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Pinot noir
|Pinot noir
|Grape (Vitis)
File:Chehalem pinot noir grapes.jpg
Pinot noir grapes at Chehalem Ridgecrest Vineyard, Newberg, Oregon
|Colour of berry skin
|Also called
|Blauburgunder, Spätburgunder, Rulandské modré
|Notable regions
|Burgundy, Champagne, Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, California (Russian River Valley), Marlborough, Central Otago, Oregon, Casablanca Valley, Ahr, Romania, Tasmania, Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley
|Notable wines
|Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits-Saint-Georges
|Ideal soil
|Chalky clay
|Wine characteristics
|Light tannins
|Cool climate
|Cabbage, wet leaves
|Medium climate
|Strawberry, raspberry, cherry, mushroom, meaty
Pinot noir (Template:IPA-fr) is a red wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French words for pine and black; the pine alluding to the grape variety having tightly clustered, pine cone-shaped bunches of fruit.[1]
Pinot noir grapes are grown around the world, mostly in the cooler regions, but the grape is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France. Other regions that have gained a reputation for Pinot noir include the Willamette Valley of Oregon, the Carneros, Central Coast and Russian River AVAs (American Viticultural Area) of California, the Walker Bay wine region of South Africa, Tasmania and Yarra Valley in Australia and the Central Otago, Martinborough and Marlborough wine regions of New Zealand. Pinot noir is also a primary variety used in sparkling wine production in Champagne and other wine regions.[2]
It is widely considered to produce some of the finest wines in the world, but is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine.[3] The grape's tendency to produce tightly packed clusters makes it susceptible to several viticultural hazards involving rot that require diligent canopy management. The thin-skins and low levels of phenolic compounds lends Pinot to producing mostly lightly colored, medium bodied low tannin wines that can often go through dumb phases with uneven and unpredictable aging. When young, wines made from Pinot noir tend to have red fruit aromas of cherries, raspberries and strawberries. As the wines age, Pinots have the potential to develop vegetal and "barnyard" aromas that can contribute to the complexity of the wine.[2]
Pinot noir's home is France's Burgundy region, particularly in Côte-d'Or. It is also planted in Austria, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, north parts of Croatia, the Republic of Georgia, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Greece, Romania, New Zealand, South Africa, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, United States, Uruguay, Ukraine and Slovakia. The United States has increasingly become a major Pinot noir producer, with some of the best regarded coming from the Willamette Valley in Oregon]] and California's Sonoma County with its Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast appellations. Lesser known appellations can be found in Mendocino County's Anderson Valley as well as the Central Coast's Santa Lucia Highlands appellation and the Santa Maria Valley & Sta. Rita Hills American Viticulture Area in Santa Barbara County. In New Zealand, it is principally grown in Martinborough, Marlborough, Waipara and Central Otago.
The leaves of Pinot noir are generally smaller than those of Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah and the vine is typically less vigorous than either of these varieties. The grape cluster is small and conico-cylindrical, vaguely shaped like a pine cone. Some viticultural historians believe this shape-similarity may have given rise to the name.[4] In the vineyard Pinot noir is sensitive to wind and frost, cropping levels (it must be low yielding for production of quality wines), soil types and pruning techniques. In the winery it is sensitive to fermentation methods, yeast strains and is highly reflective of its terroir with different regions producing sometimes very different wines. Its thin skin makes it susceptible to bunch rot and similar fungal diseases of the bunch. The vines themselves are susceptible to powdery mildew, and in Burgundy (and elsewhere) infection by leaf roll and fanleaf viruses causes significant vine health problems. These complications have given the grape a reputation for being difficult to grow: Jancis Robinson calls Pinot a "minx of a vine"[4] and André Tchelistcheff declared that "God made Cabernet Sauvignon whereas the devil made Pinot noir."[4] It is much less tolerant of hard, windy, hot and dry, harsh vineyard conditions than the likes of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, or Grenache.
However, Pinot noir wines are among the most popular in the world. Joel Fleischman of Vanity Fair describes pinot noir as "the most romantic of wines, with so voluptuous a perfume, so sweet an edge, and so powerful a punch that, like falling in love, they make the blood run hot and the soul wax embarrassingly poetic."[4] Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon calls Pinot "sex in a glass".[4]
The tremendously broad range of bouquets, flavors, textures and impressions that Pinot noir can produce sometimes confuses tasters.[4] In the broadest terms, the wine tends to be of light to medium body with an aroma reminiscent of black and / or red cherry, raspberry and to a lesser extent currant and many other fine small red and black berry fruits. Traditional red Burgundy is famous for its savory fleshiness and 'farmyard' aromas (these latter sometimes associated with thiol and other reductive characters), but changing fashions, modern winemaking techniques, and new easier-to-grow clones have favored a lighter, more fruit-prominent, cleaner style. The wine's color when young is often compared to that of garnet, frequently being much lighter than that of other red wines. This is entirely natural and not a winemaking fault as Pinot noir has a lower skin anthocyanin (coloring matter) content than most other classical red / black varieties. However, an emerging, increasingly evident, style from California and New Zealand highlights a more powerful, fruit forward and darker wine that can tend toward Syrah (or even new world Malbec) in depth, extract, and alcoholic content.
Pinot noir is also used in the production of Champagne (usually along with Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier) and is planted in most of the world's wine growing regions for use in both still and sparkling wines. Pinot noir grown for dry table wines is generally low-yielding and of lesser vigour than many other varieties, whereas when grown for use in sparkling wines (e.g. Champagne) it is generally cropped at significantly higher yields.
In addition to being used for the production of sparkling and still red wine, Pinot noir is also sometimes used for rosé still wines, Beaujolais Nouveau-styled wines, and even vin gris white wines. Its juice is uncolored.
History, mutants and clones
Pinot noir is almost certainly a very ancient variety that may be only one or two generations removed from wild, Vitis sylvestris, vines.[5] Its origins are nevertheless unclear: In De re rustica, Columella describes a grape variety similar to pinot noir in Burgundy during the 1st century CE,[4][6] however, vines have grown wild as far north as Belgium in the days before phylloxera, and it is possible that Pinot represents a direct domestication of (hermaphrodite-flowered) Vitis sylvestris.
Ferdinand Regner has argued[7] that pinot noir is a cross between Pinot Meunier (Schwarzriesling) and Traminer, but this claim has since been refuted.[4] In fact Pinot Meunier has been shown to be a chimerical mutation (in the epidermal cells) which makes the shoot tips and leaves prominently hairy-white and the vine a little smaller and early ripening.[8] Thus Pinot Meunier is a chimera with two tissue layers of different genetic makeup, both of which contain a mutation making them non-identical to, and mutations of, Pinot noir (as well as of any of the other color forms of Pinot). As such, Pinot Meunier cannot be a parent of Pinot noir, and, indeed, it seems likely that chimerical mutations which can generate Pinot gris from other Pinots (principally blanc or noir) may in turn be the genetic pathway for the emergence of Pinot Meunier.
Pinot gris is a Pinot color sport (and can arise by mutation of Pinot noir or Pinot blanc), presumably representing a somatic mutation in either the VvMYBA1 or VvMYBA2 genes that control grape berry color. Pinot blanc is a further mutation and can either naturally arise from or give rise to Pinot gris or Pinot noir; the mutation - reversion path is multi-directional therefore. The general DNA profiles of both Pinot gris and blanc are identical to Pinot noir;[9] and other Pinots, Pinot moure and Pinot teinturier, are also genetically similarly close. It should be noted therefore that almost any given Pinot (of whatever berry color) can occur as a complete mutation or as a chimera of almost any other Pinot[10] As such, suggestions that Pinot noir is the fundamental and original form of the Pinots are both misleading and highly tendentious. Indeed, if anything, Pinot blanc may be the original human-selected form of Pinot, although given the genetic variability of this longstanding genetic line, thinking of Pinot as a familial cluster of grapes sharing a fundamental and common genetic core is almost certainly nearest the truth. It is this 'core' around which the sub-varietally identifying color variations (blanc, rouge, noir, gris, rose, violet, tenteurier, moure, etc.) occur, along with the more striking chimeric morphological mutation that is Pinot Meunier, and the interesting further mutations of this variety as Pinot Meunier gris and as the non-hairy mutation which the Germans classify as 'Samtrot' (effectively 'Pinot red velvet').
A white berried sport of Pinot noir was propagated in 1936 by Henri Gouges of Burgundy, and there is now 2.5ha planted of this grape which Clive Coates[11] calls Pinot Gouges, and others call Pinot Musigny. There is however no published evidence, nor any obvious reason, to believe that this is other than a (possibly quite fine) form of Pinot blanc, having simply arisen as a selected natural mutation of the original Pinot noir in the Gouges' vineyard.
In the UK, the name 'Wrotham Pinot' is a permitted synonym for Meunier and stems from a vine that one of the pioneers of UK viticulture, Edward Hyams, discovered in Wrotham (pronounced 'root-ham')in Kent in the late 1940s. It was in all probability the variety known as 'Miller's Burgundy' which had been widely grown on walls and in gardens in Great Britain for many years. Archibald Barron writing in his book, Vines and Vine Culture, the standard Victorian work on grape growing in the UK, states that the variety was: found by [the famous horticulturalist] Sir Joseph Banks in the remains of an ancient vineyard at Tortworth, Gloucestershire – a county well known for its medieval vineyards. Hyams took the vine to Raymond Barrington Brock, who ran what was to become the Oxted Viticultural Research Station, and he trialled it alongside the many other varieties he grew. Brock said that when compared to supplies of Meunier from France, Wrotham Pinot: had a higher natural sugar content and ripened two weeks earlier. Hyams, ever the journalist in search of a good story, claimed that this vine had been left behind by the Romans although provided no evidence for this. Brock sold cuttings and the variety became quite popular in early vineyards, although it is unlikely that any vines from the cuttings supplied by Brock survive in any of today's UK vineyards. Despite the fact that today all plantings of Meunier in the UK stem from French and German nurseries, the name Wrotham Pinot is still a legally acceptable synonym for this variety, although never used by UK growers.
Pinot noir can be particularly prone to mutation (suggesting it has active transposable elements), and thanks to its long history in cultivation there are hundreds of different clones in vineyards and vine collections worldwide. More than 50 are officially recognized in France compared to only 25 of the much more widely planted Cabernet Sauvignon.[3] The French Etablissement National Technique pour l'Amelioration de la Viticulture (ENTAV) has set up a program to select the best clones of Pinot. This program has succeeded in increasing the number of quality clones available to growers. In the new world, particularly in Oregon, wines of extraordinary quality continue to be made from the (ex-University of California at Davis) Pommard (principally UCD4) and Wadensvil (UCD 1A and / or 2A) clones.[4]
Gamay Beaujolais is a Californian misnomer for a UCD clone series of upright-growing ('Pinot droit') Pinot noir. Planted mostly in California it also became established in New Zealand.[12] In this latter country, its disposition to poor fruit set in cool flowering conditions can be problematic. Claims that the 'Gamay Beaujolais' Pinot noir was brought to California by Paul Masson.[13] are not correct.[citation needed] It was collected in France by Harold Olmo for UCD in the 1950s and was one of the first Pinot noir vines this institution offered as a high health clonal line from about 1962 onward. However, it was misleadingly identified at UCD as a 'Gamay Beaujolais' type (of Pinot noir). In general, these upright growing 'Pinot droit' clones are highly productive (in suitable, hot-to-warm, flowering conditions) and in California and New Zealand they give robust, burly, wines favored by those who like muscle rather than charm and velvety finesse in their Pinot noir wines.[citation needed] In Burgundy, the use of (highly productive) Pinot droit clones is reportedly still widespread in inferior, Village appellation, or even non-appellation, vineyards and Pinot droit is consequently regarded, arguably with very good reason, as a (genetic) sub-form significantly inferior to classical, decumbent, 'Pinot fine' or 'Pinot tordu', clonal lines of Pinot.
Frühburgunder (Pinot Noir Précoce) is an early-ripening form of Pinot noir.[3] Across the Pinot family, ripening in typical climates can be dispersed by as much as four, and even six, weeks between the very earliest (including Précoce) clones and the very latest ripening. Virus infection and excessive cropping significantly add to delaying of Pinot noir ripening.
Gouget noir is sometimes confused as being a clone of Pinot noir but DNA analysis has confirmed that it is a distinct variety.[14]
In August 2007, French researchers announced the sequencing of the genome of Pinot noir.[15] It is the first fruit crop to be sequenced, and only the fourth flowering plant.
In the Middle Ages, the nobility and church of northeast France grew some form of Pinot in favored plots, while peasants grew a large amount of the much more productive, but otherwise distinctly inferior, Gouais blanc. Cross-pollination may have resulted from such close proximity, with the genetic distance between the two parents imparting hybrid vigor leading to the viticultural selection of a diverse range of offspring from this cross (which may, nevertheless, have also resulted from deliberate human intervention). In any case, however it occurred, offspring of the Pinot - Gouais cross include: Chardonnay, Aligoté, AuxerroisTemplate:Disambiguation needed, Gamay, Melon and eleven others.[9] It should not however be inferred that Pinot noir was the Pinot involved here; any member of the Pinot family appears genetically capable of being the Pinot parent to these ex-Gouais crosses.
In 1925, Pinot noir was crossed in South Africa with the Cinsaut grape (known locally by the misnomer 'Hermitage') to create a unique variety called Pinotage.
Pinot noir is produced in several wine growing areas of Australia, notably in the Southern Highlands in New South Wales, Yarra Valley, Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula, Beechworth, South Gippsland, Sunbury, Macedon Ranges and Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Adelaide Hills in South Australia, Great Southern Wine Region in Western Australia, all Tasmania, and the Canberra District in the Australian Capital Territory.
In Austria, Pinot noir is sometimes called Blauburgunder (literally Blue Burgundy) and produced in Burgenland and Lower Austria. Austrian Pinot noir wines are dry red wines similar in character to the red wines of Burgundy, mostly aged in French barriques. Some of the best Austrian Pinots come from Neusiedlersee and Blaufraenkischland, (Burgenland) and Thermenregion (Lower Austria).
Quality Pinot noir has been grown in Ontario for some time in the Niagara Peninsula and especially the Niagara-on-the-Lake and Short Hills Bench wine regions, as well as in Prince Edward County and on the north shore of Lake Ontario. It has also been grown recently in the Okanagan, Lower Mainland, and Vancouver Island wine regions of British Columbia, the Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia and the Lanaudière and Brome-Missisquoi regions of Quebec.
Pinot noir is increasingly being planted in the U.K. and is now the second most widely planted variety, (305-ha in 2012) almost all of it for sparkling wine[citation needed]. In good years, red wines can be made and these are very good[citation needed]. More usually, attractive rose wines are made[citation needed]. For UK sparkling wine, Pinot noir is considered essential for top quality[citation needed].
Pinot noir has made France's Burgundy appellation famous, and vice versa. Wine historians, including John Winthrop Haeger and Roger Dion, believe that the association between Pinot and Burgundy was the explicit strategy of Burgundy's Valois dukes. Roger Dion, in his thesis regarding Philip the Bold's role in promoting the spread of Pinot noir, holds that the reputation of Beaune wines as "the finest in the world" was a propaganda triumph of Burgundy's Valois dukes.[4] In any event, the worldwide archetype for pinot noir is that grown in Burgundy, where it has been cultivated since AD 100.
Burgundy's Pinot noir produces great wines which can age very well in good years, developing complex fruit and forest floor flavours as they age, often reaching peak 15 or 20 years after the vintage. Many of the wines are produced in very small quantities and can be very expensive. Today, the celebrated Côte d'Or escarpment of Burgundy has about Script error: No such module "convert". of Pinot noir. Most of the region's finest wines are produced from this area. The Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais regions in southern Burgundy have another Script error: No such module "convert"..
In Jura département, across the river valley from Burgundy, the wines made from pinot noir are lighter.
In Champagne it is used in blending with Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. It can also appear unblended, in which case it may be labeled blanc de noirs. The Champagne appellation has more Pinot planted than any other area of France.
In Sancerre it is used to make red and rosé wines, much lighter in style that those of Burgundy, refreshing served chilled, especially in warmer years when they are less thin.
In Alsace it is generally used to make Pinot-noir d'Alsace, a varietal rosé wine. However, it is also used to make genuine red wines usually called Pinot noir rouge, which are similar in character to red Burgundy and Beaujolais wines but are consumed chilled. Prominent examples are Rouge de Barr and Rouge d'Ottrott. Pinot noir rouge is the only red wine produced in Alsace. Lack of acidity and complexity often prevent Alsatian pinot noir from achieving anything more than pleasant, easy drinking, quality levels.
In Germany it is called Spätburgunder (lit. "Late Burgundian"), and is now the most widely planted red grape.[3] Historically much German wine produced from Pinot noir was pale, often rosé like the red wines of Alsace, and very simple; over-cropping and bunch-rot were major contributing factors to this. However, recently, despite the northerly climate, darker, richer reds have been produced, often barrel (barrique) aged, in regions such as Baden, Palatinate (Pfalz) and Ahr. These are rarely exported and are often very expensive in Germany for the better examples. As "Rhenish", German Pinot noir is mentioned several times in Shakespearean plays as a highly prized wine.[16]
There is also a smaller-berried, early ripening, lower yield variety called Frühburgunder (Pinot Noir Précoce, lit. "Early Burgundian") which is grown in Rheinhessen and Ahr area and can produce very good wines. In the last 20 years or so, serious efforts have been made to develop and husband good quality high health clones of Frühburgunder selected from Württemberg vineyards, and the future of this form of Pinot noir in Germany consequently looks promising.[citation needed]
In Italy, where Pinot noir is known as Pinot nero, it has traditionally been cultivated in South Tyrol, the Collio Goriziano, Franciacorta, Oltrepò Pavese, Veneto, Friuli and Trentino. It is also planted in Tuscany.
In South Tyrol the variety is first noted 1838 as "Bourgoigne noir" in a grape wine buy list of the "k.u.k. Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft von Tirol und Vorarlberg, Niederlassung Bozen" and later called "Blauburgunder" like in Austria. The first analytical descriptions are from Edmund Mach (founder of Ist. Agr. San Michele a.A.) in the year 1894: Friedrich Boscarolli - Rametz/Meran - Rametzer Burgunder 1890, Chorherrenstift Neustift - Blauburgunder 1890, R.v.Bressendorf - Vernaun/Meran - Burgunder 1890, C. Frank - Rebhof Gries Bozen - Burgunder 1889, Fr. Tschurtschenthaler - Bozen - Burgunder 1890 & 1891, Fr. Tschurtschenthaler - Bozen - Kreuzbichler 1889 & 1891 & 1887.[17]
Large amounts of Pinot were planted in central Moldova during the 19th century, but much was lost to the ravages of phylloxera; Soviet control of Moldova from 1940 to 1991 also reduced the productivity of vineyards.
New Zealand
|This section does not cite any references or sources. (September 2013)
Pinot noir is New Zealand's largest red wine variety, and second largest variety overall behind sauvingnon blanc. In 2014, pinot noir vines covered Script error: No such module "convert". and produced 36,500 tonnes of grapes.[18]
Pinot noir is a grape variety whose "importance" in New Zealand is extremely high. However, initial results were not promising for several reasons, including high levels of leaf roll virus in older plantings, and, during the 1960s and 1970s, the limited number and indifferent quality of Pinot noir clones available for planting. However, since this time importation of high quality clones and much-improved viticulture and winemaking has seen pinot noir, from Martinborough in the north to Central Otago in the south, win numerous international awards and accolades. Pinot noir is now one of New Zealand's most sought-after varieties and is its pre-eminent red varietal (outside of the Syrah and Bordeaux varietals produced in Hawkes Bay).
Historically, one notable Pinot noir wine was the St Helena 1984 from the Canterbury region. This led to the belief, for a time, that Canterbury might become the natural home for Pinot noir in New Zealand. While the early excitement passed, the Canterbury region has witnessed the development of pinot noir as the dominant red variety. The next region to excel with pinot noir was Martinborough on the southern end of the North Island. The moderate climate and long growing season gives wines of great intensity and complexity. In the 2000s, other sub-regions in the Wairarapa have been developed to the north of Martinborough.
At around this time, the first plantings of Pinot noir in the Central Otago wine region occurred in the Kawarau Gorge near Bannockburn. Central Otago had a long history (for New Zealand) as a producer of quality stone fruit and particularly cherries. Significantly further south than all other wine regions in New Zealand, it had been overlooked despite a long history of grape growing, albeit with little serious wine production. However, Central Otago benefits from being surrounded by mountain ranges which increased its temperature variations both between seasons and between night and day making the climate unusual when compared with the typically maritime conditions in New Zealand; Central Otago's climate is in fact markedly continental.
Some of the first vines were planted in holes blasted out of the north facing schist slopes of the region;, such highly marginal conditions underscore the initial difficulties confronting contemporary 'pioneering' vineyards in this region. The first results coming in the mid to late 1990s excited the interest of British wine commentators, including Jancis Robinson and Oz Clarke. The latest sub-region appears to be Waitaki, near Kurow, on the border between Otago and Canterbury.
A recent blind tasting of New Zealand pinot noir featured in Cuisine magazine (issue 119), Michael Cooper reported that of the top ten wines, five came from Central Otago, four from Marlborough and one from Waipara. This compares with all top ten wines coming from Marlborough in an equivalent blind tasting from last year. Cooper suggests that this has to do with more Central Otago production becoming available in commercial quantities, than the relative qualities of the regions' Pinot noir. In addition, as the industry has matured, many of the country's top producers have made the decision no longer to submit their wines to reviews or shows.
Typically, New Zealand Pinot noir is fruit-driven, forward, and early maturing in the bottle. Alcohol levels are markedly higher than for Burgundies, and natural acidity lower. Many New Zealand pinot noir producers leave their fruit on the vine much longer than is either possible or acceptable in Burgundian vineyards, and plummy flavours, heavier textures, and consequently more Syrah-like wine structure, results. Markedly, the wines tend to be quite full bodied (for the variety) and very potable in their youth. High-quality examples of New Zealand Pinot noir, particularly from the Martinborough region, are distinguished by savoury, earthy flavours with a greater complexity. Central Otago Pinot noirs have become characterised as "fruit bombs"—big, soft textured, wines, rich in flavours like boysenberry and Blackboy peach, high in alcohol and low in natural acid. More subtle, finer, examples are produced however, but they are usually elite wines only. Tamarilo characters, which were prominent in the above-mentioned St. Helena Pinot noir, continue to characterise many large production Waipara Pinot noirs and most Canterbury ones as well. Specialist producers in these co-mingled regions can surpass these limitations however, and a range of wines, from burly, bold, tannic and dark new-world style "reserves", to finer, more Burgundian-influenced Pinot noirs are now becoming more prominent. Marlborough pinot noirs are often fragrant and appealingly round, but can lack depth and proper tannin ripeness. Multi-area blends made by large producers (usually blending Marlborough, Waipara, and Central Otago fruit) can offer good value and good drinking at affordable prices.
In Slovenia, the pinot noir is produced especially in the Slovenian Littoral, particularly in the Goriška Brda sub-region. In smaller amounts, the Pinot noir is also produced in Slovenian Styria. The wine is usually called Modri Pinot (Blue Pinot) or also Modri Burgundec (Blue Burgundy).
|This section does not cite any references or sources. (September 2013)
Pinot noir has recently been produced in small amounts in Lleida province, Catalonia, under the appellation "Costers del Segre" DO.
Pinot noir is a popular grape variety all over Switzerland. In German-speaking regions of Switzerland it is often called Blauburgunder. Pinot noir wines are produced in Neuchâtel, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen and Bündner Herrschaft. In Valais, Pinot noir is also blended with Gamay to produce the well known Dôle.
United States
By volume most Pinot noir in America is grown in California, with Oregon coming in second[19] Other regions are the states of Washington, Michigan, and New York.]
Oregon wine regions known for producing Pinot noir:
- Willamette Valley AVA
- Dundee Hills AVA
- Eola-Amity Hills AVA
- Yamhill-Carlton District AVA
- McMinnville AVA
- Chehalem Mountains AVA
- Ribbon Ridge AVA
California wine regions known for producing Pinot noir are:
- Sonoma Coast AVA
- Russian River Valley AVA
- Central Coast AVA
- Sta. Rita Hills
- Monterey County / Santa Lucia Highlands
- Santa Cruz Mountains AVA
- Carneros District of Napa and Sonoma
- Anderson Valley
- Livermore Valley
- San Luis Obispo County / Arroyo Grande Valley, Edna Valley
Richard Sommers of HillCrest Vineyard in the Umpqua Valley of Oregon is the father of Oregon Pinot noir. An early graduate of UC Davis, Sommers moved north after graduation with the idea of planting Pinot noir in the Coastal valleys of Oregon. He brought cuttings to the state in 1959 and made his first commercial planting at HillCrest Vineayard in Roseburg Oregon in 1961. For this he was honored by the Oregon State House of Representatives (HR 4A). In 2011 the State of Oregon honored him for this achievement and also for producing the first commercial bottling in the state in 1967. It was announced by the state of Oregon in the summer of 2012 that an historical marker would be placed at the winery in the summer of 2013.[20] Sommers who graduated from UC Davis in the early 1950s brought Pinot Noir cuttings to Oregon's Umpqua Valley in 1959 and planted them at HillCrest Vineyard in 1961. These first Pinot noir cuttings came from Louis Martinis Sr.'s Stanley Ranch located in the Carneros region of Napa Valley. The first commercial vintage from these grapes was the noted 1967 Pinot noir although test bottlings were made as early as 1963. In the 1970s several other growers followed suit. In 1979, David Lett took his wines to a competition in Paris, known in English as the Wine Olympics, and they placed third among Pinots. In a 1980 rematch arranged by French wine magnate Robert Drouhin, the Eyrie vintage improved to second place. The competition established Oregon as a world-class Pinot noir producing region.[21][22]
The Willamette Valley of Oregon is at the same latitude as the Burgundy region of France, and has a similar climate in which the finicky Pinot noir grapes thrive. In 1987, Drouhin purchased land in the Willamette Valley, and in 1989 built Domaine Drouhin Oregon, a state-of-the-art, gravity-fed winery. Throughout the 1980s, the Oregon wine industry blossomed.
Recent popularity
During 2004 and the beginning of 2005, Pinot noir became considerably more popular among consumers in the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia possibly because of the movie Sideways.[23] Being lighter in style, it has benefited from a trend toward more restrained, less alcoholic wines being at or around 12% alcohol by volume.
See also
- ^ "Etymologie de pineau". Centre Nationale de Ressounces Textuelles et Lexicales (in French). Retrieved 3 November 2013.
- ^ a b Wine & Spirits Education Trust "Wine and Spirits: Understanding Wine Quality" pgs 6-9, Second Revised Edition (2012), London, ISBN 9781905819157
- ^ a b c d Robinson, Jancis (2006). The Oxford Companion to Wine, Third Edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860990-6.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Haeger, John Winthrop (September 14, 2004). North American Pinot Noir. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24114-2.
- ^ Graves, David (2006). "On Varietal Origins: A Chat Between Wavey & The Professor".
- ^ The Origin of Chardonnay[dead link] Meredith, Bowers, Boursiquot and This
- ^ Regner F; Stadlbauer A; Eisenheld C; Kaserer H (2000). "Genetic Relationships Among Pinots and Related". Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 51 (1): 7–14.
- ^ Boss, P; Thomas M (2002-04-25). "Association of dwarfism and floral induction with a grape 'green revolution' mutation". Nature 416 (6883): 847–850. PMID 11976683. doi:10.1038/416847a.
- ^ a b Meredith, Carole (2002-11-02). "Science as a Window into Wine History" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- ^ Hocquigny S; Pelsy F; Dumas V; Kindt S; Heloir M; Merdinoglu D (2004). "Diversification within grapevine cultivars goes through chimeric states". Genome 47 (3): 579–589. PMID 15190375. doi:10.1139/g04-006.
- ^ Clive Coates, Cote D'Or (1997) pp. 144 and 457
- ^ Robinson J (2002). Vines Grapes & Wines. Mitchell Beazley. p. 227.
- ^ Adams, Leon D (1984). The Wines of America. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-395-15456-1.
- ^ J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours pg 422, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2
- ^ Hopkin, M (2007-08-26). "Grape genome unpicked". Nature News (Nature). doi:10.1038/news070820-13.
- ^ Stuart Walton, Understanding, Choosing and Enjoying Wine Hermes House 2006, p180
- ^ Peter Dipoli, Michela Carlotto: Mazon und sein Blauburgunder (in italian: Mazzon e il suo Pinot nero), Verschönerungsverein Neumarkt, Fotolito Varesco, Auer, 2009 - ISBN 978-88-8300-032-4
- ^ "New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Report 2014" (PDF). New Zealand Winegrowers. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
- ^ Dr. Liz Thach, MW
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=5mQ2eoBtS88C&lpg=PA1&ots=X_gyGvKLXL&dq=Richard%20Sommers%20of%20Hillcrest%20Vineyards&lr&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q=Richard%20Sommers%20of%20Hillcrest%20Vineyards&f=false page 20
- ^ Teichgraeber, Tim (October 14, 2008). "David Lett, founder of Oregon Pinot Noir, dies". Decanter. Retrieved December 15, 2009.
- ^ Colman, Tyler (October 13, 2008). "David Lett and an Eyrie Vineyards retrospective". Dr. Vino. Retrieved December 15, 2009.
- ^ Merlot demand skids, perhaps 'Sideways?' - Food Inc. - MSNBC.com
External links
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pinot Noir.


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From top to bottom, opening sequence to end credits, season 3 of Game of Thrones has coaxed from 10 episodes a story arc that successfully demonstrated how much the idea of "the realm" means to the series' overall narrative and how so many of show's characters, whether they know it or not, are driven by similar concepts.
While it lacked the devastating emotional impact of last week's 'The Rains of Castamere' – or, really, the last ten minutes detailing the horrifically violent "Red Wedding" – it was the discussion between Varys and Littlefinger in 'The Climb' that seems to have been the true turning point for the season, in terms of laying out precisely what it is everyone is so up in arms about
And amazingly, through all the death and destruction pertaining to House Stark, the symbolic dismembering of Jaime and Theon, and the masterful (and apparently extremely persuasive) letter writing of Tywin Lannister, the main thrust of the season has been to better define the meaning of the realm. To illustrate that while the land connecting these kingdoms may be vast, the realm is not so immeasurable that a single menace cannot threaten its very existence.
For its part, 'Mhysa' doesn't hesitate to get into the very notion that characters are oftentimes ruled by his or her devotion to an elusive thing or concept. Like Varys and Littlefinger and their attachment to the notion of "the good of the realm" or, conversely, "chaos [as] a ladder," abstract thoughts and intangibles bring these individuals equal amounts of pain, pleasure and a thirst for more, through which they define themselves and build their hopes and dreams. Things like: oaths, love, happiness, power, title and, most poignantly this season, a family name that means something and is, for the time being, sustainable.
It may be Tywin's wish to ensure the Lannister name continues to live on and instill something in the hearts and minds of those who speak it, but it's Varys who recognizes the larger good to be done with such a remarkably powerful word. When he speaks to Shae, urging her to take a small pouch of diamonds and to make a new life for herself far away, he's insistent that Tyrion is the man in whom the realm should stake its future well-being.
Harsh truths regarding Shae's upbringing and future prospects in King's Landing aside, Varys is offering her a way out; all she must do is ignore the pull of her love (a powerful concept) for Tyrion and understand that with her sacrifice, an incalculable amount of potential good could come about for the realm.
That's a lot of potential good that can come of such a significant sacrifice, but as we see, Shae may not be the kind of person to believe the needs of the many necessarily outweigh the need or desires of a single person. In that regard, Shae sees the world like Ser Davos, who, as we learn, comes from a place that's probably not too far off from where she was brought up – and it certainly isn't far removed from Gendry's upbringing either.
In Davos' freeing of Gendry, we not only see the dichotomy between those who would take a single life in order to "save" tens of thousands, and those who believe a life, no matter how small, has reason to be allowed to continue. But we also see how those who might sacrifice an innocent life for the good of the realm, more likely than not, have a rather significant stake in the game – should the cards rule in their favor.
The vast and growing schism between the powerful and the powerless seems to be the other concept Game of Thrones is eager to present to the audience. As was seen in season 3, power is a notion that seems to be universally recognized, and while those holding on to it will do anything to maintain their grip – men like Roose Bolton, Walder Frey and even Tywin Lannister – there are still those with whom the idea holds little sway. And while it was first suggested that the Brotherhood Without Banners might be the bastions of this great insolence, it was eventually revealed that they, too, readily answer to the man (or unseen being) they believe to hold all the power. Instead, the true audacity lies within the characters who have been thought by everyone else to be so small and weak (or far away) they hold little importance to those in power.
On one hand, there is Arya Stark's slaying of a soldier taking credit for mounting a dire wolf's head on Robb Stark's body. Sure, she had the Hound to back her up, but the way she dispatched the man suggested a level of aforethought that likely would have been present had she been wandering the amazingly populated woods of Westeros on her own. On the other hand, there is Daenerys Targaryen, her dragons and her army of Unsullied who have recently liberated the enslaved people of Yunkai.
On the far side of the world, Game of Thrones deftly and rather marvelously demonstrates a level of unity that's largely unknown to the embattled kingdoms on the other side of the sea.
But winter is still coming and with it comes unspeakable horror and almost certain death. As Davos (and in their own way, Varys and Sam) argues, unless the kingdoms can rally together and unite against a common and mighty foe, there'll soon be no realm for anyone to be fighting over.
Game of Thrones season 4 will premiere in 2014 on HBO.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Explode tree
Collapse tree
Ingredients: Balloon flower root, Almond Kernel, Licorice root, Tangerine peel, Gypsum, Talcum, Honey
Direction: 4 tablets atime, 3 times a day as a herbal supplement
Caution: Don't use if pregnant.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Content Copyright Mount Spring International


text:
Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy with Cholangiogram
Watch Edwin A. Amirata, MD and Robert A. Brautigan, MD, general surgeons at Clara Maass Medical Center, perform a laparoscopic cholecystectomy using automatic polymer ligation on multiple vessels.
Witness all steps of the procedure, including port placement, vessel skeletonization, clip placement, cholangiography, specimen removal, and port site closures.
Dive deep into technique discussions on how to minimize fascial defects using an asymmetrical dilating tip for abdominal entry, skeletonize vessels prior to ligation as well as how to manage aberrant anatomy and reduce duct leakage.
Not all products are available in all markets
Edwin Amirata, MD
General Surgery
Clara Maass Medical Center
Robert Brautigan, MD
General Surgery
Clara Maass Medical Center


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Necklace Size Guide
Ring Size Guide
|CIRCUMFERENCE (mm)
Returns Policy
Please choose your products carefully as we do not refund or exchange products simply due to change of mind.
Faulty goods
If the product is received faulty we will replace the piece and cover any postage costs incurred by you. In the case the item cannot be repaired and a replacement is not available, you are entitled to a credit note for the Elle Louise store.
Returns must be notified via email to firstname.lastname@example.com, within 2 days of receiving your order and must include a photo of the fault, a description of the fault and also proof of purchase. The faulty item must be received back within 14 days of the purchase date to be replaced, repaired or a credit note issued. The item must also be returned in original condition with swing tags, packaging & also unworn.
Once your return has been received, your exchange, repair or credit note will occur.
Wear and tear over time is normal & is not considered a fault. The jewellery and crystals are delicate and should be handled, stored & cleaned carefully (see 'LOVE + CARE'). If you find that your jewellery has a manufacturing fault, we will happily repair, refund or exchange your item providing the item has been purchased within 2 month. An email must be sent to email@example.com with proof of purchase, a photo and description of the fault, for the return to then be approved by Elle Louise .
Variance In Crystals + Clarity
All crystals are individually hand picked, each with their very own characteristics. Each piece may vary slightly from the image on the website. Unfortunately, we are unable to exchange for a different piece.
We have made every effort to display as accurately as possible the colours of our products. However, as computer monitors vary, we cannot guarantee that your monitor's display of colour will be completely accurate.
Delivery + Shipping
ELLE LOUISE delivers jewellery around the globe.
We offer free shipping Australia wide when you spend $50 or more in one transaction. Orders under $50 will incur a $10 shipping fee.
Need your order quickly? We also offer an express service for $10 which takes 1-2 business days.
Shipping within Australia:
- Standard - Free (all orders over $50) – 1-7 business days
- Standard - $10 (all orders under $50) – 1-7 business days
- Express -$10 - 1-2 business days
All orders will be shipped to the address provided within 72 hours from the date of the purchase.
As you can understand, we are unable to take responsibility for any unforeseen circumstances (reasons beyond our control), which may cause your delivery to be late.
International Orders
All international orders will be shipped using DHL express.
Products shipped internationally are typically processed within 2 business days from the date of the order. Once processed your order will be delivered within 2-7 business days.
All applicable custom fees, taxes and duties are the sole responsibility of the customer. Custom authorities require that we state the value of your order directly on your package. It is at the sole discretion of the custom agents to release your package. Note, in rare occasions custom agents may delay delivery of some packages.
Shipping outside of Australia:
- New Zealand ($25) – 2-5 business days
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All prices on our website are displayed in Australian Dollars (AUD), and will be charged in Australian Dollars.
Statement resin earrings.
Total length: 6.5cm


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Automated patching: The easiest defense for known vulnerabilities
Patching is the easiest way to close known vulnerabilities, most common fixes, provided free or cheaply on every supported OS. The greatest challenges are often gaining approval from app owners and in executing the change approval process. Patching is hardest to start for organizations that don't regularly or consistently patch, as the initial "catch up" runs of patching tend to bring a high rate of change, and have the most impact on applications. What might have been a series of small challenges, encountered a month at a time, when rolled up in 18-24 months of patches, can have significant impacts on applications.
Most organizations start with "blanket" changes, pre-approved for a set of servers, or for an attached spreadsheet list of servers. This causes difficulty in the change calendar, as these changes are usually opaque when looking for change conflicts. As organizations mature and start using more automated and orchestrated changes, it's more common to explicitly link changes to individual target servers, network devices, etc., restoring the function of change calendars and conflict detection.
Fast track security with TrueSight Vulnerability Management
See how you can accelerate vulnerability resolution, lower costs of remediation and avoid major security incidents.
- Prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities with TrueSight Vulnerability Management
- Reduce time spent logging changes in CM system
- Improve systems stability through granular, role-based access
- Explore the security view to see predictive SLAs and burndown with TrueSight Vulnerability Management
It's important to note that grouping servers by application owner/customer, production environment, physical location, and maintenance window is highly useful in change planning, and in execution of patching. While this information should live in every CMDB, it may live only in the automation tools, or in a related system of record. Wherever it does exist, it should be available for change planning, and for use by the automation system. This will let the automation team work with logical groupings that the business expects, and make communication straightforward.
It's also useful to note that different application groups will usually want slightly different maintenance windows. When patching is executed or maintained manually, the Operations group will naturally want to drive their customers towards a few common maintenance windows, as this simplifies the operational process. However, it's not uncommon to see many maintenance windows in enterprises with more than a thousand or so server instances. Therefore, it's very useful to automate the process end-to-end, using maintenance window as one of several server properties. These properties can be set and managed by the application or service owners to meet their operational requirements. This will often lead to greater buy-in and fewer "last minute" cancels, as the service/application owner now has more skin in the game. This helps drive up overall coverage of the patching process.
Patching is almost always policy-based, even if that policy is not explicitly defined or systematically implemented. Common policies include applying OS & application patches (especially on Windows), vs "OS-only" patches, or "everything but kernel patches", a common process on Linux. Different OS channels on Linux add a level of refinement in patching Linux. However, it's very common, whichever channels of patches are selected, to identify a level of criticality, and a time window for patching. Most common are the "vendor-critical" patches, as of a certain date, usually the set of Microsoft hotfixes released on "Patch Tuesday", the second Tuesday of the most recent month.
Once the set of patches is identified, they may be vetted by a Security team, or other gatekeeper within the organization, perhaps with particularly high-risk patches, or those that impact sensitive applications (.NET patches are a common example) set aside. Depending on the mechanism for delivering the patches, these may be delivered just as a bundle (as is common in automation environments built around a delivery mechanism, like some Altiris or WSUS environments), or they may be rolled into a policy engine, to be applied where they are needed, as is common with Shavlik and TrueSight Server Automation. The greatest risk with a deployment-based approach is that a server that is offline or otherwise doesn't receive patches during the month that those patches are being deployed may not see those patches again. This is usually back stopped by presenting up to 6 months of patches at a time, but still leaves a window open for "older" patches.
For those taking a policy-based approach, now things can get interesting: we can survey, per the policy, all patches missing over time. Given that there are still single digit percentages of Windows 2003 servers in many environments (in 2016), we can expect that we will need to patch many systems in our environments for at least 5 years or more. It's the policy-based approach that lets us look for any patch meeting the policy, over the range of the lifetime of the OS. You need only meet with your local Security team to understand that there are still MS bulletins 3 years old and older being detected in production environments to appreciate this.
Now that we've surveyed, we can package patches for deployment, stage, and execute these patches.
Staging should not be overlooked, especially for global organizations, if you want to be able to reach to all corners of the globe, especially over intermittent or low-bandwidth connections, it makes sense to "queue up" patches ahead of the actual maintenance window, so that patches can be installed as quickly as possible once the maintenance window opens.
Push vs. pull: there are several methods used to get patches to servers, including both "pull" and "push". Pull seems like a great idea: less orchestration, less effort involved, but what we find is that it provides less visibility and overall control over the process, and can require a lot more infrastructure and networking: there needs to be a staging host relatively near to every target, and there needs to be a firewall rule to allow each target to access that staging host. Using a "push" approach gives stronger control over scheduling (some customers have strong restrictions over particular windows where servers can have -any- infrastructure activity running on them), and greater visibility into the overall success and readiness of the staging process. When patches push from a centralized management service, the ports, network access, and security requirements can be significantly lighter.
As patches execute, they return exit codes, some of which indicate errors, some of which just indicate a need to reboot after executing. While there are techniques to detect and do intelligent things with these exit codes, to do this intelligently at scale can be challenging. It is often more productive to reboot those systems that need it after patching, and re-run patch analysis. A clean bill of health (no patches now needed) according to the policy is a much faster way to measure the success of the effort than interpreting deploy logs.
After deployment and re-scanning, we now have a good view into the current patch compliance of our environment, which we can then report in total, by production environment, location, OS version, etc. Good visibility into this compliance, and which parts of the organization are doing better or worse, can help drive behavior, and identify areas for improvement, and of course the overall success of the effort.
We have seen, in organizations that implement these techniques fully, scale as high as 10-12,000 targets being patched with less than 4 person-hours of effort per month. This is a fantastic improvement over legacy techniques that may have required as much as 50 to 200 person-days to achieve the same goal, which perhaps explains why some organizations aren't able to patch as often, or consistently as they would like.
BMC's Complete Guide to IT Security & Compliance
BMC's Complete Guide To IT Security & Compliance
- IT Security & Compliance Introduction
- IT Risk Management & Governance
- Automated Patching for IT Security & Compliance
- Advanced Persistent Threats
- Compliance Audits
- Compliance Programs
- Introduction to PCI Compliance
- Introduction to HIPAA Compliance
- Introduction to SOX Compliance
- Introduction to SEC Compliance
- Security Guide: SOA Compliance
- Introduction to DISA Compliance
IT Compliance Best Practices
IT Security & Compliance Solutions
TrueSight Vulnerability Management
TrueSight Vulnerability Management (formerly SecOps Response Service) enables IT operations and security teams to prioritize and remediate threats based on potential impact to the business.Learn More
TrueSight Server Automation
TrueSight (formerly BladeLogic) Server Automation helps IT rapidly remediate known vulnerabilities, and automate compliance checks for regulatory requirements such as PCI-DSS or security standards like DISA.Learn More | Free Demo
TrueSight Network Automation
TrueSight (formerly BladeLogic) Network Automation enables IT with a policy-based approach to regulatory standards for network management with real-time compliance audit reporting and vulnerability detection and remediation.Learn More
BMC Discovery
BMC Discovery (formerly ADDM) automatically discovers data center inventory, configuration, and relationship data, and maps business applications to the IT infrastructure.Learn More | Free Trial


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How do I order? We are happy to accept orders by e-mail, fax, telephone, or online. We prefer Telephone orders so that we can ensure we know exactly what is needed.
How do I pay? Payment can be made Online, by Credit or Debit card over the telephone and by Cheque. We now also offer the facility to make payment by PayPal Money Request by email. You do not need a PayPal account to pay this way.
Retention of Information No information whatsoever is ever passed to third parties. All Debit and Credit card details are destroyed after transactions are made.
Online Orders When you make an online order, no card details are entered or stored on this system and when payment is ready to be taken you will be forwarded to a secure Paypal server to enter your details to make the purchase.
Please note: It is not necessary to open an account in order to make a purchase but doing so will enable us to send you any offers in future that we feel may be of interest.
What Mount Board do you use? Our Mount board supplier is Daler Rowney. We offer 2 types of board, Cream Core and White core board. Both are 1.4mm thick
What is the difference between Cream Core and White Core board? The difference between Cream core board and White core board is the type of board used, which is exposed on the bevel edge of the mounts.
This is where the aperture is cut. It does not refer to the colour of the board itself. Cream core board is off white/cream in colour. Over time, that core colour on the bevel edge discolours, due to exposure to sun light. Typically, this can take 5 to 15 years. White core board is white in colour. This does not discolour overtime and typically has a 300 year shelf life. This explains the price difference between the two products.
Do your mounts have bevel edges? All the mounts that we offer come with bevel edges, except the Strut mounts and Photo Folder Mounts
What is Backing Board? Backing Board is used to strengthen the mount and finish the product, hiding the masking tape at the back. As standard, we use our cream core mount board as backing. The colour of the board is usually Pale Ivory or Snow white. We are also able to offer alternative backing boards. For descriptions and prices, see our Backing Board page and table.
What is a bag? A bag is a plastic self-seal bag that is used to protect the mounted product, specifically when for sale in a shop/supermarket/fair environment.
How long is delivery time? Delivery can take up to 5 working days January to September and 7 working days October to December.
What can I order? An order can be made up of any or all of our products. The order must be over £20.00 before carriage and VAT to the UK and £50.00 to The Republic of Ireland. If choosing cream core mounts, you can order any number, of any size, in any colour offered in our Imperial (inch
sizes) range. For our metric sizes in cream core, and all other products, mounts need to be ordered in pack sizes.
Is the size exact? All our mounts have an image size that is 3mm smaller all the way round. For example our 20x16 mount with an image size of 16x12 is actually 20x16 with an image size 15.75 x 11.75. For slip mounts this is a 5mm smaller aperture, not 3mm.
Do your slip mounts stand up? Our slip mounts are designed to drop in to standard frame sizes but do not stand up. They are available in any of our colours.
Do prices include VAT and carriage? Prices do not include VAT and carriage.
For delivery information, please see our Delivery page here
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On Tuesday, May 24, the D.C. Circuit issued its decision in the exigency rate case appeal. The decision, while not the end of the litigation, is a major step in that direction. On the central issue in the case, the court agreed with the Postal Regulatory Commission ("PRC") and the mailers (including the Affordable Mail Alliance) that the requirement contained in the Postal Accountability and Enforcement Act of 2006 that an exigent increase be "due to" the exigent circumstances requires a causal nexus between the exigency and the increase. The court sent the case back to the PRC for more explanation of how close or tight the nexus must be, especially when the Postal Service's losses have multiple causes. The court emphasized that the PRC would have wide discretion in resolving this issue.
The Postal Regulatory Commission and Senator Collins expressed satisfaction with the decision yesterday. The PRC, citing the court's key finding, stated: "The commission is pleased that the court affirmed the commission's findings that a causal relationship must exist between the exigent circumstances and the amount of the proposed rate increases, and that the Postal Service failed to show that relationship. The case will be remanded to allow the commission to exercise its discretion to clarify to what extent the Postal Service must show how proposed rate increases relate to the exigent circumstance's impact on the Postal Service's finances."
Senator Susan Collins, who filed an amicus brief in the case urging the Court to uphold the Commission's decision to reject the requested rate hikes, on Tuesday called the decision "a win for American postal customers." She stated, "I am pleased the court correctly upheld the Postal Regulatory Commission's decision - and my belief - that the Postal Service needs to prove that the exigent circumstances caused the effects that it claims necessitated a rate increase above the rate of inflation."
The case will now return to the Commission for additional findings requested by the court. The court decision does not set a time limit for the PRC to issue a new decision. The Commission will establish a procedural schedule and has leeway to decide whether to solicit more comments from the parties.
The Mail Sender will prepare comments to the Commission if such an opportunity is provided. We agree with Senator Collins, who in her statement urged the PRC "to require that the nexus between the exigent circumstances and proposed rate hike be close" so as not to undermine the purpose of the 2006 statute to establish and maintain stable and affordable postal rates.


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Greetings- I'm trying to install arch on this old 500 GB drive using gpt, and when I get to the third partition table and try to write it to ext4 I get "warning, had trouble writing out superlocks"
I did a little searching around google and from what I gathered you can correct bad superblocks if you have a running system, but since this drive is empty.... Do I have any solutions or do I have a brick? Just curious. Like I said its an old drive I didn't even know I had. 500 GB though it'd be a shame to trash it.
Last edited by w201 (2013-02-28 06:10:16)
I had this before and just kept issuing the mkfs command. It took a couple of tries but eventually formatted without the error.
I laugh, yet the joke is on me
If the drive isn't too ancient, it probably supports SMART. If so, you should run a SMART test on the drive to determine its state. It could be that it's OK and that you're seeing some other sort of error (perhaps a bad cable, for instance); but if the disk is developing bad blocks, I wouldn't trust it for anything but experimenting with new distribution installation procedures or other low-importance tasks -- and even for that, using a virtual machine might be better.
I ran mkfs a several times, thought I was in the clear, but the problem re-emerged later in the install process. This time it spit out a bunch of error codes (if I were more patient I would have written them all down). Funny thing is that it lets me finish the install but it won't even recognize the bootloader on reboot.
srs- it's not too old - It probably supports smart. Is there a command line utility to run smart? Not familiar with that program but I'm sure this disk is fried. I was actually using it to store image files a while back. If anyone want a 500 gig drive cover the shipping and it's yours. It's a western digital caviar green
The cli utility to check the SMART status would be
It is part of the package smartmontools.
The cli utility to check the SMART status would be
It is part of the package smartmontools.
Thanks for that. Maybe I'll give it another go and give that a try.
Hi Sano- thanks again for suggesting that program. It shed much needed light on what was going on with that drive. Turns out it's extremely old and it had about 10% life left. Nice little tool there. I'll definitely be using that on some of my other drives.
$ man 8 badblocks
I don't recommend using badblocks on a disk that's failing SMART tests. Frequently, bad blocks accumulate over time, so if you've got (say) 100 bad blocks today, you might have 159 bad blocks tomorrow, and then the disk will stop working entirely a week later. It's just not worth the risk to your data to try to eek out a little more life from the disk. An exception might be for some test purpose, like doing a test installation of a new OS -- but even then, I'm not sure it's worth the effort of using badblocks before the installation. IMHO, it's better to use a virtual machine for such a test installation, assuming you've got sufficient disk space.
I don't recommend using badblocks on a disk that's failing SMART tests.
Yeah I didn't reload my browser to I didn't see that it had definitely failed SMART. Though I think your advice on pretty much anything regarding partitions/storage holds much more wieght than my own.


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Performing Artists (Click on Artist for Reviews and Previews)
Show Details
- Ticket Price: $22.00
- Door Time: 9:30 PM
- Show Type: Stand Up
18 & over
Two items minimum
I am a New York City-based standup comic. Been one for over a dozen years. My mother is an immigrant from Ireland and my father is a retired sanitation worker from the South Bronx. As a child, my five siblings and I were told to work hard, get educated, and life would reward us. Instead life is rewarding Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, and the freaks of The Jersey Shore – a lovely place denigrated by their antics. I grew up in Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey, where there is no lake. No shores of Gitche Gumee. No Shining Big-Sea-Water.
I am honest and like to rant on life's absurdities. Basically, I can't take who and what gets rewarded in our society. It makes me crazy. People ask "What does a gal from New Jersey have to do to make it in the biz?" Apparently, she has to do a governor from New York.
I like to lambaste ridiculous celebrities and old guys who can get hot chicks just because they're rich (are you listening Larry King and Donald Trump?). I also poke fun of my mother and father's silly notions.
Prior to my life as a comic, I was a broadcast journalist; I won awards, made money, and had a dental plan. I was a journalist because I had questions; now all you need is cleavage. Because of my broadcasting background (and quick wit), I am often asked to contribute commentary on television. I've been on The Joy Behar Show, Fox, MSNBC, WE Television, ABC News, The Onion, and radio stations across the country. I love satirizing news, doing man-on-the street stuff, and interviewing celebs. The Newswomen's Club of NYC named me Best Commentator for my work on Bloomberg TV & Radio. I've interviewed a zillion people including Howard Stern, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and George Carlin.
Backstage Magazine named me one of the "Ten Standout Stand-ups Worth Watching." So are you watching? The Manhattan Association of Clubs and Cabarets (MAC) voted me The Best Female Comic of 2009, which means the gay boys dig me, and I dig them. I was a Finalist in the 2009 San Francisco Comedy Competition, where I performed in 15 different venues over three weeks. They tell me I'm the first woman in nearly two decades to finish in the top three. The last one was Ellen Degeneres.
I'm a regular at Carolines on Broadway. It's one of the country's premiere comedy clubs and I'm proud to work there. I've performed at comedy festivals in Ireland, Canada, New York, Boston, and Nantucket. I've appeared on HBO, WE Television, Comics Unleashed, in the Paramount Pictures film "Marci X," and in many national commercials.


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By Ida Lorraine, Wright , Bonnyville, Alberta
I was so happy to read Alfred Opp's letter about seeding the grass for Easter baskets. Other than my own family, I had not heard of anyone doing this. My sister and I still do this, one time I got wheat from an organic bakery and then I got a bunch of oats from a farmer but I have never actually used grass seed. I also always plant it too early so its gets so long it lays down. My ancestors came from Tarutino in Bessarabia. One time when I was about 5 and not knowing what selfish meant I put out a big cardboard box for Easter eggs --- to teach me a lesson I got one egg. I remember finding a path of broken eggs shells in the yard which was the Easter bunny tracks leading to the fence and then disappearing.
My mother must have saved up shells all winter to do this. For Easter Sunday church service we all had to have new clothes. I know Mother used to do special baking but I can't remember anymore what it looked like. I do remember that she made a coating of bread dough on the ham and baked it like that. That was delicious.
In regards to the mist, I can't remember my parents talking about making heating logs (?) but I do remember Mother telling me that they used to put a large container in the middle of the pile of mist and the hot temperature inside the pile would keep the water warm while they dyed wool, yarn or cloth.
So nice to hear these memories.


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It seems everyone is talking about American Girl dolls this week after the big news that the brand will be finally releasing their first boy character doll, Logan Everett. Now, the dolls — thanks to one amazing young girl — have given us more reasons to smile.
Peace Love Bracelets is a charity that's all about donating American Girl dolls without hair to children with cancer — and it's run by a 9-year-old girl named Bella Fricker.
According to The Huffington Post, a number of children in Fricker's community have passed away over the years. The loss of these young lives made such an impact on Bella that she felt compelled to help in any way she could.
Last October, she had the idea to raise money by making and selling bracelets. The earnings would go toward custom-made Truly Me Dolls Without Hair, which she would gift to children undergoing chemotherapy or radiation in the hospital.
When Bella's mom Valerie heard her daughter wanted to help the community, she thought she meant on a somewhat smaller scale. She tells Babble:
"I thought, sure we can do a bake sale or something. After all she is 9 years old [so] I didn't know if the desire to do this would continue. But then I found her in her room and she had already started making bracelets and wanted me to sell them on Facebook to my friends."
But that drive didn't stop there. Bella didn't just want to donate the dolls to the hospital, she wanted to personally gift them to the recipients.
"It is a very rare occasion that you get to actually meet the recipient of a donation," Valerie told The Huffington Post, "But Bella's dream was to meet the little girls herself and give them these dolls."
And that she did — Bella's been visiting the children and bringing smiles to their faces ever since.
Thus far, she's raised close to $2,000 and donated four dolls to Laurie Cole at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA), with an initial goal of $3,000 and 15 dolls. Once she reaches that goal, she hopes to raise enough money to donate 20 dolls to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee.
While her determination to help others may come as a surprise to some, to her family, she's just being Bella.
"She has always kind of been the little caregiver for her brothers in the family. If one of them gets a scratch or something she's the first one out with her medical box and Band-Aids trying to stop the bleeding and applying Neosporin to prevent infection. Always very helpful," Valerie tells Babble. "Her dad always calls her little mom because she's always trying to parent everyone including her parents!"
You too can help Bella reach her goals by purchasing a bracelet (or two), through the Peace Love Bracelets Facebook page.
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- For the third time in 2013, the Penn State men's volleyball team swept the EIVA Weekly Awards. Sophomore Aaron Russell (Ellicott City, Md.) was the EIVA Offensive Player of the Week, while redshirt-freshman Matt Seifert (Reading, Pa.) was named the Defensive Player of the Week.
The duo helped guide the Nittany Lions to EIVA wins against George Mason and Princeton on Feb. 22-23. This is Russell's second EIVA Offensive Player of the Week honor this season and a first for Seifert.
Russell led the Nittany Lions with 35 kills with a .329 hitting percentage. He was second on the team in blocks with eight, averaging 1.00 per set and tallied three aces and nine digs. Russell was one of three players to post double-digit kills against George Mason with 13. He recorded all three of his aces against the Patriots and led the team in blocks with five. Against Princeton, Russell was honored as the Mike Anderson Penn State Player of the Game after pounding a career-high 22 kills on .395 hitting. He was third on the team in digs with six and also put up three blocks.
Seifert was unstoppable at the net combining for 13 total blocks for the weekend. He averaged 1.86 blocks per set. Seifert also posted 12 kills on .350 hitting, with two digs and an ace. Against the Patriots, Seifert tallied three kills and was first on tied with Russell with five blocks. Versus the Tigers, Seifert put down nine kills with a .429 hitting percentage. He also recorded a team-best eight blocks and added two digs.
Penn State meets Rutgers-Newark and NJIT on March 1-2, respectively. The Lions face the Scarlet Raiders at 7 p.m. on Friday before challenging NJIT at 8 p.m. on Saturday.


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The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will kick off its annual Independent Inventors Conference tomorrow at its headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Co-sponsored by the USPTO and the National Inventors Hall of Fame®, the conference is one of many outreach programs offered by the USPTO to assist independent inventors. Art Fry, co-inventor of Post-It® Notes and a 2010 National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee, and USPTO Director David Kappos will be keynote speakers.
The conference will feature numerous experts and employees from the USPTO who will discuss topics such as the fundamentals of searching and filing trademark applications and the interplay between patents, trademarks and copyrights. Conference attendees will receive practical tips along with information on marketing and licensing, patent application preparation, patent and trademark searching, local resources, and lessons learned from successes and failures. Attendees will also have the opportunity to network one-on-one with experts and provide feedback on how the USPTO can better serve them.
Thousands of independent inventors and small businesses do critical research and development every day and produce innovative goods and services that benefit the public. These innovations continue to play a central role in the future of the American economy and job creation.
The conference will run from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday with a pre-conference workshop for beginning inventors today. Learn more about the Annual Independent Inventors Conference on the PTO website, including how to register.
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text: Located at the crossroads where action sports, urban culture and an appreciation for the finer side of life collide, TheGoodLife! is a consortium of like-minded friends whose goal is to always "Make it Nice," an ethos shared by Coal in their motto of "Necessities for fine living." Together Coal and TheGoodLife! co-founder and photographer Craig Wetherby selected a diverse group of friends and family and produced a series of images and videos capturing the unique lifestyle of each individual. Although originally from parts far and wide, TheGoodLife! x Coal ambassadors each call New York City home, where they soak in every imaginable aspect of the city. Come join Coal in celebrating TheGoodLife!


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Is the very concept of "Canadian humor" an oxymoron? As they say in Canada: possibly, or possibly not.
Canada's history lacks the violent frontier mythology that continues to fuel the folk hoax of rugged individualism so central to the American identity. Rather, Canadian society was carefully devised to run on the oiled ball bearings of amity and cooperation, ensuring a near-Scandinavian calm, as in: an aversion to firing semi-automatic Russian assault weapons into schoolrooms; the casual embrace of free health insurance even for deadbeats; debate over same-sex marriage that's about as heated as that over licensing dogs; open arms to immigrants, swarthy and otherwise; volunteering for U.N. peacekeeping duties, no questions asked; and a national disinclination to jaywalk, even at three A.M. on an empty street, because, heck, they told us not to.
Thus, a strong case can be made that life in unrestive, uncomplicated, unconfrontational Canada is altogether too relentlessly nice for humor to flourish. Lack of societal friction starves the mischief instinct. See also: belgian stand-up comedy festival canceled again … new zealand museum of comedy files for bankruptcy … finland-wide clown search proves futile.
"Canadian humor"—does it even exist? Theories abound and conflict and contradict themselves:
Theory 1: There are actually funny Canadians alive today, but all nine of them moved to the U.S.A., and once they got here they renounced their Canadian cultural heritage, the way Mick Jagger renounced his English accent. Mike Myers never makes Mountie jokes. Jim Carrey declines to send up the toonie, Canada's hilarious two-dollar coin. You have to scour Wikipedia to confirm the Canadianness of Mort Sahl, David Steinberg, Michael J. Fox, Catherine O'Hara, Seth Rogen, the late John Candy and Phil Hartman, and that guy from that sitcom, you know the one. America absorbed Canadian comedians, or, Canadians would say, Canadian comedians absorbed America.* Lorne Michaels, the Darth Vader of American comedy, harvests all the comedic talent in his native land as ruthlessly as Major League Baseball loots the Dominican Republic of shortstops.
Theory 2: A distinctive Canadian humor style never had a chance. The British and the Americans, with their overwhelming cultural power, exhausted all the possibilities of English-language humor long before the messy agglomeration of territories and provinces was confederated into a sovereign entity called Canada, just after the U.S. Civil War.** This left Canadian wits bereft of original material and forced them back on the only potential for risibility left: the condition of being Canadian. Which, given the national psyche, inevitably curdled into a pathetically self-deprecating brand of humor, typified by the following:
Q: How do you get 26 Canadians out of a swimming pool?
A: Yell, "Everybody out of the pool!"
T__heory 3:__ Canadians are, by history and temperament, the opposite of aggressive, and so, unsurprisingly, their humor is defensive; they beat up on themselves before anybody else—i.e., Americans—can do it.***
Theory 4: Canadians have inhaled such deep drafts of Britishness (the Union Jack disappeared from their flag only in 1965) that what there is of a Canadian humor style hews largely to those twin English enthusiasms, parody and satire.
It has been sneered that the American idea of satire is a pie in the face; Canadian tastes have always been subtler, as befits a nation that tuned in weekly for decades to smart British comedy shows via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a kind of junior BBC in the best sense. Meanwhile, Americans were doubling up over Milton Berle and Red Skelton and that ilk.
Satire also suits the shy Canadian temperament: you can savage your victim while masked in somebody else's identity. Anything to avoid drawing attention to yourself, which is against Canadian societal law.
I give you Stephen Leacock (1869–1944), the master satirist, English-born, Canadian-raised, who every Canadian schoolchild knows is a humor immortal. And you say thanks and give him right back, because you've never heard of him, or his classic works, such as the collections Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy, and the story "Gertrude the Governess: or, Simple Seventeen," wherein one character mounts his steed and goes galloping "madly off in all directions." The Canadian Dilemma, in a nutshell.
Theory 5: The world may not be watching, but Canadians can make other Canadians laugh. It makes sad sense that while Canadian humor entertains the native population—notably with domestic TV comedy series such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce—it will never flourish outside the country, because nobody outside of Canada feels any urgent need to read or hear about, or even be aware of, Canada.
This state of affairs was brought home to me a few years ago when a memoir I'd written about growing up Canadian, Thin Ice, was published here in America. The hardcover subtitle was "Coming of Age in Canada," but when the paperback version later appeared, the U.S. publisher had changed it to "Saved by the American Dream," in hopes (futile, as it turned out) of slowing its instant sales decline.
T__heory 6:__ The very word "Canada" may seem to incarnate the Webster's definition of "bland," but within Canadian humor lurks a nasty streak, as in the merciless ridicule of French-Canadians by the (anti-Papist, anti-Quebec, Francophobic) Anglophone majority. Newfoundlanders, or Newfies, those hopelessly fogbound, flannel-clad fisherfolk, are mocked as being so clueless—even by Canadian standards—that picking on them makes the rest of the country feel like 34 million or so Noël Cowards.
Theory 7: It's axiomatic that humor cannot thrive where there is no passion, and Canadians are famed for repressing their stronger feelings under a heavy blanket of earnest phlegmatism, tinged with an embedded Scotch-Calvinist suspicion that high spirits, and especially fun, are the Devil's work.
In fact, Canadian passions can be and are constantly stirred to the brink of physical violence if the discussion involves:
The condescending stupidity about all things Canadian that is an American birthright.
The American compulsion for insufferable, nonstop, blowhard jingoism.
The even more insufferable phrase "Only in America," so favored in July Fourth U.S. newspaper editorials—as if free, democratic, rich, progressive, tolerant Canada didn't offer its citizens at least as much opportunity for unbounded success and happiness as its swaggering neighbor.
Canadian beer (nectar) versus American beer (horse piss).
Tim Hortons doughnuts.
Theory 8: It is impossible to fully express Canadian resentment of America's cultural dominance, and the sense of impotence and helplessness involved has been oppressing Canadians since that fleeting high-water mark of self-regard in 1814 when British troops burned down the White House as revenge for the U.S.'s having torched the Canadian Parliament a year earlier. Humor—subversive, ironic, usually dark—is one of the very few weapons available to the oppressed. Which is why the Jews, the Irish, the Russians, and the Canadians are so funny. Being Canadian, however, the Canadians keep it to themselves.
*The historic Canadian talent diaspora is actually pretty funny in itself, e.g., the guy who wrote the music for the Canadian national anthem and then moved Stateside.
**The Dominion of Canada was the original name, about as mild a term for a nation as there is, and consciously chosen instead of the more assertive Republic of Canada or United States of Canada. And no fierce eagle or beast of the wild for a mascot—just that chubby, industrious forest rodent, the un-war-like beaver.
***Not aggressive? I'll have you know that the Canadian government secretly formulated "Defence Scheme Number 1," an invasion of the United States, in the early 1920s. From James Madison forward, American politicians had so regularly blustered about making a grab for Canadian territory that preparing a pre-emptive counterstrike, should an American invasion ever be actually imminent, seemed only prudent. PS: The movie rights are mine.


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YORK, PA – The University of Mary Washington's women's basketball team notched a 50-47 win over the host York College Spartans in a battle for first place in the Capital Athletic Conference on Saturday in York.
With the win, the Eagles now sit alone in first place in the league at 5-1 while they improve to 12-5 overall. The Spartans fall to 13-4 for the campaign and 4-2 in the league.
The game was a defensive battle fitting of the two top defensive teams in the league. The contest was back-and-forth early with the opening 10 minutes featuring five ties and two lead changes. The largest lead either way in the opening stretch was four points.
York had a 22-18 lead with 7:02 left but junior standout Brittany Hicks (Dover, Pa./York Catholic) was whistled for her third foul of the first half with 6:21 left in the first half. The Eagles took advantage of Hicks' absence as they fashioned a 12-1 run to take a 30-23 lead with 38 seconds left before the half. York got a pair of Loreta Tonuzi (Hazlet, N.J./Raritan) free throws with 10 seconds left in the half as York trailed 30-25 at the break.
The Eagles kept their foot on the gas pedal in the opening stages of the second half. UMW opened the lead to nine on a pair of Carol Dye buckets in the first 1:20 of the second stanza.
York kept at it and cut the Eagle lead back down to one at 44-43 on a Kristen Haley (Silver Spring, Md./Georgetown Visitation) bucket at the 11:05 mark. Mary Washington answered with a 6-0 run to take a 50-43 lead with 7:21 remaining in the game. The Eagles would not score the remainder of the game. Unfortunately, York wouldn't be able to capitalize on their outstanding defense as the Eagles' clamped down on the Spartan offense.
York pulled to within three on a pair of Kailee Knight (Crofton, Md./South River) free throws with 1:41 left. That would be the last point scored in the game. York had three shots over the final 1:13 but none found the mark. York got the ball back with 3.9 seconds left but the Spartans couldn't get a shot off as the Green and White dropped their tenth straight against the Eagles. York's last win over UMW came on February 2, 2009 at Wolf Gymnasium.
Mary Washington's second chances killed the Spartans all game long as the Eagles finished the game with 16 offensive rebounds and 16 second chance points. The Eagles' offensive rebounds also expended a great deal of energy for York as a short Spartan bench saw only two reserves garner playing time in the loss.
Dye paced the Eagles as she notched a double-double with 16 points and 15 rebounds. She hit an array of 10-to-15 foot jumpers as she finished 8-for-19 from the floor in 36 minutes of action. Sam Partonen added seven points and five assists while Brieneke Matthes contributed eight points for the Eagles.
Hicks led the Spartans with 18 points in 29 minutes of play. Hicks was 6-for-11 from the floor and 6-for-7 at the free throw line. She pulled in three rebounds, had a steal and an assist. Haley had a strong game with 17 points, four rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal. Haley was 7-for-15 from the floor including 1-for-1 from three and 2-for-3 from the stripe.
The Spartans shot just 31.1% from the floor while they went a cool 1-for-9 from three. York was solid at the free throw line, converting 18-of-22 for the contest. Mary Washington shot 37.5% from the field, 26.7% (4-for-15) from there and 4-for-5 from the line.
The Eagles finished the game with a huge 42-26 edge in total rebounds. UMW's 16 offensive rebounds were only four less than York's 20 defensive rebounds. The Eagles attempted 11 more shots than the Spartans in large part to the rebounding disparity.
The Spartans get back at it on Monday when they travel to McDaniel College for a non-conference contest against the Green Terror. The two squads tip off at 7:00 pm in Westminster, Md.
Kristen Haley photo courtesy of Zach Clabaugh (www.sharpedgefoto.com)


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Each month, the MMA will provide you with analysis and forecasts for the US and Canadian economies. In every issue you will find:
- Forecasts for a range of economic concepts such as real GDP, industrial production, inflation, interest rates, oil prices and the all important US dollar / Canadian dollar exchange rate.
- Concise discussion of the near-term forecast, together with illustratative tables and graphs available through our website
- A downloadable PDF version, combining the analysis, tables and graphs, in a single document. Click here to request a sample
- Access to Brendan Lowney, FEA's macroeconomic analyst


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Ab Rogers
Ab Rogers is a London-based designer known for his wide-ranging practice. A former cabinet-maker and sailor, Rogers earned his MA in design from the Royal College of Art, where he met Shona Kitchen, with whom he co-founded Kitchen Rogers Design (KRD) in 1997. Kitchen and Rogers' projects include the Comme des Garçons store on rue du Faubourg-St Honoré in Paris, Al-Ostoura luxury department store in Kuwait City and the Michel Guillon flagship store in London.
In 2004, he founded Ab Rogers Design, now an established studio that plays with colour, materials and function to inject a sense of poetry, magic and wonder into the everyday world.
Since February 2012, Rogers has held the position of head of Interior Design at the RCA School of Architecture.
- Ab Rogers creates an interview.


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Is the Honduran Government Banning Ricky Martin Because He's Gay?
You'd hardly expect an artist responsible for frothy pop songs such as 'Livin' La Vida Loca,' 'Shake Your Bon-Bon' and 'She Bangs' to be at the center of a political controversy, but that's apparently exactly where Ricky Martin is these days.
Rumor has it that an upcoming Martin gig in Honduras may be canceled — not to mention the star's visa is in jeopardy — because government officials disapprove of the singer's sexual orientation.
According to The Advocate, the country's minister of interior Africo Madrid is trying to derail Martin's scheduled October 16 performance by "telling the media that evangelical and Catholic leaders want Martin's visa denied in order to 'protect the moral and ethical principles of our society.'" Madrid was also quoted as saying, "His nuclear family is not the type of family that Honduran society and laws approve of."
Whether Madrid is successful in his efforts remains to be seen. According to the Honduran newspaper El Heraldo, government sources are saying no attempts have been made to keep Martin from entering the country or performing, so this could all blow over in the next few days, and thousands of happy Hondurans will be able to shake their bon-bons after all.
[PopCrush via The Advocate]