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While most homes need some sort of computer to help you stay in touch and keep informed, the cost of a new system can be a financial burden, especially if you're already struggling with debt. So is a new computer really worth the cost, and do you actually need the top of the line system the salesman is trying to push on you?
Unfortunately there's no easy answer, but we will try to point you in the right direction.
Do you need a new computer?
The first question to ask yourself is whether you really need a new computer. While the latest and greatest computer systems are always appealing, if your current computer does everything you need it to do, then maybe it's not time to replace it, just yet—especially if the cost of a new computer isn't in your budget.
If your computer is sluggish or otherwise not performing to your expectations, before deciding to replace it, you should run a virus and spyware scan to make sure nothing's wrong. If something is amiss, a scan could fix it, and save you the cost of replacing your system.
Look at your computer as an investment
So you have weighed all the options, and have decided it's time to invest in a new computer. You've taken the time to consider the cost—and knowing that the average user is likely to be perfectly content with a computer for three to five years, you also understand that this choice is not just an investment for today.
If you use your computer a lot, especially for demanding tasks like video editing or playing games, you're likely to want to upgrade more often. But if you just use your computer to check email and browse the web, keeping a computer for five years or longer isn't out of the question.
When you look at the price tag, consider that this is something you'll be using regularly for years to come—which can make spending a sizable amount of money seem a little less daunting. The more often you use the computer, the more long-term benefit you're likely to get from spending the money to get a good one.
You don't have to spend a fortune to get a good computer
While advertisements will try to tempt you into getting the newest, fastest systems; for buyers on a budget, we recommend looking for mid-range systems—that is, computers that are not the fastest on the shelf, but are not the slowest, either.
This means you will not be paying a premium for the newest technology, but in turn, will not be getting something that will feel is outdated as soon as you open the box.
Also, look for factory refurbished products, which offer good as new performance for a percentage off the retail price—always a good buy!
The takeaway: Whatever you buy, be sure it suits your needs. A pricey system that does not do what you want it to do is not worth the investment.
Here are a few recommendations:
- If you need something portable for work or school, you'll want to look for a laptop that's light enough to carry around, and has enough battery life to last through the tasks you'll need it for.
- If you want a computer for entertainment, you might look for an all-in-one (great for dorms or apartments) with a nice screen for watching movies as well as checking your email.
- If you're looking for a home computer but don't need the portability, a desktop system will do everything you need, and it will be more economical.
Unfortunately, because prices fluctuate we cannot give you an exact price range to spend, so be sure to do your homework to see what's out there before you buy.
Ready to buy, but need a lending solution that will work within your budget?
PenFed offers a quality selection of lending programs that will fit most any budget. From credit cards, to our Equity Line of Credit (ELOC), to our Personal Loans, we have a financial lending solution that works for you.


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The women of Bangladesh are a force to be recokoned with given they now represent a majority of the workers in the garment industry. The female workers are known for their hard work and efficiency and add in the millions of village women, many illiterate, who are developing businesses. Rasheda Choudhury, adviser to the Minstry of Women and Children, describes a "silent revolution" in which women now constitute a major source of labor and are generating an economic upsurge. However, according to the Gener Equality Index compiled by Social watch, equality between women and men during the period 2004-2007 fell faster in Bangladesh than in almost any other nation in the world.
It is e stimated Asian women wages are 40% to 60% less than men doing the same job. However, in an interesting twist in Bangladesh, education for women is now free until grade 12 although it is only free for boys through elementary school. POlicies favoring women are not new in Bangladesh since the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League are boh led by women. Choudhury hopes changes in education will translate over the coming years in women playing a more important role in higher levels of the economic sector.
Choudhury points out about a decade ago, demands for an increased role for women in politics resulted in 13,000 seats being set aside at lower government levels and the nation was amazed when 39,000 women applied for the positions. However, she expressed disappointment demands for one-third seats in Parliament being reserved for women have not borne results.

subset: commoncrawl


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Refurbished Asus 14" Laptop with Intel Core i7-2640M Processor, 8GB Memory and 750GB Hard Drive, with Free "Watchmen" Blu-ray @ Newegg - $539.99
was $588.98
Free Shipping!
Newegg has dropped their best-of-the-web pricing on this laptop by $40, and is including "Watchmen" on Blu-ray disc.
FatWallet Cash Back will be calculated at 2.6% for qualifying purchases of this item.
(FatWallet Deal Hunter staff posts are certified ad-free. No money, bribes, or candy have been accepted.)


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Domestic Violence Support Group - Shine
Domestic Violence Support Groups
Thursday, August 24, 2017 from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM (CDT)
Event Details
Shine is a support group for women who have been abused physically, sexually, verbally and emotionally, or who are currently involved in a domestic violence relationship.
Shine is an open support group and meets Thursday evenings from 5 to 6 p.m. at Domestic Violence Services, 21 S. Marr Street, Fond du Lac.
For more information about this free support group, call (920) 926-4207. An individual needs-assessment meeting is required before participating in the support group.
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Excerpt from "The ABC and XYZ of BEE CULTURE"By A.I and E.R. Root1923page 449-51LONG-IDEA HIVES.Some 50 years ago the long-idea hives -- that is, 30 and 35 frame hives all in one brood-nest--were advocated by various bee-keepers in the United States. Many at the time were very enthusiastic in praise of this hive; but when comb foundation and one-pound section honey-box came to the front these hives were dropped by nearly every one because they were not adapted to the production of comb honey. In latter years, especially during and following the period of the Great War, extracted honey was produced almost exclusively. During this time, attention was once again directed to the Dadant-Quinby hive, the ten-frame Jumbo, practically the same thing, and the twelve and thirteen frame hives. The last two mentioned, it was argued, would not have to be tiered so high, because three thirteen-frame hives for example, would be the approximate equivalent of five eight-frame hives that would be so top-heavy and tall that they would require rails or props to keep them from being blown over. The ten-frame Jumbo requires two sizes of frames--one for the brood-nest and one for the extracting-supers.While quite a number were favoring the larger hives of the styles mentioned, there were a few going back to the old long-idea hive containing all the way from 25 to 35 frames. The dimensions of these hives would be more like that of a coffin or of a trunk. The advocates of these hives, particularly O. O. Poppleton of Florida, who has always used them, claim that they are large enough so that no tiering up is required--no lifting on or off of upper stories, no manipulation of brood-combs from the lower to the upper story to hold back swarming--in short, nothing heavier to lift than a single brood-frame. They also claim almost entire immunity from swarming.The usual practice with such a long hive is to have the entrance on the side, the long way and place the brood-nest in the center of the hive. This leaves room for ten or twelve frames capacity for more brood on either side. Mr. Poppleton argued that a queen would move sidewise from one brood-frame to another more readily than from one brood-frame in a lower hive-body to a brood-frame in the hive above, and he was undoubtedly right. The argument was briefly this: That the average Langstroth frame will have a circle of brood running within about two inches of the top-bar. The general reason for this is because the comb will stretch near the top, making neither worker nor drone comb. The queen avoids this, and the bees fill it with honey. In a hive of two stories the queen is apparently slow about getting over this two inches of honey, 7/8 inch of a top-bar, 3/8 inch of a bee-space, 1/4 inch of a bottom-bar and another bee-space before she reaches the comb proper in the upper hive. In the long-idea hive it is claimed that the queen can move from comb to comb on a horizontal line, because the brood surfaces are within 3/8 inch apart, the space between being filled with bees. When the queen expands the brood-chamber in the natural way she moves from comb to comb. If the worker-cells are not stretched, and there are not obstructions, she will move vertically as well as horizontally; but in the modern tiered-up hive she may not move up-ward unless the brood is carried upstairs by the apiarist himself. It is for this reason that the old long-idea hive has been revived.Another advantage claimed for the long single-story hive is that it is adapted to the use of old men, and women, young and old, or anyone else who, for physical reasons, can not lift the weight of a filled super of 40 or 50 pounds, but who can handle individual units of one comb at a time. Finally, it is argued that during winter or cool weather the brood-nests can be confined down to about twelve of fifteen frames, and the space on either end filled with packing material. If the cover of the long-idea hive is about three or four inches deep, and telescoping, additional packing can be put on top. The hive is, therefore, adapted for wintering as well as for summering bees.This hive is especially adapted to the use of beginners who either will not learn how to handle swarms in standard hives or have not the time to do so. A colony in such a large brood-chamber that can expand laterally will require less attention than any other hive here shown. However, in localities where brood diseases are prevalent, neither this hive nor any other should be left to itself without frequent examination during the breeding season.It should be understood, also, that the same objections that apply to especially large brood-chambers apply to this one. As a general rule, the ordinary beekeeper would do well to have everything standard. The Langstroth ten-frame hives described in these pages are more standard than any other hive in the United States if not in the whole world. None of these big hives are adapted to the production of comb honey in sections, and none of the advocates make any claims for them along this line. There are times when comb honey brings such good prices that it is advantageous to change over from the production of extracted honey to honey in sections, and this is entirely practicable with the standard hives.Last, but not least, if one wishes to sell his apiary at any time he can get the best price for it, if it is in standard Langstroth hives.The author does not advocate the general adoption of any of these special hives in a large way. If the reader is interested, let him experiment with half a dozen or a dozen hives; and if tests of the few are satisfactory he can use more. It is usually a safe policy for the average reader of this work, especially if he is somewhat a beginner, to follow in the beaten paths, or, more exactly, use standard ten-frame Langstroth hives and equipment. As a rule, bees will sell at a higher price in these hives than when they are in something that is odd-sized or irregular. Moreover, the average dealer or beehive manufacturer always has standard equipment in stock. While the regular Langstroth may require extra manipulation and extra lifting (if they be compared to with the long-idea hive), it would be wise to use these hives until the general public has proved that what some call "freaks" are better than the standards.
According to Eva Crane the majority of the hives in all climates in the world are now and always have been horizontal hives. Not only are they not a new idea, they are now and always have been the "norm" throughout most of the world.


text: Guys, I felt like Santa Claus. I checked the forum once. Then I checked it twice. Where is the Red Wings playoff thread? I didn't even realize the series had started until this morning. Shame on you. Wings beat Coyotes down 4-2 in game one. Franzen up to his old tricks. Go Wings! The Red Wings and their 'extra' playoff gear - NHL - Yahoo! Sports


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Category Benefits
Child Seats Buyers GuideChild Car Seats Buyers Guide Close
If your little one is growing quickly but hasn't quite reached booster seat status (age 9 months to 4 years) then you're in need of a Group 1 Child Car Seat.
Choose the right seat and your car journeys could become a lot easier. Taking into account your car and the size/weight of your child will ensure a simpler, safer trip.More Info
Child Seats LawChild Seats Law Close
It's important to note that when it comes to child seat law, you have the responsibility to make sure you're in line with it. The child seat law was introduced to the UK in 2006. It ensures youngsters are protected if you are unlucky enough to have an accident whilst on the road.
The law says that all children under 135cm tall need a car seat on all journeys, so it's best to start thinking about the right car seat before your little bundle of joy arrives.More Info
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text:
Hi folks, new to this board and posting a question on behalf of my wife Emma. We moved back to the UK a couple of months ago and she's struggling to find work teaching either English, in which she has a postgrad TESOL qualification and ten years experience, or Mandarin Chinese, of which she's a native speaker who's taught the language to numerous English-speaking TEFL teachers over the years.
We've managed to find a couple of private one-to-one students which does bring her in some money via Gumtree, but I'm wondering if anyone has any advice about employers, particularly in the Scotland/Glasgow area, and where the best places to find one-to-one students are? Gumtree got us a couple of students like I said, but we've tried other tuition-related sites and had precisely zilch reply from them. Anything better out there that gets results?


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I don't know if anyone has watched it yet. But I just finished watching the third episode, and well I can't say this isn't the best anime this season. I mean, it's the best at what it does. The atmosphere is just so dark.
From the beginning you think "Oh this is generic" eventually it evolves into what third episode was. I mean I've become so engrossed in it that, I feel like shit.
Anyways I'm recommending it


text: PipClock Rating: Does the PipClock sound somewhat familiar but you can't quite put your finger on where it came from? PipClock [$.99, View in iTunes] developer Ruben Frosali tailored the app after the "Pipboy" found in the video game Fallout, a post-apocalyptic game for gaming consoles. The app is a playful yet useful device with a spin from the popular … Read More


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Soraya Intercine's TV program Supergirl not only cribs a name from DC's lady Kryptonian — this Indonesian show also takes some serious fashion cues from Marvel's Spider-Woman. Frankly, I love these bootleg heroes. She can start a superteam with the Indian Incredible Hulk, the Bangladeshi Hulk, and every Turkish superhero ever. Together they can take down Bangladeshi King Kong and Japanese Jaws.
UPDATE: Massive hat tip to io9 commenter Rossum for translating Soraya Intercine's PR agent's response to allegations of stealing Spider-Woman's costume:
Dewi refutes the accusations that Supergirl's costume are a copy of the Marvel character Spider-Woman's. "Oh, no not at all. Because the process of finding the costume is not necessarily like that. There's definitely a focus. Actually, were were focused on the look of Cat Woman. The tightness of the outfit is the same - but Mano's (*Mano is the actress) hair is straight this time. If there are still people who say we are plagiarists, just compare her shoes and her wings (*or arms). They're definitely different" she said.
[Via CBM]


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White House Down
A ridiculously dumbed-down version of "Olympus Has Fallen".
This makes "Olympus Has Fallen" look like a masterpiece. Not that "Olympus Has Fallen" was a bad movie, I liked it, especially the opening horrifying sequence of the Koreans taking the White House in an amazingly quick flash of time. I ask why on earth do we need two White House downers a mere 3 months apart?
This time, instead of Secret Service agent Gerard Butler saving a president played by Aaron Eckhart, it's the stunningly buff secret service wanna-be'er Channing Tatum saving Jamie Foxx. Oh- and Tatum gets a lot of help from his 11 year old daughter, played by Joey King, who will have you scared senseless in the upcoming film "The Conjuring", a much better film I should add.
There's plenty of action, actually overboard, though blessedly, we don't have to endure 3-D glasses this time. This time we have to endure an increasingly preposterous plot, bordering on parody. If that's not grating enough, comedy is thrown in. Terrible mix. There's nothing funny about the White House falling to terrorists, whether they're Korean or in this case, a mash-up of disgruntled vets, politicians and caricatures of right wingers.
Oh- and it goes on wayyyyy too long. 2 hours and 10 minutes of dumb action. What a disappointment from director Roland Emmerich. This is no "Independence Day" and no "The Day After Tomorrow".
But if mindless action is what you're jonesing for, go for it.
1-and-a-half stars


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Tuesday, January 21, 2014
On Fedora 20
For the last few releases, Fedora has engaged in an ever improving quest to proving that being cutting-edge while providing solid foundations is certainly achievable. It has also managed to become my favorite distro in the process. Let's start by looking at its default flavor.
If Fedora's steps to offer continuous refinement, performance and polish are certainly noticeable, they are perhaps even more obvious in GNOME. I last posted about GNOME 3.8, which impressed my quite favorably, but 3.10 is surprisingly another leap forward at each and every level. Looks continue to be further improved, making it an art to create interfaces that are simple yet elegant and beautiful. The GNOME Shell looks modern indeed, but it also feels that way thanks to the heavy cloud integration with Google services, allowing users to integrate their email, calendar, contacts, IM, etc., almost with a single click. Performance is also better all around, perhaps with the exception of the boot and login processes, which feel a bit slow. The application suite is as good as ever, no surprises here.
I can't hide it, I love GNOME and what they are doing with the Shell. This time around, I felt it was so good in terms of looks that I didn´t change a thing, perhaps only the icon pack. The Shell is more robust, consistent and snappy than ever, and while there are things that need work, GNOME 3.10 feels for the first time like a complete and well-rounded desktop for any kind of user, specially after the inclusion of the new GUI software manager. If anything, the only thing I don't like about GNOME Shell 3.10 and its new software manager is its tendency to ask for a reboot every time it has to update software. I am sure you remember how painful this has been in Windows for years and one of Linux strengths was precisely the absence of this behavior. I understand that the new software manager is there mostly as a proof of concept this time around and should be a mature product by GNOME 3.12, but let's just say they better fix it and get rid of the annoying excessive reboots sooner rather than later.
It's funny how KDE and GNOME offer such opposite experiences, even in what they offer to the user. While GNOME started as a bare-bone experience and keeps adding more and more features with each release to cover gaps, KDE suffers from the opposite problem. It offers an overwhelming amount of options, perhaps too many, all packaged in an environment that has felt shaky and inconsistent for many, many releases.
Fortunately, even if frustratingly slow at times, progress has also been steady at the K camp over the years, and it now finally feels like the mature, consistent, snappy and solid DE it should have always been. In fact, in the comparison KDE probably leads in most areas, feeling faster and (surprisingly) lighter, smoother (it's amazing how good Kwin effects have become) and more complete (K Apps like KTorrent, K3B, Kate, Gwenview or Okular really have no competition in the GNOME World). Even areas that have historically been a pain, like Akonadi, Nepomuk and PIM, work like a charm these days. I was finally able to get my calendar, contacts and email on Kontact to work perfectly, albeit with a more cumbersome setup than that in GNOME Shell. Getting the Plasma calendar to show events worked perfectly as well, gone are the crazy high CPU figures that plagued this functionality and more often than not forced me to disable it. Along the same lines, the inclusion of yet more plasma elements in the desktop makes the experience even more streamlined. It's certainly satisfying to finally see what the Plasma desktop should have always been... Well, 98% of it anyways, as there are still elements that are not fully Plasma yet (The home, clipper and sound menus are still pending, among other things).
So what's my take on KDE? I love it as well, no doubt, but I always have the feeling that it could be better, partly because it's quickly becoming obsolete in many ways, rusty in its excessive complexity. In my opinion, the days of the heavy clients are over. As a power user myself, I truly see the point in having a UI that provides flexibility and plenty of features, but it is no longer acceptable that it does so at the expense of ease of use. Besides, the times are changing...
For years now we are seeing an empowerment of cloud services and applications, which helps users concentrate and interconnect all their data across. Sadly, KDE developers seem to be deaf and blind to how things are being done elsewhere and continue to offer an incredibly overpowered desktop (with all the challenges that entails) when most users will be doing 80% of what they need to do from the browser. These days I have all my music on Google Play Music, do all my emails, agenda and contact management from Gmail, my IM on Hangouts, my RSS on Feedly, my Tweets on Tweetdeck and all the social networking on the respective online portals. Photo management and edition is now possible for free and without any limit in the amount of pictures you upload to in Google+. This incredibly powerful cloud service offers very smart image indexing along with very impressive photo (even auto) edition features. Granted I am no specialist, but whatever results I ever managed to get with GIMP, I get better these days with these simple and fun to use apps. Of course they are nothing but a joke for the professional, but the casual user, which makes up the vast majority, will roughly use 10% of what KDE has to offer. If on top of much better web apps and cloud services, we add the fact that the average user is quickly getting used to extremely intuitive UIs in the form of Android and iOS, it will be increasingly difficult to expect users to care, much less want, what KDE has to offer. In my opinion, once Unity and GNOME Shell finally close the gap (they are younger DEs after all), KDE is at risk of becoming a niche DE.
All that said, I must admit using KDE these days is such a joy for someone like me, who's battled its quirks for so long. Thinks are surprisingly fast and responsive and almost never seeing a crash certainly improves the overall experience. On top of Fedora 20, it even feels faster and more solid than something like Kubuntu 13.10, while still retaining a reasonable ease of use. A novice user would probably enjoy it very much as well while only scratching the surface, but I can't help but wonder if s/he would get lost in the apparently never ending list of options and settings available, many of which most users wouldn't even care about anyways.
Well, this is a tough one and will truly depend on each user. For experienced users who have enjoyed KDE in the past, who know its apps and ways around it, it doesn´t get any better (yet) than this. I have tried several distros and I think that what Fedora is doing with KDE is superb. Less experienced users, perhaps those who are willing to try something different and certainly those who care most about productivity, will probably enjoy GNOME better. Its modern and elegant UI, unintrusive notifications and to the point approach are perfect for those who want to sit down and get things done without distractions. Needless to say, Fedora is THE distro when it comes to GNOME, don´t even think of looking elsewhere.
As for Fedora 20, it continues to be my champion distro for the third release in a row. Performance is king, Looks and ease of use continue their ever improving path, and having the very latest from applications is something truly worth experiencing, specially if you come from the Ubuntu realm and have spent hours trying (potentially dangerous) PPAs to get that latest release from that app you love so much. When you get to Fedora, all of a sudden, things just work the way they should.
5 comments:
Now you made me want to try Fedora :D I have a spear partition and days to spend. Also if it's better than Kubuntu 13.10 than it should be worth a try (at least). BTW very nice post even if I disagree on a few things :DReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks for reading it and taking the time to comment! Give Fedora a try and let me know what you think!Delete
Great review, I've been a KDE fan for some time now and an avid Fedora user. I'm currently running Fedora 19 with KDE and have been real happy with the experience. Recently, I've thought about moving away from Fedora and giving one of the other distros a try. However, I would like to stay with the KDE desktop. Any suggestions ?ReplyDeleteReplies
Hi there... I have tried a few, but nothing as good as Fedora.Delete
Kubuntu is alright, I guess, but after trying Fedora, it´s hard to have to go back to the pain of using PPAs for staying up to date with apps. Chakra is a pain... It´s supposed to be pure KDE but lots of important pieces of the KDE desktop are missing from the default install, and the bundle applications they use simply make no sense. To stay pure Qt adds little to no value when compared with the hassles one has to put up with. OpenSUSE feels inconsistent in many ways to me, and always worse in performance than Fedora in my experience. I have had a similar experience with Linux Mint KDE. I haven´t had much of a great experience with Mandriva derivatives either... I have not tried Arch, though, but I hear good things about it... I just can´t be bothered to face a steep learning curve to do something as trivial as an install.
Long story short, I have tried a few and keep thinking Fedora is best, and getting better on every release!
- AnonymousOctober 9, 2014 at 2:16 PM
Nice review! I have been using RedHat since 1997 and have been a big fan of Fedora. The one issue is the fact they leave some things incomplete. Having said that it is solid and a secure platform for any Linux user in my mind. The only three I keep coming back to is Linux Mint, Fedora, and Ubuntu (having tried most all). The desktop conversation is really only opinion based on user preference. Gnome 3.x or KDE 4.x or whatever is all about what the user likes. The benefit from Linux is you can change or add to distro at any time, and Fedora makes it even easier by yum install 'desktop'.ReplyDelete


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text:
Music May Help Children Feel Less Pain
The modified saying Music soothes the savage beast may have new applications in the modern world of medicine. New research suggests that music may help some children experience less discomfort when dealing with low level or moderate pain.
Researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada have found additional evidence that suggest music decreases people's perceived sense of pain.
Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry researcher, Lisa Hartling, led the research team that involved her colleagues from the Department of Pediatrics, as well as fellow researchers from the University of Manitoba and the United States. Their findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Pediatrics.
During the research phase, some of the children listened to music while getting an IV, while others did not. The team noted that the children in the music group had less pain than the children in the other group after certain procedures.
Researchers measured the children's distress, perceived pain levels, and heart rates.
They also measured the satisfaction levels of parents, and the satisfaction levels of the healthcare providers who administered the IVs.
"We did find a difference in the children's reported pain -- the children in the music group had less pain immediately after the procedure," says Hartling. "The finding is clinically important and it's a simple intervention that can make a big difference. Playing music for kids during painful medical procedures would be an inexpensive and easy-to-use intervention in clinical settings."
Researchers noted that the children who listened to music reported significantly less pain, some demonstrated significantly less distress, and the children's parents were more satisfied with care.
In the music listening group, 76 per cent of health-care providers said the IVs were very easy to administer -- a markedly higher number than the non-music group where only 38 per cent of health-care providers said the procedure was very easy. Researchers also noticed that the children who had been born premature experienced more distress overall.
The mood of the music, whether it contained lyrics and whether it was familiar to the child also played an important role in how helpful the music intervention was.
"There is growing scientific evidence showing that the brain responds to music and different types of music in very specific ways," said Hartling. "So additional research into how and why music may be a better distraction from pain could help advance this field."
Hartling and her team hope to continue their research in this area, to see if music or other distractions can make a big difference for kids undergoing other painful medical procedures. The pain and distress from medical procedures can have "long-lasting negative effects" for children, the researchers said.
On a more practical daily basis, next time your little one needs a shot or has to undergo something uncomfortable, it might be worth a try to crank up his or her favorite song to see of it relieve some of the pain and anxiety.
You never know, it may just help.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130715164803.htm
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May have to put a tower on the PPsh mag... I feel making a De Sisle Carbine clone would be neat... Advanced Armament Corp. DeLisle Carbine.
[this thread started off about a 54R conversion, and morphed into a .45-70 build. -TRX]
(************************************************* ******)
I think another project just crawled into the queue. Right now all my funds and spare time are taken up on the current project, so this one will have to wait...
I was rummaging in the shop the other day and found a 1944 Enfield action. The barrel has a hole drilled across the front of the breech, the bolt has gigantic rust pits, and it's missing most of the rest. I'd unscrewed the barrel, then written it off as junk. The barreled action has leaned against the wall since 1993, best as I can figure.
Looking it it, it appears the whole thing was glass beaded at one time. Despite the horrendous damage to the bolt, the action appears to be just fine. And the barrel is bright and clean, despite the hole drilled in it...
Searching online:
$35 "complete" bolt assembly
$25 bolt head "not part of this complete assembly"
$15 trigger guard
$40 good used Enfield barrel
$25 magazine
-- stock set (prices vary widely)
Add it all up, and I could probably find a shooter for about the same price... but I could set the barrel back a few threads, rent a 54R chambering reamer, and have an SMLE in 7.62x54R. 54R ammo is way cheaper than .303, and it would shoot the same ammo as my Nagant.
A friend was trying to persuade me to build it in 7.62x25 with a PPsh drum magazine. He was kidding... I think.
Last edited by TRX; 06-12-2011 at 10:06 AM.
May have to put a tower on the PPsh mag... I feel making a De Sisle Carbine clone would be neat... Advanced Armament Corp. DeLisle Carbine.
Hello TRX,
What a cool project !!!!
Set that barrel back and rechamber it to 7.62x54R Russian if enough meat exists. It could even be a Jungle Carbine with the flash hider muzzle and stock work, a Russo-British Jungle Carbine.
The pinned barrel chamber is typical of a British dewat or DP (drill purpose) rifle. The firing pin may be clipped off.
I brought the receiver in from the shop. It says:
I had a 1945 model in the '80s, and got rid of it after determining the receiver was made out of cast iron. I was dressing a few rough spots with a file, and metal was coming off in the usual dark powder like iron does, instead of bright shavings like most steels.
This one is also a casting. It must be some pretty good stuff; I'd never heard of an SMLE failure, and I just spent some time googling as well. There are a lot of SMLEs out there around a century old, and a lot of them shot bunches of that hot Greek machine gun ammunition that was on sale everywhere in the '80s.
The cast iron part worries me because it's a rear locking lug action, and (apparently in the interest of removing weight) there's darned little metal connecting the barrel ring to the locking lugs. On the right side, there's even a slot that looks like a "don't do this" example out of any engineering textbook. The bolt looks like a pencil compared to anything bigger than a .22LR. Yet they appeared to be reliable in service, and even American commercial .303 ammunition is no joke.
Comparing a Remington 788 (a common commercial rear-locking action) and an SMLE, I get the urge to hide my eyes and make small whimpering noises.
As a bolt action the SMLE is quite unusual. Rear locking is unusual, of course. Since there are no forward locking lugs in the receiver, the lugs on the bolts cam into slots cut in the rear sidewalls. The closing cams are around 30 degrees, and about half again as long as the actual lug bearing area. Enfield really, *really* wanted you to be able to get off that next shot.
The bottom front edge of the left bolt lug rides an extraction ramp of about 30 degrees, perhaps double the width of the bolt mating surface. That's the main extraction force. The firing pin spring is quite stout, and probably provides sufficient extraction force all by itself.
The right outer locking face is, as I mentioned, just a cut in the sidewall, like some .22 or .410 bolt actions. The left side is machined into the side of the wall from the inside. I can see end mill cutter marks in there. It looks like you could reach in there with a quarter inch end mill for the basic recess, then a 3/8 or 1/2" keyseat cutter for the closing ramp.
That assumes they were actually cut; if the receiver is an investment casting, the whole cutout could be cast. Final machining could cut the right lug to match the cast left lug...
The bolt head slides through an internal reinforcing ring, like a '98 Mauser, sort of. Any extra strength couldn't hurt.
There's a big socket cast onto the back of the action, hanging down underneath at an angle, for mounting the stock. There's very little metal on the right side, no fillets or radii to prevent cracks... all the recoil goes through this offset joint. The lug under the barrel is just for mounting the forward wood.
Three 1/16" or so holes are drilled in the sidewall on the left side of the breech, approximately alongside the rim of a chambered cartridge. This makes a small slot, presumably to give gas from a ruptured case another escape path. The shape and position of the slot looks like another "don't do this" directly in the left-side load path.
("but it works", I keep repeating to myself...)
A strange thing is, if you put a .580" hole through a piece of 1-1/4" round bar, counterbored the end and cut threads with a boring bar or big tap, you could finish the rest of the machining on a mini-mill and have a tube receiver that would accept an Enfield barrel and bolt. Opening it up for the Enfield double-stack magazine would sacrifice a lot of metal... of course, you could start with a square bar.
If you wanted to build your own receiver, basing something off the SMLE would be WAY easier than trying to cut conventional raceways, though maybe no easier than some of the fat-bolt designs.
hmm sounds like a plausable build!
i have an ishipore enfield in 308
i wonder how hard that would be to swap to 7.62x54?
the cartriges are about the same size
but i wonder if the 303 enfield is large enuff to handle the 54?
icompared my 2 long ago and it seems the 308 is a bit beefier
looks like different recievers
itd be an interesting project
kep us posted
Speaking of which, at least one person managed to mate a 30-round Bren mag to an Enfield. And there is at least one company out there converting them to 7.62x39, using 10 or 30 round AK mags.
Lots of comments from people who couldn't understand why someone would want to convert to 54R. Either they don't realize cheap import .303 is long gone, or the price difference between spam cans full of Commie 54R and commercially-loaded .303 is beneath their notice.
Hello TRX,
In WW-II the Australians and Kiwis converted a number (five thousand) early SMLE's to LMG's using an adapted 30 round (Bren) mag. This was the Chariton conversion, a 16.5 lb gas-operated gun.
im realy supprised there arent more 54r conversions but im guessing well be seing more due to the economy
can you post some of the conversion referances?
i would like to try one i have a sporterized mk3 id use as a donor-piss poor sporter but be a good candidate still solid
There was a company doing that about 20 years ago. Later it was determined that the pressure increase might not be worth the risk. The UK did test original receivers with 7.62x51 proof loads and had unacceptable receiver stretch after 6 proof loads. The UK 7.62x51 proof loads are not as hot as US military proof loads. The UK used a special heat treatment on the 7.62x51 Lee-Enfield receivers and figured that was good enough for factory military ammunition. Some 7.62x54R ammunition is fairly mild like the Polish ammo but some others like the Chinese ammo can be really hot.
hmm interesting-i wonder how its like for the ishapore ones in 308 then
i mean is the pressure of 54r equivalent to .308?


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Arsenal is delighted to announce that three of the Club's Scholars have signed professional terms with the Club.
Defender Daniel Boateng (17), together with midfielder Nico Yennaris (17) and striker Roarie Deacon (18) have all made the step up to becoming Professionals with Arsenal Football Club.
All three were heavily involved with Steve Bould's successful Youth teams last season, of which the Under-18s won the FA Premier Academy League title.
Everyone at the Club is looking forward to the continued contribution and development of Daniel, Nico and Roarie with Arsenal in the forthcoming yearsCopyright 2017 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source


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Legendary UTEP Coach Don Haskins Passes Away
Sept. 7, 2008
• Events Planned to Honor Coach Haskins
EL PASO, TEXAS - Don Haskins, one of the greatest coaches in college basketball history, passed away on Sunday. He was 78.
Haskins died at his home, surrounded by friends and family, at 4:30 p.m. MDT. A public memorial is set for Thursday.
"It is a very sad time for all of us," UTEP Director of Athletics Bob Stull said. "Don is an icon of El Paso. He has had a huge impact on the city and the University of Texas at El Paso. Since his retirement, he has remained very interested in our entire athletic program and supportive of all of our coaches. He has been an invaluable resource to everybody in the athletic department. He remains one of the most revered and honored coaches in basketball history. His decision to start five black players in the 1966 national championship game, as chronicled in the movie Glory Road, changed college basketball and the sports world. He will always be remembered for that."
"My thoughts and prayers go out to Mary and the Haskins family," UTEP coach Tony Barbee said. "We are losing a national treasure. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know him over the last two years. The information he shared with me was invaluable to a first-time head coach. He is a Hall of Fame coach and a Hall of Fame person. It's sad to think that we're losing someone so special to this community and this university, and a national hero at the same time."
Haskins, who was nicknamed "The Bear," was the head coach at UTEP from 1961-99, leading the Miners to 719 wins, as well as a national title (1966), 14 NCAA Tournament appearances and seven Western Athletic Conference championships.
CBS Sportsline.com named him the greatest Division I men's basketball coach of all time in July, 2001. "UTEP -- with no recruiting base, no media attention and substandard budgets -- had no business winning much of anything," said sports columnist Dan Wetzel. "No coach did more with less, maximized his talent and made strange parts fit better than The Bear."
Haskins, who announced his retirement on Aug. 24, 1999, ranks 19th among all-time Division I men's basketball head coaches with 719 victories.
He was born on March 14, 1930 in Enid, Okla. He played his college ball at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) from 1949-52, where he was a second team All-Conference selection as a senior. Haskins split time at the guard and forward positions as a collegian, leading Oklahoma A&M to the NCAA semifinals in 1949 and 1951.
Haskins' coaching career began at Benjamin High School in Benjamin, Texas in 1955. He was a teacher and coach of both boys and girls teams at Benjamin High from 1955-56. Haskins also headed the basketball programs at Hedley (Texas) High School from 1956-60 and Dumas (Texas) High School from 1960 -61.
Haskins took over the UTEP program for the 1961-62 season. His first Miner squad notched an 18-6 record. His second UTEP team posted a 19-7 mark during the 1962-63 campaign and made the first of Haskins' 14 NCAA Tournament appearances.
The Miners captured the NCAA title on March 19, 1966, shocking heavily-favored Kentucky, 72-65, for the championship. That year Haskins became the first coach ever to start a lineup of five black players at the major college level. The achievement was documented in the 2006 motion picture Glory Road.
Haskins' teams captured WAC championships in 1970, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1992, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1975, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1992.
Haskins has tutored numerous players who have gone on to play in the NBA, including Antonio Davis, Tim Hardaway and Jim Barnes, the first pick by New York in the 1964 NBA Draft.
Haskins' last Miner team notched a 16-12 record during the 1998-99 season, his 32nd winning season in 38 years as head coach.
Haskins was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 29, 1997, and the Jim Thorpe Association Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame on Aug. 9, 1999 in Oklahoma City.
He is survived by his wife, Mary; three sons - Brent, David and Steve; and three grandsons. A fourth son, Mark, passed away in 1994.
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Camp Hobbit Hill
Sports Camp: Equestrian, Horseback Riding
Girls Only - Day and Overnight Camp
Religious Affiliation: None
Camp Address
223 Cody Embler Rd.
Alexander, North Carolina 28701, USA
Phone: (828) 808-7929
Camp Hobbit Hill is located in a pristine mountain community just north of Asheville, North Carolina. Hobbit Hill is an Equestrian adventure. Camp supplementary activities include Academic Tutoring, Arts, and Sports/Fitness classes. Camp Hobbit Hill Focuses on the development of the camper as whole.


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Laws, Regulations & Annotations
Property Taxes Law Guide – Revision 2017
Revenue and Taxation Code
Property Taxation
Part 1. General Provisions
Chapter 5. Disaster Relief: Tax Deferral
Section 196.8
196.8. Allocation to county. After the county auditor of an eligible county, as described in Section 196.7, has made the applicable certification to the Director of Finance pursuant to Section 196.7, the director shall, within 30 days after verification of the county auditor's estimate, certify this amount to the Controller for allocation to the county. Upon receipt of certification from the Director of Finance, the Controller shall make the appropriate allocation to the county within 10 working days thereafter.
History.—Added by Stats. 1992, Ch. 24X, First Extraordinary Session, in effect September 30, 1992.


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|Topic Review (Newest First)
Originally Posted by brownSnow View Post
Oh, and if you're adventurous skip buying a lift ticket and hike the unopened area south of the south side. With a good snowfall those runs are choice!
A few questions, if you will: How far is the walk to the base of the new area? What is the difficulty of the trails(blue/black)? Do they have staff monitoring this place for trespassers? And most importantly, what's the worst that can happen if we get caught?
Mt. St. Louis is great for bombing first thing in the morning when freshly groomed (if you see a 6ft tall+ brown guy on a prior race board, that's me)
And as noted, it's great for the whole family. but can become a bit repetitious run wise. The park from what i've seen is always in top shape (i dare not go near it though).
Blue, great on the weekdays, horrible on weekends ---> standing in line 25mins for a 45second run... NOT FUN.
like Oldman says, go during the week, you have the entire place to yourself! And when it snows, Blue does get a good dump (they're far and few between, but can be good). Also, and as mentioned, the apres is much better. Also, the North side of Blue has some interesting and steeper runs with little pockets & areas where you can duck in and out of some glades (yes on the north side), off Hogs back duck right into the trees, it will spit you out into Happy Valley. You can do the same coming off Willys run, about 1/4 way down, duck left into the trees. Oh, and if you're adventurous skip buying a lift ticket and hike the unopened area south of the south side. With a good snowfall those runs are choice!
For me, if it's for exercise and training i go to Mt. St. Louis. If it's a weekday with the buddies blazing and drinking, Blue all the way.
As is so often the case in life, there are the "in" places to do and be seen at. For the Toronto snow crowd, that place would be "Blue". As an Intrawest property, it has all of the expected "apres ski" offerings associated with such. As for the hill, it has more vertical than Moonstone, but most of the runs have a "flat" that if the crowd prevents you from carrying enough speed, can be a pain on a snowboard. As it is a weekend resort, the lineups can be bad on a weekend.
Moonstone is almost everything Blue is not. It is family owned and their only goal is to provide as good an experience as their hill can provide. There is no night skiing, good for some, bad for others, but it does ensure that the majority of the hill gets groomed early and then has all night to "set up" Fresh tracks are possible here. I don't do the park, but from the feedback you hear from the kids at the cafeteria during lunch, they rave about it. There are no accommodations on site, but they do provide the essentials on site. Rentals, Ski Shop, Cafeteria, etc. As mentioned above it is closer and an easier drive to get to vs. Blue. On weekends it can be busy, not as busy as Blue, but they do have a great number of high speed lifts.
During the week, both hills are wide open as is the norm in most places. If Moonstone does have a drawback during the week, it is that a large number of schools will do their ski days at Moonstone. If you know where to go, you can avoid the majority of students on the hill.
As you might have guessed, I prefer Moonstone. Very easy day trip, they make a ton of snow and it is ALWAYS well groomed.
I was looking into the size difference and found this:
Holiday Valley vs Blue Mountain in Ski Resorts
Love moonstone compared to blue cuz of the smaller crowd and driving distance. The crowds at blue are a big turn off.
Tried Holiday Valley and it was so nice and quiet. Bit smaller than Blue mtn and the lifts aren't as high tech though. No village but the nearby town has all the supplies you need. Practically same distance and it gives you an excuse to buy some CHEAP snowgear at US online stores and pick up on the way to mtn!!
In my opinion the runs at blue are longer and have more variety with more real estate to uncover.
I don't know much about the park, but from a pure quality of terrain perspective Blue is definitely superior to moonstone. On the flip side, moonstone wins for accessibility and shorter lines.
The people at Moonstone aren't all doorknobs like Blue. I never had a bad time at Moonstone. It's smaller, but has some nice runs when I was there two years ago. Blue is bigger, but like Lamps said, the lines suck.
I've also never been a big park kind of guy, but I know some people who wouldn't go anywhere else for park boarding.
|What about holiday valley?
the moonstone terrain park was rated #1 in eastern canada lately, although blue is doing work on theirs this year, and they got a new pipe machine.
for a day trip I prefer moonstone as it's a shorter drive, and lineups on the weekend at blue can also be stupidly long
for a weekend i prefer blue due to the amenities of the village despite the lineups
the north part of blue mountain is a little steeper and sometimes less crowded than moonstone.
Oh that's a good way to get tickets sold!
I gotta check out SLM this year and take a break from blue
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Hampton Roads property transfers
Have you been wondering how much your neighbors sold their house for? Want to know if you're paying a fair price for your new home? Welcome to the Daily Press' Hampton Roads property transfers database, the only place online where you can see exactly how much local real estate has sold for. Questions, comments or corrections? Click here.
Using this database: Click on a city or county below to zoom in and see property transfers currently in our database. Use the filter on the right to narrow down the properties shown by price. To see more news and information about local real estate, and to search past records, scroll down the page.
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I am from Eastern part of the state, and am hoping to venture out western ky this winter, and was wondering your alls info on some public ground good for huntin? I know ballard is a hot spot, but dont know the details on how that works.
Anything is appreciated.
Thanks and God Bless!


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Question: What kinds of stories are contained in the Share a Story database?
Answer: The Share a Story database is an interactive program allowing visitors to Immigration Museum to write their own immigration story. Visitors can submit their stories either by directly typing them into the computer database or by providing a written copy. The stories are then made available for members of the public to read.
Each brief story focuses on immigration to Victoria, particularly the reasons that migrants leave their home country, the experiences they have during the voyage, and the thoughts and feelings they experience as they first settle in Australia. The database can be accessed by all visitors to Immigration Museum, either in the Station Pier Exhibition or the Immigration Discovery Centre.
The diversity of the migrant stories added to the Share a Story database express how personal the experience of migration is. However, key themes do emerge. Some contributions are written by newly arrived migrants sharing their thoughts on settling into the broader Victorian community: "we find Australia a lot different to England. The weather, the shops, the schools, sometimes for the better, sometimes not."
Other stories are written by second or third generation Australians paying tribute to the lives of their ancestors: "he and my grandmother were model Australian citizens who worked their way up, from simple beginnings, to contribute solidly to our way of life. Their courage and generosity should never be forgotten or go unnoticed."
Many migrants describe the twin ties they feel to their newly adopted home and the country of their birth: "I am grateful for the opportunities that Australia has given our family although we will never forget tropical Mauritius with its Casuarina trees and golden sandy beaches."
Others, however, recall the hardships they encountered in making the journey to a new country: "migration rips out your heart and soul. There were hard times in Holland, but times were terrible in Australia when we first came, and there was no family support."
The stories shared by migrants and their families through the Share a Story database highlight the multi-faceted journey that immigrants to Australia experience travelling to and settling in their new country; and, with several new contributions submitted each week, the collection of stories is constantly expanding. What's yours?
Hi Irene. Thanks for your interest in the share a story database. Stories should focus on the stories of immigrants or their families and the personal experience of leaving home, the journey and arrival. Stories must be under 350 words and will be edited. To submit your story, please email the Immigration Discovery Centre at firstname.lastname@example.com to request a form.
Hi Alfred - the best place to confirm the departure and arrival dates of your migration journey is via the National Archives of Australia (NAA). The NAA hold the passenger and shipping lists for migrant arrivals to Australia. You can search for records online via the NAA's RecordSearch tool. For additional information you can contact the NAA directly.
Hi Agnes – I have forwarded your query to the Senior Curator for migration. We will contact you personally as soon as we have any information regarding the whereabouts of the film your father made.
Warm thanks for your contribution to the Share a Story database, Agnes. It has been uploaded by our staff and can now be read by visitors to the Immigration Museum using the public computers in the Discovery Centre, located on the ground floor.
Hi Marie,
You may visit the Immigration Musuem Discovery Centre to submit your own story to the Share a Story database. Our public computers have a link to the database which invites visitors to leave their story and you can spend some time reading through accounts left by other visitors.
Our museum is located at 400 Flinders Street and we are open 10am to 5pm every day except Christmas Day and Good Friday.
We hope to see you at the Museum soon!
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Feeds and strengthens against heat and drought. Kills and protects against listed bugs. Improves your lawns ability to absorb water and nutrients.
Scotts® Broadcast / Rotary Spreader - (Turf Builder® Edgeguard Mini, Basic, Standard, Deluxe Edgeguard, Edgeguard DLX, Lawn Pro & Speedy Green) - Set to 4 ¾ Scotts® Drop Spreaders - (AccuGreen, Classic Drop) - Set to 8 ¼ Scotts® Easygreen® - Set to 29 Scotts® Wizz™ - Set to 3.75
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Summer Shape Up: Personal Trainer Favorites Pt. 1
Published July 14th, 2014
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- We asked a few of the trainers at Gainesville Health and Fitness for one exercise they believe provides the most 'bang for your buck' in terms of the time you spend.
These are exercises they use not only with their clients, but also in their own workouts.
Here, they show you how to do each one at the basic level with tips on body mechanics that will make the exercise even more effective. For those that would like an advanced version, the trainers will present progression to the next level of intensity. You can choose your level.
Trainer Lacy Harper will show us her favorite hamstring curl using a stability ball.
Related Stories
- Summer Shape Up: Personal Trainer Favorites Pt. 2
- Summer Shape Up: Personal Trainer Favorites Pt. 3
- Summer Shape Up: The Basics of Zumba
- Summer Shape Up: Three Moves For Great Abs
- Summer Shape Up: Beach Exercises
- Summer Shape Up: Start Your Day With a Workout
- Summer Shape Up: Healthy Cookout Ideas
- Summer Shape Up: Workout in the Pool
- Summer Shape Up: Travel Workout
- Summer Shape Up: The Benefits of Walking


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Yup...and 3 is better than 2.Oh well I guess two
Glocks are better than one.
I've toyed with the idea of picking one up for my G19.
But then I'd have to get one for the G26...then the 21SF would be miffed.
Heck, I may still do it, so I can reload lead.
A heck of a lot cheaper than FMJ.


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Our exciting new weekly feature, Talking Tactics with Stewart Robson, continues today.
Every week, Arsenal TV Online's analyst will be looking back on the last first-team game.
Presenting from the first-team dressing room at Emirates Stadium, Stewart will tell you how the match was won, lost or drawn.
This week, the draw with West Brom is the focus.
The points discussed include:
- Arsenal's use of man marking
- the defending for West Brom's first goal
- Arsenal switching the ball quickly
- West Brom allowing Denilson to see a lot of the ball
- the introduction of Bendtner and Chamakh causing problems
- goalkeepers coming for balls over the top
- Jack Wilshere running with the ball at defenders
We hope you enjoy this new feature.Copyright 2017 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source


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Discussion in 'Off The Beaten Track' started by haribobo, May 5, 2010.
Bored at work, poll time. If you had to call it right now, who should win this season?
First vote.
I think that most of us will be a little biased, since Evan is a skater. But his attitude is better than Nicole's so far.
What do you mean by "should win"? The most likely winner based on how the voting/judging seems to be going? The one we most want to be the winner? The one who is the most "deserving" (based on performance)?
This one
Gotta go with Evan. He and Anna make my heart beat a little faster each week. Love them both.
Evan with Erin as runner up and Niecy in 3rd. Chad is just meh and Nicole annoys the crap out of me.
ETA- I would have voted for Pam though
Yeah, Nicole is such a B*TCH!
P.S. What does attitude have to do with anything? Should Stephane Lambiel have won the 2010 Olympic gold medal because he had a better attitude than Daisuke, Evgeny and Evan?
Technically, Nicole is the best dancer, but as a professional dancer, she has an unfair advantage. Evan has an advantage as well, being a figure skater, but as he has said, he has to learn everything, from how to use his feet without skates to how to turn in the opposite direction from what he's used to. Plus you can actually see problems and improvements.
For 'likeability' I'd go with Erin. I kind of wish she and Maks would have their own 'behind the scenes' reality show. They are the only ones whose practice clips I look forward to watching. I kind of wish I could combine Erin and Maks' personalities with Evan and Anna's dancing and work ethic. But because it's a dancing show, Evan.
Evan with Erin a close second.
go Evan!!!
She may be, but she is a cold and boring professional dancer. I don't think she's all that at all.
Out of these choices I say Nicole, but really, I wanted Pam...
Evan Evan Evan!!!
I voted Evan. I just can't warm up to Nicole. She's trying too hard...
Figure Skating fan has to vote for Evan !
I would, if he was the best...
Yeah, maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see anything wrong with Nicole's attitude. However, I'm definitely cheering for Evan. I was actually never a big fan of his skating, but I think he's absolutely adorable on the show.


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If you have not yet applied to your local council for a social rented home you will need to register and apply online (click here), or complete and return a paper application form (click here) and provide proof of your current situation. The proof you need to give us can be found on pages 18 and 19 of the application form.
When your application has been approved, you will be given a unique reference number, which you will use to log on to Homesearch. You will also need to choose a memorable date, which is for security purposes. You should not choose your date of birth, or another date that could be easy to guess (e.g. child's date of birth).
Please see the Who Can Use This Service section (click here) for further information.
We use a banding scheme to assess how urgent your needs are. When you are accepted you will also be told which band your application has been placed in. There are four priority bands, ranging from Band 1 (most urgent) to Band 4 (least urgent).
Time waiting on the register will be counted from the date your application was approved, that is, when we have received your fully complete form with the necessary supporting information. If you were previously on the council or housing association waiting list, we will normally count your waiting time from when you first applied, so you will not lose out due to the change to the new Homesearch system.
Please see Prioritising Applications section (click here) for details of the bands.
The size of the home you require depends on how many people there are in your household. Generally the following property types would be suitable for these household sizes:
Size of Household
Bed Size Eligibility
Single person
Bedsit/studio flat
Single person or couple
One bedroom
Up to four people
Two bedrooms
Up to five people
Three bedrooms (depending on bedroom size)
Six people or more
Four or more bedrooms
If you are already registered but your circumstances have changed, you should contact your local council as soon as possible so your application can be altered to match your new housing situation. Where an application moves into a higher band for any reason, the effective date will be the date the housing need changed, not the initial application date. If you have moved, you will need to complete a new application form (click here).


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Marketing is a chore for most residential architects, who would rather draw than dream up ways to attract new business. It's easier to rely on word-of-mouth advertising and the casual connections formed at kids' soccer games, dinner parties, and board meetings. Conventional wisdom says that personal networking is, in fact, the most powerful marketing tool there is. Consumers place far more trust in people they know than they do in advertising messages, and that explains the growing number of companies turning to online social media—blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and the like—to generate interest in their work. There's a lot of hype around online schmoozing, to be sure, and some see it as a trendy Internet time drain. But there's evidence that it can be a powerful professional ally—especially for small firms and independent practitioners, for whom each connection is a multipliable building block.
So many people now socialize online that the local Chamber of Commerce mixer seems positively "old school." Facebook alone saw a 116 percent jump in membership from September 2007 to September 2008, according to Nielsen Online. And Twitter has grown tenfold over the past year, a comScore analysis showed. When you consider the thousands of businesses that host Facebook groups, thereby creating an online community of people who share their interests, it's clear that social media is catching on with business in a big way.
A mid-2008 study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research bears this out. A survey of the Inc. 500—a list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States compiled annually by Inc. magazine—showed that their use of online social media doubled between 2007 and 2008. Thirty-nine percent of the companies were blogging in 2008, up from 19 percent in 2007.
Social media is still in its nascent stages, and not yet second nature for many design firms. But some are figuring out how to use it judiciously. One example is Charlottesville, Va., architect Lance Hosey, AIA, LEED AP, a former director at William McDonough + Partners. Last fall he set up a Facebook page for Women in Green, the book he co-authored with Kira Gould, to spread the word about the topic. Feedback poured in so quickly that within months it had attracted several hundred fans—mostly people he didn't know. Besides the page's direct marketing value, the comments left by viewers are more illuminating than sales figures alone. An added bonus: It's easier to set up and amend than a website.
Last year, Hosey also created a personal Facebook page that, he's discovered, adds color to his professional life. "I joined because family and friends were pressuring me, but I immediately realized the value of it," he says. For Hosey, it's the chance to get to know workaday peers as real people. "Someone can announce that she's just won a design competition or launched a new book, and in the same day say she's overcoming a cold and frantic about meeting a deadline. In moderation, mixing the personal and professional can be a good thing. If people know me from my résumé, they only see one side of me."
Yen Ha, LEED AP, a principal at Front Studio, New York City, thinks so too. She and co-principal Michi Yanagishita created LUNCH, a blog that reveals bits of their style in a way that a portfolio could not. The luscious photos and mini-musings on repasts ranging from lamb saagwala to apple puff pastry are "a reminder to stop, chill, breathe in fresh air, and most importantly—eat," according to the website. Ha says a lot of clients are fascinated by it, and it may explain some of the restaurant projects that are starting to come their way. "It helps, for someone whose portfolio is low on restaurant work, that clients coming in are saying, 'Oh, you guys really like to eat.'" The pair also ties Front Studio to Twitter, using it to remark on an interesting design they've seen or something delicious they've just eaten. "I think for a lot of designers, the Web presence is just a way of making little comments here and there that reflect your personality and design sensibilities," Ha says.
virtual chatter Online social networking's other essential beauty is that it unlocks geography, making it attractive to architects with a national and international range. For example, Chris Pardo—whose Seattle firm, Pb Elemental Architecture, has work in China, Hong Kong, and South America—uses a combination of blog submittals, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for publicity. He hooks up with developers and sub-consultants on LinkedIn, a strategy that paid off when he landed a client through a Realtor who had requested a connection. In addition, five new clients found Pardo through his year-old Facebook page, but it's the blogs that have had the biggest ripple effect.
Blogging is easy on the budget, so it's perfect for small firms. And it's more believable and engaging to the viewer than most other forms of advertising. In short, it's a way to push news at people who've volunteered to read it. In Pardo's case, though, the blogs are less personal and more project-focused. "We identified people who blog about architecture and asked if they were interested in our projects," he says. The firm regularly uploads photos of work under way to blog sites such as Contemporist (www.contemporist.com), Offbeat Homes (www.offbeathomes.com), archiCentral (www.archicentral.com), Studio House Design (www.studiohousedesign.com), and ArchDaily (www.archdaily.com). "We're probably on 100 different sites, because once you get on one blog site, another blog sees it and asks for permission from that blog to put it on their site," he says. "That's how we got onto international blogs. It catches on without us having to submit to them."


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Win tickets to Wide Open Space!
Apr 29, 2013 , 11:27 AM by Rohan Barwick
Wide Open Space is a music and arts festival held at Ross River Resort.
All this week on Drive we will be bringing you live performances from some of the musos who will be taking to the stage this coming weekend (May 3-5).
Would you like a double pass to go to the whole festival? No problem!
All you have to do is tell us about your best music festival experience. Easy!
Enter in the comments section below (keep it under 200 words).
Winner announced Thursday May 2nd 2013 on the 783 (am) ABC Alice Springs Drive show.
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Was living for a number of years, and a bunch of foreign mates were playing in a "we're all foreigners" band. Entered a comp, and got selected to play at Fuki Rock. So I managed to scam in to the band telling them they needed some keys. Then another mate said the band needed a dancer, and a couple of the chicks were back up dancers. All of a sudden we had 10 of us in for free and we all "played" live at Fuji Rock fest. Hells yeah!
Posted by: Sam Davis | Apr 29, 2013 at 03:07 PM
Seeing the English National Orchestra on a Sunday morning at Glastonbury! An overwhelming 'wow' and 'whoa' rose up from the tens of thousands of bleary-eyed humans listening in disbelief to Ride of the Valkyries bringing the day to life.
Posted by: Yvette | Apr 30, 2013 at 10:20 AM
The most amazing festival I attended was The Walking With Spirits festival in Beswick, NT. I hadn't till the day I got there experienced somewhere so magical and full of beauty. It was an eye opener to just how special this land is, even though I knew it was special before. At that moment I felt completely enamoured. Prehistoric trees towering over fresh water creek beds, set amongst a burnt red gorge, water falling from pools and swimming with the fresh water crocodiles. With a beautiful welcoming community.
Posted by: Gemma | Apr 30, 2013 at 01:28 PM
My friend and i thought it would be a good idea to each submit an entry to double our chances. And surely with the combined diversity of our musical experiences we would each have something nice and different. After a minutes thought we shared our decision. Much to our amusement it was the same act. It was the second night of Earth Freq 2013 and we were feeling the activity of the last couple if days. So we sat down for some rest at the earth stage (nicely decorated in branches, ferns and lichen). My attention was suddenly drawn to a harp illuminated by blue lights. The player cocked her head to the side indicating to the guitarist to begin their set. For the next hour we sat totally enraptured by this act. Their power lay not only in the beauty of the music but in the intensity of emotion shown in the motion of the harpists whole body and the passionate expressions in her face. This act truly belittled all the lasers, lights, decorations and other special effects with a just a display of pure raw feeling. That night The Flumes really showed me how human emotion has coevolved with music.
Posted by: Anthony glauser | May 01, 2013 at 02:39 PM
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Join Dave Shuffett in his biggest challenge ever
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Kentucky Life fans have seen Dave Shuffett try all kinds of activities as part of his "Dave Does It" segment: clean up after penguins, try his hand at ballroom dancing, zipline across treetops, and more. He always has a blast with these, and now it's your turn to be part of the action to work toward making sure we keep our state beautiful.
On Saturday, March 23, Dave will travel to Dale Hollow Lake in Burkesville as part of the 15th annual Commonwealth Cleanup going on this week and managed by the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection's Division of Waste Management.
Easily get involved in your community
Dave is asking everyone in the state to join him. It's your chance to get involved and make a difference for your community—a "Kentucky Does It" at its best.
If you want to volunteer for an event in your area or create your own event, go to the Division of Waste Management site to see a list of events by county.
Then, if you haven't already, go to Kentucky Life's Facebook page and "like" it, then post on the wall what you're doing to help clean up our Commonwealth! Check in with Kentucky Life's Facebook page all day Saturday to see what kind of cleanup Dave is getting into at Dale Hollow Lake!


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The Doctrine of Perseverance: The Earnest Pursuit of Assurance
A Weakened Gymnast and an Encouraging Coach
Suppose that you are a gymnast. You are doing a floor exercise in competition and have made a good beginning. You are in the middle of your routine and suddenly find a strange weariness coming over you. You start to get a little wobbly in your arms and legs. You set yourself up for a series of back handsprings that is supposed to come to a climax in a double back flip with a full twist. As you turn and begin your handsprings, the weakness causes a terrible uncertainty to come into your mind. You hit your last handspring to try to get the height you need for the double back flip. Your elbows buckle very slightly. And as you leave the ground the strangest thing happens. Everything goes into slow motion. You seem to be moving just an inch per second. And as you ascend and begin to tuck, you hear a voice from the side of the mat. And you recognize it as the voice of your coach.
What I am picturing here is the church of the Hebrews to whom this letter was written. They are the gymnast in this picture, and the writer of Hebrews is their coach. As he writes today's text he is catching them in midair. If they can hear him and respond, they will land on their feet, complete the routine, and perhaps get a good score, say, 8.5 or 9.1. But if they don't hear him, their uncertainty and weariness may cause them to give out half way through the flip, and come down on their head, and break their neck. The text might also be catching you in midair this morning. If so, I hope you listen carefully to the coach so that you land on your feet and finish the life of faith and obedience God has called you to.
The Progress and Problem of the Church in Hebrews
Let me show you where I get this idea of his catching them in midair. Consider, first of all, 6:10, "God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for his sake [lit.: "in his name"] in serving the saints, as you still do." Now from that verse it looks as though this church is doing all right, doesn't it? They have done works of love, they have done them in the name of God — that is, in reliance on him and for his glory — and they have served the saints, and still are serving them. This is why I said the gymnastic routine of their life had a good beginning and even going into this handspring looks like about a 9.1. Only the sharpest judges and a good coach can detect the problem at this point. What problem?
Look at 5:12–14, "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need some one to teach you again the first principles of God's word. You need milk, not solid food; for every one who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil."
Now this is not nearly so flattering as 6:10. We need to look very carefully at verse 14 to see what the problem is with these people. First of all they don't seem ready to hear some advanced teaching that the author wants to give them. That solid food is for the mature, he says, but you are not mature. Verse 11 says, you have grown dull of hearing.
The Root of Their Problem
Why? What's the root of the problem? Verse 14 takes us deeper. They don't have their faculties, or senses, trained to distinguish good from evil. (Incidentally the Greek word for "trained" in this verse is the word from which we get "gymnast" in English.) The problem with these people is that they are not very accomplished at separating what is good from what is bad, what is right from what is wrong. There has been some sort of lapse in their progress in this gymnastic ability. They ought to be morally alert and sharp and discerning and discriminating in their battle with sin and evil. But they aren't. Their discerning faculty seems to have lost its edge.
Why? Does this verse take us deeper? Yes it does. There is one other phrase in the verse we haven't looked at yet, namely, the phrase, "by practice." "Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil." The NIV says, "by constant use." So why aren't these people mature, and ready to move on to more advanced teaching? Because their moral faculties are out of tune. There is a moral readiness for teaching as well as an intellectual one. They seem not to have it. Things are morally fuzzy. They've lost the cutting edge of insight between good and evil.
Why? No practice. Verse 13 means that they have not taken the word of righteousness and exercised with it. They have not worked out fully the practical, moral implications of the knowledge they do have. And so they are not ready for the meat of advanced teaching.
The Author Catching Them in Midair
Now what are we to make of this? In 6:10 we read that these people have worked, loved, served the saints, and are still serving. But in 5:11–14 we read that they are immature and unable to make the moral distinctions that come with training and practice in the word of righteousness.
My answer is that the author is catching them in midair. He sees both things. He sees some work, love, and service. And he sees evidence of neglect and drifting and lack of practice. The one gives him hope that they will land on their feet and finish the routine of righteousness. The other makes him concerned that they could land on their head and break their neck.
Sometimes it takes a good coach to tell when a gymnast has been sloughing off. He sees that they are easily winded. He notices the unsure planting of the hands. The toes are not quite pointed, the fingers have no finesse, the landings are off balance. It's clear to the coach that progress has leveled off, and things are starting to go backward. In no way is this gymnast ready for anything more advanced. He has clearly been negligent in his training and exercise.
Now what does he need? What can the coach do for such a gymnast like this? Well he needs at least two things, and so there are two things the coach does for him.
- He needs some immediate help to get down out of this double back flip onto his feet instead of his head.
- And he needs some new patterns of practice and growth so that he doesn't keep drifting backward and ultimately give up the sport — which in this picture stands for the Christian life.
Two Things the Author Tries to Do
Now what does this God-inspired coach do? He tries to do two things.
1. Bring Them Down to a Safe Landing
First, he tries to bring the gymnast to a safe landing from the dangerous position he is in doing this double back flip with a sense of weariness and uncertainty and instability.
There are a lot of Christians who get themselves into a desperate situations because they have neglected their salvation (2:3), they've drifted away from the Word (2:1), they've lost the cutting edge of discernment (5:14; cf. Romans 12:2), and now they are in a situation where they feel they are hanging by their spiritual fingernails and could drop any minute.
Well here is this gymnast in mid-flight, about six feet off the mat, upside down, and just about to lose his bearings and come down on his neck. We've got to put him in slow motion because the coach has to have time to say what the Bible says.
I think the coach says two things. Actually he shouts these things.
1.1. "Find the Floor!"
First he shouts, "Find the floor!" "Find the floor!" Which means get the floor in view. When you are doing a back flip, you're a goner if you can't get your bearings on the floor. If all you see is a swirl of ceiling lights and grandstands, you're done for. "Find the floor!"
Which is a paraphrase of Hebrews 3:1, "Consider Jesus!" or 12:2, "Look to Jesus!" Jesus is the one sure thing. He is the rock, the foundation. Get him in view when everything else in your life is swirling and you will land safely. The coach knows that panic is the worst enemy in the midst of a dangerous routine. And panic comes from a building sense of weakness and uncertainty — or we might say, a lack of assurance in the Christian life. And the main cry of this book is: Jesus is sure! God is sure! The cross is sure! The covenant is sure! The promises are sure! Fix your attention on the things that are sure! "Find the floor!"
1.2. "Lift Your Drooping Hands!"
That's the first thing the coach shouts to the gymnast in midair. The other thing he shouts I don't even have to paraphrase. I take it verbally from Hebrews 12:12, "Lift your drooping hands! Strengthen your weak knees!" We might say, "Pull yourself together!" Get your hands up! Tuck your knees!
In other words the coach wants him first to get his bearings by fixing his attention on the floor. Find the floor! Consider Jesus! Keep him square in view. But then something else has to happen for the gymnast to land safely. The sight of the floor has to have a strengthening, reassuring effect in his body. Getting yourself oriented on the floor dispels the panicked feeling. And in its place brings a surge of reflex, of hope and gracious agility.
That's what the coach wants when he shouts, "Lift your drooping hands! Strengthen your weak knees!" He means, Respond to the floor. The coach of Scripture and the floor of Christ conspire to keep the saints from breaking our necks again and again.
In passing I might just mention that some of us are so prone to hear the commands of Scripture as burdensome and pressuring. We shouldn't feel that way. We should think of the commands of Scripture as the shouts of a coach who wants us to land on our feet and finish the routine of a righteous life and inherit the gold medal of glory.
Now remember, we said that this gymnast needs two things. 1) He needs some immediate help to get down out of this double back flip onto his feet instead of his head. The coach gave him that help, and now he has landed. He walks sheepishly over to the coach and knows now that he needs something else too. 2) He needs, we said, some new patterns of practice and growth so that he doesn't keep drifting backward in his skill and his confidence and ultimately give up gymnastics altogether — which for us means give up the pursuit of holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).
2. Develop New Patterns of Practice and Hope
So what does the coach say now to this gymnast so that he will hang in there? He says Hebrews 6:11–12, "We desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."
Three Steps to the Inheritance
Notice three steps to the inheritance in verse 12. First, faith; second, patience or longsuffering; and third, the inheritance. Faith is foundational; it leads to patient endurance in a life of holiness or righteousness. And that life, then, is the sure path to the inheritance.
Notice how this pattern is confirmed, for example, in 10:35–36. "Do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward" — that's step one, have faith!
Then it goes on in verse 36, "For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God" — that's step two, the reason you must not throw away your faith is that you need endurance in doing the will of God and only faith can give you the strength to do it.
Then verse 36 ends, "And receive what is promised." That's step three, the inheritance that you reach on the road of obedience to the will of God empowered by faith.
So we go back to 6:12 and we see these three steps again: be imitators of those who (one) through faith, (two) and patience, that is, patience in doing the will of God (10:36!), (three) inherit the promises.
The Full Assurance of Hope
In my picture, inheriting the promises corresponds to getting the medal at the end of the gymnastic routine. And patience in doing the will of God corresponds to finishing the routine without breaking your neck or walking off the mat in disgrace. And faith corresponds to that sense of stability and confidence and assurance that you will finish.
And so the most basic thing that the coach says to us gymnasts in this text is in verse 11, "Show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end." Now I take the full assurance of hope in verse 11 to be virtually the same as faith in verse 12. For two reasons:
- First, because the connection between verses 11 and 12 suggests it. It would go like this: Try to keep your full assurance of hope to the end, so that you can be like those who through faith (that is, through this assurance) and patience inherit the promises.
- The other reason I think the assurance of hope in verse 11 is the same as faith is that 11:1 says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for."
So the thought of verses 11 and 12 goes like this. Now it has four steps. Let's read them backward. Step 4: I want you to inherit the promises (get the gold medal). Step 3: So don't give up in your routine of righteous living. Be patient in it. Step 2: The strength to keep you going in obedience to do the will of God is faith, namely, the assurance of hope, that by God's grace you will make it through the routine and that the reward will be infinitely worth it all. And Step 1: Be earnest to maintain a strong faith, seek to realize the full assurance of hope.
How to Realize the Full Assurance of Hope
Which leaves us for today with just one more question. What is the prescription for realizing the full assurance of hope? We already saw that when the gymnast was six feet off the floor, upside down, about to lose his bearings and break his neck, the coach restored his hope by shouting, "Find the floor." Consider Jesus. And that surely remains the basic answer.
Dullness as the Enemy of Assurance
But it is not the whole answer. There is another one in our text. We've seen it already but let me point it out again in a new connection. Notice 6:12: The alternative to having assurance is "becoming sluggish." Realize full assurance of hope, the writer says, so that you do not become sluggish! So if we could find an antidote to sluggishness, we would also have a prescription for assurance.
That antidote is precisely what our text gives us. You can't see the clue in English, but in the Greek the word "sluggish" is exactly the same word that is translated "dull" in 5:11. "We have much to say, which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing."
That's very important to see, because this very dullness is the enemy of assurance, and the antidote to this dullness would be the prescription for assurance. And that antidote is precisely what we can learn from 5:11–14. In fact we've already learned it — at the beginning of this message.
The Exercise of Faith as the Antidote
They are dull of hearing because they have not trained their faculties with regular practice in the distinguishing of good and evil. This means that the faith they claim to have in God's Word and in the doctrines of Christ is not being exercised in the thing it was designed for, namely, a life of joyful holiness.
And we all know what happens to an organ or a limb of the body that is not exercised — it atrophies. It shrivels. It may even die. So it is with faith — it grows strong with use and it dies with disuse. And the use for which faith was primarily designed was what? A new life of joyful obedience. Just read chapter 11 — By faith Abel offered a sacrifice. By faith Noah built an ark. By faith Abraham went out not knowing where he was to go. By faith Moses chose ill-treatment with the people of God.
The organ of faith is designed to empower joyful obedience. And so if we want the organ to grow strong — if we want to realize full assurance of hope — we must exercise it. If God says don't lie on your income tax form, then we must put faith to work and trust that God will meet all our needs as we obey him. If God says, flee fornication, then we must put our faith to work, and trust God that life will be fuller and relationships deeper and eternity sweeter because I have been obediently chaste.
And so it goes. If you exercise your faith it will be strengthened. Your moral faculties will be well trained in distinguishing good and evil. You will make progress toward maturity. And the full assurance of hope will make you ready for the toughest routines your coach may ever push you to try.


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I almost always buy in person. Ammo, guns - for sure. Typically shipping costs negate any savings. If it is something I cannot find locally, then I will order. I ordered my P99 holster thru Midway USA because no one had a Bianchi locally. And, I order HK mags thru the mail, because of great deals on them.
My local shop can order many things - so I often just let them do the ordering.