this is the result of a validation:
can you tell me what the problem is?

<pre>

Errors
URI : file://localhost/TextArea

* Line: 3

Parse error - Unrecognized : <style type= "text/css"> <!-- a:link {color: #ffffff}

Valid CSS information

* a:visited {
o color : #800080;
}
* a:hover {
o color : #a29197;
}
* a:active {
o color : #ffff00;
}
* a {
o text-decoration : none;
}
* a.mail:link {
o color : #0000ff;
}
* a.mail:visited {
o color : #00ff00;
}
* a.mail:hover {
o color : #ff0000;
}
* a.mail:active {
o color : #ffff00;
}
* a.mail {
o text-decoration : none;
}
* #title {
o position : absolute;
o left : 142px;
o top : 63px;
}
* #contain {
o border : 3px solid #000;
o width : 591px;
o height : 78px;
o padding-top : 19px;
o padding-bottom : 19px;
}
* #contain p {
o font-family : LithographLight, "Kabel BK BT", Technical, Sans-serif;
o font-size : 33px;
o text-align : center;
}
* #text p {
o font-family : LithographLight, "Kabel BK BT", Technical, Sans-serif;
o font-size : 16px;
o text-align : center;
}
* a.pgs {
o background-color : #000000;
o font-size : 16px;
o font-family : LithographLight, "Kabel BK BT", Technical, Sans-serif;
o font-weight : bold;
}

</pre>

Try removing the space from the command, i.e.:

position: absolute;

and such, thats the way I write CSS and it always validates fine.

I'm assuming that you have validated a CSS stylesheet.

I think that you'll find that

<style type= "text/css">

does not belong in the style sheet itself, but it does belong in the meta data of the page which uses it, e.g.:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/stylesheet.css">

Don't forget to remove the closting tag (i.e. </style>) as well.

Hope that helps