Business Skills For Artists | Jack Conte

How artists can (finally) get paid in the digital age

Published on Aug 30, 2017

Views: 65,791

It's been a weird 100 years for artists and creators, says musician and entrepreneur Jack Conte. The traditional ways we've turned art into money (like record sales) have been broken by the internet, leaving musicians, writers and artists wondering how to make a living. With Patreon, Conte has created a way for artists on the internet to get paid by their fans. Could payment platforms like this change what it means to be an artist in the digital age?

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more.

Wink-Wink > District 3 Drama : What's Next?

Trying to get ahead of the narrative - or to state exactly what the narrative will be - within an hour of the "Special City Council Meeting" for a public hearing held on week-day in a work-week before a major holiday when workers have other things on their mind - members of the non-judicial branch of government here in Mesa did pass judgment on District 3 elected representative Ryan Winkle 2 hours and 39 minutes into "a public hearing that started @ 07:30 in the early morning on Thu 31 August of the so-called "determination", Mr. Winkle's public service to elected office was terminated.

Keep in mind this was a DIRECT VOTE by the people who live in District 3 - that's why a DIRECT VOTE BY THE PEOPLE is necessary to fill the position for 18 more months in the term. If past practices of the entrenched political machine are any clue to what 'The good ole' boys' plan to do, they will hand-select a chosen successor for a temporary appointment. In a representative democracy this is not the way it works.

Whether or not the City Charter "allows" a temporary appointment is way off the mark.
It is up to the people who live in District 3 to directly vote for the candidate they choose to represent their interests NOT a temporary appointment

Within one hour - an usually fast time for follow-up to any actions of any kind by the Mesa City Council - where few members of the public even know know what's on the meeting agendas, or even know who represents the districts where they live and vote - the first of two press releases were made online from the City's "newsroom" revealing the plans to replace the popular City Council member after he requested a voluntary suspension from the city council that effectively removed him from performing the duties of office just five months after gaining office in a hard-fought election campaign where he defeated an opponent hand-chosen and endorsed by Mayor John Giles and other members of the entrenched political machine who have exercised undisputed control for generations.

Now that Ryan Winkle has self-destroyed his own public trust and credibility by an incident of getting-caught lying on police body-cam evidence made public during an apprehension for drunk driving, who will take his place to elected office is now up-for-grabs.     

Plans to fill the seat were made public after 4 pm on the same day before noon and after three hours of hearing evidence that the Council voted unanimously that Winkle is no longer able to represent the residents of District 3 and the City of Mesa. 
There's more than a year left in the term of office


WHO WILL BE CHOSEN? ...Will a quick election be held in November 2017 or will someone be appointed for 18 months 


Citizen engagement is missing in the way government functions here in Mesa - faults in the way representative democracy is supposed to work




Two announcements from the City Of Mesa Newsroom

1. Disciplinary hearing results regarding Councilmember Ryan Winkle

 Post Date: 08/31/2017 11:39 AM     

Mesa City Council, at a special meeting this morning, determined that Councilmember Ryan Winkle will forfeit the office of City Council effective immediately as a result of his DUI conviction.
The Mesa City Charter allows City Council to discipline its members in order to uphold the integrity of the office of Mesa City Councilmember. On May 7, Winkle was arrested for DUI and subsequently pled guilty to extreme DUI.
After nearly three hours of testimony, based on all the evidence at the hearing, including the DUI arrest and conviction, Council voted unanimously that Winkle is no longer able to represent the residents of District 3 and the City of Mesa. 

Council to any actions of any kind by the Mesa City Council - where few members of the public even know what's on the meeting agendas, or who represents the districts where they live and vote.
The process to fill the vacancy in District 3 will be announced shortly.

 

. . . less than 5 hour later

2 Mesa seeks to fill temporary City Council seat

Post Date: 08/31/2017 4:01 PM     

District 3 residents interested in serving their community are encouraged to apply for a temporary appointment to the Mesa City Council.
The temporary Council seat term will end in the fall of 2018.
Any voter who has resided in District 3 for a period of no less than two (2) years is eligible to apply.
Applications will be available online beginning Tuesday, Sept. 5 at: http://www.mesaaz.gov/D3application.
Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
On Thursday, Sept. 21, during the Council’s regularly scheduled study session, Councilmembers will discuss applications and select interview candidates.
The following week, on Sept. 28, the Council will interview the candidates and appoint the District 3 Councilmember during a Special Council Meeting that morning.

The resident appointed to fill the temporary Council position will serve as Mesa’s District 3 representative until a new Councilmember is elected and sworn into office. 
 Elections for a permanent District 3 Councilmember will be held in August 2018, with a run-off in November 2018, if necessary.
 
Office of Public Information & Communication
Contact: Steven Wright, Director
Tel. 480-644-2069 steven.wright@mesaaz.gov

Grand Inquisition @ Mesa City Council Meeting Thu 31.08./2017

 A public hearing with comments of the public excluded???????????????????????????
Mayor John Giles reads from a script prepared ahead of time, and once again can't say what day it is. He opening remarks are filled with confusing contradictions.
Speaking in an imperative voice, does he appear to be impartial and objective in these proceedings?

BUILDING BETTER CITIES > Different Scenarios | Peter Calthorpe

Sprawl is what separates people

Published on Aug 31, 2017

Views: 64,580

More than half of the world's population already lives in cities, and another 2.5 billion people are projected to move to urban areas by 2050. The way we build new cities will be at the heart of so much that matters, from climate change to economic vitality to our very well-being and sense of connectedness. Peter Calthorpe is already at work planning the cities of the future and advocating for community design that's focused on human interaction. He shares seven universal principles for solving sprawl and building smarter, more sustainable cities.

Check out more TED Talks: http://www.ted.com

You Are Not What You Earn

Nice thought, but ....

Published on Aug 31, 2017

Views: 4,094

The modern world firmly equates how much we earn with how good, noble, wise and worthy of honour we are. This is a brutal misunderstanding of how salaries are determined. We need to operate with a far more nuanced view of what the money we earn says about us. If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide):https://goo.gl/1PeSbY
Join our mailing list: http://bit.ly/2e0TQNJ

PUBLIC RIGHT-TO-KNOW: Something In The Water Here In Mesa?

An announcement from the City of Mesa Newsroom yesterday

Temporary change in water taste and odor

August 30, 2017 at 1:46 pm

Mesa residents may notice a slight change in the taste and odor of their water for the next few weeks.

Readers might like to take a look at this post from yesterday
https://mesazona.blogspot.com/2017/08/28m-arizonans-live-within-vulnerable.html

The temporary change is caused by a byproduct of seasonal algae in surface water called geosmin.    
Cyanobacteria: Anabaena solitaria ~ the organism associated with geosmin 

This it what it looks like >

Even at low concentrations, geosmin causes a musty or soil-like taste and odor in the water.

Geosmin is not harmful and the water is safe to drink and use in daily activities.
???

The City of Mesa's Brown Road Water Treatment Plant is using carbon treatment to reduce geosmin in the water distribution system.
Question: Reduce to what level that is safe and how fast does the carbon treatment produce results?
Here's an Info-Graphic with absorption rates >


Mesa's water continues to meet all state and federal drinking water standards.
That may be true, but there are certain potential carcinogens that are not required to be tested for. . .  the monitoring sites the City of Mesa uses may not be in sufficient numbers to do water sample testing nor may they be frequent enough to monitor and detect incidents.

For more information about water quality, the City of Mesa's Consumer Confidence Report can be found online at www.mesaaz.gov/ccr.


For questions or hard copies of the report, please contact (480) 644-6461 or water.quality@mesaaz.gov.

PUBLIC RIGHT-TO-KNOW: 2.8M Arizonans Live Within Vulnerable Zones from Toxic Chemical Leaks

2.8 million Arizonans live within vulnerable zones from toxic chemical leaks
[Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series of stories in which the ABC15 Investigators and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting collaborated to explore how Arizona regulates the storage and transportation of hazardous chemicals across the state.]
By Brandon Quester, AZCIR | Lauren Gilger and Maria Tomasch, ABC15 

BLOGGER NOTE: This study was done in 2014 and needs some updating.
Here in Mesa an additional facility needs to be added to the list of the four vulnerable sites farther on this post.
_________________________________________________________________________

PHOENIX – More than 2.8 million Arizona residents — or 44 percent of the state’s population — live within areas that are most vulnerable to a catastrophic accidental release of gaseous, and sometimes explosive hazardous chemicals.

BLOGGER NOTE: Interactive map is included in the report using the link below

The toxic agents, which the Environmental Protection Agency deems extremely hazardous, include chemicals such as anhydrous ammonia, chlorine and hydrofluoric acid. They are stored in more than 100 facilities that dot the Arizona landscape and, when released, can cause temporary blindness, searing pain, suffocation, and even death.
The “worst-case” scenarios are part of  the EPA’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) law, which requires facilities storing large amounts of hazardous materials to file the plans for emergency planning and risk assessment purposes. The companies include water treatment plants, grocery store distribution centers and commonly known businesses such as Target, Wal-Mart and Shamrock Farms.
HOWEVER, as noted in the report Toxic and flammable worst-case scenarios are limited in scope
> the worst-case scenarios only describe leaks from the containers of specific chemicals that exceed storage thresholds. It doesn’t take into account the proximity of other containers storing the same chemical, the total amount of all chemicals stored at the facility, or the combination of different chemicals at that location.
> plans also fail to determine realistic estimates of residential populations surrounding these facilities. The estimates don’t include employees within the facility or the schools, hospitals, businesses and transportation routes nearby.
> it’s unclear whether facilities importing these chemicals are following RMP laws.
One Arizona facility was mentioned, but not identified, in a recent EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report that questioned whether that facility was reporting its chemical imports. According to the OIG opinion, the chemicals weren’t identified on the company’s current RMP documents
“The public should be greatly concerned about these facilities,” said Sean Moulton, director of Open Government Policy, which is part of the Center for Effective Government, a nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency and public access to information. “As a public, as a country, as a general population, we probably know less now and are less prepared for emergencies at these facilities than we were 15 years ago when the (Risk Management Program) started. . . The RMP is a great first step in terms of understanding the risks in our front yard, but it has a number of holes that prevent it from really giving us the full picture."
knowing this information is an important part of emergency planning for communities and first responders.

“. . . the most fundamental level in terms of emergency management, you can’t plan for an emergency if you don’t know that there’s a risk,” Moulton said.

 

Information exists on the EPA’s Vulnerable Zone Indicator website, which allows residents to search for RMP facilities to determine if their home is within a worst-case danger zone. The website will send an email notification to anyone searching for facilities and will inform them if an RMP facility is nearby.

Arizona is one of several states that are singled out in the report

Read More > http://azcir.org/az-risk-management-plans-epa/ 

VULNERABLE SITES IN MESA  
All sites can be located on the interactive map in the link

Not included in the 2014 report is the SIGNAL BUTTE WATER TREATMENT PLANT.
Here's an upload of City Manager Chris Brady talking about the new water treatment plant

 

 

Here's an image of the facility

And how the water treatment plant fits into development plans in SE Mesa











Facility Name: VAL VISTA WATER TREATMENT PLANT
Chemical: CHLORINE
Chemical Physical State: GAS LIQUIFIED BY PRESSURE
Scenario Type: GAS RELEASE
Hazard Zone: 0.9 miles
Population within hazard zone: 5,546 people
Schools: YES
Residences: YES
Hospitals: NO
Recreation areas: YES
Prisons or corrections: NO
Commercial and industrial: NO
Other: n/a

Facility Name: BROWN ROAD WATER TREATMENT PLANT
Chemical: CHLORINE
Chemical Physical State: GAS LIQUIFIED BY PRESSURE
Scenario Type: GAS RELEASE
Hazard Zone: 1.3 miles
Population within hazard zone: 8,400 people
Schools: YES
Residences: YES
Hospitals: NO
Recreation areas: YES
Prisons or corrections: NO
Commercial and industrial: NO
Other: RED MOUNTAIN MULTIGENERATIONAL CENTER

Facility Name: MGC PURE CHEMICALS AMERICA, INC
Chemical: AMMONIA (ANHYDROUS)
Chemical Physical State: LIQUID
Scenario Type: LIQUID SPILL AND VAPORIZATION
Hazard Zone: 2.6 miles
Population within hazard zone: 898 people
Schools: NO
Residences: YES
Hospitals: NO
Recreation areas: YES
Prisons or corrections: NO
Commercial and industrial: YES
Other: n/a

Facility Name: S.W.D. URETHANE COMPANY
Chemical: FORMALDEHYDE (SOLUTION)
Chemical Physical State: LIQUID
Scenario Type: LIQUID SPILL AND VAPORIZATION
Hazard Zone: 0.1 miles
Population within hazard zone: 65 people
Schools: NO
Residences: YES
Hospitals: NO
Recreation areas: NO
Prisons or corrections: NO
Commercial and industrial: YES
Other: n/a
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Unless otherwise noted, all AZCIR content is covered by a BY-NC-ND 3.0 US Creative Commons license.