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The third installments of superhero franchises are known for being let downs, and "Iron Man 3" will do little to dispel that reputation.
I don't mind shallow if a movie compensates with spectacle. The action here, though, wasn't enough to save the day. I found "Iron Man 3" to be at times silly, misguided, dull, and disappointing. It's still a big budget summer superhero movie, and as such, carries an inherent entertainment value. But anything else above and beyond is squandered, sadly.
A terrorist called the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) has been hijacking national airwaves and broadcasting anti-American diatribes, claiming responsibility for a series of mysterious explosions. When someone Tony Stark (Robert Downey) is close to is caught in one, he publicly vows revenge. Unfortunately, this makes him a target for the Mandarin and his forces. Stark's ocean-view estate is destroyed by a helicopter assault soon thereafter, and he's left without his headquarters and back up armors.
There's no time to regroup, however. In addition finding and stopping the Mandarin, Stark will have also have to determine what, if any, is the connection between the explosions and A.I.M., the biological research group headed by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). A.I.M. has been conducting experiments with a genetic compound known as Extremis, which grant people extreme regenerative (and other) powers, but at the cost of becoming unstable on a molecular level.
When Stark's girlfriend, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), is abducted by A.I.M., Stark has to use his wits and suddenly limited resources to rescue her and stop the terrorists.
I have a number of issues with "Iron Man 3", many of them major.
I'm not enamored of either villain in this film. Ben Kingsley puts on an angry Walter Cronkite impersonation before the film absolutely neuters his character (something the comic book fan in me is very, very angry about). Pearce's character, meanwhile, is given poor to no motivation to be who he is or to do what he's doing. In fact, what his master plan was is still a bit of a grey area for me, I'm still not certain I know 100% what his character was hoping to accomplish. The evil henchmen glow in the dark and attack people by grabbing hold of them (something the film makes easy for them, in spite of the fact that our hero can fly). One of them even breathes fire at one point. It was a level of ridiculous I wasn't prepared to fully accept.
I'm not a fan of the fact that Tony Stark adopts a kid sidekick for a significant stretch of the film, nor of the fact that his girlfriend actually dons the armor. The Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle) exists solely to give someone for Stark to crack jokes to, outside of one lame action moment that I swear was written just to give him something to do.
The action content was disappointing to me as well. It was sparse, carried little weight, and was occasionally silly. By this point in time, Stark's armor is practically magic. He can leap into it in mid-air, telepathically summon it from hundreds of miles away, use it to encase or entrap others, or explode them remotely. The suits even fight on their own now, which, frankly, removes the stakes from combat. Should audiences worry that a robot Iron Man is going to be destroyed? Of course not. The resulting action is hollow, unfortunately. Certainly, much of this is done to illustrate that it's Tony Stark, and not the armor that's the hero (as he spends so much time WITHOUT the suit), but that doesn't help the fact that as an audience we don't actually get a lot of Iron Man, and when we do, Tony Stark isn't even always in the suit.
"Iron Man 3" illustrates some of the worst aspects superhero storytelling. There's honestly no real reason for it to exist except to make a third movie in the franchise. There's no new characters that were begging to be brought to life on the big screen (and don't get me started on what they did to the one that was, the Mandarin), there's no story that needed conclusion from prior installments, it's not a direct adaptation of a story from the comics (Yes, I'm aware of the "Extremis" arc) and in and of itself, there's really nothing original here worth telling. As a result, we wind up with a film that feels like an excuse just to have a superhero movie.
I wouldn't have minded any of that, if this movie didn't make me feel it so blatantly.
Were it not for my pre-existing affection for these characters, and the big budget spectacle of it all, I'd be tempted to call this film bad outright. As it is, it's still a big movie, loaded with visual effects, telling a story about characters that I've liked in other context, both in comics and prior films.


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Summer Fun for the Family on $50 a Day
Coffee and Hot Cocoa
Housed inside Mt Tabor Presbyterian Church, the nonprofit TaborSpace's café serves Ristretto Roasters coffee and Nuvrei Bakery goodies on a pay-what-you-can scale. You'll adore the ample space and stunning stained glass windows; the kids will love the building blocks, Legos, board games, and drop-in art classes with Vibe ($10 per class). Cost: $5–10
Play Firefighter
The Historic Belmont Fire Station offers free, hourlong tours of the 112-year-old firehouse, which include an emergency response simulator, antique fire equipment like hand pumps and hose carts, and the ever-popular fire pole. Schedule ahead by calling 503-823-3615. Cost:Free!
Between Multnomah County Library locations, Green Bean Books, and A Children's Place Bookstore, you could visit a different storytime every day without repeats. But our favorite has to be the Tuesday session at Cedar Mill Library, where, from 6 to 7 p.m., preregistered kids read to therapy dogs (and sneak in a snuggle or two). Cost: Free!
Midday Dessert
In the summer, ice cream officially qualifies as a meal in our book. Get yours at the old-school soda fountain at Fairley's Pharmacy, which still sells relics like egg creams, a pre–World War II drink made with milk, chocolate syrup, and seltzer water. The quirky little shop celebrates its century this year with 100-cent ice cream cones. Cost: $1 per cone
Get. Outside.
The Washington Park playground's massive collection of castles, ramps, bridges, and slides lets little ones play Super Mario till their sugar highs are spent. Meanwhile, older kids can practice for the college quad at Pier Park's premier disc golf course, featuring 18 beginner-friendly holes guarded by giant Douglas firs. Cost: A little shoe leather
Happy Hours
A popular (as in hour-wait) breakfast spot, Jam on Hawthorne is our secret go-to spot for early dinners with the kids. The lengthy happy hour (3–6) means we don't have to rush, and the moderately priced menu (no entrée is more than $12) features delicious staples like meatball sandwiches and four different versions of mac and cheese guaranteed to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters. Plus the stage full of books, props, and toys presents plenty of ways for the next generation to sate their curiosity while you slake your thirst with a Blemonade. Cost: $30 (dinner for four)
Still raining?
PlayDate PDX's 7,500 dizzying square feet of indoor playground hold something for everyone: obstacle courses, ball cannons, dozens of other pint-size people looking for playmates, and seven different microbrews to help keep you sane. Cost: $4–10 per child, plus beer money

subset: commoncrawl


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Story highlights
First lady Melania Trump visited the museum last week
Trump's visit coincides with Black History Month
President Donald Trump pledged Tuesday to combat bigotry and unite what he called a "divided country" after wrapping up his first visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
"Today and every day of my presidency I pledge to do everything I can to continue that promise of freedom for African-Americans and for every American," Trump said, calling his tour "a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry and hatred and intolerance."
"We're going to bring this country together. We have a divided country that's been divided for many, many years, but we're going to bring it together," he added.
Trump also took the opportunity to address the recent spate of anti-Semitic incidents, heeding calls from Jewish leaders and Democrats to speak out.
He called the recent threats against Jewish community centers "horrible and painful and a very sad reminder of the work that must still be one to root out hate and prejudice."
He was joined at the museum by daughter, Ivanka Trump, Housing and Urban Development nominee Ben Carson and his wife, Candy Carson, Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, and presidential aide and former "Apprentice" contestant Omarosa Manigault, among others.
The visit was arranged by Manigault, a source familiar with the visit said. The source added that the visit was originally penciled in for mid-January but was effectively nixed at that time by the Secret Service, citing security concerns.
Trump's visit to the museum, which opened last September, coincides with Black History Month. Trump first marked the event at the beginning of the month hosting a listening session with what the White House described as African-American leaders.
The attendees did not include leaders from top African-American advocacy groups such as the NAACP or the National Urban League, but instead featured Trump sitting alongside several of his campaign's top black supporters and members of his administration, including Carson and Manigault.
Last week, Trump again drew questions as he touted his outreach efforts, claiming that Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democratic member of the Congressional Black Caucus, canceled a meeting with Trump because it would be "bad politics."
Cummings said the story was completely false and that the Congressional Black Caucus had tried to set up a meeting with Trump through the White House without success.
Trump also drew criticism when during his news conference last week asked April Ryan, a veteran White House reporter who is black, if she would help set up a meeting with the black caucus, which Ryan is not affiliated with.
Trump is the second member of the first family to attend the months-old museum in just a week. First lady Melania Trump visited the museum last week with Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump made a concerted effort to reach out to African-American voters during the campaign, including through events hosted by his National Diversity Coalition and alongside Carson, the prominent black neurosurgeon who endorsed Trump after dropping out of the GOP primary race.
But Trump's black outreach often came under fierce criticism during the campaign.
With the exception of two visits to predominantly black churches – one in Michigan and one in Ohio – Trump largely delivered his message of outreach to African-Americans before overwhelmingly white audiences at political rallies around the country.
His description of African-American life was also often exceedingly dark and broad-brushed, as he equated the lives of poor African-Americans living in inner cities with those of all African-Americans, most of whom do not live in dire straits.
In a frequent refrain, Trump argued that African-Americans lived in conditions worse than those in many foreign war zones and pointedly called on those in the typically Democratic voting bloc to take a risk and support him.
"What the hell do you have to lose?" Trump often asked.
CNN's Joe Johns and Noah Gray contributed to this report.
This story has been updated.


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The latest FF film – The Fate of the Furious or Fast & Furious 8 – has driven into theaters, so, let's discuss it!
I can't actually believe that I have never reviewed a Fast and Furious movie before as I have been a fan of them since I was a child. 2006's Tokyo Drift was probably the first nonanimated movie that I saw at the cinema and have been hooked ever since. I and my dad would always watch these movies together and bond over the fast cars and the crazy action. And that's what I have come to expect from these films: the amazing action and the funny jabs between the cast members (or a family, wink wink) that have real chemistry. I am not looking for Oscar-worthy performances or original stories. However, I have to give immense props to the 7th film for dealing with Paul Walker's death in such a gracious and poised way. I don't think anyone expected a Fast and Furious movie to show so much class but it did. Well, enough talking about the previous entries in the franchise, let's see what the 8th picture can offer! Has anyone ever believed that this series would have eight installments with 9th and 10th ones already planned ???
IMDb summary: When a mysterious woman seduces Dom into the world of terrorism and a betrayal of those closest to him, the crew face trials that will test them as never before.
FF8's script was written by Chris Morgan, who penned all the previous films, except the first two. The narrative was exactly what one thinks it was: just a collection of expositional scenes to further the story and a sprinkling of funny jabs and interactions between the characters. The film's plot referenced the events and the characters from the previous 3 films quite a lot too, which was really fun for longtime viewers of the franchise and not that surprising, knowing that all of the referenced entries were written by the same screenwriter. It was also nice that the said references didn't seem pushed but happened quite organically. Thus, The Fate of the Furious seemed like a true continuation of the same story arc that more or less started with the 5th picture.
The interactions between the characters were brilliantly ridiculous as well. I wonder how much of that was written and how many jokes were just improvised on the spot by Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris. The love triangle jokes were funny too. The attempt to give characters more development was also fine. The main theme of the series – family – was present in this film more than in any other entries before. Similarly to Dom having to make a choice between family and his criminal/car chasing past in this movie, the same choice now has to be made by this franchise when moving forward. And the picture did leave a few opportunities open for the same plotline to be continued.
Fast & Furious 8 was helmed by a newcomer director to the franchise – F. Gary Gray, best known for directing Straight Outta Compton. He did a good enough job with the movie and utilized the FF staples – the exotic locations and the butts. I appreciated the first, could have done without the second, but it looks like the two were a packaged deal. Speaking of the third staple of the series – the crazy action set pieces excecuted with the help of gorgeus and extremely expensve cars – they were not the best of the franchise but were still quite inventive and, most importantly, explosive, energetic, and entertaining. Yes, the technology was far-fetched and, yes, the explosions – unsurvivable and unbelievable. But you can't argue that they didn't look cool and absolutely kickass and that's all I wanted. The visuals were nicely paired with a good soundtrack too, although I can't pinpoint an iconic song that will be on the radio all summer, similarly how I See You Again was everywhere after the 7th film, We Own It after the 6th and Danza Kuduro after the 5th.
Fast and Furious was one of the first film series to have a truly diverse cast and the franchise is continuing the trend. While the 8th flick didn't really introduce any new characters apart from revealing Charlize Theron (The Hunstman, Mad Max, Kubo) as the big bad behind the last few films, it had a ton of fun cameos and comebacks. Speaking of Theron – she was a great addition to the cast and a good villain, I would even dare to say the best of the franchise. I think her distinct look really helped her to stand out – those white dreads and V-neck T-shirts looked effortestly cool.
All of the familair faces, except Jordana Brewster, were back. Vin Diesel (Guardians), Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne Johnson (San Andreas, Central Intelligence, Moana), Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, and Nathaniel Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, The Maze Runner) appeared to be genuinely having fun on screen, both as their characters and as the actors themselves. The return of Jason Statham (Transporter films, Spy) was also actually appreciated by me, even though I have never been much of a fan of his. I never thought that I would want to see Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham just absolutely dragging each other non-stop. Gibson's, Ludacris's and Emmanuel's characters' interactions were good too, I loved the rivalry and the shades of the love triangle. Gibson's action moment was good too and a nice touch for the character, who usually ends up being a butt of a joke.
Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight, Deepwater Horizon) also reprised his role and took Scott Eastwood along for a ride this time as his assistant/trainee. Eastwood's character was a bit annoying at the beginning but he was supposed to be like that and actually turned out to be a not that bad addition to the cast. He certainly had more to do in this film than in a similar role in Suicide Squad.
In short, Fast and Furious 8 was exactly what I wanted it to be – a cheesy nonsensical fun. This franchise is certainly not done and still has some steam left.
Rate: 4/5
Trailer: Fast and Furious 8 trailer
The film unexpectedly had quite a few reveals and twists and turns in the story which I didn't want to spoil in the main review but still wanted to mention. I expected the leverage that Cypher had on Dom to be Bryan's and Mia's child but the movie instead presented us with Dom's and Elena's (5th movie) son – a new family member for a character obsessed with having a family. The way the child was named at the end was also a cute and touching moment – I do love the fact that FF franchise remembers its roots and how much Paul Walker and his character Bryan did for the series.
The same topic of family was continued with the return of Jason Statham's (7th film) character (that babysitting action scene was amazing), but this time around his mother made an apperance, played by Helen Mirren (Eye in the Sky, Collateral Beauty, Trumbo). Her inclusion was enjoyable and I loved the few scenes she was in. Staham's character's brother Owen (6th movie), played by Luke Evans, also cameod. Evans's performance in Beauty and the Beast has really solidified me as a fan of his, so I was extremely happy to see his cameo.


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The column that started it all; originally posted on the Boston's Sports Guy website.
Hi. This is my debut column here on the Boston's Sports Guy website as The Baseball Crank. Bill Simmons has been generous enough to spare some room in his corner of cyberspace for my column, which will be a rant of irregular schedule and questionable wisdom, probably starting out every other week but hopefully (day job and long-suffering wife permitting) working up to a weekly spew of bile. Some of you (those who read Bill's "Ramblings" column in college, back when we actually had to print words onto paper) may remember my byline there as the "Angry Young Man." Of course, I'm not as young these days, plus I don't really want an irate letter from Billy Joel's lawyers, so I'll be writing here as The Baseball Crank. (For you history buffs, "crank" is what they called fans around the turn of the last century.) I had also considered being the "Cranky Old Fart," but that will have to wait just a bit longer.
Also, full disclosure: I am not a Boston sports guy myself, although I did spend seven years in school in Mass. I'm a Mets fan living in Queens, and I've been a Mets fan since they were managed by a nitwit named Joe Torre (there's no justice, but that's another topic). But I will promise not to mention Bill Buckner in this column (except, well, two things: one, all you true Red Sox die hards know that the real goat was the Steamer, Bob Stanley, and two, one of my all-time favorite baseball moments was in 1990 when Buckner – who by then qualified for a handicapped parking space – was credited with an inside-the-park home run when Yankee outfielder Claudell "Washington Slept Here" fell into the right field stands at Fenway and was held there by enterprising Sox fans while Buckner hobbled around the bases. Claudell came out of the seats with mustard on his shirt, which is the closest he ever got to getting his uniform dirty).
This week's topic is a pet peeve of mine: we'll call it LaRussa-ism (I believe Bob Ryan coined the term), because he's the one who popularized it, although Whitey Herzog was as much responsible its invention as LaRussa. I speak, of course, of the ever-increasing tendency of managers to use multiple pitchers in an inning, often just to face a single batter apiece. The absurd result of this is an entire breed of pitcher who averages well below one inning pitched per appearance. The master of this practice today is Bobby Valentine, who in one instance in last year's playoffs brought in a pitcher halfway through an intentional walk so that he could be immediately removed if the opposing manager pinch hit for the next batter. Not everyone is addicted to this practice, of course; Davey Johnson's pitchers with the Dodgers have set major league records by being the first pitcher to hit the same batter with a pitch twice in one inning (Orel Hershiser) and the first pitcher to give up a grand slam to the same batter twice in one inning (Chan Ho Park).
Anyway, this may be perfectly good strategy for the managers; the platoon advantage is an important thing, and the one-batter reliever can pretty much cut loose with everything he has. Or, as some have argued, it may not; each fresh pitcher is that much more likely to be off his game than the predecessor who was throwing the ball just fine, and the fielders can get awfully stiff sitting through three guys warming up in one inning (especially if one of them is the glacially slow-moving Dennis Cook). But the entire business stinks from the fan's perspective, particularly if (1) you have to go to school or work in the morning and were hoping to get to the ninth inning before 11:30 or (2) you're at the park, it's the top of the eighth inning, and suddenly the game slows to a crawl just as they've stopped selling beer. Who goes to the ballpark to watch Matt Whisenant warm up? By shuttling pitchers in and out of games, what we get is more innings (or pieces of innings) thrown by marginal talents against pinch hitters, and much longer games.
My solution? Don't just grouse about long games; change the rules. Require that, instead of one batter, each new pitcher must face at least three batters before he's removed. In most cases, this would limit the manager to one pitching change during each inning, unless the roof is really caving in. You would need exceptions, of course, if the pitcher was hurt or got ejected (we won't get into whether managers would order headhunting to get a situational lefty in the game to face Barry Bonds), or had to be pinch hit for. After all, nobody wants to see Whisenant or Sean Runyan bat, either, and forcing managers to double switch more would also be a bad thing.
Yeah, a few careers would be ended, but really, four decades of Jesse Orosco is enough even for me. And the managers would scream bloody murder, but the college basketball coaches said the shot clock was the end of the world, too. Fans have a right not to be forced to sit through the four-corner stall, and this is no different. In fact, this rule would help restore some of baseball's tradition – in the 1870s, you couldn't remove any player, even the pitcher, unless he was hurt – by reducing the number of specialists and keeping the game in the hands of people who can actually play all-around baseball, at least to the extent of being able to at least try to pitch an entire inning at a time.


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The Digital Skeptic: Twitter's Olympic Collapse
NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- The 2012 London Olympics was supposed to be top time for Twitter.
The company invested in --- brace yourself -- actual human-curated content. How will they show themselves in "new media" circles after such outrageous antics? But if you visit #Olympics you will find a very un-Twitter, old-media-like staff of pro tweet pickers agglomerating all things Olympics on the microblogging service.
I think you will agree that the pick of the five-ring Tweet litter -- what I culled from the company blog -- is a fascinating and fresh perspective of this ancient spectacle.
Twitter has also made a point of playing nice with other media, old and new. On the nouveau side, the Google+ hangout with athletes such as Usain Bolt works. There is an an effective use of mobile apps, and nice support for the @London2012 feed with just under 1.2 million or so followers. I even liked the specific feeds for @L2012boxing, @L2012Volleyball or, my sport, @L2012sailing. (I know, I'm a geek. What can I say?)
On the old-media side, the company stepped down from its social media Mount Olympus. Chloe Sladden, Twitter's oh-so-hip vice president for media, made the PR rounds announcing that her company had inked a deal with Comcast's(:CMCSA) NBC.
"Twitter has become the roar of the crowd during live sporting events," she said in a company release.
Twitter has even run -- shock of shocks -- traditional TV commercials during the Olympic coverage. It all got me thinking, maybe, just maybe, this social media service was finally outgrowing its embarrassing adolescent belligerence. And investors might be looking at a mature company ready for fat IPO payday.
With the games solidly under way, though, my hope was clearly just so many tweets in the wind. Twitter at the big games just raises more big questions.
Twitter, like Icarus, gets too close to the Olympics blaze.
Forget five rings of action -- Twitter at the Olympics feels like a 50-ring circus. Following the information this service produces is almost like following no information at. If found it very, very difficult -- and I do this sort of thing for a living -- to parse the different forms of Olympics content on Twitter. Top search engine results for terms "Twitter Olympics" yields a Twitter feed that I think is for the Olympic museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. But I could be wrong. There is also a U.S. Olympic team feed. There is the AP Sports Olympics feed. And let's not forget the athletes' own feeds, like Rebecca Soni's. She is a swimmer. But the information seemed all the same. There's a USA Today index of Twitter feeds. Oh, wait ... my bad. That was for another year's Olympics -- but again, I am not exactly sure.
It seems almost everyone has a Twitter Olympics feed, because -- let's face it -- almost everyone does.
New York-based PrivCo, which values firms while they are still private, released a report this year called Twitter's Business Disappoints. It points out the business impact of this conflicting content. There are insignificant pageviews per feed. Structurally deficient ad formats that lead to "stagnant interfaces." And what the report sums up as a "top-heavy tweet structure" -- report speak for all that nutty content appearing all over the place.
Now, before the new-media hipsters dismiss these questions as "not understanding" the power of social media, may I direct you to an experimental mircoblogging service called Emoto. This MIT-developed website renders Twitter content in a perfectly compelling and logical way. It sees the messages as a sort of sentiment engine that strings together zillions of tweets, then relates them and renders them as a coherent emotion.
What keeps Twitter from creating something like this? My guess is that the company is too busy managing its mountain of confusing content.
The social media oxymoron
The Olympics gives us the pause to consider the deeper dysfunction lurking with Twitter. What it -- along with Facebook(:FB), Pinterest, LinkedIn(:LNKD) and all the social media rest -- is trying to do is build a many-to-one-thing (that is, a media business) from a whole bunch of many-to-one things (that is, the interactions of social media groups). They're trying to outdo Twitter in the impossible marathon of trying to carry a coherent message across an essentially incoherent, noisy and chaotic landscape.
What the Olympics really is doing is shining a torch under this brutal duality. Try staying close to a Twitter feed during a peak Olympics moment. Say, the 9.6 million tweets Twitter said went off during the opening ceremony. But go look at them. There is no experience there. There is no message. It's just 9.6 million messages, not one of which is memorable. After nearly three solid days of consuming the Olympics on cable TV, streamed over the Web via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, I cannot remember a single tweet. Sponsored or not. But Bob Costas and Olympics Subway ads, those are crystal clear in my mind. And I bet they are in yours too.
Following Twitter during these games has turned out to be like following a mid-talent marathoner who, hope against hope, is miraculously running with the elite pack. No question, he is having the race of his life. But he is already struggling. He will not medal.
And if he is not careful, he probably won't even finish the race.


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Francona stands out among World Series-winning managers
They've been at it for more than 100 years, since 1903, playing post-season baseball, striving to make a World Series appearance, busting their butts to win it all. Major League managers have numbered in the hundreds, but there's one small, select, elite group that stands out above them all.
That would be the World Series championship managers. It's tough enough guiding a team through an eight- or nine-month season, through all the ups and downs, all the setbacks and triumphs and crises that crop up along the way. It's even tougher to go all the way.
Tougher yet: doing it more than once, and there are only a handful who've even done that.
Terry Francona is one of them, and by guiding the Sox to another playoff appearance this season, he has a chance to take a huge leap into the group that's won as many as three Series titles.
Only eight managers in MLB history have won more than two titles. Start with the Yankees' Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel, who have won seven titles apiece. Connie Mack won five with the Philadelphia Athletics. Walter Alston won four with the Dodgers (the first in Brooklyn) and Joe Torre also won four, with you-know-who.
With a Series win this year, Francona could join Sparky Anderson (two in Cincinnati, one in Detroit), Miller Huggins (Yankees) and John McGraw (New York Giants) as the only three-time winners.
As it stands now, Francona stands amongst a group of 14 two-time winners. And that's it. Winning a championship is so difficult that only 22 men have ever won multiple titles.
There is a difference, though, between Francona and many of his successful predecessors. He's not an old, crusty, wizened crank who sits in his office or at the end of the bench without much interaction with his players.
Francona, 49, isn't too far removed from his days as a major league player, and can still relate to his players. He's understanding, personable and extremely communicative. He plays cribbage with Dustin Pedroia and talks junk with David Ortiz.
Working with his philosophy of "respecting the game," Francona goes out of his way to do the right thing, play the right way, and give everything he has.
"I think you have to give him a lot of credit because he's had to deal with a lot of different things," said Mike Lowell. "Any time you're a manager in a big market, that kind of comes with it, but I think there's a lot of second-guessing, there's a lot of distractions that don't happen when you're in a smaller market. He's been one of the steady guys.
"If the players see a manager who's not going off his rocker, there's no reason why you should so I think that's a good influence for us."
It isn't easy, because unlike so many of those other successful managers, Francona has more pressures than they could have imagined.
His normal day begins early in the morning with a trip to a local Starbucks or Zaftig's in Brookline. He's often at his Fenway Park office before noon, looking over charts and figures, trying to work out lineups. As players begin trickling in around early to mid afternoon he checks their welfare, their physical status and just shoots the breeze. He meets with coaches to discuss strategy.
Meanwhile, he also has to deal with countless interviews over the course of a season. There's his weekly WEEI gig, pre-game meetings with reporters, pre-game interviews with NESN post game interviews with the meeting-and with NESN.
And when he's done with the agony of dealing with the media and his anxieties over his team's performance, he often holds more late-night meetings with his staff.
Unlike many old-time managers, he's tuned in with GM Theo Epstein, with the scouting staff, with the minor league managers. He has his finger on the pulse of the organization, which in February extended his contract for three years and $12 million, with team options for 2012 and 2013 totally $8.75 million.
Other Sox managers have won more games, but in more years. Joe Cronin stuck around for 13 years as manager in the '30s and '40s. But no manager has ever accomplished what Francona has in such a short time. And he has a chance to improve on that.
The Patriot Ledger


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Choosing Exercises for Your Body Type
Ever wonder why despite all the hard work, your efforts at the gym are not yielding results? Maybe the workout routine you follow is keeping you from away from the outcome you want to see. Face the mirror to figure out your body type. (Image source:Getty)
The straight body shape is that in which shoulders and hips are approximately the same width. The bone structure is delicate and limbs are poorly muscled. For them, putting on weight is a big challenge. Lift-off Lunge, pushups, leg raises and squats are the best exercises for them. (Image source:Getty)
Exercise for Straight Body Shape – #1 Push-ups
The push-up is one exercise that you can do at home to gain muscle. The exercise works your chest arms and shoulder muscles. Keep the count that you can manage; form is important. (Image source:Getty)
Exercise for Straight Body Shape – #2 Lift-off Lunge
Stand with feet hip-width apart and dumbbells up at shoulder height. Elbows have to be bent and pointing out to the sides, palms facing forward. Take a big stride forward with your right leg and lower your body until your knees are bent 90 degrees. Press the weights up towards the ceiling while pressing into your right foot. Return to start and repeat the motion 10 times before you change to the left leg. (Image source:Getty)
Apple Shape
Those who have round belly and a thick waist, as compared to their hips and shoulders, have an apple shaped body. The workout plan for them should be a combination of fat-burning cardio and strength training. Tricep pushups, squats, upright row and reverse lunges are the exercises for them. (Image source:Getty)
Exercise for Apple Shape – #1 Reverse Lunges
Stand with feet hip-width apart and abs tight. Step back 2 feet with your right leg, lower your back knee towards the floor. Both knees should bend at 90 degrees. Get back to the starting position and repeat on your left leg. Change legs and do 15 to 20 repetitions on each leg. (Image source:Getty)
Exercise for Apple Shape – #2 Upright Row
The exercise works on the shoulders and biceps. Stand with a slight bend in your knees and abs tight. Hold dumbbells with your palms facing your body, closer than shoulder-width apart. Raise your arms till the dumbbells are in front of your chest. Lower the weights to starting position in a controlled motion. Repeat for 15 to 20 repetitions. (Image source:Getty)
Pear Shape
You have a pear shaped body if you are heavier on the bottom than top and carry excess weight in their hips, thighs, and butt. The ideal workout for this shape is a combination of aerobic activity with strength training. Squats, lunges, dumbbell exercises and pushups can make for a workout routine for pear shape body type. (Image source:Getty)
Exercise for Pear Shape – #1 Lunges
Lunges help sculpt thighs, calves and buttocks. The form is important; read an exercise manual or seek trainer's advice. Complete 20 repetitions on each leg for a set. (Image source:Getty)
Exercise for Pear Shape – #2 Biceps Curl with Knee-Up
Stand with your feet hip-width apart, hold dumbbells in each hand with your palms facing up. Raise your right knee while bringing both your palms towards your shoulders (bending at your elbows). Lower your right knee and hands simultaneously. Complete 20 reps before you change to the other leg. (Image source:Getty)


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The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
If you're sick of all of our box office reporting on the mega-blockbuster Marvel's The Avengers (Walt Disney Pictures) then you probably should stop going to see it so much, because it once again dominated the box office with another $55.1 million to take first place, defeating three new movies all which did disappointing business. The Avengers' domestic gross is estimated at $457.1 million after three weekends, putting it just behind Star Wars as the sixth-highest grossing movie of all time domestically.
Internationally, the film continues to keep pace with North America, as it added another $56 million in 54 territories to bring its international total to $723.3 million and its global cume to $1.180.4 billion, making it the fourth-highest release of all time behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($1.328 billion), Titanic ($2.183 billion) and Avatar ($2.782 billion).
Just to go over some of the records The Avengers has broken over the past few weeks. It set a new opening weekend record with $207 million, also becoming the fastest movie to achieve that amount, took the second weekend record as well, before becoming the fastest movie to reach $400 million domestically. Right now, it looks like it also might become the fastest movie to $500 million as it becomes only the fourth movie in history to cross that mark in North America. It's also Walt Disney Pictures' most successful movie to date, surpassing Toy Story 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
The only movie that seemed like a serious contender to take down The Avengers was Peter Berg's Battleship (Universal), based on the Hasbro board game and starring Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard and pop singer Rihanna. Despite costing over $200 million, it opened with an abysmal $25.3 million in 3,690 theaters, averaging less than $7,000 per site. Internationally, the film has already grossed $226.8 million, having opened nearly a month ago and still playing in 63 territories.
Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen returned as The Dictator (Paramount), co-starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Anna Faris, which opened on Wednesday with roughly $4 million, then picked up business over the weekend, earning $5.7 million on Friday and an estimated $17.4 million in 3,008 locations for third place. Its five-day gross is roughly $24.4 million.
Tim Burton's Dark Shadows (Warner Bros.), starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter and Eva Green, dropped to fourth place with $12.8 million and $50.9 million total in ten days.
Despite being based on a huge best-selling maternity help book, the ensemble comedy What to Expect When You're Expecting (Lionsgate), starring Cameron Diaz, Elizabeth Banks, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock and others, tanked this weekend with just $10.5 million in 3,021 theaters, averaging less than $3,500 per site, and settling for a fifth place opening.
The John Madden ensemble comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox Searchlight), starring Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, and Maggie Smith, continued to fare fantastically in limited release, moving up to sixth place with $3.2 million as it expanded into roughly 350 theaters, bringing its current take to $8.2 million.
Lionsgate's far more successful ensemble movie The Hunger Games added another $3 million this weekend for seventh place, bringing its total to an estimated $391.6 million. It's currently the 14th-highest grossing movie of all time domestically and is well on its way to get into the $400 million club.
An ensemble comedy that actually hit with audiences, Think Like a Man (Sony/Screen Gems) took in another $2.7 million to take eighth place and an astounding $86 million since opening last month.
Despite the success of The Avengers, the box office was down roughly 15% this weekend from last year when Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opened at #1 with $90 million.
Tanya Wexler's unconventional period comedy Hysteria (Sony Pictures Classics), starring Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Felicity Jones, platformed in five theaters in New York and L.A. to the tune of $41 thousand.
Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.


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It's been 30 years since Farman et al. published their paper on the ozone "hole". (Well, I'm a day early but who posts on Saturdays, eh?)
It had a huge impact: it's been cited nearly 3,000 times and accelerated the negotiations that resulted in the Montreal Protocol, which helped phase out the chemicals that were damaging the ozone layer. Those chemicals can stay in the atmosphere for a very long time so the ozone "hole" is far from fixed, which can sometimes cause confusion over the effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol. It'll probably be decades still until the "hole" is fixed (see the Annual Records at the bottom left-hand side of this NASA page for historical data.)
This slow recover particularly interests me at the moment as I recently did a little bit of work on the health risks associated with the hole at its peak for those living and working in Antarctica. This may become a more important problem in the future if further warming and ice sheet retreat make regions like the Antarctic Peninsula easier to inhabit, work in and/or exploit. Hopefully I'll get to a bit more work on this soon.
And I've always had a real soft spot for the paper as the ozone "hole" was the first time that I remember being aware of an environmental issue, despite being pretty young at the time (I was at primary school 30 years ago). I suspect that it played a large in shaping my view of the world and my career direction so I thought I should note the anniversary.
So, Happy Birthday Farman et al. (1985)!
If you want to get deeper into the ozone "hole" then Chapter 7 in Volume I of "Late Lessons from Early Warnings", written by Joe Farman, is quite nice and the chapter in Merchants of Doubt is a good read on this as well. [Update, 15/5/2015 0937] There also a BBC "Costing the Earth" episode on the 30th anniversary of the ozone hole but I've not listened to it yet (thanks to @jimmcquaid on twitter for pointing me in that direction).
Farman, J., Gardiner, B., & Shanklin, J. (1985). Large losses of total ozone in Antarctica reveal seasonal ClOx/NOx interaction Nature, 315 (6016), 207-210 DOI: 10.1038/315207a0


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Scouts trade with Scouts; adults trade with adults.
Along with "trade one for one," "always shake hands," and "don't bring money into a deal," it's one of the central tenets of patch trading.
But does that age-old rule still make sense? Or should Scouts and adults be allowed to swap patches under certain circumstances?
I ask because I recently learned that adults will be able to trade with Scouts at the 2013 National Scout Jamboree — but only in designated, supervised areas.
Here are the facts:
Why adults and Scouts usually don't trade patches
The rule of separation, as I'm calling it, has been about keeping things fair.
Russell Smart, a top-level volunteer and program group chairman for the 2013 jamboree, said some nefarious Scouters have tried to take advantage of Scouts in patch-trade deals at past jamborees.
"There are adults who have the resources to go out and fabricate cheap, nonofficial, but seemingly valuable patches and trade them to kids," Smart says. It's "the shiny lure where you entice a kid to trade a patch that does have real, official value for something that has none. Kids typically don't do that. It's the adults that do that."
What's worse, some adults (who somehow call themselves Scouters) might artificially inflate the value of their patch and/or deflate the value of a Scout's patch — offering a giveaway district camporee patch for a collectible from the 1960 jamboree, for example.
Why trading at the 2013 jamboree will be different
A lot will be different next summer for the first Summit jamboree, and patch trading is no exception.
For the first time, Scouts and adults will be allowed to trade patches, but only in the "stadium" (the area known as the "arena" at past jamborees).
Here, representatives from the International Scouting Collectors Association will be on hand to answer questions and — more importantly — monitor deals.
"Anybody who operates outside of the rules is not going to be tolerated," Smart says. "It will be a discovery experience for all of us."
If there's a concern about Scouts getting a raw deal, why allow Scouts and adults to trade patches at all? It's simple.
"Adults have patches that kids want," Smart explains. "And kids have patches that adults want. There are more kids that trade patches at jamborees than adults. Adults that are in the hobby can be very instructive with kids and help them learn how to trade and teach them about the value of the trading part of our hobby."
Then there's the practical side.
"You trust adults to take your children on a camping trip, but you don't trust them to trade a patch with Scouts? That just makes no sense," Smart says.
One for one encouraged
No matter how valuable you think your X-Men patch is, it's still just one patch.
That's why Smart encourages one-for-one trading only.
"That ought to be the ideal of the jamboree," he says."Whether it's a kid or an adult. The abuses occur when somebody says, 'My patch is worth five of yours.'"
Though some patches bear special designs or licensed characters, "all cost about the same to manufacture," Smart says. "So there's no intrinsic difference in the economic value of one patch over another. It's only supply and demand and the enthusiasm of a certain design."
Adults and Scouts trading outside the jamboree
Smart makes a good case for Scout-adult trading in the supervised jamboree stadium, but what about elsewhere at the jamboree? And what about Scouts and adults trading at weekend camporees, summer camp, or other Scouting functions?
That's when it gets a little trickier.
So what do you think: Should Scouts and adults be trading partners? Why or why not? I welcome your comments below.
Coming in our November-December issue
In the next issue of Scouting magazine, read the story of one Scout's patch trading protest at the Summit Shakedown. Find the issue in your mailboxes in late October!
Photos from the Summit Shakedown by W. Garth Dowling/BSA


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A List Too Small – My Favorites of 2012
Thank you to all the artists and record labels for such wonderful and diverse music.
This is one list of many, it's my list, and it leaves off many other favorites that I have enjoyed over the year in addition to the thousands of other albums and single tracks that make up music throughout the World. What has helped me arrive at this list is what I have always loved about music: Does it move me? In addition, is it creative, well recorded and produced with a degree of care that makes me pay attention to it? There was a time when I was obsessed with highly produced and tightly engineered works, then I learned about artists such as East River Pipe and Sparklehorse, and many other genres of music were opened to me.
If you don't see your favorite album on this list (or even your own album), it doesn't mean a thing. If an album has been reviewed on my website this year, it's meaningful to many others and me, but this is only a very, very small slice of the music world. Often people ask me about new music, and what I recommend. When I started this website in late January, 2012 it was first a means to write about music that I enjoyed, but also to get to know other artists and learn about new music that they create, so I could pass it on. Often, the best new music is that referred by a friend. Please feel free to send me your comments and recommendations.
Special note: There are still three or four late 2012 releases that are either enroute to me, have yet to be released or have just arrived. I need to spend proper time listening to and absorbing these albums. Rather than delaying this list further, and if after listening to those last 2012 releases I feel that they hit a sweet spot, I'll review those albums in early 2013. I know of at least two 2012 releases that I'll likely not receive until 2013.
I have three categories: Albums (12), Individual Tracks (6), and Special Releases (3) that don't necessarily fit into a category.
Albums (Artist – Album Title – Record Label)
1) Twigs & Yarn – The Language of Flowers – Flau
2) Lambchop – Mr. M – Merge Records
3) Zammuto – Zammuto – Temporary Residence
4) Steve Hackett – Genesis Revisited II – Inside Out Music
5) Taylor Deupree – Faint – 12k
6) Billow Observatory – Billow Observatory – Felte
7) Gareth Dickson – Quite A Way Away – 12k
8) Pill-Oh – Vanishing Mirror – Kitchen. Label
9) Brambles – Charcoal – Serein
10) Almost Charlie – Tomorrow's Yesterday – Words On Music
11) Cody ChesnuTT – Landing On A Hundred – One Little Indian
12) Stick Men – Deep – Stick Men Records
Individual Tracks (from other albums)[vimeo http://vimeo.com/46499688]
1) Library Tapes – Sun peeking through (from the album Sun peeking through) – Self Released
2) Cock & Swan – Orange & Pink (from the album Stash) – Lost Tribe Sound
3) Alex Tiuniaev – Daylight (from the album Blurred) – Heat Death Records
4) Kyle Bobby Dunn – In Praise of Tears (from the album In Miserum Stercus) – Komino
5) Kane Ikin & David Wenngren – Chalk (from the album Strangers) – Keshhhhhh
6) Olan Mill – Bleu Polar (from the album Paths) – Fac-ture
Special Releases
1) Celer & Machinefabriek: Maastunnel/Mt. Mitake, Numa/Penarie, Hei/Sou – Self Released
2) Birds Of A Feather: Michael Frommer – The Great Northern Loon, Porya Hatami – The Black Woodpecker, Darren McClure – The Black Kite, The Green Kingdom – The Great Blue Heron – Flaming Pines
3) Simon Scott, Corey Fuller, Marcus Fischer, Tomoyoshi Date and Taylor Deupree (Recorded live in Japan October, 8, 2012) – Between (…The Branches) – 12k
Record Labels Noted Above
Flau: http://www.flau.jp/
Merge Records: http://www.mergerecords.com/
Temporary Residence LTD: http://temporaryresidence.com/
Inside Out: http://www.insideoutmusic.com/
12k: http://12k.com/
Felte: http://www.feltesounds.com/
Kitchen. Label: http://www.kitchen-label.com/
Serein: http://www.serein.co.uk/
Words On Music: http://www.words-on-music.com/
One Little Indian: http://indian.co.uk/shop/landing-on-a-hundred-1.html
Stick Men Records: http://stick-men.net
Library Tapes: http://librarytapes.com/
Lost Tribe Sound: http://www.cockandswan.com/ Note: I have not listed the weblink to the record label as Google has noted that the website MAY be compromised.
Heat Death Records: http://www.heatdeathrecords.co.uk/
Komino: http://kominorecords.com/
Kesh (Simon Scott's label): http://www.keshhhhhh.com/
Facture: http://www.fac-ture.co.uk/
Machinefabriek & Celer: http://machinefabriek.bandcamp.com/ & http://www.thesingularwe.org/fs/
Flaming Pines: http://flamingpines.com/
Kane Ikin – Sublunar
12k1071 CD – Time: 53:33
Artist's Website: http://www.kaneikin.com Record Label Website: http://www.12k.com
Tracks: 1) Europa; 2) Slow Waves; 3) In The Arc; 4) Ebbing; 5) Rhea; 6) Titan; 7) Sleep Spindle; 8) An Infinite Moment; 9) The Violent Silence; 10) Black Sands; 11) Lo; 12) Prometheus' Tail; 13) Oberon; 14) Compression Waves; 15) In The Shadow Of The Vanishing Night; 16) Hyperion;
I don't know exactly on what plane Kane Ikin exists, but I can tell you that I'd like to get there. There is a sense of deep mystery, the fleeting ethereal and a curious otherness in his musical travels. I'll gladly get on his spaceship, anytime.
Kane Ikin is one half of Solo Andata (along with Paul Fiocco, both being from Australia), and he has also collaborated with other artists including David Wenngren (aka Library Tapes) on their February 2012 album Strangers (KESH017). I first encountered Solo Andata's work in the 2009 self-titled 12k release.
Earlier this year, Ikin gave us a taster EP entitled Contrail (clear vinyl 7", and a separate download of four tracks), and the title track alone was worth the price of the entire EP, not to mention the marvelous job that 12k did with the packaging. Also, of note, Sublunar is packaged in 12k's new (no plastic, and I assume, recycled cardboard) sleeve design.
Ikin's music is decidedly lo-fi in production (tape loops, altered field recordings, sampling, warped instrumental recordings), but the quality and care that he takes in combining tangible instrumentation with highly manipulated sounds gives the end result an indescribable yet comforting quality. His solo work also tends (so far) to focus on shorter format recordings (the longest track Oberon on Sublunar is 4:51). Also, while I consider his work to be highly original in form and sound; there are occasional (intentional?) references to works of others. At the risk of driving my readers bonkers, I'll again reference Kraftwerk and their track Kling Klang from the 1972 album Kraftwerk 2, which came to mind when I first heard the gongs and bells in track (6) Titan.
Sublunar is a series of short journeys, just enough time to experience the sense of place Ikin is depicting, but not so long that one feels the urge to get to the next destination too quickly. I'm going to resist the temptation to describe each track (there's a full single track sound file for Europa and an Experimedia sampler of excerpts from the entire album), because I think that might diminish a sense of self-exploration for the listener. Some tracks meander with little guidance from a recognizable beat, whereas others have highly treated percussion with extended decay. I especially like how Kane treats the sound of strings in the mix; he uses the entirety of an acoustic guitar's resonance. Sublunar is a potent musical experience, and I hope Kane Ikin continues his voyages of experimentation, because I'm completely hooked.
Sublunar's Teaser Video
Experimedia's Sampler of the Album
Library Tapes – Sun peeking through
CD Time: 29:11 #auecd006
Website and available from: http://librarytapes.com/
Julia Kent – Cello (3, 4, 8 & 9), Sarah Kemp – Violin (2 & 6), Danny Norbury – Cello (7), David Wenngren – Piano
Tracks: 1) Variation II, 2) Parlour (Variation I), 3) Found, 4) Parlour (Variation III), 5) We won't need you anymore, 6) End of the summer, 7) Lost, 8) Sun peeking through, 9) Parlour (Variation II), 10) Variation I
Music takes me places, always has. Sometimes there is emotion, a memory or colors, but it is always spatial. Although a relative newcomer to some artists, it is not that I am unfamiliar with David Wenngren's work, but as for Library Tapes I have some catching-up to do. A while back I reviewed his hypnotic album with Kane Ikin entitled Strangers, and I have both albums Our House Is On The Wall (as the moniker of Murralin Lane with Ylva Wiklund), and The Meridians of Longitude and Parallels of Latitude, his collaboration with Christopher Bissonnette. All are different explorations of sound and place, but Sun peeking through seems more personal. Wenngren's piano is deftly blended with a spare ensemble of strings.
Something a bit different this time; I won't attempt to describe where Wenngren is taking me, but I will show you where I have been. These are often places I don't want to leave once I am there (even if melancholy is involved).
1) Variation II
2) Parlour (Variation I)
3) Found
4) Parlour (Variation III)
5) We won't need you anymore
6) End of the summer
7) Lost
8) Sun peeking through
9) Parlour (Variation II)
10) Variation I
The title track (to me) is beautiful, almost beyond words—a deeply reflective meditation. David Wenngren as Library Tapes has assembled a collection of poignant vignettes, and a treasured diary of sound memories.
And now, off to explore more of his previous recordings.
All photos (except album cover) are by wajobu.
unrecognizable now – two rooms
CD Time: 33:14* #KESH018
*With forthcoming excerpt remixes by Simon Scott and Kane Ikin
Record Label: http://www.keshhhhhh.com/
Artist Website: http://unrecnow.com/blog/
Sound Samples & More Info: http://kesh.bandcamp.com/
More on Matt Jones: http://www.matthewjones76.com/Unrecognizable-Now-1
More on Marcus Fischer: http://mapmap.ch/index.php?/ongoing/unrecognizable-now/2/
Tracks: Track 01, Track 02, Track 03, Track 04 (mastered to have seamless transitions)
unrecognizable now is an occasional collaborative project of Matt Jones and Marcus Fischer. They consider their work to be "gradual layered music" based on live improvisation, found sounds, a range of instrumentation, and laptop computers. In 2004, Jones and Fischer scored various experimental films by Portland, Oregon filmmaker Rob Tyler. The relationship of sight and sound was further explored by Fischer, Jones and Tyler in the first of a series of events in 2006 entitled Vision+Hearing. Fischer and Jones released their debut CD in a cave or a coma in mid-2006 on the Pehr Label (with 10 tracks and a short film by Tyler). In 2008 a live performance of unrecnow was captured on self-released limited edition CD entitled for sleeping it off. Marcus Fischer is a well known solo and collaborative sound artist, to date releasing more than ten recordings on labels such as 12k, Tench and Flaming Pines. Matt Jones is a photographer, artist and sculptor. Both are based in Portland, Oregon.
While two rooms is a further exploration of the electro-acoustic improvisation realm, this project also seems to nod to earlier works like Brian Eno's seminal Ambient 1 – Music For Airports (1978) and the somewhat darker Ambient 4 – On Land (1982). unrecognizable now including a diagram of how the music was recorded is not unlike diagrams included on the reverse of both of the noted albums by Eno. This release is not only the literal music recording, but an in-situ analysis of how and why it exists as it does. Not a "field recording" per se, rather an interior anti-studio recording, one where it is important to document not only the music, but the ambience of the setting as well as the process.
The microphone placement for two rooms (in the basement of a downtown Portland office building), with the varying distances from source material and varying sound decay rates gives a tangible sense of space. This treatment also counters a sense of claustrophobia that one might expect, being recorded in a concrete tomb, of sorts. It has a remarkably expansive sound (historical note: the vocals for the David Bowie song Heroes were recorded using a series of remotely placed mics similar to this). Since this is a live improvised recording, it includes all the sounds associated with movement and production of the work by the artists (walking, changing instruments, etc.); adding a sense of transparency and intimacy.
The progression of this work is similar to Fischer's recent 16 minute live release EP At Frame. Non-representational yet (depending on the listener) it can evoke memories or visions. For me, parts are like being on a sailboat, anchored or just drifting in light wind, and at others like wandering through an old dark factory and wondering about the history of the place. two rooms has the pleasant effect of allowing the mind to wander while occasionally being nudged by recognition of a particular instrument in the soundstage.
unrecognizable now photo by barry hill
The feeling in Track 1 is largely one of comfort. This section is more guitar and string-based (with some bowing) with pedal effects. Track 2 transitions to more keyboards, and then strings blend and the sound is fuller and brighter. After a graceful lull, deep and gentle waves begin at about the midpoint. There is a slight recurrent low-register plucked-string theme and then one is cast adrift at about 9:00. Track 3 is more ethereal than the other parts, especially at the beginning. Guitars return again at 1:30 and are blended into the omnipresence. At about 3:00 the density increases and bowed strings return to then be consumed into a cavernous silence. Late in this track there are various percussive effects to announce the transition to Track 4. This section is plucked, strummed and somewhat simplified; in a sense returning to the beginning and later an overlay of a nearly hidden repetitive melody appears and vanishes as the piece closes.
two rooms will be released on July 16th and digital files will be available for download, but if you are so inclined for a physical release, there will soon be 300 CD copies available in numbered and letter-pressed recycled card sleeves and related artwork—reasonably-priced, for such a beautiful work of sound art. This is an intriguing exploration of sound and space (an interior "field recording" of sorts), evoking different images and experiences. Perhaps now, rather than incidental music to a short film, this piece could be the creative inspiration for a visual work of its own.
*Postscript on the forthcoming remixes – More information on these soon (to be released on July 28th), but the Simon Scott remix is taken from the second half of Track 2 (one of my favorite sections) and finishes with the sound of a vinyl runout groove. Given Simon Scott's recent work on his Below Sea Level project, I can see why he would be attracted to what I think is the most marine-like section of this work. The Kane Ikin remix has mysterious origins (to be discovered by the listener) with added treatments and loops.
This is a solicited review, although I have the physical release on pre-order.
Kane Ikin + David Wenngren – Strangers
CD KESH017: 45:54 (Mastered by Taylor Deupree of 12k)
Record Label: http://www.keshhhhhh.com/
Available at: http://www.experimedia.net/
1) Swell; 2) Call; 3) Veil; 4) Chalk; 5) Drifter; 6) Strings + Interlude
Album Preview:
*This posting has been updated upon further listening*
This is the first joint work created by Kane Ikin (one half of Solo Andata) and David Wenngren (Library Tapes). I have read that "Strangers" Ikin and Wenngren did not meet during the recording and that the structure and overall sonic feel of the album was not planned. This and other similar works mark a continuing re-emergence of instrumental music by a new generation of creative and technically inclined musicians that craft layered sound atmospheres (often referred to as "electro-acoustic minimalism"), yet the music is engaging and stimulating.
I have been an avid listener and collector of synthetic electronic music since the early 1970s, yet there is something to be admired about the production of fine instrumental music with an ambience and mystery of electronics, being created with cleverly disguised analog instruments (acoustic or amplified) as well as found, ambient, looped or processed sounds.
Historical context: While they abandoned their early legacy when they issued their boxed set "The Catalogue" in late 2009, Kraftwerk's work started with a similar experimental spirit to "Strangers", based on analog instrumental drones of guitars, flutes and rhythms of found percussion on pieces like "Kling Klang" from the 1972 album "Kraftwerk 2".
Kling Klang Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50M7RLgipNc
Same with early works by Tangerine Dream and others, before they switched to early sequencers and then hefty modular synthesizers, like the Moog (or later more portable and somewhat less reliable EMS VCS3) as well as tape-based samplers like the Mellotron or Chamberlin. Early works by Evangelo Papathanasiou (Vangelis) were mostly created with organ, clavinet, woodwinds, piano and percussion processed with reverb, delay and other effects, as in "Creation du Monde" from the 1972 soundtrack to "L'Apocalypse des Animaux" by long time collaborator and filmmaker Frederic Rossif.
Creation du Monde: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0QQJfPi3ps
In "Strangers", there is meandering warmth to the album, a peaceful sense of comfort and meditation with a tangible awareness of humanity and nature (an absence of the synthetic). Layers of guitar, bass, piano (deep soundboard), percussion (low register bells and gongs) and strings appear throughout. From the collaborators there is a joint sense of discovery and response as each layered track progresses. This method of joint remote authorship is risky, yet very intriguing and the results are quite successful.
The titles of each track do seem to symbolize the development of the sonic ideas. "Swell" is akin to Ikin's gorgeous recent work "Contrail" with apparent glissando drifts of guitar and layered keyboard peregrinations. "Call" has the feel of time-shifted incantation with repeated musical phrases. The intensity of the "call" increases as it progresses. While there is a general feeling of the pastoral in this track, there are times where layered sounds mesh to a point of tension, later to be diffused to a calming resolution. "Veil" starts with a repeated tonal beacon and gradually it diffuses into a suspended wash of winds, harmonics and tonal percussives. "Chalk" is hypnotic and haunting with a sense of a distant faded memory returning. "Drifter" contains repeated sampled phrases that establish a building tension as the fabric of the piece intensifies. Washes of noise (almost like lashing waves in a storm) enter the piece until they subside (this piece, to me, does appear to be chopped a bit at the end). "Strings + Interlude" builds slowly, and pulses as layers and sounds are introduced. It has a feeling of darkness, yet it's punctuated with sounds that introduce light and color into the soundscape. Then the strings disappear and the interlude is a peaceful and mysterious aftermath–this piece, along with "Chalk" and "Swell" are the most cinematic.
This video using "Chalk" will give a sense of what I mean…rather unusual historic footage:
Gone are the soulless interfaces of MIDI and sequenced boxes of beat, and with "Strangers" we are presented with a thoughtful, visual and distinctive journey into an ethereal realm of musical authenticity.
Kane Ikin – Contrail EP
Vinyl (7″ Clear) : A: Contrail B: Synthetic Setting Digital: C: Sailing D: Short Wave Fade (all 4 tracks MP3 d/l) Total time all 4 tracks: 21.5 minutes
This EP recording is a marvelous walking companion. Some pieces being better suited for the woods and the others for the exploration an old vacant factory. Kane Ikin is Melbourne, Australia-based and also one half of Solo Andata (this is KI's first solo release outside of SA). The pieces are mysterious, hypnotic and transfer the listener to another realm. The recording is analog, tape-based and sounds vary from found, looped and sampled to plucked and percussive. There is an ethereal sense of a soft glare shimmering as sounds appear and dissolve. If one is fortunate enough to obtain a limited edition vinyl copy, it's a real treat to see the care with which the 12K label takes in support of their artists.
When the EP arrived, I have to admit I was not sure at what speed to set my turntable. I inquired and the zen-like response from 12K made me laugh…but I had to ask, given a recent mistake I had made with another 12″ recording that I assumed was 33-1/3 RPM, but turned out to be a 45 RPM. THAT particular recording turned out to sound great either way, but it made better sense to my ears at the intended speed.
And this…
A promotional video for the EP:


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Here's an article from the Canadian Workplace Legal Post which is a reminder to everyone involved in the U.S. workplace bullying movement that a variety of solutions can, and should, be embraced and supported. Canada has been strengthening their Workers Comp and OSHA regulations to be effective tools that can protect their workers:
Big Jury Award Arising from Workplace Bullying
Appropriate conduct in the workplace is ever changing. The most recent shift concerns bullying in the workplace, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the stern, often aggressive management styles of yesteryear may no longer be appropriate in the Canadian workplace. In light of this change in attitudes, employers must take note or suffer what may be very serious consequences, which are perhaps no better evidenced than the recent jury ruling by the Ontario High Court of Justice, which awarded 1.46 million dollars to an employee who claimed her manager bullied her. Continue reading


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3,233 comments on "Fedora 37/36/35 NVIDIA Drivers Install Guide [530.30.02 / 525.89.02 / 520.56.06 / 515.86.01 / 510.108.03 / 470.161.03 / 390.157 / 340.108] - Comment Page: 1"1 2 3 … 127 Next »
I've tried this guide using Fedora 22 Workstation and both 352.41 and 340.76 failed to run on my notebook Lenovo T420 with NVS 4200M. So can anyone help me to configure my laptop with Nvidia drivers ?
Smooth like silk. Thank you.
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2n Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GF119M [Quadro NVS 4200M] (rev a1)
Hi magnitudo9,
Have you checked this simple solution from Fedora?
It works for my Dell laptop. It has GeForce GT 525M. There is no BIOS switch to disable Intel card
Tks a lot to JR and Yaroslav, the bumblebee wiki works very well on my laptop but I prefer the ubuntu approach with prime select to switch between graphic cards.
Like a charm.
Situation: Macbook pro 5.5 (middle 2009),nvidia 9400m,
combo disc: ssd Crucial with Fedora 22 (Gnome),HD 500GB
on the optical bay (OWC Data Doubler) with OS X Yosemite
Finally have a decent power management and hardware
Thank you.
Thank you! I have a Dell R420 server that didn't seem to like the nouveau drivers and this finally worked. Here is the output of uname and lspci:
Linux localhost.localdomain 4.1.6-100.fc21.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Aug 17 22:20:37 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
08:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series]
Oops…the uname/lspci output from my last comment are from the wrong system (obviously since it has a Radeon gpu). Here is the correct output
Linux Schloop-Kali3.WORKGROUP 4.1.6-201.fc22.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Sep 4 17:49:24 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
08:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK107 [GeForce GT 640] (rev a1)
Smooth sailing instructions for me, until Section 2.8. Once I reboot, I am greeted with a completely black screen after GRUB. I've tried adding "3" to the end of the line to force a console login, and still black screen.
Only when I remove "rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau" can I actually get to the console login. But of course, installer fails because Nouveua has loaded.
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 760] (rev a1)
There has to be something I'm missing… I'm really tired of having to reinstall fresh after every time.
And what do you know… I soon as I post this, I stumble upon this page:
Adding "nomodeset" to the end of the GRUB line worked like a charm.
Due to this bug, fedora 22 is not starting after disabling selinux.
Not even starting in single user mode.
!!!!Failed to load SELinux policy. freezing.
If you have Fedora installed on UEFI, then you will get
ERROR: The kernel module failed to load.
Solution: manually sign the drivers and before restart import keys:
mokutil –import /usr/share/nvidia/nvidia-modsign-crt-XXXXXXXX.der
enter the temporary password, then reboot. You bios will popup new menu, select to sign activate key, enter temporary password. And done :)
Worked like a charm, thanks!
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK106GLM [Quadro K2100M] (rev a1)
Linux hostname 4.1.7-200.fc22.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Sep 14 20:19:24 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G92GL [Quadro FX 3700] (rev a2)
I was able to get to step 2.9.6 until it ran into an error, nvidia error: bad return status for module build on kernel. I have a screenshot of the full error message here: http://imgur.com/myPgrqu. I tried to install without using DKMS, but that also did not work. At this point, I'm pretty lost on what to do, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Worked great thanks so much!
If you are trying to install drivers for steam you should do this after installing steam from rpmfusion or just reinstall the driver.
Linux localhost.localdomain 4.1.8-200.fc22.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Sep 22 12:13:21 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 660 Ti] (rev a1)
Installed it well on Lenovo ThinkPad w530 with NVidia Quadro K1000M using Fedora 4.0.4, but failed to install it after kernel update to 4.1.8. The screen just blinks once in several seconds in a command line regime with the last line something like "Starting GNOME …."
worked great for me, I am using Fedora 22 / GTX 550Ti / 352.41 driver. Thank you so much!
Update: After some recent Fedora 22 OS updates were installed, I started to have this problem: couldn't log into gnome, instead got a screen that said "Oh no, something has gone wrong". Examining /var/log/Xorg.0.log, I saw some errors associated w/ GLX… I think the OS update upgraded some xorg packages, which broke things (?)
The following steps seemed to have fixed things for me:
1. CTRL+ALT+F2 to exit "Oh no, something has gone wrong" and login via command line
2. Repeat step 2.8 (reboot to runlevel 3)
3. Login, run "nvidia-installer –update" as superuser, answer the prompts as you would have in step 2.9. This upgraded my driver from 352.41 to 352.55.
4. Repeat step 2.10 (reboot to runlevel 5)
I hope that helps!
Thank you so much !
I was stuck with the exact same error message and couldn't figure out what it meant.
You saved my day ! :)
thanks for this guide. However, I am stuck with the "Oh no …" screen :( I tried the update you described, but with no success.
I am using Fedora 23.
nvidia-installer version is 352.63, kernel version 4.2.6-301, graphic card – NVIDIA Corporation GF117M.
Any help is appriciated.
Hello, could you write a guide to install nvidia optimus?


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On a blazing midsummer day, Giorgio Armani's 213-foot yacht,Maìn, Linda Lou,MaìnMaìn
is parked liked a floating townhouse in the Italian port of La Spezia. Her neighbor, another megayacht named looks swollen and bloated--like a puffy pile of whipped cream--next to 's trim physique. Sharp, fit, and slim (just like its 76-year-old owner), is the water version of the famously reductive Armani aesthetic. With angular lines and an unusual dark-green color, the boat is more lean and mean war machine than fat and happy pleasure cruiser.
Fashion insiders quip that Armani runs his $5 billion empire like a very tight ship. Not only is that not a wisecrack, it also turns out that his real-life boat situation is no less tautly wound. A youthful, tanned staff of 12, which is subjected to three daily uniform changes, has Armani's vacation operations calibrated on Swiss settings. On these teak-and-aluminum-lined decks, timetables are minded. Crumbs are vacuumed up off the rubber microweave carpet minutes after they hit the floor. The boat's dark-green crystal-glass walls are spritzed so often that rogue smudges and specks never actually materialize.
"What I like about being on a boat is the rhythm and the routines," Armani says, seated in front of a minimal onboard fireplace. "They remind me of the military. It's discipline."
More From Harper's BAZAAR
The crewmen know that their boss will not veer from this discipline--not even after too many sunset cocktails, which never happens anyway. Before he arrives, they swiftly change into white Bermudas and crisp white-collared shirts and line up like soldiers along the stern of the boat above a grand teak staircase. Soon, three black shiny Mercedes sedans pull up in line formation on the dock. Doors Flick open. A flock of suited men exits quickly. A personal assistant flutters by. Luggage is stacked, sorted, and carried off.
Armani, wearing trim navy pants and a navy shirt, is coolly businesslike with his sportif crew, planting kisses on the captain's cheeks and delivering handshakes to the rest, but he smiles when he sees Bar Refaeli, the Israeli model who has spent the morning onboard tantalizing an innocent teak deck chair with her smooth, softly ripe body.
"How's Leo?" he asks, referring to Leonardo DiCaprio, Refaeli's boyfriend. "Oh, he's good," she replies. "He's jealous I'm here."
"I'll bet," comes Armani's reply.
And who wouldn't be? With its six spacious guest cabins, elevator, jacuzzi, indoor gym, cinema screen, multiple bars, and gigantic sundeck, Maìn is a self-entertaining gourmet garage ready for six weeks of chic Mediterranean stops in Saint-Tropez, Sardinia, Minorca, and Pantelleria, where Armani has a home. Six lucky friends are onboard, plus his chef and personal trainer. The boat is mind-bogglingly big, and no one knows how many staircases there are. "I'm not sure," the second captain admits in a nondisciplined moment, "but my calves are killing me." It turns out there are 12.
Fifty feet longer than his last boat, Mariù,Maìn has an unquenchable tank that gulps more than 42,000 gallons of gasoline to hit "full" and can zip across the Atlantic Ocean in 11 days.
"The costs [of upkeep] are extraordinary," Armani admits. "When you decide to have a boat like this, a thousand euros is nothing. It's a drop in the bucket."
With 10 homes around the world, Armani is no stranger to luxury dwelling. But Maìn is his most expensive home away from home yet. It took 30 months to build at Italy's prestigious Codecasa shipyards and cost him more than $60 million. "More than a store," he says, using a benchmark he understands all too well. "Much more. It cost my whole life's work."
Armani has spent 35 years living to work, so the indulgence is one he can rationalize. "It's hugely satisfying," he says. "This is the end of my life." Pausing, he clarifies: "The 'end,' let's say, quote unquote. So I need to spoil myself."
Mortality is typically a taboo topic for the work-until-I-die designer, but Armani's dangerous bout with hepatitis last year has softened his invincible shell. "It was a shock that made me realize that we're all hanging by a thread," he says of the experience. "After all, I am human."
Though he slowed his pace, he has since come back kicking, opening a new hotel in Dubai and resuming his 10-fashion-show-yearly circuit. Six weeks on Maìn is his way of recharging. "I need to close myself off in my own private world," he says. "I am too exposed normally. The boat is a refuge."
Fittingly, the refuge was created specifically to Armani's exacting standards. The interiors are dressed in his favorite suit shades of gray and beige, set off with light birchwood floors and blinds, and dark-green lacquered walls that match the hull. The rigorous Armani pen is everywhere, from the patterned silk wall coverings and Armani Casa furniture in the staterooms to the underbelly of the boat, where the engines are white and eerily spotless and four washing machines are stacked neatly across four dryers in the laundry room.
Maìn feels casual and unpretentious, but it is a customized, high-tech heaven where everything happens: Doors whoosh open, tables go up and down, mirrored walls turn into TV screens, even a section of the floor of the upper deck disappears--all with the discreet yet calculated push of a button.
In Armani's private quarters, all of the furniture is identically doubled and can be divided neatly into two rooms with a retractable wall down the center. It's a miracle design solution for squabbling couples.
"Oh, that's a bad thought!" he says, laughing. "Actually, it could be that one person wants to sleep. I find that civil."
This should please Leo Dell'Orco, Armani's menswear designer and constant companion. "Leo is the person," Armani starts to explain, and then changes course. "Well, he shares this boat with me."
Not everyone can stick to Armani's downtime schedule, which has him up at 7:00 A.M. for daily exercising, then breakfast around 9:00 ("with the late risers," he says), a beach excursion, lunch, an afternoon nap, and a port visit, followed by an aperitif and dinner on the boat. The guest list is restricted to close friends who know the drill and cooperate with the plan. "There are laws on this boat," Armani says, laughing but not kidding. "I always decide with Leo who we want to invite, and it always ends up being the same people."
Armani sounds like a vacation tiger, but his good friends know what a pussycat he can be. "He offered me his house in Pantelleria, with his staff, food from his land, and wine that he produces there," says friend and model Eugenia Silva. "You feel like home."
Guests onboard Maìn feel the same love, like Naomi Watts, who visited in Cannes. "He's Captain Mr. Chic," says the actress. "His yacht is a floating version of himself: sleek, chic, and very comfortable." Although he did throw a 100-person get-together in Cannes (where perfect preparty order was restored by midnight), Armani doesn't use Maìn as a party pad. "I don't live like some Americans do, attached to their bar," he says. "And I could obviously have a lot of big parties, but it's not my style."
Suddenly, a microscopic dot on the pristine carpet distracts him. "One of Bar's paillettes," he says, casually depositing the visual disturbance into the hand of his personal assistant. He disappears into his cabin, but a week later, photos of Armani, clad in a white Speedo and wading in the ocean, surface in the tabloids. Deeply colored and amazingly fit, he appears in total cruise control. The "end" of his life? We're definitely putting that in quotation marks.
"I need to close myself off in my own private world. I am too exposed normally.The boat is a refuge."
"He's Captain Mr. Chic," says Naomi Watts. "His yacht isa floating version of himself: sleek,chic, and very comfortable."


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5 Reasons Christian Businesses Shouldn't Be Legally Forced To Support Gay Weddings
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Future historians will likely be flummoxed by the moment we're living in. In what amounts to less than a blink of an eye in the history of Western civilization, homosexuality has gone from a diagnosed mental disorder to something to be celebrated – or else. Indeed, the rush to mandatory celebration is so intense, refusal is now considered tantamount to a crime. And, in some rare instances, an actual crime if the right constable or bureaucrat concludes that you have uttered "hate speech." –: Jonah Goldberg
Unfortunately, when it comes to gay marriage, we have people who seem to be unable to tell the difference between tolerance and approval. It's not enough that gay marriage is legal in 17 states. As a practical matter, that means every gay American in the country can get married if he or she wants to do so while those who don't want gay marriage also have the option to live in states where the practice isn't legal. Although some Americans would like gay marriage to be legal everywhere and others, like myself, would like it to be illegal everywhere, there's something to be said for leaving the matter to each state.
This is still not enough for many liberals who've insisted on going further and actually persecuting Christian businesses who oppose gay marriage. Christians who don't want to sanction gay marriage are being sued, prosecuted and driven out of business for doing nothing more than living up to their Christian beliefs, which are incompatible with condoning gay marriage. In Oregon,: Sweet Cakes by Melissa: faced fines from the state and eventually lost its business because the owners declined to bake a cake for a gay wedding. In Washington State, florist Barronelle Stutzman has been sued for refusing to provide flowers for a gay wedding. The Wildflower Inn in Vermont was sued for refusing to host a gay couple's wedding reception. Christian photographer Elane Huguenin in New Mexico was told she wasn't allowed to decline to participate in a gay marriage commitment ceremony. In New Jersey a seaside retreat, which is a United Methodist Church Christian facility, was told it wasn't allowed to refuse a civil union ceremony.
Whether you believe as I do that all of those businesses made the right choice when they refused to sanction gay marriage, you should at least believe that they have the right to make their own decisions. Here's why….
1) Businesses should generally have the right to refuse customers: Because of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow and the other abominations Democrats forced on America, we did choose as a nation to treat race differently than most other issues. So, we do not allow businesses to discriminate based on race — and that's a good thing. However, businesses can and do turn away customers for almost every other reason imaginable. Shouldn't they be able to do that?
Shouldn't the Super Bowl be allowed to decline an advertisement from a porn website? Shouldn't the NAACP be able to turn away KKK members from a speech? Shouldn't a movie theater be allowed to tell people who insist on using cell phones in the theater that they're not welcome? Shouldn't Wal-Mart be allowed to refuse to carry NAMBLA literature in its stores? Shouldn't a nightclub be allowed to tell people wearing gang colors that they're not welcome? Shouldn't the Democratic Party be allowed to decline ads on its website from the Republican Party? On a personal note, at my website: Right Wing News: I've declined advertisements from porn websites, a dating service for "sugar daddies," a dating service for people who are married, and even a t-shirt seller I considered to be homophobic.If the Westboro Baptist Church were to one day decide that they wanted to sell "God h*tes F***" t-shirts on my website, should I be forced to sell it ad space even though I consider its beliefs to be repugnant and incompatible with my faith? For every American with rudimentary common sense, these questions answer themselves.
2) It violates the First Amendment: Per the First Amendment,: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Supporting gay marriage is incompatible with Christianity. Baking a cake for a gay marriage, renting out a building for it, taking the pictures, etc., etc. could very fairly be considered sanctioning the marriage. To force a Christian to do that violates the First Amendment. This entire column could consist of that one point and it should be sufficient, but let's do continue on.
3) It's a misguided attempt to legally force people to accept gay marriage: In a very real sense, the gay marriage fight isn't about gay marriage. Civil unions confer all the same rights as marriage and the biggest point of contention on civil unions has become that they're being used as a stepping stone to gay marriage. If that wasn't an issue, civil unions would have overwhelming support and then everybody would be happy, right? Wrong. Because again, gay marriage isn't really about that.
At its core, gay marriage is really about acceptance.
A lot of gay Americans have made the mistake of centering their whole existence on their sexual orientation and so they almost see it as an insult if everything "gay" isn't treated as wonderful and fantastic. Except it's not. Everything heterosexual certainly isn't wonderful and fantastic either; so how could everything homosexual be wonderful and fantastic? Do you think these Christian bakers would bake a cake for an orgy? Would the photographer shoot naked pictures of Miley Cyrus? Would a Christian church host an S&M convention? It's highly doubtful.
The Left loves to encourage gay Americans to define their life by their sexual orientation, which cruelly sets people up for disappointment. It's now common to hear liberals say things like, "Oh well, in 20 years everybody will approve of gay weddings." Of course, liberals were saying the same thing about abortion after Roe v. Wade and how did that work out? Oh…right.
The truth is nobody gets universal acceptance. There are people who don't like me because I'm a white, conservative, Christian, male Tea Partier. I know this because I get emails and: Facebook messages: from them telling me so almost every day. There are a lot of terrific human beings out there who are gay, but if they make the mistake of demanding universal acceptance of everything about their sexual orientation a condition of being content, they're likely to have long, unhappy lives.
4) It's anti-Christian: There's an intense dislike of Christianity on the Left and it's an order of magnitude more intense for gay liberals for obvious reasons. Although as: Billy Graham has said,: "God will not judge a Christian guilty for his or her involuntary feelings,": Christianity doesn't condone homosexual behavior. Under the best of circumstances, few people want to hear that they're doing something immoral. It's even worse when people feel as if they're being judged for something they believe would be difficult or even impossible to change. So, some of the people who are put in that position love getting an opportunity to victimize a poor Christian baker or florist because it allows them to lash out at Christianity by proxy. Since these Christians are paying a big price for standing up for our faith, they deserve our support.
5) It's involuntary servitude: It's highly ironic that liberals have compared a baker choosing not to bake a cake for a gay wedding to slavery and Jim Crow laws. After all, the Christian businesses are the ones that are being forced into involuntary servitude for ungrateful, vicious masters. Ask yourself why anyone with good motives would want to FORCE an unwilling person to bake his or her wedding cake or take pictures at his or her wedding? What's next? Will people who don't respond to invitations to gay weddings be charged with a hate crime?
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This article is more than 1 year old
Freedom of Information Act inquiry ducks FOIA requests
Climategate email investigator and UEA both clam up
An academic inquiry which recommended that scientists respond more honestly to FOIA requests has found a creative way to evade FOIA requests.
The University of East Anglia set up the Independent Climate Change Email Review to examine serious charges of academic misconduct by its scientists. An archive containing emails, code and data – which leaked in November 2009 in a file named "FOIA.ZIP", apparently prepared for release by the University – showed academics at University's Climatic Research Unit discussing the deletion of data in response to incoming FOIA requests.
"We also have a data protection act, which I will hide behind," wrote the CRU director Phil Jones. "Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith [Briffa] re AR4? Keith will do likewise," wrote CRU director Jones, in response to one batch of requests, he later instructed colleagues.
The Information Commissioner's Office said that CRU had breached Section 77 of the Data Protection Act, which highlighted a loophole it wanted to see plugged. (The University would later make a pledge (PDF) to the ICO to mend its ways).
The University appointed Sir Muir Russell to lead the inquiry, which reported last July. Russell's inquiry highlighted "a clear incitement to delete emails" and "a tendency to answer the wrong question or to give a partial answer".
Russell promised Parliament that his inquiry would operate "as openly and transparently as possible", with interviews and notes published. But he failed to meet the promise to critics' satisfaction, and the review itself came under Parliamentary scrutiny when it emerged that Russell had failed to interview any of the leading participants, interview critics, or investigate the email deletions.
David Holland, the retired electrical engineer whose FOIA requests led to the University's breach of the DPA, wanted to know more about the University's contract with Russell, and was puzzled by some specific aspects of the inquiry. The CRU scientists were part of a group that were also in charge of key parts of the IPCC's climate reports – and had appeared to bend the rules to favour their own colleagues. Two of the scientists had received an edited version of Holland's submission to the inquiry – which after editing, made little sense. But who had edited it?
"If this were a criminal or civil matter before the Court what they did with my submission would have got them jailed," Holland told us.
Holland made a FOIA request to find out. From the University of East Anglia, he received this reply:
The University does not consider that there was a contractual relationship with Sir Muir Russell or the inquiry team; it was by way of a public appointment (as is commonplace in these circumstances).
So he turned to Muir Russell, who replied.
I have however taken advice and I am satisfied that I am not, and the Review Team as a whole is not, a public authority for the purposes either of the 2002 Act or the 2004 Regulations. In the circumstances we are not under any legal obligation to make information concerning the Review available to any person under that legislation.
The request was declined by the university because the Russell Review was a public authority, and declined by Russell because it was not a public authority. The University had signed a contract with "The Muir Russell Review Group".
There are implications beyond climate: a similar argument could be made by any public body and a "private contractor".
As an advertisement for public service integrity, the British establishment has seen better days.®
Related Links
Holland's analysis (PDF/540KB)


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It can be exciting when you receive a package, but disappointing if the contents are in less than perfect shape. We'll show you how to properly box contents and label packages when you ship so your package contents arrive in good condition.
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Events May 22-24: Shade-Grown Coffee, Public Observatory Project, and Tot Rock
This week, try a cup of organic shade-grown coffee, see spots on the sun, and bring your toddlers to rock out with Shine and the Moonbeams
Tuesday, May 22 Shade-grown Coffee
Ever wonder where your morning cup comes from? Some coffee is "shade-grown," meaning the coffee farms double as a sanctuary for migratory birds in winter. These coffee farms, which grow their plants under a canopy of trees, are often in areas that have suffered deforestation, making them all the more vital as refuges for these birds. Scientists at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) have developed the only 100 percent organic shade-grown certification to encourage the expansion of this kind of agriculture. Try a cup of shade-grown coffee while Robert Rice, research scientist at the SMBC, and Andy Sprenger, head roaster at Ceremony Coffee Roasters, explain its importance to biodiversity and sustainability. $40 for general admission, $30 for members. 10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. S. Dillon Ripley Center.
Wednesday, May 23 Public Observatory Project
As the weather gets warmer, the Public Observatory staff heads outside most Wednesday afternoons through June. Look through the portable 16-inch telescope to discover craters on the moon, spots on the sun (using safe solar filters), and other wonders of the universe in broad daylight. The sun is approaching the active portion of its 11-year cycle, so visitors these days are now more likely to catch a glimpse of an interesting feature. Free. 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Air and Space Museum.
Thursday, May 24 Tot Rock
Get your kids up and moving to the beat with singer-songwriter Shawana Kemp and guitarist John Heagle. Together they are Shine and the Moonbeams, a soulful, groove-happy R&B musical team perfect for children ages 2 to 6. The dance party has something for grown-ups, too: the Virginia coffee shop Jammin' Java will be slinging complimentary joe and snacks. $6, or $3 for children under 2. 10:15 a.m. Discovery Theater.