Dishwasher: After each use, wash out the filter: twist and pull out to remove, then clean with a solution of washing-up liquid. Once a month, remove the spray arms and clean them in the same way. Use a toothpick to remove debris from the holes in the arms. Put a cup of white vinegar on the top rack and run the machine on its hottest setting. To banish bad smells, sprinkle a few tablespoonfuls of bicarbonate of soda on the bottom of the machine before running a load.
Washing Machine: Clean regularly, paying attention to the detergent drawer and door seals. For a deep clean, pour a cupful of neat bleach into the drawer and run the machine empty at 60C. You can also use diluted bleach to cleanthe door seal. Leave the door open between washes to air the machine and prevent mould.
Vacuum Cleaner: For a bagless machine, empty the canister after each use. For bagged machines, replace the bag when it is one-third full. Clean the filter by shaking out dust and build up - do this outside or you could end up in a dust cloud. If the filter is washable, run under lukewarm water and allow to air dry for at least 24 hours. Make sure the brush is free of hair; if you can't pull it out, use scissors to cut it off.
Mop: For traditional mops, wash in hot water with a little washing-up liquid. Squeeze out and air dry. If the mop has a detatchable head, put it in the washing machine. Never leave the mop in water: make sure it isdry before putting it away.
Source: Features in Good Housekeeping, March and April 2017.
Monday, 10 July 2017
Monday, 3 July 2017
Taxation Issues
Balancing tax levels
The Laffer curve shows the points beyond which increased taxation reduces the revenues obtained (i.e. people start finding ways to avoid payment).
Edward de Bono: I Am Right, You Are Wrong. Penguin, 2009
UK Tax system
The way our political system and national conversation are constructed make it close to impossible for a leader to say anything sane about tax.
The right claims that tax in principle is immoral, coercive, anti-enterprise, anti-aspiration and always economically destructive: this now sets the terms of discussion, policed by our rightwing media. The consequence is that our tax system is now so badly distorted that it threatens the social fabric.
The British residential property system creates unreal house prices and huge social unfairness with huge mortgages for the young, the lottery of property inheritance and high rents. Property is effectively only taxed when bought and sold. Residential property prices (on which council tax is based) was last reviewed in 1991. Generous inheritance tax thresholds, tax exemption of capital gains on homes and trivial council tax receipts, mean the property market is the world’s biggest onshore tax haven creating the world’s highest real house prices. No proposal for change seems possible.
Public services, after seven years of drastic cuts, have reached a point where severe deterioration is certain if planned reductions go ahead. The condition of Britain’s prisons is already intolerable: the stress in the NHS is apparent to all; improvements in educational standards are being reversed. All, starved of resources, can only get worse.
The “triple lock” – outlawing rises in income tax, national insurance and VAT (the major revenue streams in any tax system) constrained the ability of the government to manage the economy flexibly, and as virtually every observer notes, the triple lock is economically absurd.
Yet health and education spending – from which everyone should benefit and thus paid for by taxation – have been rising consistently for over 60 years, as they should and will. To try to turn back this growth or, alternatively, the social security system to find the necessary resources, is to ignore reality. Other cancelled proposed increases (insurance and airline taxes, national insurance for the self-employed, and probate fees) were means to raise revenue but would only have created further distortions.
"Britain must create a tax system that raises revenue across a broad base as fairly and with as little economic distortion as possible and it must accept that if it wants health and education to remain public goods financed by general taxation, along with a reasonable social security system, then taxation will have at the very least to remain around 35% of GDP and may even have to rise a little."
The tax take must increase, but it will need to be drawn from a much wider base than just on the “rich” – the top 5% – earning over £70,000 or from big corporations; there just is not enough potential revenue from those sources.
A smarter strategy would be to acknowledge that tax is the price for living in a civilised society and making the major tax revenue streams off-limits is crazy. We also have to go much further within a fair framework if we want decent public services and be able to manage the economy flexibly.
"Britain could have high quality public services, a great environment and a functioning housing market – and very few would notice the difference in their taxes. A country on the rise would do this in an instant. It is a declining country in thrall to rightwing ideologues that finds it impossible – that will be Britain in spring 2017."
Will Hutton: Overhaul Britain's rotten tax system or we won't be able to sustain a healthy state. The Guardian, 22 April 2017
The Laffer curve shows the points beyond which increased taxation reduces the revenues obtained (i.e. people start finding ways to avoid payment).
Edward de Bono: I Am Right, You Are Wrong. Penguin, 2009
UK Tax system
The way our political system and national conversation are constructed make it close to impossible for a leader to say anything sane about tax.
The right claims that tax in principle is immoral, coercive, anti-enterprise, anti-aspiration and always economically destructive: this now sets the terms of discussion, policed by our rightwing media. The consequence is that our tax system is now so badly distorted that it threatens the social fabric.
The British residential property system creates unreal house prices and huge social unfairness with huge mortgages for the young, the lottery of property inheritance and high rents. Property is effectively only taxed when bought and sold. Residential property prices (on which council tax is based) was last reviewed in 1991. Generous inheritance tax thresholds, tax exemption of capital gains on homes and trivial council tax receipts, mean the property market is the world’s biggest onshore tax haven creating the world’s highest real house prices. No proposal for change seems possible.
Public services, after seven years of drastic cuts, have reached a point where severe deterioration is certain if planned reductions go ahead. The condition of Britain’s prisons is already intolerable: the stress in the NHS is apparent to all; improvements in educational standards are being reversed. All, starved of resources, can only get worse.
The “triple lock” – outlawing rises in income tax, national insurance and VAT (the major revenue streams in any tax system) constrained the ability of the government to manage the economy flexibly, and as virtually every observer notes, the triple lock is economically absurd.
Yet health and education spending – from which everyone should benefit and thus paid for by taxation – have been rising consistently for over 60 years, as they should and will. To try to turn back this growth or, alternatively, the social security system to find the necessary resources, is to ignore reality. Other cancelled proposed increases (insurance and airline taxes, national insurance for the self-employed, and probate fees) were means to raise revenue but would only have created further distortions.
"Britain must create a tax system that raises revenue across a broad base as fairly and with as little economic distortion as possible and it must accept that if it wants health and education to remain public goods financed by general taxation, along with a reasonable social security system, then taxation will have at the very least to remain around 35% of GDP and may even have to rise a little."
The tax take must increase, but it will need to be drawn from a much wider base than just on the “rich” – the top 5% – earning over £70,000 or from big corporations; there just is not enough potential revenue from those sources.
A smarter strategy would be to acknowledge that tax is the price for living in a civilised society and making the major tax revenue streams off-limits is crazy. We also have to go much further within a fair framework if we want decent public services and be able to manage the economy flexibly.
- The broader the tax base, the lower tax rates need to be.
- Revalue domestic residential property and overhaul council tax as part of a wider review of how local government is financed.
- A fair tax on inherited wealth.
- A broadening of the VAT base, with an extension to financial services.
- Heavier taxes on environmentally damaging activity.
"Britain could have high quality public services, a great environment and a functioning housing market – and very few would notice the difference in their taxes. A country on the rise would do this in an instant. It is a declining country in thrall to rightwing ideologues that finds it impossible – that will be Britain in spring 2017."
Will Hutton: Overhaul Britain's rotten tax system or we won't be able to sustain a healthy state. The Guardian, 22 April 2017
Thursday, 29 June 2017
Clogged Drains and Steamed Up Mirrors
Hair and soap can clog up the bath or basin drains. To clear the blockage:
Source: Good Housekeeping, May 2017
- Pour a cup of boiling water down the drain, followed by 1/2 cup of bicarbonate of soda.
- Leave for a few minutes, then pour in a cup of vinegar and another of boiling water.
- Put the plug in for half an hour, then flush through with more boiling water.
Source: Good Housekeeping, May 2017
Monday, 26 June 2017
Last Days of Jesus
On Good Friday 2017, Channel 5 broadcast a documentary called the Last Days of Jesus. Based on the political conspiracy theory of historians Simcha Jacobivici and Barrie Wilson, it focused on the period from Jesus's entry into Jerusalem with the waving of palms through to his trial and execution. While three of the gospels accounts suggest a brief period between the two events (though the fourth gospel indicates a longer period), Jacobivici and Wilson are trying to correlate these accounts with other sources from the period. The main points of their theory are that around 6 months separates the Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and that political issues in Rome and Israel had a significant effect.
Jacobovici and Wilson raised the following questions:
In AD.31, Tiberius was Roman Emperor, at this time living on the island of Capri. The head of the Praetorian Guard was Sejanus, who effectively reigned in place of Tiberius. S&W suggest that Sejanus had ambitions to become the next Roman Emperor.
Under the will of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas was to succeed him as tetrach (ruler of a quarter) of Galilee and Perea as a client state of Rome, while his elder brother Archelaus became ethnarch of Judea, Idumea and Samaria. An earlier will had named Antipas as successor to all the above territories and Antipas petitioned to Rome to this effect, but Emperor Augustus decreed that the later will should stand. S&W suggest that (1) Antipas was still hoping to become King of the whole area, (2) in return for Antipas' support, on becoming Emperor, Sejanus was willing to reallocate territory to Antipas and (3) that there was tension between Antipas and the priests of the Temple over the power of the Temple priesthood and that Jesus (whose followers included people high up in Antipas' court) in his efforts to cleanse the temple was seen as a useful tool. The theory is that these interlocking events stayed the hands of Pilate and the priests.
The Jewish feast of Tabernacles is held in the autumn, and the cutting and use of palm branches is still used today. S&W propose that the entry into Jerusalem took place then.
During the next months the political scene changed dramatically. Suddenly, at the end of AD 31, Sejanus was arrested and summarily executed. It is suggested that this news caused Pilate and Antipas to avoid being linked to Sejanus' plotting, and that over time, Jesus' followers dropped away as he did not fulfil the kingly Messiah prophecies by delivering them from the rule of Rome.
Good Friday is linked in the gospels with the Jewish feast of Passover, which follows around 6 months later than Tabernacles.
Sejanus is not referenced in the gospels. Under the practice of damnatio memoriae (where the senate or emperor could have an individual's property seized, his name erased and his statues reworked) Sejanus' name was erased from public records and carved inscriptions. While the gospels were written down some decades later (between 40 and 70 years later), it was still illegal to mention him.
Source: Channel 5 documentary 'Last Days of Jesus' broadcast 14th April 2017.
Jacobovici and Wilson raised the following questions:
- Why was Jesus not immediately arrested when cleansing the Temple?
- Why did the crowd turn from enthusiastic supporters to calling for his death in just a week?
- Why was Pontius Pilate so eager to release Jesus?
In AD.31, Tiberius was Roman Emperor, at this time living on the island of Capri. The head of the Praetorian Guard was Sejanus, who effectively reigned in place of Tiberius. S&W suggest that Sejanus had ambitions to become the next Roman Emperor.
Under the will of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas was to succeed him as tetrach (ruler of a quarter) of Galilee and Perea as a client state of Rome, while his elder brother Archelaus became ethnarch of Judea, Idumea and Samaria. An earlier will had named Antipas as successor to all the above territories and Antipas petitioned to Rome to this effect, but Emperor Augustus decreed that the later will should stand. S&W suggest that (1) Antipas was still hoping to become King of the whole area, (2) in return for Antipas' support, on becoming Emperor, Sejanus was willing to reallocate territory to Antipas and (3) that there was tension between Antipas and the priests of the Temple over the power of the Temple priesthood and that Jesus (whose followers included people high up in Antipas' court) in his efforts to cleanse the temple was seen as a useful tool. The theory is that these interlocking events stayed the hands of Pilate and the priests.
The Jewish feast of Tabernacles is held in the autumn, and the cutting and use of palm branches is still used today. S&W propose that the entry into Jerusalem took place then.
During the next months the political scene changed dramatically. Suddenly, at the end of AD 31, Sejanus was arrested and summarily executed. It is suggested that this news caused Pilate and Antipas to avoid being linked to Sejanus' plotting, and that over time, Jesus' followers dropped away as he did not fulfil the kingly Messiah prophecies by delivering them from the rule of Rome.
Good Friday is linked in the gospels with the Jewish feast of Passover, which follows around 6 months later than Tabernacles.
Sejanus is not referenced in the gospels. Under the practice of damnatio memoriae (where the senate or emperor could have an individual's property seized, his name erased and his statues reworked) Sejanus' name was erased from public records and carved inscriptions. While the gospels were written down some decades later (between 40 and 70 years later), it was still illegal to mention him.
Source: Channel 5 documentary 'Last Days of Jesus' broadcast 14th April 2017.
Wednesday, 21 June 2017
To Watch YouTube with Country Restriction
Sometimes YouTube videos are marked as unavailable due to a country restriction, but it is still possible to view them by using a simple URL trick, which will open the video in full screen and will hide adverts.
The video you want to watch has the URL:
youtube.com/watch?v=ab12C3dE4g (don't try and watch this as it is a made up example.
Remove the 'watch?' and replace the '=' with another / (highlighted in red above).
The URL now looks like this:
youtube.com/v/ab12C3dE4g
That's all there is to it.
Source: Phil Bradley Internet Q&A in CILIP Update, June 2017
The video you want to watch has the URL:
youtube.com/watch?v=ab12C3dE4g (don't try and watch this as it is a made up example.
Remove the 'watch?' and replace the '=' with another / (highlighted in red above).
The URL now looks like this:
youtube.com/v/ab12C3dE4g
That's all there is to it.
Source: Phil Bradley Internet Q&A in CILIP Update, June 2017
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