the corpse of a child buried in rubble. The end of the film snatches away this distancing technique; we finally see archival footage of the massacre's aftermath.
Is it fair to criticize the film for taking the Israeli point of view in a story about the Sabra and Shatila massacre? Save for one woman that appears in the actual footage seen at the end, Palestinians literally don't have a voice in the film. But neither, for that matter, do the Phalangists. In the case of this historical event, Israelis were passive bystanders, neither victims nor oppressors. If to bluntly ask what Waltz With Bashir is for, it does three things: First, it's a meditation upon the complexity and unreliability of human memory. Second, it's an act of journalism; returning the Sabra and Shatila Massacre to the public consciousness. Third, it's one man's personal coming to terms with his past.


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Despite some Republicans' recent comments, sexual violence against women is unambiguous.
Richard Mourdock (Joey Foley/Getty Images)
By Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D.
(The Root) — I don't know about you, but in the words of the late, great civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I learned these words from my middle school band director, the late, great Royal J. Singleton III, which he applied to our sometimes uninspired performance of a new musical composition. I understood then what he meant and later what Hamer meant by those words. In her case, she had had enough of being mistreated, and for Singleton, he was weary of being undervalued for his efforts to teach us.
In this case, I have to say that I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of some men in the GOP undervaluing women by uttering the most inane sentences about women's bodies, specifically rape and subsequent pregnancies. The parsing of what defines rape or the attempt to make distinctions about rape is unconscionable.
Rape is a violent act — period. No ifs, ands or buts about it — it is about power and violence. It is what it is. Even though rape is defined in different ways by different states, the central requirements are the use of force, sexual inter-course and a lack of consent. It is an unlawful, criminal act against a person's will, and victims can be men and women.
To add insult to injury, now some male members of the GOP have the nerve to discuss what women should do in cases where pregnancy results from rape. Most recently, Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock stated that such a pregnancy is God's intent, so an abortion should not be warranted. Come again? Mourdock claims his words were "twisted" and that wasn't his intention.
Regardless, the idea that you can say words that would give the impression to many people listening — including GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), who canceled appearances with Mourdock after his comments — that God ordains rape is unacceptable. Politicians like Mourdock and Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin, who coined the term "legitimate rape" earlier in his campaign, need to understand the power of language.
The misinformation that they continue to circulate, whether unintentional or not, does a disservice to women everywhere, including women and their families and their political party. It is hard enough for women to move forward as survivors of rape, but then to pressure them about what to do with pregnancies resulting from those violent acts is despicable.
I often wonder how these archaic views would change if, indeed, men could get pregnant in general or after being raped specifically. Would they be so quick to offer testimony about situations about which they clearly know very little? The answer is that men cannot get pregnant, which is why pregnancy and rape in this context and abortion are women's-rights issues — period.
On another note, where are the women in the GOP regarding Mourdock's statements? Though she's a prolife advocate, Ayotte at least has distanced herself and denounced his views as not representing her own. But is it possible to be a Republican and stand for women's rights? Those who think not should check their history books for women like J. Ellen Foster, Mary crisp or former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose comments about being largely pro-choice (except for late-term abortions), have been carefully worded and clear: The government does not belong in this issue. Some believe this statement cost Rice the GOP vice presidential nomination.
The tradition of Republican feminists seems all but lost, but many need to remember that in 1894 and 1896, the Illinois Republican Women's State Central Committee sponsored Ida B. Wells' lecture tour on women's suffrage. And the late Sen. Arlen Specter was a pro-choice Republican, though many label him a traitor or opportunist for switching parties. Is there room in the GOP for a pro-choice Republican like Specter anymore?
While GOP women and men (if there are any left) who support women's rights need to stand up, GOP men who think like Mourdock and Akin need to sit down and be quiet, because I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of their blatant disrespect and clear contempt for women.
Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., is editor-at-large for The Root. She is also editor-in-chief of the Burton Wire, a blog dedicated to world news related to the African Diaspora and global culture. Follow her on Twitter.


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text: The holiday season is upon us, and now more than ever that means shopping on the Internet.This past Black Friday saw $595 million in online sales, an 11 percent increase compared to Black Friday 2008, according to online market tracker comScore.But with the comfort and convenience of buying presents from your couch comes with security risks that even the most vigilant shopper can take for granted.The browser used to be just a place to access Web pages, but as more people makes financial transactions and store personal data there, the security of browsers has become vital to consumers at home and IT managers at the office.[ For complete coverage on Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system -- including hands-on reviews, video tutorials and advice on enterprise rollouts -- see CIO.com's Windows 7 Bible. ]Microsoft has offered up tips on how to fortify your browser against viruses, spam and malware.Naturally, Microsoft would prefer you use Internet Explorer 8, although it's worth noting that Internet Explorer has been losing market share throughout 2009, and Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari and Google's browser Chrome all have security features of their own. Internet Explorer 8: Five Security Features for Enterprise UsersInternet Explorer currently has 63.6 percent of the browser market share, a six percent drop from January 2009, according to Web metrics company Net Applications. Here are eight (as in Internet Explorer 8. Get it?) ways to have a safer time shopping online.Keep your computer's software and browser current. Microsoft's Download Center is a good place to start.Protect your computer with firewall, antivirus, antispam and antispyware software. Click here for a list of security software providers.Beware of phishing scams and malware. IE8's SmartScreen Filter feature alerts users if a Web site you are trying to access has been reported as unsafe and allows you to report any unsafe sites you find. SmartScreen Filter and other security features can be accessed in IE8 under the Safety tab in the upper right hand corner.Protect yourself against cross-site scripting attacks. Cross-site scripting, or XSS, attacks allow malicious code to be injected into Web pages that can lead to identity theft. What's most unsettling about XSS: everything looks normal to the user while unauthorized access is being given to a hacker and sensitive data is being stolen. IE8 has a built-in XSS Filter that is always on.Identify Fake Web Addresses. By highlighting the domain name of a Web address in black, IE8 makes it easier to see a site's true identity, thus avoiding getting fooled by a deceptive Web site.Browse more privately. The InPrivate Browsing option in IE8, located under Tools, allows you to surf the Web without the browser storing data about your session. Temporary Internet Files, Web address history, cookies and passwords are all disabled.Make Sure Payment Web sites Use Encryption. Any Web site that processes credit card information must use encryption. To make sure of this, look for: An "s" after http in the Web address \u2014 it should read https; a closed padlock icon in the address bar or at the lower-right corner of the browser window; a green address bar \u2014 IE8 uses green to indicate a trustworthy site.Never Respond to Unsolicited Requests to Update Your Account Information. An e-mail asking to update account information might be a scam for stealing your identity. Legitimate companies never send unsolicited e-mail or instant message requests for your passwords or other personal information. Shane O'Neill is a senior writer at CIO.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com\/smoneill. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter at twitter.com\/CIOonline.


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Oh yes, I did.Those really are Irish Cream dipped chocolate chip cookies nestled snugly between luscious layers of whipped cream. And they're sitting in my refrigerator getting more delicious by the minute. As they mellow, the Irish Cream soaked cookies become almost cake-like, and each spoonful is a bite of creamy goodness studded with crunchy chocolate chips suspended in silky whipped cream.
Surprisingly enough, the best cookies for this recipe are the crunchy store-bought ones. (Chips Ahoy, if you can get them.) I've included a link in the recipe for a non-alcoholic Irish Cream if you prefer not to go the alcoholic route, but I'm also thinking that any sweet milky coffee-type drink (like a bottled frappuccino) would work.
My friend Felicia introduced me to this wonderfully quick and easy make-ahead dessert. (Can you believe there are only three ingredients?) She makes hers in a 9x12 dish, but I thought it would also be cute in individual serving jars. But isn't most anything cuter in a Weck jar?
Speaking of cute, here's what has been keeping my attention these last few weeks. Yep, grandson has moved back to VA and we've been having lots of family fun together. (Yay!) Here's a little project that we did together that makes a great keepsake ornament. (Grandmas love these things!) This is one of my favorite ornaments, and I've been making these with my students for years.
This idea came from Little Giraffes, and they have a link to a printable tag here. Instructions: Paint child's palm and fingers white. Have them wrap their hand and fingers around a ball shaped ornament to transfer their handprint. Decorate with paint markers, and don't forget to put your child's name and date! Include a tag with this poem:
These aren't just five snowmen,
As anyone can see.
I made them with my hand
Which is a part of me.
And now each year when you trim the tree
You'll look back and recall,
Christmas of 2011
When my hand was just this small!
I'll be back soon with more holiday goodies- my baking partner is back and we plan to get into lots of cookie trouble together!
Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Parfait Recipe
recipe from Felicia
1 pkg. Chocolate Chip cookies, crunchy ones- not soft (Chips Ahoy work beautifully.)
Whipped cream (made from a pint of heavy cream) or 1 tub Whipped topping
Irish Cream liqueur or non-alcoholic Irish Cream (I'm thinking that even a bottled frappuccino would work here.)
- Pour about 1/2 cup of Irish Cream into a bowl. (More if you need it) Dip cookies one at a time into the Irish Cream. I usually let them stay in a few seconds and then turn them over to make sure they're completely covered. Don't leave them in long enough to get soggy- they'll fall apart.
- For a 9x12 baking dish: Start with a layer of dipped cookies and then top with a layer of whipped cream. Repeat the layers and finish with a sprinkling of crushed cookies.
- For parfait glasses or canning jars: Alternate layers of dipped cookies and whipped cream. End up with whipped cream as the top layer and then sprinkle with some crumbled cookies.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours (can be done a day ahead) before serving so the cookies have a chance to absorb the liqueur and soften.


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We've arrived at a dangerous milestone. For the first time in human history, as Amy Goodman reported this week, "the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has topped 400 parts per million." Climate scientiststs have warned that we should seek to stabilize emissions no higher that 350 ppm if we hope to fend off catastrophic planetary changes.
The climate crisis demands that we take action, and that those actions have the greatest impact possible. That's what motivates the organizing strategies of Rainforest Action Network. Since 1985, RAN has been a leader in the fight to protect rainforests across the globe and the people who live in and near them. But as the climate crisis heats up, all of our lives have become dependent on protecting these vital ecosystems.
One of the signature strategies of the organization has been to follow the money — it's waged campaigns against corporate giants like Burger King and Disney, and won. Its success in recent years was driven by visionary leader Rebecca Tarbotton. But last December, Tarbotton, 39, was killed in a swimming accident while vacationing in Mexico. Her death sent the environmental community reeling. (Read AlterNet's 2010 interview with Tarbotton here.)
Since then RAN has named Lindsey Allen, the organization's forest program director, as acting executive director. RAN's board chair called Allen, "a world-class campaigner with more than a decade of experience and an unmatched track record pressuring and inspiring some of the world's largest corporations to protect rainforests. Rainforest Action Network's board, leadership team and staff stand behind Lindsey 100 percent as she takes on this crucial role. She is the natural choice, and the perfect choice."
Allen and RAN's communications director Nell Greenberg recently sat down with AlterNet to talk about RAN's current campaigns and their vision for taking on the country's biggest polluters.
Tara Lohan: What campaign are you most excited about now?
Lindsey Allen: Right now the campaign that we are most excited about is the launch of our palm oil campaign. What folks probably don't realize is that palm oil is in roughly half of processed foods that you find at a grocery story. We're going to be targeting snack companies and taking the top 20 of them to task for using palm oil because it's clearing orangutan habitat. It's causing human rights violations. There's forced labor on palm oil plantations.
We're looking at this as the last stand of the Sumatran orangutan. We won't be able to say that we didn't see extinction as a very real threat and that we didn't see this coming, because it's very clear. There are very few animals left, especially in northern Sumatra.
TL: How are you going to get people excited about a campaign that's happening very far away?
LA: Well, it's not as far away as you might think. If you walked around your house you can find palm oil in every room of your house, so there's a very direct connection between the decisions that people are making with their pocketbooks and what is happening in a place that might seem very far away. There are people that are at the other end of the supply chain so our decisions are all directly affecting those communities.
This is a local action you can take that is globally relevant when we're talking about Indonesia where there's the biodiversity threat. There's the land tenure issues, where communities' lands are being stolen to plant these palm oil plantations. And everyone now needs to think about climate as a backyard issue. This does relate to that because Indonesia is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases and it's primarily related to deforestation.
TL: Which are the top offending companies?
LA: We don't know yet. We will know who the biggest offender is based on the companies that are unwilling to move. There are many companies that have policies already that either have not implemented them or they're using a tool that's not working such as there's an industry round table that makes sustainability claims and it's not able to show that this product is really sustainable. We will know based who doesn't move once we say you need to really start really enforcing your policy or adopt one if you don't have one already.
Nell Greenberg: We recently sent letters to 20 of the top companies that are producing snack foods with palm oil and we always give companies an opportunity to respond and show that they can do good before we then go after them, which is why we're kind of holding it back. We are giving those companies basically four weeks to say, yes, we will address this; or no, we won't; and that's how we'll start to then shake out who our big targets are. The truth is that it's 20 of the biggest name brands you can imagine in snack food. Nobody is safe.
TL: I know you guys work on mountaintop removal coal mining issues. There seems to be no good that can come from that in terms of jobs or environmental impacts, but yet it still continues. What are you guys doing to shift that?
NG: The background is we had a campaign that just focused on mountaintop removal mining for two years and the priority was to get the EPA to use the Clean Water Act to basically pass restrictions that made it harder for MTR companies to get permits. Then secondarily we were focusing on all the banks that were financing the MTR companies and getting them to basically pass policies to make it harder to get money. That was sort of a beautiful confluence where the EPA did pass those restrictions. There is a huge reduction in the amount of permits they give for MTR and eight of the banks made policies to restrict funding and stop funding Massey Energy all together which was, back in the day, kind of the most heinous.
The reality is MTR is still the Achilles heel of the coal industry and it's still the most heinous and it's still happening. Now we've focused on basically going after coal at large because we have gotten to the point where it's a holistic problem that needs to be dealt with that way and we're focusing on defunding the coal industry and going after banks like Bank of America. There's a huge movement going after coal and climate and our focus has been on getting the ATMs of the coal industry and trying to get them to fund renewable energy and stop funding coal. But it's a long road.
TL: So are these banks funding coal projects at the extraction level or the burning level?
NG: They are funding across the board. It's the whole life cycle of coal and huge on the export side too.
LA: What we're talking to Bank of America about, for instance, is to look at how they consider themselves to be an environmental bank as many big ones do because they've made a monetary commitment [to renewables] and they're not looking at the entire life cycle, and what they're doing beyond this commitment which is really just a small portion of their financial deals. What we're saying is think about your financed emissions. It's being released into the atmosphere and start to track it and then once you know what it is you can start to reduce it. Of course it's not an idea that they are excited about at this point.
NG: Yes. It's so crazy. I mean they announce things like we're going to put $20 billion into renewable energy and they think "well, that makes us the greenest bank because we're putting more money into renewable energy than any other bank," but the minute you say well, actually look at emissions if this is about climate, let's talk about the number of emissions we're demonstrably reducing in order to curb climate change. If you look at it from that lens, it's like you can't have an all-of-the-above energy strategy. They are at the point where they admit climate change exists, but their way of dealing with it is by funding everything as opposed to starting to actually move. It is inherently about getting banks to make tough choices that are against their nature to some degree.
TL: I saw that you guys have a blog about how Bloomberg's list of "greenest banks" are actually climate killers.
LA: Yes. It's such a long, sorted tale. We've had such a long process of trying to convince them to have a different angle for looking at their list and trying to get them to again, like what Nell was saying, to actually look at financed emissions, but banks aren't reporting on that so Bloomberg refuses. They just look at basically what banks are doing in terms of LEED-certified buildings and in terms of recycling reduction, in terms of energy or money into renewable energy and they don't look at the whole spectrum. Every single year we have this very subtle and soft campaign on Bloomberg to try to convince them to have a different analysis.
That's a big part of what we're really doing. We're at the point where we're needing to make basically paradigm shifts and the questions that we ask and the way that we finance everything and the way we run our economy and how we make products and packaging. So we went through a five-year strategic plan last year and a big part of it was how do we get deeper, faster changes that actually reflect the urgency of the crises we're in and do it systematically as opposed to telling people to just not buy packaged goods that have palm oil or telling people to just not bank with Bank of America. How do we actually aggregate people power so that we transform changes in a bigger way?
I can tell you that it is refreshing. We sort of freed ourselves last year to actually ask the hard questions and not just say "OK we're satisfied with millions of people signing the petition" or "OK we're satisfied with people showing up at one protest." We are at a really good place of being hungry and unsatisfied and wanting deeper changes which feels good. It's not quick.
TL: How are you urging people to participate in this Bank of America campaign?
NG: There's a couple of ways that people can participate. One is to tell the bank what they think. There's been an outpouring that started with Occupy focused on Bank of America and the question is, will that continue? I think we are the people who will answer that question, so we can say "Yes we haven't forgotten about people losing their homes. We haven't forgotten that you're one of the top financiers of coal." As consumers we can still exert that pressure.
Then there are also specific opportunities. There will be folks attending the Bank of America shareholder meetings to bring people's voices into that board room to ask them to question their role and their approach to financing as it affects our lives. That's one way. I think there are other small opportunities that bubble up. One of which will be around Keystone so it's separate, but related. As we look at the role that extraction is playing in our lives, that's another place where people can start to take action really specifically.
We've joined with Credo to do this pledge of resistance. The thinking is that we need to draw this line in the sand and we need to make clear to Obama that he can't accept anything and he can't give all of these people five years of promises on addressing climate change, put it in the State of Union, and then approve some of the dirtiest oil in the world. As a result of that we are directing some of our focus and we're going to take some of the folks that are so riled up about coal and Bank of America and try to unite all of these movements and to specifically say, let's make this a line that he cannot cross and if it is crossed let's make it a line that's never crossed again. That will start bubbling up in the summer with some trainings that we're going to be doing all across the country.
TL: That's great. What's your best guess as to what might happen with Keystone? I'm a little pessimistic myself.
LA: I think everybody is pessimistic and there's a rationale behind that, but I also think amazing things happen when people push for what's needed as opposed to what people think is politically possible.
NG: I also think obviously the no-Keystone movement started about a pipeline, but it's more than the pipeline. I feel like the movement goals have surpassed everybody's expectations. I feel like on that point it was about getting the environmental movement to be more bold, more creative, much more in the streets and that's already happened. I feel like yes, we want to stop the pipeline, but we also now have this very galvanized movement that's about every pipeline and every export terminal and every coal plan. That didn't feel like where we were at two years ago. It's not the same as the direct emissions goal of stopping the pipeline, but I think it is very real.
TL: So, what's the Pledge of Resistance regarding the pipeline?
LA: It means that people are committed to doing everything up to and including civil disobedience to show that yes, this is the line. Do not cross it. There is a level of seriousness around this fight that is going to continue. The idea is to take Obama to task so that he really has to think about who he is representing and who he is alienating as he make these decisions.
NG: The goal is to have more than 100,000 people pledge to take action if Obama decides to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Those will be 100,000 badass people who are ready to stand up to this pipeline and every other one.
TL: Are you guys planning to jump into the fray on the fracking stuff?
LA: Not yet, no.
TL: Any reason why?
LA: We're a little busy. Also in terms of our regional base, it's not in our backyards. It's not as much of the communities that we've worked with. It's just a little more challenging.
TL: In terms of energy stuff, I've been looking into trying to get solar panels and it's a little expensive, and if you don't own your house it's particularly tough. What should people be doing? It's not as easy as not buying something with palm oil in it.
LA: I think it is as easy as reducing consumption as a first step. I think when folks start to think about it there's some very innovative new tech tools that help you to understand where your consumption is too much or more than it needs to be. I think there are ways that we can help to build a type of community that is less energy dependent. Instead of driving up to Marin to go hiking, you go to the park near you, ride bikes, think about what you're cooking, how you're cooking — all of your daily consumption.
I do think that starts to make a difference and then the next step that we go to is once you have that level of caring you can also think about your voice and how your voice is contributing to the change. That's where I think on energy issues the voice hasn't been there in a united way for a while and now it could be and now more and more it is. There's not an easy way I'm going to unplug my house from coal. I'm going to pop a solar panel on the roof and I'm going to be all set. It does need to be this gradual shift that we start to make together.
TL: You guys have had a lot of success in targeting corporations and targeting pocketbooks by going after banks. Do you have any advice that you would offer to other organizations even outside the environmental movement about how to do that effectively.
NG: Follow the money. Follow the money.
LA: That's our trick. I think that's the strategy at the simplest level to figure out where the money is coming from and it gets harder and harder to see as it goes further upstream. I'm an optimist in that I believe in humans and I think that humans, Americans, when we look at what is happening and if something is exposed and brought to light and folks are given the opportunity to choose something different, they will choose something different and better. Because I still believe in that theory, I think, follow the money, expose it and then give a couple places where people can target their pressure. As people target the pressure together they have an experience of seeing what that feels like and how effective it is and then they can expand out from there. I think that can work in many sectors on many issues.
TL: Talk a little bit about the Disney campaign, because I know that was a huge win for you.
LA: A couple of years ago we were looking deeply at our area of concern in the Indonesia rainforest for all the reasons we've talked about — climate change and human rights, and then we started to just follow the money — which in this case is about following the pulp and figure out where is it going. We found it's going into manufacturing facilities in China. There are these two giant companies one of which is Asia Pulp and Paper and then it's entering all these different supply chains that are a little hard to find. Because we weren't finding it quickly we started testing products that we thought would likely be connected and we found that kids' books of all things contain rainforest fiber. Rainforest fiber that you can isolate to say that the likelihood is that it's coming from Indonesia.
We took on the top 10 U.S.-based, but globally significant publishing companies of kids' books. We started to get progress from some of the names you might recognize like Scholastic. We started to move on these policies, they really agreed that Indonesia was critical for biodiversity, our climate and for rights so they committed to making progress. Then we get down to the two laggards. One of which is Harper Collins, part of the Murdoch empire and the other of which is Walt Disney Company.
We were weighing which one are we were going to really push and we found out that Disney is the largest children's book and magazine publisher in the world. If you take into account all of the ways that they use paper, vendors, licensing, parks, etc., they are very significant so Disney very much hit our radar. One morning as executives went to work in Burbank, Mickey and Minnie were out there waving to them chained to the gate with signs that say, "Rainforest destruction is no fairy tale."
Within a week they were in our office with some executives saying that they were really serious about figuring out how to address their paper issues. It ended up taking us 18 months of negotiation because they did have very complicated supply chains and we wanted to make sure that the action they were going to take they could make real. It's the same thing that we're asking for with the banks which is first, know what you do and don't know. Look at what you're financing and then start to change it. We had to do that process with Disney. What is the paper, where are you getting it from? Then start to cut out the worst, change the way you're designing products so that you can reduce your consumption and then increase your recycle content.
So then we announced it in October. The implementation will continue for quite a while, but it's the broadest ranging policy that we've seen. It includes when you look at all of their vendors and licensees you are talking about everything from doll packaging in Russia to a napkin on a cruise ship. It's 25,000 factories, 10,000 of which are in China. It's tapping into these places that were considered untouchable.
TL: That's great. Harper Collins must be glad they didn't get your attention.
LA: Harper Collins quietly updated their website with a new policy that is very familiar looking.
TL: I was going to ask about the vision for the organization and what sort of long-term goals … you mentioned some of your deep thinking, but I don't know if there's anything else that you wanted to add.
LA: Right. I think that the big picture stuff is looking at how do we give people the tools that they need to get the right type of change in the time frame that we need it. I think when you look at a lot of organizations and their strategies around climate, the numbers don't add up. We are feeling the impacts of climate change and we need to start to have change at that scale. That's what we're really diving in deep and assessing is how do we tackle these underlying drivers that are allowing these systems to run out of control and take us in the wrong direction.
How are we moving these very large targets? On the palm oil campaign for instance, it's not just the top 20 snack food companies which have products they are selling all over the world, but it's also looking at the traders, so it's companies like Cargill. They are the middle players who are supplying this to markets. Cargill making a change could create a ripple effect that would go through the entire food system. The same thing with Bank of America, so part of it is to make sure we're still hitting a level of target that would be very significant and we're demanding the right level of what's needed, not what people is assume is possible.
I think it's that kind of sweet spot where all those pieces come together. We have the right big targets and we are giving people tools that they need and we're figuring out how to bring those pieces together to move the ball more quickly and to undermine some of the systems that would otherwise keep us on this dangerous trajectory.
NG: As an organization we really, really took a look in the mirror and asked, are we genuinely getting the change that we want and need to see from corporations? Are we genuinely working at the level of urgency that's required? We got very clear that our core purpose is around protecting rainforests and stemming climate change through people powered corporation campaigns.
We, at our core, recognize the interconnectedness between forest issues and climate issues and we very much believe that going after the largest corporate giants in the country is the way to get the biggest change. We saw it with Disney and Disney just made us hungrier. We were a $4 million organization sitting at the table with a $40 billion company and leveraged the kind of change that actually changes supplies down to the napkin on a cruise ship. We want more of that. That's what we want all the time. I think that it was a big year and it was a big year for a lot of reasons, but I think we're ambitious and eager to do more of that.
TL: Lindsey, you mentioned being an optimist. Despite all the difficult work that you do and knowing what we face, what is it that keeps you going, doing the hard work and fighting the corporate giants?
LA: I believe it and I know that it needs to happen. Marina Silva has this great quote where people will always ask her, "Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" and she says "I'm persistent." I have a very similar mantra. If I don't like what is happening, I want to have a role in stopping it or changing it. I'm optimistic that I and other humans can do that.
Tara Lohan, a senior editor at AlterNet, has just launched the new project Hitting Home, chronicling extreme energy extraction.


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To ensure a retirement that is free from financial concerns, there are certain things that must be done today. For many people this is not a desirable task. However, building a secure future by investing in quality dividend stocks is neither complicated nor overly burdensome. Below are three simple keys that will help you become a better investor:
I. Understand Your GoalsIf you don't know where you are going, how do you know when you get there? A large number of investors fail because they have no goals or investing convictions. Instead, they jump from one investing method to whatever is hot today.
Before investing, you should clearly define what you are tying to accomplish, then determine your goals and desires. It is my goal to create an ever-increasing income from dividend stocks, while it is my desire to beat the S&P 500 index over the long-term.
II. Select the Right StocksIt is our nature to want it now. In dividend investing this means high yields. Depending on the the direction you chose in I. above, a portfolio of high yield stocks may not be the best means to help you accomplish your goals. Historically, high-yield stocks have been more likely to cut their dividends, so for me, they don't align well with my goal of "ever-increasing income."
That is not to say I don't hold some high-yield, high-risk income stocks, but they are not my core income holdings. Instead, I prefer to focus on stocks with a reasonable yield and a long history of consistently raising their dividends. Companies in this category include:
Genuine Parts Co. (GPC) is a leading wholesale distributor of automotive replacement parts, industrial parts and supplies, and office products.
Yield: 2.5% | Dividend Growth: 6.15% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 57
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), formed through the merger of Exxon and Mobil in late 1999, is the world's largest publicly owned integrated oil company.
Yield: 2.7% | Dividend Growth: 9.26% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 31
PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) is a major international producer of branded beverage and snack food products.
Yield: 2.7% | Dividend Growth: 5.17% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 41
The Coca-Cola Company (KO) is the world's largest soft drink company, KO also has a sizable fruit juice business.
Yield: 2.7% | Dividend Growth: 8.02% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 51
The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) is a leading consumer products company that markets household and personal care products in more than 180 countries.
Yield: 3.0% | Dividend Growth: 7.04% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 55
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is a leader in the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products industries.
Yield: 2.9% | Dividend Growth: 7.29% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 51
McDonald's Corporation (MCD) is the largest fast-food restaurant company in the world, with nearly 34,500 restaurants in 119 countries.
Yield: 3.0% | Dividend Growth: 7.32% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 37
Chevron Corporation (CVX) is a global integrated oil company (formerly ChevronTexaco) with interests in exploration, production, refining and marketing, and petrochemicals.
Yield: 3.2% | Dividend Growth: 9.11% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 26
Kimberly Clark Corp. (KMB) is a global consumer products company's producing tissue, personal care and health care products. Its brands include Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex, Depend, Kleenex and Scott.
Yield: 3.2% | Dividend Growth: 7.07% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 41
The Clorox Company (CLX) is a diversified producer of household cleaning, grocery and specialty food products is also a leading producer of natural personal care products.
Yield: 3.2% | Dividend Growth: 8.78% | Consecutive Years of Increases: 38
III. PatienceThe stock market does not travel in a straight line. There will be times it consistently goes down leaving you wondering if it will ever hit bottom. These are the times that many investors' patience is tried. But for those with clear goals and confidence in their chosen strategy, they will find that these are the times that present the greatest opportunities.
Full Disclosure: Long GPC, XOM, PEP, KO, PG, JNJ, MCD, CVX, KMB in my Dividend Growth Portfolio. See a list of all my dividend growth holdings here.
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Happy Childrens Day Quotes for Children
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What is Children's Day?
International Children's Day is recognized on various days in many places around the world to honor children globally. It was first proclaimed by the World Conference for the Well-being of Children in 1925. Then established universally in 1954 to protect an "appropriate" day.
Universally, Children's day takes place on November 20th. The United Nations has declared this day as Children's day. This day is intended to promote the welfare and well being of children and also to celebrate childhood. Although November 20th is celebrated worldwide as Children's day, different countries have their own special day to celebrate Children's day.
Children's Day in India
14th November is celebrated as Children's Day in India on the occasion of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday. It is also known as Bal-Din in India. Many children across the world suffer from so many atrocities. We must ensure that the rights of children are protected and they are not exploited. It is said that God is closest to children because their hearts and minds are so pure. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru believed that children must be provided with love and care as the future of a nation lies in their hands. Children truly deserve a day that is dedicated to them.


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Sleep. Many of us would like to know how to get more of it, do it better, and make it easier. (Plus, who wouldn't want to become a morning person?) And for good reason: The average person spends more than a third of their life catching Zzs. Recently we published a list of 27 ways to sleep better, full of tips such as journaling, exercising, ditching coffee in the p.m., and sniffing lavender. One of the entries suggested popping a magnesium supplement before bedtime to bring on the sleepiness. I'd never heard of this technique before, and I wanted to find out what the deal is with other sleep aids. Are they effective? Would I snooze through my alarm? Wake up feeling like I could whip out endless reps of pull-ups?
But before test-driving a few sleep-inducing capsules, teas, drinks (and even a lip balm) from my bed, I was curious what the research had to say. Find out which sleep aids left me energized in the morning and which had me feeling like a zombie before I even got to work.
1. Melatonin
Melatonin is a hormone found naturally in the body, and it helps adjust the body's internal clock[1] [2]. The melatonin used as a sleep aid is usually made synthetically in a lab. While many studies connect the aid to improved sleep—less time to fall asleep, higher quality sleep, and more total sleep—more research is needed to determine melatonin supplementation's safety over the long term [3] [4] [5]. And though studies suggest it's safe with short-term use, there's no evidence that it's an effective treatment for the long haul [6] [7].
The long-term effects of melatonin supplementation are still largely unknown. One controversial issue surrounding melatonin has to do with it's possible down-regulation—meaning the body starts to produce even less melatonin because it think it has enough from the incoming supplement. As with most hormone supplementation, down-regulation is a legitimate concern. However there is some clinical evidence suggesting short-term melatonin (we're talking just a few weeks) likely won't cause a measureable drop in the body's ability to naturally produce it [8].
NatureMade VitaMelts Sleep
After dissolving one small 3-milligram tablet on my tongue (sans water), I couldn't help but think I could eat the darn things as candy with their delicious chocolate mint flavor. Aside from the taste test, I'd say that I fell asleep fairly easily and woke up without the same level of drowsiness that I normally do. I did, however, wake up in the middle of the night with a sneezing fit, though it'll remain a mystery whether or not it was connected.
Natrol Melatonin Fast Dissolve
These tablets also melted on the tongue (no water necessary). I was extra curious about how these tablets would make me feel, considering they're coined as "fast dissolve," and at 6 milligrams, they're nearly double the strength of the other melatonin I tried. The strawberry flavored pill tasted pretty great, and I can confidently say I felt more tired than I typically do (without sleep aids) when I turned out the lights. I slept soundly through the night, but I woke up super tired and groggy (likely because of the amplified dosage). I tried reading on the train but passed out after about 15 minutes. The whole morning was a foggy, sleepy haze though I slept a good seven-and-a-half hours.
2. Valerian Root
A tall, flowering grassland plant, valerian may improve sleep quality without producing harmful side effects [9] [10] [11]. Some people use the herb for conditions connected to anxiety as well as depression. Scientists aren't positive how valerian works, but some believe it increases the amount of a chemical in the brain called gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), which has a calming effect. While there are many studies touting valerian as an effective and safe sleep aid, a research review suggests the evidence is inconclusive [12].
Vitamin Shoppe Valerian Root
While most of the other sleep aids instructed me to consume the product 30 minutes before sleep, or just "before bedtime," this product said to take one to three capsules daily, preferably with meals. After digging around through research, it looks like dosage is unclear, and Valerian seems most effective aftertaken regularly for two or more weeks. In the one night I tried this supplement, I can't say that I noticed much of a difference. And as a side note, the capsules had a seriously foul smell.
3. Magnesium
Many Americans are magnesium deficient (often due to low-levels of magnesium in their diets), a condition that's been tied to poor sleep quality, though it's unclear whether low magnesium levels are a cause or a byproduct of poor sleep [13]. While it's the magnesium that's known for its sleep benefits, I also tried ZMA, a magnesium-containing supplement popular for promoting restfulness. When used in conjunction with melatonin, a small study found that zinc and magnesium appeared to improve the quality of sleep in an elderly population with insomnia [14].
Natural Vitality Natural Calm
Dubbed the "anti-stress drink," this magnesium supplement comes in powder form (stir 2-3 ounces in water). I stirred my sleepy cocktail—made up of both magnesium and calcium—and sipped it before bed (though the label suggests divvying up into two or three servings throughout the day for best results). In trying this supplement for just one night, I wouldn't say I noticed anything radical.
True Athlete ZMA With Theanine
When I took the two capsules an hour before bedtime (the recommended dose for women), I didn't have the same "Ooo I'm so sleepy" feeling as I did with some of the other sleep aids. I did sleep through the night without waking up (which I often do), but that may have a connection to the lack of sleep I had the few nights before. I woke up without much grogginess, though I did fall right asleep on the train for 40 minutes despite having had just over eight hours of sleep. This ZMA is marketed as a supplement to enhance athletic recovery, though the jury is still out on its ability to really boost the effects of training[15].
4. L-theanine
A water-soluble amino acid found in mushrooms and green tea, L-theanine is consumed for its relaxant effects (as well as high levels of antioxidants) [16] [17]. Though this amino acid is extracted from green tea leaves, a plant known for its ability to energize and revitalize, L-theanine may actually inhibit the excitatory effects of caffeine [18]. And in boys diagnosed with ADHD (a disorder known to disrupt sleep) L-theanine was found safe and effective in improving some aspects of sleep quality [19].
NatureMade VitaMelts Relax
These meltable tablets, in a green tea mint flavor, were definitely tasty. With a name like "Relax," this supplement is less about losing the ability to keep your eyes open, and far more about feeling physically relaxed. Which in my case, worked. After taking the four tablets (200 milligrams), I hopped in bed and my body immediately felt extremely tranquil. I could have probably stayed up and read for a while, but the idea of getting up to go to the bathroom or shut off the light seemed like a physical feat I'd rather not partake in.
Vitamin Shoppe L-Theanine
One capsule delivers 100 milligrams of L-Theanine to promote relaxation. Same as the NatureMade VitaMelts, I felt like this product made my body feel physically tired and relaxed, but not in the same fashion that melatonin made my eyes and head sleepy.
5. Rutaecarpine
Rutaecarpine, found in the Evodia fruit (which comes from a tree native to China and Korea), has been found to interact with enzymes in the body to metabolize caffeine and reduce the amount of it we have in our bodies by the time we hit the sack. In two studies on rats, rutaecarpine was found to significantly reduce caffeine levels both in the blood and urine [20] [21].
This aid isn't a sleep aid like some of the others on this list. Rather than actually making people feel sleepy, its main function is to kick caffeine out of the system. In fact, I was actually instructed by one of Rutaesomn's creators to drink some extra caff late in the day before testing out a sample. It seemed pretty crazy, especially because coffee at dinnertime would no doubt leave me restless by bedtime under normal circumstances. But I had no trouble conking off. Just as expected, I felt as sleepy as I would any other night after a long day, but there was no added sleepiness.
6. Multiple Ingredient Sleep Aids
Dream Water
Dream Water claims to reduce anxiety, help induce sleep, and improve the quality of sleep. The tiny bottle contains three active ingredients—5 hydroxytryptophan, melatonin, and GABA. L 5-hydroxytryptophan, a chemical in the body that may have a positive effect on sleep, mood, anxiety, appetite, and pain sensation, has also been found to improve sleep for children who frequently wake from sleep terrors [22]. And in combination with GABA, a neurotransmitter which prevents over-firing of nerve cells, 5-hydroxytryptophan has been shown to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, and increase the duration and quality of sleep [23]. I wasn't a big fan of how this stuff tasted, probably because I had just brushed my teeth. I definitely felt a rush of sleepiness within about 20 minutes of drinking the bottle. When I woke up I felt a little dazed until my mid-morning coffee.
Natrol Sleep 'N Restore
The big sell on this sleep aid, aside from promoting deeper, more restful sleep, is that it's got a combination of antioxidants that can supposedly repair cells. I didn't feel as groggy the next morning as when I took straight melatonin (even though the capsule did contain 3 milligrams). Beyond the valerian and melatonin, this sleep aid includes vitamin-E, L-Glutamine, calcium, and grape seed extract. Vitamin E, an antioxidant, can protect the body against the oxidative stress that comes with sleep deprivation[24]. And for people with sleep apnea, antioxidant intake may improve quality of sleep [25]. Grapeseed oil also has also been recognized for its powerful antioxidants, especially vitamin E, and flavonoids.
Badger Sleep Balm
According to Badger, sleep balm doesn't make people sleepy. Rubbing the balm on the lips, temples, neck, and/or face is said to help quiet thoughts and clear the mind. With essential oils—rosemary, bergamot, lavender, balsam fir and ginger—the product is formulated, according to Badger, "for nights when you can't seem to stop the mind chatter." While Badger (and other essential oil resources) says rosemary is known for promoting clear thinking, begamot is mentally uplifting, ginger is strengthening and confidence-inducing, and balsam fir is refreshing, there are few scientific studies backing these claims. Relatively small studies show that lavender, however, may be beneficial for those with insomnia and depression, and has relaxing effects [26] [27] [28] [29]. To be honest, I really like the moisturizing effects of this balm and now I use it every night before bed. It smells nice, but I'm not sure of its ability to clear thoughts and relax the mind.
Yogi Bedtime Tea
I tried two flavors: Soothing Caramel Bedtime, which includes Chamomile flower, skullcap, California poppy, L-Theanine, and Rooiboos tea (which is naturally caffeine-free), and Bedtime, which includes valerian, chamomile, skullcap, lavender, and passionflower. I really liked how the caramel flavor tea tasted—sweet and spicy. However, the plain Bedtime tea wasn't as tasty. As for relaxation, the act of drinking tea is relaxing for me in the first place, sleep-inducing ingredients or not. One study suggests that passionflower, in the form of tea, may yield short-term sleep benefits [30]. Though chamomile is the most commonly used herbal for sleep disorders, there's not a lot of research out there about its efficacy[31]. Small doses have been found to relieve anxiety, while higher doses may promote sleep. Skullcap and California poppy—two herbs that have been used in traditional medicine as sedatives—don't have much scientific research backing their ability to promote or sustain sleep.
Celestial Seasonings Snooz
With a blend including valerian root extract, L-theanine, and melatonin, Snooz has three of the main sleep aids I tried out separately. Chamomile, lemon balm, hops, and jujube seed extracts round out the sleep-inducing portion of the ingredients list. When combined with valerian, hops was found to help improve sleep quality [32]. While jujube oil has exhibited a sedative effect in mice, the research on lemon balm and chamomile is even more limited [33]. These little drinks come in three flavors—berry, lemon ginger, and peach. The taste was OK, a bit too sweet for my liking (with six grams of sugar). Shortly after sipping one, I felt really relaxed, almost like I'd been in the ocean all day and by bedtime still felt like the waves were crashing on me (deep, I know).
The Takeaway
At the end of a couple weeks of sleep-aid testing, I think I'll stick to my old methods of bringing on the Zzs—a good workout, turning my phone to "do not disturb," and keeping electronics out of the bedroom. I won't avoid sleep aids at all costs, and I see value in turning to one every once in a while, but I don't think I need them to fall asleep and stay asleep. For a temporary bout of restlessness, I'd likely suggest Sleepytime Snooz or Dream Water. (I just liked how they worked for me.) I'm glad I had the opportunity to try out some popular sleep aids and dig into the science behind their ingredient labels. And while it was a fun experiment, I learned I don't need to rely on pills, teas, or sleep-inducing drinks to have a quality slumber.
Disclaimer: The following sleep-aid trials are a compilation of my own, very short case experiences. I took these aids sporadically over a three-week period, and tried them for a minimum of one night each, generally about 30 minutes before bedtime. It's important to remember that these short tests were personal trials and in no way a controlled clinical study. This article was not controlled for diet or other drug reactions. Please consult your health care provider before starting any supplement regimen.