Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Apply Now > 2018 National Latino Playwriting Award

Submissions For Arizona Theatre Company's 2018 National Latino Playwriting Award Now Being Accepted
Submissions are now being accepted for Arizona Theatre Company's (David Ivers, Artistic Director; Billy Russo, Managing Director) 2018 National Latino Playwriting Award.

The award is open to all Latino playwrights living in the United States, its territories or Mexico. Scripts will be read and evaluated by a culturally diverse panel of theatre artists. Finalists will be judged by ATC artistic staff and the winner will be notified by Aug. 1, 2018.

Scripts may be in English, English and Spanish or only Spanish. Spanish-language and bi-lingual scripts must be accompanied by an English translation.

Plays must be unpublished, professionally unproduced and not currently under option at the time of submission. Full-length and one-act plays on any subject will be accepted. Minimum length is 50 pages.

The physical scripts become the property of Arizona Theatre Company and will not be returned. Playwrights retain intellectual property rights and any rights to the play.

Submission procedures > hit this underlined link to Broadway World

Monday, October 23, 2017

The Future of Banking Arriving In America

N26 announces plans to launch in the US by mid-2018

Posted 10 minutes ago by Romain Dillet (@romaindillet) on TechCrunch

"European fintech startup N26 has plans to expand beyond Europe. The company’s co-founder and CEO Valentin Stalf is announcing today at the Money20/20 conference that N26 is going to launch in the U.S. around mid-2018 and has hired a handful of people in New York.

We’ve looked at the products in the U.S. and we figured out that most of the banking products in the U.S. are even worse than in Europe,” Stalf the reporter . . .

GOOD TO KNOW, Huh?
N26 has been doing quite well in Europe already. The startup got its own banking license and attracted 500,000 customers.
The company is trying to create the retail bank of the future with everything you need.

And it starts with a debit card from MasterCard and a checking account. In just a few minutes, you can order a good old plastic card and get your own banking information. You can then send and receive money, pay anywhere around the world without any foreign transaction fee or markup, lock your card, set your own limits and get push notifications for each transaction.
The company plans to launch the exact same features in the U.S.
N26 also wants to introduce specific features that American customers expect. The interchange fee is much higher in the U.S., that’s why banks get a lot more money from each purchase you make with your credit card. Like traditional banks, N26 plans to provide a credit card and reinvest some of this interchange revenue into a reward program.

Is Mesa "Late To The Party" Again with Start-Ups??

After the end of the startup era

Posted yesterday by Jon Evans (@rezendi), Columnist

". . . Hordes of engineering and business graduates secretly dream of building the new Facebook, the new Uber, the new Airbnb. Almost every big city now boasts one or more startup accelerators, modeled after Paul Graham’s now-legendary Y Combinator. Throngs of technology entrepreneurs are reshaping, “disrupting,” every aspect of our economy. Today’s big businesses are arthritic dinosaurs soon devoured by these nimble, fast-growing mammals with sharp teeth. Right?

Er, actually, no. That was last decade.

We live in a new world now, and it favors the big, not the small. The pendulum has already begun to swing back. Big businesses and executives, rather than startups and entrepreneurs, will own the next decade; today’s graduates are much more likely to work for Mark Zuckerberg than follow in his footsteps. . .

. . . It is no coincidence that seed funding is down in 2017.

It is no coincidence that Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft have grown from “five big tech companies” to “the five most valuable public companies in the world.” The future belongs to them, and, to a lesser extent, their second-tier ilk.

It is widely accepted that the next wave of important technologies consists of AI, drones, AR/VR, cryptocurrencies, self-driving cars, and the “Internet of Things.” These technologies are, collectively, hugely important and consequential — but they are not remotely as accessible to startup

So where does all this leave tech startups?

Struggling, and probably hoping to be acquired by a larger company, ideally one of the Big Five. While some breakout startups will still doubtless arise, they’ll be far rarer than they were during the boom years. . .

From here on in, the existing tech titans will accrue ever more power, and startups will be increasingly hard-pressed to compete. This is not a good thing.

READ MORE > https://techcrunch.com

Watch Out! The "Internet of Things" Is A Hacker's Happy Hunting Ground

One Million Organisations hit in under a Month with a Massive IoT botnet

By Padmesh Nair October 23, 2017

O Those Bad Bad Malicious Bots!

As with any new technology, IoT promises to be the future of the Internet, bringing better connectivity and ease of use of the devices we use, but as these two botnet attacks show, an equal amount of stress must be placed on security

"The Internet of Things or IoT refers to the vast network of connected devices or “things” connected to the Internet which can be used to exchange and collect data. IoT devices include anything smartphones, smart appliances, healthcare devices, traffic monitoring cameras etc.

Much like anything these days, even IoT can come under attack by those who know how to harness its potential for malice. So it perhaps didn’t come as any big surprise that back in October 2016, Mirai (Japanese for “the future”), a malware surfaced attacking IoT devices such as IP cameras and home routers turning them into “bots”.

Did you know? According to this report on GBHackers
last Friday, a new botnet called Reaper or IoT Troop surfaced and has already affected at least a million networks and is considered more dangerous than the Mirai.
Its only up to one’s worse imagination that if Miraii could launch a DDOS attack of close to 620GBps in size, what Reaper could do with a million networks already as part of its botnet.

Checkpoint estimates millions of organizations affected worldwide including US and Australia and the numbers increasing.Attacks found originating from different devices, countries and 60% from corporate networks according to ThreatCloud network.

Just The Data Please: Q3 2017 Season Update

S&P 500 Earnings Season Update: October 20

By John Butters

| Oct 20, 2017

To date, 17% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported actual results for Q3 2017. In terms of earnings, more companies (76%) are reporting actual EPS above estimates compared to the 5-year average. In aggregate, companies are reporting earnings that are 0.6% above the estimates, which is below the 5-year average.

In terms of sales, more companies (72%) are reporting actual sales above estimates compared to the 5-year average. In aggregate, companies are reporting sales that are 1.0% above estimates, which is above the 5-year average.

The blended (combines actual results for companies that have reported and estimated results for companies that have yet to report) earnings growth rate for the third quarter is 1.7% today, which is lower than the earnings growth rate of 2.0% last week. The downside earnings surprise reported by General Electric was mainly responsible for the decrease in the earnings growth rate for the index during the past week. Overall, six sectors are reporting earnings growth, led by the Energy and Information Technology sectors. Five sectors are reporting or are projected to report a year-over-year decline in earnings, led by the Financials sector. . . Overall, ten sectors are reporting or are projected to report year-over-year growth in revenues, led by the Energy, Materials, and Information Technology sectors. The only sector reporting a year-over-year decline in revenues is the Telecom Services sector.

The forward 12-month P/E ratio is 17.9, which is above the 5-year average and the 10-year average.

Investigative Reporting: Just The Facts Please!

The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is an independent, nonprofit media organization dedicated to statewide accountability journalism in Arizona. AZCIR’s mission is to produce, foster and promote investigative journalism through original and collaborative reporting, public events and trainings, for the betterment of our communities.
Support independent journalism!
Homepage > https://azcir.org/
AZCIR 2017 “Facts Matter” Fundraiser
Meet AZCIR reporters, editors and board members

The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is kicking off its end-of-year fundraising campaign with a celebration of fact-based, in-depth reporting on November 16, from 5-7 p.m., at Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix.

Join AZCIR staff for casual conversations with food and some adult beverages on Crescent Ballroom’s rooftop patio. AZCIR staff will be on hand to talk about AZCIR’s work, what’s ahead and how you can support independent investigative reporting in Arizona.

If you’ve been waiting to help support AZCIR, there is no better time than right now and at this event. Every dollar you give at this event will be tripled, thanks to a challenge grant from our primary funder, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, and News Match 2017.

We’ll supply delicious Mexican appetizers and buy the first round of drinks.

Space is limited, so be sure to RSVP.

You can RSVP with a free ticket, or you can make a tax-deductible donation for your ticket below. We also can accept checks, and will be processing credit cards at the event for donations. If you can’t make it, please consider donating to support AZCIR’s independent, in-depth journalism. All donations through the end of the year are eligible for the triple-match.

__________________________________________________________________________

Registration

Thu, November 16, 2017, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM MST

Fact-Finder

Free

Sales end on November 16

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0
Champion of Truth

Donation

Sales end on November 16

Fees will be calculated before you place your order.

Donation amount for Champion of Truth

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Back In The News: Justice Delayed For Ex-Mesa Police Officer in Killing of Daniel Shaver

Any reasonable person - and that includes some readers of this blog - might want to stay informed about a local office-involved shooting incident that dropped-out of the news headlines and public interest for more than a year.
There were a series of posts about the incident featured on this blog that you can access in the Search Box in the upper right-hand of this page.
Here's a brief summary of that incident recently posted in Business Insider

Trial to begin for ex-Arizona officer charged with murder

Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press18h4

Business Insider | 2017-10-22

PHOENIX (AP) — Officers responding to a call that someone was pointing a rifle out a window at an Arizona hotel rushed to the guest's room and ordered a man inside to exit, lay face-down in the hallway and refrain from making any sudden movements - or risk being shot.
Daniel Shaver of Granbury, Texas, sobbed as he begged police at the Mesa hotel not to shoot, and was ordered to crawl toward officers. As he inched forward, he reached toward the waistband of his shorts, leading an officer who believed Shaver was grabbing a handgun to fatally shoot him.
As it turned out, no gun was found on Shaver's body. . .
A lawyer for Shaver's widow said it looked as though authorities were treating Brailsford differently than other people facing murder charges, noting Brailsford was released from custody without having to post a bond.
Shaver's widow also complained that prosecutors offered a deal to Brailsford to plead guilty to negligent homicide and face punishment ranging from probation to nearly four years in prison. Brailsford declined the plea offer, according to court records.
"This office will prosecute this case with the same degree of professionalism as we do any other, recognizing the due process rights of the defendant, the rights of the victim and the victim's family in pursuit of a just result for all," Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said when announcing the charge in 2016. . .

A rash of recent stories were aggregated from a quick Google search: