2 Social Media Behomoths Ramp-Up Under Pressure

 

Snapchat, Twitter redesigning under pressure

Illustration: Rebecca Zisser / Axios 

Snap Inc. stock cratered after earnings fell short of expectations. CEO Evan Spiegel announced Snapchat is redesigning its app, which the company hopes will lead to increased user adoption.

• Speigel on earnings call: "The one thing that we have heard over the years is that Snapchat is difficult to understand or hard to use."
• Why it matters, from Axios' Sara Fischer and Kia Kokalitcheva: Snapchat has been assuring investors since going public in March that its strategic investments in ad technology would drive revenue, particularly in North America, and that the creation of copycat products by rivals, like Instagram and Facebook Stories, would not continue to slow its user growth. Its earnings show that the company still has a long way to go in achieving those goals.
• Redesigning its app is a big sign that it's feeling the pressure to make big changes quickly.
• CNBC headline during the earnings call: "SNAP STORY OVER?"
• See Snap stats.

P.S. Twitter 280: As we told you in the lead of Axios PM ... Twitter, after years of forcing us to express ourselves under its signature 140-character limit, is doubling that length for everyone.

• Axios' Kia Kokalitcheva points out that the character limit has been iconic, and led to the "tweetstorm" as a workaround for longer thoughts.
• But, like Snap, Twitter has been under pressure to make its service easier to understand and use.

 

What Are Brain Waves?

Good to know . . .

Published on Nov 7, 2017

Views: 126,254

This video was sponsored by "Robot-Proof", written by Northeastern University's President, Joseph E. Aoun. Learn more here: https://goo.gl/uF5Kx8

Thank you to our supporters on https://www.patreon.com/MinuteEarth

Even the parts of our brains that don't control physical movement show a lot of rhythm, and that might be integral to how our brains work.
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To learn more, start your googling with these keywords:

neural oscillation: better known as a "brainwave," a neural oscillation is repetitive, often rhythmic activity in the central nervous system. neurons can sync up with the help of pacemaker cells or structure, or through entrainment.

entrainment: the ability of tons and tons of neurons to quickly sync up is due to something called entrainment – here's a cool demo of essentially how that works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl2aY...

central pattern generator: neural networks that produce rhythmic, patterned electrical outputs. CPGs are usually relatively simple neural circuits and are responsible for virtually all the rhythmic motions you see in nature, from jellyfish swimming to human breathing. while we often think of our brains as reaction machines – like, we touch something hot and quickly pull away – central pattern generators don't need any stimulus to work. you can pull them out of an animal and put them in a petri dish and the neurons will still fire with the same rhythms.
feature binding: when you see your cat and you know right away it's your cat...well, somehow, your brain is putting together all kinds of information about the object's shape, size, color, motion, position in your field of vision, and lots of other contextual clues to make that happen. neuroscientists call this "feature binding," and neural oscillations may be key to pulling it off.

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Behind The Curtain: Trump Phones The Dems

Thanks again to Mike Allen @ Axios
When a dozen Senate Democrats met with two White House officials at the Library of Congress yesterday to discuss tax reform, President Trump called in from Seoul.

• Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) had convinced his party colleagues to hear the pitch from White House economic adviser Gary Cohn and congressional liaison Marc Short, who asked the Dems for advice.
• Axios' Jonathan Swan hears that when Trump rang in, Cohn put him on speaker.
• The president said the tax bill was awful for rich people, and repeated a line he has used about his accountant telling him its a bad bill for him.
• The meeting went well enough that the group plans to meet again next week.

P.S. Congress' nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation finds the GOP plan would raise taxes for nearly 20% of Americans over the next 10 years:

• WSJ's Richard Rubin: "By 2027, fewer than half of U.S. households would get tax cuts and another one-third would see their tax liability change by less than $100, while nearly one in five households would have a tax increase."

What's This Have To Do With Mesa?

Follow-Up Discussion of DraftQueen Creek TMDL Report The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) will hold a follow-up public meeting to discuss the draft Queen Creek Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report. This public meeting will be held on Monday, November 13 starting at 6 p.m. at: Superior Town Hall Auditorium199 North Lobb Avenue Superior, AZ 85173 Draft TMDL, Public Notice & associated documents | View > Please direct any questions you have regarding this event to: Kyle Palmer P: 602-771-4540 Email > What is a TMDL? A TMDL defines the total amount of a particular constituent or pollutant which can be introduced into a water body without causing an exceedance of state surface water quality standards. The TMDL process enlists the participation of stakeholder groups and other interested parties to assist in identifying possible sources of pollution, to allocate loads of those pollutants in accordance with the objectives of the analysis, and to identify the most reasonable measures that should be implemented in order for the stream to achieve surface water quality standards.

About ADEQ Under the Environmental Quality Act of 1986, the Arizona State Legislature established the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in 1987 as the state agency for protecting and enhancing public health and the environment of Arizona. For more information, visit http://www.azdeq.gov/.

Getting Active To Make a Sense of Place

A Creative Approach to ‘Place’

In the final post of his blog series, Chris Walker, LISC’s director of research, explains how creative placemaking leverages the power of local artists, culture and history to create economic opportunity and improve their overall quality of life in urban and rural communities alike 

11.06.2017 - LISC StoriesCommunity Wise Blog

For many people, conversations about arts and culture focus on what they saw at the theater last weekend or a new exhibit at their favorite art museum.
Those of us who work in community development take a bit of a different view. In the places where we work, arts and culture are not about audiences for art, but about people’s participation in culture. This means attending events, sure, but it also means creating art, practicing cultural traditions, helping organize events, and leading others to appreciate the spiritual strength the community’s own culture lends.
So cultural participation isn’t only what happens at the theater, but also in the most democratic of places – parks and other public places, storefronts, rowhouse walls, the streets at festival time. Or in bars where music is played. Or in a local gallery where a neighbor sells her art.

 We have found, as others have, that cultural participation – in the form of “creative placemaking” – is a proven strategy that builds community connections, spurs inclusive economic opportunity and advances revitalization.

Maybe most importantly, creative placemaking as we practice it relies on the assets of the communities themselves, not on outside development forces. It taps into the talent and imagination of local residents, artists, and arts businesses to elevate the rich history and culture of the places they live and work. 
An increasing body of academic and industry research offers proof points for how and why creative placemaking succeeds. It highlights replicable approaches that create jobs, improve safety, expand entrepreneurship and grow local incomes in both urban and rural areas.
The broad conclusion is that when we invest in community-rooted arts and culture, we invest in a more inclusive prosperity, one in which people of all incomes and backgrounds have an opportunity to share in the gains.

When we invest in community-rooted arts and culture, we invest in a more inclusive prosperity

At LISC, we look at two strands of creative placemaking as being particularly influential.

• The first involves support for locally led efforts that build social cohesion, strengthening residents’ connection to their community and to each other. This has value in its own right, but it makes other good things happen too.  For example, in places where social cohesion is high, there tends to be less crime—even if unemployment and poverty persists.  The difference is neighbors’ commitment to each other and shared stake in the future.
• Second, culture-led physical and economic development lays the groundwork for follow-on investments that create opportunities for residents. It makes the most of a community’s own assets, so arts-related businesses fill vacant lots, create jobs, brighten dark corners, and bring a new range of goods and services to the area.  Communities once labeled as distressed and dangerous begin to attract visitors and shoppers. In this way, cultural identities become pathways to material well-being.

For LISC, those two lines of work are closely related, each reinforcing the other.

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When we invest in community-rooted arts and culture, we invest in a more inclusive prosperity

 

 

 

ADOT publishes Tentative Long-Range Transportation Plan

ADOT publishes Tentative Long-Range Transportation Plan Public invited to comment on plans for bridges, highways out to 2040 After two years of research and analysis, the public now has the opportunity to comment on the Arizona Department of Transportation’s draft long-range plan, outlining strategies for meeting the state’s highway and bridge needs over the next 25 years. ADOT’s Tentative Long-Range Transportation Plan, which is required to be updated every five years, is available for comment through Dec. 21 and can be reviewed at azdot.gov/WhatMovesYouArizona. The CiviComment online tool, which is also available on the project website, allows users to comment on the full report or comment on individual pages pulled from the document. The direct link to CiviComment is provided here:  whatmovesyouarizona.civicomment.org. ADOT has spent the past two years drafting this update to the Long-Range Transportation Plan, which looks through 2040. The project team conducted stakeholder outreach, gathered extensive public comment across the state and worked through months of technical analysis. During the 25-year period of this draft plan, about $923 million in annual highway capital funding will be available from state and federal sources. On average, the Phoenix and Tucson regions are expected to receive $512 million annually. Of that, $223 million comes from voter-approved regional programs in those two metropolitan areas dedicated largely to highway expansion. ADOT’s Recommended Investment Choice calls for all of the remaining annual average of $411 million to go toward preserving and modernizing highways in Greater Arizona. The recommendation outlined in the Tentative Long-Range Transportation Plan is in line with public and stakeholder outreach, in which most participants listed preservation, safety and modernization projects as their highest priorities for Greater Arizona. The State Transportation Board approved the Tentative 2040 Long-Range Transportation Plan on Oct. 20, allowing it to move forward for public review and comment. The Long-Range Transportation Plan is expected to be finalized in early 2018. Comments can also be sent to: ADOT Project Information Line: 1.855.712.8530 Mail: Long-Range Transportation Plan c/o ADOT Communications 1655 W. Jackson St., Mail Drop 126F Phoenix, AZ 85007 Visit azdot.gov/WhatMovesYouArizona for more information on ADOT’s Long-Range Transportation Plan.

Joint Tactical Networks Summit Jan 18-19 2018 San Diego

Joint Tactical Networks Summit
Advancing Joint Communications to Succeed in Multi-Domain Operations

18 January, 2018 - 19 January, 2018, San Diego, CA, United States

The 2018 Joint Tactical Networks Summit will allow members of the C2 and network community, military leaders, and critical organizations to advance the joint force's ability to communicate and exchange information efficiently and securely within a multi-domain environment. This Summit will seek to enhance tactical data linkage tools and network architectures to support advanced communication capabilities for the joint force to succeed. This program will stimulate discussions aimed at enhancing our nation's networks to allow for successful information exchange and network interoperability to further improve our Military power.

Topics to be covered at the 2018 Summit

• Enhancing battlespace awareness through improvements in networks and services for fixed and enterprise level systems
• Delivering IW readiness to the PACOM AOR
• Ensuring afloat and ashore systems deliver command, control, and IT capability needs
• Providing protection of information in transit through wireless networks and devices
• Allowing interoperability of knowledge and information for battlespace success
• Enhancing the transition and sustainment of applications and systems into cost-effective hosting environments
• Strategy to effectively encourage interoperability for Tactical Data Links
• Development of C4 strategies to support combined operations
• Progression towards interference alignment techniques to allow for less disruption and less likely obstruction among data transmission

Why You Should Attend This year's Summit

This educational summit will bring together members of the C2 and network community, military leaders, and critical organizations to discuss the operational and strategic needs for advancing joint force communications systems and network capabilities in support of our nation's security objectives.
The objective of this year's summit is to highlight the increased need for interoperability among the joint forces’ communications and networks systems to ensure that information is adequately transferred timely and securely in multi-domain operations.
 This summit will feature senior level discussions surrounding updates and new developments; including the advancement of wireless communications systems for military advantage and efforts to enhance tactical data links Defense-wide. This Summit will encourage discussion among subject matter experts and top military leaders in a forum designed to allow honesty and fluidly when deliberating the nation's C2 capabilities.

At the Summit you will have the ability to:

• Gain Education & Insight: Walk away with knowledge gained from our senior level speakers on some of the complex challenges facing communications and networking leaders.
• Build Partnerships: The agenda is designed to allow for ample networking opportunities and the ability to engage in constructive dialogue among all in attendance.
• Influence:  Help foster ideas! Share your own insight and knowledge during our interactive sessions. All attendees are encouraged to address our speaker faculty and each other with their questions, comments or ideas.

Venue

San Diego State University, Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center
San Diego, California
Address: 5250 55th St, San Diego, CA 92115

Hotel Rooms:

Hotel Rooms  are available at a discounted rate at
Sheraton Mission Valley, San Diego Hotel
1433 Camino Del Rio South. San Diego, CA 92108, United States
Hotel Discount Reservation LinkThe agenda is available as PDF under downloads at the right side of the page.

2018 Confirmed Speakers Include:

• Jeff Mercer, Director, Joint Tactical Networking Center
• BG Welton Chase, Commanding General, 7th Signal Command
• Kevin Mulvihill, Director C4 Information Infrastructure, DCIO C4 & IIC, DoD CIO
• CAPT Robert Croxson, USN, PM, MIDS Program Office, NAVAIR
• Col Joseph Delaney, USMC, Commander, DISA-PAC
• Col Glen Genove, Deputy Director, Air & Cyberspace Operations (A3/6), CIO & Director of Cyberspace Forces, PACAF
• Col Jon Rhone, USAF, Commander, 505th Test & Evaluation Group, 505th Command & Control Wing

Related Events

• Mobile Deployable Communications 2018 Conference
  1 February, 2018 - 2 February, 2018
  Warsaw, Poland
• Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Conference
  1 February, 2018 - 2 February, 2018
  Rome, Italy
• Mobile Deployable Communications 2018 Conference
  1 February, 2018 - 2 February, 2018
  Warsaw, Poland