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Posted 25 January 2013 - 08:09 PM
Been a long time since I posted something on the Focus forum, but been real busy with college and all, and the car was running like a wee princess. However recently I started to wonder whether it would be possible to somehow add an AUX connection to my 6000CD system. The system itself has a fully functioning button for the AUX which automatically changes the output channel to AUX, however there is no factory AUX connection and there is no way to plug in the iPod or other MP3 players. My question is whether anyone knows (or has already done) this sort of modification ? And if so, how can I go about doing so and if it's possible at all!
Cheers lads!
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Posted 25 January 2013 - 09:25 PM
Posted 25 January 2013 - 09:40 PM
Factory standard-
This involves drilling a hole into the position provided for it in the glovebox liner and some people have had problems with the contacts not lining up properly resulting in the thing not working properly.
What I use-
I have the plug coming out of the ashtray area but before fitting an ashtray I had the cable poking out from behind the demister switch panel, it was the ideal position to plug into an iPod controller in my lighter socket.
Posted 26 January 2013 - 10:35 AM
The lining os problematic, the cable lenght on the aux-in is ridicilous, 10cm or something like that. Thats why i left the connector behind the glovebox, and ended up bringing the 3.5mm stereo cable trough the glovebox lamp hole.
Realy easy, and quick. I did it on the dealers parking lot, while smoked 1 cigaret...
Posted 26 January 2013 - 02:41 PM
You're very lucky. Some focus's have the wiring already there behind the glovebox, but others (like mine) didn't. I had to take the radio out and plug in a cable at the back.Just did this last week. You only need to buy the 3.5mm stereo dock from the dealer (costed ~15euros). Then take your glovebox out, all the wiring is allready there. There is 2 red sockets taped to the wiring harness near the glovebox lap. One is for Passenger airbag of (the one whit only 1 row of connectors) and the AUX-IN connecter (that has 2 rows). Just plug it in.
Posted 26 January 2013 - 05:00 PM
You're very lucky. Some focus's have the wiring already there behind the glovebox, but others (like mine) didn't. I had to take the radio out and plug in a cable at the back.
:/ The guy needed confirmation from the workshop chieff according to what part i need, and the big guy told that its pretty much that if you have the AUX button, the wiring is there...
Pretty hard to imagine the wiring not be in there, atleast in my car, the wiring came from wrist-thick main wiring harness. But, the connector was pain in the !Removed! to find. First one that you spot is the the one whit longer wire that is for the airbag, after taking a closer look at the main harness, i spotted one smaller harnes coming out of it, that was immediately bendet close to the main harness, and covered whit electrical tape. So i needed to "peal off" about 10cm of electric tape in order to find the connector...
Posted 26 January 2013 - 05:14 PM
I had the aux button and definitely no cable.
The presence of the cable is pretty much hit and miss.
Only way to be sure is to pull the radio forward, if there's only one c block in the bottom of the quadlock connector then there is no hidden cable.
Posted 26 January 2013 - 05:36 PM
Posted 26 January 2013 - 05:53 PM
Of course if you're removing the stereo from a MK2 you need to remove the stereo first using removal keys and the fascia does not need to come off. (similar to removing the Fiesta radio as in this other video)
Posted 24 March 2013 - 11:29 PM
this will be my first project, thanks guys
Posted 25 March 2013 - 01:08 AM
Posted 26 March 2013 - 06:08 PM
i had a look today for these cables and i found the red/black block.... BUT i didnt find the white cable, what dose this mean? heres a couple of pics if what i found
Posted 26 March 2013 - 07:00 PM
thats an airbag deactivation plug tape that back up you need one of these that plugs in http://compare.ebay....type=pla&crdt=0
Posted 26 March 2013 - 07:13 PM
.thats an airbag deactivation plug tape that back up you need one of these that plugs in http://compare.ebay....type=pla&crdt=0
Righto thanks for that, OK im hopefully goning to get the cable to come out near the arm rest, any of idea how much ford will want for the cable (really want to do it tomorrow :-). )
Posted 26 March 2013 - 08:01 PM
The cable is usually about £20, you'll find it's generally listed as for a Fiesta/Fusion but is the same for the whole range.
They'll ask for your registration and then say it isn't available for your car, don't give them your reg, just use the finis number.
The Finis (part) number is 1426121.
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UK consumers can now leave their wallets at home and pay using nothing more than their phones and faces thanks to PayPal's "check in" app -- at certain outlets »
Online and offline retail experiences are colliding, and those operating in the offline world need adapt creatively using mobile payment methods, says John Lunn, Global Director for PayPal Developer »
One of the founders of PayPal has come up with a two-tap checkout smartphone payment method »
Tesla's new electric car is generating a lot of noise in America –- and it's coming to the UK »
Palantir Technologies and its co-founder Stephen Cohen are dedicated to developing software analysis tools and visualisation products »
Amazon has said it will no longer process payments for Unglue.it, forcing the publishing crowdfunding site to cease all its current campaigns in what appears to be an unusual U-turn from the online retailer »
PayPal has acquired a start-up called Card.io, which lets developers read credit card information using a smartphone's camera »
The Icelandic partner of Visa and MasterCard violated contract laws when it imposed a block against credit card donations to the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks, a district court there has ruled »
The 'PayPal InStore app' which is now available to download for free for Android and Apple iOS devices provides the customer with a unique barcode and transaction number, which the shop cashier scans to take payment from the customer's PayPal account »
An enormous band of indie game makers has dropped the prices of their wares as part of a week-long celebration of developer independence »
Despite all the hype about mobile payments, it's still the same credit card companies shaving 2-3 percent off your transaction; it's not the big revolution in finance that we have been waiting for, argues Christian Lanng »
Gil Penchina, CEO of Wikia inc., investor in PayPal and former VP of international at eBay, aimed to launch eight startups in 2011. So how did he do? »
Mobile payments businesses such as Square, iZettle, PayPal and MPowa will change the way people think about and track their money, and Apple is in line to pick up a new revenue pipeline in their wake, argues TH_NK's Ramzi Yakob »
Yahoo shareholders Third Point has created a website -- called Value Yahoo -- dedicated to demonstrating what is going on with Yahoo's business and how it can be turned around »
Wired.co.uk reviews the Roku 2 XS media streamer -- an affordable way to get internet movies on your TV, but it lacks some key features »
The Megaupload takedown, and the arrest of its key employees, might seem to vindicate late 1990s worries about the internet and jurisdiction »
Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo and former CEO, has resigned from the company's board of directors in the wake of the appointment of new CEO Scott Thompson »
Former PayPal president Scott Thompson has been named as chief executive officer of waning internet empire Yahoo, formally replacing Carol Bartz, the previous CEO, who was fired by Yahoo last September »
Bean-spilling website WikiLeaks has announced that it will suspend publishing secrets, so it can focus its time on raising funds »
It turns out there's a method behind the FBI's raids of suspected Anonymous members around the country »
A guide to resetting iTunes Match and performing a "do-over" for iCloud, without losing playlists, metadata or playcounts »
If you're designing futuristic aircraft, it helps if your research lab looks like one, too. Dutch designers Frank Havermans and Ronald Rietveld created this mobile studio to tread the runway of a former Royal Netherlands Air Force base near Utrecht »
Wired.co.uk looks at the best Android tablets for kids on the UK market in December 2013 in this buying guide »

subset: commoncrawl


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Online Store
The Official Online RBS 6 Nations Store is open. The store has everything you need to get behind your team during the RBS 6 Nations, plus the store is now fully stocked with a much wider range of rugby merchandise.
Heaslip captained Ireland in this year's RBS 6 Nations while O'Brien started the third Test of the Lions victorious series against Australia.
And O'Connor, who replaced Joe Schmidt at the Leinster helm this summer, remains hopeful that Ireland's stars will be staying on home soil.
"We'll be having conversations with them and will be having those early to try and sign them up for many years," he said.
"It is always going to be that the guys are going to have to make a decision. Do they want to stay in a really good environment and potentially win things or do they want to chase financial rewards?
"Ultimately, it is their decision to make, but I'm sure off the back of what Leinster provides and what Dublin provides and what they have achieved in this environment we would be confident they'll stay here."


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The mayor of Adairsville says more than 1,000 volunteers helped with tornado cleanup in the north Georgia city this weekend.
Volunteers arrived Saturday and Sunday to chop up trees and remove debris left from a tornado Wednesday.
The EF3 tornado packed 160 mph winds and claimed one life.
Mayor Evan King said motorists in Adairsville must be cautious because most stop signs were destroyed and there are still low-hanging power lines.
He said a dusk-to-dawn curfew remains in effect.
A first-aid center next to Dollar General will be open for residents and volunteers through Monday, and residents should boil water until Tuesday because of a water main break.
Get the ingredients you need to cook with Rach all week long. | |
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The Sticky Note Project: 'In My Head ... Art Without Limits'
Monday, August 15: 11AM – 3PM, 5 – 8PM at Big Picture Theater & Café in Waitsfield. $5; $7 for two tickets.
Contact Info:
- 802-496-8994
- Event Website
Seven Days Says:
An initiative seeking to eliminate the stigmas surrounding mental illness and to promote mental wellness in the general public hosts an interactive open studio and "sticky note" gallery from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Speakers and a live performance with Boston's Mary Casiello follow from 5 to 8 p.m.


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Students and veterans helped deliver big campaign victories for the Democratic Party in recent elections. Now, some Democratic lawmakers are thanking them by trying to ensure that predatory businesses can rip them off and saddle them with a lifetime of debt.
TheNation.com has learned that a small group of House Democrats, led by Representatives Rob Andrews of New Jersey and Alcee Hastings of Florida, are organizing an effort within the caucus to protect the for-profit career college industry from any meaningful regulation. The two congressmen are among the largest recipients of campaign cash from the industry. Campaign finance data compiled by TheNation.com show Hastings has received $54,500, and Andrews $78,547, from for-profit college executives and political committees.
Unlike non-profit private or public universities, proprietary career colleges exist to make money; lot's of it. For-profit colleges take in some $33 billion in taxpayer money annually, funds designed to help veterans and students afford college. For many critics, the entire industry is built upon fraud. Multiple investigations show systematic deception in the industry -- recruiters lying to students about job placement rates, students graduating with incredibly high debt with few employment prospects, and marketing campaigns that obscure what is often a low-quality education.
Students that have gone to for-profit colleges are not only more likely graduate with high levels of debt -- for-profit students hold $31,190 dollars in debt on average, compared to $17,040 at private, nonprofit institutions and $7,960 at public colleges -- they are also three times as likely to default on their loans.
As Adam Weinstein reported for Mother Jones, for-profit colleges have also targeted returning soldiers to take advantage of their GI benefits. "Some for-profits have cleaned out students' military benefits while also signing them up for thousands of dollars in loans without their knowledge. A vet who enrolled at the largely online Ashford University after being told the GI Bill would cover his tuition ended up owing the school $11,000," Weinstein noted.
In 2010, the Department of Education proposed modest rules to mandate that taxpayer money would only go to for-profit schools that could demonstrate that a reasonable number of their students were able to gain jobs after graduation. An intense lobbying effort followed. Career colleges, including the University of Phoenix, Kaplan Higher Education, Devry Inc., The Art Institute (owned by Education Management Corporation), Corinthian Colleges, Grand Canyon University, among others, pushed back through a sophisticated influence campaign. Think tanks and other NGOs were co-opted by industry, dozens of lobbyists were hired, and for-profit colleges pumped campaign contributions into the accounts of lawmakers opposed to the rule. The industry also flooded the department with astroturfed letters. The Obama Administration finally issued a much-watered down version of the rule. Then, the for-profit colleges sued and persuaded a judge to strike it down.
This year, the Obama Administration has promised to re-propose the regulation, and today will reconvene a meeting with stakeholders to move forward with a new version of the "gainful employment&rdquot; rule. During debate over the last version of the rule, virtually every House Republican, joined by a number of Democrats, worked to defeat the regulation. The process seems to be repeating itself this year, with Andrews and Hastings circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter asking other House Democrats to sign a document asking the administration to back down. The letter, obtained in draft form by by TheNation.com, asks lawmakers to contact David Opong-Wadee, a staffer to Hastings, if they would like to join the anti-gainful employment regulation group.
Notably, the Association for Private Sector Colleges and Universities, a trade association for the industry, has given only to two House Democrats in the last three months: Hastings and Andrews.
Read Next: Jarrett Murphy says everything is at stake in de Blasio's mayorality.
UPDATE: New York Times now reveals it has known about this since 2007 and did not publish. Now with lengthy piece by my old friend Barry Meier. Huff Post's Mike Calderone talks to Meier on the missing years.
Earlier: Don't miss the scoop just posted by the AP on long-missing American in Iran who, it turns out, was working for the CIA. And against all protocols, hired by a rogue element.
It's an incredibe story but because of its sensitive nature—the man, Robert Levinson, is still missing, it was a secret operation, and offiicials lied to us and Congress—the Associated Press debated about publishing it. As they related, "even after the White House, FBI and State Department officials learned of Levinson's CIA ties, the official story remained unchanged. 'He's a private citizen involved in private business in Iran,' the State Department said in 2007, shortly after Levinson's disappearance." Now that it has posted the piece, the AP carried a lengthy explanation.
Read the full story but, since I'm a media writer, here's the AP defending why they are publishing now even though it presents some risk to the CIA man, if still alive. The White House today criticized the AP move, saying it had "strongly urged" it to hold off (it did not admit Levinson was a CIA operative.) From the statement: "We regret that the AP would choose to run a story that does nothing to further the cause of bringing him home. The investigation into Mr. Levinson's disappearance continues, and we all remain committed to finding him and bringing him home safely to his family."
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Here's the full AP statement:
Publishing this article was a difficult decision. This story reveals serious mistakes and improper actions inside the U.S. government's most important intelligence agency. Those actions, the investigation and consequences have all been kept secret from the public.
Publishing articles that help the public hold their government to account is part of what journalism is for, and especially so at The Associated Press, which pursues accountability journalism whenever it can. This seems particularly true on this subject at a time when the decisions of intelligence agencies are being extensively debated.
The AP has been seeking information on Levinson's whereabouts from governments, agencies and any other source possible for several years. Government officials tell us that they, too, have hit a wall, though their efforts continue.
In the absence of any solid information about Levinson's whereabouts, it has been impossible to judge whether publication would put him at risk. It is almost certain that his captors already know about the CIA connection but without knowing exactly who the captors are, it is difficult to know whether publication of Levinson's CIA mission would make a difference to them. That does not mean there is no risk. But with no more leads to follow, we have concluded that the importance of the story justifies publication.
Read Next: Pratap Chatterjee shows how the CIA bungled the War on Terror.
Last night Michigan's legislature passed a measure banning coverage for abortion in private health plans. Women who want abortion coverage will have to buy an additional rider, essentially planning for an unplanned pregnancy. I understand why opponents of the measure are calling it "rape insurance"—there are no exceptions for rape and incest, and State Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer told her own story of sexual assault and how such a law would have impacted her if she had become pregnant as a result of the attack. It was a brave moment. But the term "rape insurance" does a disservice to women—and to the reproductive justice movement.
It is not just sexual assault survivors who need their abortion covered. Yes, there is an added dimension of cruelty when you're talking about denying women who get pregnant as a result of rape care and coverage. But we cannot create a hierarchy of "good" and "bad" abortions. Or of "deserving" women. One in three American women will have an abortion, and the circumstances behind that pregnancy is none of our business—and it certainly should have no bearing on whether or not women can afford to access care.
Referring to this measure as requiring women to have "rape insurance" is also a political misstep—what happens if Michigan anti-choicers decide they can live with a rape exception? Most women will still not have coverage for the care they need. This is similar to what happened in Virginia when feminists protested a transvaginal ultrasound mandate as "state rape." Focusing on the most controversial aspect of the law got a lot of attention, but it also meant that once the transvaginal requirement was removed, low income women still lost out—because an abdominal ultrasound mandate remained, forcing women to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket for an unnecessary procedure.
I understand why many in the pro-choice movement focus on the most extreme examples when we talk to the media; they are truly harrowing and serious issues. And we need public support—but not at the expense of our feminist values.
As Merritt Tierce, executive director of Texas Equal Access Fund, told me in an interview last month: "The lawsuits and the media coverage always focus on the most sympathetic cases, without acknowledging that while of course those cases absolutely deserve our sympathy, most women will not experience anything like what they see and hear in the media."
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If we want to battle the stigma around abortion, we cannot separate it out from women's general healthcare—or suggest, even implicitly, that some people are more deserving of abortion care than others. Michigan's policy is unjust and sexist, and it punishes women—that should be enough to oppose it.
Read Next: Why Jessica Valenti doesn't want to watch TV shows anymore.
A federal judge in Winston-Salem today set the schedule for a trial challenging North Carolina's sweeping new voter restrictions. There will be a hearing on whether to grant a preliminary injunction in July 2014 and a full trial a year later, in July 2015.
This gives the plaintiffs challenging the law, which includes the Department of Justice, the ACLU and the North Carolina NAACP, a chance to block the bill's worst provisions before the 2014 election. Earlier this year, in July 2013, the North Carolina legislature passed the country's worst voter suppression law, which included strict voter ID to cast a ballot, cuts to early voting, the elimination of same-day voter registration, the repeal of public financing of judicial elections and many more harsh and unnecessary anti-voting measures.
These restrictions will impact millions of voters in the state across all races and demographic groups: in 2012, for example, 2.5 million North Carolinians voted early, 152,000 used same-day voter registration, 138,000 voters lacked government-issued ID and 7,500 people cast an out-of-precinct provisional ballot. These four provisions alone will negatively affect nearly 3 million people who voted in 2012.
Ironically, it took the North Carolina legislature less than a month to approve the law, but it will take a year before an initial hearing on it and two years before a full trial. That's because in June 2013 the Supreme Court invalidated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which meant that previously covered states like North Carolina, with the worst history of voting discrimination, no longer had to clear their voting changes with the federal government.
North Carolina passed its new restrictions a month after the SCOTUS decision, making the legislation as draconian as possible because it no longer needed federal approval. The state is crystal-clear evidence of why SCOTUS was wrong to gut the VRA and to treat voting discrimination as a thing of the past. It also shows why Section 2 of the VRA is no substitute for Section 5.
Under Section 5 of the VRA—which SCOTUS paralyzed by invalidating the states covered under Section 4—North Carolina would have had to prove to the Justice Department or a three-judge court in Washington that its new law was not discriminatory. The burden of proof would have been on the state and the law would have been frozen until DOJ or the courts weighed in. Given the clear evidence of disparate racial impact in this case—African-Americans are 23 percent of registered voters in the state, but made up 29 percent of early voters in 2012, 34 percent of those without state-issued ID and 41 percent of those who used same-day registration—the law would have almost certainly been rejected.
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Instead, voting rights groups had to sue North Carolina under Section 2 of the VRA, which applies nationwide but is much more cumbersome than Section 5. Now the burden of proof is on the plaintiffs to show evidence of discrimination and the law is in effect until the courts block it. Unless a federal judge in Winston-Salem grants a preliminary injunction in the summer of 2014, the new restrictions will be in place during the 2014 midterm elections (except for voter ID, which goes into effect in 2016). Those who have been discriminated against will have no recourse until after the election has been decided, when there's a full trial in 2015, on the fiftieth anniversary of the VRA. (A challenge to Texas's voter ID law under Section 2 of the VRA will go to trial in September 2014.)
The Dallas Morning News reported this week that legislation to strengthen the VRA following the Supreme Court's decision is stalled in Congress because the GOP leadership has yet to support it. The fight over voting rights in North Carolina vividly demonstrates why Congress should update the VRA.
Read Next: Ari Berman reports on recent attemps to suppress the vote in Ohio by curtailing early voting.
It's read-'em-and-weep for supporters of the Syrian opposition. The whole enterprise has been on a slippery slope for quite some time, and now it's tumbled straight down into oblivion. The "official" opposition, the so-called moderates who've been halfheartedly backed by the Obama administration since 2011, have been overwhelmed, it seems, by radicals, ultra-radicals and Al Qaeda types. As a result, the administration has officially suspended the supply of nonlethal aid to the Syrian rebels because, well, it's going to the wrong guys.
This week, the top rebel commander backed by the United States, General Salim Idris of the tattered Free Syrian Army and its parent group, the Supreme Military Council, was forced to flee from Syria for his life when more radical elements affiliated with the so-called Islamic Front muscled in to his territory. (The Islamic Front is a concoction of radical-right Islamists, formed last month, who are, nevertheless, separate and distinct from the pro–Al Qaeda Nusra Front and the even more radical, Iraq-based Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Shams, or ISIS. Still, the Islamic Front says its goal is to turn Syria into an "Islamic state.") As The Wall Street Journal put it, succinctly:
Gen. Idris flew to the Qatari capital of Doha on Sunday after fleeing to Turkey, U.S. officials said Wednesday. "He fled as a result of the Islamic Front taking over his headquarters," a senior U.S. official said.
Oh, and the Islamists also seized control of the warehouses that stock all the goodies that the Obama administration has been supplying to the anti-Assad fighters, including trucks and tanks. Added the Journal:
The Islamists also took over key warehouses holding U.S. military gear for moderate fighters in northern Syria over the weekend. The takeover and flight of Gen. Salim Idris of the Free Syrian Army shocked the U.S., which along with Britain immediately froze delivery of nonlethal military aid to rebels in northern Syria.… Two senior officials said the warehouses taken over by the Islamic Front appeared to contain a range of lethal and nonlethal equipment.
Somewhat pathetically, the United States has been holding talks with the Islamic Front. Perhaps the best spin to be put on those talks is that Obama administration wants as many rebels as possible to come to Geneva in January to participate in the peace conference jointly sponsored by Washington and Moscow. The government of President Bashar al-Assad has already said that it will attend, and the rebels are all over the place. In any case, however, the United States has decided to suspend the delivery to support to the rebels until the situation clarifies itself. As The New York Times reports:
Just a month before a peace conference that will seek an end to the grinding civil war in Syria, the Obama administration's decision to suspend the delivery of nonlethal aid to the moderate opposition demonstrated again the frustrations of trying to cultivate a viable alternative to President Bashar al-Assad.… With rebels feuding with one another instead of concentrating on fighting Mr. Assad…the United States [is] still groping for a reliable partner in Syria.
It's pretty much a complete and total collapse of the American efforts to back opposition to Assad, whose own forces have put together a string of military victories since the spring, retaking important strongholds and using aid from Russia, Iran and the Lebanese Shiite group, Hezbollah, to do so.
Tony Blinken, the top White House foreign policy official and former aide to Vice President Joe Biden, told a conference that the radicalization of the conflict and the strength of the Islamists might convince everyone involved from the outside to seek a peace accord. But a closer reading of Blinken's comments seemed to indicate that he was suggesting that Russia would feel compelled to lessen its support for Assad because it fears that the Islamist rebels—who include a number of extremist Chechen fighters who'll try to wreak havoc in Russia when they return. Reports Foreign Policy:
Speaking at Transformational Trends, a conference co-hosted by Foreign Policy and the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. State Department, Blinken said that the radicalization of the conflict may create a shared interest among world powers to bring the war to an end. The growing prominence of radical groups has "begun to concentrate the minds of critical actors outside of Syria" and may strip the Bashar al-Assad regime of the key international backing that has so far helped to keep him in power.
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"The Russians have a profound interest in avoiding the emergence of an extremist Syria, a haven for extremist groups," Blinken said. "Many of Syria's neighbors have the same incentive, and of course we have a strong reason to want to avoid that future."
Really, Mr. Blinken. Fact is, the United States and Russia have a joint interest in suppressing and eliminating the Islamist rebels. And that's it. One danger is that Saudi Arabia, which is apoplectic about the impending US-Iran accord and which is equally angry about the US-Russia diplomacy over Syria, may be pouring funds into the non–Al Qaeda Islamist radicals, such as the Islamist Front, just to give the United States a black eye. If so, Washington had better read the riot act to Riyadh.
Read next: Omar Ghabra's personal account of Syria under Bashar al-Assad.
Behind his back, they called him "Tall Paul" in the 1980s and Volcker was indeed awesome then as Federal Reserve chairman alongside Ronald Reagan as president. Together they refashioned government—shifting everything rightward and setting up the triumph of the financial sector that has reigned ever since with its destructive qualities.
The Gipper did the fun part—cutting taxes from the top down—but Volcker did the heavy lifting. He presided over a long, brutal recession that broke inflation and labor wages and lots more. It was a decisive injury to organized labor He was a civil service giant, brave and also scary. At six-foot-seven, Volcker towered over the pedestrian ranks of Washington politics. Also important bankers and the US Senate. Reagan's White House staff tried to push him around (though not Reagan himself) and Volcker brushed them off like gnats.
For all those reasons, I see his triumph—finally getting federal regulators to adopt his "Volcker amendment" to limit proprietary investing by the mega-banks—as a melancholy moment. It took three years for regulatory agencies to fend off the thousands of bank lobbyists and approve something. That's better perhaps than a hollow victory but still far short of the reforms that are needed to get control over the out-of-control mega-banks.
I haven't read the bill, but the financial press and Wall Street talkers are not impressed. It is something like 850 pages and so dense with loopholes and clever snares it will probably take another three years for bank examiners to understand what they are supposed to do with it.
Meanwhile, the too-big-to-fail banks will go on about their business, getting sweet on America's troubles and pretty much ignoring prudent restraints. The real solution will not come until another Congress or a new president find the courage to break them up, cut them down to size and restore the old Glass-Steagall division of commercial banking from investment banking. A few years of experience with the Volcker Rule will probably be enough to demonstrate that it's insufficient to change the behavior of JP Morgan and the banker gang. The risk is that the bankers will go wild again in the meantime.
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Paul Volcker must be feeling a sense of personal regret if not guilt. He was present at the creation, after all. As Fed chairman. He blessed the first rounds of serious deregulation that repealed the caps on interest rates and doomed the savings and loan industry that financed housing. However reluctantly, Volcker also engineered the first big rescue of a too-big-to-fail bank—Continental Illinois in Chicago. He could have hung tough but he caved to the bankers. The Fed has lived off that precedent many times since.
The Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary want us to believe they won't do it again. I judge from his body language and muted comments that Paul Volcker doesn't believe them.
Read Next: John Nichols on the cruel, irresponsible and dysfunctional budget deal.
At 11 o'clock last night, Hadi Gharabaghi, a PhD student in cinema studies, learned over email that his colleagues at NYU had voted to unionize. The vote was a landslide—620 to 10—and makes NYU the only private university with unionized teaching assistants. The results carry a twinge of déjà vu: This is a designation that NYU has had before, from 2002 until 2005, when NYU president John Sexton decided to stop acknowledging the union. Strikes and many rounds of negotiations later, the university and the union—a branch of the United Auto Workers, which represents more than 45,000 academic workers across the U.S—agreed late last month that the university would again bargain with the UAW if a majority of graduate assistants voted in favor of representation. The school also promised to remain neutral over the course of the election.
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"We should be a major investment for the school," said Gharabaghi, whose son will soon be turning one. According to the agreement, NYU and union are supposed to immediately begin negotiating—they hope to have a completed contract by the end of the academic year—and one major priority for Gharabaghi is family healthcare benefits. He's currently on a state-subsidized plan because NYU charges graduate students a 33 percent increase in dependent premiums. "I shouldn't have to choose between my son and my PhD," Gharabaghi said.
Read Next:Tom Hayden dismantles the myth of Bill Bratton's LAPD.
Last night Jon Stewart aptly hit the US media (and blogosphere) coverage of President Obama at the Nelson Mandela funeral this week. As he put it, "No act too petty for our media to completely blow out of proportion."
There was the handshake with Castro (not even Fidel) and the selfie (was he flirting with the PM, making his wife mad?). And now we have the "hallucinating" guy who was not really signing.
Then Jon faked hanging himself in desperation. I guess he could have called it "Mourning in America." The segment below. Also see The Guardian on the media and the selfie.
It essentially turned a memorial service for one of the greatest modern leaders into a soap opera. And like any good soap opera, it divided the female players into sexist archetypes: in this case Thorning-Schmidt played the blonde, ditzy seductress and foil to Michelle Obama, the jealous, shrewish wife.
If Third Way's attacks on Senator Elizabeth Warren make the group sound like a stalking horse for Wall Street executives, there might be a reason for that.
At a demonstration today outside the think tank's downtown DC office, Third Way senior vice president Matt Bennett conceded to Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) co-founder Adam Green that "the majority" of Third Way's donor support comes from the group's board of trustees, most of whom are from the finance sector.
As TheNation.com and others have pointed out, the majority of Third Way's trustees are finance industry executives, many of whom might have a vested interest in using a surrogate to attack Warren. Warren, whom Time magazine calls the "new sheriff of Wall Street," has demanded greater regulation of the industry. Many of the trustees listed on the Third Way website hail from an assortment of private equity firms and other investment businesses. Others work indirectly, like Third Way trustee Thurgood Marshall Jr., whose professional website at the public affairs firm Bingham Consulting lists his work as "government relations" on issues concerning, among others, "banking regulations."
Bennett explained to Green that the majority of donors to his group "write us personal checks," so much of the Wall Street money to Third Way comes from individuals, not institutions. To be sure, Third Way also counts on other corporate donors. As we've reported, many companies maintain ties to Third Way, which was formed as a bulwark against economic progressivism within the Democratic Party, to advance their interests in Washington. For instance, both Qualcomm and Humana list their donations to Third Way as part of each company's lobbying budget.
Third Way sparked the demonstration by authoring an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last week titled "Economic Populism is a Dead End of Democrats." Third Way's Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler explicitly called out Warren's proposals for expanding Social Security through taxes on higher income individuals. Though polls show rampant support for these policies, many critics believe there were ulterior motives for the opinion column. Expanding Social Security would not only end up expanding benefits for seniors, but would also force Third Way's trustees to pay slightly more in taxes.
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A transcript of the exchange is below:
GREEN: If you included the financial industry sector people, as individuals on your board, what percent would be Wall Street money?
BENNETT: Here's the thing about defining Wall Street money. As we've said, our major donors are on our website. Many of them are in the finance sector, they write us personal checks. This is not from their institutions, many of them are retired or have left their institutions, in fact most of them. That is the majority of our financial support, coming from trustees.
GREEN: Is there a ball park? A percentage?
BENNETT: I'm not going to get into that.
Read Next: Greg Mitchell talks about Jon Stewart and Mandela.
SPOILERS: Sons of Anarchy, Downton Abbey
I'm done with television dramas. I don't say this lightly—I'm a tremendous TV fan. When my daughter was in the hospital for two months, my husband I binged watched Friday Night Lights every night to keep our minds busy. I revisit old favorites like Buffy and Battlestar Galactica when I'm bored. I am obsessed with Scandal. I love TV. But I can't bear to watch another female character get hurt.
The straw that broke this feminist's back was the season's finale of Sons of Anarchy. The last few episodes of the show had audiences wondering what would happen to Maggie Siff's character, Tara—she betrayed her increasingly violent husband Jax, lying about a miscarriage and later taking their two sons in an effort to get them away from the criminal motorcycle club. The tension had been building for weeks, with Tara becoming more desperate—but fans of the show knew that Jax's moral wavering made it unlikely he would kill her. Indeed, in this last episode he tells Tara to "save our sons" and plans to turn himself in and save her. Instead, writer Kurt Sutter decided to have club matriarch Gemma kill Tara—and in the most violent and ignoble way.
I didn't watch the death scene, but with a half hour left in the show I knew it was coming. I Googled to confirm my suspicions and shut the show off in disgust. I won't watch it again. In part I was annoyed that Sutter let Jax stay the good guy in the end while still putting a female lead through an awful ordeal (and not for the first time). But more than that it was sheer exhaustion. I am so tired of seeing female characters getting raped, beaten and killed—all for titillation or to move along a male character's arc. Call her the Manic Pixie Dead Girl.
Or 'raped girl', for that matter. I won't be watching the new season of Downton Abbey because I found out that a major female character will be sexually assaulted. It's become impossible to enjoy most quality television shows because the hurt or endangered women device is so frequently used. And if a character is pregnant, forget it—you pretty much know she's a goner.
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Yes, dead or harmed women in television is nothing new. There are entire series dedicated to the practice (I'm looking at you, SVU!). But lately, I've just found it too… stressful. I watch my favorite female characters with my heart in my throat, just waiting for the inevitable to happen. Women have to fear and anticipate violence and sexual assault in their everyday real life—I don't want to fear for it in my entertainment as well. It's bad for my soul.
Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, "The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." Too many male writers and directors buy into this narrative. But I don't have to.
Read Next: Michelle Goldberg on why Linda Tirando is not a hoax.


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Era Vulgaris
What Stirs Within
Whether Irish metallers Era Vulgaris' timing for the release of their debut album is a shrewd marketing device (following a high-profile Queens of the Stone Age record of the same name), a coincidence or something else altogether is up for debate. Whatever the case, one has to think that these days, when the average headbanger hears "Era Vulgaris," Irish prog-metal isn't the first thing that comes to mind.
Regardless, Era Vulgaris is here, and from the look of things they could stick around for a while. As an unsigned four-piece in Dublin, the band created its own label to release What Stirs Within and inked a distribution deal with Plastic Head/Code 7 in the UK as a result. Now the band has set up shop in merry old England and while it is less a drummer and a guitarist (Jim Kent and Chris Con left the band), the two remaining members are poised to tour Britain in support of their debut.
But what of the album?
To label Era Vulgaris and What Stirs Within strictly progressive metal would not do them justice. The band incorporates elements of thrash, hardcore, punk and experimental jazz to create a sound that is vastly different from anything on the market today. They use complex song structures and an air of youthful ambition that calls to mind the raw feel of early '80s thrash recordings. But because they are so distinctive, drawing specific comparisons to other bands would be tricky, if not unwise.
Frontman Chris Rob both sings and screams on the album, and if anything here takes getting used to, it's the vocals. His singing is floaty, trancelike – almost chanting, while the screaming mixes equal parts straight-up metal, punk and hardcore. The production on the album – the vocals in particular – is understandably low-rent, which can be distracting. After a few listens, however, the vocals recede behind the superior and more interesting instrumentation.
In terms of the compositions, expect plodding, meandering, sometimes sludgy songs with a tendency toward technical solos, jazzy interludes and long runtimes. Unfortunately, much of the meandering is done repetitively, and with song lengths averaging about eight minutes, it is sometimes hard to sit through bar after familiar bar awaiting the next twist. While some of the tracks are dull in this way, others like "Limb From Limb," "Just Ask Yourself" and the 11-minute instrumental "Imram" are intriguing the whole way through.
What Stirs Within is a hard disc to judge. While its got the originality that is so often lacking in metal, it also struggles with underproduction. And while the musicians demonstrate considerable ability, their shining moments compete with drawn out periods of monotony. If you're a fiend for inventive, complex metal this could be worth a listen, but for the majority of metal fans, Era Vulgaris needs some time to mature. All the signs of potential are here, but the disc itself will likely be seen as a stepping stone rather than a tone-setting debut.


text: Kenny Starfighter: Kenny Begins Cult Movie WorshipBy Meredith Woerner PO Edit118L Two Obnoxious Space Heroes Vie For Your Laughs Plus IMAGINE Festival's…Bumbling Swedish heroes and bored Canadian space captains round out the funny this week. Plus, a few IMAGINE film festival standouts on the newly announced line-up. Read… 3/29/09 5:00pm 3/29/09 5:00pm


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September 30, 2009 Kenya 2009 © Colette Kerr Nurse Colette Kerr returned to the United States in July after eight months with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Busia, a rural district in western Kenya, where MSF runs an HIV/AIDS project. Kerr oversaw the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program for pregnant women and new mothers. MSF offers PMTCT interventions in over 50 projects, with 8,700 HIV-positive pregnant women having received preventive treatment and 8,800 babies having received post-exposure treatment in 2008. Treatment providers continue to struggle to prevent newborn infections amid complex protocols and high numbers of patients who do not return for follow-up treatment. Despite the challenges, PMTCT programs such as MSF's dramatically increase a child's chances of being HIV-free and deliver essential support to HIV-positive mothers. Here, Kerr describes her experience in Busia. When new patients come to the clinic for antenatal care, each receives a handful of tests—for malaria, for malnutrition—and then we ask, "Do you want to be tested for HIV?" Kenya 2009 © Colette Kerr The virus can be transmitted from an HIV-positive woman to her fetus or infant at three stages: during pregnancy, through the placenta; during delivery, when the baby comes into contact with the mother's blood; or during breastfeeding. In the US and Europe, transmission rates are generally below two percent thanks to the widespread availability of antenatal care and HIV screening. Plus, antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and infant feeding formula are easily accessible. In much of Africa, however, most women simply do not have access to these measures. Before testing, we explain that we can give medicine to help them live a long time with HIV and to prevent transmission to the baby. On hearing this, they almost always get tested. So we prick their fingers for a blood sample and wait 15 minutes. If two red lines appear on a patient's test strip, she is HIV-positive. Bringing Care Closer to PatientsThe people waiting at the clinic, like many others in Busia, earn their living by fishing, farming, or bartering. They have little income for transportation or health care. Without antenatal care, women miss the opportunity to be screened for HIV in a place where 15 to 20 percent of the population is living with the virus. If women don't know their HIV status, they won't receive ARVs, which can help keep them healthy throughout their pregnancy and prevent them passing HIV to their babies. MSF and the government have pursued a decentralized approach in order to make treatment adherence less of a hardship for the women. Since MSF began providing HIV/AIDS treatment at the Busia district hospital in 2003, the program has branched out to 10 rural health centers and into home-based care. Tiny, two-room government clinics in remote places provide PMTCT without electricity, labs, or pharmacists. MSF provides support with drug supplies, the transport of samples to labs, and sufficient staffing. In MSF's program here, transmission of the virus to the baby occurs in less than seven percent of cases. Without any intervention, about 20 percent of babies born to HIV-positive mothers will be infected at birth, and more will be infected later through breastfeeding. Family IssuesDuring a pregnant woman's initial visit, a local nurse and a nurse acting as a mentor answer the patient's questions and provide support. In follow-up appointments we administer ARVs and demonstrate safe feeding practices. Counseling patients on how to disclose their status to partners and families is critical. If a woman fears that attending clinics and taking two pills a day will expose her as HIV-positive, which can carry harsh consequences, she might default. Some husbands reject wives who test positive, though few of these husbands get tested themselves. I think of one patient whose first child had died, and she didn't know why. When she came to the clinic during her second pregnancy and tested HIV-positive, she joined the PMTCT program. But she feared telling her husband and family. She kept it a secret. The second baby got sick right away and tested positive. It wasn't until then, for the sake of the baby, that she told her husband. She had to explain why the baby needed weekly hospital visits. Even though transmission wasn't prevented, early diagnosis meant that we were able to start treatment before the child's immune system deteriorated, before he developed opportunistic diseases or, even worse, before he died by the age of two as happens to half of all children born HIV-positive. Her husband didn't leave her, but it was tough. He did not get tested. A Lasting ImpactWe give newborns antiretroviral syrup at birth and a follow-up dose within the first month to further reduce the risk of transmission. Ideally an HIV-positive mother does not breastfeed. But in Busia formula milk is not widely available, safe, or affordable and there is fear that abstaining from breastfeeding could expose a woman's status. MSF encourages HIV-positive mothers to breastfeed exclusively for six months and then abruptly stop when beginning other types of feeding. Other kinds of food may damage the lining of the baby's stomach and intestines, making it easier for HIV in breast milk to pass into the baby's tissues. To help confront some of the practical challenges and stigmas, MSF runs monthly peer support groups at the clinics. These meetings serve as a venue for patients to see that they aren't alone and that PMTCT is feasible for women like themselves. I remember one woman who had nearly graduated from the program. She had been devastated to learn that she is HIV-positive. In the months that followed, she absorbed all the information she could; she was so devoted to the pregnancy. She had twins. One died at birth and the other weighed less than five pounds. She came to the clinic every week for check-ups and supplemental food to make sure she had good milk. The baby got sick a few times, but when I last saw him, at five months old, he was growing strong and healthy. At seven months we run a test to confirm a baby's status. If it is positive, we immediately enroll the child in the HIV/AIDS program and start administering drugs. If the baby is negative, we tell the mother that she doesn't need to bring her baby anymore and we enroll her in the program. When I organize the lab results from the babies born to our HIV-positive mothers, the positives crush me, but each negative result feels like a graduation party. I just think, "All the woman's hard work, all the things she had to sacrifice—it worked." It's the only reward I need. And in the end, the program counts for much more than good test results. The awareness-raising activities demystify HIV and help chip away at the stigma for the whole community. And mothers receive the tools they need to live positively, receive treatment, and provide the best care for their babies regardless of HIV status. |
© 2013 Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) |


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Received L4n last week in a perfect state from Asus Been leak testing 2 days to see if it's finally leakfree..... Finally! With just 2 x D5 at full speed and 1m tube it became pretty hot after a few hours of testing. So used an AIO solution from Aquacomputer (Thanks again for this awesome MOTY prize Specialtech.co.uk ! ) After hours of testing and greasy fingers I gave it a last polishing. I didn't know what photos to erase, so here they are all of them. This 'small project-in-a-project' has been quite a learning process for me of cooperation, testing, measuring and even more measuring and testing. I would like to thank the following persons for cooperating on the MARS II block. Daniel aka Mr3D Ivo aka Quepee Rogier van Asus Benelux Gregor van EKWB And everyone who I forgot This week some small changes on the SSD's and then I will be testing the loop and hardware of L4n. After that, mount the MARSII and test it all over again
Lol thanks guys Well .. promised Corsair to do something with the ssd's. So here we go First remove the sticker. Start dremeling. Sanded with P220. I have something with brushed alu.... But have other plans. Sawing a piece of tinted acrylic. Polishing Taping the acrylic and glue it with transparent glue. (Becomes transparent when it's dry) In the meantime further with the casebadge while the glue is drying. One of the nicest badges I've seen. Dr. Dre on it again. Became hotter then I expected. But who the heck makes 2mm thick badges More then an hour of filing and sanding. With the result. Glue nicely dried. One to go Same ritual. And the result. I'm very happy with it Noticed right now the heatshrink let go cause of all the dis-connecting :/
L3p you have inspired me to build my own rig in a style such as yours. When I win the lottery and can afford it, anyway. Amazing work on both the L3p L4n and L3p d3sk.
What a week .. 28°C inside and I'm busy with 2 builds To finish L4n I had quite a checklist to walk through. - Add cables for SSD, Leds and pump. - Change in RGB Leds and wiring. - RGB controller/remote died, had to replace it. - Finding the right coolant color. - Testing loop + blocks + fan/pump controller without MARS. - Testing all hardware with loop without MARS. - Testing loop with MARS in it. - Full stress test of complete system. First .. lets add an SDD activity led SSD in action. (2GB copy) Also removed the RGB above the SSD and added RGB between the acrylic of the SSD's Bringing 3 little cables to their destination out of sight.... 45 minutes RGB controller replaced and proper connection instead of soldering. Literally removed the radiator 30 times to get it in. Then I found out I still had to extend the pump wire. -_- Playing with test tubes in RGB light. Seems EK blood red looks good in switching red/blue light. First looptest without MARS. Loop needed exactly 1 liter. Never thought something would go easy. Reservoir isn't the highest point, still it keeps on level nicely and de-aeration works perfect. Pump on speedsetting 1, completely silent and enough flow to cool it down. SSd's and memory ... check. Lapped CPU + cooling ... check Leaving it running for the night. Right before getting the MARS in I changed something on the contrast of the aluminum text. (Thanks NOCA!) Not much luck again ... really .. somehow the motorized screen pressed the color-change button of the enermax fan when opening. Cause of that it had blue and red leds on, not something I wanted. Had to drain the loop and build the pump completely out to reach it and fix it for good. Finally testing the full loop! Pump on speedsetting 10 Love bubbles. And leaving it for another night. Next day ... testing the complete system. MARS leds lit Pretty scary, don't know what the MARS temps are before I'm in windows. Quick USB install Unfortunately.... It seems 1 of the 2 cores isn't getting cooled as it should. With a furmark stresstest in SLI 1 core goes to 65°C, the other one.. goes slowly up to 100°C and starts to throttle. I'm almost sure it's the thickness of the heatpads I used, I will have to re-open it again completely. There are a lot of options I can still try with different combinations of heatpads/paste, sure I can solve it. However .. going to keep that for another time, tired of it for now. I'm actually more glad both GPU's still work after enlarging 3 holes in the PCB Atleast the lapped CPU doesn't let me down Final pics on the way!
nice work, but the space is pretty tight thats interesting how you could squeeze all of the stuff in that
And here the final photos from L4n Few shots in daylight. Complete set. Inside shots. As an Htpc With dimmed lights. Final video My thanks to the following persons and company's Daniel aka Mr3D Ivo aka Quepee Richard aka Kier Rogier Gelling Gregor Hribernik And off course everyone I forgot and all readers of this thread! Off course will continue on the Mars problem later. For now .... first need a months or two on my next project
Thanks to you for posting here your logs l3p you really are an inspiration. Can't wait till the Cross desk is available, I just hope it can fit 560mm rads, that's a wet dream :O
l3p, your work is truly mind blowing. Your builds are far beyond perfection, I'm stoked to see your cross desk build. Not sure how you can improve on the l3p d3sk, but by the looks of the prototype on your site I'm sure you'll create another masterpiece :salute:
L3p L4n got nominated for Bit-Tech Mod of the Year!! Off course I don't stand a chance this year compared to the other projects, still , being nominated, I see it as the biggest honor you can get! Check out the 20 projects. Small flashback.
Congrats man! Your projects are truly a work of art. I say your still the Desk-Mod champion of our time. Btw, I love what you did with that Corsair ssd mod, so awesome and attention to detail.
Oh you got my Vote! Also, just a question for your modding expertise. I am looking to change the colour of the mesh on my Switch 810. Is the best way to do that, sand it with 180 grit sandpaper, apply 2-3 coats self etching primer, apply 2-4 coats spray paint?
Thanks! To be honest I never even did it that extensive. Objects really in sight got powdercoated. I think it's a good way you're subscribing there maybe use P400 even to make the surface more smooth.


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Part two in this article series is available at:
Recently I became very excited about creating layers. I decided to start on something easy and work my way into hard apps. I thought that Firefox would be a great place to start. I was able to very quickly create the layer. I was pretty excited, so I decided to try something more challenging. I thought that it would be nice to include some Add-ons as part of my newly created layer...
I could not get them to work. I tried and tried and I could not get the Add-ons to work right. I figured that it probably had something to do with the fact that Firefox has two components. The first is in the following location: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox". This is where all of the core Firefox components are stored.
The second is found in the following location: "C:\Documents and Settings\user account\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profile name". This is where all of personal files and settings are stored.
I was having problems getting these two parts to play nice in my layer.
I decided to get to the bottom of the situation.
Along the way I discovered all kinds of interesting information. I have decided to pass that on. In the next couple of articles I will talk about how I created a Firefox layer and silent install with all of my custom settings and Add-ons. These guides can be used in many different situations and for many different applications. For instance, have you ever wanted to install an Add-on using a script? Or, how to easily create a Firefox layer? Or even how to add Firefox into SVS Pro? Stay tuned to the series for some cool info.
There are a few things that you will need before we get started. Here they are:
Customizing Firefox 3:
In this extensions folder, we can actually put all of the Add-ons (extensions == add-ons) that we want to use. When Firefox installs it will install all of the extensions by default.
Now we need to find the Add-ons that we would like to install. I usually install two Add-ons. The first is "IE Tab" and the second is "IE View". Lets find those Add-on files:
On a test computer, you should have Firefox installed with all of your favorite extensions.
We are going to use those files and copy them into the "extension" folder we found above.
You can also do the following:
Hit enter to download the Add-on
At this point you have two choices, here is the first choice:
And, here is the second choice:
Getting the Addons as part of the install is a good first step. There are a few other tweaks that you can make that will make this Firefox install completely custom. For this section you will be using several files taken from the copy of Firefox that is installed on the test machine. Before we get started, configure Firefox (including all of your bookmarks and all options you may want).
Most of the settings (or preferences) on the options menu are pretty straight forward. I will just provide some screenshot of settings that I have found that work well for me.
The only difference on this screen is that I changed the "Home Page" and
unchecked the "Show the Downloads window when downloading a file"checkbox.
On this screen I unchecked the box next to "Warn me when closing multiple tabs".
This screen is the same. I did add exceptions to the "Block pop-up windows" screen.
See below for more info.
All of these settings get stored into a file called "prefs.js". In the next section we will talk about this file more, and how to include is as part of our install.
There are a few settings that you cannot access through the "Options" in Firefox. To get to them, open Firefox and type "about:config" in the address bar. You will get a message warning you that tweaking Firefox could be bad. Click on the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
Here are the settings I like to tweak:
Now that we have gone through the options menu we need to include our choices as part of the install. Here is what you do:
This is a very useful feature that I have wanted to push out in the past. Here is how you can include this in your Firefox install:
Now all of the listed websites will function normally (as far as pop-ups go).
In this article we downloaded and extracted the Firefox setup files. We also found all of the Add-ons that we want to include in our install. Finally, we started to customize Firefox the way we want it. In the next article we will continue to customize Firefox and we will learn how to silently install Firefox and our Add-ons.
Part two in this article series is available at:


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Aug 3, 2009 06:18 PM | 3
The indefatigable Opportunity rover, still motoring across the Red Planet five years into its mission, recently came across what may be a large meteorite sitting on the Martian surface.
The 0.6-meter rock, dubbed Block Island [detail below], would not be the first meteorite discovered on Mars by the rover, but would be notable for its size. Block Island is nearly twice as long as the meteorite known colloquially as Heat Shield Rock and formally designated Meridiani Planum, which Opportunity spotted in 2005. That meteorite was the first to be found on another planet and remains the only one formally accepted by the Meteoritical Society. (Meridiani Planum was found on a plain of the same name; the Meteoritical Society's convention is to name meteorites for a nearby geographic feature.)
Several other candidates have been discovered on Mars by Opportunity and its twin rover Spirit over the years: In 2006 Spirit photographed two likely suspects, of roughly equal size to Meridiani Planum, but could not inspect them up close because of the steepness of the terrain and the fact that the rover was dragging a broken wheel. Opportunity has come across several much smaller cobbles in its travels that also may be of meteoritic origin.
Investigating meteorites on Mars may provide a clearer glimpse into the asteroid belt—some have speculated that asteroids impacting Mars may be fundamentally different, in both orbital characteristics and composition, than those that strike Earth. And signs of weathering, or lack thereof, can provide clues to the presence or absence of liquid water on Mars.
Opportunity is checking out its new find using the onboard Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer to assess the rock's chemical composition and further unwind its origins.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
mars exploration rovers
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Looks more like volcanic rock to me.
There also seems to be no evidence of cratering.
Where can I get some hard data?
From what I have seen, meteorites look superficially like basalt though basalt tends to have smaller pock marks. That could be related to our atmosphere. The crater may have been eroded or the rock may have been deposited. Note the dunes in the picture.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould it be from the planet Earth? Maybe we could have the rover check it for fossil forms of life?
Who knows, maybe us Martians aren't alone!
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Mark Slavit is the Columbia Bureau chief and the Mid-Missouri Traveler.
HERMANN, MO. -- A small family business in Hermann has grown into an international company.
Workers at Damhorst Toys have been getting orders from celebrities from all over the world for quite some time.
The toy makers were excited to get an order from Beyonce and Jay-Z for their new baby Blue Ivy. They bought a personalized wooden stool with a built-in puzzle.
Damhorst Toys Co-Owner Megin Cassimatis said, "I would love to say that Jay-Z called and ordered the stool from us. That's not exactly how it happened. The first one I remember is when a publicist ordered a toy for Madonna's oldest child. That's how we got started."
Workers at Damhorst Toys have made personalized toys for celebrities like Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler, David Letterman, Donald Trump, Conan O'Brien and Julia Roberts.
Megan's parents actually started Damhorst Toys in their basement and eventually made it up to their garage. Today, this business is on the internet selling toys all over the world. Don and Carol Damhorst started the business in 1971. One of their neighbors let them borrow a band saw and the rest is history.
Cassimatis said, "We probably do about a dozen packages overseas every week. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's surprising to actually have things going to Great Britain, England or Ireland. It's really exciting for us."
Megin operates the business with her brother Chris. These two siblings still make their toys just like mom and dad used to make.
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Rolex Rankings No. 4
Rolex Rankings No. 36
See who will make it to the LPGA in 2014.
Congratulations to 2013 winner, Shanshan Feng!
This week is all about...Cristie Kerr
Brianna Do answers 18 fun questions.
Salas is coming off of a runner-up finish in Hawaii after shooting 10 under on Sunday and losing in a playoff to Suzann Pettersen.


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A collection of news and information related to Miami International Airport published by this site and its partners.
Top Miami International Airport Articles
Displaying items 12-22
Airline industry is rolling out perks for affluent fliers
Airlines roll out the perks for affluent fliers
Palm Beach airport also gets Pre-Check security line
Story | Nov 23, 2013Some Thanksgiving holiday travelers may get to go through an expedited security line at South Florida airports under a new Transportation Security Administration initiative. Frequent fliers who are invited by their airline may opt to get pre-screened... -
Accused hijacker ordered held before trial
Story | Nov 19, 2013 | 4:05 PMMIAMI An American accused of hijacking a Miami-bound airliner to Cuba almost 30 years ago "described what he did as an act of terrorism" to federal agents who brought him back from Havana earlier this month, a prosecutor said Tuesday. William Potts Jr.,... -
Miami International Airport to charge disabled parking fees
MIA passport kiosks to speed along passengers
AA, US Airways to divest several slots, gates to settle merger litigation
Justice Department reaches agreement on proposed US Airways-American merger
Story | Nov 12, 2013 | 3:20 PMWASHINGTON The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it has cleared the $11 billion merger of American Airlines and US Airways to form the world's largest airline, but it did so only after both agreed to surrender enough slots for discount carriers to... -
FACTBOX-Details of American Airlines-US Airways settlement
Story | Nov 12, 2013 | 10:32 AMNov 12 (Reuters) - US Airways Group Inc and American Airlines said on Tuesday they agreed to give up dozens of airport slots to settle a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice that sought to block the airlines from merging to create the world's... -
Lauderdale average airfare fifth-lowest in second quarter, DOT says
Story | Nov 6, 2013 | 2:12 PMFort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport's average domestic fare of $275 for the three-month period ending in June was the fifth-lowest among 100 airports profiled, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.... -
Westjet's new MIA-Calgary route launches


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Map & Directions
Enlarge and print Campus Map.
NOTE: Traffic impacts are possible due to the First Hill Streetcar construction project Read more
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Orthopedic Institute
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Phone: 206-386-6000
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Thursday, December 12, 2013 |
Special Commentary--Credit Union or Bank: The Charter MattersIf your credit union's board of directors started talking about converting charter to some type of bank, would you--or should you--care? If you're like most consumers, you likely wouldn't pay much attention. You'd get a long legal document in the mail asking for your vote to approve the conversion. It probably would tell you the credit union board of directors and management team "recommended" that you approve the charter change. If you took time to read the fine print you might see that the credit union was converting to a "mutual" charter, which sounds like a member-owned company. It is. What the document doesn't say is that this is usually just an interim step. Three out of every four credit unions that have converted charters ultimately converted to a for-profit stockholder institution. The document also won't tell you that those who get in on the ground floor--typically members of the board and management team--stand to profit handsomely when that initial public offering of stock is offered. Of course, you won't know any of that unless you do a little homework to find out what your vote really means--and what you would give up if you approve a charter conversion. What is a charter?In simple terms, it's the legal document that defines a company's name, purpose, and structure. State and federal laws--and the provisions of the charter--determine a financial institution's powers. A credit union charter, for example, means it is a not-for-profit cooperative. In a cooperative, all members share equally in the risk and rewards. A bank charter is a for-profit entity designed to reward a small group of shareholders.Why should you care?After all, you just want a place to transact your financial business and the type of institution--its charter--doesn't really matter, does it? Actually the charter is a lot more important than you think. If your credit union converts to a stockholder institution, you would give up control of your financial institution. As a member of a not-for-profit credit union you own it. You elect its board of directors. They supervise the CEO that runs the credit union. At a bank, you have no say over its board of directors or its CEO, or any other big decision. Unless you are a stockholder, the only vote you can cast at a bank is to take your business elsewhere. "You're giving up your decision-making rights," if you vote to change from a credit union charter, says Mike Schenk, an economist for the Credit Union National Association, in Madison, Wis. Because a credit union is democratically controlled, each member gets one vote regardless of how much business he or she does with the credit union. At a bank, a well-heeled group of stockholders make all the decisions that matter--like appointing the board of directors and selecting the CEO. OK, now you're not sure you want all that responsibility that ownership implies. Think about that for a minute. You don't have to be a board member ... you don't even have to vote if you don't want to. But the point is that at a credit union, unlike a bank, you make a choice whether or not to participate in the process. At a bank, you have no choice--and no say. If your credit union converts to a stockholder institution, you give up control of the institution.
"I don't think anybody wants to give up the privilege [of ownership], whether or not they want to accept the responsibility," offers Jim Blaine, CEO of State Employees Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C. Blaine notes that a lot of people don't bother to vote in credit union elections. He doesn't believe it's apathy. Instead, he says, too many members just don't understand the advantages they have as members of a credit union. Maybe they think things are going along just fine without their participation. But that all comes to a halt when members let a charter change occur--either by voting for it or failing to vote to block it. What's wrong with converting to a bank charter?Nothing, if you want to help the rich get richer. Seriously, look at it this way: Because credit unions are member (customer) owned, not-for-profit cooperatives, they're not operated to maximize the profits of the stockholders. They're designed to improve the financial well-being of all their members, not just a few well-fed stockholders. Being a cooperative means credit unions should have better rates than their for-profit competitors, Blaine says. And that's what has a lot of people upset in the credit union movement. Over the years, while only a handful of credit unions (fewer than 30 of the nation's 9,000-plus credit unions) have converted to banks, the issue has grown more contentious. What enrages many credit union people is this: Often, the people who push for the conversion--and are your only source for information about the conversion--stand to realize significant financial gains from the initial public stock offering (IPO). It's not illegal; it's business. But it does raise a legitimate concern among some people that putting the conversion process into the hands of those who stand to reap financial rewards is a lot like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. In a credit union, the member-depositors collectively own the net worth (capital). That's not the case once it changes its charter to a for-profit institution. "Converting from a credit union to a bank gives the board and senior management team the right to raid your net worth," Schenk says. To most credit union people, this loss of the credit union's assets and capital is just plain wrong. Normally, when a group of investors forms a bank, the organizers need to raise a very large amount of money to do so. By converting a credit union, the organizers essentially commandeer its assets, capital, staff, and most of its members. It's unclear how members benefit from that conversion because, as members, remember, they built the credit union and its assets. "Who owns a credit union's capital?" Blaine asks. "I would argue the members do." The average member stake in the equity of American credit unions is more than $800, according to a recent American Association of Credit Union Leagues report. Often, the people who push for a conversion stand to realize significant financial gains.
And in a perfect and fair world, the credit union would liquidate and give back some pro-rated share of the capital to its members. But what means would you use and how would you divide it among all those people who helped build the credit union over its lifetime? "From an economic standpoint, that would be fair," Schenk says. "But how would you reward those members who helped build the credit union and have died or left the credit union?" In the democratic-ownership system, it is the members, as owners of the credit union, who have the right to decide on the structure and operations of their credit union based on what is in their best interests. But to make that decision, they must have full and candid disclosure--sort of like the "informed consent" that patients need to make medical decisions. If the choice is so bad, why have some credit unions converted charters?There are two sides to every story. Herb Moltzan is president/CEO of BUCS Federal Bank (formerly known as BUCS Federal Credit Union), Owings Mills and Columbia, Md. BUCS converted first to a mutual and then to a stockholder institution. Moltzan recently wrote a long and thoughtful letter to the editor of an industry newspaper (Credit Union Times) in which he claimed credit union people were making misleading statements about the process and motives of those who convert charters. He claimed his customers have not suffered any loss in service and have not had to pay higher rates for loans or earned lower interest rates on savings since BUCS went for-profit. And Moltzan also said insiders don't get rich when a credit union converts to a for-profit bank. But his editorial also reported that participants in BUCS' IPO have seen a nearly 200% return on their investment in only four years. That's a nice return if you can afford it. Sadly, not all members could afford to buy in. Rick Schaberg, an attorney in Washington, D.C, has been handling charter conversions for more than 20 years. He recently told an audience of credit union CEOs that the board and management team of a converting credit union are eligible for a sizable segment of the initial public offering--at least 35%. Indeed, an investment-industry newsletter, SNL Financial, reported that four credit unions that converted to banks in 2004 saw an average increase in their IPOs of nearly 23% on their first day of trading. "Individuals [investors] who were members of those credit union were handsomely rewarded," the article said. Remember--only those members who had cash to invest see these gains--not all members. One credit union saw its IPO jump nearly 70%, rewarding its well-heeled investors with thousands of dollars. If you were to ask the management team members of a credit union seeking to convert why they wanted to do so, most would respond they want "to grow the credit union." Blaine has worked in credit unions for more than 30 years. He's never once had a member ask him to grow a credit union. Instead, Blaine has heard many times that his job is to "do what's in the best interest of the membership." Blaine also believes that well-run credit unions have a number of options available to them to grow or provide business services if their members want them. Would members of a credit union board of directors and management team convert if they could not profit from the conversion?
Blaine, Schenk, and numerous others are critics of credit unions converting to a bank charter. They're true believers in the credit union cooperative concept, convinced that well-run credit unions can succeed without converting to bank charters. And they are absolutely convinced credit unions offer their members a better deal as a credit union than as a bank. Frank Pollack, president and CEO of Pentagon Federal Credit Union, Alexandria, Va., wonders how many credit unions even would consider converting to for-profit entities if boards and management teams were prohibited from profiting from a conversion. What's in it for you?Why should you care that your credit union remains a credit union? Credit unions save you a lot of money. Collectively they saved their members $6.3 billion last year. Individually, they saved every single member an average $76 annually and every member household an average of $149. If you use your credit union for most or all of your family's financial services, you likely saved even more. How does your credit union save you money? Credit unions are member-owned, democratically controlled cooperatives that pay higher rates on savings, charge lower rates on loans, and assess fewer and lower fees. As not-for-profit cooperatives they pay no income tax. They pay taxes, yes, just not income taxes because earnings go to improve service to all members, not to line the pockets of stockholders. To illustrate, take a look at this chart from Datatrac, a Milwaukee-based company that collects all kinds of data from financial institutions across the country. Take a look at today's report here. It's no secret credit unions, on average, are a better buy for consumers. What should you do if your credit union's thinking of converting?
Home & Family Finance® Resource Center |
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Iraqi security forces and people gather the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's prime minister says the end of the American military presence in Iraq is a new dawn for his country.
In a celebration Saturday in Baghdad broadcast on state-run Iraqiya TV, Nouri al-Maliki declared the day a national holiday.
Al-Maliki told the Iraqi people that the country has become free and called upon them to preserve its unity and sovereignty.
The prime minister praised Iraqis for getting rid of Saddam Hussein and ending the sectarian conflict.
He said now Iraq is focused on rebuilding the country.
He made no mention of the American military's role in overthrowing Saddam.
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Marin Independent Journal
Branson School graduate Rachel Bilney scored a season-high 20 points, leading Richmond to a 49-44 victory over Witchita State in the Cancun Challenge on Friday. Bilney hit 5-of-10 shots, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range.
See inaccurate information in a story? Other feedback and/or ideas for us to consider? Tell us here.
• Readers: Learn about our Facebook-based commenting system. To report a comment directly to IJ editors, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com with the URL of the article, the name of the offending commenter and the time of the offending post.


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Playing genuine Southern Gospel Music with an emphasis on quartet-style singing and close harmony. Over 7500 songs in our playlist. if you like what you're hearing, why not tell your friends and family about the station. iTunes friendly.
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The first Southern Gospel Station on Live365 and we are still playing the best in Southern and old time Gospel. Praising God 24 hours a day for over 13 years. We are located in Irvine, CA and feature many Southern California artists.
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The Best Mix of Southern Gospel and Contemporary Christian Music - with Something Great for All Ages! From Michael W. Smith to the Cathederal Quartet to Paul Baloche to your Gaither Homecoming favorites. All here at All Gospel Mix !


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Adoption is a way of providing new permanent families for children who are unable, for whatever reason, to be brought up by their birth parents or extended family.
The Adoption Service also offers services to anyone who has been affected by adoption. You could be:
Whichever of the above relates to you, we hope the information in these adoption pages will help you make the right choices for you.
A new campaign aimed at recruiting more adopters across the South Wales region has been launched.
The 'Adopt Wales Cymru' campaign has been created following a rise in the number of children and young people needing forever families.
Former Olympic medallist, Jamie Baulch and TV presenter, Anna Ryder Richardson fronted the campaign, alongside current adoptive families, and a young man who was adopted as a baby.
The Adopt Wales Cymru campaign aims to raise awareness of the need for adopters and ultimately increase the opportunities to match children waiting for adoption with potential adoptive parents and families. The 'Adopt Wales Cymru' partnership consists of 12 local authorities and two voluntary adoption agencies.
To find out more about the campaign, including being able to read and view adopters real stories, please visit www.adopt-wales.co.uk.
If you cannot find information on what you are looking for, or you have further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01443 864527.
Adoption – the process
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Adoption by step parents


text: Looks like there is no Justin Bieber reconciliation going on here! If Selena Gomez wanted to make a point last night, she certainly did. The former Belieber was spotted leaving a Grammys afterparty in El Lay on the arm of another man, Alfredo Flores!For those of you who don't remember, Alfredo - a FRIEND of the Biebs - was once rumored to be coming in between Jelena after some super friendly pics of them were released.And by the look on Alfredo's face, he was more than happy to step in as Selenita's escort to the party.P.S. - Selenita looks like she partied HARD! Look at those sleepy eyes! Nap time!!!


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pt got me on my knees ayla
GOT ME ON MY KNEES AYLA 2:20 pm May 1, 2012
Daughter Of Regular-Guy-With-Six-Houses Scott Brown Totally Loving Her Obamacare
Regular Joe/guy with six houses/US Senator from the great state of TAXACHUSETTS Scott Brown would like to run Obamacare over with his famous pickup truck! Massachusetts already HAS health care, after all, thanks to Obamacare godfather MittRomneyCare, so why should they have to kick in for the tabs of all those other stupid states? (You [...]


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10 month old- terrible two's or what?
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 407
10 month old- terrible two's or what?
Jumping on counters and stealing things again. (She did this when i got her, but i got her to stop with just being consistent, she has just recently started doing this again?)
When she is in play mode, she doesn't want to listen to me, unless i have a treat in my hand. (Such as when she plays chase me, or she steals something from recycling and runs around the house with it, she use to not listen only once in a while, now she rarely listens when she is in play mode)
She is especially barky, whiny, mouthy lately too. Miss attitude is at her max! IN general she has a very spicy personality, she is very talkative, but it has been more. Like for example when she is waiting for dinner she will bark and bark and whine ( i ignore her and wait till she is quiet and than ask her to sit and than down, wait.- when i am getting her supplements, or when she wants to go out of a room.
When she is frustrated she barks and bites the air next to me, its not aggression, but i still think its a rude thing to do?
For the most part when she does mouthy play, she has good bite inhibition, some people said to not ever let your dogs mouth you and others said to let them because its good to practice their bite inhibition- which i agreed with and thought it was a logical idea, as long as she stops when i tell her to. Maybe i should stop all together?
I've had experience with dogs, but i am a first time dog owner
, and i'm not sure if she is going through some terrible two like stage or if i'm changing?
My routine with her and everything is still the same for the most part. But maybe i am being more relaxed with her.
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: December 15, 2012
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KeyCorp Earnings Rise With Loans (Update 1)
- KeyCorp reports first-quarter earnings per share of 21 cents.
- Analysts were expecting EPS of 19 cents.
- Average commercial loans grew 7% during the first quarter; 20% year-over-year.
Updated with comments from Jefferies analyst Ken Usdin.
NEW YORK ( TheStreet) - KeyCorp (KEY) on Wednesday reported that its average first-quarter commercial loan balances grew 7% during the first quarter, and 20% year-over-year.
The Cleveland lender reported first-quarter net income from continuing operations attributable to common shareholders of $199 million, or 21 cents a share, compared to $201 million, or 21 cents a share, during the fourth quarter, and $184 million, or 21 cents a share, during the first quarter of 2011.
KeyCorp CEO Beth E. Mooney |
The first-quarter earnings came in ahead of the 19 cent EPS estimate among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
KeyCorp reported first-quarter noninterest income of $472 million, increasing from $414 million the previous quarter, and $457 million a year earlier. This increase reflected $27 million in gains on leased equipment during the first quarter, increasing from just $9 million in the fourth quarter, and $4 million in the first quarter of 2011. The company also booked $35 million in gains on principal investing, improving from an $8 million loss in the fourth quarter, and matching the results in the first quarter of 2011.
KeyCorp's first-quarter average loans grew 3% sequentially and 2% year-over-year, to $34.8 million, while coveted commercial and industrial loan balances grew to an average $19.7 billion, increasing 7% just in the fourth quarter, and 20% year-over-year.
The company's first-quarter provision for loan and lease losses was $42 million, compared to transfers away from reserves of $22 million the previous quarter, and $40 million a year earlier. While it was quite a significant change for the company to resume adding to loan loss reserves, the reserves still declined by $60 million during the first quarter, boosting operating earnings.
KeyCorp's first-quarter net interest margin -- the difference between a bank's average yield on loans and investments and its average cost for deposits and wholesale borrowings -- was 3.08%, increasing from 3.04% in the fourth quarter but declining from 3.16% in the first quarter of 2011.
The company's first-quarter return on average assets was 1.02%, compared to 1.01% in the fourth quarter and 1.32% during the first quarter of 20112, when the company released $232 million in loan loss reserves.
The return on average common equity was 8.25% during the first quarter, compared to 8.26% the previous quarter, and 8.75% a year earlier.
KeyCorp has a deal in place to acquire 37 branches in Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., as part of First Niagara Financial Group's (FNFG) planned divestiture of overlapping branches after it acquires about 200 branches from HSBC (HBC) . KeyCorp will pick up about $2.4 billion in deposits and $400 million in loans, when the branch deal closes, which is expected to happen in the third quarter.