The EAL department is here to support students in learning English as an Additional Language (EAL). When students come to the school their English language support needs are assessed and support is provided where necessary.
For all EAL learners, in particular for early stage learners, high expectations are essential. Many students are studying our curriculum in their second, third, or even fourth language.
We aim to provide all students with high expectations, to enable them to articulate their ideas and achieve their full potential across the curriculum.
Knowing two languages gives children many advantages, but learning a new language takes time. At first, a child may just want to listen in class and not talk.
This 'silent period' is natural during the first stages of learning a new language.
EAL learners generally develop conversational fluency within a year or two. This involves use of high frequency words and simple grammatical constructions.
Maintaining home language is important. Bilingualism is educationally enriching and has a positive effect on academic performance.
As standard, an induction programme is provided for students who arrive with little or no English. In-class support is provided for these students of up to four/five lessons per week.
Homework club for all year groups.
Young Interpreter Club for Years 7-10.
Enrichment Activities for newly arrived students to the UK.


You can find more Grand Island alumni who participated in activities at Classmates.com®. Click here to join Classmates.com® for free and to view GIHS profiles.
Did you participate in high school sports or high school activites when you attended Grand Island High School in Grand Island, New York? If you did, you can register as a member of the alumni directory and select the various school activities you were involved in.	The main activities at Grand Island that have members on this site were Art Club, Band, Basketball, Cheerleading, Drama, Football, Music, Newspaper, Soccer, Softball, Student Council, Tennis, Track, Volleyball, Wrestling and Yearbook.
You can also find out what other graduates are doing now, share memories with other alumn, upload pictures from Grand Island High and find other alumni.


The 2019 Ford Mustang Shelby Gt 350 will get a brand new exterior colour, Satin Steel Gray Metallic. Moreover, hatchback fashions at the moment are available with the diesel engine. The 2019 Ford Mustang Shelby Gt 350 received a five-star general security rating from the NHTSA (out of a doable five stars). In IIHS evaluations, the 2019 Ford Mustang Shelby Gt 350 Interior, Exterior and Review has only been tested in aspect and moderate entrance overlap impression assessments where it acquired a Good score (Good is the highest attainable score). It additionally acquired a Basic score on the IIHS' front crash prevention take a look at for having an accessible forward collision warning system (Superior is the highest score for the entrance crash prevention check).
This is the story of the brand new 2019 Ford Mustang Shelby Gt 350, really. It's packed with features and demonstrates a classy mechanical prowess, however it's particular about issues. It's clinical and exact, in some methods to a fault, however balanced with obvious value and features. Like the hit man, the 2019 Ford Mustang Shelby Gt 350 is no nonsense up entrance, but there's an underlying heat and desire to please when you get to understand it.


Becoming the world's first $1 trillion company in August 2018 was yet another major milestone for Apple, a company founded in Steve Jobs' garage back in April 1976. So what did Apple's four-decade journey to $1 trillion looks like?
The company's first product was the Apple-I, a computer designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak, Apple's co-founder. The following year, Apple-II was released and chosen as the desktop platform for the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers.
After Jobs visited Xerox PARC in the late 1970s, he became convinced that all future computers would use a graphical user interface (GUI) and immediately began the development of a GUI for the Apple-Lisa. The Apple-Lisa, the first personal computers to offer a GUI, was released on January 19, 1983. By this time, Apple had already become a public company after conducting an Initial Public Offering of 4.6 million shares at $22 per share in December 1980.
Almost exactly one year after Apple-Lisa made its debut Apple introduced the Macintosh computer on January 22, 1984. The release of the Macintosh is remembered for the futuristic commercial that aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII.
The Macintosh initially sold well, but follow-up sales were significantly more miserable, and soon a power struggle developed between Steve Jobs and Apple CEO John Sculley. After a heated meeting with the board of directors, Steve Jobs resigned as chairman of Apple on September 16, 1985.
Do you want to know what happened next? Then don't miss the comprehensive infographic below by The Watchstrap.co!


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This site hosts HydroBuddy - a software I programmed - which is the most popularly used open source calculator for the formulation of hydroponic nutrient solutions and fertilizers. This software has been helping hobby and commercial growers prepare their own fertilizer formulations from 2011 with more than 10 thousands downloads in its lifetime. There are also many peer reviewed academic publications that have used hydrobuddy. Feel free to use or modify this software for your nutrient preparation needs. It's free and OpenSource! Get the software here.
Through my blog I also share my insights and experience in hydroponic culture. From how to properly use and calibrate sensors to the peer reviewed effects of nutrient additives I strive to make this blog a reliable source of high quality practical information for both the commercial hydroponic grower and the enthusiast alike. This blog has been ranked as one of the top 50 hydroponic blogs on the internet by feedspot.
I provide nutrient related consultation services for the hydroponic industry.
My name is Dr. Daniel Fernandez and I have worked as a consultant for the past 5 years in the hydroponic industry. I have a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a masters and Ph.D. in nanoscience and nanotechnology. With my experience in nutrient solution chemistry and management I hope to help you take your crops to the next level.
I provide different types of services to suite your particular needs.
I understand that not everyone needs the same type of assistance and I have therefore designed three specific type of services depending on your needs .
An hourly consultation service where you can ask any questions and get answers to help you solve problems (120 USD/hour).
A service for the formulation of a specific hydroponic nutrient recipe for your particular needs coupled with guidance in preparing this formulation.
An on-going consultation service where you will have me available to answer questions and help guide you through your nutrient needs as your crop or hydroponic project progresses.


The Sevana Tan 12-inch tall Women's cowboy boot features a golden brown exterior crafted from quality leather that's slightly distressed giving this boot a vintage feel. The striking turquoise stitching along the upper pairs perfectly with the scalloped turquoise leather cutout along the collar. Its diamond cut pull straps and elevated heel provide a fashionable edge and this boot also features the J-Flex Flexible Comfort System® insoles with removable open cell polyurethane orthotic inserts for maximum cushion and support.
I have had my boots for three years now and they still function like they are brand new. The leather hasn't worn out and the soles are still perfect. My boots do have a few scuffs as I use them to ride and work, but that just adds to the character. I would definitely buy again, but right now my pair works just fine.
I've had these for over a year, and they have help up pretty well. The leathers marks up easily, but are great work boots. Overall, I would buy them again.
I bought these boots a few months ago and they are the best boots that I have ever own! The rich brown leather is even more breath taking in person. These boots are both comfortable and they don't break the bank! I love being able to walk into the office on Fridays showing off my country side with these bad boys!
I bought these in "tan" to wear for my best friends wedding; however, they are dark brown with little bits of "tan" where the boot stretches. I dint like this at first glance but warmed up to it. They look like the year have gone throw it, vintage. I absolutely love them and received so many complaints for them at the wedding. I also got them wide (I have big crafts) and half size bigger. They fit perfect!
I bought my boots a week ago. I'm a 7.5 in boots. I got a 7.5 and they fit a bit big. They're still stiff. But once I break them in they will probably be alot easier to put on and wear.Over all I truly love them! Best boots I bought in years!
I just got my boots in the mail today from boot barn, and was so excited. I absolutely love the way they look except they fit way too widely in the bridge part of the foot, and I suppose it's just me but the right foot was a lot bigger than the right foot.
These boots are great, I love them so much. I go everywhere and do everything in these boots.
I have had these boots for almost a year and they are great! They were a lil stiff at first (as most boots are), but after wearing them for a while they were very comfortable. Very easy to clean.
Tried on so many different brand boots and I chose these. They are so beautiful. LOVE the style the square toe. Love the color of the natural leather. I normally wear an 8.5 and I bought an 8.5. Perfect fit!! I love Justin boots !!!


text:
India Nears Gender Parity in Classroom, But Lags Behind in Adult Literacy
India and the World
The girls-to-boys ratio in primary classes is 1.02 now (file photo: Indian Express)
The good news is India has made significant progress in the last 15 years in boosting school enrolment, and is also close to gender parity in the classroom, according to a global report by UNESCO. The bad news, however, is the country is lagging behind in adult literacy and in checking the growth of private schools in urban slums.
The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2015 notes that the girls-to-boys ratio in India's primary classes is already 1.02 while that in secondary school is 0.94.
"In fact, India is predicted to be the only country in South and West Asia to have an equal ratio of girls to boys in both primary and secondary education," says the report, released in Delhi by HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday.
India has brought out-of-school children down 90 per cent since 1999. Gross enrolment in pre-primary education touched 58 per cent in 2012, in comparison to 19 per cent in 1999.
"Improvements in early childhood education, universal primary education, the huge reduction in out-of-school children and gender equality are big achievements for India, a country where more that 220 million children are in schools," said Aaron Benavot, the report's chief author.
Irani said initiatives to improve enrolment and "a new paradigm of education that fosters knowledge, analytical skills, vertical reasoning and the ability to imagine beyond the given is being adopted". Enhanced focus was being laid on science and mathematics, she said.
However, the report cites the 2014-15 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) to point out wide disparities in students' basic skills across states, and highlights the growing number of contract teachers and teacher absenteeism.
In 2014, the proportion of all children in class 5 who could read a class 2 textbook was up by a minuscule 1.1 percentage points – from 47% in 2013 to 48.1% in 2014. This implies that every second class 5 student in rural India cannot read the text of a class 3 levels below, the ASER report said.
UNESCO's report also criticizes India on three counts: the large number of illiterate adults, the quality of learning outcomes and the mushrooming of private schools in urban slums.
Of the 781 million illiterate adults worldwide, 265 million are Indians, the report said.
"The one measurable goal that India did not reach was to reduce its illiteracy rate by 50%… Women represent the majority of illiterate adults with 68 per cent of illiterate adults in India being women," it noted.
- Karan Singh
India's schools now have an equal ratio of girls and boys, and that's a big deal (by Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post)
Progress on gender equality in schools, universal education: Unesco (by Prashant K. Nanda, Mint)
Gender parity in Indian class, 90% out of school are now in (by Shikha Sharma and Ruhi Tewari, Indian Express)
Gender equality: India lags neighbours on several counts (CNBC-TV18)
India College Chain's Expansion into U.S. Draws Opposition from Massachusetts Officials over Quality of Education
Milk Shortages in India Tied to Release of New Movies Featuring Nation's Favorite Stars
Confusion Swirls around Kashmir Newspaper Ban in Wake of Violent Street Protests
Polio-Free for 5 Years, India Launches Vaccine Drive after Polio Strain Discovery
New Aviation Policy Could Increase Service, Lower Ticket Prices

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


International Justice Mission is a human rights organisation that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.
IJM rely on many individual donors to continue operating. They were using the Charity Choice website to handle donations, which at the time did not support recurring giving and took donors away from the site to a slightly clunky interface. IJM needed to improve the donation process.
We upgraded the site from Drupal 6 to 7 and then installed CiviCRM. We then implemented CiviCRM's powerful contributions system to set up a donation page and provide on site payments through integration with Paypal Standard. This required us to provide SSL security and PCI compliance to ensure the security of donors' payment details. We also customised the visual appearance of the contribution pages to improve the user experience and make it clearer to donors where their money goes.


text:
Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Primary Faculty
Research Associates & Postdocs
BCS Staff
BCS Major
Neuroscience Major
Minors and Clusters
Current Student Resources
Funding and Financial Support
Research Approaches
Associated Departments & Centers
Fostering a Healthy Scientific Culture
How to Educate Yourself
Meet the DEI Committee
Surviving a Stroke Propels Career in Brain Research
On a warm day in July 2005, Frank Garcea's soccer playing days came to an abrupt end when he suffered what could have been a deadly stroke during a practice with his teammates. Instead, the events of that day and his subsequent treatment – which serve as the basis for a review published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) – set him on a career path that would ultimately lead to a Ph.D. studying how the brain recovers from injury.
358 Meliora Hall


How to Love and be Loved | Our hearts are wrapped in protection, layers of materials like iron or brick that create a fortress around our most sensitive beings. When these materials arrived for the first time, they came as friends, for our hearts, since the young people did not know how to rest defenseless. We needed to harden ourselves to survive. But an aspect of growing means realizing that our greatest strength is that which we have come to condition ourselves to believe is our greatest weakness: a softened heart is a wise heart, and it no longer needs the armor it thought it needed to protect it.
Safety, as an adult, means dropping defenses. It means leaving those we love in our innermost chambers. It means saying "I do not know" or "Yes, maybe that too" instead of being entrenched in one position. It means running the risk of being vulnerable, which by definition is a helpless state. It means communicating from the origin of the feeling rather than from the defense, attack or projection, which means saying: "I'm afraid" instead of "My partner is not funny enough" or "I feel hurt" instead of "It's It is not right for me "or" I am distressed "instead of" She is not beautiful enough ". It means moving towards our partner even when the hardened material of fear or doubt tries to convince us to move away.
How to Love and be Loved | For those who struggle with the anxiety of the relationship, fear is the wall. Fear manifests as anxiety, doubt, confusion, lack of sexual desire and ambivalence. Each of these states composes a brick in the wall of its fortress, and each one needs attention to soften and dissolve it. When we dissolve the bricks, we allow love to flourish.
This is a process, of course, which means that it takes time to soften what has taken years to consolidate. And we need the tools and plans to know how to break the bricks on our walls. We need to know what loving actions are required to dismantle the barricades or cross the pit that separates us from the one we love. Because it is an action that softens the control of fear and its action is what creates a ship that crosses the waters that separate.
Love actions are YES, while any action rooted in fear / separation is a NO practice. Whatever we water will grow, which means that when watering the ways in which we separate - listening to doubts, criticizing, scolding, projecting - the abyss grows. On the contrary, when we irrigate the YES practices, we learn to approach our partner in thought, word and action, shortening the gap and creating the closeness that we long for.
How to Love and be Loved | The first step to soften the walls, as I teach in depth in the first week of my 30-day Open Your Heart course, is to identify your walls. Everyone's walls may look or sound slightly different, but they generally fall into predictable categories and, once you name them concretely, they become easier to detect. Fear is not as smart as we think; It has a finite number of tactics and lines, which means that once we can identify them we can call them to the mat. The first step is always to name.
From the appointment, we commit ourselves to the other daily practices that help us to dissolve the barriers that keep us separated under the illusion of security. Once again, what served when we were young - these defenses developed from the wisdom to keep us protected when no one else was protecting - no longer serves. Much of the path of the conscious relationship is to undo unhealthy habits and replace them with healthy habits. These new healthy habits that are designed to promote sincere heart, genuine attraction and true love are what I teach in my course. Open your heart.
I recently removed the cover of one of my defensive habits for life. I will share the details of this awakening in one of the weekly phone calls in the next round of Open Your Heart, but for now I will say that every time I see another layer of furtive fear, I am grateful and humble. I do not remember how early I learned this habit, but I know that it has been with me for a long time and I know that it has created an incalculable pain in my marriage, since I pushed the husband out of my heart through these micromomentos. to say NO instead of YES. When we submit to the maneuvers of fear in any way we grow separation and we stop being a team player. And although we need a strong sense of Self in order to fully surrender ourselves to the risk of sincere love, we must also be able to enter into the mentality of WE instead of ME and YOU. Fear erodes WE from fear is always a manifestation of the separation mentality.
[How to Love and be Loved] In The Book of Joy, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu repeatedly talk about the need to break down our barriers globally as we move from a history of I / you to one of US. We are the same human, they teach. We are seven billion together on this planet. Your story is my story and, finally, we all want the same thing: love and be loved, live a meaningful life, be healthy and happy. For those of us who work in the world of relationships, we make this global decision and reduce it to a very personal level as we learn how to soften the walls of fear by naming them, working with them consciously and then choosing another path. The more times we choose the other route, the more we connect the brain again in the connection direction.
If you want to be able to identify and name your walls of fear and learn the loving actions YES that will help you join your pits so that you can open your heart to love, please join me for my tenth round of Open your heart: A Program 30 days to feel more love and attraction for your partner, which will begin on March 10, 2018. Let us unite as we learn to take another step in perhaps the most important task that has been entrusted to us on this planet: love and be loved.


Microbes drive almost every food chain on Earth, using just about anything for energy and interacting with one another in countless ways. But how on Earth do they work?
In the seas, in the soil, on our skin, in our gut – even in sewage treatment plants – microbes play pivotal roles in health and disease. To decipher how they work and how they influence each other, their hosts and the environment, scientists throughout the world are sharing and comparing vast amounts of information, all supported by EMBL-EBI.
A microbiome is an ecosystem of microbes: bacteria, viruses and other creatures invisible to the naked eye. Microbes are masters of their environment, growing everywhere from icy permafrost to boiling deep-sea vents, and influencing more of the living world than you might imagine.
Microbes are the great nitrogen fixers in our soil – in fact, with the right balance of them you can reduce the need for fertiliser to grow crops. They play a crucial role in our digestive systems – as anyone who has suffered an upset stomach after taking antibiotics knows from personal experience. They rule the seven seas, too – the microbiota in our oceans play a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide, helping to sustain a healthy atmosphere.
Every one of us depends on these ecosystems to stay alive, so we have a lot to gain from understanding how they work, fall apart and recover. For example, if you spray detergent to clean up an oil spill, you might break up the oil nicely but the detergent will stick around in the environment, potentially affecting marine life forms – effectively, you would be solving one problem only to create another.
Alternatively, you could use the right combination of microbes to remove that oil by breaking it down into harmless compounds like sugar. That would make it much easier to restore the microenvironment to its original state.
The tricky thing is that most microbes are very difficult to study outside the context of their communities. This means scientists can't grow the microbes in a Petri dish and analyse them in isolation. Instead, they must study the whole environment, looking at all the genetic material in a sample and trying to tease out what organisms it came from.
Describing microbiomes in detail – making a community directory – is really difficult, as the individuals aren't easy to pinpoint.
So how do you find out who's who, what they're eating, and how they function? How can you pin down a beneficial chain of events in a given microbiome, such that you can manipulate it – returning it to health after the chain has been interrupted – or turn it to some new use, like sewage treatment or biofuel production?
If we know what makes a microbiome function, we can figure out how to keep it healthy, or fix it when it's disrupted.
Humans are pretty good at sequencing DNA these days – everything from whole genomes of people and plants to pathogens lurking in a hospital environment, identified on-the-fly.
But DNA sequences are pretty meaningless unless you can compare them to a reference. That can tell you whether it's a known sequence (which is pretty important) and, if so, what it is and what's special about it. Then again, you might discover that a sequence is novel, because there is no reference in the public archive.
So far, so good. But what if you want to sequence a spoonful of soil, a bucket of seawater, a stool sample, a scraping of skin, a little patch of the forest floor – each of which has millions of microbes and an untold number of DNA sequences? You'll end up with a huge amount of new information, all of which you want to compare to a reference archive at once.
Yes, it does work. Studying the DNA sequences of a whole environmental sample, whether it's from the sea or your skin, is called 'metagenomics' – literally, the study of genomes within genomes.
"You can take a mixture of microbes from an environment and use computational approaches to identify what's in there, skipping the part where you separate out and culture individual viruses and bacteria," explains Guy Cochrane, who runs the European Nucleotide Archive – a major source of reference sequences and, as part of the International Nucleotide Sequencing Consortium (INSDC), the engine driving much of genomics research today. "Collecting, sequencing and comparing samples is something scientists are pretty good at, so we can provide a strong start towards understanding what these communities are doing biochemically," he adds.
"With environmental samples, you have to sequence so much stuff!" says Rob Finn, who runs EMBL-EBI's Metagenomics data service, which contains tens of thousands of analysed datasets representing genetic material from environmental samples.
Anticipating disease outbreaks is an incredibly important application for metagenomics. The COMPARE project, an international pathogen-surveillance network, uses genome sequencing technology and rapid data sharing to speed up the detection of infectious disease outbreaks.
COMPARE is working to set up monitoring of sewage treatment plants in cities throughout the world, looking at which bacteria are circulating in a population, and what infectious diseases may be brewing.
"In COMPARE, our colleagues are using advanced methods, including some developed in Rob's team, sharing data as it is generated and using our cloud compute for some of the analyses. So they don't have to worry about the infrastructure – they can get on with figuring out how these things are moving from place to place and evolving," says Cochrane.
Microbiome research, like cancer research, is very, very broad and endlessly complex. It's a poster child for 'interdisciplinary research', demanding expertise in many areas of science.
It is endlessly fascinating – and useful – to see how life processes are connected and influence one another.
The human microbiome can be considered akin to the brain or another organ. After all, our bodies contain a substantial number of both parasites (the agents of disease) and symbionts (providing essential functions). At EMBL, several research groups are collaborating to understand the human microbiome and its role in our lives.
The importance of plankton in maintaining the Earth's climate cannot be understated – their communities absorb a staggering volume of CO2 from the atmosphere and release oxygen in exchange. Yet only a small fraction of these life forms have been classified and analysed.
To address this gap, EMBL scientists initiated and led the Tara Oceans expeditions: an unprecedented effort that resulted in 35,000 samples of seawater, each of which contained millions of small organisms. The samples, studied using advanced microscopy from EMBL, were sequenced at Genoscope in France, generating over 7000 datasets. Teams of researchers all over the world delved into this richly described collection, bringing to light 40 million novel genes and a raft of discoveries about life in the world's oceans.
Where can you find Tara Oceans data, and other marine datasets? At EMBL-EBI, of course.
Comparing Tara Oceans, Ocean Sampling Day and Malaspina marine datasets has already provided insights into the profound differences between the microbiomes of deep, shallow and coastal marine waters.
Genome technology is advancing so quickly that it can be difficult to keep pace. EMBL-EBI teams work with researchers, data providers, technology companies and even biotech start-ups to make sure the right machinery is in place to keep science moving.
"Our goal is building knowledge, not just gathering data," says Paul Kersey, who leads the Ensembl Genomes project at EMBL-EBI. "If you want to understand something as complex as a microbiome, you've got to have the best possible data on every level, and provide intelligent ways to cross-link and query them. It only works if you can present new information in the context of what is already known.
Our job is to normalise the data […] and connect it all up so that people can slice across it in interesting ways.
"It's all very exciting, and scientists are easily tempted to jump in and gather data very quickly, using the latest kit, and upload it into an archive as an afterthought," says Cochrane.
"Our job is to normalise the data – no matter what technology was used – and connect it all up so that people can slice across it in interesting ways. That's how you get researchers finding novel genes that influence diseases like Crohn's, or discovering cold-loving enzymes that can take the place of detergents," adds Finn.
Microbiome research is very new, and changing rapidly as new technologies and approaches widen the range of questions we can address. At EMBL-EBI, the Finn team is collaborating with a company called BioCatalysts, using metagenomics to discover novel enzymes that could have industrial applications. Discovering these enzymes using a data-driven approach rather than carrying out chemical synthesis experiments would curb the generation of chemical waste.
Want to know more about life in the seas? On 21 June, every year, the Micro B3 project invites sailors, skippers and anyone working in marine research to participate in Ocean Sampling Day (OSD), a simultaneous sampling campaign of the world's oceans, from the subtropical waters around Hawaii to the rather brisk rapids of the Fram Strait in the Arctic. By taking samples at the same time every year, the hundreds of scientists taking part in OSD are describing microbial diversity and function, which at present is very poorly understood, and identifying trends over time. Not working on a boat or in marine science? The OSD Citizen Science campaign welcomes everyone to collect marine microbes and environmental data to help scientists piece together a better understanding of the world's oceans.
Want to know more about the human gut microbiome? The my.microbes project (initiated by EMBL scientists), the British Gut Project and the American Gut project all welcome citizen scientists to provide samples and information about diet and lifestyle. These projects, taken together, will help map the gut microbes of human populations throughout the world, building an understanding of how lifestyle choices and diet influence our microbiomes, and therefore our health.


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America's fast-food chains are contemplating replacing minimum wage workers with robots — and it could lead to a crisis
Minimum wage increases are sending shock waves across the fast-food industry.
On Tuesday, Jack in the Box's CEO said the fast-food chain is considering swapping some cashiers with robots as the minimum wage rises in California.
"As we see the rising costs of labor, it just makes sense" to consider adding new automated technology, CEO Leonard Comma said Tuesday at the ICR Conference.
Jack in the Box previously tested technology such as kiosks, and found they resulted in a higher average check and helped with efficiency. However, Comma said, installing the kiosks was too great of a financial investment — at least until now, as minimum wages are rising.
Facebook/Jack in the Box
Jack in the Box wasn't the only fast-food chain to announce it was considering cutting employees as minimum wages increase.
Burger chain Red Robin announced on Monday that the chain estimates it will save $8 million this year by eliminating bus boys from restaurants. The West Coast-centric chain said it already saved almost $10 million by cutting expediters, the people who plate the food in the kitchen, The New York Post reported.
"Probably the most challenging thing we're facing in the industry right now is labor costs," Red Robin CFO Guy Constant said.
Minimum wages are increasing in 18 states in 2018, including California and Washington, where Jack in the Box and Red Robin are respectively based.
Robots on the rise
McDonald's self-service kiosks Thomson Reuters
In 2017, Wendy's announced plans to install self-ordering kiosks within a year. McDonald's is adding kiosks to 2,500 stores, though it pledged not to replace cashiers with kiosks. Walmart — which announced Thursday it is giving workers a pay raise— has been testing automation in the form of shelf-scanning and floor-cleaning robots.
Smaller chains such as Eatsa and CaliBurger have been working on automating the entire restaurant experience.
"With government driving up the cost of labor, it's driving down the number of jobs," then-Carl's Jr. and Hardee's CEO Andy Puzder told Business Insider in 2016. "You're going to see automation not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants."
Other executives say that the trend towards automation isn't purely a money saving play.
"The way history goes, automation is a natural. If you look at your phone, that's a form of automation," Dunkin' Brands CEO Nigel Travis told Business Insider.
If all Dunkin' Donuts customers ordered and paid using their mobile phones, Travis says the chain would be able to cut 30% of labor in stores. However, he says, Dunkin' Donuts biggest challenge in 2018 is finding enough workers who are good at their jobs, which can result in understaffing.
Automation "doesn't have to be a replacement" for human workers, Travis said. "It can be a natural support for running the business."
Automation has the potential to radically shrink the number of restaurant industry jobs, especially entry-level positions. Currently, the restaurant industry makes up roughly 10% of the American workforce.
Automation is a threat to 800 million jobs, according to a study by McKinsey Global Institute.
Read More: http://www.businessinsider.com/minimum-wage-increases-spur-fast-food-chains-to-consider-automation-2018-1?utm_content=bufferf4af1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer-ti
Are we about to see the end of universities as we know them?
Our 'modern' Congress doesn't understand 21st century technology


Capital repayments allowed up to 10% of the amount outstanding at the time of the rate switch, in each of the first 2 years, without an Early Repayment Charge.
An Early Repayment Charge of 1% applies to any repayments made over the 10%.
After the discount rate period the loan reverts to the SVR.
During the first 2 years any additional amount paid above the 10% permitted will be subject to an Early Repayment Charge of 1% of the amount repaid. Following receipt of the lump sum payment, the amount that you owe, and so the interest you pay, is reduced immediately.
If you move house during the discount period you may be able to transfer these product terms, up to the amount of this loan. You can only transfer these terms if you occupy the new property and it is within England and Wales. The loan to value must be no greater than 95%. The new loan must complete at the same time you redeem this loan and you must still meet the Society's lending criteria at that time.
A mortgage of £139,251.00 payable over 26 years and 8 months initially on a discount rate for 2 years at 2.04% and then on our current variable rate of 5.24% for the remaining 24 years and 8 months, would require 24 monthly payments of £564.56 and 296 monthly payments of £790.76.
The total amount payable would be £247,739.40 made up of the loan amount plus interest (£108,363.40), Mortgage Discharge & Sealing Fee (£75.00) and Despatch Of Title Deeds Fee (£50.00).


This undated postcard shows Castle Hill and Little Virginia, with the keep of Kenilworth Castle looming behind. An abundance of foliage has sprung up in the intervening years which means the castle itself is now obscured but the remainder of the scene is largely unaltered.
Obscured by the foliage (far right in the 'now' photo), is a modern house on the corner of Castle Hill and Elizabeth Way, which would stand in the way of the view of the castle today. Having lined up the equivalent aerial view on Google Maps I believe the white gable end visible in the distance (far right in the 'then' photo) was the end wall of the Queen & Castle, now obscured by a modern extension to the pub.
Old maps of the area show this stretch of the hill labelled as New Row, although historically it was known as Bull Hill. There is a, possibly apocryphal, explanation for this name in connection to the Great Siege of Kenilworth and the events July 1266, when the papal legate Cardinal Ottobuono, wearing his red cope, excommunicated the rebels inside the castle. It is said that he delivered this Papal Bull of Excommunication from a safe vantage point at the top of Castle Hill which became known as 'Bull Hill'. A more mundane explanation could be simply to do with nearby cattle from the drovers road or horn comb industry, in the same way that many towns have a Bull Ring or Bull Stake, sometimes with grizzly connections to the sport of bull baiting.
Rob Steward explains in The Inns and Roads of Kenilworth (Odiborne Press, 2000) that New Row replaced the former Union Row, and that the lower stretch of the hill was once known as Clinton Green. Graham Gould expanded upon that in Kenilworth History 2011 following the discovery of some deeds: "Now it is possible to give the documented history of New Row from 1750, the time when both sides were fields except for houses on Bull Hill. Bull Hill is from 2 New Row to the east side of Malthouse Lane, a new road – this can be seen from the 1841 census. It can also be seen on the Deed of Inclosure 1756 which states "by the new intended Road leading from Bull Hill to the new Road leading from Odiborne Lane to Rudfin Lane" (the 'new intended road' is now Malthouse Lane and the latter road Beehive Hill). The only other properties at this time were on the other side of the road opposite Quarry Lane (the original name of Malthouse Lane), and Little Virginia. The road from New Row to the Ford at this early date was called Millbrook Lane".
Also in Kenilworth History 2011 we find a reference to a footpath, which still runs alongside Elizabeth Way, that was known as "The Craves (the 'a' is pronounced as in 'halves'). This is the path from Bull Hill (top of Malthouse Lane/Elizabeth Way) to Clinton Avenue, shown on the 1925 Ordnance Survey 25" map as 'The Slack'. However, local people know this path as the Craves. In the English Dialect Dictionary 'craves' is defined as a 'marshy place'". Elizabeth Way, seen on the right of our 'now' picture, did not open until 1970.


text:
Q: Windows Docker MSSQL with SSIS and MS-Access connectivity I am trying to create a Dockerfile (must be Windows containers) to run MS SQLSERVER with SSIS and connectivity to MS-Access. The images on Dockerhub do not include either.  NOTE: I am a noob to Docker and can find very little help for non-linux Dockers. So,
FROM microsoft/mssql-server-windows-developer

or, is it
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/aspnet:4.7.2

...
COPY Jet40SP8_9xNT.exe c:`\

And where do I get SSIS from?

A: I have just come across this series of blog posts from 2018
https://andyleonard.blog/2018/12/ssis-docker-and-windows-containers-part-0-getting-started/
It looks like it will solve the SSIS portion of your question, but I do not know if it will solve the MS Access problem

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The year of 2017 was the year of breakout actors. It was also the year when Manav Kaul received immense appreciation for his role in Tumhari Sulu. The actor starred as Vidya Balan's husband. Though Manav has been doing theatre and films for the longest time, he has always received critical acclaim for his roles. After starring in films like Kai Po Che, and CityLights, Manav's light-hearted character in the film won hearts. The actor had amazing chemistry with Vidya Balan in it which worked wonders for the film.
Just a day ago, there was a reunion. Manav Kaul shared a photograph on Instagram with his Tumhaari Sulu co-star Vidya Balan and marked the cute reunion. After one year, Manav and Vidya reunited for a secret project. They shot something together as Manav admitted missing the actress and facing the camera with her. Though it is unclear whether this was for some film or an ad, it really makes fans hopeful that the beloved on-screen would reunite for a film.
In 2017, Vidya Balan starred as middle-class housewife named Sulochana aka Sulu. She worked as a night radio jockey in Tumhari Sulu. Manav Kaul played her doting husband in the film. Neha Dhupia played Sulu's boss.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Manav Kaul has been roped in to star in a Netflix series with Radhika Apte. According to the official synopsis, Ghoul, a horror series based on Arabic folklore, is set in a covert detention center. Nida, a newly minted interrogator who turned in her own father as an anti-government activist, arrives at the center to discover that some of the terrorists held there are not of this world. Written and directed by Patrick Graham, it will be a unique series with several supernatural twists tracing Nida's battle for survival.
Vidya Balan, on the other hand, will produce the Indira Gandhi biopic. It is based on journalist-author Sagarika Ghose's biography Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister. She will producer under the banner Vidya Balan Films, quite separate from her husband's SRK Productions.


The brand new thriller featuring Investigative Analyst Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht of the Stockholm police. On a cold winter's day, a pre-school teacher is shot to death in front of parents and children at the Jewish Congregation in Stockholm. Just a few hours later two Jewish boys go missing on their way to tennis practice. A heavy snowstorm hits Stockholm and the traces of the perpetrator are few and far between. Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht are faced with one of their toughest challenges ever as they hunt for a killer that seems as merciless as he is effective. The leads in the investigation are many and diverse but in the end they all point to the same place: Israel. Someone or something called the Paper Boy keeps popping up in the police investigation. But who was he really? And could he possibly have resurfaced in Stockholm, now claiming new victims?


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text:
Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie
# Green Party
Ryan sets target of 10% of electorate voting Green in 2024 elections
Ryan was delivering the keynote speech at the Green Party conference in Athlone.
GREEN PARTY LEADER Eamon Ryan has said he wants 10% of the electorate to vote for his party in the 2024 local elections, which would see a total of 100 Green city and county councillors.
Speaking at the party's conference in Athlone this evening, Ryan said the Greens were "proud to be the antidote" to populism and "shallow, quick fixes that won't work".
He said: "Some politicians play off people's fears for the future to ferment uncertainty and division. They promote simplistic and divisive solutions to complex problems.
"You don't solve difficult issues with populist rhetoric, you do it with hard work, and honest negotiation. You do it by putting the country's long-term interest first even if you might have to take a short-term hit.
The Green Party is proud to be the antidote to such populism. We are willing to be the party that offers lasting solutions to this country's problems rather than shallow quick fixes that won't work
Ryan spoke extensively of his party's track record on environmentalism since entering government in 2020, including how "we Greens stand up for the Irish family farm.
"We want a whole new generation of farmers and foresters who will be paid well for managing our land, delivering high quality food and protecting nature. They will be our heroes, who help save the world one field, one parish and one county at a time."
He also listed Green ministers' achievements in government, including Equality and Integration Minister Roderic O'Gorman: "I saw how he set about the herculean task of temporarily housing the 65,000 displaced Ukrainians and international refugees that came to our country over the last year."
O'Gorman did this, Ryan said, "not [by] passing the buck or running for cover but working in a calm and compassionate way to provide refuge for people in need.
"That kind of delivery is what the Greens in Government are all about, promoting real measures that help people in their everyday lives."
Returning to climate action, he said: "We do all that while also keeping an eye to the bigger picture.
It's astonishing how other parties in the Dáil say they are all for climate action and the environment but they run for the hills the minute a tough decision comes their way.
"Or worse still, they cite all the reasons why it shouldn't be done without ever suggesting an alternative.
"You don't overcome generations of environmental neglect by making sympathetic comments. You don't cut emissions just by tweeting about it.
He said that by the time the current government finishes its term in 2025, the country "will be powered by the sun."
"As I speak, some 70% of the power of this country is coming from renewables.
"We will focus on that responsibility and then head into the next local and European elections with a determination to deliver even more. I am setting set a goal tonight that one in ten Irish people will vote for this green future in those next elections.
"Such a result would bring in 100 green councillors, a new generation ready to serve both our people and the planet. I am confident that one in ten will cast their vote for the interests of the next generation. For their grandchild, niece or nephew, son or daughter or child next door.
"This is not a time for staying on the bench or sitting on the fence. We are in the fight of our lives and we are all in it together."
Emer Moreau
emer@thejournal.ie
@emermoreau
EAMON RYAN GREEN PARTY GREEN PARTY CONFERENCE GREENS
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Live and let live, or live and let die?
We've seen what happens when species is lost from an ecosystem. Actually, we are continuing to see this happening in pretty much every ecosystem on the planet. Loss of biodiversity is not an issue that is alien to us (certainly not alien to the readers of this blog). I've gone into this in greater detail in Earth's Paradox: Greater complexity, more stability, which you can take a look at.
But what happens when we add extra species into an ecosystem? Does that even happen? It happens more often than you think. As a consequence of our "messing around" with nature, we inadvertently introduce a lot of new species into the ecosystem. They are called alien species. These species can get invasive and destroy the biodiversity of the area; then they become invasive species. But what if they aren't "invasive"? Will they have a significant affect on the ecosystem?
Insertion of species: Competition or coexistence?
The insertion of new species can have multiple effects. This depends on two factors: interspecific and intraspecific competition. Interspecific competition is between the two different species present in the ecosystem. Intraspecific competition is the competition between individuals of the same species.
For example, if humans invaded a forest and established agricultural land, the competition for resources between elephants and humans will be interspecific. This is also called contest. The competition for resources among different families in the human settlement will be intraspecific (the competition between individual elephants is also intraspecific). This is called scramble.
Depending on the dynamics of these two factors, three conditions will arise.
In this condition, there is greater competition between the two species than within the species. From the above example, the elephants and humans are competing with each other rather than amongst themselves for resources (interestingly, the entire plot for Planet of the Apes is based on this phenomenon). In such situations, one of the species is completely removed and the other survives. Generally, the species that started out with a greater population tends to survive such competition.
Here, there is a dominance of scramble. The humans are too busy fighting for land among themselves to worry about elephants, and the elephants seem to be doing the same thing. An interesting outcome arises because of this. Due to such high competition within a species, neither species is able to attain maximum population density in the ecosystem. Their need for resources, therefore, which be much less. This will allow both species to coexist.
Often, this situation leads to resource partitioning, which is also something I explained in the hypervolume niche blog (click on the link above).
In this situation, there is a pretty much equal level of competition between species and within species. So, the humans continue to fight for larger chucks of land and resources, but also recognize the presence of elephants in the area. They also do not want the elephants to have the resources.
This is the most common situation that is found in real life ecosystems, especially when humans are one of the interacting species. What do you think this results in?
It results in the complete obliteration of one species, while the other triumphs. The one that triumphs and survives is the fitter species of the two. In human-animal interactions, obviously it is the humans who come out on top.
Why is it important to understand these relationships?
Humans have caused insertion of many species in ecosystems around the world. Often, they are themselves the invasive species. Understanding the competition dynamics helps us mitigate them better.
Wherever humans are involved, the competition generally results in long-term human-wildlife conflicts. Understanding competition dynamics helps us manage and conserve animal populations by deciding on the right mitigation measures.
Competition and the survival of the fittest organism is the reason we see the organisms around us. However, today the competition has arisen due to a lot of artificial influences, that is not only reducing species diversity but also decreasing heterogeneity in the ecosystems. This is a major cause of concern; therefore it should be studied and mitigated.