I was honored and humbled to be a part of the festivities, so enjoyable was the experience with my phenomenal dance partner Lauren Olivier and our wonderful coach Maria Hanes I would do it all again in a heartbeat. To my fellow dancers and choreographers, everyone did an amazing job last night and the stage hands, light guys and crew were first class. Without everyone backstage and front of house, this would be a shambles, however through your hard work and faith together we pulled out all the stops and broke records !! Thank you, thank you, thank you to each and everyone involved we set a very high benchmark of a quarter of a million dollars raised between us, we set the stage on fire and wowed the audience. Thank you for the opportunity to shine!
WOWWWW!!!! What a wonderful evening of Dancing With the Rebel Stars we had. It is truly an honor to be part of such an amazing group of individuals and outstanding school. The evening was definitely first class. Congratulations to all that took part in such an amazing evening! Can't wait to see what's in store next year!
TCHS Dancing with the Rebels Stars was a first class act! We so enjoyed our evening. Everything from the venue, food, judges, dancers, and Jake & Ms. Sue were so enjoyable. We are so thankful to have been able to experience this event. Congratulations on the hugely successful 2016 DWTRS!
Amazing job! Extremely fun event! So many people I have spoken to already can't wait for next year!! And Thank You to all who worked tireless hours to produce such an event! I Love Teurlings, I Love The Families, I Love The Spirit and Most Of All the Faith, God Is Great! Thank You to all the Teams for all the hard work and generosity! Many children will benefit for years to come! Hats off to #DWTRS2016! I am so thankful to have been a part of such an amazing group of people!
So many people did "behind the scenes" work to insure the event went off so well. It was done so professionally and with "FIRST CLASS" effort.
I totally agree with Richard-- everyone and everything was phenomenal-- Thxs to EVERYONE who was a part of DWTS 2016.
Wow! That was fun! What a great event and result for the school we love! Thanks to everyone's hard work and effort it was a fantastic night! Unbelievable!
Top O' The Morning To Ya! Giving a big shout out to all involved in such a successful DWTRS event!!!! The only way an event of this magnitude can run as smoothly as it did Sat. night is with tedious planning and practice! To ALL involved - and I do mean ALL....THANK YOU! You make TCH shine!!!! From our first meeting in October to the final applause Saturday night, I was privileged to be part of this year's Rebel Stars! TCH has come a very looooong way since I danced with my mom for the fund raiser to build the library!!!! The spirit of TCH lives on in you and is unstoppable! Thank you God!
I'll add to the conversation! It was such a blast!!!! Thank you all. My daughter has been talking about it non-stop. The one thing we agree on is that it is impossible for us to pick our favorite because we truly LOVED every single performance!!!


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The Upshot|Cashless Society? It's Already Coming
Thumbprint Revolution
Cashless Society? It's Already Coming
CreditCreditLaurie Rollitt
By Damon Darlin
I've spent the past few weeks using Apple Pay, the mobile payments app on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, as much as possible. I sought out every opportunity to press my thumb to the smartphone's screen to make a payment at a store.
Apple Pay is revolutionary, but perhaps not for the reason most people think. It isn't going to replace the credit card. The credit card has never been an annoyance, not to retailers, cardholders or the people behind them in the checkout line. (The greatest annoyance remains people fumbling with checkbooks at the last minute.) The credit card will stick around because it is integrated into Apple Pay. That tight integration is also one reason Apple Pay has a good chance of succeeding.
But the real reason it will succeed is that it will replace the wallet, the actual physical thing crammed with cards, cash, photos and receipts. The smartphone has a history of replacing other devices. It has killed or wounded, among others, point-and-shoot cameras, video cameras, tape recorders, MP3 players, GPS devices, wristwatches, daily organizers, maps, alarm clocks, calculators, flashlights and compasses.
When you are out shopping, it's the wallet, not the credit card, that is the annoyance. It's bulky. It can be forgotten, or lost. I've learned while traipsing about buying stuff with my ApplePay that I can whittle down wallet items that I need to carry to three:
■ A single credit card, for places that have not embraced, but soon will, some form of smartphone payment.
■ A driver's license. The law says I need to carry it, but I don't need a whole wallet for it. (To carry it, I tuck it and the single credit card into an iPhone case that has room for three cards and two tightly folded bills.) But give it time. Although no state appears to be actively considering digitizing a driver's license, I am convinced that within five years some will. (I do, however, foresee a risk in that. You would need to hand over your phone to a police officer who is asking for identification, and then the authorities could have access to anything on that phone.)
■ About $20 in cash. This may seem like a strangely small amount. But younger people will tell you that carrying $40 sounds strange. We are starting to see the first signs of the end of cash.
Citibank did a survey recently asking what method of payment is used for smaller purchases. Nearly half of the people in their 50s said cash. (That just over half said something other than cash is in itself startling.) But among those under 30? Just 30 percent said they'd use cash.
The millennials preferred to use debit cards; about 40 percent said it was the preferred option. Only a quarter of those over age 60 said they'd use a debit card.
It looks as if how the young pay for things will change again soon. Analysts at Forrester Research estimate that in-person mobile payments will reach $34 billion in annual transactions before the end of the decade, from $3.7 billion this year. To put that in perspective, in-person mobile payments are a quarter of 1 percent of retail sales. But with a compound annual growth rate of 56 percent, they would be the fastest-growing segment of mobile payments. (Other kinds include those done online using the phone and directly paying others via mobile device.)
Forrester is confident of that kind of growth, even though it says only 19 percent of American adults who use the Internet say they would use a system like Apple Pay or Google Wallet. One reason is that it thinks the introduction of credit cards with computer chips on them, a security enhancement common in Europe, will cause retailers to upgrade their checkout systems. Many will buy ones that enable smartphone payments.
If I were to make a bet, I'd say that 10 years from now the most popular answer from young shoppers about how they make small payments would be: thumbprint. And you'll get a dull shrug when you ask what a wallet is.
The Upshot provides news, analysis and graphics about politics, policy and everyday life. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our weekly newsletter here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The American Heritage Center (AHC) at the University of Wyoming is really on a digitization roll!
We've just digitized and uploaded about 220 documents regarding the Heart Mountain Relocation Center and a 1949 film titled "Wyoming and Its Natural Resources" from the Lester C. Hunt papers.
Telegram to Lester Hunt from Joseph O'Mahoney, Lester Hunt Papers, #270, Box 1, Folder 13. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.
Lester Calloway Hunt was the 19th governor of Wyoming from 1943 to 1949 and a United States senator from 1949-1954. He earned a D.D.S. in 1917 from St. Louis University and established a dental practice in Lander, Wyoming, in 1919 and continued his practice until 1934. In 1932 he was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives as a Democrat and also served two terms as secretary of state from 1935-1943. As Wyoming's secretary of state, Hunt designed the state's iconic "bucking horse" automobile license plates. Hunt was elected governor of Wyoming in 1942 and 1946, and U. S. senator in 1948, a position he held until his death in 1954. This collection contains subject files and other materials related to his political and personal life.
Links to digitized items and additional information about the Lester C. Hunt papers can be found in the collection inventory.
If you have any questions, please contact Jamie Greene in the Digital Programs Department at jgreene@uwyo.edu or 307-766-3704.
This entry was posted in newly digitized collections, Under-documented communities, Wyoming history and tagged Heart Mountain Relocation Camp, Lester Hunt papers. Bookmark the permalink.


Eggs! Having chickens means lots of eggs, and with eggs come eggshells. Or maybe your family loves eggs and just purchases a lot from the stores or backyard chicken owners? I started out just composting my eggshells, but honestly, I felt like my kitchen composter was being overloaded with calcium. I admit: I threw some away...then I felt guilty. Why? Because I had heard eggshells have so many uses!
So what CAN you do with all those leftover eggshells?
TONS of things, my friend!
About four years ago (and because of my guilt complex) I started looking into and experimenting with things you can do with eggshells. Here are my favorite ways to put those eggshells to use in your home and life. **You don't want to miss #8. It's one of the most important!
Who knew? An eggshell is the perfect composition of the calcium you need to take daily. I'm serious! Making your own eggshell calcium powder is so easy it's ridiculous. Plus, you'll know exactly what is in your own supplement you make. It's a WIN.
You can find out how to make eggshell calcium powder and uses for calcium powder beyond the evident health benefits in these links!
Crushed eggshells are an excellent abrasive. Here's how I make an easy, inexpensive abrasive with my eggshells. Using a mortar and pestle, crush up enough eggshells so you have about 1/4 cup of shells. This is about six eggs or so.
Add 1/2 cup baking soda and mix together with the crushed eggshells. When you are ready to clean, sprinkle this powder onto the area and scrub. If you want to make it extra powerful, add some vinegar to the mix! BAM! You'll have a shiny clean surface!
I have been meaning to use my leftover eggshells to start seeds, but I haven't got around to it yet. My friend, Joy, over at The Locust Blossom has had great success with this. Here is an article about how she got them started, and another article about the results of using eggshells as seed starting containers.
I'll be doing this for sure this winter!
Isn't this a cool idea? This pic is from The Locust Blossom, where my friend shares her homestead experiences.
Yep. I mentioned this one above. You just crush the egg shells and add them to your compost bin, either inside or out. I love this kitchen composter, and I have had three of them going at times! Your soil loves to have some extra calcium, and the eggshells will provide!
I even know a couple of folks who toss their eggshells willy-nilly into the yard. I can't bear to do this, though. It kind of looks trashy, imho. And people who don't know that eggshells are good for your soil just think you might be a little strange.
In order for your ladies to create lovely egg shells, they need calcium! Many people I know supplement their chicken feed with oyster shells or other kinds of calcium, but why spend the money when you can supplement for free?
Just crush the shells REALLY well so the chickens don't perceive that the crushed bits are really the shells from their own eggs. You don't want them to start that nasty habit of pecking at their own eggs. It's VERY annoying if that bad habit gets going, and it can be hard to break.
Bugs do not like the sharp edges from the eggshells. Just crush the egg shells well, and sprinkle the powder around the base of (or even on) your plants!
Your plants such as tomatoes, eggplants, etc. LOVE some extra calcium. Just crush the egg shells as finely as you can in a grinder or using a mortar and pestle. Dig them into the soil around the plant base. They will decompose over time and make your plants happy.
Did you know you can naturally remineralize your teeth? And did you know that it's so easy to make your very own natural tooth powder that is GOOD for your teeth, too? You can! And eggshell calcium is one of the best ingredients to use.
Here is the article for How to Make Your Own Tooth Powder, and in this one you'll find out How to Make Your Own Calcium Powder from Eggshells. For your tooth powder, you'll want to be sure those eggshells are sterilized, so just take a quick look at the directions.
You can take finely ground eggshell and put a little into your water kefir. This helps keep your water kefir grains healthy and strong. Just a little will do, though---about 1/4 teaspoon per quart at a time should be plenty.
Adding eggshells to your bone broth as it's simmering away will give it a great calcium boost!
To infuse your raw apple cider vinegar with calcium, all you need to do is place a crushed eggshell or two or three into your container of vinegar. The vinegar will break down the shell, leaching the calcium into the liquid.
Raw apple cider vinegar makes a great external liniment for minor wounds and sore muscles. Including the extra calcium won't hurt! Your skin is the largest organ on your body, and it absorbs everything like crazy.
Use this calcium infused vinegar to make homemade salad dressings! Just be sure to boil them first so they are sterile if you are consuming them internally.
This is one of my favorite ways to use my eggshells. I just add them to my bone broths as it simmers and breaks down the bones and marrow. The long, slow cooking process will also break down the eggshells, enhancing the calcium in the broth even more!
Here is how to make basic bone broth, and I highly recommend this practice! You can make it from any kind of bone(s), add whatever vegetables you want, personalize it with spices...and you have a delicious, healthy drink or soup base!
Don't throw your eggshells away! Use them instead!
Just like you can infuse your raw apple cider vinegar, you can add a bit of calcium powder to your kombucha for additional nutrition. Just add the calcium powder after you have removed the SCOBY.
For information about kombucha, you can visit these articles: How to Make Kombucha and How to Make Your Kombucha Fizzy.
Now this is a very cool idea! And what a great summer project to do with kids, too! Chalk is basically calcium, and here is how to turn your eggshells into fun sidewalk chalk.
Wild birds love eggshells too!
You know, when I think of all the ways you can use eggshells instead of just tossing them in the trash, I'm amazed. Trash or treasure, right? Turns out—-eggshells are little crisp white (or brown or green) treasures!
I want to just mention real quick that if you are going to feed your eggshells to chickens or your other pets or even to yourself, please be sure to use eggs that are pasture raised. It's truly best if you know where your eggs are coming from.
Factory farmed eggs come from chickens who are stressed and have far higher amounts of bacteria (including salmonella) than backyard chickens do. You can find out more about factory farms in this article: Don't Eat THAT Meat! And Stop Supporting Animal Abuse.
Don't you just love when you can turn your trash into something useful on your homestead? I sure do!
And there are LOTS more over on the blog, so head over and do some exploring!
P.S. If you haven't yet, I hope you'll sign up for our newsletter! You'll never miss a thing, and you'll get immediate access to the Resource Library! It's a growing collection of useful eBooks, guides, checklists, cheat sheets, and lots more!
P.P.S. Have you ever thought of starting a blog? The best resource I ever bought to get me started was only $20. How to Make Money Blogging at Any Level is a perfect book to get you going if you are interested!


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Boughton Aluph & Eastwell Parish Council
Our Councillors
Members Code of Conduct
Declaration of Pecuniary Interest
Traffic Survey
2019 Audit
Budgets and Precept
Our Parish Councillors
Spencer Phillips
I have worked extensively across the worlds of leisure, travel, entertainment and sports for over 20 years for international brands including Ticketmaster, Thomson Holidays, Really Useful Theatres Group and Silverstone.
I have has also worked across the mobile, legal, and publishing sectors with corporate and personal branding a specialty. I am Chairman of R4UK, an Ambassador for Demelza House Children's Hospice, a Trustee for The Gorilla Organization, and was an Ambassador for The Aspinall Foundation for six years. I am also an Ambassador to The Henry Surtees Foundation.
I was recently delighted to be recommended by rugby legend Austin Healey, though Oz refused emphatically to also endorse my skills on the rugby pitch.
Elected as Chairman of the Parish Council in May 2019, member since July 2015.
Email Spencer Phillips
Nigel Bunker
I see working through the Parish Council as one of the ways that we can get together to keep the area being a good place to live, and even to improve it if possible. I used to work in the NHS, and through that increasingly came to value things like community spirit, discussion about what kinds of development we do and don't want, and looking after the natural and social environment. I often think how fortunate I am to live here, and I'm sure the kind of active Parish Council we've generally had has contributed to that.
Elected to the Parish Council in May 2019, member since November 2016. Vice Chair since August 2017. Represents the Parish Council with Boughton Aluph & Eastwell Cricket Club and the Iron Room.
Email Nigel Bunker
Adrian Coles
Parish Councillor
I was born and raised in Ashford and have lived in Boughton Lees since 1995. I have been a Kent County Council Volunteer Countryside Access Warden for many years, surveying and maintaining the local Public Rights of Way. I was also part of the team that produced the Parish Design Statement. I previously worked at the Channel Tunnel and am now a Maintenance Manager on the High Speed Rail link. My wife and I love where we live and I have joined the Parish Council to try and preserve what we have and improve our environment and facilities where we can.
Elected to the Parish Council in May 2019, member since March 2018.
Email Adrian Coles
I have lived in Ashford since 2013, but have had family connections here since the 70's
I worked in secretarial and administration roles, later my husband and I had an air conditioning business in Smarden where we lived for some years.
Goat Lees where I now live has proved to be a very pleasant area and I think efforts should be made to keep it safe, clean and as friendly as possible to humans and wildlife, including our diminishing insect species.
Email Jane Hart
Ken Newman
Jenny Li
Nikki Ellis


Years ago, virtually every family movie received its mediocre tie-in game treatment. For several reasons, those games have all but vanished. They weren't good, so why do I find myself missing them like I do?
There is currently no walkthrough for the SpongeBob's Surf & Skate Roadtrip achievements. Interested in creating one? Click here for more details.


In this file photo from Sept. 17, 2017, Tom Petty leads his band, the Heartbreakers, in a performance at the KAABOO music festival in Del Mar.
My husband and I had a pile of logical reasons for skipping Tom Petty's show at last year's KAABOO music festival in Del Mar. Too expensive. Too many VIP types. Way too much traffic. We would catch him next time.
Because that's the thing about friends, isn't it? You always think you'll be seeing them again.
We would not be seeing him again.
On Oct. 2 — just 15 days after his KAABOO performance and a week after wrapping up a triumphant three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl — Petty died from an accidental drug overdose. He had been mixing medications, including the opioids he was taking to deal with the pain of a fractured hip. He was 66 years old.
Technically, I was not friends with Tom Petty. Not in the knowing-him-personally sense of the word anyway. But like a lot of fans who grew up with his voice in our heads and his songs woven tightly into the stories of our lives, my relationship with him and his music has the lasting, resonate ring of the real human thing.
Like many of my fellow longtime fans, I have been listening to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers for 40 years. Not my entire life, but close enough. I listened in my SDSU dorm room, in a series of tragic college apartments, and finally, in a grown-up house with room for all of my Tom Petty albums in all of their various formats.
I listened with 1,000 or so early-adopters at SDSU's Montezuma Hall in 1978, with 11,000 fellow fiends at the (former) Coors Amphitheatre in 1999 and alone at the gym for too many treadmill hours to count.
For me, his death did not feel like a celebrity death to be briefly surprised by, hotly discussed for a hot minute and then stored in the tragedy file. It felt like a like a deep personal loss.
One year later, it still feels that way.
That's the other thing about friends. The more you care, the more the loss hurts. And sometimes it feels like the only person who can help you deal with the loss is the very person who is gone.
How are you supposed to get through their absence without them?
So it is with both great sorrow and an abundance of joy that we can all welcome "Tom Petty: An American Treasure" into our lives.
Released on Sept. 28, the 60-song collection features previously unreleased live and recorded performances, alternate versions of album tracks and stellar songs that didn't get the time in the spotlight that they deserved.
The compilation was produced with care and enthusiasm by Heartbreakers' guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench and engineer Ryan Ulyate. It was executive produced by Petty's wife, Dana, and his eldest daughter, Adria. Younger daughter Annakim is listed as the associate producer.
Given his longstanding mistrust of the establishment — not to mention what looked to be a highly sensitive B.S. detector — I'm not sure Petty would have been entirely comfortable with the collection's title, which sounds like a PBS pledge special in the making. But there are so many gems on its four discs that "treasure" is really the only title that fits.
More importantly, "An American Treasure" — with its generous collection of photographs; the song-by-song insights from Petty's friends, families and band-mates; and the embarrassment of rock 'n' roll riches — does everything you want and need a celebration of a friend's life to do.
The early songs — the party-ready "Rockin' Around (With You)," the furiously wounded "Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)" — remind you of the good, hungry times you shared and the tough spots Petty and the band helped you navigate.
Classics like "Even the Losers" (in a biting live version) and "Breakdown" (live and so very slinky) reacquaint you with all of the things that made this man and this band so alive and so indelible. Previously unreleased tracks like the sunshiny "Keep a Little Soul" and the simmering "Lost in Your Eyes" (a Mudcrutch track from 1975) show you sides of Petty and company that you didn't know existed.
In her foreword to "An American Treasure," Adria Petty talks about all of this. About her dad's dedication to songwriting, which he considered "a sacred art form." About his belief in both dreams and diligence. About how the Heartbreakers were the most incredible band ever.
But she saves the last paragraph for all of us.
With every yelp and croon and true confession, "An American Treasure" reminds fans that as much as we loved Tom Petty, he loved us back.
The music tells us so.


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Devil May Cry V Gets Action-Packed TGS 2018 Trailer; Deluxe Edition Revealed
Irwyn Diaz
Published on September 20, 2018 Irwyn Diaz
Home » News » Devil May Cry V Gets Action-Packed TGS 2018 Trailer; Deluxe Edition Revealed
Capcom has just dropped a new trailer for Devil May Cry V at TGS 2018. The three-minute clip shows off plenty of new ass-kicking action and brings back some familiar faces as well.
Firstly, we get a better look at what Dante brings to the table, including his gorgeous red motorcycle that he can ride into battle. He also comes rocking with his classic weapons, such as Rebellion and Ebony & Ivory, and he also has a few new items up his sleeve. The latest Devil May Cry V trailer also gives us a glimpse into the mysterious third protagonist, V, who appears at the end of the clip. Interestingly enough, it also seems like we might be getting three-player co-op, as hinted by the Xbox website.
Apart from the trailer, Capcom has also revealed a new Mega Man collaboration with Devil May Cry V. Nero can use the iconic Mega Buster as a weapon, wrecking havoc with Mega Man's signature weapon. This exclusive weapon is part of the Devil May Cry V Deluxe Edition that comes with the following:
Four exclusive Devil Breaker arms for Nero, including one based on the Mega Buster from the Mega Man series
An option to replace cutscenes with behind-the-scenes pre-visualized live-action versions
Battle music: 12 tracks from Devil May Cry 1 to 4
Alternate Style rank announcers and title calls
Dante weapon: Cavaliere R
Devil May Cry V is slated to launch on Mar. 5, 2019 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Watch the trailer below to learn more:
Related Topics:deluxe edition, devil may cry, Devil May Cry V, TGS 2018


Perceived value is critical to understanding why people decide to act or not to act. The tagline of the communications strategy firm Maslansky + Partners says it all: "It's not what you say, it's what they hear." In order to break through to cultural consumers, we have to speak to their truth, not our truth.
We naturally give heavy emphasis to the benefits of attending when we market the arts. We promote the excellence and uniqueness of our offerings. After all, even if two theatre companies in the same market, for example, both produce contemporary plays, at any given moment in time they will offer different plays with distinct casts, directorial approaches, and design elements. This is our truth. Given this uniqueness, we would like to believe that people will come from far and near to see what they can only see by coming to witness our work.
Yet perceived and real benefits are only half of the value equation from the customer's standpoint. Their truth includes not only benefits, but also costs. Even if perceived benefits are sufficient to entice someone to consider attending, that person will weigh the attractiveness of those benefits against the monetary price of admission and non-monetary costs such as investment of time, not knowing where to go, the hassle of parking, etc. Influencing the decision of whether or not to attend requires concentration on both elements of the customer's calculus: increasing real and perceived benefits and decreasing real and perceived costs.
Arguably, there are few elements of organizational success that are more important but less appreciated than location. Location with respect to customers determines market potential, or the number and relative size of households in an organization's trade area. Since live participation is a basic characteristic of most arts and cultural offerings, it makes sense to consider how far people will travel to attend. All else being equal, the cost of attending naturally increases as a household's distance from the organization increases, so that a household's likelihood of attending decreases. The onerous nature of travel time is exacerbated in markets with low walkability, where efficient public transportation is not a viable option, and commute times are high.
But what distances are relevant, and to what extent do community and household characteristics influence the relationship between distance and likelihood to purchase? And which other factors in the marketplace affect patronage, and how?
While consumer behavior research often captures the attitudes and perceptions of individuals through surveys, interviews or focus groups, there is something to be learned by simply observing human behavior. Through their behavioral patterns, people divulge a lot of information about their interests and the things that stand in the way of connecting with those interests. In this paper we seek insight regarding the critical factors that influence the patronage behavior of cultural consumers, highlight some barriers and opportunities in attracting cultural audiences, and offer potential implications for strategic marketing decisions.
To explore the extent to which distance is relevant in the decision to attend the arts, we examined box office data in five markets, obtained through partnership with TRG Arts, for a total of 90 visual arts, performing arts, and community-based organizations. These organizations collectively served 2.4 million unique households that completed 7.9 million transactions. The average number of transactions for these organizations was 21,900 per year, which equates to roughly one ticket per household in their box office data per year. We pinpointed the location of each household and assigned it to its census tract to infer information about commute times, income, and educational attainment, calculated distances between each census tract and each organization, and kept all households in census tracts located within about 43 miles (70 kilometers) of the nearest organization.
Our research reveals that the arts are radically local. We expected distance to play a role as a cost in the value calculus, but we underestimated just how much location weighs in the decision to act or not to act. Based on an exploration of related research in retail settings, we initially estimated that a person living roughly 7 miles (12 kilometers) from an arts and cultural organization would be 80% less likely to attend than a person living in the organization's immediate neighborhood (Figure 1).
Analysis of the data revealed that, in the average community, a more accurate estimate is that patronage likelihood drops off by 80% at around 1 mile from the organization – not 7 miles (see the Baseline curve in Figure 2). The curve is different for each city and the differences can be explained by the effect that community characteristics have on purchase likelihood.
One community characteristic that influences cost perceptions is average commute time. In communities where commute times are long, the arts become even more radically local. It makes sense that if people spend long stretches of their day in a car or on a subway commuting to and from work, they are more likely to see distance to the arts organization as a deterrent. For example, at a distance of just under a mile (1 kilometer) from the organization, the relative purchase propensity is 5% higher in communities facing short commute times compared those facing long commute times. However, relative differences actually increase with distance so that propensities for households 30 kilometers away are approximately 60% more or less likely to attend if they face short versus long commutes.
Socioeconomic characteristics also figure heavily in perceptions of distance as a cost in the value calculus. Figure 3 shows the big difference in purchase likelihood for high socioeconomic (blue line) versus low socioeconomic (red line) neighborhoods at different distances. We know, however, that neighborhoods in most communities do not share the same income and education levels. The low-high (purple) socioeconomic curve gives a sense of what the graph looks like for an arts organization with low socioeconomic neighborhoods in the immediate surrounding areas, high income and education enclaves located 4-6 kilometers from the organization (2.5 to 4 miles), and low socioeconomic neighborhoods beyond.
Households with higher income and education are more likely to attend and more willing to travel greater distances to attend. Households with lower income and education are still willing to attend, though, especially if it's in the neighborhood. Not surprisingly, the arts become even more radically local for those in low socioeconomic communities as non-monetary costs such as the hassle of travel compound the financial barriers of attending. Figure 3 shows that higher levels of income and education increase likelihood of purchase regardless of distance, while lower socioeconomic status reduces likelihood of purchase, but to a lesser degree. At a distance of about a mile (1-2 kilometers), the model shows an 11% bump in purchase likelihood for high socioeconomic neighborhoods (38% compared to the baseline of 27%), while there is a corresponding 6% drop to 21% in likelihood to purchase for low socioeconomic neighborhoods. At 30 kilometers, propensities in low (high) socioeconomic neighborhoods are nearly 50% below (above) the baseline.
Density of population has a modest effect on purchase likelihood. This is especially the case at shorter distances, where high population density translates into slightly lower propensities but more overall transactions attributable to more households. The negative effect of density is more pronounced at greater distances. For example, at 30 kilometers, propensities in high-density neighborhoods are nearly 50% below the baseline whereas propensities in low-density neighborhoods are only 17% higher than the baseline. The further away a household in a densely populated neighborhood is to an arts organization, the lower their propensity to purchase. At the same distance, a household in a low-density neighborhood has a higher propensity to purchase.
To explore the extent to which the proximity of other attractions in the marketplace affects patronage, we looked at complementary leisure activities, including bars, restaurants, and hotels per capita. When these complements are located near arts organizations, they collectively create an arts and leisure destination, which in turn enhances perceived benefits and increases the likelihood of attendance, especially for neighborhoods at further distances. Arts and cultural organizations located in areas that are bustling with leisure complements benefit from an overall increase in purchase likelihood and they are able to attract more people from greater distances.
In fact, the model shows that organizations surrounded by a high level of leisure complements get a bump of about 5% above the baseline purchase likelihood from all neighborhoods located within about 3 miles (5 kilometers). The purchase likelihood curve stays above that of the baseline at all distances. For example, purchase likelihood in neighborhoods located 30 kilometers away is nearly 60% higher if the arts and cultural organization is surrounded by a high level of leisure complements and about 60% lower if the inverse is true.
This means we are observing two things. In the purchase bump at closer distances, we are seeing the enhancement of perceived benefits associated with arts attendance when it can be coupled with dinner nearby or a drink afterwards. At further distances, we are seeing the reduction of perceived costs of travel if it means having a full day or night out in a dynamic destination environment.
To investigate how the presence of other arts and cultural organizations in the market affects patronage, we looked at both the intensity of arts activity (measured as total arts and culture expenditures per capita) and the relative concentration of arts and culture activity across the entire market from the perspective of the household. High-intensity markets feature high levels of arts and culture activity. Concentrated markets feature intense activity in a single geographic location, such as an arts district, whereas non-concentrated markets feature dispersed activity throughout the market. The industry concentration measure is relative to population concentration. The intuition for the measure is that if arts organizations and the population are equally dispersed, arts patrons are less motivated to travel longer distances to attend a particular arts venue because they have other options closer to home.
Purchase likelihood is generally higher in neighborhoods featuring intense arts and culture activity, especially at shorter distances. This result might seem obvious at first glance, but remember we are looking at purchase likelihoods for individual organizations. Because increased arts and culture expenditures per capita are likely associated with increased numbers of competitors, this result implies that households are generally more likely to attend the arts in high-arts-activity communities. It may be the case that people who are drawn to arts and culture choose to live in communities where there is an abundance of activity. It also may be that the preponderance of arts and cultural activity encourages an arts-going habit in local residents.
The effects for arts and cultural activity concentration are logical but not immediately intuitive so we rely on a simple example to explain. In Figure 4, we depict three different hypothetical markets where we assume overall arts activity and population distributions are equal. Each market has the same number (9) of neighborhoods where people live and the same number (9) of arts and cultural organizations. In Panel A, the arts and cultural organizations are completely diffused across neighborhoods. Panel B depicts partial diffusion (and some concentration) of organizations. Panel C depicts complete concentration within a single neighborhood.
In low-concentration markets (Panel A), households prefer to patronize the nearest organization and, because there are no immediate competitors, purchase likelihoods are elevated for the closest households. In our results, purchase likelihoods in low-concentration markets are elevated as much as 5% above the baseline at distances less than 2.5 miles (4 kilometers). Beyond 2.5 miles, purchase likelihoods drop below the baseline because arts organizations in bordering neighborhoods become more attractive.
In high-concentration arts and culture markets (Panel C), households in the immediate high-concentration neighborhood have 9 different organizations to choose from, so that the purchase likelihood for any single organization in the cluster drops below the baseline for households at distances of less than 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away. Outlying neighborhoods have no local arts and cultural organizations, which translates into elevated purchase propensities for neighborhoods located further than 2.5 miles away from a highly concentrated arts district. Practically speaking, they have no other choice if they want to be an arts consumer. Our results indicate that purchase likelihood in neighborhoods located 30 kilometers away are double the baseline level in high-concentration arts and culture markets.
Combining the findings related to intensity and concentration of arts activity, we learn that customers respond well to nearby availability of dispersed activity. All else being equal, in a market with high arts activity, people are more likely to attend, and they are more likely to attend closer to home if there are arts organizations located nearby. Given the choice, people demonstrate a preference for staying in the neighborhood. When they have no choices nearby but do have access to a distant, concentrated arts district, they are more likely to travel than if they had closer options.
We would like to emphasize that the positive purchase likelihood effects discussed here apply to intensity of arts activity near to residential areas. They resemble characteristics Stern and Seifert (2007) use to describe "natural" cultural districts, which are neighborhoods that include concentrations of cultural providers and cultural participants. The positive effects do not carry over to singular concentrations of arts and cultural organizations in industrial or commercial areas that lack proximity to housing. This takes nothing away from the power of arts and cultural organizations as catalysts for economic development. It simply means that organizations located without an adjacent residential neighborhood don't realize the bump in purchase likelihood that might otherwise come from those living nearby. Our findings here also resonate with recent research showing that economic impact is most positive in cities where several cultural clusters are widely scattered over the metropolitan area.
So how do you use this information to inform strategic decisions? Our research reveals that the arts are radically local. Distance weighs quite heavily in a patron's decision to act or not to act. The implications for urban planning of arts districts are clear: all else being equal, arts organizations located in areas devoid of adjacent residential neighborhoods will likely struggle to build purchase likelihoods. Yet there are implications for leaders of arts and cultural organizations as well. The fact that there is a much higher likelihood of purchase among households in an arts and cultural organization's immediate neighborhood means that those living nearby should take on added importance. An opportunity lies in organizations making even greater efforts to be good community citizens. We regularly consider what the local community is doing for us, but what do we do for the community?
This is a time to recognize that being community-focused and paying close attention to people living nearest to the organization can be an advantage. Organizations that are, by design, community-based – e.g., multipurpose arts and cultural organizations, cultural and ethnic awareness organizations, folk arts, community celebrations, etc. – have a head start. Ron Chew's report titled Community-based Organizations: A New Center of Gravity provides compelling insights on the richness and value of these culturally grounded groups to their communities.
We can carry this strategy through to active participation in local retail development and to cultivation of natural neighborhood cultural districts, which are the fruit of self-organizing cultivation efforts. Arts and cultural organizations can take an active, institutional leadership role to attract other arts organizations and other leisure businesses like local restaurants and bars to co-locate. This might entail first-hand involvement in neighborhood associations, chambers of commerce, community development corporations, and the like. It can be seeded through organization of small-scale festivals that invite the neighborhood, the participation of other companies, and a mix of arts disciplines. It can arise through co-productions, co-presentations, or other collaborative projects that generate more visibility than a single organization would normally achieve alone while spreading fixed costs over multiple, local organizations. It may take leveraging the connections of board members and patrons who care about the organization and the long-term sustenance of its immediate surroundings. The path that makes most sense to pursue will likely vary given local conditions. It is important, though, to recognize that organizations have the power to shape their environment as well as be shaped by it.
Another opportunity lies in thinking about how organizations can take their act on the road to reduce real and perceived costs for target audiences. Rather than put the onus on prospective participants to bear the cost of coming to us, how can we take our mission-related work to them? For example, we know from the NEA's 2015 report When Going Gets Tough that Mexican-Americans who were interested non-attendees were more likely to report difficulty getting to the location as a barrier to their attendance. Armed with this information, can organizations make it easier for interested non-attendees who share this perception to engage with the organization's work by bringing the location to them? Think of it like developing a friendship. If you don't live nearby someone but really want to spend time with them, you don't insist that they always come to you. And yet we are flummoxed when we have something exceptional to offer and people who live further away, put up with a long daily commute, and have average income and education just won't come.
Again, there are great examples of organizations that have already figured this out. CalArts Community Arts Partnerships are offered at public schools, community centers and social service agencies, covering a 1,000-square-mile radius across Los Angeles County. Orchestras from Rhode Island and New Jersey to Georgia to California offer summer outdoor concert series in various locations. Opera Philadelphia's "O17" is designed to reinvent the urban opera experience through a 12-day festival featuring seven "operatic happenings" at six venues across the city.
There is a more global lesson regarding costs. Location is only one of a myriad of barriers to attending. Meeting needs requires listening to those whose behavior you seek to influence. Understanding the factors at play in a patron's calculus of whether to engage or not to engage with your organization is at the very heart of understanding what drives behavior. Are you missing opportunities to better satisfy the needs of those whom you seek to serve, and to remove both real and perceived barriers to attendance? We will have a more robust future if we take into account the reality of consumers' truths and respond proactively.
 The breakdown of the organizations was eight museums of various types (e.g., art, science, youth, etc.), 17 community-based organizations (e.g., arts education, arts centers, arts festivals), and 65 performing arts organizations, including theaters, symphonies, opera companies, dance companies, and performing arts centers.
 A census tract is a well-defined, small geographic area that closely approximates a neighborhood and contains between 1,200 and 8,000 people, averaging 4,000. Census tracts are the building blocks of counties, they canvas the entire United States, and they typically cover smaller geographic areas than zip codes so they provide more granular and robust demographic-economic detail than zip codes.
 100% purchase likelihood is scaled to reflect an organization's maximum market penetration rate; it does not mean that 100% of households within 1 kilometer of the organization will purchase, nor does it mean that 100% of the organization's transactions come from that distance. For example, if an organization's market penetration within 1 kilometer is 10%, it means that 100 of every 1,000 households within 1 kilometer (km) attend. The curve also tells you penetration rates at greater distances; e.g., 20% likelihood x 10% penetration = 2%, which equates to 20 of every 1,000 households at 12 km attending. Keep in mind, though, that the distances form concentric circles around the organization that increase in size at greater distances. The area of the ring of households 1-2 km away is greater than the area enclosed by the 0-1 km inner circle, so there will be more households in the 1-2 km range (all else being equal). This means that while the likelihood of a household attending decreases with distance, it applies to a much larger pool of households. In fact, we estimate that the average organization's highest percentage of total purchase transactions comes from the 2-3 km range.
 For all comparisons of low versus high, we define low as one standard deviation below the mean and high as one standard deviation above the mean. For example, the average commute time in the U.S. at the time of our study was 25.1 minutes and the standard deviation was around 7, so a short commute time is defined as 18.1 minutes and a long commute time is defined as 32.1. The Baseline represents propensities for neighborhoods facing average commute times.
 Stern, M. J. and S. C. Seifert, Cultivating "Natural" Cultural Districts, Philadelphia: Reinvestment Fund, 2007. We note that while the nature of and impetus for formation of cultural clusters is key to their definition as "natural" by Stern and Seifert, observations regarding how cultural clusters form are beyond the scope of this study.
 Sheppard, S., Culture Concentrations: The Spatial Structure of Arts Nonprofits, Williamstown, MA: Center for Creative Community Development, 2013.
 Chew, R., Community-based Arts Organizations: A New Center of Gravity, Washington, DC: Americans for the Arts, 2009.
 Stern, M. J. and S. C. Seifert, Cultivating "Natural" Cultural Districts, Philadelphia: Reinvestment Fund, 2007.
 Blume-Kohout, M. E., S. R. Leonard, J. L. Novak-Leonard, When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting Arts Attendance, National Endowment for the Arts, Research Report #59, January 2015.


#DPTstudent Chat Topic for January 16th: APTA's CSM Conference- What's in it for the SPT?
Yeah, this is were CSM is!
Next week, many DPT students are jet setting across the country to sunny to San Diego for the APTA Combined Sections Meeting. What made you decide to go? What do you hope to get out of it? We will discuss the benefits of being there as well as chat about your thoughts about what being an APTA member means to you. Talk to you all on Wednesday evening at 9pm EST on the next #DPTStudent tweetchat!


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Rabid skunk in Oswego
OSWEGO, NY – The Oswego County Health Department announced that a skunk caught in the city of Oswego last week has tested positive for the rabies virus by the New York State Department of Health.
Oswego County Public Health Director Jiancheng Huang is reminding people to be
especially wary of wild animals acting out of the ordinary. "With spring in the air, people are getting outside and enjoying the warmer weather. They should be alert to animal behavior that is not normal. Wild animals that would normally flee from encounters with humans or domestic animals should always be avoided. No matter how gentle and tame a wild animal may appear, do not go near it."
Rabies is almost always fatal to mammals once the symptoms appear. Mammals that are aggressive or tame, show no fear of humans, wander aimlessly, are disoriented, or appear to be sick or paralyzed should be avoided because they could be infected with rabies or other diseases.
"Vaccinated pets serve as a buffer between potentially rabid wildlife and humans," said Huang. "When you vaccinate your pets, you reduce your family's risk of exposure to rabies as well."
New York State law requires that dogs, cats and ferrets receive rabies vaccinations.
The Oswego County Health Department will hold its next rabies clinic from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, at the County Highway Garage, 957 Centerville Road, Pulaski.
Additional rabies clinics include:
— Parish: Wednesday, May 15, 6 to 8 p.m., County Highway Garage, 24 Dill Pickle
— West Monroe: Wednesday, June 12, 6 to 8 p.m., Town Highway Garage, 46
County Route 11
— Granby: Wednesday, July 10, 6 to 8 p.m., Town Highway Garage, 820 County
— Volney: Wednesday, August 14, 6 to 8 p.m., Bristol Hill Landfill Maintenance
Garage, 3125 NYS Route 3
— Pulaski: Wednesday, September 11, 6 to 8 p.m., County Highway Garage, 957
Centerville Road
— Scriba: Wednesday, November 6, 6 to 8 p.m., County Highway Garage, 31
Schaad Drive
There is a suggested donation of $7 per animal, although no pet will be turned away. The vaccine is also available from a veterinarian.
Any time a person or pet encounters a potentially rabid animal, including a bat, the
incident should be reported immediately to the local health department. Health experts will investigate to determine if treatment is necessary.
To report a possible rabies exposure in Oswego County, call the county health
department weekdays at 315-349-3564 or 1-800-596-3200, ext. 3564. In an emergency during evenings, weekends or holidays, call the department's answering service at 315-341-0086.
Visit https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/rabies/fact_sheet.htm for more information.
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Ashna Lama flips a black folio. Each page has a stark female figure in white. Some standing up, others sitting, some lying down or meditating.
The flowy edges enclose shards and squiggles, as if hiding a deep hurt within. The drawings seem to signify how women try to keep their pain inside, while keeping a bubbly facade.
Ashna Lama herself is a chirpy 21-year-old who laughs a lot, makes self-deprecating jokes in her singsong voice. Few can tell that this cheery face masks a difficult struggle with anxiety attacks and depression.
Lama grew up in an artistic family with the smell of acrylic and turpentine. She sketched from a young age, expressing her sadness in art. The current series 'The Fragility of Anxiety' was drawn in 2015 after the earthquake when she had panic attacks, and was put on medication.
Three years later, Ashna is ready to exhibit the sketches alongside her own poetry at the one-day exhibition at Hotel Annapurna on August 12. Lama says the black pages of the notebook spoke to her, and resonated with her art. She describes her bouts of depression as "spiraling into blackness".
Art has historical association with mental health. Frieda Kahlo painted self portraits to deal with debilitating injuries, Monet was highly anxious, Picasso was said to be schizophrenic, and Van Gogh depressed and bi-polar. Lama says her art is also a reflection of her inner turmoil.
"When the pressure cooker is about to burst and the whistle goes off, the steam is art. If it is too much to handle, I draw," says Lama, adding it was not easy to decide to share her work and open up about her deepest emotions. But she decided to go for it to spread awareness of mental health in Nepal, and break the taboos.
Lama found out she was getting too dependent on medication. Once, having lost her pills she started banging her head on walls, hoping she would pass out. The drawings have helped her get off medication, and she says many others with mental health issues may also need an outlet for expression.
After she came out to talk publicly about her affliction, Lama found many opened up too. They were lonely, and felt as if they were the only ones suffering. It helped to share.
"Mental health is so little understood in Nepal. There is so much stigma, and I want to generate some discussion through this exhibition. It is for people who appreciate the effort it takes to bare your innermost soul to an outsider," says Lama.
Once a science student and a part-time model, she decided to take a clean break and enrolled in an art school in Florence. She says formally studying art in the city of Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, and Dante gave more definition to her form of expression. She also paints commissioned work where she digresses from signature black to dabble in rainbow hues.
It would be a homecoming for Ashna Lama, shedding black for the vividness of life in her own country.


Many companies of different types and categories, including small size-merchants, payment facilitators, and large corporations, have a common problem: they are wondering if their transaction processing terms can be improved, i.e. if they can reduce processing costs. The following article is intended to help a business, whose most relevant current problem is transaction processing cost reduction. It should be particularly helpful for companies with large transaction processing volumes.
Let us assume, you are more or less satisfied by your current processing partnership. But after having a closer look at the latest merchant statements received from the processor, you understand that processing fees (taken as percentage of revenues) are a bit too high. Even if merchant statements are not that bad, when you add gateway fees, tokenization fees, and/or fees charged by some other vendors involved, to processing fees, and see the total fees amount, the situation looks somewhat frustrating.
In fact, such a situation is rather common among large-size businesses. Often their management comes up with several instinctive solutions, outlined below.
The above-listed intuitive strategies have several common drawbacks.
Keep in mind, that your current processor might be reluctant to improve your processing terms, i.e., reduce costs and fees. One of the reasons processors are not willing reduce fees they charge from their customers is because if they offer better terms to some particular client and the information starts spreading, other clients will demand better terms for themselves as well. Even if your negotiations are successful and the current processing partner agrees to reduce the price you are currently paying for transaction processing, this concession can lead to general worsening of the service quality.
First, experience indicates that if you decide to switch to a new processor, it is not that easy to find a new processor offering better terms.
Second, if you do find a new partner, in some cases the cost of migration from the current merchant service provider to the new one can offset the savings for many years ahead (especially if you haven't carefully planned all the aspects of transition in advance). This process of migration to the new processor might turn out to be longer and more resource-consuming in comparison to all the forecasts made by your team of experts. A detailed description of migration to a new processor can be found in our respective article.
Third (as many of our customers report), once you start working with the new processor, you realize that not all the functions you expected it to provide are available. Some of the important features, such as support of particular geographies, currencies, report categories (for instance, reports on processing costs, chargebacks, etc), specific merchant onboarding or remittance mechanisms, either do not meet your original expectations (or simply are not supported within the new processing solution). But why is it so difficult to notice such disadvantages at once? Well, generally, because of the nature of the companies that provide the service (i.e. large processors): there is a substantial difference between what salespeople tell you and what turns out to be the reality when you do the certification.
As a result, you are loosing even more resources, because you still need to keep processing transactions through your original partner, according to original terms, and, at the same time, spend considerable amounts on the new initiative.
The common reason for most of the listed problems is that many businesses do not embrace and apply the "smart negotiations" concept. They focus on searching for the lowest processing cost they can find among the offerings currently available at the market. They select transaction processing cost as the only meaningful criterion of optimal processing solution selection.
For instance you are processing transactions and paying 2.9% per-transaction fee. Then you are getting an offer from another processor: the new terms envision 2.5% per-transaction fee. You decide to give it a try and switch (migrate) to the new processing partner. But migration to the new platform offsets all the savings for many months to come, and the features that are not critical, but, nevertheless, important, are not implemented within the new platform in the most efficient way. So, while saving on the processing, you will now be incurring new expenses around merchant onboarding or reconciliation. For example, the monthly savings under new processing costs will amount to $15,000. This seems like a reasonable saving, especially, in the long run. But if migration-related expenditures include $100,000 of real costs and another $150,000 of opportunity costs (see below), then they will offset all the savings for a year and a half.
In order to avoid the described problems, you need to negotiate and approach the situation in a smart way, and more carefully reconsider your current and prospective processing partnerships. If you want to save on transaction processing, it is necessary to analyze all components of costs, related to this process, including not only transaction pricing, but indirect costs and opportunity costs as well.
Feel free to consult our payment experts at UniPay Gateway and get more information on the subject in the context of your particular situation.


As the Retail and Consumer sectors seek to understand and proactively manage the ever-changing market place, Norman Broadbent is increasingly called upon to help find and engage with an increasingly global, diverse and creative pool of Interim talent. With the growth of digital and a relentless drive for efficiency and cost reduction, our experienced team is able to add value wherever an organisation may be on their journey.
Our expertise lies in sourcing and engaging with exceptional Interims who understand, manage and drive change within this increasingly complex space. Working with recognised and challenger brands, clients seek our counsel when looking to engage with experienced or business critical Interim Executive talent, who will have a significant impact on their business.
As a trusted advisor and strategic partner to our clients, we possess a deep understanding of a client's short term talent needs throughout every part of a business' life cycle. With many years of collective experience, we provide an exceptional level of insight, advice and unrivalled access to Interim Executive talent.
Our experienced team combines industry experience and strong talent sourcing and engagement enabling a highly consultative yet time efficient turnaround of assignments. Strong corporate capabilities, brand identity and the fact that we continuously strive for excellence in a culture that encourages independent and creative thought means that our opinions are valued and sought out.


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Meet Josef: Jewish Community Engagement Director of the Week!
by Allison Friedman / July 30, 2019
Attention Jewish DC: The one-and-only Josef Palermo has made his way onto the GatherDC team, and we COULD NOT BE MORE THRILLED. All caps are 100% necessary to express our uncontainable excitement.
If you don't know Josef, read on. If you do know Josef, read on and you might learn something new. Either way, email Josef to welcome him to the team or grab coffee. Okay enough with this intro, onto the interview…
Allie: What brought you to DC?
Josef: I've been in DC for about 11 years – I came here right after undergraduate as a part of a fellowship with Greenpeace. I started to carve out a career path for myself in activism and community organizing because, like so many young people, I wanted to have some kind of positive impact on the world. I had a 6-month stint in San Francisco, but kept my place in DC so I could come back. DC really feels like home!
Allie: Tell me more about your interest in activism.
Josef: I really started to dive into activism in college, organizing my college campus community on issues related to human rights and genocide prevention and awareness.
From there, I just kept going! I'm from Florida, so I decided to intern for a Florida state senator, then in 2008, I worked for a presidential campaign. After that, I went back to Florida, and just a few months later I was in DC advocating for the environment at Greenpeace.
Allie: Did you think about going into politics?
Josef: Yes, but I ultimately found it wasn't for me. My interests are more in advocating for specific issues and causes that I believe in.
Allie: What ultimately led you to find your career path as a Jewish professional?
Josef: I was hired to run GLOE, the Kurlander Program for GLBTQ Outreach and Engagement at the EDCJCC. It was the first, and for a long time, only, full-time LGBTQ outreach program at any JCC. This position really spoke to where I was in my life, and my passion for working with the community at the intersection of LGBTQ and Jewish identity.
I recently started at Gather as the 30s Community Engagement Director, and am excited to continue working in a space that speaks to where I am in my life.
Allie: What are you most looking forward to in your role at Gather?
Josef: I'm excited to connect with other folks in their 30's who are still connecting to their Jewish journeys and looking for more meaningful engagement with those journeys. Often in your 30s, you focus your time differently and may search for new ways to engage in Jewish life. I'm very excited to innovate opportunities for Jewish 30s to think differently and challenge themselves more in connecting to their Judaism.
Allie: Outside of work, what are your favorite ways to relax?
Josef: I love to cook! I'm not someone who follows recipes, I just like to open the cupboard and whip something up. I also like to explore museums, hang out with my friends, take books to the park and read.
Allie: Describe your dream day in DC…
Josef: I recently discovered how fun the electric scooters are, and love scootering to places I've never been to before. My dream day would include scootering to Roosevelt Island or Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. It would also include the Potomac – I love being on the water. I would get a boat with some friends and head down to Old Town Alexandria. We would end the day with a potluck dinner on a rooftop. I love the DC skyline, especially when you can see the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral.
Allie: What is your favorite way to celebrate Shabbat?
Josef: I try to include at least one person who is new to the Shabbat experience whenever I host. I like sharing Jewish traditions and rituals with people and helping them learn about it.
Allie: What is at the top of your bucket list?
Josef: I want to sail the Amalfi Coast. I would love to spend a couple weeks with friends, making stops along the way to explore!
Allie: Is there anything else you would you like to share?
Josef: I'm openly queer identifying, and I'm excited to join the Gather staff and bring those experiences of mine to the team, and connect with others who have an LGBTQ identity in the Jewish community.
Allie: Complete the sentence! When Jews of DC gather….
Josef: …There will be several rounds of Jewish geography!


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VirtualLab Fusion provides maximum versatility for your optical simulations. Based on the full field information, those typically used merit functions in diffractive optics, like the window efficiency, can be calculated according to their definitions. In this example, we realize the standard diffractive optics merit functions which has been defined in VirtualLab, but by using a Programmable Detector for illustration. In a similar manner, one can define their own merit functions for specific applications with full flexibility.
Use Cases programmable, VirtualLab, LightTrans, detector, diffractive, merit Based on the full field information, and together with the Programmable Detector, several typically used merit functions in diffractive optics are realized in this example.


Contact the ESN for equipment consultation in selecting the best and most appropriate equipment for your home or business.
Nuova Simonelli Musica is a top of the line home or office model espresso machine for those looking for superior beverages in smaller or more intimate settings. Unlike other home model espresso machines, Musica can be operated manually or programmed for volumetric dosing. You will also enjoy the convenience of brewing while heating your milk, a feature not readily available for home model machines. Musica comes with a convenient hot water wand for tea or other hot beverages. LED lighting is available on the Lux model only.


What most couples don't realize when looking for their wedding DJ is how comfortable they feel with the specific DJ organization, which is a large piece of the puzzle. A majority of couples are fixated on the price and if the NJ wedding DJ has ever worked at that reception venue. Most successful DJs in NJ have a really easy tactic to wedding entertainment and that is that they are really customer-centered.
Enchanted Celebrations train new DJs and provide workshops for currently employed DJs; a main topic that's covered during these workshops is "working from the checklist." Our professional improvement program for DJs is partly focused on working the brides music requests into the wedding entertainment and creating an atmosphere from that checklist. Our NJ wedding DJs personal input comes After an atmosphere has been created.If you would like to hear what a customer-centered NJ wedding DJ has to say about getting the crowd up dancing, check out our DJs. Also, at Enchanted Celebrations, we provide free of charge in house consultation to High Bank Landing, NJ as well as many products and providers for all your wedding needs.
Enchanted Celebrations is New Jersey's leader in wedding providers that provides services to High Bank Landing, NJ. Among only a handful of businesses that offer Disc Jockey, Photography, Videography, Ministers, and Ambient Lighting to several events all over the NYC Metro Area, Philadelphia, and NJ.. Enchanted Celebrations is also the leader in offering web-based planning tools to most of their customers.
At Enchanted Celebrations, together with our wedding DJs, photographers, and videographers are seasoned professionals who obtain professional development coaching within the team perspective of weddings and special events. Even with the flexibility to work with each vendor and the additional coaching in the team of weddings is to ensure that the bride and groom have the best wedding, most of our customers choose us for photos, video, and DJ. The bride and groom choose Enchanted Celebrations because after interviewing us, they can recognize they can receive the best services for his or her special wedding day. Not to say, with one decision all of their wedding questions will be answered; we are the NJ wedding experts!
Our company is distinct from other wedding services companies in that we are a relationship, team oriented-based family. Our team is designed to work together to ensure that everyone's special day is properly executed and goes smoothly. Our group members take pride in being the driving force within the wedding business and to become apart of a group that is rooted in client service and not fiscal gain. To us customer satisfaction is paramount and through our team approach we believe that we can exceed our demanding customers expectations.
Memories that will keep you spellbound for a life time will be made with the support of Enchanted Celebrations. Our team understands clearly that the occasion is a once-in-a-lifetime event and it needs to be as fantastic as you have imagined it to be.
We set our expectations high! We are committed to giving you over 100% efforts and treatment from planning your party to your last good-by. All of our team members are professionals of their field and will only give you the best of the best for your event.
New Jersey's most recognized casts of entertainers are the disc jockeys employed by Enchanted Celebrations. At Enchanted Celebrations most of our entertainers have the experience, energy, and creativity that will be needed at your occasion in order to make it a memorable one. Contact us now.


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the new capitalism
The answer to helping the unbanked exists on every Main Street: the post office
Five reasons why postal banking needs to make a comeback in the United States.
[Photo: Mark Williamson/Getty Images]
By Yasmin Gagne 3 minute Read
As profit-chasing banks abandon low-income and rural neighborhoods, nearly 8% of U.S. households are unbanked, and one in five people live in areas that are insufficiently served by banks, aka "underbanked," which forces them to rely on alternative and often predatory financial services such as pawn shops, check cashing services, and payday lenders.
Mehrsa Baradaran—a law professor at The University of California Irvine who began her career as a Wall Street lawyer helping banks turn to the government for assistance weathering the financial crisis—is proposing a solution to help the underbanked that also requires government backing: letting the U.S. Postal Service provide basic banking services. Baradaran, whose ideas have inspired presidential candidates including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, argues that the U.S. Postal Service is in a unique position to serve the underbanked. "It's a way to use the systems we have, which are already equipped to handle the essential services banks provide, to solve for inequality," she says, adding, "if banks are supported by the federal government and they're not serving half the population, that's not a market problem. I think that's a problem with democracy."
Here's how postal banking could ameliorate financial inequality.
Low-income areas have been disproportionately hit by the declining number of bank branches in the country; 93% of bank branches that closed since 2008 were in neighborhoods where the median income is below the national average. The USPS is the world's largest retail network with over 30,000 retail locations (to put this into context, Starbucks currently has nearly 15,000 stores). Over half of them are located in zip codes with no banks, which puts them in an ideal position to serve the underbanked.
Better access
While fintech startups such as Earnin claim to help the underserved, Baradaran argues that digital solutions are not enough. "A lot of the time, people have no way to turn their cash into something digital, or the digital into cash, so they need brick-and-mortar locations to cash their checks. Fintech can't solve for that," she says. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the average underserved household spends almost 10% of its income just to access their money through these services annually. "If they had bank accounts, it would put a huge amount of money back into the economy and back into their lives," Baradaran says. "This is money they can spend on food and clothes and shelter and all the essentials of life."
Despite the common expression "going postal," and the occasional complaint about slow deliveries, public trust in the USPS remains high. In a 2019 Gallup poll, 74% of Americans said the agency does an excellent or good job. By contrast, a 2018 Gallup poll showed that public confidence in banks was at 30%. Customers could also be sure that their money is safe: tampering with U.S. mail is already a federal offense, and the postal service already investigates crimes including postal robberies, mail bombs, and identity theft.
The USPS currently offers some financial services, including money orders, treasury check cashing, and gift cards. From 1911 to 1966, the institution even functioned as a bank accepting savings deposits. Abroad, many countries have embraced postal banking to increase financial inclusion and post office revenue rates. The largest public bank in the world is Japan's Post Bank, which holds one-fifth of the country's debt. Eighty percent of the Italian postal service's revenue is from the financial services it provides.
Skilled workers and mandate to serve the public
Unlike banks, the USPS legally has to serve all Americans, giving them the same quality of service at the same price. The institution is also not a business that needs to make a profit and doesn't let profit influence decision-making. For example, unlike a bank branch, the USPS can't close a post office for financial reasons. "Banks want to be efficient, they want to make lots of money, and when the law doesn't prevent them, they're going to merge and close up certain areas, and then you'll have a large swathe of the population that has to rely on nongovernment-subsidized lenders," says Baradaran. "The post office is not motivated by profit, so it can help everyone."
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Rude Talk in Athens: Ancient Rivals, the Birth of Comedy, and a Writer's Journey Through Greece (Hardcover)
By Mark Haskell Smith
Available from our distributor; usually Ships in 1-5 Days
This book is a delight! The author's voice feels like that of a mischievous boy writing about naughty things and swearing a lot and apparently that is right up my alley. That being said, he writes very compellingly about the importance and power of comedy. Part travelogue of Athens, part memoir of a writers life, part classics lesson and lots of fun.
— From Amanda
Rude Talk in Athens is brave, brilliant, and incredibly funny. There are loads of very specific characters, including Mark himself. It's the Mark Haskell Smith version of hanging out with Stanley Tucci and Anthony Bourdain, but in present day and ancient Greece. I agree with everything he says about comedy and have never read anything like it. ―Barry Sonnenfeld, Film Director and author of Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker
In ancient Athens, thousands would attend theatre festivals that turned writing into a fierce battle for fame, money, and laughably large trophies. While the tragedies earned artistic respect, it was the comedies--the raunchy jokes, vulgar innuendo, outrageous invention, and barbed political commentary--that captured the imagination of the city.
The writers of these comedic plays feuded openly, insulting one another from the stage, each production more inventive and outlandish than the last, as they tried to win first prize. Of these writers, only the work of Aristophanes has survived and it's only through his plays that we know about his peers: Cratinus, the great lush; Eupolis, the copycat; and Ariphrades, the sexual deviant. It might have been the golden age of Democracy, but for comic playwrights, it was the age of Rude Talk.
Watching a production of an Aristophanes play in 2019 CE and seeing the audience laugh uproariously at every joke, Mark Haskell Smith began to wonder: what does it tell us about society and humanity that these ancient punchlines still land? When insults and jokes made thousands of years ago continue to be both offensive and still make us laugh?
Through conversations with historians, politicians, and other writers, the always witty and effusive Smith embarks on a personal mission (bordering on obsession) exploring the life of one of these unknown writers, and how comedy challenged the patriarchy, the military, and the powers that be, both then and now. A comic writer himself and author of many books and screenplays, Smith also looks back at his own career, his love for the uniquely dynamic city of Athens, and what it means for a writer to leave a legacy.
MARK HASKELL SMITH is the author of six novels with one-word titles including Moist, Salty, and Blown; as well as the non-fiction books Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup and Naked at Lunch: A Reluctant Nudist's Adventures in the Clothing-Optional World. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, Vulture, Alta, and Literary Hub. He is an associate professor in the MFA program for Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts at the University of California Riverside, Palm Desert Graduate Center.
Publisher: Unnamed Press
Europe - Greece


The staff will be able to give you more time, and have better availability of stock if you get in early.
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Our uniform is also available from Tesco Online.
At our Sports Day for children in Years 1, 2 3 and 4 children participated in a range of track and field events.
Children were able to score points in each event and the points were added up, checked and verified following the event.
During our celebration Worship Time today we were able to award meals to the boy and girl with the highest score in each class.
Each class teacher also nominated a child who demonstrated great sportsmanship on the day and exhibited our our school Christian values throughout the event.
Well done to all those who participated so fully and enthusiastically in our sports day!
As with all our website photos, if you or your child appears in a photo you can ask it to be removed from our website by sending an email to head@buckinghampark.bucks.sch.uk and it will be removed immediately - no questions asked.
Record Breakers is the Buckinghamshire Libraries Summer Reading Challenge for 2015.
Children from 4 to 11 years are asked to read 6 books borrowed from their local library. You can choose from a wealth of books on facts or fiction, including audio and ebooks. Children can collect 'record breaking' stickers for each book read to add to a free poster. Read 6 books and you will be awarded with a medal and certificate.
The Summer Reading Challenge has grown from year to year since it began in 1999. Children who participate in the challenge are able to keep up their reading skills over the school break and return to school continuing where they left off.
On Thursday 2nd July, children in Year 2 visited the Oxford Synagogue and The Vineyard Centre (Home of the Vale of Aylesbury Vineyard Church).
The visit was a great way of supporting the children's learning about Judaism and Christianity in RE. At the Synagogue, we were able to view the building, learn about Jewish tradition, customs and worship, and discuss artefacts. At the Vineyard Church the children viewed the worship space, learned all about the 'Storehouse' and heard about the church's community work.
It is wonderful for the children to see special places in 'real life' and also to hear directly from people about their faith.
We are very grateful to the wonderful people at each place of worship who gave our staff and children a very warm welcome and a really informative visit.


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War on the Roof: Solar Power Is Encroaching
March 16, 2014 by White House Chronicle 2 Comments
A warning light is flashing for the nation's electric utilities — and it is getting more persistent.
The utilities, big and small, for- and not-for-profit, are facing serious disruptive technology. The old business models are in danger.
The unlikely disruptive technology that is causing the trouble is rooftop solar power.
Back in the energy turbulent 1970s, solar was a gleam in the eye of environmentalists who dared to dream of renewable energy. It looked like a pipe dream.
Very simple solar had been deployed to heat water in desert homes since indoor plumbing became the norm. Making electricity from the sun was many orders of magnitude more complex and it was, anyway, too expensive.
The technology of photovoltaic cells, which make electricity directly from the sun, needed work; it needed research, and it needed mass manufacturing. Hundreds of millions of dollars later in research and subsidies, the cost of solar cells has fallen and continues to go down.
Today, solar certainly is not a pipe dream: It is looking like a mature industry. It is also a big employer in the installation industry. It is a player, a force in the market.
But solar has created a crisis for the utilities.
In order to incubate solar, and to satisfy solar advocates, Congress said that these "qualifying facilities" should be able not only to generate electricity for homes when the sun is shining, but also to sell back the excess to the local utility. This is called "net metering" and it is at the center of the crisis today — particularly across the Southwest, where solar installations have multiplied and are being added at a feverish rate.
Doyle Beneby, CEO of San Antonio, Texas-based CPS Energy, the largest municipal electric and gas utility in the nation, said, "The homes that are installing solar quickly are the more affluent ones." The problem here, he explained, is that the utility has to maintain the entire infrastructure of wires and poles and buy back electricity generated by solar in these homes at the highest prevailing rate — often more than power could be bought on the market or generated by the utility.
Steve Mitnik, a utility industry consultant, said that 47 percent of the nation's electric market is residential and the larger, affluent homes — which use a lot of electricity, and generally pay more as consumption rises — are a critically important part of it. Yet these are the ones that are turning to solar generation, and expect to make a profit selling excess production to the grid.
But who pays for the grid? According to CPS Energy's Beneby, and others in the industry, the burden of keeping the system up and running then falls on those who can least afford it.
The self-generating homes still need the grid not only to sell back to but ,more importantly, to buy from when the sun isn't shining and at night.
For some in the utility industry, net metering is just the beginning of a series of emerging problems, including:
Big investments are needed in physical security after the sniper attack last October at PG&E Corp.'s Metcalf transmission substation, which took out 17 huge transformers that provide power to California's Silicon Valley.
New investment is needed in cybersecurity.
Improved response to bad weather is a critical issue, especially in some Mid-Atlantic states.
Beneby believes the solar incursion into the traditional marketplace might be the beginning of more self-generation — such as home-based, micro-gas turbines — and utilities will and must adjust. He is something of a futurist and points out that in telephones, once a purely utility service, disruption has been hugely creative.
Environmentalists are as disturbed as the utilities. Some are calling the imposition of a surcharge on rooftop generators, as in Arizona recently, an attempt by the greedy utilities to stamp out competition. But many are seeking alternative solutions without a war over generating, and without punishing those unable to afford their own generation.
Brian Keane, president of SmartPower, a green-marketing group with solar-purchase programs in Arizona and many other states, has looked for cool heads to prevail on both sides of the issue. "I don't have an answer," he said, calling for dialogue. Also the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group, has been talking with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
It isn't your father's electric utility anymore, or your hippie's solar power. — For the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate
Filed Under: King's Commentaries Tagged With: CPS Energy, disruptive technology, Doyle Beneby, Edison Electric Institute, electric utilities, Natural Resources Defense Council, SmartPower, solar power
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My Adventures With Classified Documents
It is easy to start hyperventilating over classified documents. It isn't the classification but what is in the documents that counts. Much marked classified is rubbish. I have been around the classification follies for years. In 1970, I did what might be called a study, but it was just a freelance article on hovercraft use […]
Utilities Have the Transition Blues — No Way From Here to There
A perfect storm is gathering over the electric utility industry in the United States. It may break this year, next year or the year after, but break it will. That is the consensus from utility executives I have been talking to over the past month. Several issues together amount to a clear danger of widespread […]
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