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Brendan Cox speaking at Kircaldy. 18th March 2017
"We spend too much time talking about what divides us and not enough about what brings us together."
- Brendan Cox
Thank you very much for inviting me to speak.
Part of the reason I am here this evening is because of my connection with Gordon Brown who I was lucky enough to work for during his period as Prime Minister.
I remember getting draft speeches from him on international development that he'd worked on early in the mornings - these drafts were full of intellectual rigour, passion and insight - but, to put it mildly, the form often needed some polishing.
Firstly, Gordon's approach to typing was somewhat creative, more directional than specific.
Colleagues used to joke that he was writing in Serbo-croat. I'd learnt Serbo-croat and I have to say I found that much easier to decipher.
Secondly, the style itself often needed some work. That was fair enough - he was a busy guy. I'd often scroll down to the bottom to see how the speech unfolded and his final paragraph would often begin - "and, twenty sixthly".
I learnt a lot from my time working for Gordon and that includes my approach to speeches.
Luckily for you however, I don't have the same intellectual capacity as Gordon so tonight I'm going talk about nine things we need to do to tackle extremism.
I'd been working to counter extremism and hatred long before it attacked my own family.
That journey began when aged 18 I went to the former Yugoslavia in the immediate aftermath of the war, to work with children who had survived the siege of Sarajevo.
For the next ten years I spent every summer and every Christmas running holiday camps, volunteering in orphanages and teaching in schools.
I worked with children from Mostar, Vukovar and most distressingly, Srebrenica, all of whom had had their lives, their families and their futures destroyed by ethnic and religious hatred.
For me, this was a huge formative experience. I remember the horrific screams at night of kids whose nightmares felt more real to them than real life. I remember the kids who hardly spoke and those who would flinch whenever there was a loud bang.
One of the messages that meant the most to me after Jo was killed was a Facebook message from one of the kids who I had worked with and visited since they were a toddler.
It simply said - you and Jo were there for us and now we are all here for you and your children.
From that early experience, I've spent my whole life thinking about what I can do to tackle the hatred that scarred the lives of so many children.
I've worked with charities and campaign groups to address civil wars and genocide in countries as diverse as Sudan and Rwanda, Bosnia and Syria, Jo and I worked on these causes together, she came to Bosnia and Croatia with me where the kids I had known for a decade called her Yo and thought she was a wonder woman.
She threw herself into the games, so much so that chasing a 14 year old one evening in a game of 'it' she ran straight into a tree and nearly knocked herself out.
Jo and I travelled together when she worked for Oxfam to different conflicts and worked together to push for action to address them.
At that stage of our lives Jo and I focussed our work internationally - because we felt that the underpinnings of our own democracy and rights were secure.
There were of course huge issues of social justice in western societies but the fundamental underpinnings of liberalism we felt were well anchored and our efforts were best directed overseas.
A few years ago both Jo and I started to question that assumption. Jo first.
It wasn't any one factor but rising hate crimes, the growth of the far right and the European response to the refugee crisis were all elements in our thinking.
So knowing that our first responsibility was always to where we lived, we thought and worried more about the UK and Europe than we ever had before.
Jo as a candidate for MP and then as an MP and I as a campaigner and researcher.
I have now spent the last year and a half trying to understand rising extremism across Europe, looking at its origins, the dynamics of public opinion and most importantly what we might do about it.
I've spent time in France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Netherlands, Slovakia and the US among others, and spoken to academics, politicians, journalists and civil society groups.
The nine points I'm going to outline now are some of my thoughts to date. They aren't exhaustive, none of them are polished and if anyone can think of a tenth point, just so it's a ten-point plan, I'd be highly indebted to them.
1) Take it seriously. For too long we have been complacent. Assuming rising support for the far right was just a blip, a protest vote or limited to a couple of countries. Even now, in the face of incontrovertible evidence that something more fundamental is happening - we try to reassure ourselves that things are as they were. We have got to the absurd position of celebrating fascists coming second in national elections (rather than first), as if that is a great outcome. I'm not suggesting that we become defeatist, but unless we are clear about the size and scale of the challenge we will be defeated by it.
We have to realise that there is no automatic break in society, nothing that stops us coming off the tracks.
Our values and institutions are only as strong as the public support for them, and each generation must fight to protect and sustain them.
2) Call it what it is: Populism is too kind a term. In fact in most countries these groups we refer to as populists are in fact - consistently unpopular. While many have been growing in size, in most countries they don't represent more that 20% of voters and only in Hungary do they represent more than half of voters.
In the rare cases where they do win elections, they have done so on a minority of the vote.
More importantly, the people who lead these movements are not populists, they are racists, bigots and xenophobes, intent on tearing our communities apart.
Until we call them what they are we will lull people into a false sense of security and play down the hatred that motivates their leadership.
3) Don't assume that this is about a specific group and if only we could assuage concerns about that group - for example if people just understood Islam - that things would be different.
The front line of extremism shifts over place and over time. In the UK at the moment the group most targeted might be migrants, ten years ago it might have been black Britons. In Germany it's hatred towards refugees, in the Netherlands it's about Islam, in France it's French citizens originally from Algeria, in Poland it's Jews as much as Muslims and in America you can go from Mexicans to Muslims to African Americans in the one day.
What is clear is that it's not really about the characteristics any of these groups per se. It's about people's perception of otherness.
4) There is no easy policy solution. The concerns with otherness are always there, but they are more potent when they are fed by insecurities.
At present three insecurities are combining in a toxic mix.
- Economic insecurity (driven by low wages, increasing cost of living, changes in the economy and globalisation),
- physical insecurity (namely crime but more especially perceptions of the threat of islamist terror attacks.)
- and identity (challenged by immigration, changing high streets, cultural change).
As a matter of public policy we can and we must address each of these insecurities, but we mustn't kid ourselves that they will go away. So alongside this policy approach, we need a community wide attempt to build more inclusive communities and to tackle the fear of the other.
5) To counter the threat of extremism we have to unite as a community. What has happened in recent years is not that societies have become less tolerant - in fact most are steadily becoming more so.
The problem is that the far right voices (who make up a small minority) have become better organised and more vocal, they have positioned themselves as the silent majority when they are neither silent nor a majority.
They have dominated the debate not through winning people over but by organising and shouting loudest. Meanwhile the pro-tolerance side of the argument is diffuse and split into silos.
You will know Pastor Niemoller's poem,
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because i was not a Socialist,
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
They they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew
And then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
Those words are not just poetry, they are a desperate cry for us to learn the lessons of the 1930's and a strategic plea for us to bring communities together to fight the attacks upon each of us, as if they were an attack on us all.
6) We have to reach out to people who are anxious. They have concerns about things like immigration and the pace of change, but they have empathy and a belief in inclusion as well. They are good people who worry about their community.
Too often people on the left of politics see everyone who doesn't agree with them as deplorables, and that is a huge mistake.
The Bush mentality of 'you're either with us or against us' is not one that we should adopt.
In the UK that mistake has been made in the way many people talk about Brexit. The vast majority of people who voted for Brexit weren't driven by racism or bigotry, they voted for Brexit for completely legitimate reasons, whether or not you agree with them.
To align their support for Brexit with support for intolerance and bigotry does them a disservice, is untrue and much more likely to drive them into the arms of the angry extremists.
The problem at the moment is that no one is consistently engaging with the most anxious groups.
Sections of the left actively alienate them by talking about open borders and looking like they are ashamed of our country,
meanwhile when the right refuses to talk about growing inequality and economic insecurity, these people feel like they have nowhere to go.
7) We should unashamedly talk about what makes our country a great place to live.
It was something Jo did instinctively. She was proud to be from Yorkshire, proud to be English and proud to be British.
She saw no tension between that layered identity and having an inclusive view of her community and an interest and openness to the world.
Because there is no tension.
For too long we have let the far right wave the flag. It is time we took it back.
To talk about the things that make our country great and the things that together make us who we are.
We should also make it clear that the far right are no patriots, they support a foreign ideology that many of our grandparents dies to defeat, they are often supported by the security apparatus of the Russian state.
As the judge said in the trail of the person who killed Jo, it was she who was the true patriot, he was no such thing.
8) A core part of this is to talk about what we have in common - not to fixate on what divides us.
In the aftermath of Jo's death the phrase More in Common - taken from her maiden speech- has been popularised.
At its core is a simple insight - that we spend too much time talking about what divides us and not enough about what brings us together.
For example we spend huge amounts of media time talking about referenda and elections and too little about the things that unite us.
Liberal audiences make the same mistake. They emphasise and celebrate diversity and difference, when it's even more important to talk about the things that bring us together, sameness, commonality.
9) Lastly, and most importantly, the best way of defeating extremism is to work locally to build closer communities.
We all long to live in closer communities, we worry about not knowing our neighbours like we used to, we'd like our kids to be able to pop round and play rather than like each others Facebook posts.
Jo's politics started with her sense of community, they came from her granddad Arthur, a postman who knew everyone and who would walk for hours pushing Jo in her pram.
Her empathy and belief in community came from getting out and talking to people.
And it is my belief that if we did that a bit more, we'd all be living in happier, safer and more inclusive communities.
So, that where I'm most focused.
To remember Jo, on the 17 and 18th of June this year we're asking everyone to do something very simple.
To get together with your neighbours, to share food and to celebrate what we have in common.
We hope that this moment, as well as remembering Jo, will start to bring communities closer together, to make connections between us that we can build upon.
I hope many of you here will take part in what we are calling the Great Get together (for more information please do go to our website greatgettogether.org).
To conclude, the threat of rising far right extremism is real and it isn't going to go away quickly. But with resolution, a concerted attempt to reach out and a focus on building closer communities we can and we will defeat it.
Thank you


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"Play is the free spirit of exploration- doing and being for its own pure joy."
-Stephen Nachmanovitch
I'm fascinated by materials curled by the effect of time, boasting the articulation of use and wear from life past. Its beauty is so rich. I recreate this look of aging afresh, in food ironically, abusing my decorative sugar surfaces with a delicate hand, pushing the sugar's potential for that richness beyond what I've previously known or seen, forging textures that play with light and shadow. Each cake shows me something new.

subset: commoncrawl


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Texas Man Dies in Crash Near Cheyenne
A single vehicle rollover crash south of Cheyenne, Wyoming on Thursday has resulted in the death of 33 year old Jeremy J. Wilson of Katy, Texas. It happened at 10:20 p.m. on US Highway 85 approximately four miles south of Cheyenne.
Wilson was driving a full-sized pickup traveling east on Wyoming State Highway 223 when he failed to stop at the stop sign at the intersection of US 85 and WY 223. After braking in the northbound lane of US 85, the truck began to spin as it entered into the US 85 Port of Entry parking lot. During the spin, the truck struck a light pole, tripped and rolled multiple times.
Wilson was not wearing his seat belt. He was thrown from the truck and died at the scene. Two passengers in the truck, 31 year old Christopher Law of Meridian, Idaho and 21 year old Joshua Muscutt of Saint Charles, Illinois, were both wearing their seat belts. They were both taken to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center in Cheyenne. Mr. Law has since been released and Mr. Muscutt has been hospitalized.


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Win a trip to the 300: Rise of an Empire World Premiere
Legendary is sending a fan and one lucky friend to LA to experience the World Premiere with the cast and crew of 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE on March 4, 2014.
Grand Prize includes:
-Two tickets to the 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE World Premiere
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-Legendary apparel
-Gift card
Entering is easy – just head to Legendary's Facebook page and enter your contact info for your chance to win. The more you share with your friends, the more entries you can receive! This sweepstakes is open to fans in US and Canada.
Winners must be available from Sunday 3/2 to Wednesday 3/5. 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE is in theaters March 7th.
Good luck!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends 2/6/14. To enter and for Official Rules, visit www.facebook.com/legendary.


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It's that time of year when investors all tend to reflect on our relative performance to figure out whether we should throw up our hands and just invest in a (boring) tracker. And what a year it's been in the equity market! From the depths of despair in the early summer when the Euro crisis looked set to swallow us all... to the fiscal cliff relief relay of recent days. When all of that was said and done, in the year to January 3rd 2012*, the FTSE 100 gained 6.6% while the FTSE All Share was up 9.0%. As it's our mission to highlight what works when in the markets, let's take a look at how effectively Stockopedia's model portfolios of the Investing Masters have been performing versus these benchmarks.
Guru Models Keep On Slaying The Market....
The performance of the models this year has been frankly astounding. The screen performance can continually be tracked at this link or in detail here.
To recap, since December 15th 2011, we've been tracking 60 long only strategies and 5 short strategies, spanning from the investing greats (the likes of Graham) to classic academic finance papers (such as Piotroski). You can read more about how we run amp; rebalance the strategies here.
Of the long only strategies, an astonishing 90% (54/60) have beaten the FTSE 100 with gains of between 9% and 76%. Versus the FTSE All Share, 82% of the Strategies (49/60) are beating the Index. The average return of these long models was 22.4%.
On the short side, all but one of the short selling strategies are in negative territory (as they should be), and even that one, the Altman Z-Score screen, is well below the market return (having eked out just 0.22%). The worst (or rather best) performing short screen is down 24.4% in the last year, showing how important it is to avoid fundamentally weak, near bankrupt stocks with potentially dodgy earnings - no surprises there!
Which Strategies have done best?
As you can see clearly from the following chart ( continuously updated here), this year has been a story of Value and Income, which have outperformed other investiny styles.
At the top of the tables it's been a story of value, dividends and contrarianism trumping growth and momentum. The 15 top performing screens have been:Screen Name Style% Return Bill Miller Contrarian Value Screen Value 76.7 David Dreman High Dividend Screen Value 46.0 Charles Kirkpatrick Value Screen Value 45.9 John Templeton Screen Value 41.3 Benjamin Graham Net Nets Screen Bargain 38.2 Piotroski F-Score Price to Book Value Screen Value 37.8 Dreman Low Price to Cash Flow Screen Value 37.8 David Dreman Low PE Screen Value 37.6 Benjamin Graham NCAV Bargain Stock Screen Bargain 34.8 Richard Driehaus Screen Momentum 34.6 Negative Enterprise Value Screen Bargain 34.3 Winning Growth amp; Income Income 32.4 Naked Trader-esque Screen Growth 31.7 Free Cash Flow Cows Screen Bargain 30.5 Warren Buffett - Hagstrom Screen Quality 29.0
Top of the table is Stockopedia's model of the investment style of Bill Miller, former manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust. It highlights unloved stocks with strong cash earnings and has generated an incredible one year return of almost 77.0%. This is a very concentrated screen, though, so it will be interesting to see whether this performance can be sustained.
In second place is a High Dividend model based on the writings of famous contrarian investor, David Dreman, of Dreman Value Management. Focusing on out-of-favour dividend-paying stocks, it has returned almost 46.0% to investors over the past year. Impressively, all three of Stockopedia's Dreman models are in the Top 15 models table over one year.
Just behind that is the combined Value amp; Momentum Screen of Charles Kirkpatrick, up almost 46% It combines quantitative filters for relative price strength and relative reported earnings growth, with a value criterion - using relative price-to-sales percentiles. Again, it's very concentrated.
Ben Graham's Net Net and NCAVs screen have also done very well, up 38.6% and 34.8% respectively. So has The F-Score Price to Book Value model of Josef Piotroski, associate professor of accounting at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. This is in sixth position, returning 37.8% over the past year. The F-Score aims to identify deep bargain-bucket stocks that are in recovery.
Did we expect so many models to outperform?
Not really. Some of the models we're tracking are ones that we favoured, others were included for the sake of completeness. As a result, we kind of expected the distribution of returns to be a bell-curve around the market mean, albeit one shifted to the right, i.e. some screens would be doing worse and others (hopefully more) doing better than the average. But, in fact, very very few screens have underperfomed the market.
So what's going on here? Well, there are a number of important caveats - the biggest one is that it's just a year's performance of course but, at least, what we're seeing here is based on live portfolio tracking (not just wishful backtesting). Secondly, part of this outperformance is explained by a small-cap effect. The FTSE Smallcap Index is up 26% this year and, because we have such a comprehensive stock database, many screens do pick up the more ignored small caps. Notwithstanding the impact of that, the performance is still just astonishing!
Get Your Quant On
We keep stressing how important it is to use quantitative investing tools in your investing process. We wrote a post recently about Nate Silver's Moneyballing of the American election and how simple algorithms can be better decision-makers than instinctual human judgement.
This is especially likely to be true when emotions like fear and greed get involved. Instead of listening to brokers, tipsters and rumours and being swayed by the Siren song of the stories they sell, we would argue that using a dispassioned common sense stock screening process (whichever one that may be) can help improve the gullible, emotional and easily influenced human decision maker at most of our cores.
So see you this time next year - when we may well be eating vast amount of humble pie on the back of some nasty mean-reversion! But, for now, we're going to enjoy this moment in the sun.
* For this comparison, we've taken the year to January 3rd - this is not because it biases the results in any way but simply because some of us were nursing New Year hangovers and it took a while to run the numbers. Thinking about it, December 31st was a rather peculiar time because of the fiscal cliff uncertainty on that day so perhaps this (entirely arbitrary) choice of dates has some logic.
Further Reading
- Painting by Numbers: An Ode to Quant (this is a fantastic article by James Montier)
- When can algorithms augment (investor) decision-making?
- Nate Silver and Moneyballing the Stock Market
Read more posts on Stockopedia »


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What is EQ?
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, evaluate and control one's own and others' emotions. There are four different areas of EQ: perceiving, reasoning with, understanding and managing emotions. People use their EQ to relieve stress, overcome challenges, empathize with others, defuse conflict and relate to others in society. Your EQ guides how you behave and interact with others in your daily life. Increasing your EQ can be done, but will require you to be able to recognize and control emotions, which some people find difficult.
4 ways to improve your EQ
- Identify and Control Stress. The manner in which you cope with stress is a high indicator of your emotional intelligence. Stress is everywhere in modern day life. How we react to it is mostly under our control. Once the emotion of stress is recognized, you will need to figure out how to eliminate your reaction to the stress. Relieving the physical reaction to stress is best way to cope with stress. Find something that will bring you back to a calm state. Take deep breaths, count to ten, go for a walk or look at your favorite picture. Once you have relaxed, you have taken the first and most difficult step towards increasing your emotional intelligence.
- Be Aware of Your Emotions. Many people are afraid of strong emotions such as fear, anger and happiness. However, you must be able to identify the emotional and physical reactions to these feelings in order to recognize each emotion completely. An emotionally intelligent person is able to recognize each emotion as it comes and has a proper reaction to it. There is no need to shut your emotions off or turn them down as long as you know how to react to them.
- Tune in to Nonverbal Communication. Once you have gotten your stress response under control and have tuned into your emotions, now it's time to pick up on your nonverbal communication. Pay attention to what others are saying. If you are daydreaming or thinking about what you are going to say next in the conversation, you probably aren't listening to what the other person is saying. You may miss an important nonverbal clue the other person is giving off such as a subtle change in posture or a hand gesture.
- Resolve Conflict Positively. Conflict occurs in all relationships. Resolving conflict in a positive manner is essential in having fulfilling relationships. Whether it's a personal or professional relationship, resolving conflict is a critical skill to keep the relationship moving forward. This is where all your other EQ skills come in handy. Stress is very likely to be involved in a conflict. Relieving the stress of the argument is essential to bringing it to a conclusion. Resolving stress and conflict with humor is helpful in many situations. Laughing makes the situation less tense and helps everyone relieve stress which will help bring the conflict to a resolution.
Increasing your emotional intelligence is a task that takes constant focus and attention. Staying focused on the present, instead of the past and being able to move forward are essential skills for success in life. While some choose to let their emotions run wild, you can be calm, collected and positive with lots of practice and patience. Learning these skills is not easy, but once you master them you can have a more fulfilling and balanced life.


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Thank you card and 500px gallery
Well.. Finally I've added myself to 500px community. A bit too late, as I found out. I was going for another popular site with prints selling system like RedBubble. Bad luck for me - 500px decided to discontinue prints, leaving only buying licences for particular artwork, which is not something that I wanted to participate in.. Another annoying thing is that I can't change image that was once upload. I must delete it and then upload it as a new artwork. But I guess that's a must with licensing..
Anyway - I decided to stay there - here's the link. :) I'm still in the process of uploading all the photos that are available on RB and dA.
And talking about RedBubble - I received a letter from the Team. Like a real letter (not an email), a card to be exact. I was very surprised by that fact, I didn't expect it at all. It is a "thank you" card, for being a part of the community. Signed by somebody with a pen which is awesome because this somebody had to put this effort and actually do it. And I believe I'm not the only who received such card which is even more awesome. It's really nice!


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Franson, Maple Leafs agree on one-year dealNHL.com @NHLdotcom
The Toronto Maple Leafs and defenseman Cody Franson have reached agreement in terms for a one-year contract.
The deal, according to reports, is worth $2 million.
Franson, a restricted free agent, had been sitting out of training camp. The one-year contract allows Franson, 26, to be eligible for salary arbitration next summer. He declined to file for salary arbitration during this past summer. Franson will be eligible for unrestricted free agency in two seasons.
The deal appears to be a compromise as the Leafs were looking for longer term during the negotiations and Franson's camp wanted more money annually.
"One year was important to us," Franson told TSN via text message. "With the current cap situation a two-year deal was very difficult to get at what we felt was fair.
"A one-year [deal] was the most reasonable way for us to find a middle ground."
Franson led all Maple Leafs' defensemen last season with 29 points, which was tied for sixth among all NHL defensemen. He was fourth among all NHL defensemen with 25 assists. Franson played regularly in Toronto's top four and also saw key time on the power play.
"I want to keep progressing from last year," he told TSN, "take on a bigger role, be a consistent go-to guy, and be more productive in all areas of the game."
The signing of Franson, as well as the recent signing of forward Mason Raymond, will likely put the Maple Leafs in a bit of a salary cap bind until further roster moves can be made. Toronto's cap situation is further complicated by the suspension of star forward David Clarkson, who is ruled out for the first 10 games after leaving the bench to join an altercation during a preseason game earlier that week. Clarkson's salary during that time counts against the Maple Leafs' cap.
It also presents a possibly interesting dilemma for general manager Dave Nonis this summer as the Maple Leafs could have five defensemen on expiring deals this season. Franson, Paul Ranger, Mark Fraser, Jake Gardiner and team captain Dion Phaneuf are all in the final years of their current contracts.


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position on fuel
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Sensi Seedling
Joined: 26 August 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6
Quote Reply
Topic: position on fuel
Posted: 26 August 2007 at 13:06
i have a current seed to fuel venture in kashmir and am looking for very commited people to discuss the energy to bio-mas equation of cannabis that is talked about in THE REPORT by fcdae, i plan to grow and research the available energy in cannabis in its entirety, including high thc as well as low thc, also i will be test driving finola 314 to see if it competes against high thc value plants in seed production, anybody have an interest, also i plan to establish new recreational strains using original kashmir sativa parent stock to re establish some worth while genetics back into the commercial market place, my earlier username was cashmereman , but i lost my last password.
Sensi Advanced Grower
Joined: 14 September 2010
Location: pfst Emlichheim
Posts: 2254
|Quote Reply Posted: 28 November 2010 at 22:55
they kill weedgrowers in kashmere, since it became an islamic country..
No kashmere hash anymore the last decades...
they had so nice wild seeds in it.
big plans, wrong country..?
Some say friends do not exist, we cant make words for things that do not exist...
Willie van het Kerkhof, Groningen NL
Sensi Seedling
Joined: 26 August 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6
|Quote Reply Posted: 07 June 2013 at 23:31
yeah, thats true, the local hash is a bit poo.
but, i still think there are opportunities for the right minded, and the country is stunningly beautiful.
i will check back and update the post in the winter.
there is more, but it has been such a long time since the first post i wouldnt know where to start.
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Nisreen & Nermeen Abudail
|Naqsh Design House
Nisreen Abudail
Nisreen is an architect inspired by the minimalist styles of contemporary life. She began her career in her home country of Jordan. Being an architect gave her the opportunity to both observe and practice larger principles of art and design, and this led organically to the pursuit of design work outside architecture. Nisreen began to create jewelry, home accessories, furniture, even handmade cards, and to exhibit her work in local arts venues. Following her move to the United States in 2004, she continued to develop her career as both architect and artist, studying screen-printing at the Corcoran College of Art in Washington, D.C., and exhibiting work in a number of local and national art shows. In 2007, she participated in Artscape, the largest free public arts festival in the United States, and in 2009, Nisreen was invited by the Embassy of Jordan in Washington D.C. to participate in Arabesque: Arts of the Arab world, an international festival of Arab culture organized and hosted by the city's prestigious John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Nermeen Abudail
After earning a BA in Graphics, Nermeen began her career in Jordan working as a graphic designer with prominent local and international agencies. But her talent and passion for creative expression soon saw her founding and designing for Naqsh, a brand where local culture meets international appeal. Nermeen collaborated with her sister, artist and architect Nisreen, in the design of Naqsh's 2010 fall fashion collection. She has participated in some of the most prestigious art fares in Dubai, including Covent Garden Market and the Women's Exhibition, where her handmade, functional art pieces have always attracted great attention. Now living with her family in Dubai, she concentrates her creative work primarily within the branding industry.
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Redis for Geospatial Data
Location Data. Radically Simplified
Geospatial data or location data is increasingly important for many applications, but epitomizes a complex real time big data challenge. Applications that use and manage geospatial data find it extremely challenging to manage high frequency read, writes and search requests at high volume.
Advantages of Geospatial Data Processing and Analysis with Redis
- Redis data structures include geo specific commands allowing for extremely simple, low latency and efficient processing of location data in-memory
- The high throughput and low latencies of Redis allow for very high volumes of such data to be processed and combined with other data with very little hardware
- When combined with Redis capabilities such as pub-sub, geo commands lend a simplicity of implementation that reduces application complexity, network bandwidth consumption and faster execution


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The Leapfrog Group announced the Spring 2016 Hospital Safety Score update, assigning letter grades to more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals, assessing medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections. The analysis finds that despite considerable improvement in the safety of hospital care since the Score's launch in 2012, avoidable deaths remain high. Findings point to a 9% higher risk of avoidable death in B hospitals, 35% higher in C hospitals, and 50% higher in D and F hospitals, than in A hospitals. More than 33,000 lives could be saved if all hospitals performed at the level of A graded hospitals.
The update can be accessed at http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org/media/file/LivesLostLivesSavedWhitePaper.pdf.


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Ethos and Values
At Chatham Grammar we offer our students a wide variety of stimulating and motivating opportunities to achieve outstanding academic outcomes, and develop high quality thinking, learning and communication skills and in so doing build a secure foundation for a positive and successful life. We recognise the enormous social and emotional pressures that are put on young women today, and our priority and commitment is to ensure that our students develop healthy inquisitive minds, and that academic success is achieved within a nurturing environment.
Essentially Chatham Grammar is a supportive, friendly place, which fosters excellent and secure relationships between students and staff – our young people are happy, confident and resilient. Our goal is to ensure that our students go out into the world with the ability to deal confidently with all the experiences that come their way.
Chatham Grammar students enter university and the professional work place full of passion, and with aspiration, self-belief and high self esteem of what they can achieve.
In Year 7 we begin the journey to success by discovering the individual talents of our students through our Year 7 curriculum, enabling a smooth transition from primary to secondary education.
Students are supported from early beginnings to successfully engage with all the changes and opportunities that life in Chatham Grammar will offer.


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England prospect James Taylor has completed his protracted move to Nottinghamshire after a compensation package was agreed with his former club Leicestershire.
The 21-year-old has been expected to make the move to Trent Bridge for several months and Foxes chief executive Mike Siddall said two weeks ago the deal was "70% down the line".
With the batsman keen to play in the first division, and with Nottinghamshire, the only stumbling block was a financial settlement on the final year of the player's contract at Grace Road.
Taylor, who made his one-day international debut against Ireland this summer but has not been selected by England since, will be looking to prove himself in the top tier of the LV= County Championship next term, having spent four years with a struggling Leicestershire side who are rooted in Division Two.
Taylor was part of the Foxes side that won last season's Friends Life t20 competition but could not be persuaded to sign a new contract.
"I'm thankful to Leicestershire for allowing me to speak to other counties as I feel that I will benefit from playing against the best teams in four-day cricket," said Taylor, who has scored 10 centuries in 63 first-class outings and averages just below 50 in both first-class and List A cricket.
"Nottinghamshire have a talented squad that can challenge on all fronts and I am pleased to be part of that.
"I will always be grateful to Leicestershire for the part they have played in my development but it is time to move on and I am looking forward to the new season."
Taylor is the second Leicestershire player to join Nottinghamshire since the end of last season, following promising paceman Harry Gurney, while World Twenty20-winning opener Michael Lumb has joined from Hampshire.
Reflecting on his close season additions, director of cricket Mick Newell said: "We lost Mark Wagh and Ali Brown last season but James and Michael are fitting replacements and they were our primary targets.
"James is already on England's radar and we hope that he can play a part for us on his way to realising his international ambitions.
"The international calendar may also present us with an opportunity to recruit an overseas batsman and we're exploring that to see if we can do a deal with the right player."


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Nick Ray, CEO of Woodcote Software, the parent company of recruitment software leaders Voyager and expressHR, analyses the March budget.
Once a year, I buy a copy of the FT (for me, most of the time, anything that isn't published by Ladybird, is viewed as heavy going) but I make an exception on the day after Budget Day.
While TV headlines will tell me there's 50p on a packet of cigs and 15p on a bottle wine – essential information, since these sins comprise a major part of the Ray family budget – it's the impact of the budget on my business that I really need to understand. And that detail is best found in the FT.
So, we got a "budget for growth", which seems pretty important given that GDP growth went negative last quarter, the public spending cuts have yet to bite and the OBR have just down-graded their growth forecast for 2011. (Our own experience is a bit at odds, since Voyager had record months in November and February and expressHR has done better than ever in the last 8 months, but nobody asked us.) The question is: where will that growth appear and how will it affect our companies?
Across Voyager and expressHR, we provide software to recruiters that service pretty much the entire UK economy. From head-hunters placing captains of industry to high street blue collar temp agencies and everything in-between, somewhere in our product range is a product for their needs. So it's important to know which sectors will grow and which are threatened by government policy and to fine-tune our sales and marketing accordingly. There is nothing more dispiriting for your sales teams than to focus them on, say, banking, when Lehman Brothers has just collapsed.
So, the great news is that there is a raft of tax changes and initiatives designed to help start-ups and promote growth in early-stage businesses. Chief among these is an increase in the income tax relief to 30% for "angels" who invest through the Enterprise Investment Scheme in qualifying companies, or who put their money into Venture Capital Trusts. With zero capital gains tax, too, I'm seriously wondering why I keep money in a savings account where the interest rate is less than inflation and I'm taxed on that meagre amount too. Ah, I remember, it's to pay for the ciggies and wine.
Next up, is the increase in R&D tax credits from 175% to 200% and then up to 225% in the 2012/13 tax year and the re-launch of Enterprise Zones with tax breaks and zero business rates; there will be one of these in most of the major cities.
Finally, there are some incentives for the construction industry and house-builders in particular. The government is now prepared to invest in your house if you're a first-time buyer and don't have a big enough deposit. Wow! They never did that for me. They're also delivering faster, easier planning approvals and changes in stamp duty costs for investors with portfolios of property which will encourage big private landlords and may also encourage pension schemes to invest in domestic property. So, if you have a lovely house on the edge of the greenbelt with view s over open countryside, expect to see a Tesco's you didn't want and an estate of affordable housing owned by the Pru to spring up in your backyard.
So, with my detailed analysis in hand, I shall be going to our next board meeting with a clear and detailed plan to refocus our well-oiled sales and marketing machine. (Possibly a bit less well oiled, given the rises in duty on strong liquor.)
"Gentlemen, after a great deal of analysis and with laser precision, we shall target our efforts on recruiters that serve start-up house builders, based in the North East, who conduct qualifying R&D, need angel investment and plan to sell their developments to first-time buyers with no money, or to wealthy property speculators. George Osborne has delivered the perfect package of measures to guarantee these businesses see spectacular growth."
Health warning: Nick Ray is not qualified to give investment advice, has no training or experience as a financial analyst and enjoys his wine too much to be sure he read the FT properly – after all, it's a bit heavy going compared to Ladybird books.


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Lawmakers have struggled over what to do about health care for several years now. In 2015, Governor Gary Herbert's Healthy Utah proposal was defeated, as were a number of other proposals.
Senator Gene Davis (Democrat – Salt Lake City) has another solution for legislators to mull over that might sound familiar: full Medicaid expansion.
[pullquote]Governor Herbert has called for some form of health care expansion. Senator Gene Davis (Democrat – Salt Lake City) is offering the most economically sound and comprehensive plan available…and it doesn't stand a chance.[/pullquote]Davis is sponsoring SB 77 – Medicaid Expansion Proposal, which requires the Utah Department of Health to amend the state's Medicaid plan to expand Medicaid eligibility to the optional populations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. ObamaCare). The bill also repeals a provision requiring the governor to comply with certain requirements before expanding Medicaid. Also included is the provision that Medicaid expansion will be repealed if federal funding decreases from the Affordable Care Act's funding rates – a common sticking points among conservatives in the legislature, who often state that they would expand Medicaid, but worry that federal funds will dry up.
In his State of the State address last week, Governor Herbert called on the legislature to find a solution for Medicaid expansion. "I believe that the Affordable Care Act is a deeply flawed and unacceptable piece of legislation. But short of the opportunity to "repeal and replace," which I would endorse, we have but one option–to make some kind of lemonade out the lemons we have been given," Herbert told the body.
Public opinion is on the governor's side as well. A poll conducted last month by Dan Jones & Associates shows that 70 percent of Utahns want some sort of Medicaid expansion passed during the current legislative session.
Fiscally, Medicaid expansion makes the most sense. The Healthy Utah plan will cost $236 million over five years, but $3.2 billion in Utah taxpayer dollars would be recouped. A scaled-down plan, which aims to cover only the "medically frail," would cost approximately $203 million over six years. In this case, the federal government will only cover $611 million of the cost.
Does SB 77 have a chance of passing? Absolutely not. No chance. Not even a smidgen of hope. In a legislative body that is hostile to even a partial Medicaid expansion, the idea of full expansion succeeding is ludicrous. SB 77 rightly calls attention to the issue, but that is it. This bill is going to die, fiscal soundness be damned – a tragedy, considering that real people are really dying because of the legislature's inaction.
To contact Senator Davis, click here or call 801-647-8924 (Cell).
You can track this, and all of our other flagged bills, by clicking here. Need an explanation of scores? Click Here.
|Impact on Average Utahn
|Need for Legislation
|Lemon Score
|Overall Grade


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So last week we went on a little family vacation. The past few years we have driven out to California and spent some time at Huntington Beach. Every year Jayden asks to go to the beach so it works for us. Also, some of John's family live out near there so we sometimes get a chance to visit. This year we did a few fun things, but to start we went to Huntington Beach.
Well, wait let me back up a little and tell you that we found an awesome hotel. Like I said we have been going the past few years and we have stayed at different places. One was crazy with only valet parking, and some were alright. But this time we found a great place and we will continue to stay there all the time now. The price was great and we loved the place. It was the Best Western In Westminster. It is not far from the beach or anywhere else we wanted to go. The hotel itself was pretty small. Our room was spacious enough with most the average hotel things, refrigerator, microwave, TV, DVD, etc.
But it also had a sliding glass door to the back with an open patio. Beyond the patio was a small grassy area and to one side was a small putting green and to the other was a ping pong table. There was also of course a pool and a BBQ grill and picnic table. It was great. The kids had fun stuff to do and since the hotel was kind of an L shape they were somewhat contained to the area. Plus they have a Continental breakfast everyday. Definitely made everyone happy and we will be back again.
So the first morning we woke up in California we decided would be our day at the beach. We got all our beach gear ready and headed out to Huntington Beach. A short drive and we were parked and ready for a fun day. We all had a great time. Jayden loved the water and the waves and Evan loved the sand. There were a lot of people there, but we still were able to find us a good location and have a good time.
Evan decided to make sand angels, not sure why, but it was so cute. That is until he got a mouthful of sand by accident.
After playing on the beach for a few hours we decided to take a walk on the pier. We put our stuff away and walked to the pier. On the way we saw a man riding a unicycle and juggling. Jayden thought it was great.
On the pier it was breezy. We were able to see the surfers better from the pier. We even saw a professional MMA fighter fishing off the pier.
I don't remember his name, but I know he is a famous MMA fighter. The man walking with him pushing the cart is also a fighter, but not as popular.
When we were done we went back to the hotel room to change and then we went to visit with John's aunt. We have not seen her since Jayden was 7 months old. It was so nice to see her again and the boys loved playing with her dog Lily. The boys pretty much tired out Lily. She was ready for bed before we even left.


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melancholy and rust (a composition for punch hole music box)
My long lost friend Hans Fex generously lent me this twinkly music box. Use a special hole puncher to punch out individual notes on a strip of paper, then run the paper through the machine to hear the results. The templates come printed with a grid so you can hit each note dead center.
This composition for punch hole music box, Melancholy and Rust, is more than just a lovely tune. Its melody and accompaniment are designed so that the piece can be run through the machine right side up, upside down, and backward-upside-down. For you music geeks out there, that's a shout out to the principles of 12-tone composition, here using prime, inversion, and retrograde inversion techniques. Only instead of flipping staves upside down and backward, we are flipping a piece of paper. This particular music box has a diatonic 1 octave+6th range (C to A), so if you use the full range of notes, A minor will invert to C major, and vice versa.
Oh, toss all that theoretical nonsense aside! Begone academia! The real delights here are the twinkly tone, the creaking and rattling of the mechanism, the astonishing power of the miniature resonating box. And what about the delight of (mis)punching holes and surprising yourself with the results? True, it tries my patience to meticulously scotch tape closed any mistaken punches, but it's usually best to just integrate them the final product. Best of all, musicians and non-musicians alike can punch-compose, perhaps using musical knowledge, visual patterns, random bites, blind inspiration, or other aesthetics.
Now, Melancholy and Rust, played in three different orientations.
Oh, twinkly music box. <sigh>
8 Comments
I love that box! Great video.
Your blog is better than my blog!
Where did your friend get that box for the music box? I got one, but it didn't come with a box. I am still trying to figure out what to write. If you can take it off that board, you could try playing on different surfaces making it echo more or other effects.
Dear Christie,
That was a beautiful music box and a wanderful song!! I am building a website about my music box project I am working on, may I use the photo here (music box workplace, https://christiehubbard.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/twinkly-music-box-81.jpg) in my website(not online yet)? It will be used as a background image in one of pages. Thank you.


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Red Beans and Rice: Slope failure experimental modeling
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Collection
Resources in this top level collection a) must have scored Exemplary or Very Good in all five review categories, and must also rate as "Exemplary" in at least three of the five categories. The five categories included in the peer review process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.
This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process. This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.
This page first made public: Jun 6, 2008
I use the full-blown assignment in my sophomore level geomorphology course as a stand-alone lab. Typically, students have done some slope profiling the field before this lab.
I have a scaled-down version that I use in a large, introductory geology course.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
How the activity is situated in the course
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Other skills goals for this activity
Description of the activity/assignment
In this activity, students replicate the slope failure experiment presented by Densmore et al. (1997) in the journal Science. They are given the original article and the slope failure apparatus (along with all associated materials) and then they need to figure out how to replicate the experiment. Once they have completed an experimental run of sufficient length, they compile and analyze their data and compare it to the article's results.
After completing this portion of the lab, the students read the discussion and reply (Aalto et al., 1998; Densmore et al., 1998) and critically evaluate they results of the experiment and its applicability to the real world and landscape evolution.</P>
Determining whether students have met the goals
Download teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment (Acrobat (PDF) 93kB Jun6 08)
- Instructors Notes (Acrobat (PDF) 61kB Jun6 08)
Other Materials
- Science article (Densmore et al., 1997) (Acrobat (PDF) 3.1MB Jun6 08)
- Data recording sheet (Acrobat (PDF) 30kB Jun6 08)
- Slope profile images from the lab (Acrobat (PDF) 2.5MB Jun6 08)
- Intro geology course short version (Acrobat (PDF) 41kB Jun6 08)
- Construction plans for the Densmore et al. (1997) red beans slope failure box (Acrobat (PDF) 597kB Aug1 08)


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President Donald Trump on Sunday addressed the multiple controversies facing top officials in his administration over their chartering of private flights.
Asked about the controversy surrounding Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, whose August 15 use of a government jet from New York to Washington, DC, is under investigation, Trump said "he didn't take the flight" although he added that "I don't know much about it."
"Oh, I don't think he took the flight," Trump said, according to a pool report. "I think if you check your records, he didn't take the flight. Why don't you check your records before you..."
The pool reporter cut in, adding that Mnuchin did indeed take the flight from New York to Washington, DC.
"Why don't you check your records before you make a statement," Trump continued. "As I understood it — I don't know much about it — I haven't heard about it, but I understand he never took that flight."
Mnuchin's use of the Air Force C-37 Jet cost taxpayers $25,000. Trump's Treasury secretary was asked about the ordeal during an interview with ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday, saying that it was a necessary flight for national security purposes.
"There are times when I need secure communications to be in touch with the president and National Security Council," Mnuchin said. "I had a secure call that day that was critical and set up. It needed to be done at that time, and that's why I used it."
In addition to that flight, which Mnuchin confirmed is under review, at least two other requests to charter flights are under review, ABC News reported.
"The inspector general is reviewing my travel," Mnuchin said. "If there's suggestions we'll follow it."
The Treasury Department's review of Mnuchin's travel began after it was revealed that he and his wife, Louise Linton, used a government plane to travel to Louisville and Fort Knox, Kentucky in August. Investigators are also looking into why Mnuchin made a request for a government jet for his honeymoon trip to Europe with Linton earlier in August.
Mnuchin has denied that he flew to Kentucky to watch the solar eclipse, which many have speculated was the reason for his trip to the Bluegrass State. A spokesperson for Mnuchin has said the honeymoon request was made in the name of national security, similarly to the New York flight, saying that a government plane was necessary so he could communicate securely with Washington officials.
In any case, Trump appeared to conflate the honeymoon request, which did not result in Mnuchin using a government plane, and the brief flight from New York to Washington, DC that Mnuchin took last month.
He did not, however, provide much defense for Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who is caught up in a nearly identical controversy.
"As far as Sec. Price is concerned, that's different," Trump said Sunday. "We're looking into it."
Price has come under fire for his frequent chartered flights, which can cost taxpayers more than $25,000 each. Politico reported earlier this week that he opted for private travel over commercial flights 24 times since early May, including five such flights last week.
One was from Washington, DC to Philadelphia, just a 135-mile trip. Price's trips also included flights to New Hampshire and a resort in Maine.
Before joining Trump's administration, Price served as a Republican congressman from Georgia. As a member of Congress, he railed against what he called frivolous government spending, including similar private travel by fellow members.
Price too has come under review, as his department's inspector general's office is reviewing his use of private jets to see if it violated any government travel regulations.
On Saturday, Price told Fox News that he would cease chartering flights while that investigation is ongoing.
"We've heard the criticism," Price said. We've heard the concerns, and we take that very seriously and have taken it to heart."
Asked if he respects the inspector general investigations, Trump said, "Always. Always."


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When it's time to make the big decisions on the nuts and bolts creation of Marvel Comics, people have to Talk to the Hat.
An outstanding industry vet and fashion forward editor, Marvel SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort is back on CBR News for Marvel's TALK TO THE HAT. Our latest weekly look inside the minds at Marvel spotlights Tom along with his signature pork pie and loads of comics news, views and discussion. Anchored by regular question and answer rounds with the denizens of the CBR Message Boards, each week Brevoort will shake things up with special guest stars, exclusive art reveals and new interactive features.
This week, Tom welcomes his second-in-command to the column: Marvel Associate Editor Lauren Sankovitch. As the #2 on franchises like "Avengers" and "Fear Itself," Sankovitch keeps the trains running in numerous ways creative and clerical, and she also solo edits a wave of Marvel monthlies including "Fear Itself: The Home Front," "Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt," "Onslaught Unleased," "Secret Warriors," "Avengers Academy Giant-Size" and "Captain America And Bucky." Below, Brevoort and Sankovitch explain the inner workings of the up-and-coming Assistants and Associates of the Marvel Bullpen, share the secret turns in story that make "Fear Itself" its own Marvel event, tease the future of Jonathan Hickman titles like "FF" and "Secret Warriors" and tackle a new round of fan questions. Read on!
Kiel Phegley: Welcome, Lauren! Before we got to the questions on the books this week, I wanted to start by giving folks a bit of an introduction to what it's like being at the Assistant or Associate level in Marvel Editorial. I think that we see a lot of the top editors like Tom and what they do through interviews and con panels and such, but most folks don't know what you guys do day in, day out. What do you view as some of the specific challenges of working in Marvel Editorial when you're dividing time between your own books and helping someone like Tom put their stuff together?
Lauren Sankovitch: Well, basically as an Associate - and I came up as an Assistant - a lot of what we do is the nuts and bolts kinds of things. I'm moving the files around. I'm giving creators a hard time about their deadlines. I'm routing proofreading and covers. But as I'm doing all that stuff to make sure the books get out the door, I'm also trying to get my hand in on story and talking to writers and build my own projects. So there's a very wide variety of things that the Assistants and Associates end up doing, and as we continue our march towards becoming full editors we try to get our hands more and more into the story part of things and the actual projects and the marketing of those projects to build our own body of work, as it were. So that's a very basic overview.
You've been at Marvel for a number of years...
Sankovitch: Almost four at this point!
Before you worked with Tom, you were with Mark Paniccia in the Ultimate office. What was the very first project you worked on at Marvel?
Sankovitch: The very first book that ever had my name in it - and I know this because my mother has it framed, not the cover of the book but the actual credits page - was "Marvel Illustrated: Treasure Island" #4. When I came in I worked under Ralph Macchio, and with Nicole Boose and Bill Rosemann. We were all within the same office, but I was working on different groups of books with different people. With Ralph and Nicole, we were putting together the Marvel Illustrated line with classics like "Three Musketeers," "Man In The Iron Mask," "Last of The Mohicans," "Treasure Island" and others. And then between Bill and Ralph I worked on the Ultimate books, and then under Bill I worked on the Cosmic stuff. That was ridiculously fun. I jumped in right at the beginning of "Annihilation: Conquest" as we were riding the wave of popularity off the first "Annihilation" event. It was fun to dive into that and also into "Cable & Deadpool" which was a favorite of mine before coming in. So to be able to work at Marvel AND work on my favorite book with my first step in the door was the most exciting thing ever. So that's where I started - right in the soup, right in the middle. I had a spread of projects I worked on, so it was very exciting to get that. And I almost forgot "The Dark Tower!" I worked on that with Ralph as well.
I'm always interested in hearing what editor's particular point of view or creative preference. You mention "Cable & Deadpool" as a favorite, and I notice a lot of titles starring younger characters like "Onslaught Unleashed" on your resume. When you came in, did you have a specific idea of "These are the kinds of Marvel comics I love and want to see more of"?
Sankovitch: I don't know if I had a very specific "This must get made" idea, and this may sound kind of boring, but I was just excited to be in the door when I first started. I was like, "Wow! This was exciting!" And the fact that I did get to work on that wide variety of books - Cosmic books and the Ultimate books, team books and individuals and adaptations of classic novels...I'd have to say that I'm definitely a huge fan of doing those adaptations because I was partial to a lot of those novels and invested in seeing them come to life. I also got to work with a lot of newer artists, and it was exciting to get that hands on experience help them learn the process and create a fresh look on an older book.
Now as I've done more work in Ralph's, Panic's and now Tom's office, I have leaned more towards the younger characters. I've had opportunities to work on books like "Young Allies" and also the Avengers anthologies and "Age of Heroes." Now with "Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt" I've made it a point to bring teen heroes to the fore and hopefully create new fans in the process.
Tom, I'm assuming that with all your larger responsibilities at Marvel, your Associate may have a bit more on their plate than even some of the other people in the building working in different offices......
Tom Brevoort: It kind of goes without saying, there's a lot of work to be done at Marvel in general and a lot of work to be done in my office specifically. It's not an easy place to be or an easy thing to run, especially as my responsibilities have grown wider and wider in my Executive Editor role. So anybody that's functioning as my direct Associate Editor is going to have to be able to carry a lot of water - to pick up the baton and run with it and oversee a wide variety of things and to do a lot of the things I used to do but no longer have the actual time to oversee. That particularly includes the actual nuts and bolts of getting comics to the printer on time and interfacing with the talent on most of the day-to-day stuff. If there's a story situation that needs my input, people get to talk to me, but in terms of the daily ebb and flow of people sending in pages and work being trafficked to the next person and everybody staying in contact with everybody else...I just don't have the manhours to deal with this stuff to the degree I once might have.
Lauren is - and I say this having had many, many Assistants and Associates over the years - probably the single best scheduler I have ever seen in terms of being able to foresee difficulties ahead of time, interface with creators to make sure books get done and out the door when they need to and to just run the overall schedule for the office. She's incredibly invaluable on that front simply because she's better at it than anybody else, including myself I think. That's the least glamorous thing about doing this job, but it's absolutely vital to keeping the machine operating effectively. Beyond that, I want somebody in that position that shows growth potential. We don't promote anybody up to the Associate level with the notion that they're going to remain an Associate Editor forever. The stated goal really is that when openings arise, our Associates will be ready to be promoted up to full Editors. So at the Associate level, we expect the Associates to head up more projects that are their own conceptually and creatively than at the Assistant level, where they might get the chance to oversee one or two projects, but they're mainly there to be the hands of the Editor. The Associate is a development position in essence but a difficult one because at the same time you're being called upon to develop your own books, you also have to keep all the plates spinning with all the other books you're working on in conjunction with an Editor.
So basically it's not a lot of fun, necessarily. [Laughter] But it's a necessary stage of the learning process.
Let's talk about some of what you've been working on of late. The readers are just getting into what you're embroiled in, which is "Fear Itself." This is a lot more to juggle than even the biggest single title. Lauren, as the direct Editor for some of the tie-ins in what way do you help break ideas out from the main story and into their own books? Since you're Tom's assistant, do you get to cherry pick certain minis to do yourself?
Sankovitch: We have regular bi-weekly meetings with everyone in our office, and so when we do these larger events, we know there're going to be tie-ins. So we'll get together, we'll know that things will happen in a particular month, and Sales might have an idea of "We need some titles in months X through X." So then we'll open up the floor to the question of whether there's a particular group or character that you'd like to do a story for, and it'll become "Let's do something with some of the younger characters" or "Let's do an anthology for a more global point of view." Sometimes we'll know we're doing something with Spider-Man or one of the Avengers teams, so to a certain degree things are pre-planned. If you're tying into a particular character with their own series, usually whoever's editing that series will weigh the cost/benefit of participating in the larger event. But there is definitely some leeway with the series that stand outside of the regular ongoings..
I knew going into "Fear Itself" that we were going to do a "man on the ground" kind of book, which became "The Home Front." I liked doing anthology books. I've done several at this point. I wanted to put my hat into the ring, and if my schedule allowed and I was smart about the way I'd planned this, then I'd be able to take over that book. But we try to be as accommodating as we can for people if they have a strong idea that might go somewhere. If they've got something that fits well into the tie-in mold, and we've got space for it, then we'll do what we can to back that and make it a reality. Between Tom and I, we have a big chart of where the different tie-ins are landing and what the basic idea of what's in each of them and what the bigger moments are happening each month. That helps everything synch up, and you can imagine that there's a lot of coordination necessary. In the course of the event, some things may fall down, but we do our darndest to keep track of it all and to keep the rest of Editorial in the loop so they can plan accordingly as well.
Brevoort: Just as a tiny little specific example, just yesterday you had to gather a bunch of reference for Stuart Immonen, including what looked like a massive amount of reference on the X-Men tie-in that's all for one panel that Stuart will draw in the main book. [Laughter] So there's like nine megs of visual data being sent to him so he's got the reference of whomever he'll draw in this one panel. That sort of thing happens quite often on a tie-in-heavy series like this. And the reverse is true as well. People knock on our door and go, "I need reference on this sequence that happens in 'Fear Itself' #2." Sometimes we've got it, and sometimes it's not quite done yet. So balancing all that and getting the reference for the other offices tends to fall on Lauren, too, because, again, I'm tied up with other things.
It reminds me of how in "Secret Invasion," we had the big actual invasion moment in NYC, and that was the point where so many of the tie-ins took their origin. It was a defined plot point that all these other things could pivot out of. Is there a similar moment to look for in "Fear Itself" that will be particularly useful to making this whole machine work?
Brevoort: I think that moment is already there in "Fear Itself" #1 - it's the objects falling from the skies. We see these things coming down at the end of issue #1, and they're going to hit all over the globe. What are they? What effect are they going to have? What impact are they going to have? That was the easiest thing for a lot of creators to key in on. And as you'll see in "Fear Itself" #2, most of the tie-ins will start to flow out from there. What are these objects? Where have they landed? What kind of damage have they done when they've landed? Who's ended up with them, and what kinds of struggles have there been to acquire them? What characters are going to intercept them, heroes and villains? So, in the short term, that was the most obvious touch point. Moving ahead in the story, there are others. There are other big things that happen that a number of books can and will tie into and that other books can reflect from their own point of view. There's one that takes place in "Fear Itself" #3 going into #4 that's reflected in a bunch of books, and there's a big one from #4 going into #5 that you'll see reflected in a bunch of titles in a number of different scenes that are set a moment before or after from the perspectives of the different characters involved.
So it won't be as cut and dried as "Secret Invasion" which had that one moment with everything spinning out of it. Part of that is because "Fear Itself" is seven months long - not that "Secret Invasion" wasn't similar - but you want to have multiple points of contact so that different books telling their stories at different times can find ways to naturally synch up with the home book.
One of the franchises your guys' office is best known for is "Avengers," but after last week, we don't need to talk about the Avengers again. [Laughter] However, one thing of late we've been getting questions from the boards on is Jonathan Hickman's books, and I know each of you work with him solo. The big topical point to hit on is "FF" whose second issue this week revealed a twist connection between Val Richards and Doctor Doom. The book started very much in the vein of "big ideas on Reed's terms," but how stable is the state of the Future Foundation as an organization really?
Brevoort: I don't know that it's terribly stable because I don't know that anybody knows exactly what it is. Some people assume that it's just the Fantastic Four with a coat of white paint, and that's not really entirely what's going on. This is a series of events that Jonathan's been building up to over a year and a half - essentially since he began. And now over the next couple of months, we're going to see a number of these ideas and concepts that he's slowly been putting onto the table and arraying around the Marvel Universe start to collide with one another in interesting ways, and the larger pattern of what he's been doing will begin to reveal itself to people. It's the kind of thing where if you have read the now going on four collected editions of his run, you'll get a pretty good payoff for that. That having been said, if you started reading from "FF" #1 last month, hopefully we'll have done enough to bring you up to speed because things are electric enough and exciting enough that you'll be able to get on board and follow along and understand the scale and scope of what's happening. Certainly Reed is at the center of it as is everyone that's in the family and the larger extended family. Having already killed the Human Torch, I would posit that nobody is safe necessarily. But beyond that you'll have to wait for "FF" #3 and #4...
We've also had a lot of questions about "Secret Warriors" and where it's headed with its finale, but before we get into specific fan queries, I was wondering what it's been like for you Lauren to come in as direct Editor on a title with such a big masterplan part way through its run. Were there adjustments you had to make to get a handle on all the pieces spinning around in that series?
Sankovitch: Fortunately, two things happened. One was that I actually started Assisting on this book back around #8 or #9 when there was a lot less to catch up on, and I had a general idea where we'd come from. I stayed on the book until #16, and then it passed to another Editorial team, and I got to jump back on as full Editor around issue #21. I'd kept up with the book in the meantime just because I'd enjoyed it. So getting back into the book wasn't all that difficult because I'd more or less had my hand in the pot for the majority of the run anyway. The other point is that Jonathan has been really organized. He really knew where he wanted to end up and more or less had the beats in between worked out. So a lot of the back and forth and working of all that stuff out, he'd already done. Not that there was nothing for me to do because it wasn't all peaches and cream, but for the most part it's a very smooth book to work on because I have a map that Jonathan has laid out to work from. I'm making sure all the individual pieces fit well and that anything that may come up with continuity issues is something we're on the up and up with. For the most part it's been crazy spy-filled romp.
A lot of the fan questions we've gotten on the series involve things like whether or not big name heroes like Captain America and Bucky are going to work their way into the finale and whether or not the Secret Warriors after their series wrap will role over into a "S.H.I.E.L.D." series - things that overall wonder now that the end game is here for the book, how will it go out with a bang. Have you and Jonathan talked about what you want to do to help stick the landing, so to speak?
Sankovitch: Actually, the script for #28, the last issue, has been written for quite a while now. That last arc from #25 to 28 came in fairly quick succession. We had a big chunk together with some pretty huge revelations getting made and more to be made. I'm sending #27 to the printer this week. So we had a lot of conversations about did we cover our bases or with the cards we wanted to turn over, did we set them up properly. And are we turning over all the cards that we set up? And I feel like we did. Even though there's a lot of information being parsed out over these issues, I'm confident and hopeful that the people reading them feel like they got their money's worth and feel like where it's building to is satisfying. I hope they feel excited about how these characters have evolved and grown and been treated over the course of the series.
With the ending, like I said, Jonathan knew where this was going from the very beginning pretty much. He had this plan, and while I don't have #28 drawn yet, I feel like there are some really wonderful moments that call back to the first arc and even into the prologue that for longtime readers will create a feeling of a real bookend on the action. And for people who may have jumped in later, the book will be chockfull of eye-popping wrap-ups, exciting synergy with some of Jonathan's other books...and some humorous moments too.
All right, well getting into some fan questions proper let's start with CMBMOOL who wonders, "Any chance at seeing other former New Warrior members, besides Speedball and Firestar, with in their respective Fear Itself minis?"
Sankovitch: No Warriors in their own minis I'm sad to say BUT in just the first issue of Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt (& beyond!) you'll get an eyeful of many of the former New Warriors along with a big chunk of the original Initiative recruits. And did I mention The Order...?
We had two questions about the cast of "Avengers The Initiative" - one more general and one very specific. First up is SuperCooper who asks, "Are there any plans to use Initiative characters following 'Youth in Revolt'? Will any of the State teams be involved or recognized in the mini?"
Sankovitch: That'd be a big, fat, tremendously excited YES.
Next IronMagnus looks at one character with a fine focus, wondering "Back in 'Avengers: The Initiative,' Ultra Girl took on Ms. Marvel's original red costume, and it seemed as if the character would finally get a push back into the spotlight. Soon afterwards, however, Moonstone claimed the costume for herself when she became part of Osborn's Dark Avengers team. Now that it is no longer being used, can Ultra Girl reclaim the costume for her own again? Marvel needs more strong female heroines, and I would love to see Ultra Girl get a chance to shine, both during, and after, her appearance in 'Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt'?
Sankovitch: Currently Ultra Girl is continuing to rock her sleeveless orange number but ya never know. Always nice to have options in the closet.
On another front entirely, marvell2100 asks, "Will Captain America and Bucky focus more on Bucky or will it actually split time between the two? And exactly what will be their relationship? I think Bucky is beyond the sidekick role. Will Falcon and Black Widow be a regular part of this series?"
Sankovitch: While the book will most definitely be featuring both of these fine fellows, in a lot of ways, Bucky will be the star of this book. The first arc of C&B will actually start right at the death of Bucky's father, which I don't believe we've really seen before, and will fill in a lot of the blanks from his history, how he ended up as Cap's partner and, since its Ed [Brubaker] (and the immensely talented Marc Andreyko!), we'll be doing some delving into Buck' shady tenure as the Winter Soldier as well. Pretty much everything we cover in this series will have some connectivity to the main Cap book as well. And lest I forget, artist extraordinaire Chris Samnee ("Thor, The Mighty Avenger" anyone?) is really bringing the heat to these pages and crafting a visual feast of multiple time periods and sheer "actiontasticness". I had to make up a new word for it.
And finally, Rheged has this to share: "You've edited several Golden Age characters and books, like The Patriot (which was AWESOME), The Torch, The Marvels Project, Agents of Atlas (which was more AWESOME) and of course several Cap books. What's the appeal of those for you? Are those characters or the historical era your favorites? Did you choose the books or were you just assigned them?"
Sankovitch: Hey Rheged, excellent query! I am in fact a HUGE history buff so these characters with a more historical bent are a definite treat to play with. A lot of these have come across my desk as I moved offices but some, like "Agents of Atlas" for instance, I petitioned to be a part of as I was intrigued by the characters and the story potential of their shared past and ever crazier future. Captain America just so happens to by my favorite character so I make it a point to jump at any chance to take a turn at playing in his sandbox.
Have some questions for Marvel's Talk To The Hat? Please visit the CUP O' Q&A thread in CBR's Marvel Universe forum. It's now the dedicated thread for all connections between Board Members and the Marvel Executive staff that CBR will pull questions for next week's installment of our weekly fan-generated question-and-answer column! Do it to it!


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Google street view saves me again. I've really gotta start getting to these places in daylight hours so I can take my own photo!
When? - 8th of September, 2010
Where? - 1/344 Keilor Rd, Niddrie
Price? - 'Parma O'clock' Tuesday & Wednesday nights, whatever time it is, thats how much the parma costs. Other times, $17.90
Barry? - No
Website? - None
Reviewers - Bec, Brendan, Cale, Emma, Lee, Luke, Matt, Ness, Nikki, Tanya, Tony Q, Tony S[/info]
Bending an unspoken rule a little in this weeks review, at Parma Daze we more often than not go to Melbournes pubs to try and find the perfect chicken parma - this week however, we have gone for a café. Purely for their 'Parma O'clock' pricing gimmick and recommendation from a couple of friends.
Sams Café, hidden down the Niddrie end of Keilor rd always has a different variety of specials and deals to get you in the door, Tuesday and Wednesday are no exception, as they offer 'Parma O'clock' nights, at which the price of the parma you order is dictated by the time at which you order it eg. if you order at 7:00, the parma will be $7.00. if you order at 8:00, the parma will be $8. got it? good. The deal runs from 6pm to 9pm, so dont get any crazy ideas about going in at one in the afternoon and getting a parma for $1.
If we sold Parma Daze merch I would SO sell this clock. just sayin.
We arrived at Sam's just after seven and were directed to our table … time was of the essence here as every minute we waited would cost us precious cents of the cost of our parma. But Sam's are a devious bunch, We were given such a diverse variety of novelty parma choices it took a good few minutes for everyone to decide what they wanted!
I wasn't prepared to write down every variety of parma they had, So I swiped the menu and scanned it (Im sorry Sam's! I hope you can forgive my thievery). See below for the complete listing, be sure to take note of the additional charge per variety.
Parma with Banana chunks and Kahlua? hmmmmm
Nobody was brave enough to order anything too outlandish, In the end most people got a standard parma, about three went with the Californian, one went with Le Spinach, another with the Waltzing Matilda and one more went with Meat Lovers (because he, quote "Loves meat on meat action")
Our orders went in at about 20 past 7, so the cost was $7.20 each (not including extras on the novelty parmas).
It's hard to judge Sam's alongside our other reviews, being a café there was none of the usual entertainment options we are accustomed to, no Barry, pool, jukebox or pokies to whittle the time away, so we had to resort to *shudder* conversation to pass the time (what fresh hell is this?!)
After a short wait our parma's arrived - with the exception of Lukes Waltzing Matilda, which we watched sit under the heat lamps for a good five minutes after everyone else was served waiting for someone to bring it to our table, That is pure torture for a hungry parma goer!
My Regular parma, I didn't get a photo of every variety, but I managed to get a shot of my neighbours Californian before he tucked in, see below.
Dream of Californicationnnn
The Schnitzel was big, covering a lot of the plate (and everything else on it) some people got two schnitzels crammed into one. mine was big and even curled around on itself in some places, making it seem like I had a double parma in some spots. No slice of ham to speak of and lots of nude schnitzel, but the chicken was thick enough with a tolerable crumb/chicken ratio. In my opinion it could've used more cheese and napoli, or some sort of spicing. Although it was a big parma, it was rather nothingness when it came to taste. Very bland and the fact it was only luke-warm when it was served didn't help matters.
The Chips were McDonalds style fries, The serving differed from plate to plate and I think I did pretty well from the draw, the ones on the outer edge were crispy and salted well but their major failing was the size of the parma sitting on top totally killed them. By the time I got to the remainders in the middle they were practically soggy mush.
The salad was basically an afterthought, like the chips the size of the portion varied from plate to plate and this time I definitely got the short end of the stick. A couple of rocket leaves, a single slice of tomato, a single piece of onion, a slice of cucumber splashed with some balsamic. everything looked wilted and unappetising.
For the price of this parma you can't really complain though, I left with a full stomach and a smile on my face. at only $7.20 it gets points for Value and the whole 'Parma o'clock' gimmick definitely adds to the fun of the meal. If I went back I would definitey try one of the novelty ones, maybe the meatlovers or the Parmarama, something to give it a little more taste - The regular was just a little too bland for my liking
Its amazing the wide array of scores this parma got, I don't think we've ever had the group so divided on the score lines, be sure to check out the full run down in the link below the final score to see who scored what, and what variety of parma they ordered.
I have one request before I wrap this up, if anyone ever goes to Sam's and orders the 'Go Bananas Parma' with Bananas and Kahlua, Take a photo for us and email through your thoughts. I Can't imagine it possibly being good, but like the 'Deep Fried Oreos' I had in America, I've been fooled before.
Parma - 5.17
Chips - 5.7
Salad - 3.9
Value - 7.4
Total - 5.48
The search continues …