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Jay Foster - page 7

Jay Foster has 123 articles published.

FIND RESTAURANTS OFFERING TAKEOUT, DELIVERY OR CURBSIDE PICKUP IN CROYDON

Published on in Croydon/Food

We Deliver Croydon is your home dining resource and delivery guide. When it’s time to eat, simply pull up our site, and browse our up to date list of good eats that are delivered in your area!

Times may be uncertain, but you can count on We Deliver Croydon to provide you with up to date information on the food you want delivered to your door or picked up curbside. Stay safe.

 

 

 

http://localresources.mycroydonlocal.info/keepingitlocal

From 7pm tonight Nando’s and McDonald’s to close all UK restaurants

Published on in Food

Reports from bbc news are that McDonald’s will close all 1,270 of its restaurants in the UK by the end of Monday, as fears over the spread of coronavirus escalate.

Nando’s has also said it has closed its approximately 400 restaurants in the UK “until further notice”.

Costa Coffee, sushi chain Itsu and sandwich bar Subway also planned to close their UK branches on Monday.

On Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said restaurants and cafes must close, but exempted takeaway food places.

The three chains said they wanted to protect the wellbeing of staff and customers during the coronavirus outbreak.

Man walks past Nando'sGETTY IMAGES

McDonald’s employs around 135,000 people in the UK, the majority of which are on zero-hours contracts.

The chain said staff employed directly by the company would receive full pay for their scheduled hours until 5 April.

By that time it expects the government’s financial aid package, announced on Friday, to have kicked in, with staff paid 80% of their wages.

A spokeswoman told the BBC she expected McDonald’s franchises, which decide their own pay policies, to follow suit.

Previously, McDonald’s had closed its seating areas but had continued to offer takeaway and drive-through services.

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McDonald’s UK boss, Paul Pomroy, said: “Over the last 24 hours, it has become clear that maintaining safe social distancing whilst operating busy takeaway and Drive Thru restaurants is increasingly difficult and therefore we have taken the decision to close every restaurant in the UK and Ireland by 7pm on Monday 23 March.

“I have been clear throughout this that we would only continue to operate whilst it was safe for our people and together with our franchisees, we feel now is the time to make this decision.”

Last week, Mr Pomroy had said the chain would stay open as “for as long as it is safe to do so”.

However, it reduced its opening hours and cancelled its annual Monopoly promotion, where prizes included a number of foreign holidays and cruises.

In a tweet posted on Sunday night, Nando’s said its bosses had “decided that the best course of action right now is to temporarily close our restaurants”.

It said the health and safety of its customers and staff was its “highest priority”.

Nando’s has about 20,000 staff in Britain.

Costa is to close 2,000 branches by the end of Monday.

A spokesman its hospital branches would remain open for the time being, and the chain would continue to provide free hot drinks to all NHS workers for the next two weeks.

Its 19,000 staff, many of whom are on the minimum wage, will be paid in full for the next eight weeks.

Soap is a highly efficient way of killing the virus when it’s on your skin

Published on in health

According to the guardian.com using old fashion soap is the best way to kill most virus.

Alcohol-based disinfectants are also effective, but soap is a highly efficient way of killing the virus when it’s on your skin
Man and young child washing hands with soap
 ‘Soap dissolves the fat membrane of the virus – and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and dies.’ Photograph: Flashpop/Getty Images

 

By Pall Thordarson who is a Professor in Chemistry at the University of New South Wales, Sydney

Viruses can be active outside the body for hours, even days. Disinfectants, liquids, wipes, gels and creams containing alcohol are all useful at getting rid of them – but they are not quite as good as normal soap.

 

When I shared the information above using Twitter, it went viral. I think I have worked out why. Health authorities have been giving us two messages: once you have the virus there are no drugs that can kill it or help you get rid of it. But also, wash your hands to stop the virus spreading. This seems odd. You can’t, even for a million dollars, get a drug for the coronavirus – but your grandmother’s bar of soap kills the virus.

So why does soap work so well on the Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus and indeed most viruses? The short story: because the virus is a self-assembled nanoparticle in which the weakest link is the lipid (fatty) bilayer. Soap dissolves the fat membrane and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and dies – or rather, we should say it becomes inactive as viruses aren’t really alive.

The slightly longer story is that most viruses consist of three key building blocks: ribonucleic acid (RNA), proteins and lipids. A virus-infected cell makes lots of these building blocks, which then spontaneously self-assemble to form the virus. Critically, there are no strong covalent bonds holding these units together, which means you do not necessarily need harsh chemicals to split those units apart. When an infected cell dies, all these new viruses escape and go on to infect other cells. Some end up also in the airways of lungs.

When you cough, or especially when you sneeze, tiny droplets from the airways can fly up to 10 metres. The larger ones are thought to be the main coronavirus carriers and they can go at least two metres.

These tiny droplets end on surfaces and often dry out quickly. But the viruses remain active. Human skin is an ideal surface for a virus. It is “organic” and the proteins and fatty acids in the dead cells on the surface interact with the virus.

When you touch, say, a steel surface with a virus particle on it, it will stick to your skin and hence get transferred on to your hands. If you then touch your face, especially your eyes, nostrils or mouth, you can get infected. And it turns out that most people touch their face once every two to five minutes.

Washing the virus off with water alone might work. But water is not good at competing with the strong, glue-like interactions between the skin and the virus. Water isn’t enough.

Soapy water is totally different. Soap contains fat-like substances known as amphiphiles, some of which are structurally very similar to the lipids in the virus membrane. The soap molecules “compete” with the lipids in the virus membrane. This is more or less how soap also removes normal dirt from the skin.

The soap not only loosens the “glue” between the virus and the skin but also the Velcro-like interactions that hold the proteins, lipids and RNA in the virus together.

 

Alcohol-based products, which pretty much includes all “disinfectant” products, contain a high-percentage alcohol solution (typically 60-80% ethanol) and kill viruses in a similar fashion. But soap is better because you only need a fairly small amount of soapy water, which, with rubbing, covers your entire hand easily. Whereas you need to literally soak the virus in ethanol for a brief moment, and wipes or rubbing a gel on the hands does not guarantee that you soak every corner of the skin on your hands effectively enough.

So, soap is the best, but do please use alcohol-based sanitiser when soap is not handy or practical.

• Pall Thordarson is a professor of chemistry at the University of New South Wales, Sydney

This content was not writing by us but by guardian.com

Croydon will be London Borough of Culture 2023

Published on in Croydon

Reports from  to mylondon

Tara O’Connor Local Democracy Reporter 

Croydon, ‘the home of talent’ will be London’s borough of culture in 2023.

It was announced this morning by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan that the borough’s bid was successful.

It means that Croydon will get £1.35 million of funding for a year-long programme of activities.

Council leader Tony Newman said: “This is fantastic news – this award is for all of Croydon and everyone who has worked so hard in our bid.

 

“From Stormzy to our very own Shaniqua, Croydon is the home of talent, with a rich musical heritage as the birthplace of punk, grime and more, with an exciting future ahead.

“We are going to make 2023 a celebration of our town’s wonderful diversity, make everyone proud and repay the Mayor’s belief in us. This is Croydon – and we are incredibly proud.”

Croydon went up against Greenwich, Hounslow, Lewisham, Haringey, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Sutton.

The London Borough of Culture award, was launched by in June 2017, inspired by the UK City and European Capital of Culture programmes.

Croydon’s bid, This is Croydon, has sustainability at its heart.

In 2023 thousands of Croydon residents will enjoy a series of events along the themes of progress, nature, inclusion and growth.

This is set to include art commissions with local communities, a music festival, a ‘reuse and recycle’ fashion show and new employment opportunities for young people.

 

It is expected to involve 20,000 participants, every school, 300 volunteers, audiences of over 250,000 and over 1,500 artists.

 

It was also announced that Lewisham won the accolade for 2021.

Sadiq Khan, said: “Lewisham and Croydon have set out bold and exciting plans that will use culture to deliver real change in their boroughs, and I’m already looking forward to seeing their plans come to life.”

European parliament says it will not use facial recognition tech

Published on in politics

The guardian reports

The European parliament has insisted it has no plans to introduce facial recognition technology after a leaked internal memo discussing its use in security provoked an outcry.

A page on the European parliament’s intranet, seen by the Guardian, suggested that facial recognition could be used “in the context of biometric-based security and services to members [MEPs]”.

 

Titled “artificial intelligence for better services”, the page discussed how such technologies, including facial recognition and AI-assisted translation, would have “consequences on working methods, processes, staff profiles and the contracting of services”.

 

The page on the parliament’s 2019-21 “digital transformation programme” was removed on Wednesday after a prominent MEP and staff unions questioned the potential use of facial recognition in the parliament. A spokesperson for the parliament said: “There is no project of facial recognition in the European parliament,” adding that it was “not foreseen at any level”.

 

The incident is an embarrassment for the parliament, coming shortly before the EU executive is expected to announce a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition technology in public places.

The European commission is expected to announce the ban this month, covering the use of the technology in stations, stadiums and shopping centres and lasting three to five years, to allow regulators time to assess the impact of the fast-developing technology.

The Dutch Liberal MEP Sophia in ’t Veld, who sits on the European parliament’s civil liberties committee, wrote to the parliament’s top official, Klaus Welle, to question how members and their assistants could “benefit” from “biometric-based security and services”, picking up wording used on the parliament’s intranet site.

She also sought information on costs, impact studies and whether such plans would be in line with the EU’s data protection regulations. An internal staff union voiced a complaint in an email sent to all 705 MEPs and many of the parliament’s 7,500 officials. “Ms In ’t Veld, we share your concerns about face recognition in parliament,” said the email from the SGPOE union, which is currently taking part in an internal election. “Why not put staff recognition before face recognition?”

The page was removed shortly after the complaints emerged. A spokesperson said the complaint referred to “an old and outdated draft version” of “an exploratory project” that had been “misplaced on the intranet of the EP”.

“One exploratory project of the EP administration is to study and understand the potentials and threats of AI applied to parliamentary and administrative activities of the institution,” the spokesperson said. “This old draft mentioned facial recognition as a possible field of study, nothing more.

“Data protection is and remains a clear priority of the European parliament and its administration.”

Content written by Theguardian

Young Croydon Nominations Are Open For Croydon’s Next Young Mayor APPLY NOW 2020

Published on in Croydon

Young croydon its that time of year again where you get the opportunity to make an impact on your community.

below is all the information you need to know from the croydon government website

Source from croydongov

Young people who want to raise their voice and have a say in Croydon’s future can now apply to be the borough’s next Young Mayor.

Working with their deputy to champion young people, Croydon’s next Young Mayor will ensure the borough’s youngest voices are heard and help to shape their communities.

Home to more young people than any other borough in the capital, the Young Mayor will represent more than 93,000 young people from Croydon.

The formal elections for the new Young Mayor will take place in spring at schools across Croydon, as well as at community polling stations.

Any young person who lives in Croydon and is aged between 12 and 17 inclusive on 31 August 2020, can apply to be a candidate and nominations are open until Saturday 29 February. Details of the full application process are available online. Email youngmayor@croydon.gov.uk or contact the team on Twitter or Instagram for more information.

There will be four information events for prospective candidates, their parents and teachers. There will be two drop in sessions, one at Legacy Youth Zone on Saturday 8 February from 1.30pm to 6pm and one at Fairfield Halls on Saturday 15 February from 11am to 3pm. Two other information events will be held at Bernard Weatherill House on Wednesday 22 January and Wednesday 29 January, both from 6pm to 8pm.

If you are unable to attend on these dates you can still apply to be a candidate, just contact the youth services team via the Young Mayor email address above for more information.

Once nominated, candidates will have the chance to campaign for support from young people aged between 11 and 18 who live, work or study in the borough.

Croydon’s first Young Mayor, William Awomoyi, and his deputy, Shea Williams, used their mayoralty to launch a fund to help other young people achieve their ambitions. They also organised a jobs fair and represented Croydon at community meetings and the UK Youth Parliament’s Annual Conference; as well as attending the Houses of Parliament and meeting community leaders including Croydon’s Mayor and the borough’s police commander.

“We’re looking for passionate young people who can inspire their peers.

“Croydon’s Young Mayor will keep young people at the heart of the borough’s decision making, giving a voice to young residents and making sure their priorities are heard loud and clear across the borough.”

Councillor Alisa Flemming, cabinet member for children, young people and learning

 

Source from croydongov

6 dates this festive season when Croydon’s parking restrictions will be lifted

Published on in Croydon

Tuesday,December 24,

Wednesday December 25,

Thursday December 26,

Friday December 27,

Tuesday December 31

Wednesday January 1.

 

Councillor Stuart King, cabinet lead for environment and transport, said:

“Relaxed parking restrictions around the holiday season will hopefully make it easier for people to visit friends and family across Croydon.

“However, we’d ask drivers to still be considerate and park sensibly as they would throughout the rest of the year, during these dates.”

Croydon Council thinks it should be named the 2023 Borough of Culture

Published on in Croydon

In the bid to win London Borough of culture 2023,  this is what Councillor Oliver Lewis, cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport had to say:

This is Croydon is the name we have given to our bid to be the London Borough of Culture in 2023.

Croydon is a borough on the rise. Once dubbed ‘Edge City’ with its brutalist architecture, our town is growing and transforming more rapidly than ever before.

And as we regenerate we are proud to be known not for only concrete towers, but for an ever-changing skyline – and as a place of energy, creativity and pride.

Culture has been absolutely at the forefront of our regeneration. I announced our Borough of Culture bid as we reopened Croydon’s iconic Fairfield Halls, following a multi-million pound heritage restoration of this magnificent venue, which has attracted new theatre companies like Talawa and SAVVY joining London Mozart Players, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Chineke! Orchestra to offer a diverse programme that is truly inclusive and reflective of our community.

But Fairfield reopening is only the beginning of our cultural ambitions.

We have been working with a huge range of artists, organisations and venues, locally and nationally, to create new performance spaces and partnerships across our borough.

Our cultural network has flourished as we have helped dozens of grassroots arts groups to grow, with council match-funding to help them leverage grants from organisations like Arts Council England.

As one of the Mayor of London’s Creative Enterprise Zones, we have seen an increase in new studio spaces and creative businesses in our town.

Central Croydon now has six visual arts galleries, while The Croydon Collection of street art is one of the largest in Europe, free and available to everyone 24/7. It was great to see Banksy choose us as the home for his recent installation – one of his largest ever in the UK.

We are Croydon Music City. This is the borough where punk, dubstep and drill were all born, and as we celebrate this rich heritage and develop as a centre for music making and music production, we are experiencing a renaissance in live music, with a surge in major events this year.

From the sell-out Cro Cro Land, bringing guitar bands back to the borough with women equally represented in the line-up and crew, to The Ends at Lloyd Park (nominated under three categories in the UK Festival Awards), our festival scene is flourishing. The record turnouts at Croydon Pridefest and Croydon Mela 2019 -attended by 22,000 people this summer – demonstrate that Croydon’s great strength lies in its diversity and its inclusivity.

This applies not only to music but right across the arts scene. We are proud to be one of only five Youth Performance Partnerships in England, we are creating thousands of new opportunities in theatre, particularly for young people from our most deprived neighbourhoods and BAME backgrounds.

This is Croydon is our plan to build on all of our successes but also put forward a programme that meets some of the challenges we still face. Through ground-breaking cultural events and experiences, we will address important issues such as climate change, inequality and mental health – issues where Croydon has already been leading the way through innovation.

This is Croydon will show the rest of London and the world how the arts can lead system change through and with local communities in order to empower our citizens to write their own futures and to tell their own stories.

kika clinic with mycroydonlocal

Published on in Croydon/Local Business Spotlight

They are a local business committed to improving the health and well being of people in the locality of Croydon. Initiated by  Tony Todd, and now co managed by his wife Sachiko Hatakeyama, it was initially set up as an acupuncture practice, but they have expanded to include herbal medicine, massage, chi kung, yoga and meditation classes.

You can a special deal on your first visit if you mention “Mycroydonlocal” when making a booking

8 Bywood avenue, Addiscombe CR0 7RA,

Call 07815 831 476  or 07791 358 150 

or mail info@kikaclinic.com

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