Bose SoundLink Mini.

In terms of technology, hotel rooms are still firmly locked in the 20th century. An in-room DVD player is a big deal at most hotels. Wi-fi? Only if you're happy to be ripped off, and then it's mostly marginal. Music? Forget that - if it's not on the television, it doesn't exist.

So if music helps you survive travel, it's all up to you, and unless you like listening to the horrible speaker in your phone, or wear headphones, you'll need a portable speaker. There may be plenty available across a wide range of prices, but not all of them travel well and lots of them sound little better than your phone.

First, you need something small and light enough to throw into your bag. It also needs to be robust enough to take the knocks. It needs sufficient volume to avoid washing out the detail by the time the sound has crossed from the room's only available power point to the room's only couch when the battery is charging.

Samsung DAF61.

Most of all, it needs to sound good, and this is where the laws of physics are against you. The smaller and more compact a speaker, the more it favours high-range sounds. If you want heaps of bass - well, it comes out best with large speakers, and these make serious inroads into your suitcase. So, you have to compromise, but advances in technology mean you don't have to compromise as much as you once did.

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The Samsung here has a passive radiator, essentially a cone with no driver behind it, operated by changes of air pressure within the speaker cabinet as the smaller drivers do their work. It enhances bass performance but, again, the bigger the better.

Bose has a tricky way of getting long (and therefore low) soundwaves out of very small enclosures.

Beats Pill.

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Home away from home

Last Friday, Ethel Wright, 66, and her four grandchildren stepped into their new home in Kyle. It was a year in the making, but this Christmas, they will finally wake up in a home that doesnt leak every time it rains, that doesnt have holes in the floor, that has all its windows, and heating and air conditioning, and electrical wiring that works.

This is awesome, said 9-year-old Petey Crawford, as he and his siblings ran through the new three-bedroom mobile home picking out their rooms. We have a good home to live in.

Wright was part of last years Statesman Season for Caring program, which features 12 families each year and helps hundreds of others through local nonprofit agencies. Wright was nominated by Community Action Inc., which has spent the year trying to turn reader donations into a new mobile home.

Community Actions Jon Engel went to multiple mobile home dealers until finally Clayton Homes agreed to sell Wright a new home, worth $42,000, for the $30,000 Community Action Inc. had allocated from last years Season for Caring funds. Clayton Homes also removed the existing home. Matt Chambers, who is a home contractor and who teaches GED classes for Community Action, became the foreman to organize moving the new home onto the property and removing the old one. Pack-Rat gave storage units for Wright to store her things while the new home was being set up. Pullen Electric and Air Pro Heating and Air Conditioning donated their services. Students from Chambers GED class also helped.

Engel called it a Christmas miracle as he watched the family check out their new home. Without Season for Caring, this would not have been possible.

I appreciated what they did for me and my family, Wright said. Now we got a good place to stay, and we wont be cold anymore.

Without heat and with leaky windows, the family had placed tarps over the windows and put blankets in the doorways to keep in what little warmth they had from space heaters. Wright worried about the safety of the space heaters for Petey, 11-year-old JaRai, and 3-year-old twins Michael and Makhia, but she didnt have another solution.

It was really, really dangerous, Wright said.

Community Action still has work to do on the new home, including finding people to put on the skirting and build front and back porches and permanent steps into and out of the house. Scraps from the old house need to be cleaned up from the yard, and, sadly, Wright will have to replant her beautiful front garden.

I just want to thank all the nice people, Petey said.

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Season for Caring: After a year’s wait, a new home for Ethel Wright

Manhattan, KS - infoZine - Finding a balance between being comfortable and conserving energy is key, he said. Some main areas of concentration for winterizing the home include checking the furnace, insulation, and the windows, doors and outlets for leaks to the outdoors. But, having a working programmable thermostat might be the first item on the agenda.

The thermostat setting determines how much you will spend for heating and cooling costs, Snead said. He recommends that people consider setting it down when they dont need it, perhaps when they are sleeping or gone during the day.

Each house is unique, but generally every degree you drop on your thermostat might save as much as 3 percent on your heating and cooling costs, he said.

Furnace checks

The more you use the furnace, the more important it is to check it, certainly at least every three months if not more often, just to make sure that the filters are clean, he said. If you have not had your furnace serviced in two or three years, it would be worth having a service technician do a standard evaluation to make sure everything is still lubricated, operating properly, venting properly and you are getting the most out of the fuel that is being consumed by the furnace to provide comfort in your home.

If people have any combustion appliances, like a furnace, in their home, Snead said they should have a carbon monoxide detector. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, tasteless and colorless gas that can cause flu-like symptoms or even death.

Windows, doors and outlets Leaks to the exterior of the home are one of the largest drains on energy costs. Snead said it depends on how many windows the home has, the orientation of those windows, how old they are, how many layers of glass they have and how tight they are.

Even if you have leaky, old windows, you can always add an interior layer of plastica shrink-fit film, Snead said. Just choose the proper-sized kit for your window. It can be temporarily installed. Its a good way to maintain the clarity of view of the window, but air tightening by literally sealing the whole window at the surface of the trim.

Another option for people is using temporary caulks, Snead said. If the window is not going to be used at all this winter, the temporary caulks dont bond permanently to the surface but will seal around the window.

If the windows are loose-fitting or decaying because of mold, mildew or moisture, Snead said it is worth having them replaced.

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Making the Home More Cost-effective and Energy-efficient This Winter

Diasporian News of Monday, 23 December 2013

Source: The Guardian

Seven-year-old Enoch wants to be a good student, but circumstances have not been on his side. At his home in Suhum, a ramshackle town in the dewy hills of Ghana's green and mountainous eastern region, straggly wires protrude from the empty shell where electrical sockets should be. The landlord decided halfway through building their two-bedroom home that he did not want to pay to complete the wiring and so Enoch, his parents and his elder sister have no lights at home.

Enoch sleeps on a grubby mattress on the floor by the front door. He has no desk, so he does his homework sitting on a faded armchair, crammed in beside his mother's basket of bread, hot chocolate sachets and oats items she prepares and sells by the roadside.

"It would be better if we had lights at home," says Enoch, who wears worn plimsoll hi-tops, his yellow school shirt emblazoned with his primary school's logo, which bears the words: "Knowledge is power." It's a motto Enoch's parents understand, even though neither of them can read or write and they don't own a single book.

Enoch, however, has 140 books, which he can read even in the dark on a Kindle e-reader he was given at school. Described by his teachers as particularly bright, Enoch likes the Ghanaian stories in the local Tiwi language as well as in English but his favourite book is the dictionary. He scrolls expertly through the neatly cased Kindle, searching for the alphabet to read aloud. Around him other children in stream C at Suhum primary, one of three government schools in the same, gently sloping compound, are sitting in the shade during their morning break, eating bread and oranges and playing ampe, a traditional Ghanaian game of clapping and jumping.

"I like reading this because it teaches me new words and numbers," Enoch says. "I want to be a pilot when I grow up and fly planes."

Suhum primary school is a beneficiary of a project run by the charity Worldreader, whose iRead 2 programme is distributing Kindles to children in nine African countries. The parents make huge sacrifices to send their children to school but, if it wasn't for the project, they would still struggle to master literacy. More than 12,000 students and their families have so far benefited from the more than 2,000 titles available on the Kindles, in English and local languages.

The need for outside intervention at Suhum is clear. Despite being a model school, with good attendance rates and disciplined children and staff, the school has been beset by a lack of funding and chronic shortages of essential materials. "The government has not been providing us with enough books; it is a very serious problem," said Patrick Kyere-Koranteng, 30, an English teacher at the school. "The children are many, and sharing the few books we have was difficult. That affected their academic performance. And without textbooks it is very difficult to do a good job as a teacher."

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The Guardian and Observer Christmas appeal 2013: Worldreader

See if We Have Top-Rated Electrical Contractors in Your Area

Home wiring is not something to fool around with. It is literally a life and death matter. Poor wiring can lead to personal injury and electrically caused fires, both of which you want to avoid at all costs. In order to ensure your home wiring is done correctly, there are a few basics that you need to be aware of.

No Power = No Trouble The key to safe basic house wiring is always keeping in mind that electricity packs a big, and deadly, punch. Even the most trained professional takes their life in their hands if they don't follow basic safety procedure. The best preventative measure you can take, whether you're installing basic electrical wiring, or just examining the wiring you do have, is to always make sure the power is turned off from the get go. Whether you're re-wiring your entire home or just replacing a faulty outlet, be sure to take a trip to the control panel and cut the power to the area you're working on.

Know Your Electrical Code With electrical work there is never an excuse not to follow rules and regulations. As mentioned before, electricity can be a dangerous animal if it isn't treated properly. Your locality's codes and regulations regarding residential wiring have been put in place for a reason: to protect you, the homeowner. Anytime you are working with basic house wiring, study up on standard procedures so you don't put your family or yourself in jeopardy. And if you're undertaking a major home wiring project, get familiar with your local inspector. Don't view them as a hurdle to overcome, but as a valuable resource you can draw on to get the job done right.

Components of Basic Electrical Wiring Besides safety considerations and regulations, the other thing you want to familiarize yourself with is the make up of your home wiring. It boils down to three basic components:

Call in an Electrician With most home improvement jobs you can do it yourself with a little elbow grease and patience. Electrical work is one of the exceptions. Unless you're experienced in home wiring, you don't want to do this job yourself. The safety risks are just too great. Add to that the need to meet local rules and regulations, and it's a good idea to hire someone who is experienced in basic house wiring to tackle this job for you. It will mean you'll have to jump through fewer hoops before your work is approved, and you can rest easy knowing all your basic electrical wiring has been done with your safety in mind.

Matt Goering, formerly a carpenter and house painter, is a freelance writer for the home improvement industry who has published over 600 articles.

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Home Wiring | Basic House Wiring | Basic Electrical Wiring

8102 231 St Langley - Real Estate - Sherman Foster - HomeLife Benchmark Realty
View http://shermanfoster.myubertor.com/Properties.php/Details/35/tab_26 to see PRICE and more PHOTOS. GOLDEN EARS ESTATES. This home is truly a showpiece lo...

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8102 231 St Langley - Real Estate - Sherman Foster - HomeLife Benchmark Realty - Video

STILLWATER, Okla. It has been a year of devastation and hope for the Knox family of Carney, but they received the best Christmas present in the form of a new home just days before Christmas.

The Knox family lost their home and business in the EF4 tornado that ripped through Carney on May 19. Jeremy and Jessica Knox and their four sons waited the storm out at Jeremys parents house nearby.

Running up the hill from his parents to see the devastation was hard, Jessica said.

The Knoxs decided to apply for Habitat for Humanity after they were approached by Bo Blakey, executive director for Habitat for Humanity in Stillwater. It was several months before they heard back, but the Knox family qualified for a new home.

We didnt know what else to do at the time, Jeremy said. They were very anxious to help us.

Habitat for Humanity completed a blitz build on the Knoxs new home in just four weeks. For the Knoxs, the most important detail of their new home was a storm shelter. Their previous home didnt have a safe place to go during bad weather. The tornado also destroyed their property and left the land bare.

What sold me was not the house, but the landscaping and the shelter, Jessica said. (The tornado) took all the trees and now its beautiful again, and were going to plant more trees.

It was a family effort to rebuild their home, as much as it was for the community and Habitat for Humanity. Each member of the Knox family took part in building their new house. They helped with the foundation, plumbing, wiring, painting and other jobs.

We all stepped in and worked as much as we could, Jeremy said.

The Knoxs began moving in immediately after the Habitat for Humanity dedication ceremony. Jeremy said itll be special for his sons to be in their new home before Christmas Day.

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Carney family gets keys to new home

Naples, Florida (PRWEB) December 19, 2013

The holidays are here and while Florida residents may still be wearing shorts and flip-flops, Gulf Coast Educators Insurance in Naples, Port Charlotte and Ft. Myers Florida announces their winter home maintenance guidelines.

The cooler temperatures in December make it ideal for taking care of home maintenance tasks that may have been ignored all year long, says Ron DeFreitas owner/operator of Gulf Coast Educators Insurance.

DeFreitas adds, Proper home maintenance is important to keep Florida homes operating efficiently and helping homeowners lower the risk of property insurance claims. The insurance agents at Gulf Coast Educators Insurance offer the following home maintenance tips to help prepare home owners for the winter season.

Gulf Coast Educators Insurance offers the following tips for homeowners to reduce the likelihood of incurring a homeowners insurance claim:

1)Test Fire Alarms and replace batteries as needed. During winter, homeowners use the fireplace and candles more often. Carbon Monoxide Detector batteries should be checked too.

2)Get furnace inspected by a professional. A professional inspector should do a furnace maintenance check every two years.

3)For windows and doors, a simple touch up on caulking around the edges can reduce drafts and help homeowners save energy.

4)Change the HVAC filter.

5)Look under sink cabinets to check for moisture and/or leaks.

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Gulf Coast Educators Insurance Offers Winter Home Maintenance Tips for Florida Residents

"Ask the Realtor" is a weekly column from the 3,000+ member RealSource Association of Realtors.

Q: With the holidays upon us, are there ways to keep my home safe from potential lighting and fireplace accidents?

Jim F.

Cliffside Park

A: Great question Jim. Each year, tens of thousands of families and individuals incur property loss or injure themselves during the holiday season. Unfortunately, despite increased awareness and safer products, the number of injuries and accidents are increasing. Christmas tree fires, candles left lit, and the installation of wiring for outdoor and indoor holiday lights are the main culprits. That said; here are a few tips: 1) Make certain live trees are still alive and water them frequently. A fresh tree has resin at its bottom and needles that not only do not come off when a hand runs through them but are hard to tear off their branches. Artificial trees, on the other hand, should be flame retardant and kept far away from fireplaces and wood-burning stoves. 2) Lighting should be Underwriters Laboratories (UL) approved. Plus, be reasonable how they are hung on the home or holiday decorations. Dont over-exert or over-reach boundaries. Eliminate the risk of falling and serious injury. 3) Fireplaces can be warm and a great place to gather the family. To ensure their safekeeping, do not use "fire salts" to turn the flame colors as the chemicals inside them, if ingested, can be harmful. Do not burn newspapers or gift wrapping either. These burn quickly and with intensity.

Q: What does location, location, location really mean?

Kathy B.

Fair Lawn

A: Kathy, whether it is financial, social or economical, the reasons are many but most center on the community in which the home is located. According to a new survey from the National Association of Realtors, choosing a community is one of the most important factors for consumers as they consider buying home. The 2013 Community Preference Survey also noted that Americans prefer walk-able, mixed-use neighborhoods and shorter commutes rather than neighborhoods that require more driving between home, work and recreation. The survey findings indicate that while the size of the property does matter to consumers, they are willing to compromise size for a preferred neighborhood and less commuting. For example, although 52 percent of those surveyed prefer a single-family detached house with a large yard, 78 percent responded that the neighborhood is more important to them than the size of the house. Fifty-seven percent would forego a home with a larger yard if it meant a shorter commute to work, and 55 percent of respondents were willing to forego a home with a larger yard if it meant they could live within walking distance of schools, stores and restaurants as opposed to having a larger yard and needing to drive to get to schools, stores and restaurants.

Q: Is it true that the government is considering a drop in the amount of mortgagee money it will guarantee through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

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How can I avoid fire hazards associated with the holidays?

home section Interior Design Housekeeping Entertaining Home Improvement Gardening & Plants Landscaping eHow Home & Garden Building & Remodeling Walls About House Wiring

Jonita Davis

Jonita Davis is freelance writer and marketing consultant. Her work has appeared in various print and online publications, including "The LaPorte County Herald Argus" and Work.com. Davis also authored the book, "Michigan City Marinas," which covers the history of the Michigan City Port Authority. Davis holds a bachelor's degree in English from Purdue University.

Behind the walls of your home lies an intricate network of wires and piping. This network is the life of the home, the way in which electricity is carried to every part of the structure. Before tapping into it, you must have an understanding of just how vital the house wiring is to a home's electrical system. You must also consider the safety implications if the house is wired improperly.

Aside from the cost, a proper wiring job can enhance use of the home. For example, misplaced light switches and fixtures without the proper voltage affect the aesthetic of the room. Similarly, flickering lights and uneven sound can hurt the home's comfort. Then, there is the fire hazard. Special attention must be paid to house wiring to ensure that the proper wires are connected. Missed connections can spark a fire, as can overload circuits. Thus, house wiring is important to the budget, comfort and safety of a home.

In house wiring, all of the outlets, fixtures and circuits are placed in the home. All are connected behind the walls, ceiling and floors to a primary system of wires that snake their way through the home to the primary circuit. This is the circuit breaker. Here, you can control the electricity throughout the entire house, turning it on and off as needed.

Homes are wired after the plumbing goes in, but before the walls and ceilings. Certain projects require wiring after the home is finished. Intercom systems, ceiling fans and lighting systems must be connected to the home's main electrical system. In these cases, the house needs rewiring. It could be modified to incorporate the new items. Homes are also rewired when they previous system is outdated or malfunctioning. Essentially, house wiring involves anything that must be connected to that main circuit breaker.

There are several key components to wiring a house. Switch boxes are used to mount light sockets and switches into a wall. Each switch and fixture is connected to the main electric system through three wires. The hot wire is often black. It carries the current through the house to the appliance or switch being used. The ground wire is often a bare copper wire used to carry the current into the ground if the hot wire fails to carry that same current to its designated outlet. A neutral wire, brown, carries the current back to where it came from where it originated. All of these wires are enclosed in a metal pipe, on which the fixtures are often mounted. Wires are capped on the ends by either terminals or wire nuts that splice two separate wires together. A series of clamps are used to secure the piping or any wires outside of the piping to studs.

Don't attempt house wiring when the power is on. Before working with any type of electricity, you must be sure that the main circuit breaker is shut off. Read the house blueprints carefully to avoid any hazardous situations and to properly wire the house.

House wiring is a complex beast for the uninitiated, and a sense of mystery for those who have never even seen a...

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