Staples Wins New York Fed Competition with Paper on “Metaverse Virtualization as a Solution for Climate Change”
NY Fed Press Release:The Federal Reserve Bank of New York today announced the results of this year’s High School Fed Challenge, an academic paper competition in which student teams researched and analyzed an economic theme, then wrote podcast scripts reflecting their research. The selected podcast scripts will be published in this year’s issue of the Journal of Future Economists, which will publish this summer.
The theme of this year’s competition was the economics of climate change. The schools and podcast scripts that will be included in the journal are as follows, listed by school name, in alphabetical order:
Chaminade High School of Mineola, NY; The Drowning Effect of Climate Change: Real Estate Prices and Mortgage Volume Plummet as Sea Levels Rise
Cliffside Park High School of Cliffside Park, NJ; The True Cost of Tourism
Eleanor Roosevelt High School of New York, NY; Eek!onomics: The Economy is Melting!
Glen Rock High School of Glen Rock, NJ; Spilling the Beans About Coffee: A Forecast of the Effects of Climate Change on the Coffee Industry
Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics of New York, NY; Climate Change: A Threat to Poor Communities' Economic Equality
Horace Greeley High School of Chappaqua, NY; Fishy Business: Climate Risks to the Agriculture and Fishing Industries
Kearny High School of Kearny, NJ; Money Talks Podcast
Niskayuna High School of Niskayuna, NY; Climate Change Has an Effect So Real, You Can Taste It: The Impact of Climate Change on Small Businesses Within the Apple, Maple Syrup, and Tomato Industries
Shelton High School of Shelton, CT; Making It Rain: How A Green Future and Healthy Economy Can Coexist
Staples High School of Westport, CT; Metaverse Virtualization as a Solution for Climate Change
Stuyvesant High School of New York, NY; Green Investment and its Impact on Climate Change
Syosset High School of Syosset, NY; Overcoming the Challenges of “Greenwashing” to Promote a Sustainable Economy
Vestal High School of Vestal, NY; Crypto's Climate Crisis
Walt Whitman High School of Huntington Station, NY; Climate Conversations: A Discussion on the Circular Economy
West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North of Plainsboro Township, NJ; Geekonomics: The Federal Reserve System and Climate Change
“The mixture of rigorous scholarship and creativity we saw in this year’s submissions deeply impressed the educators and professional economists who reviewed the entries,” said Heather Daly, director of economic education at the New York Fed. “The selected teams all demonstrated an ability to ask important questions, research those questions collaboratively, and present their findings in a lively and engaging manner.”
The High School Fed Challenge aims to encourage students in ninth to twelfth grade to learn more about economics and promote economics as a subject for study and a career possibility. Students are not required to have studied economics to participate.
From 1995 to 2020, the High School Fed Challenge was conducted as a competition in which teams played the role of monetary policymakers by analyzing economic conditions and making a policy recommendation. Teams traveled to the New York Fed in lower Manhattan for three rounds of elimination competition, each of which was judged by New York Fed employees.
The New York Fed changed the High School Fed Challenge to an academic paper competition in 2021 to encourage broader participation. The theme for each year’s competition is announced in September.
In addition to hosting the High School Fed Challenge, the New York Fed’s economic education team has a host of free resources for educators. The team has drafted worksheets and lesson plans on the flow of money, redlining, and the economic impact of COVID-19; a series of comic books on the economy, available in English and Spanish; and a series of interactive worksheets spotlighting pathbreaking economists. The New York Fed also conducts classroom visits and professional development training for teachers and hosts the College Fed Challenge in the fall.
“We want students to know that economics is open to them as both a field of study and a possible career,” Ms. Daly said. “We see this competition and our other resources as a way to swing open the doors to this important field that impacts their own lives and communities every day.”
Westport COVID-19 Cases Up 26; State Positivity Rate, Hospitalizations Up
The State Department of Public Health reported 26 more cases in Westport over the past day. The State’s daily test positivity rate was up to 13.41% while hospitalizations were up 30 patients, with 361 patients currently hospitalized for COVID-19 throughout the State.
Westport total positive or probable cases: 4,810 cases.
Westport total COVID-19 Deaths: 36 deaths
State Daily Test Positivity: 13.41% [up from 13.05%]
State Hospitalizations: 331 patients [+30]
Westport PD Responds To Medical Call At Dog Festival
The start of the very popular Police K9 demonstration was interrupted at the last minute when Westport Police K9 Officer Jimmy Loomer was called to respond to a medical issue with one of the festival visitors. The issue was not serious and may have just been a little dehydration possibly as a result of the very warm afternoon temps. Westport Police Corporal Brendan Fearon assisted Officer Loomer.
Photo by J.C. Martin for WestportLocal.com
Westport Dog Festival Celebrates All Things Canine
One of The Westport-Weston Chamber of Commerce premier events drew well over 2,000 humans and more than 800 dogs of every shape, size and pedigree (or not) to Winslow Park on Sunday. Sketchy weather in the morning caused some concern however the clouds and gloom turned to sunny skies which was very welcome considering weather issues in the past have caused postponements. Visitors had much to see and enjoy with over 60 vendors offering all things on the contemporary dog's wish (or must have) list. Multiple adoption and animal rescue organizations including Adopt-A-Dog, Lucky Dog Rescue and SNARR helped match potential dog adopters with their new best friends.
Photos By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
The various contest winners included Best Dressed- Zsa Zsa, Best Barker- Odin, Best Kisser- Peppa and Best Lap Dog (really?) over 50 pounds was won by a 90 pound retriever named Tucker. Double honors went to Frankie who was chosen Best Tail Wagger and also Best Trick.
The Dog Lovers Days Lure Course returned to the festival again this year offering dogs, and sometimes their owners a chance to catch a lure which runs at high speed on a wire which most dogs find irresistible and which runs through a path with obstacles the competitors must navigate. The winner with the best time was Zelo who was rewarded for his efforts with a year's supply of dog food.
Felines were not forgotten. T.A.I.L.S., The Alliance In Limiting Strays (tailsct.org) the Westport based Cat Rescue organization also had a strong presence. One of the NY metro area's premier rescue operations, the North Shore Animal League, based in Long Island, NY provided their Mobile Unit, a custom built extended van which holds two dozen or more cats to TAILS to help in their mission to adopt the many stray cats and kittens found in our area and which they currently have housed with their group of volunteers. North Shore helps support TAILS by generously providing this vehicle at no charge to TAILS for the festival as well as their monthly adoption events held each month at Petco, Post Road Westport.
Photos By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
Morning Weather Report
Today
Sunny, with a high near 73. West wind 8 to 15 mph.
Tonight
Clear, with a low around 51. Northwest wind 6 to 10 mph.
Tomorrow
Sunny, with a high near 71. Northwest wind 9 to 11 mph.
Tomorrow Night
A 40 percent chance of showers, mainly after 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 52. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming south after midnight.
Rainbow Returns to Saugatuck after Stormy Afternoon
As storms continued to move out of the region heading West, a sliver of a rainbow could be seen greeting the evening commuters as they headed home through Saugatuck this evening. WestportLocal.com photo
Westport COVID-19 Cases Up 74 over Weekend; State Positivity Rate 13.05%, Hospitalizations Up 8
The State Department of Public Health reported 76 more cases in Westport over the weekend. The State’s daily test positivity rate was down to 13.05% while hospitalizations were up 8 patients, with 331 patients currently hospitalized for COVID-19 throughout the State.
Westport total positive or probable cases: 4,784 cases.
Westport total COVID-19 Deaths: 36 deaths
State Daily Test Positivity: 13.05% [down from 13.71%]
State Hospitalizations: 331 patients [+8]
Diana Jones Headlines Voice Cafe June 11th for Refugee Benefit
Voices Cafe Press Release:
Award winning singer/songwriter Diana Jones will be at Westport’s Voices Café on Saturday evening June 11th, at 8:00pm, in-person and live streamed. Voices Café is located at The Unitarian Church in Westport, 10 Lyons Plains Road, Westport. Doors open at 7:30.
This concert is raising funds for the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants’ (CIRI) Apartment Set Up Team who settle refugees in Fairfield County. CIRI has been settling refugees in Connecticut for 104 years. The Apartment Set Up Team began 7 years ago and is comprised of volunteers, primarily from 6 area faith communities.
Refugees arrive with just the clothes on their backs. They need housing and everything from a toothbrush, to pots and pans, to a bed. Funds raised by this concert will be used to purchase these items.
Over the past 6 months 72 volunteers have set up 41 apartments in Bridgeport and New Haven for 194 refugees. The value of the furniture and supplies donated and purchased, estimated at $48,000, is priceless to refugees.
David Vita, Director of Social Justice at The Unitarian Church in Westport said, “World Refugee Day (June 20), the recent surge of Afghan refugees, refugees arriving from countries like Ethiopia, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the imminent arrival of Ukrainian refugees plus Diana Jones’ commitment to this cause made her the logical choice for Voices Café’s June performance.”
Diana Jones’ signature storytelling is at its best with her award-winning Song To A Refugee, reflecting deep empathy for, and common cause with the plight of refugees. Jones is known for giving voice to dispossessed people, and her voice will stay with you, “...at times haunting, at times heart-breaking, and always challenging”, says Down at the Crossroads.
Jones’s inspiration for Song To A Refugee came through a chance encounter with actress Emma Thompson in New York City, and at a time when Jones was recovering from a serious illness. Although her health was improving, artistically Diana felt at a loss. At the same time, Diana found the harsh reality of what was happening at the US-Mexican border particularly distressing; scenes of mothers separated from their children resonating with her own experience as an adopted child. After the chance meeting with Emma Thompson in a NYC park, Diana Jones was called out of her writer’s block. Says Jones, “for a lot of us there’s that one person we would love to meet and for me it was Emma… she was so kind and passionate, especially about the refugee crisis.”
Jones began to write the stories that she found so devastating, one voice at a time. “My own need to ‘re-humanize’ the people who were being dehumanized by governments resulted in a flood of songs,” says Jones. One of the album’s strengths is Jones’ ability to inhabit the characters about whom she is writing, from the woman walking miles to the US border carrying her child, to the young children separated from their parents fleeing their homeland, giving an immediacy to their stories while illuminating the more generic themes within.
Diana Jones has been a major literary voice in contemporary song since her 2006 breakthrough album, My Remembrance of You, which garnered rave reviews. This album set her on a path which would see her release four further critically acclaimed albums: Better Times Will Come (2009), High Atmosphere (2011), Museum Of Appalachia Recordings (2013) and Live In Concert (2016). She has toured the globe, including performances at Cambridge Folk Festival, Galway Arts Festival, Levon Helm’s Ramble in Woodstock, NY, and Bimhuis in Amsterdam, and shared stages with the likes of Richard Thompson, Janis Ian and Mary Gauthier.
Jones’ progressive, yet historically rich, songs have been recorded by artists including Joan Baez and Gretchen Peters and have won her awards from Kerrville New Folk Festival, New Song Festival and nominations from International Folk Alliance.
She is rooted in the Appalachian traditions of her birth family and has proven unusually adept at distilling complicated cultural forces down to a particular person in a particular time and place. When Jones was reunited with her birth family in her twenties, she spent time with her Tennessee grandfather. “I decided to throw out my previous songs,” she says, “and go to the woods and ask my grandfather and my ancestors for help.” That decision yielded such powerful songs as “Pretty Girl” and “Pony”, which came from a story told by her grandfather about children removed from their families to go to Indian Schools.
With Song To A Refugee, Jones continues to give voice to the dispossessed, and bring awareness to social justice issues, taking her place in the lineage of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. “I believe we all want to get involved and give each other hope,” Jones says, “how can any of us look away?”. Don’t miss this opportunity to see Diana Jones, and support arriving refugees settling in our area. https://www.dianajonesmusic.com/
Super Flower Blood Moon Provides Late Night Spectacular
A compilation of last night’s lunar eclipse as it continued to provide a show for all awake to enjoy it. Photos by Nancy Lally for WestportLocal.com