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This page (together with the documents referred to in it) tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of our website: www.impress.press (our site). Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the site. By using our site, you indicate that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, the use of the site must be terminated immediately.

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2.1 www.impress.press is a site operated by IMPRESS: The Independent Monitor for the Press CIC ("We"). We are a community interest company registered in England and Wales. Our company number is 09655520.  Our registered office is at 16-18 New Bridge Street, London, EC4V 6AG.

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5.1 Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to our site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

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6.1 The photographs of people used within this site to illustrate IMPRESS’s work may depict situations enacted by models and may or may not depict actual situations.

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7.1 We aim to update our site regularly, and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

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British company turns human ashes into vinyl records

Woman listens to vinyl records via Shutterstock

A company called “And Vinyly” — rhymes with “And Finally” — will now process your cremated remains into a 12-inch vinyl record that includes 24 minutes of the music of your choice. According to, for a fee of about $4,600, decedents can will for their ashes to be included in the pressing of 30 vinyl records to be distributed to friends and loved ones.

About Indian Rocks Bridge

We have a HUGE responsibility to protect our children and their futures. Our Gulf of Mexico has nearly been destroyed by the Deep-water Horizon catastrophe and many families here will never recover. Paradise lost, so it goes. I’m doing my best to apolitically educate anyone that cares about the impact on our environment by technology and “for-profit” progress. We forget, too frequently that we SHARE this planet with millions of other life-forms and as the most “powerful” species, we must be more cognizant of our greed versus the well-being of our planet. Thanks again for visiting and please check back often. -Gregg
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Nukes and more nukes for the Jewish state October 3, 2009

Posted by infidelkafirwatch in Uncategorized.
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Anybody unclear that Israel can act illegally and the US gives her a free pass?

President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said.

The officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May.

Under the understanding, the U.S. has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons or to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which could require Israel to give up its estimated several hundred nuclear bombs.


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Kelowna RCMP investigating possible abduction attempt of teenage girl - InfoNews

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Kelowna RCMP investigating possible abduction attempt of teenage girl

Image Credit: FILE PHOTO
November 08, 2016 - 8:51 AM

KELOWNA – RCMP have given the school district a heads up after a 14-year-old girl was offered a ride by a stranger in Kelowna yesterday afternoon.

Police say the girl was waiting in the area of Gordon Drive and Raymer Road around 3:44 p.m., Nov. 7, when she was approached by a man driving a cream-coloured SUV or crossover-style vehicle.

The teenaged girl says the man offered her a ride and said he had balloons, according to a RCMP media release. She didn’t respond and the man drove away.

The suspect vehicle was last seen turning northbound onto Gordon Drive, police say.

“The investigation into this incident continues,” Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey says. “Kelowna RCMP school liaison officers have been engaged and police have been in contact with Central Okanagan School District officials.”

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300. Remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, leaving a tip online at or by texting your tip to CRIMES (274637) ktown.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw or call 250-718-0428 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.

News from © InfoTel News Ltd, 2016
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Rancher calls for action to reduce elk numbers at Alberta military base - InfoNews

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Rancher calls for action to reduce elk numbers at Alberta military base

Rancher Jeff Lewandoski, who's ranch borders CFB Suffield, Alta., talks about the elk problem on the base and his land, Tuesday, July 26, 2016.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
August 01, 2016 - 11:30 AM

SUFFIELD, Alta. - Jeff Lewandoski has a grudging admiration for his biggest enemy but equates the annual elk arrival at his sprawling ranch in southeastern Alberta to that of unwelcome relatives who show up unannounced.

"Every day and all summer long you can chase them away and they still come back," said Lewandoski with a laugh.

Lewandoski has 1,200 hectares and 200 head of cattle on his property at Jenner on the northern edge of Canadian Forces Base Suffield.

The elk were brought to the base in the 1990s after 1,200 wild horses were removed because it was believed they were damaging the grassland ecosystem. Since elk were native to the area it was thought they would keep the grass under control but would do less damage.

However, the initial herd of 200 elk exploded to more than 8,000 animals.

"The elk were kind of a novelty. It was kind of neat to see them when there was only four or five showing up but now, the last five years, we get anywhere from 25 to 100 in here everyday," Lewandoski said.

"They're night grazers. They can just destroy our crops overnight, pretty much just like a lawnmower."

They also knock down fences and there are concerns the elk could spread tuberculosis and brucellosis to cattle.

The Alberta government began issuing hunting tags for the military base, beginning with 200 in 2012 all the way up to 2,100 last fall.

Lt.-Col. John Scott, the base commander, said 1,600 elk were killed last year at Suffield and an additional 300 were taken from surrounding wildlife management areas.

The number of elk at Suffield and the surrounding area is now pegged at about 5,400, but Scott said it needs to be lower.

"Based on what I've seen and read from some of the surrounding municipalities, I think they're looking more at a thousand as the end state. But that's a provincial decision," he said.

An official with Alberta Environment and Parks said there's been a 35 per cent reduction in the herd since 2014.

"Our goal is to get the herd down to around 3,500 in early 2017 and then we'll develop a management plan with the base and stakeholders to get their input to what the number should be," said regional resource manager Rob Simieritsch.

Lewandoski has given hunters full access to his property but wants something more drastic.

"We have to gather three-quarters of this herd and either transplant them to areas of the province that are out of elk or, since we have a bad economy right now, let's fill the food banks with meat."

Simieritsch said a cull was rejected because of a negative public response.

That's not a surprise to Lewandoski.

"These city people don't understand what's going on here. In the country we don't have a voice. There's so few of us and you get 90 per cent of those in town who don't want to cull these elk, then that's what's going to happen."

The hunt next season will be staggered. Scott said the first couple of weeks is like "shooting fish in a barrel" but it doesn't take the elk long to clue in.

"The elk aren't stupid. If you start shooting at them they're going to move to where they're not getting shot," he said.

Thanks to heavy rainfall this year the grazing has been so good on the base the elk haven't been as much of a problem.

Lewandoski is relieved.

"It was all I could think about in May or June, because all I could see coming over the hill is a bunch of elk and I'm like, here we go again," he said.

"There was a couple of years there where I was ready to pull every hair out."

News from © The Canadian Press, 2016
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West Kelowna citizens’ survey in the mail - InfoNews

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West Kelowna citizens’ survey in the mail

Image Credit: Shutterstock
May 11, 2016 - 12:00 PM

The ninth annual citizens’ survey is now in the mail to one thousand randomly-selected West Kelowna residents who have until June 10 to respond.

The survey is one of the tools West Kelowna Council uses in setting priorities for the municipality during budget deliberations and the findings from the survey provide statistically-accurate information about how taxpayers of West Kelowna evaluate municipal services.

Residents are asked to comment on quality and importance on a variety of services. The data is then broken down into a graph that clearly indicates when a larger than normal discrepancy exists between service level and importance and whether a service exceeds, meets or falls short of taxpayers' expectations. With eight years of results now available, trends can be observed on what services may be declining or increasing in quality.

As in previous years, the 2016 survey was created using City of West Kelowna staff and supplies with just printing and mailing costs incurred. Similar polls cost thousands of dollars.

The deadline for submission is Friday, June 10. If you didn't receive a survey in the mail and would like to participate, you can obtain a copy by visiting the city’s website, www.westkelownacity.ca/citizenssurvey or pick one up at Municipal Hall, 2760 Cameron Rd., West Kelowna.

News from © InfoTel News Ltd, 2016
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Book Reviews, Historical

Review – ‘Suite Française’ – Irène Némirovsky

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I picked up Suite Française in search of a heart-wrenching tale of love, loss, and war, and although I did get some of that, I think that what really makes Suite Française an emotional experience is the story behind it, not the story in it. As a book, it reads beautifully, but the structure and story itself didn’t sit right with me at times, but it serves as a marvellous insight into life during the French Occupation in the Second World War, as does the story of Némirovsky and her novel’s publication.

Suite Française was originally planned as a series of five stories narrating the lives of ordinary French citizens living in the Second World War under German occupation. However in 1942, about halfway through the creation of her novel, the author Irène Némirovsky, a Jew, was arrested and died in Auschwitz. The notebook containing this story was preserved by her daughters, and almost sixty years later in 1998, the story that she had written was published. Although I expected this novel to be a passionate love story, a sort of Birdsong-esque novel, I was surprised to find that this was much more. What Némirovsky accomplished was to create a looking glass into life in provincial France during the Occupation, an insight into the minds and lives of its people as they tried to resist Germany’s influence in their lives, while having to live alongside their German occupiers.

AN55349772Mandatory-CreditbSuite Française is split into two novels – the two that the author had completed before her arrest. The first, ‘Storm in June’ follows a group of panicked Parisians as they flee the city under threat of invasion. These characters range from the wealthy Péricand family, the author Gabriel Corte and his mistress, and Maurice and Jean Michaud who must flee Paris on foot after being abandoned by their employer and planned travelling companion, and who are grieving for their son who is missing. The second part of the novel, ‘Dolce’, is set in a small French village a year after the first, and focuses on the Angellier household. In this house, Lucile, whose husband is a prisoner of war, is living with her mother-in-law. When a German officer, Bruno von Falk is billeted to their house, Lucile struggles as she begins to fall in love with the officer. Elsewhere in the village, tensions between the French and Germans rise as Benoît, a farmer, takes an intense dislike to the German in his house.

Although I enjoyed the various different characters, I don’t think that the structure of the book flowed well at all. For the first part of the book, ‘Storm in June’, I found it hard to keep reading and frequently grew bored. The characters were given one chapter before moving on to a different, unrelated character, as they aimlessly travelled through the French countryside. If these characters stood out clearer in my mind as human beings, I may have been more interested in their stories, but instead Storm in June felt like a mess. On the other hand, I couldn’t put down this book when I was reading ‘Dolce’. It was far more unified as it focused on a smaller group of characters, their stories, and relationships, rather than hopping around different stories. Rather, with ‘Dolce’ I felt invested in the story I was reading, and genuinely cared about where it would go. Once I had struggled through the first half of this book, everything was fine.

Suite-Francaise-CoverWhat I really enjoyed about Suite Française – or to be precise, ‘Dolce’ in Suite Française – was Némirovsky’s commentary on the situation at hand. The passages where she described the French and Germans living side by side were fascinating, and I particularly enjoyed her questioning of their differences. At the end, when the German troops are ordered to move on, there is a passage which highlights the complexities and conflict in the relationships between these people; they had lived together for months, had shared stories of their lives, had made friends, but now they were at war again. The relationship between Lucile and Bruno is another example of this. As they grow closer, they deny that there are any differences between them, and you believe that they can defy all odds, but it becomes tragically clear that the fact they are on opposing sides is still a barrier.

Lucile and Bruno’s relationship was beautifully written, although I feel that it lacked passion and emotion. Although Némirovsky described the characters discussing the issue of their nationalities, and suggested that they had overcome their differences, I didn’t understand why they loved each other. In fact, from one scene to the next, Lucile was suddenly exclaiming her love for Bruno with no explanation of how their relationship developed to this point. It seems unrealistic to me that their love simply grew out of a few conversations – especially when these conversations were not written for us to read. If this relationship had been a little more believable, the story itself would have felt more emotional to read, and the ending would have been even better.

Overall, Suite Française was an interesting book, and at times somewhat exciting, but overall I think it was a little too soft. I would have liked for there to be more tension, and to have felt more of a connection with the characters. On the other hand, Némirovsky’s description of life in Occupied France was fantastic; it simply would have been the icing on top of the cake if the smaller details and the lives of individual characters had been equally well explored.

Book Reviews, Historical

Review – ‘Go Set A Watchman’ – Harper Lee

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55 years after audiences first met the characters of Scout, Jem, Atticus, Calpurnia, and more in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, Harper Lee’s new (old) novel Go Set A Watchman has hit the shelves. This marks the first time in a long time that I have been so excited for a book to be published that I preordered it, and I awaited the book’s arrival eagerly. Although I don’t think Go Set A Watchman is as moving as its predecessor and despite the story being extremely simple, I did enjoy the book and the opportunity to revisit characters like Scout.

Screen Shot 2015-07-17 at 22.03.29Go Set A Watchman is set in 1950s in Maycomb, that is, two decades after the story in To Kill A Mockingbird. Scout now goes by her proper name Jean Louise and lives in New York but has returned to Maycomb to visit her elderly father, Atticus. However, while staying in Maycomb, Jean Louise’s saintly view of her father is shattered as she learns that he is a member of a racist group opposing the end of segregation. Over the course of Go Set A Watchman, Jean Louise grapples with this revelation, and must decide whether she continues following her father’s word as gospel or stands firm in her own view. In other words, whether she is able to stand firm in her convictions knowing that the man she most admires disagrees with her.

Although Go Set A Watchman sounds like a sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird – and in a way, is just that – it is more of a draft/alternative. There are mere references to what would become central storylines in To Kill a Mockingbird, like Tom Robinson’s trial, which has one vital difference in this book. Furthermore, an equally vital component of To Kill A Mockingbird, Boo Radley, is not even mentioned in this book. That means that, for those readers like me who were eagle-eyed and waiting for references of what happened to certain characters or to read about Jean Louise’s memories again, there would have been some disappointment. Even more upsetting though, was what felt like the mere seconds that was given to Calpurnia’s reappearance. Calpurnia, who is such a personality in To Kill A Mockingbird, barely spoke, and let’s not even talk about Jem. However, there were some new characters like Henry, or Hank, and some new stories that entertain. I particularly enjoyed the story about Hank, Scout, and her ‘falsies’, even if it wasn’t really a part of the main story, it contributed and took me back to Scout’s familiar narrative.

Harper-Lee-UKAnother aspect of Go Set A Watchman that you may have heard of recently regards what feels like changes being made to characters that go right to the core of how we see them. For one, Scout, our dear Scout, is no longer ‘Scout’ but now Jean Louise, the name she shoved aside as a child. Her spunky, rebellious attitude has faded, and Scout – I mean – Jean Louise now wears dresses. The closest we even get to dungarees in Go Set A Watchman is slacks. However, to be fair, people do change and so I accept Scout’s superficial changes because at heart, Jean Louise is still our Scout. Her perspective in life is exactly what I would have expected her to grow up thinking. She is frequently referred to as ‘colour-blind’ and struggles to live in a world and with people who aren’t, and struggles to deal with the realisation that the people closest to her and who made her who she is are now revealed to be different to what she thought they were.

On the other hand, both ours and Jean Louise’s vision of Atticus is torn apart in this book. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus is different to all the racist, prejudiced people of Maycomb. Scout in the narrator of the story but Atticus is the hero. In this book,  Jean Louise stumbles upon Atticus attending a Citizens’ Council meeting in the Maycomb Court, the same place where as a child she saw her courage defending Tom Robinson, a black man accused of rape by a white woman even though he knew he’d been “licked” before the case began, and introduce and listen to white supremacist speakers campaigning against the work of the NAACP, the end of segregation, and the right to vote of black Americans. Although passages such as reading extracts from the speech, or hearing Atticus’ remarks about why he wants to keep segregation, were sickening, Harper Lee wrote the book so masterfully that I felt the same betrayal as Jean Louise. We are made to understand Jean Louise so deeply that we feel like retching and screaming and fighting with her, and that, to me, is a sign of brilliant writing. In fact, many writers cannot achieve that same level of connection between their readers and characters, but I felt as if my own hero had stabbed me in the back.

Screen Shot 2015-07-17 at 22.06.20Recently, there has been much whispering about Go Set A Watchman and whether this portrayal of Atticus as a racist will ruin the experience of To Kill A Mockingbird for readers. In response, I believe that this is a mistaken belief. When I first began reading the passages where Atticus is shown to be a racist, I too feared whether I could ever enjoy the story again, but when I reached the scenes where Jean Louise discusses her feelings with everybody from Hank, her Uncle Jack, to Atticus himself, I felt like Harper Lee was taking us on a journey of discovery with Jean Louise. The main journey in this book is not about how Atticus ‘became’ racist, but is about Jean Louise’s journey to independence and confidence in her own beliefs. As Uncle Jack puts it, Jean Louise must destroy the vision of her father as a God in order to know herself, and must find her own sense of morality.

Still, I think that Go Set A Watchman also makes an interesting point about racism in society. Atticus is largely a good guy, at least in To Kill A Mockingbird, but in Go Set A Watchman, he is the same man. He has done the same great things, he is loved by many, but he holds these prejudiced views. Uncle Jack makes the point that Atticus has always lived by the letter of the law, but I feel that what Harper Lee may have been pointing out to us is that the law is not enough to put an end to racism and prejudice. Atticus and Jean Louise talk about a slow end to segregation and racism being necessary, but Lee appears to dispute this. We must try to put an end to racism in all parts of society and our lives, not simply relying on the law to do our work for us.

To conclude, which I feel I must do in order to stop myself rambling for days on end, I think Go Set A Watchman is an enjoyable, interesting book and that Harper Lee was truly successful and bringing us into what felt like a close relationship with the characters. I don’t think that Go Set A Watchman would have have been anywhere near as successful as To Kill A Mockingbird if it had been published 55 years ago, and I am thankful that it wasn’t, or we wouldn’t have had all of the beautiful, complex stories that Lee gave us, but as a (sort of) sequel, it works. It works because we can revisit characters and places that we have seen before, and it works because we see Scout undertake another massively significant journey of discovery.

Have you read Go Set A Watchman? What did you think? Comment below.

Unlikeable Main Characters?

Some characters are undeniably likeable; Lizzie Bennet, Scout Finch, Jo March, Ned Stark. There are some that are almost too nice, these are the ‘Mary Sue’ and ‘Gary Stu’ characters, or the manic pixie dream girls (think Zooey Deschanel, Ferris Bueller and the first bunch of Disney princesses); the characters that authors and scriptwriters try endlessly to force you to like, the Edward Cullens, the Bella Swans.

Everybody loves finding a character that you love. It’s one of the things that people frequently comment on when they describe why they did or did not enjoy a book, a television series, or a movie. But is it a necessity to like the main character in a book that you’re reading?

Screen Shot 2015-07-13 at 16.54.50There are several shows or books that I have stuck with purely out of love for a particular character. For example, I only stopped watched Mr Selfridge once it became clear that the endearing Agnes Towler would not be returning to the series. But is likability a prerequisite for a good protagonist? Many of the books, shows, and movies I’ve loved have been led by characters that are not all that nice, or who really got on my nerves throughout the course of the story. While reading Great Expectations, I often wished I could jump into Dickens’ world and beat Pip around the head with a bat (but I did love Estella), and there are, of course, the characters that we love to hate (or simply love), like Cersei Lannister. On the other hand, some characters make me want to abandon a story completely. Chloe Winters in ‘Someone Else’s Fairytale’ drove me up the wall with her prejudiced views, and Mary in Downton Abbey is infuriating.

So what’s the difference? Clearly, what decides whether we enjoy spending our time with a character is whether they are well-written, not whether we think they would be nice to have as a friend in real life. We have to feel like we are choosing to like the character, not like we’re being forced to by being shown how amazing and perfect they are.

Downton Abbey S5 The fifth series, set in 1924, sees the return of our much loved characters in the sumptuous setting of Downton Abbey. As they face new challenges, the Crawley family and the servants who work for them remain inseparably interlinked. MICHELLE DOCKERY as Lady Mary Crawley. Photographer: Nick Briggs

It’s why we react differently to characters who appear to have many of the same characteristics. It’s why Jane Eyre is not a boring main character despite not being Little Miss Perfect like Cinderella. Mary (Downton Abbey) and Cersei Lannister (Game of Thrones) are both cruel, condescending, and selfish, but Mary drives me up the wall and I can’t get enough of Cersei. Although some people like Mary’s cold demeanour, I can’t see the point of it, whereas I understand what motivates Cersei to be the way that she is. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is not a likeable person, but he is interesting enough to entertain us and keep us waiting for the next series (Get a move on, BBC!), in a way that might not be possible if John Watson was the main character, and Sherlock was his ‘sidekick’. Neither Nick nor Amy Dunne from Gone Girl are likeable at all, and yet they both fascinate us and keep us hooked.

What do you think? Should main characters be likeable, or do you have a favourite character who was not likeable at all?


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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Reading Challenge # 25: Chunkster

Since I am reading the mammoth 700 pages long Drood, I thought I'll sign up for the Chunkster Challenge hosted by Wendy and Vasilly . I am signing for the Chubby Chunkster level which means I'll be reading at least four 450+ pages adult novels.

Details and Sign-up, here

1. Drood by Dan Simmons (777)

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Don’t be fooled by the salad!

Don’t be a victim of big fast food chains ability to convince you that what they are about to feed you is actually good for you just because they have marketed it well. The truth may be otherwise.

Take the McDonalds Caesar salad which comes in with a whopping 425 calories and 21.4 grams of fat and compare this to the 253 calories and 7.7 grams of fat in their standard burger. Even if you add a portion of fries to the burger it only ends up 4 calories more than the salad at 429 but still with less fat at 16.7 grams.
On a brighter note, McDonalds aims to withdraw its super-size portion options by the end of the year, possibly due to the amount of blame that is being thrown around for the obesity epidemic that we are now seeing and has been further highlighted in the recent BBC series “The men who made us fat”

For those who wish to see facts you can check out McDonald’s Nutrition Facts

The information quoted in this post can be found at Daily Mail

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2 responses to “Don’t be fooled by the salad!

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Sherlock Holmes

Director: Guy Ritchie
Writers: Michael Robert Johnson/Anthony Peckham/Simon Kinberg/Lionel Wigram
Producers:  Joel Silver/Lionel Wigram/Susan Downey/Dan Lin
Starring: Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law/Rachel McAdams/Mark Strong
Year: 2009
Country: UK/US
BBFC Certification: 12
128 minutes

I went to see Sherlock Holmes last week and I was really looking forward to watching it as the genre is something I’m interested in but this movie doesn’t live up to the hype. Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) and John Watson (Jude Law) are reinvented and they’re about to crack their biggest case yet. After they find and capture “black magic sorcerer” Blackwood, Holmes and Watson can finally have a rest and close the case. Unfortunately, things don’t go so smoothly (otherwise there would be no movie) as Blackwood returns and continues to kill more innocent people. The trailer for the movie looked great but me, along with everyone else, fell under the spell of the trailer being good and the movie being different. The story is average but isn’t very strong and is quite predictable, there isn’t any mystery to it whatsoever and this is supposed to be a mystery-type movie. The fact that good guy chases bad guy and good girl is bad and then turns good is very tiring and is shown how tiring it is through this tedious two-hour movie. The acting was below average except for the talent of Robert Downey Jr who played Sherlock Holmes quite well and Mark Strong who played evil baddie Blackwood. Jude Law was dull as ever as Watson and Rachel McAdams as Irene did nothing for me as I didn’t believe her character whatsoever.

Another thing I didn’t think much of, apart from the annoying bromance between Watson and Holmes, was the slow-motion-then-speeded-up fight scenes with a running commentary through his moves, it made me think I was watching The Matrix and Fight Club instead of Sherlock Holmes, you could easily tell it was Guy Ritchie’s movie just by those scenes. Some character development was there in the movie but the tedious story and the meaningless fight scenes overlapped it altogether. The background music and the locations in the movie fit the mood quite nicely though.

Overall, I would criticise that this is nothing more than a family movie and is something you wouldn’t watch again for a long time. For me, I wouldn’t waste £7 watching it again in the cinemas and it’s certainly a rental, nothing more and nothing less. Pretty disappointing since the trailer could fool anyone into thinking this movie would be great to see.

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Deep Dive into Data Modeling using Power BI and SSAS

The presentation below from  Kasper de Jonge, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft, was streamed earlier today and covers several core data modeling topics including:

  • Bi-Directional Cross-filtering and Many to Many Relationships
  • DAX Variables
  • Query Editor/ M vs. DAX
  • DirectQuery Performance Tips

Two high level takeaways could be A) using M and DAX together (appropriately) and B) thinking through the details of the trade-offs of DirectQuery with In-Memory. Prior to SSAS 2016+ and Power BI Desktop, model design and development was almost exclusive to In-Memory mode and DAX. Now and going forward with SSAS vNext it’s important to be familiar with M language and DirectQuery mode too.

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Aussie Culture

Growing up, though we who lived on the Door County peninsula shared the same Lake Michigan shoreline, another “culture” meant the “townies” versus those of us from the country. (Not sure what they called us.)

Not having many travel opportunities as a child (a big deal to cross the bridge) I longed for travel and appreciated exposure to different cultures.

As an adult, I’ve been blessed to have traveled quite a bit domestically and internationally and the sound of different languages and accents spoken at airports has always been music to my ears.

One place I’ve always wanted to visit, but haven’t yet is Australia.

Only 2% of Australians live in the yellow area

When my youngest son, Nick, left for college, we were pleased to discover that his  roommate was from Australia. Danny had wanted to come to the US and play football for a small southern town where American football was a big deal. He found that at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, where he and Nick were not only roommate but teammates-Nick, a tight end for the Ragin’ Cajuns and Danny, a punter.

Danny-left, Nick-right

Nick enjoyed experiencing another culture through his roommate and shared a few interesting observations from time spent with Danny.

  • When Danny would say, “open the boot,” Nick learned it meant to open the trunk.
  • When the weather turned cold, Danny asked Nick if it was cold enough to “rug up.” Nick came to understand that this meant to wear a sweatshirt.
  • I think it rains more in Louisiana than it did in Australia and Nick had a good laugh when he saw Danny barefooted and bare-chested, sprinting across campus carrying his shirt and shoes. Apparently that’s what they do in Australia when it rains.
  • Nick also had to laugh when Danny learned the phrase riding “shotgun” but would call out “shotgun” then go to the wrong side of the car.

    Danny experiencing an American Fourth of July with Jake (Nick’s big brother) and Nick

Danny returned back to Australia after four years with the Ragin’ Cajuns and Nick hopes to visit him sometime. I just might have to travel with him.

Here are some other fun facts about Australia:

  • Captain James Cook first landed on Australia’s east coast in 1770. In 1788, the British returned with eleven ships to establish a penal colony. Within days of The First Fleet’s arrival and the raising of the British flag, two French ships arrived, just too late to claim Australia for France.
  • Some shopping centres and restaurants play classical music in their car park to deter teenagers from loitering at night.
  • In 1975, Australia had a government shutdown, which ended with the Queen firing everyone and the government starting again.
  • No native Australian animals have hooves.
  • In Australia, it is illegal to walk on the right-hand side of a footpath.
  • Australia has 3.3x more sheep than people
  • If you visited one new beach in Australia every day, it would take over 27 years to see them all.
  • Australia’s first police force was made up of the most well-behaved convicts

Writing prompt: Study a different culture and imagine your character landing in a completely new culture.

3 thoughts on “Aussie Culture

  1. I have always wanted to visit Australia, I’m sure the language would stump me too.. I love their accents! Hmm. that’s a language I think I would have a wonderful time learning 🙂

    • Currently, we have two immigrants from Italy staying with us and it’s a blast getting to understand their culture and learning new words, too. Our friends have never tasted peanut butter and don’t eat meat or eggs for breakfast.

  2. Being immersed in a new culture would be overwhelming. Learning the language, trying new foods and navigating about the area so daunting of tasks. It would be a grand adventure!

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Posts tagged “nike

Nike Air Mag Finally in 2015?!?!

nike air mag gif

In the 1989 movie, Back to The Future Part 2, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is seen wearing these futuristic Nike shoes that light up and even self tie themselves. The comedy/sci-fi movie was released in 1989 but the story was set in 2015, which was the future from where the Nike Air Mag would come from. Fast forward 26 years and here we are, 2015. But, where are these futuristic, self tying Nike shoes that Back to The Future claims there to be?

nike air mag

Indeed they are here and have been here since 2011 when the Back to The Future Nike Air Mag replicas were released. They were almost completely accurate to the ones displayed in the movie with only one thing missing; the self tying function. There were 1500 pairs made and they were auctioned on ebay where the proceeds would go towards the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease Research. Even though these official Nike replicas were very aesthetically appealing, they did not have that iconic self tying function that made the shoes popular. Well, WORRY NO FURTHER YOU SNEAKERHEAD, BACK TO THE FUTURE FANS. They’re coming and 2015 is the year where they were in the movie so 2015 is when they shall be delivered!!

Tinker Hatfield, Nike’s chief of innovation, has confirmed they are working on this shoe to be released in 2015, the year they appeared in the movie. Claims have also been made on  Nike’s patent of the self tying lace functionality which they call power lace. Although this is an extremely anticipated events by enthusiasts of shoes and the movies, don’t expect them to be so easily attainable once they’re debuted. First off, the price won’t exactly be cheap for the average sneakerhead. You’ve got to be a major fan to invest in these. The 2011 replicas alone go for hundreds of dollars and in some cases, thousands. You can only imagine how much money the new 2015 Nike Air Mags WITH the power laces will be listed for. Not just the pricing will be a big obstacle, but then you’ll definitely be having  a run for your money. Their are crazy sneakerhead, Back to The Future fans out there who will literally fight for these exclusive shoes when they’re released. Good luck getting they’re fast enough. I predict these will come out of stock FAST

nike air mag tinker

nike air mag hatfield

Although these shoes look very cool with the lights, and futuristic mold, who would actually wear these? Especially after paying hundreds of dollars for it you wouldn’t want a blemish on these treasures. Plus, you’d look like some freak alien with them. Although, you would attract tons of attention and definitely turn heads. Many buy these for display purposes and don’t actually wear them. Some fans even get angry when people wear these shoes. They treat them as if they are artifacts and shouldn’t be touched.

nike air mag scientist

I for one am very excited for the release of the new 2015 Nike Air Mags. Even though it is highly unlikely that I will ever attain one, I’m excited for the power lace technology. Hopefully with the innovative self tying function already established, Nike will incorporate this cool feature into future shoes.


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Five Fascinating Facts about John Milton

The interesting life of John Milton

1. As a teenager, John Milton began writing an epic poem in Latin about the Gunpowder Plot. John Milton (1608-74) wanted to write an epic poem from an early age. He left his first attempt, in quintum novembris (‘Remember, remember…’), unfinished, but this early work shows how much the idea of Paradise Lost had gestated over a period of some forty years. It is Satan – the villain (antihero?) of Paradise Lost – who suggests the idea of the Gunpowder Plot to the Pope, who then enlists the help of Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes, and the others. Later on, in his early thirties, Milton announced his plan to write a great Arthurian epic in English – like Spenser’s The Faerie Queene but with more classical control over the subject and narrative – but he never got around to writing the poem.

2. John Milton’s masterpiece, Paradise Lost, features all sorts of weird details. Among the oddest descriptions in Paradise Lost is the following passage, which is essentially about angels farting: ‘Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate, /And corporeal to incorporeal turn.’ Indeed, although it’s often viewed as a pious epic retelling of the Fall of Adam and Eve from the Book of Genesis, Milton’s depiction of God (as talking like a ‘constipated civil John Miltonservant’, in Terry Eagleton’s phrase), and his portrayal of Satan as a seductive and charismatic villain, have led critics and poets to wonder whether Milton was – in William Blake’s phrase – ‘of the Devil’s party without knowing it’. For the critic William Empson, the God of Milton’s poem was the real villain, and Satan the liberator.

3. The word ‘pandemonium’ was coined by John Milton as the name for the capital of Hell in Paradise Lost. It means ‘all demons’. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary also credits John Milton with the first known use of a whole host of other useful words. Among the words first found in Milton’s writing are awe-struck, cooking, criticise, damp, debauchery, disregard, exhilarating, extravagance, incidental, lovelorn, stunning, terrific, unconvincing, and undesirable. The word ‘space’ – in the sense of ‘outer space’ – also made its debut in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Meanwhile, Milton’s Lycidas’ features the phrase ‘fresh woods and pastures new’, which gave rise to the misquotation ‘fresh fields and pastures new’.

4. In 1638, while in Florence, Milton met Galileo. One of the greatest English poets of the seventeenth century meeting one of the greatest astronomers of the age is rather exciting. It’s even been speculated that Galileo’s description of space and the planets influenced Milton’s description of the heavens in Paradise Lost. Milton recorded his meeting with Galileo in his 1644 pamphlet Areopagitica, an important early defence of freedom of the press.

5. An 1852 edition of John Milton’s Poetical Works was bound in the skin of a murderer, George Cudmore. Cudmore, convicted of poisoning his wife, had been hanged in 1830. A bookseller named Clifford somehow came into possession of Cudmore’s skin, following the medical dissection of Cudmore’s body. Clifford bound a copy of the 1852 edition of Milton’s Works with Cudmore’s skin.

Image: Picture of John Milton, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

About interestingliterature

A blog dedicated to rooting out the interesting stuff about classic books and authors.

Posted on December 23, 2016, in Literature and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.

  1. One word for Milton – GENIUS!
    For me, his epic surpassed every other work. Behind the facade of retelling the Genesis story, he presented his political views, Arminianism, free will, etc.

  1. Pingback: Five Fascinating Facts about John Milton — Interesting Literature | Manolis

  2. Pingback: Five Fascinating Facts about John Milton — Interesting Literature | psychosputnik

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Warm winter temperatures spark fears of potential plant diseases

by Clint Thompson, University of Georgia

A La Nina weather pattern is providing warmer winter temperatures for Georgia residents, sparking farmers’ concerns about potential plant diseases at the start of production season in early spring.

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension plant pathologist Bob Kemerait said that farmers rely on extreme cold and freezing temperatures during the winter for a break from one growing season to the next. Right now, that isn’t happening.

The warmer temperatures allowed “volunteer” peanuts or “volunteer” cotton plants to regrow, increasing nematode populations and creating a haven for diseases.

Nematodes are microscopic roundworms that can have a devastating effect on cotton and other row crops. Root-knot nematodes cause the most problems because they appear in a wide range of row crops. Cotton roots infected with root-knot nematodes swell in response to the infection. These knots serve as feeding sites where the nematodes grow, produce more eggs and stunt the plant’s growth.

Kemerait is especially concerned that unusually warm temperatures early in the peanut season will spark outbreaks of white mold. White mold is a disease that threatens peanut production every year because it can attack plants along the soil line and near the soil surface. The limbs, crown and pegs of peanut plants and pods are often completely destroyed as a result.

“When you have a winter like we just had where we had a very brief cold snap … it killed back some of the volunteer plants that might have the disease, but it’s been so short that the soil temperatures are warming back up,” Kemerait said. “Nematodes can become more active on plant species, but we could also have regrowth of peanut volunteers. This is something that farmers need to be aware of when they’re developing their disease and nematode management programs for 2017.”

A warmer winter also led to a delay in the first frost experienced in south Georgia this season. It sometimes happens as early as November, but the first winter frost did not occur this season until January. According to Kemerait, this allowed more time for nematodes to build up and for pathogens to develop. If this trend continues, Kemerait worries farmers will have greater problems with diseases in the coming season.

“Now, the ideal situation for disease and nematode management on the crops would be to have a very cold February. That would send the nematodes back into a hibernation phase. The pathogens would not survive on different crops or weeds,” he said.

About 75 percent of south Georgia fields devoted to cotton have some level of parasitic nematodes, according to Kemerait. “If these nematodes remain on plants that stay alive and remain in the ground because of warmer temperatures, that could really spell trouble for our growers once planting begins,” he said.

UGA Agricultural Climatologist Pam Knox said that weak La Nina conditions still remain in the eastern Pacific, leaving Georgia feeling warmer and drier. Since the system has decreased in intensity, Knox believes weather conditions should return to normal within two months. She cautions farmers about the possibility of a late frost.

“One thing we do know from this kind of weather pattern is that the chance of a late frost goes up since the atmosphere often swings more wildly than usual between cold and warm episodes,” Knox said. “So don’t get too anxious to start planting if we have a warm spell because a cold wave could be just down the pike.”

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A Black waitress at an IHOP in Texas received a racist message from customers who spelled out “KKK” with pancakes, sparking outrage on social media on New Year’s Day. Tenasha Ballard, a waitress in Sherman, Texas, had waited on four high school kids recently, KXII reported. After she returned to their table with a to-go coffee cup, she found no kids. Instead, there were pancakes cut into the letters “KKK” on the table.

“At the moment I’m like I don’t believe this,” Ballard said. “I’m seeing this wrong. So I went to the tables at the front and said what do you see on this plate? What letters are these? And they said KKK. And I said I thought so.”

Ballard was so disturbed and offended by the hateful “KKK” message that she took a Snapchat picture of the pancakes. She also posted the image on Facebook before going to bed that night. The photos were shared hundreds of times but were later taken down.

“They just crushed my spirit,” Ballard explained. ” I didn’t know what to do after that.”

“I just can’t get over it because these kids we were just joking,” Ballard also said. “And then it got serious and I’m like how. How? Like what was it besides my skin color that made you think this was going to be funny.” The kids wore letterman jackets, Ballard said. Some blame was placed on the waitress by people who said she “called out the town,” however, Ballard rebuked it.  The teens most likely felt they could disrespect her with the horrible act because they could get away with it, she explained.

IHOP’s corporate branch released a statement about the incident, Law & Crime reported. “Any display of discrimination is against the IHOP brand values and the values that the franchisees of this location upholds,” part of the statement reads.

Ballard has a simple message for people: “Respect people. It’s one of the things that I was always taught. If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it. Don’t spell it in food. Don’t say it.”

SOURCE: KXII, Law & Crime

Trump’s Racist Comment About Haitians Perpetuates A Stigma

Donald Trump Jr. Posts Racist Obama Cake Instagram Photo

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iPhone - The Original iPhone

Since 2007, the release of iPhone has been hailed as the monumental event in the history of smartphones. The success of this first generation model is clearly evident as it has inspired several successors that bear its name and others that seek to emulate its iconic innovations. True to its marketing slogan, the first iPhone is indeed the beginning of many exciting innovations to come.

Dare To Be Different

When Steve Jobs was trying to experiment with the concept of having your own computer in the size that is smaller than a tablet and it was supposed to be easily accessible at your fingertips without the need of using mouse and keyboard or even stylus. Eventually, he decided such technology could be adopted on a mobile phone. During entering a joint development with Cingular Wireless, Apple has been given the freedom and liberty in developing every aspect of iPhone. This allowed Apple to unleash every creative idea that it can put without much interference. As a result, the iPhone was the outcome of a vision that had been fully realized and it gave birth to an unique form of mobile phone type that bore three distinct titles: a revolutionary mobile phone, a breakthrough Internet communicator and widescreen iPod with touch controls. In fact, these were the words used by Steve Jobs himself.

Redesigning What It Means To Be A Phone

Being described as both beautiful and breakthrough at the same time by Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, the iPhone has been greeted with much anticipation even before it was first released. Basically, the iPhone enables you to do a lot of tasks that are not normally possible when using a phone. The possibilities are truly endless when you can use it to check your e-mail, browse through sites, surf the Internet and other tasks that are associated with a personal computer.

Read more here!

822 products found

Apple’s iPhone line is widely regarded as one the most superior smartphone options in the market today. An icon of innovation and style, iPhones are the smartphone of choice for millions of consumers worldwide. Read on to find out why the iPhone brand is widely considered as the top-tier status below.

Apple iPhone 8 Plus 64GB Space Grey 3 Stores
iPhone 8 is a new generation of iPhone. Designed with the most durable glass ever in a smartphone and a stronger aerospace grade aluminum band. Charges wirelessly.1 Resists water and dust.2 4.7-inch Retina HD display with True Tone.3 12MP camera with new sensor and advanced image signal processor. Powered by A11 Bionic, the most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone. Supports augmented reality experiences in games and apps. With iPhone 8, intelligence has never looked better.Key Features4.7-inch Retina HD display with True Tone3All-glass and aluminum design, water and dust resistant212MP camera with OIS and 4K video up to 60 fps7MP FaceTime HD camera with Retina Flash for stunning selfies5Touch ID for secure authentication and Apple PayA11 Bionic, the most powerful and smartest chip in a smartphoneWireless charging—works with Qi chargers1Legal1Charging mat sold separately.2iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are splash, water, and dust resistant and were tested under controlled laboratory conditions with a rating of IP67 under IEC standard 60529. Splash, water, and dust resistance are not permanent conditions and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear. Do not attempt to charge a wet iPhone; refer to the user guide for cleaning and drying instructions. Liquid damage not covered under warranty.3Display size is measured diagonally.4Portrait Lighting available in beta.5FaceTime calling requires a FaceTime-enabled device for the caller and recipient and a Wi-Fi connection. Availability over a cellular network depends on carrier policies; data charges may apply. Read more

Why is the iPhone a Top-of-the-List Smartphone Brand

iPhones have been the smartphone of choice for many smartphone consumers around the world. Whenever the latest iPhone is unveiled, it will cause a buzz among netizens and the public. iPhones have become immensely popular amongst Malaysian smartphone aficionados today for a multitude of reasons.

Efficient Real-World Speed

iPhones are known for setting the benchmark when it comes to performance speeds. iPhones have proven their worth in various speed tests done by experts, as the results show that they constantly outperform any other model in the market. iPhones can run smoothly even while multitasking, being able to handle demanding tasks without slowing down. Even having multiple background apps do not slow down the device’s performance.

iPhone Apps Are More Abundant and Better Looking

The two biggest mobile app stores belong to Android and Apple. Although most of the popular apps are featured on both platforms, many tops games and apps will usually be made available on iPhone first. Moreover, there are more apps that are specially made for Apple only compared to specially-designed apps for Android. The apps tend to have a better design on iPhones compared to the same ones on other devices.

Fast iPhone Updates

Another benefit of using an iPhone is that users can receive iOS updates frequently, no matter which carrier you are using. According to statistics released by the App Store in February 2017, about 80 percent of iOS devices were running iOS 10, the latest version of Apple’s operating software in mere five months after its release. Moreover, you need not change to the latest iPhone to receive updates from Apple as the company delivers updates even to devices that are three years old. For example, the iPhone 4s still receives iOS 9 support, whereas the latest-and-greatest iOS 10 is available for the iPhone 5.

No Bloatware

Another reason why the iPhone is much loved is that the iPhone does not have any bloatware. Bloatware will take up a considerable amount of storage, reducing your ability to install and download your favourite apps. An excessive amount of bloatware will also cause the device to slow down. Thankfully, unlike other phones, you will not find a single carrier software pre-loaded on an iPhone. Although Apple still includes some apps that you might not use or need, it is significantly fewer than other manufacturers. Furthermore, the iOS 10 enables users to disable built-in apps that you are not using, which is the second best option since these apps cannot be deleted from the device.

iPhones have Higher Resell Value

When most people are thinking of upgrading or replacing their current smartphone, they will sell off the older model. If you sell a one-year-old or two-year-old smartphone, you often receive much less than the amount you paid. However, when you sell an iPhone, you will notice that the resell value will be much higher than other models.

Now that you know more about the advantages of having an iPhone, why not check out the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus smartphones on iPrice Malaysia. You can also check out other Apple products here.


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2014-15 Women’s National League Fixtures Revealed

THE fixture list for the 2014-2015 Women’s National League has been confirmed and released to the clubs and media today.

This new campaign will be eagerly awaited as a result of the success of the Republic of Ireland Women’s U19 side in UEFA competition this summer and the continued progress of Sue Ronan’s senior international side. The league’s new sponsor will announced at the league launch on Wednesday, August 20 – the same day Ireland host Slovenia in World Cup qualifier at Tallaght Stadium.

Champions Raheny United will begin their quest for three titles in succession with a home fixture against Castlebar Celtic in the opening round of fixtures on Sunday, August 24. Women’s National League cup winners Wexford Youths Women’s FC will host Cork City Women’s FC, as the Leeside outfit will now be known following their recent merger with SSE Airtricity League club Cork City FC.

Another club which has undergone a merger is UCD Waves following the partnership between DLR Waves and the University. They will host Galway WFC in their inaugural fixture. Peamount United will not have a fixture in series one as there will be seven teams competing in the WNL this season following the departure of Shamrock Rovers FC at the end of last season.

Opening fixtures: Sunday, August 24 (2.00pm):

Raheny United v Castlebar Celtic

UCD Waves v Galway WFC

Wexford Youths Women’s AFC v Cork City Women’s FC

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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Picks of the Week: Dec. 7 – 13

By Don Heckman Los Angeles – Dec. 8. (Tues.)  Dominick Farinacci.  Trumpeter Farinacci’s debut U.S. CD, Lovers, Tales and Dances, announced the arrival of an impressive new young jazz artist.  He makes one of his rare Southland appearances for one night only.  Vibrato Grill Jazz…etc.    (310) 474-9400. – Dec. 8. (Tues.) Charles Lloyd, Joshua Redman,… Read More Picks of the Week: Dec. 7 – 13


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A Busy Main Street Plaza

December 7, 2008
Main Street, SLC

Main Street, SLC

Group blogs are fun. Even though Irresistible (Dis)Grace is a solo blog, the reason I got back into blogging was because of what I read of group Bloggernacle and Outer Darkness blogs…it made me feel invigorated by LDS culture once again to see people intelligently discussing the issues of doctrine and religion.

Group blogs have their own personalities of course. Of course Bloggernacle blogs tend to be more supportive of the church, but even that has a wide degree of leverage…is a blog fiercely conservative and staunchly rooted to orthodoxy? Or does it accept apologetics and alternative views but with a firm foundation in belief? Or is the blog more liberal in thought and more liberal in doctrine, but still on the believing side?

And with Outer Blogness blogs…is the blog just doubtful and questioning? Is it angry, attempting to refute and rebut? Is it neutral, more settled, but nonbelieving?

I like the Main Street Plaza, because it’s not too angry. There are some passionate posts, yes, but this is just a chill place for people to talk about issues that would be relevant to Cultural Mormons — people who may not believe, but who still are a part of the community. It meshes well with what I like to write about (although maybe I’m sometimes more supportive and maybe other times I’m more critical.)

So, that is why I’ve decided, and CHanson has convinced me, to write a few articles over there occasionally. It’s good to have a community.

I’ll still be maintaining Irrestible (Dis)Grace so don’t fear! But, now, for example, I’ll occasionally link to a post of mine over there instead of posting it here. Like today. Today my first article is posted: Read up about Scripture Fights and Bible Bashing today if you’ve ever wondered about the competing apologetics of different religion. And in the comments, ask yourself this: what should be the role of religious apologetics? Is there a distinction between good apologetics and bad apologetics? Do apologetics that attempt to prove and disprove fit either category?

From → Uncategorized

  1. I like Main Street Plaza too. It’s just that I can’t get the darn website to load on my two computers anymore. Unwilling to wait 15 minutes to make a response, I just gave up.

  2. That is interesting indeed…it might be a problem that Hellmut can fix on his side (although I haven’t seen problems in the past with MSP…)

  3. Hellmut knows about it. Apparently it’s stumping him.

    Maybe I can cart out my ancient Celeron powered desktop from storage and see if the website works there. It might be a problem on my end…

  4. Great discussion!!!

  5. yeah, C, with such a vibrant discussion over there I actually considered moving more of my posts in the future to MSP and using I(D)G for odds and ends.

    but that’s off the record!

  6. You have some excellent content and a compelling writing style – keep up the great work!

  7. I definitely think we had some nice back-and-forth, without it descending into a circle jerk.

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October 4, 2017

GOP-Trump Tax Framework Would Provide Richest One Percent in Louisiana with 63.7 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts

Click here for a pdf of this page

The “tax reform framework” released by the Trump administration and congressional Republican leaders on September 27 would not benefit everyone in Louisiana equally. The richest one percent of Louisiana residents would receive 63.7 percent of the tax cuts within the state under the framework in 2018. These households are projected to have an income of at least $568,200 next year. The framework would provide them an average tax cut of $97,200 in 2018, which would increase their income by an average of 6.4 percent.

The framework would particularly benefit those with incomes greater than $1 million. These households will make up just 0.3 percent of Louisiana’s population but would receive 50.4 percent of the tax cuts if the plan was in effect next year. This group would receive an average tax cut of $256,900 in 2018 alone, which would increase their income by an average of 8.5 percent.

The middle fifth of households in Louisiana, people who are literally the state’s “middle-class” would not fare as well. Despite being 20 percent of the population, this group would receive just 5.2 percent of the tax cuts that go to Louisiana under the framework. In 2018 this group is projected to earn between $38,300 and $59,500. The framework would cut their taxes by an average of $380, which would increase their income by an average of 0.8 percent.

If the framework was in effect in 2018, 11.8 percent of of Louisiana households would face a tax hike. Whether a family would pay higher or lower taxes would depend on their circumstances. There are two provisions that reduce the amount of income that is subject to taxes for most families, and the framework increases one of them (the standard deduction) while repealing the other (the personal exemption). Families who itemize their deductions (rather than claming the standard deduction) may pay higher taxes beause the framework repeals most itemized deductions, including the deduction for state and local taxes.

The framework would be particularly generous to the wealthy in large part because it would reduce the corporate income tax rate. The bulk of the benefits would go to the owners of corporate stocks and other business assets, a group of overwhelmingly (although not entirely) high-income taxpayers. The framework would also provide a special tax rate of 25 percent for other types of businesses. While it describes this as a tax cut for “small businesses,” most of the benefits would go to the richest one percent of Americans. The wealthiest taxpayers would also benefit greatly from the framework’s reduction in the top personal income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent and elimination of the estate tax.

These figures have been calculated by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Because the framework leaves many unanswered questions, this analysis required several assumptions that are explained in ITEP’s longer report. ITEP generally interprets vague proposals in the framework to match more detailed ones that were included in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign or in tax overhaul proposals from Republican leaders in Congress.

The table below provides more detail about the effects of the administration’s tax proposals on households at different income levels.

The tax proposals included in these figures are the following, which are described in more detail in ITEP’s longer report.

Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Repeal personal exemptions and increase the standard deduction.
Replace current income tax brackets with three brackets, 12 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent.
Increase non-refundable child tax credit and new non-refundable credit for other dependents.
Eliminate all itemized deductions except those for charitable giving and home mortgage interest.
Repeal the estate tax.
Special tax rate (25 percent) for businesses that do not pay the corporate income tax.
Repeal special tax breaks for businesses and reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent.
Allow businesses to write off full costs of investment in the first year.


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Why interning at a startup would be a bad idea for bschool grads

Why interning at a startup would be a bad idea for bschool grads

Just read this (http://www.pluggd.in/why-interning-with-startups-should-be-made-compulsory-at-b-schools-297/) at pluggd.in where the author, Bhavya Sahani, tries to make a case for the idea of b-school grads interning at startups.

The author basically says that interning at a startup would help a relatively inexperienced student discover his/her core strength instead of going for the popular choice. He of the opinion that the more experienced students at a bschool (and most Indian bschools have relatively inexperienced students. I myself have no work experience) would have a better idea of their strengths and tend to not follow the herd when making career decisions while the inexperienced ones never get to figure out their core competency. While I agree that experienced students do show more maturity in making career decisions, it is not uncommon for an IT guy ending up with a job in a pure marketing role at an FMCG firm. It is also possible that the experienced students are so accustomed to their prior field that they there is an inertia against trying something new (though admittedly I haven’t seen that happening with students in my batch).

MBA (more so General Management which is what is offered by the IIMs), is one of those occasions in one’s career where one can make a drastic move, and rediscover one’s core competencies. Just because you joined an IT or energy firm right after engineering, where choices are limited, does not mean you have to necessarily stick with it. Besides, even after 3-4 years of work ex after undergrad one hardly gets to experience a broad spectrum of roles to be able to make a proper choice about one’s core competencies. One works within a relatively rigid set of parameters on a very specific role, hardly gets to interact with client much less drive client engagement. But the first year of MBA helps one discover what they like – I thought I could not like anything other than Operations but my favourite subjects have been those in Economics and Marketing while others who thought they would not be able to stand anything other than Finance were happy to take up Consulting or General Management(well to be frank the lack luster hiring by I-banks do have a role to play here).

So why can’t a startup internship help one figure out their core competency? Simply put, an 2 month internship just wont be enough. Startups are too chaotic and unstructured for one to figure things out fast. Continue reading


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We were BEYOND happy to step off the airplane in San Francisco! When we left Salt Lake it was snowing and we got stuck on the tarmac for over an hour with a baby screaming bloody murder (yes, it was our baby). She was fighting sleep harder than she’s ever fought it and she wanted the plane to MOVE! Me and Preston were stressin’ out and getting more and more frustrated by the second.

Luckily, once we got in the air most of the fussing stopped. She whined here and there for the first third of the flight, but she wasn’t SCREAMING (thank goodness). Then, she was able to calm down enough to play and then FALL ASLEEP (hallelujah)!!!! We survived and it made stepping off of that airplane as glorious as can be! We couldn’t be more excited to get out of there and get exploring (and get that girl movin)!

We didn’t arrive to San Francisco until the early afternoon so we chose to do a few things that were closer to our Airbnb that wasn’t located downtown. So we decided that we would go to…

Visiting “GG” is definitely a must while you’re in San Fran!!! We had a blast going to see this MASSIVE bridge.  Honestly, it was just awesome being able to soak up the sun that we hadn’t seen in a week (it had been snowing for a week straight back home)!!!

We seriously couldn’t believe how BIG the bridge was and we just enjoyed basking in her beauty and showing Myla all the boats in the bay. There was also some cool/interesting info in the visitors center that you could see/watch to learn about the building of the bridge (I still don’t know how they did it – CRAZY).

I had seen others post pictures of this beautiful place and I HAD to go there – so we went and it was definitely worth it! It’s such a unique rocky shoreline along the cliffs that was super easy and fun to hike around.

I think this is such a fun/unique place to check out and I would highly recommend it! I know that I’ll definitely be back there the next time we visit!

We stayed in an Airbnb that was located in the inner Richmond district between Presidio and the Golden Gate Park. It worked out for us but I would recommend staying downtown instead. There’s more to do downtown and it would still be easy to get to the Golden Gate Bridge and Lands End via bus/uber.

I would never recommend anyone staying in the Airbnb we used, it was filthy! So make sure if you do use Airbnb to rent a place with LOTS of reviews because ours only had 18 and it was definitely reviewed WAY too high by these people (YUCK)!!!

Thanks to “maps” on my iphone we were able to ride the local bus to the Golden Gate Bridge and Lands End SUPER EASY! It was a super short bus ride and the bus fare was only $2.50 a person and got us to both locations!

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How to Download a Screensaver

by Lita McLeary

A screensaver is a small application of an animated image that automatically appears when the computer has not been used for a particular period of time. Screensavers were originally developed to prevent the permanent "etching" of an image in the computer screen. Today, screensavers are primarily used to liven up a screen or password-protect a user's screen from unauthorized access.

Open a Web browser and search for a website that has downloadable screensavers. Note that many screensavers can be downloaded for free, while other websites would require you to pay a certain fee to download the available screensavers. Some websites, however, allow you to download a trial version but still requires you to pay for a fee when the trial version expires.

Navigate to the download page of the website and browse through the available screensavers. If the website has a search option, type the keywords of the type of screensaver that you want to download and click "Search," "Find" or something similar.

Download the screensaver that you like and save it to your desktop for easier access. The file will be downloaded as an "EXE" or executable file. Navigate to the location of the downloaded file and double click on it. Wait until it is successfully installed to your computer. Upon installation, the screensaver shall automatically belong to the list of screensavers in "Display Properties."

Navigate to your desktop and right click on an open space. If you are using Windows XP, click "Properties" to open the "Display Properties" dialog box. Select the "Screen Saver" tab and click on the drop down arrow under "Screen Saver." If you are using Windows Vista, right click on the desktop and click "Personalize. From the list of options, select "Screen Saver."

Click on the drop down menu under "Screen Saver" and select the name of your newly downloaded file. Set the time delay you want the screensaver to appear (applies to both XP and Vista). If you want to password-protect your computer to avoid unauthorized access upon ending the screensaver, click the check box for "On resume, password protect" (Windows XP), or "On resume, display logon screen" (Windows Vista). Click on "Apply," and then "Ok."

To change the settings or add a custom text to the screensaver, click on "Settings" and then customize it according to your preferences. Click "Ok" when you are done.

About the Author

Lita McLeary started writing professionally for the "Philippine Inquirer" in 1989, a daily national newspaper. She has written for private online clients for over seven years. At present, she writes full-time for various websites. McLeary holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal arts from the University of the Philippines.


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The Secret of Love

Book 3, Rakes & Rebels: The Raveneau Family - Rakes & Rebels: The Raveneau Family, Book 3

This book can be downloaded and read in iBooks on your Mac or iOS device.

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cynthia Wright comes a breathtaking new full-length novel in the Rakes & Rebels series!

When Lady Isabella Trevarre first laid eyes on Gabriel St. Briac, she announced to her best friend: “That is the man I will marry!” Now a woman grown, Izzie has traded her girlish dreams for the independent life of an artist, but she never quite forgot the dazzling Frenchman who captivated her young heart. When he appears again in Cornwall, the seeds of desire grow between them…

As Napoleon’s army loots art treasures throughout Europe, Gabriel St. Briac’s priceless Leonardo da Vinci painting vanishes from its hiding place. Bent on recovering his family’s prized possession, Gabriel sets sail for the chaos of wartime France—only to find Izzie stowed away on his ship. Though fearful for her safety, he is forced to allow her to join in his quest. But Izzie harbors a dark secret…a secret that could shatter the tender blossom of their trust. When danger puts them both to the test, will these two guarded souls dare to risk all for love?

Rakes & Rebels: The Raveneau Family series:
1 - SILVER STORM (André & Devon)
2 - SMUGGLER'S MOON (Sebastian & Julia)
3 - THE SECRET OF LOVE (Gabriel & Isabella)
4 - SURRENDER THE STARS (Ryan & Lindsay)
~ coming in August, 2017 ~ HIS MAKE-BELIEVE BRIDE (Justin & Mouette)
5 - HIS RECKLESS BARGAIN (Nathan & Adrienne)
6 - TEMPEST (Adam & Cathy)

Rakes & Rebels: The Raveneau Family intertwines with Rakes & Rebels: The Beauvisage Family series:
1 - HEART OF FRAGILE STARS: a prequel novella to CAROLINE (Jean-Philippe & Antonia)
2 - CAROLINE (Alec & Caro)
3 - TOUCH THE SUN (Lion & Meagan)
4 - SPRING FIRES (Nicholai & Lisette)

Customer Reviews

Another Amazing Novel!

Cynthia Wright again gives us an amazing book to sink our teeth into! I have been waiting (impatiently) since I first heard that she was coming out with a book and I was not disappointed. I think one thing that I love about her stories is that they are all intertwined and you can see characters that you have read about in other books that she has written. I love the romance between Isabella and St. James. Most romance heroines are depicted as slim and perfect, but I especially loved that Isabella is a curvy woman who has dealt with overeating in her life(so I could relate with that!). Even though I received a free review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, I was already preparing to buy it and devour it in one sitting(I had plans. They involved tea and a cozy seat in front of the fireplace) I think you will never regret picking up one of Cynthia’s books because they allow you to go into a place of adventure, romance and fun! Now I’ll reread all her other books while waiting for her next one!!

The Secret of Love

This book is everything I look for in a book. Cynthia spins a story involving intrigue, mystery and romance all set in a historical setting. Her research into the places that she sets her story are so in depth, that you are transported into another place. I have read her other books in this series. I have enjoyed them all. She has a talent for weaving past characters into the story, which I enjoy because when I finish one of her books I am always left wanting more. I can't wait for another book.

The Secret of a good Historical Romance..

Her name is Cynthia Wright! I absolutely loved this book. It had it all love, romance, adventure, and a great story. Cynthia takes you back to 19th century England and France in vivid detail. (Check out her Pinterest page) Then she brings to life her characters which in this book are Gabriel and Izzie. Oh and you will fall in love with them. I don't want to give spoilers away but, if you're a hopeless romantic read her books! Thanks Cynthia for capturing my hopeless romantic heart.

Other Books in This Series

The Secret of Love
View in iTunes
  • $4.99
  • Available on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.
  • Category: Historical
  • Published: Dec 26, 2016
  • Publisher: Boxwood Manor Books
  • Seller: Cynthia Challed
  • Print Length: 370 Pages
  • Language: English
  • Series: Book 3, Rakes & Rebels: The Raveneau Family
  • Requirements: To view this book, you must have an iOS device with iBooks 1.3.1 or later and iOS 4.3.3 or later, or a Mac with iBooks 1.0 or later and OS X 10.9 or later.

Customer Ratings