Need It Now? The Wonderful Wit of W.C. Fields

70 years ago he passed away

Published on Jun 23, 2017

William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer. Fields' comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist, who remained a sympathetic character despite his snarling contempt for dogs and children.
This is just a small collection of his great talent for comedy on all levels. His style of comedy was unique and traits of it can be found in modern day comedy. Al Bundy, Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin have a lot to owe to this guy.
This content is owned by Universal.

U think this is funny? Go find his depiction of Humpty Dumpty, in the 30s version of Alice in Wonderland.

Kim Scott: Traits That Make A Successful Leader

Biz Insider got wrong image.... oops!

Published on Jul 4, 2017

Views: 625

In her book "Radical Candor: Be A Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity," Kim Scott explores finding the sweet spot in management, somewhere between obnoxiously aggressive and ruinously empathetic. She details the traits a person must have to be a successful leader.

Top-Secret/Spy Satellites: A 52-Minute Documentary

Whoever imagined putting cameras into Earth orbit? ....or weaponizing?

Published on Jul 4, 2017

Views: 46

Category     Science & Technology

IMAGINE THIS: What'sNext Mesa? 2 Years In-Office + John Giles Wants To Start A New Conversation?

Press release from Newsroom for the City of Mesa
Imagine Mesa wants your ideas for our future
06-29-2017 at 12:24:57 PM
Anyone else surprised to get this announcement about 'a new program' designed to engage residents digitally online here in the City of Mesa? At the minimum this is an embarrassing public recognition of a very obvious fact.

Let's start this post with a digression to put things into some kind of context. Giles, who served some time on the Mesa City Council before and has operated for more than 20 years a private personal injury/accident law office, was knee-jerked into the position as mayor to serve-out the remaining term of ex-mayor Scott Smith who left to run in an unsuccessful bid to gain election as the governor of Arizona in 2014. Once in the office he took advantage of an entrenched political machine that's controlled Mesa politics for generations, to answer 'a calling' ostensibly to serve the public interest. 

Mesa Mayor John Giles has publicly admitted more than 2 years ago in his first State-of-the-City 2016 speech that he lacks ideas while at the same time starting a campaign he wanted to brand NextMesa.
Now after two years he owns it.
Getting further embedded with some of the hacks who run this city and want to control what happens here and who benefits their private interests, the mayor made A BIG BOO-BOO as the poster-boy for a bogus $500,000 privately-financed Public Relations fiasco that voters rejected outright in the last election.

If residents want to judge the mayor for performance in office while elected to City Hall, the jury might still be out but a lot of people feel he's failed to pass leadership skills.
Sure he's kind'a folksy and can be all kinds of warm-and-fuzzy and who some people say is a nice guy, but that does not make a leader. 
He's a good showman, irrespective of results or outcomes, with a strong loyalty to church, friends and families and business connections developed over years. He owes his devotion to the public.

Next Mesa started like this as "food for thought" on a blog John Giles created, self-admittedly not successful.

So, at least former track-star John Giles now has a public track-record that can be evaluated and questioned - that is if you care about good government that is open, transparent and accountable rather than slow, opaque or prone to corruption.

But let's get back to the subject-at-hand: IMAGINE
To be honest with readers of this blog it is going to nowhere fast . . . just another detour for decisions that don't get made but hey!
What have we the people got to lose?
The ideas will be evaluated and prioritized by the Imagine Mesa Advisory Committee and presented to City Council for potential implementation.
Back to the Press Release from the Newsroom from the City of Mesa:
"It all starts with a spark of imagination and leads to what's next for our community. Imagine Mesa is a new program designed to engage our residents in shaping a vision for our future. You are encouraged to go online to submit, discuss and support ideas that focus on five topics.
Each topic has a forum where imaginations are key to creating solutions and opportunities for Mesa. The topics range from how we can better attract bright minds and grow our economy to how we can build on our thriving arts and culture scene downtown
"Imagine Mesa is a great way for our residents to develop and discuss ideas for Mesa's future," Mayor John Giles said. "It's easy to click on the site and join in the conversation. I encourage everyone to check it out."
. . . you can join in the conversation anytime at www.imaginemesa.com until October 31.
The ideas will be evaluated and prioritized by the Imagine Mesa Advisory Committee and presented to City Council for potential implementation.

Contact: Steve Wright
Or here's a Link  > http://mesaaz.gov/about-us/imagine-mesa

__________________________________________________________

 

If you want check out the three video uploads from Mesa Channel 11 in the last 5 days that have attracted a total of 101 views in a city of over 475,000 residents

https://www.youtube.com/channel11



Here's a link on social media for IMAGINE > https://twitter.com/mayorgiles
[it's been re-tweeted 10 times already]

For Sure: Comedy Does Have A Place In Mesa

Retrieved from email inbox sent 18 hours ago

About Chamber Ambassadors

The Chamber's Ambassadors are members who volunteer their time to provide a crucial link between the Chamber and its members. Ambassadors are in the center of business activity for the community. They enjoy the rewards of making new contacts, strengthening relationships and accessing a wealth of information and resources. Their primary responsibilities are to help in retention of members, the recruitment of new members and to assist at events.

The Chamber makes it a point to thank their friends at National Comedy Theatre (NCT) for partnering with them as the Sponsor of the Ambassador Program.
A comedy theatre is the sponsor of this group?
Readers of this blog might also like to know that a comedian named Mark Cortés [a veteran valley comedian - you, of course recognize him, right?] is the host of this humorous and informative program on city-owned Mesa Channel 11
The same weekly message sent out by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce has this to say about this 'popular' and one-of-its-kind humorous yet informative program televised for the entire community . . . ???????????

"A Hilarious Yet Informative News Show All About Mesa"

Produced by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, "Mesa Morning Live" is a monthly morning talk show that discusses a variety of topics with hilarious one-liners from host and veteran valley comedian, Mark Cordes. The show features a diverse lineup of local, state and national guests including community leaders, politicians, celebrities, athletes, local businessmen and women, and more.  A regular segment each month is Mark's highly anticipated "Top Ten" which includes humorous topics such as "Top Ten Ways to Balance Arizona's Budget" or "Top Ten ways to avoid weight gain over the Holidays" or simply based on current events. The result is a one-of-its-kind humorous yet informative program televised for the entire community on Mesa's Channel 11. . . 

Did someone say popular???   
Like this broadcast 3 weeks ago that attracted a big total of a whopping 4 views????

David Short is This Month's Community Spotlight  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxH9auR118g








 






Being an Ambassador is an important way to contribute to the Chamber's success.
To learn more about becoming an Ambassador, please contact Susan Tychman stychman@mesachamber.org or call 480-969-1307 ext.13.

Link to Ambassadors webpage >  http://www.mesachamber.org/ambassadors
On Facebook > https://www.facebook.com/Mesa-Chamber-of-Commerce-Ambassadors-571564833000335/

EDUCATION TODAY > The True Value of Coding: It Teaches You to Think Differently

Includes transcript

Published on Jul 3, 2017

Views: 32,876

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I was a high school computer science teacher for 17 years. I taught at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California.

I taught during the dotcom boom, I taught during the dotcom bust, and I taught during sort of the recovery of the tech industry afterwards, and I did see the interest in what I was teaching fluctuate.

It would go up and down every year largely tied to the economy, which was a little bit weird to me. And even as a school, you know, when I began to teach in the late 90s the school itself actually had a computer requirement. You were required to take a certain number of computer classes before you were allowed to graduate. They got rid of that requirement. They got rid of that requirement because at some point they felt like computer literacy was so important that it ought to be integrated in all the other subjects. So it shouldn’t be a thing in and of itself.

So in the beginning I agreed with that. But after seeing how it played out I don’t think it was as effective as we wanted it to be, you know. I think that computers are still a fairly specialized type of knowledge, computer science. And teachers today still—I don’t think we’ve been trained on how to integrate computer science well into the other subjects.

So ultimately what ended up happening at that school site was we would graduate students who would know how to use computers but would not necessarily understand how they worked or even understand how to maximize what they could get out of the computer.

As a computer science teacher, something I used to talk to parents about—especially during the dotcom bust when interest in my class started to evaporate— Coding is not about training students how to type into a computer. That’s the least of it. Coding is actually really about training students to think in a certain way. It’s about training students to take large and complex problems and break them up into small pieces. It’s about training students to take things that are vague, that are difficult to wrap your mind around, and putting them into concrete sequential steps.

And that sort of thinking, that sort of skill, that sort of mental skill is applicable no matter what you do in life, you know. What you’re talking about right now, about how the future economy is going to require more knowledge work—we don’t know what computers are going to look like, right?

We don’t know, we don’t even know what coding is going to look like. But I can guarantee you that the coding mentality, the type of thinking that’s required in order to code well that will become increasingly valuable as we go on.

I think logic is really important. I think when you teach kids computer science you are touching on a lot of principles of logic. And in terms of students knowing how to use computers but not necessarily understanding why they work, I think that’s largely a product of the success of the computer field, you know.

Within computer science there’s this idea of abstraction, where you separate the interface of something from the internals of it. And that’s something that I talked about in my computer science classes when I was teaching. You do that because it makes the computer itself, it makes whatever you’re making easier to use, right?

The user just has to have like a working mental model of what the interface looks like. They don’t have to know anything about the guts underneath. But unfortunately what you miss out on in that is the mental development in your thinking that comes with understanding the guts, right?

When you understand the guts it’s not just for using that tool, it’s actually to change what’s inside of your skull. It’s actually to change your brain. It makes you a better thinker. It makes you a better problem solver to understand those things.

So I think there’s a place—I think there’s a place for abstraction, but my hope is that every student, before they graduate from high school they’ll have a chance to wrestle with those guts, to be able to really understand how a computer works from the inside. How both software and hardware work from the

RENEWABLE ENERGY > The Future of Wind Power? Kite Powered Systems

Published on Jul 4, 2017

Views: 2,797

Thank you Shell for inviting me out to Make The Future Live and for sponsoring this video. http://uk.makethefuture.shell/

Listen to our new podcast at:
Showmakers YouTube channel at: https://goo.gl/Ks1WMp