IllumiiBowl :Toilet Seat Night Light As Amazing As It Sounds

 A report from Deseret News about 2 LDS guys
Utah men make deal with Kevin O'Leary on 'Shark Tank' for toilet bowl night-light

Published: Tuesday, March 15 2016 10:05 a.m. MDT

Updated: yesterday

A trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night presents a dilemma: Turn on the light and be blinded, or use the bathroom in the dark.
Matt Alexander and his brother-in-law Michael Kannely, both Utah residents and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, decided there had to be another option. Their creation, the IllumiBowl, is a motion-activated night-light that can illuminate a toilet bowl in one of nine colors.

On Friday’s episode of “Shark Tank,” a reality show for entrepreneurs, Alexander and Kannely pitched their idea to the panel of investors

 

Straw, Sticks or Bricks: Urban Housing Issues From Two Points-of-View

Last Friday, two mayors from opposite sides of the country sat on a South by Southwest Interactive panel called “Straw, Sticks or Bricks: The Urban Housing Challenge” to discuss the peculiar character of the issues they face and the solutions they’re pursuing.
Mesa mayor John Giles noted his attendance in Austin on March 11 with this tweet:
A great downtown incs. innovative vibrant housing @sxsw w/ @Jorge_Elorza @jldailey618 & @MICDdotORG Trinity Simons

Curbed Managing Editor Jessica Dailey* moderated the chat with a panel featuring:

• John Giles, mayor of Mesa, Arizona
• Jorge Elorza, mayor of Providence, Rhode Island
• Trinity Simons, director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a Washington, D.C.-based group with a goal of preparing mayors “to be the chief urban designers of their cities.”

Giles said that his city of approximately 450,000 people has enticed developers to build what he called “capital-A Affordable housing” – that which is subsidized for its residents – by expanding a light rail route the city shares with its metropolitan neighbors, including Phoenix.

Giles said that up to 800 new units for low-income families have come online in the past year-and-a-half.

Jessica Dailey is Curbed's managing editor. She came to Curbed in 2012 and spent three years editing Curbed's New York site, where she gained extensive experience covering new residential developme...
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Ongoing Issue: “That has created some pushback from some of the neighbors,” said Giles.

Solution: He explained that one way to overcome that opposition is to encourage high-quality design and to partner with committed groups to manage the developments.
[Blogger's note: most notably at Encore on First for design, and La Mesita, Escobedo at Verde Vista and Rancho del Arte]
Both Giles and Simons talked about the importance of openly communicating with residents and business owners who might stand athwart new urban infill projects.
[blogger's note: both images from Twitter.
Top image is the entire panel. Image above is U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx giving Mesa mayor Johan Giles a pat on the shoulder]

Key Players & Topics In This Article
Affordability: A multi-faceted discussion that centers around the relative cost-of-living in a given municipality. In Austin, this debate has returned discussions on such divers concepts as land use, density, living wages, and public transportation.

Jessica Dailey came to Curbed in 2012 and spent three years editing Curbed's New York site, where she gained extensive experience covering new residential development, the housing market, urban planning, and architecture. As managing editor, she now works with writers and editors across the country to make connections between Curbed's 14 local markets. She previously wrote about sustainable design for Inhabitat, covered the arts for publications in her hometown of Pittsburgh, and contributed to a variety of local New York outlets.



 

Mesa AmpiTheater > Sight of A Fight For Bernie + The Donald

Whoever said it's OK for Mesa to be boring? Sources in the media say that both Sanders and Trump are fighting to hold rallies here on Saturday at the Mesa Amphitheatre, but that Sanders will get it because his camp called 30 minutes ahead of Trump's.
So far no confirmation from the City of Mesa, the owner of the outdoor entertainment venue.
Trump, Sanders fight for same venue for planned Mesa rallies
Published: Wednesday, March 16th 2016, 8:06 pm MST
Updated: Wednesday, March 16th 2016, 10:50 pm MST
Source: KPHO/KVTK

Family Values > Would You Let Your Kids Play With The Deadliest Attack Weapon In The World?



If you live close by or walk on Main Street or get on or get off the Valley Metro Light Rail Station at Main/Center Street you've probably noticed a public bronze sculpture in front of City Hall Plaza - it looks like a boy and a girl having fun playing catch with a toy . . . it's called "Forever New Frontiers", a bronze sculpture donated to the City of Mesa by Boeing in 2003.
It looks innocent enough in the highest traffic area in downtown Mesa on the intersection of Main and Center Steers right across from the Mesa Arts Center. Thousands of children and their parents have walked by here in the last 13 years - did no one notice?

Notice What? Just a toy - no. This helicopter is the world's most lethal killing machine and delivers a deadly arsenal of attack weapons [see image and list below]. Jobs and national defense and military interventions aside, this deadly attack weapon in the hands of children simply is not the best choice to represent Boeing on the streets of downtown Mesa.

Here's a video of an Apache attack six years ago that shocked the world for the killing of innocent adults and children and two Reuters reporters:

 

 

Behold the AH-64 Apache and all of its weapons.
Up front are for the 30mm articulated cannon under the nose of the chopper. There are up to 1,200 of these high-explosive rounds, which the Apache can fire through in less than 2 minutes.
Behind those are the 70 mm rockets that are housed in the black cylinders to either side of the rockets. These missiles can be guided or unguided, and the Apache can haul up to 80 of them.

 

For local history buffs here's an image of the plaque on the sculpture base

Modern Times Magazine Top 5 Cactus League BallParks : Sloan Park #1 + Hohokam Stadium #5

From Mesa To Glendale, We Searched The Valley For The Most Fan Friendly Cactus League Spring Training Venues In Arizona

Top 5 Cactus League Ballparks

Blogger's Note: Wish these reporters would get out more to see what's around the stadiums, but hey it's all good and about baseball, right?

Good job covering the fast food concessions inside the parks tho and of course freeway access.

 

By Rene Gomez
Modern Times Magazine

March 15, 2016 — Spring is in the air and that means the Cactus League will bring exhibition baseball to fans across the Valley. Locals and tourists come from all over to take in the games and see bask in the glow of the burgeoning MLB season.

In order to help you make the most of the 2016 Spring Training Experience, we took a look at the 10 Cactus League ballparks to find out which ones are most worth your time and hard-earned money. To separate the best from the rest, we examined the stadiums themselves along with surrounding activities and amenities, like restaurants, bars and shopping centers among other things.
Out of the 10 stadiums evaluated, five made our list of best Cactus League ballparks.

No. 5 Hohokam Stadium
Hohokam is one of the oldest sites (1977) for spring training baseball games in Arizona, but it did undergo a complete rebuild in 1996 and reopening in 1997. The Oakland Athletics call Hohokam their spring home, and they were the original tenants upon the original park’s opening. When the Chicago Cubs moved to Arizona, they took over the lease and quickly became one of the most popular, if not the most popular, Cactus League attraction.
Oakland has since returned to Hohokam after the Cubs left the park for greener pastures, and the fans have followed as the A’s essentially upgraded from dilapitated Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
Inside the park, Hohokam offers very good options for concessions as one can find Ike’s Sandwiches—which is a bay area staple—and the Mustache Pretzel food truck. The A’s are the only team that will allow the fans to shag fly balls during batting practice, so the experience is incomparable to any other in town. Hohokam is also the most economical of the stadiums on this list—which is always a welcome attribute—as lawn seats are only $10, and the most expensive ticket is $35 for infield box gold seats. The location is not ideal,  but there is freeway access using Loop 202 to get to other parts of the valley for post-game entertainment. Fans can also stay relatively close by heading to downtown Mesa’s various restaurants and bars or travel a little bit more to find Mesa Riverview’s entertainment district, which has a movie theater and shopping in addition to a variety of restaurants and bars.

Hohokam is located at 1235 North Center St., Mesa.

No. 1 Sloan Park
The Cubs moved from Hohokam to the Cactus League’s newest spring venue in 2014, and this ballpark is not the best just because it is the newest but also because it hosts the Valley’s most popular non-hometown team. The Cubs are the favorites to win the World Series, and they have been the most popular spring training team for decades dating back to Harry Caray and beyond.

Many Illinois residents also own property in Arizona and they travel specifically for Cactus League baseball to see their beloved Cubs. Sloan Park may just be the future of how spring training facilities will be made since it was made to be more than just a baseball attraction . Future building plans include a smaller replica of Wrigley Field’s surrounding shops and eateries, but as of now children can enjoy the mini Wrigley Field inside the park.

Sloan Park arguably has the best concessions options as its “Taste of Chicago” stands feature Chicago culinary staples such as Italian beef sandwiches, Italian-style hot dogs and (of course) pizza. Healthy options are also available as one could purchase salads, fruit and yogurt or a veggie and dip platter to nosh on. The Sheraton is within walking distance and has a lovely lounge inside for visitors and hotel guests for convenience after the game. Also within walking distance is Mesa Riverview’s selection of entertainment, and a couple minutes west is Tempe Marketplace.

If heading out of Mesa is your plans, then Loop 202 and 101 are nearby.

Tickets range from $15 lawn seats to $45 infield box seats.

Sloan Park is located at 2330 W. Rio Salado Pkwy., Mesa.

A Handbook for Change > [we can do without the revolutuin-thang]

"STREETFIGHT: Handbook for an Urban Revolution" by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow, was published March 8 by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Believe it or not, and this evoked a giggle from your MesaZona blogger, a review of this book on Greenbiz.com begins with"  I often tell people that if they want to save the planet, they should move to New York City . . . "
Yours truly lived there for 22+ years, happy to take a 20-block walk from the Upper Westside into Central Park where he worked on the side of a lake in the middle of Manhattan! One of my most favorite other cities is also mentioned,   
"Large cities like New York or Mexico City offer the best odds for sustainable growth as global populations increase rapidly. The collective energy of millions of people concentrated into high-rise buildings instead of being spread out over hundreds of rural and suburban miles is itself a reason why so many people are attracted — culturally, professionally, politically and practically — to cities. . ."
The books somewhat too academic, but it makes a few points: 

• Despite the natural advantages of cities, political leaders haven’t fully capitalized on them. Cities don’t come with owners’ manuals. Within city transportation departments, most street design practices were standardized by traffic engineers long ago. In this way, cities have tended to operate in much the same way that their cities have sprawled: by doing things the way they’ve always been done.
• Making cities a choice preferable to the suburbs cuts against a long-standing anti-urban bias in the United States based on the view that cities are dangerous, crowded and havens for crime.
• Suburbs and exurbs not only force long-distance commuting in cars, but also require cars to be used for every trip.
• The misreading of what is occurring in America isn’t confined to driving. While spending money to build roads is seen as a public investment, critics characterize public transportation as a wasteful welfare subsidy. The pervasive myth that public transportation riders are subsidized and that people who drive pay the full cost of their trips has never been less true than it is today.

Janette Sadik-Khan served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) from 2007-2013, where she implemented an ambitious program to improve safety, mobility and sustainability, and ensure a state of good repair on the city’s roads, bridges and ferries. At Bloomberg Associates, she works with mayors around the world to reimagine and redesign their cities with innovative projects that can be developed quickly and inexpensively.
Seth Solomonow was the chief media strategist for Janette Sadik-Khan and the New York City Transportation Department under Mayor Bloomberg. A graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Solomonow now works at Bloomberg Associates.

This Is A Revolution! NEW ERA > Data + Information = More Economic Value Than Trade In Global Goods

Digital globalization: The new era of global flows

By James Manyika, Susan Lund, Jacques Bughin, Jonathan Woetzel, Kalin Stamenov, and Dhruv Dhingra

Soaring flows of data and information now generate more economic value than the global goods trade.
Remarkably, digital flows—which were practically nonexistent just 15 years ago—now exert a larger impact on GDP growth than the centuries-old trade in goods, according to a new McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) report >> http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/digital-globalization-the-new-era-of-global-flows?#_=_.
And although this shift makes it possible for companies to reach international markets with less capital-intensive business models, it poses new risks and policy challenges as well.

Conventional wisdom says that globalization has stalled. But although the global goods trade has flattened and cross-border capital flows have declined sharply since 2008, globalization is not heading into reverse. Rather, it is entering a new phase defined by soaring flows of data and information.

[see infographic to the right]

PAY ATTENTION: The world is more connected than ever, but the nature of its connections has changed in a fundamental way. The amount of cross-border bandwidth that is used has grown 45 times larger since 2005. It is projected to increase by an additional nine times over the next five years as flows of information, searches, communication, video, transactions, and intracompany traffic continue to surge. In addition to transmitting valuable streams of information and ideas in their own right, data flows enable the movement of goods, services, finance, and people. Virtually every type of cross-border transaction now has a digital component.
Trade was once largely confined to advanced economies and their large multinational companies. Today, a more digital form of globalization has opened the door to developing countries, to small companies and start-ups, and to billions of individuals.