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By Hope Yen
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — New census data released Thursday, Dec. 6 affirms a clear and sustained drop in illegal immigration, ending more than a decade of increases.
The number of illegal immigrants in the United States dropped to an estimated 11.1 million last year from a peak of 12 million in 2007, part of an overall waning of Hispanic immigration. For the first time since 1910, Hispanic immigration last year was topped by immigrants from Asia.
Demographers say illegal Hispanic immigration — 80 percent of all illegal immigration comes from Mexico and Latin America — isn't likely to approach its mid-2000 peak again, due in part to a weakened U.S. economy and stronger enforcement, but also a graying of the Mexican population.
The finding suggests an uphill battle for the Republicans, who passed legislation in the House last week that would extend citizenship to a limited pool of foreign students with advanced degrees, but who are sharply divided on whether to pursue broader immigration measures.
In all, the biggest surge of immigration in modern U.S. history ultimately may be recorded as occurring in the mid-1990s to early 2000s, yielding illegal residents who now have been settled in the United States for 10 years or more. They include migrants who arrived here as teens and are increasingly at risk of "aging out" of congressional proposals, such as the DREAM Act that offer a pathway to citizenship for younger adults.
"The priority now is to push a vigorous debate about the undocumented people already here," said Jose Antonio Vargas, 31, a journalist from the Philippines. "We want to become citizens and not face the threat of deportation or be treated as second class," said Vargas, whose campaign, Define American, along with the young immigrant group United We Dream, have been pushing for citizenship for the entire illegal population in the United States.
The groups point to a strong Latino and Asian American turnout for President Barack Obama in last month's election as evidence of public support for a broad overhaul of U.S. immigration laws.
Earlier this year, Obama extended to many younger immigrants temporary reprieves from deportation. But Vargas, who has lived in the United States since 1993 and appeared this year on the cover of Time magazine with other immigrants who lacked legal status, has become too old to qualify.
"This conversation is a question about how we as a nation define who is an American," Vargas said, noting that if politicians don't embrace immigration overhaul now, a rapidly growing bloc of minority voters may soon do it for them. "If you want us to pay a fine to become a citizen, OK. If you want us to pay back taxes, absolutely. If you want us to speak English, I speak English. But we can't tread water on this issue anymore."
Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Research Center and a former Census Bureau official, said U.S. immigration policies will have a significant impact in shaping a future U.S. labor force, which is projected to shrink by 2030. Aging white baby boomers, many in specialized or management roles, are beginning to retire. Mexican immigration, which has helped fill needs in farming, home health care, and other low-wage U.S. jobs, has leveled off.
"Immigration is one way to boost the number of workers in the population," he said, but the next wave of needed immigrants is likely to come from somewhere other than Mexico. "We are not going to see a return to the levels of Mexican unauthorized immigration of a decade ago."
The immigration shift may have an impact on the future racial and ethnic makeup of the United States, pushing back official government estimates as to when whites will no longer be a majority in the country. The Census Bureau originally reported in 2008 that white children would become a minority in 2023 and the overall white population would follow in 2042. But the agency has since suggested the tipping points may arrive later, due to a slowdown in mostly Hispanic immigration. New census projections will be released next week.
It all depends "on the availability of jobs, as well as changes in federal and state immigration policies," said Mark Mather, associate vice president of the Population Reference Bureau.
The immigration numbers are largely based on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey through March 2011. Because the Census Bureau does not ask people about their immigration status, Passel derived estimates on illegal immigrants largely by subtracting the estimated legal immigrant population from the total foreign-born population. The numbers are also supplemented with material from Mather and William H. Frey of the Brookings Institution, who reviewed data released Thursday from the Census' American Community Survey.
The data showed that 11.1 million, or 28 percent, of the foreign-born population in the United States consists of illegal immigrants, virtually unchanged since 2009 and roughly equal to the level of 2005. An additional 12.2 million foreign-born people, 31 percent, are legal permanent residents with green cards. And 15.1 million, or 37 percent, are naturalized U.S. citizens.
Fewer Mexican workers are entering the United States, while many of those immigrants already here are opting to return to their homeland, resulting in zero net migration from Mexico.
Broken down by geography and race, roughly half of all states last year posted declines or no change in their numbers of foreign-born Hispanics, including big immigrant states, such as California and New York, as well as economically hard hit areas in Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina, which previously had seen gains.
Foreign-born Asians were a bigger source of population gain than Hispanic immigrants in California, New York, Virginia, Illinois, and New Jersey. Newly moving into suburban communities, the Asian population spread out more across the southeastern United States and Texas, increasing their share in 93 percent of the nation's metropolitan areas.
As a whole, foreign-born residents are slowly graying, with 44 percent now age 45 or older. They are more likely than in 2007 to be enrolled in college or graduate school (39 percent, up from 32 percent) and to be single (17 percent married, down from 22 percent).
Births to immigrant mothers are on the decline, driving the overall U.S. birth rate last year to the lowest in records dating back to 1920.
"At least temporarily, the face of immigration to the U.S. is changing in terms of cultural background, education, and skills," Frey said. "The fertility bump provided by past Hispanic immigrants may not be replicated in the future, especially if Asians take over a greater share of U.S. immigrants."
House Republicans, seeking to show they are serious about addressing the immigration issue after being largely rejected by Hispanics in the election, voted last week to make green cards accessible to foreign students graduating with advanced science and math degrees from U.S. universities.
The measure, strongly backed by the high-tech industry and touted as a boost to the U.S. economy, would have a net effect of extending more visas and eventual citizenship to students from India and China. It is opposed by most Democrats, the Obama administration, and immigrant rights groups, such as the Asian American Justice Center which want to see it packaged with broader legislation that extends legal status for illegal immigrants.
These groups also oppose the proposed new 55,000 visas for foreign students because they would be offset by eliminating a lottery program that provides green cards to people with lower rates of immigration, mainly those from Africa. Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked Republicans from bringing up the bill.
A bill introduced by Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who are retiring at the end of this session, seeks to offer some legal status to young immigrants. Critics say it falls short because it does not provide a path to citizenship, an issue that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) describes as "non-negotiable."
About 77 percent of Hispanic voters in the November election said they thought people working in the United States illegally should be offered a chance to apply for legal status, according to exit polling conducted for the television networks and The Associated Press. That is compared with 71 percent of Asian Americans and 65 percent of voters overall.
The political implications are great.
Hispanics and Asian Americans are the nation's two fastest-growing population groups, each increasing by more than 40 percent since 2000. A higher birth rate and years of steadily high immigration have boosted Hispanics to 17 percent of the U.S. population, compared with Blacks at 12 percent and 5 percent for Asians.
Even if the nation's estimated 11 million illegal residents do not attain citizenship, the nation's Hispanics, who made up roughly 10 percent of voters in November, are expected to nearly double their share of eligible voters by 2030. Asian Americans, who now are 3 percent of voters, will also continue to increase.
About 73 percent of Asian Americans voted for Obama, second only to African Americans at 93 percent and slightly higher than Latinos at 71 percent, according to exit polling.
Asian Americans don't strongly identify with either party, but they tend to cite jobs, education, and health care as issues most important to them and generally prefer a big government that provides more services. Relatively new to the United States and religiously diverse, Asian Americans also may have been repelled by Republican Mitt Romney's forceful stance during the primaries seeking "self-deportation" of immigrants, as well as the GOP's sometimes narrow appeal to evangelical Christians, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California-Riverside who helps conduct a broad National Asian American Survey.
While Mexicans make up about 55 percent of illegal immigrants and other Latin Americans represent another 25 percent, Asians make up a 10 percent share, many of whom overstay temporary visas. (end)
AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.


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Portugal is located in South-Western Europe, on the Iberian Peninsula, and it is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, being bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. Aside from continental Portugal, the Portuguese Republic holds sovereignty over the Atlantic archipelagos of Azores and Madeira, which are autonomous regions of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Free Business Directory For Uk Businesses To Advertise Their Business Online For Free |
parties Business DirectoryHere you can view parties listed on our website. You can sort by region using the options to the right to pick a parties business in your area. We offer free business advertising for parties which is useful for their online marketing. parties can advertise their business for free on our website. Advertise Your parties Business Now parties businesses added to our website


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When radical Islamists lash out at cultural sites they consider un-Islamic, a frequent target is Sufi Islam shrines.
Islamists in Tunisia have attacked almost 40 Sufi shrines in recent months, Sufi officials told AFP.
And Islamists destroyed several Sufi tombs in the fabled city of Timbuktu in Mali, a place with a long Sufi tradition that is known as the City of 333 Saints, as The New York Times reported.
So why are the Islamists picking on the Sufis?
The Sufis are a relatively small sect of Islam that have historically remained apolitical. They are spread over a vast geographic area that stretches from western Africa across the Middle East and South Asia and all the way to China and Indonesia.
They are perhaps best known for their embrace of mysticism, a spirit of tolerance and for building shrines to Sufi saints.
This latter practice, in particular, is seen as idolatry to Muslims who practice a more rigid and puritanical form of Islam, including Salafists and Wahhabis.
Sufis as a group are not playing leading roles in any of the recent upheavals in the Arab world, but their shrines make convenient targets for some of the hard-line groups that are.
"Shrines for Sufis are everywhere, it's the mainstream," says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. "The only place they're missing or are destroyed is in the Gulf. There isn't a town from Yemen to Morocco to Indonesia without a significant Sufi shrine."
"The Salafists can't declare war on ordinary Muslims and win, so they go after mosques and shrines instead," he adds.
Many Sufis gather at these shrines for veneration, prayer and meditation.
But for radical groups, attacking the shrines fits into their notion of destroying "symbols they consider ungodly, like freedom, democracy, parliament, a constitution," Husain says.
Many of the attacks have taken place in north Africa in the past couple years in the wake of uprisings.
In Libya last summer, a Sufi grave site in Tripoli was bulldozed, leading to the resignation of Libya's interior minister.
But periodic attacks have been carried out elsewhere, including Pakistan, where dozens have been killed while visiting shrines.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Screening Tests for Common Diseases
What is a screening test?
A screening test is done to detect potential health disorders or diseases in people who do not have any symptoms of disease. The goal is early detection and lifestyle changes or surveillance, to reduce the risk of disease, or to detect it early enough to treat it most effectively. Screening tests are not considered diagnostic, but are used to identify a subset of the population who should have additional testing to determine the presence or absence of disease.
When is a screening test helpful?
What makes a screening test valuable is its ability to detect potential problems, while minimizing unclear, ambiguous, or confusing results. While screening tests are not 100% accurate in all cases, it is generally more valuable to have the screening tests at the appropriate times, as recommended by your healthcare provider, than to not have them at all. However, some screening tests, when used in people not at high risk for disease, or when testing for very rare diseases, can cause more problems than they help.
Some common screening tests
Be sure to consult your healthcare provider regarding the appropriate timing and frequency of all screening tests based on your age, overall health, and medical history. The following are some examples of common screening tests:
Cholesterol measurements
Cholesterol is a waxy substance that can be found in all parts of the body. It aids in the production of cell membranes, some hormones, and vitamin D. The cholesterol in the blood comes from 2 sources: the food you eat and production in your liver. However, the liver produces all of the cholesterol the body needs.
Cholesterol and other fats are transported in the bloodstream in the form of spherical particles, called lipoproteins. The 2 most commonly known lipoproteins are low-density lipoproteins (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, and high-density lipoproteins (HDL), or "good" cholesterol.
Cholesterol screening is performed by a blood test. People with high cholesterol measurements from a blood sample have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), than those with cholesterol in the normal range. Studies have shown that people with high cholesterol can reduce their risk for heart disease by lowering their cholesterol. It is important to understand, however, that people can still have heart disease even with cholesterol levels in the normal range.
Fecal occult blood test
Fecal occult blood is detected by microscopic analysis or by chemical tests for hemoglobin (blood) in the stool. People with blood in their stool may have a cancerous growth indicative of colorectal cancer. The test requires collection of 3 stool samples that are examined under the microscope for blood. It is important to understand that when blood is present in a stool sample, it can be due to other noncancerous factors, such as certain medications or foods, gastrointestinal bleeding, or hemorrhoids. Testing is recommended starting at age 50 by many organizations including the American Cancer Society.
Pap test (also called Pap smears)
Pap smears are samples of cells taken from the cervix in women to look for cellular changes indicative of cervical cancer. The Pap smear is an important screening test in sexually active women under the age of 65, to detect cancer at a stage when there are often no symptoms. It is important to understand that a Pap smear may be referred to as "abnormal," but may not mean that a person has cervical cancer. Some organizations also recommend HPV (human papilloma virus) screening in certain populations during the Pap smear.
Prostate specific antigen (PSA)
This blood test measures the prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels in the blood. Antigens are any substances that evoke responses from a person's immune system. The prostate specific antigen levels can be elevated in the presence of prostate cancer. However, it is important to understand that other benign prostate conditions may also elevate PSA, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), which is noncancerous swelling of the prostate. The PSA test is not recommended for all men, and there is considerable controversy over the role of PSA testing. Some organizations, such as the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), now recommend against PSA screening. The pros and cons of PSA screening should always be discussed with your healthcare provider before testing. Some of the cons include unnecessary testing and procedures, unnecessary costs, and significantly increased anxiety.
Many organizations, including the USPSTF, recommend mammography screening for breast cancer every 1 year to 2 years after age 50. This test is done in conjunction with a clinical breast exam
Many organizations, including the USPSTF, recommend screening for colon cancer or colon polyps at age 50, earlier if you have a family history or other risk factors
Diabetes or prediabetes
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends that all adults be screened for diabetes or prediabetes starting at age 45, regardless of weight. Additionally, individuals without symptoms of diabetes should be screened if they are overweight or obese and have one or more additional diabetes risk factors.
Consult your healthcare provider regarding all of these as well as other types of screening tests, based on your medical condition, as not all healthcare providers are in agreement in regard to which screening tests should be done and for which age groups.


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~*RELEVANT PHOTO TIME*~via jak & jil
Sup, Anna Piaggi? This will totally be me over there, man. The old lady with a cane showing lots of British pride part, not the incredibly awesome brain part. WELL HAY AS LONG AS I HAVE LOOKS!
I'm bringing lots of those "paper websites" that we call "Books" on the 8 hour plane. Eden is packing 31 hours so I can't complain. Just rhyme about it. And possibly beat box. Laia is coming, so is Elizabeth. We plan on getting my wife something very special because she can't come, thus making any pillow fights less fun, and most things that involve brains, harder.
Oy, that one wasn't s'POSED to rhyme, but it kinda does. Whutinthewhut.
So yeah, guess that's it? YAyyyy. So psyched. Maybe I'll see some of you over at the other side of the pond! Which is funny, because it's not a pond. It is funny because the squirrel is dead (omg, anyone else see UP?! Sorz, random.)
Kevvviiiiin. Kevvviiiiin.
Alrighty, goodbye children. Going to London + chanting Torah=I am now a man.


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Everybody seems to know about food webs these days — how primary producers capture the energy of the sun, and pass it along to consumers and then on to predators — but I'm not sure that most people really understand what food webs are about. Food webs are not like the pleasant diagrams you see with cute little mice and clever foxes happily playing their roles in nature's balance. They're the scariest places that you can imagine.
Here's a scenario showing how food webs really work:
"It was my turn to go for groceries, which I suppose was only fair — the Thompsons had given me Brandon's good bike after that grizzly got him last month, and we really needed the groceries. We hadn't dared to go out the last three nights because the scent of big cats had been so strong. But tonight was going to be a good night — just the hint of a moon, and no wind to drown out the sound of stalking paws.
I was just going to the crummy neighborhood store, so there really shouldn't be a problem anyway. I'd like to be able to go across town to the big supermarket — the food was so much better there — but Mom wouldn't let me, not since the wolves had gotten Dad and Sarah on the other side of town. I spread lampblack over my face and hands as I waited for it to get good and dark.
"I knew that I would be nearly invisible in the faint moonlight, and I had done what I could to disguise my scent (you don't want to know the details), but I was afraid that my constant cough would give me away. It had been so damp in our underground home lately that it seemed like we had colds all the time. I wished we still had a house above ground, but no one has built old-style houses since the rocs had moved in and begun to pluck carpenters off of the roof beams."
Does a food web sound pleasant to you now?
You may think this little story is overblown, but it is an accurate description of life in the food web. Most animals are confronted with predators that are numerous, efficient and deadly. For instance, when we freshwater ecologists try to figure out how the invertebrates that live in lakes and streams die, we find that predators kill most or nearly all of them.
In response, prey have evolved a wide range of tactics to avoid getting eaten, or more precisely, to avoid getting eaten before they reproduce. Zooplankton have become nearly as clear as the lake water they live in to avoid the fatal gaze of fish. Speckled moths fade away against lichen-covered tree bark.
Little animals grow costly and ungainly spines when the water smells like predators, or hide away in dark crevices or deep water until the sun sets. They avoid the places where predators live, even if that means forgoing the richest feeding grounds. Mayflies exposed just to the smell of fish grow to adulthood and emerge to lay eggs more quickly than those that grow up without their fishy predators. Animals become vigilant and skittish when the wind carries the scent of predators, or a moving shadow (a shadow means sudden death) passes. And still most of them die in the maws of their predators.
I suppose this is an obvious point, but being in a food web means that, while you're out gathering your food, you are being stalked by your own predators. So the next time you see those little mice and clever foxes, think a little about what it is really like to be part of a food web. But don't think about it too much — it may give you nightmares.


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"Time-transfer performance in burst-mode communication systems", IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 19, pp. 2310-2319, 2001.
, "Convergence analysis of the multiple-channel filtered-U recursive LMS algorithm for active noise control", Signal Processing, vol. 80, pp. 849-856, 2000.
, "Hyperstable adaptive IIR algorithms with polyphase structures: analysis and design", IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 47, pp. 2043–2046, 1999.
, "Hyperstable polyphase adaptive IIR filters", in IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Phoenix, AZ, USA, 1999, vol. 4, pp. 1841–1844.
, "IIR adaptive filters for active noise control", in International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1999.
, "The robust SPR problem: design algorithms and new applications", Signal Processing, vol. 76, pp. 269-283, 1999.
, "An approach to the robust SPR problem through interpolation and avoidance: connections with the robust stability problem", in American Control Conference, 1998.
, "On the bias of the modified output error algorithm", IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 43, pp. 1261–1262, 1998.
, "Filtered error adaptive IIR algorithms and their application to active noise control", in IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 1998.
, "Relaxation of the SPR condition with applications to the convergence of adaptive recursive algorithms", University of Vigo, Spain, 1998.
, "The Simultaneous Strict Positive Real Problem: Similarities with the Simultaneous Stability Problem and Applications in Adaptive Recursive Algorithms", in Mathematics in Signal Processing, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 139-148.
, "On the strengthened robust SPR problem for discrete-time systems", in American Control Conference, 1998.
, "An Algorithm for Interpolation with Positive Rational Functions on the Imaginary Axis", Automatica, vol. 33, pp. 2277-2280, 1997.
, "Analysis and Synthesis Tools for Robust SPRness", in Intelligent methods in signal processing and communications, Birkhauser, 1997, pp. 147-171.
, "Characterization and Algebraic Solution to the Extreme-Point Robust SPR Problem", in IFAC World Congress, San Francisco, CA, USA, 1996, pp. 391-396.
, "Algebraic LTI Filter Synthesis for Simultaneously Making a Convex Combination of Discrete-Time Plants SPR", in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), New Orleans, LA, 1995, pp. 780-781.


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Class Central Tips
This course is part of the SDG initiative addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically for the following SDGs [1, 8, 10 and 16]. We hope you will join in our efforts to reach the SDG's in small but measurable and actionable ways, cooperating with Development Done Differently. Expand your impact. You can create a better world.
In today's world, politics and economics are interconnected, but what is the nature of this connectivity? What are the power relationships that shape the world economy today and create new challenges for international institutions facing globalization? What makes some countries wealthier than others? Do we face cultural diversity or fragmentation? Does the type of governance effect economic development and social change or is it the other way around? How do we measure it and how trustworthy is the data? These issues and many more will be examined in this course along with a wide library of sources and a biting criticism.


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
I'll have a look at the bluetooth autodetect software, see if we can mode it to fire off a diffrent event when a wii remote is detected, all it uses is MAC addresses of the bluetooth devices, re-building my dev machine at moment so might take abit.
Sounds really cool. I will need to buy both a HTPC and a Wii soon Though i guess pairing the wiimote with the wii and PC is bothersome? I would have to switch over all the time?
Ive been playing with cwiid, another wiimote interface, looks promising,just working on getting uinput working atm.does anyone know if uinput is enabled in 0704?
echo "uinput" >> /etc/modules


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[ 002 ] As often, most gracious ladies, as I bethink me, how compassionate you are by nature one and all, I do not disguise from myself that the present work must seem to you to have but a heavy and distressful prelude, in that it bears upon its very front what must needs revive the sorrowful memory of the late mortal pestilence, the course whereof was grievous not merely to eyewitnesses but to all who in any other wise had cognisance of it. [ 003 ] But I would have you know, that you need not therefore be fearful to read further, as if your reading were ever to be accompanied by sighs and tears. [ 004 ] This horrid beginning will be to you even such as to wayfarers is a steep and rugged mountain, beyond which stretches a plain most fair and delectable, which the toil of the ascent and descent does but serve to render more agreeable to them; [ 005 ] for, as the last degree of joy brings with it sorrow, so misery has ever its sequel of happiness. [ 006 ] To this brief exordium of woe--brief, I say, inasmuch as it can be put within the compass of a few letters--succeed forthwith the sweets and delights which I have promised you, and which, perhaps, had I not done so, were not to have been expected from it. [ 007 ] In truth, had it been honestly possible to guide you whither I would bring you by a road less rough than this will be, I would gladly have so done. But, because without this review of the past, it would not be in my power to shew how the matters, of which you will hereafter read, came to pass, I am almost bound of necessity to enter upon it, if I would write of them at all.
[ 008 ] I say, then, that the years of the beatific incarnation of the Son of God had reached the tale of one thousand three hundred and forty-eight, when in the illustrious city of Florence, the fairest of all the cities of Italy, there made its appearance that deadly pestilence, which, whether disesminated by the influence of the celestial bodies, or sent upon us mortals by God in His just wrath by way of retribution for our iniquities, had had its origin some years before in the East, whence, after destroying an innumerable multitude of living beings, it had propagated itself without respite from place to place, and so, calamitously, had spread into the West.
[ 009 ] In Florence, despite all that human wisdom and forethought could devise to avert it, as the cleansing of the city from many impurities by officials appointed for the purpose, the refusal of entrance to all sick folk, and the adoption of many precautions for the preservation of health; despite also humble supplications addressed to God, and often repeated both in public procession and otherwise, by the devout; towards the beginning of the spring of the said year the doleful effects of the pestilence began to be horribly apparent by symptoms that shewed as if miraculous.
[ 010 ] Not such were they as in the East, where an issue of blood from the nose was a manifest sign of inevitable death; but in men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumours in the groin or the armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavoccioli. [ 011 ] From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous. [ 012 ] And as the gavocciolo had been and still was an infallible token of approaching death, such also were these spots on whomsoever they shewed themselves. [ 013 ] Which maladies seemed to set entirely at naught both the art of the physician and the virtues of physic; indeed, whether it was that the disorder was of a nature to defy such treatment, or that the physicians were at fault--besides the qualified there was now a multitude both of men and of women who practised without having received the slightest tincture of medical science--and, being in ignorance of its source, failed to apply the proper remedies; in either case, not merely were those that recovered few, but almost all within three days from the appearance of the said symptoms, sooner or later, died, and in most cases without any fever or other attendant malady.
[ 014 ] Moreover, the virulence of the pest was the greater by reason that intercourse was apt to convey it from the sick to the whole, just as fire devours things dry or greasy when they are brought close to it. [ 015 ] Nay, the evil went yet further, for not merely by speech or association with the sick was the malady communicated to the healthy with consequent peril of common death; but any that touched the clothes of the sick or aught else that had been touched or used by them, seemed thereby to contract the disease.
[ 016 ] So marvellous sounds that which I have now to relate, that, had not many, and I among them, observed it with their own eyes, I had hardly dared to credit it, much less to set it down in writing, though I had had it from the lips of a credible witness.
[ 017 ] I say, then, that such was the energy of the contagion of the said pestilence, that it was not merely propagated from man to man, but, what is much more startling, it was frequently observed, that things which had belonged to one sick or dead of the disease, if touched by some other living creature, not of the human species, were the occasion, not merely of sickening, but of an almost instantaneous death. [ 018 ] Whereof my own eyes (as I said a little before) had cognisance, one day among others, by the following experience. The rags of a poor man who had died of the disease being strewn about the open street, two hogs came thither, and after, as is their wont, no little trifling with their snouts, took the rags between their teeth and tossed them to and fro about their chaps; whereupon, almost immediately, they gave a few turns, and fell down dead, as if by poison, upon the rags which in an evil hour they had disturbed.
[ 019 ] In which circumstances, not to speak of many others of a similar or even graver complexion, divers apprehensions and imaginations were engendered in the minds of such as were left alive, inclining almost all of them to the same harsh resolution, to wit, to shun and abhor all contact with the sick and all that belonged to them, thinking thereby to make each his own health secure. [ 020 ] Among whom there were those who thought that to live temperately and avoid all excess would count for much as a preservative against seizures of this kind. Wherefore they banded together, and, dissociating themselves from all others, formed communities in houses where there were no sick, and lived a separate and secluded life, which they regulated with the utmost care, avoiding every kind of luxury, but eating and drinking very moderately of the most delicate viands and the finest wines, holding converse with none but one another, lest tidings of sickness or death should reach them, and diverting their minds with music and such other delights as they could devise. [ 021 ] Others, the bias of whose minds was in the opposite direction, maintained, that to drink freely, frequent places of public resort, and take their pleasure with song and revel, sparing to satisfy no appetite, and to laugh and mock at no event, was the sovereign remedy for so great an evil: and that which they affirmed they also put in practice, so far as they were able, resorting day and night, now to this tavern, now to that, drinking with an entire disregard of rule or measure, and by preference making the houses of others, as it were, their inns, if they but saw in them aught that was particularly to their taste or liking; [ 022 ] which they were readily able to do, because the owners, seeing death imminent, had become as reckless of their property as of their lives; so that most of the houses were open to all comers, and no distinction was observed between the stranger who presented himself and the rightful lord. Thus, adhering ever to their inhuman determination to shun the sick, as far as possible, they ordered their life. [ 023 ] In this extremity of our city's suffering and tribulation the venerable authority of laws, human and divine, was abased and all but totally dissolved, for lack of those who should have administered and enforced them, most of whom, like the rest of the citizens, were either dead or sick, or so hard bested for servants that they were unable to execute any office; whereby every man was free to do what was right in his own eyes.
[ 024 ] Not a few there were who belonged to neither of the two said parties, but kept a middle course between them, neither laying the same restraint upon their diet as the former, nor allowing themselves the same license in drinking and other dissipations as the latter, but living with a degree of freedom sufficient to satisfy their appetites, and not as recluses. They therefore walked abroad, carrying in their hands flowers or fragrant herbs or divers sorts of spices, which they frequently raised to their noses, deeming it an excellent thing thus to comfort the brain with such perfumes, because the air seemed to be everywhere laden and reeking with the stench emitted by the dead and the dying, and the odours of drugs.
[ 025 ] Some again, the most sound, perhaps, in judgment, as they were also the most harsh in temper, of all, affirmed that there was no medicine for the disease superior or equal in efficacy to flight; following which prescription a multitude of men and women, negligent of all but themselves, deserted their city, their houses, their estates, their kinsfolk, their goods, and went into voluntary exile, or migrated to the country parts, as if God in visiting men with this pestilence in requital of their iniquities would not pursue them with His wrath wherever they might be, but intended the destruction of such alone as remained within the circuit of the walls of the city; or deeming, perchance, that it was now time for all to flee from it, and that its last hour was come.
[ 026 ] Of the adherents of these divers opinions not all died, neither did all escape; but rather there were, of each sort and in every place, many that sickened, and by those who retained their health were treated after the example which they themselves, while whole, had set, being everywhere left to languish in almost total neglect. [ 027 ] Tedious were it to recount, how citizen avoided citizen, how among neighbours was scarce found any that shewed fellow-feeling for another, how kinsfolk held aloof, and never met, or but rarely; enough that this sore affliction entered so deep into the minds of men and women, that in the horror thereof brother was forsaken by brother, nephew by uncle, brother by sister, and oftentimes husband by wife; nay, what is more, and scarcely to be believed, fathers and mothers were found to abandon their own children, untended, unvisited, to their fate, as if they had been strangers. [ 028 ] Wherefore the sick of both sexes, whose number could not be estimated, were left without resource but in the charity of friends (and few such there were), or the interest of servants, who were hardly to be had at high rates and on unseemly terms, and being, moreover, one and all, men and women of gross understanding, and for the most part unused to such offices, concerned themselves no further than to supply the immediate and expressed wants of the sick, and to watch them die; in which service they themselves not seldom perished with their gains. [ 029 ] In consequence of which dearth of servants and dereliction of the sick by neighbours, kinsfolk and friends, it came to pass--a thing, perhaps, never before heard of--that no woman, however dainty, fair or well-born she might be, shrank, when stricken with the disease, from the ministrations of a man, no matter whether he were young or no, or scrupled to expose to him every part of her body, with no more shame than if he had been a woman, submitting of necessity to that which her malady required; wherefrom, perchance, there resulted in after time some loss of modesty in such as recovered. [ 030 ] Besides which many succumbed, who with proper attendance, would, perhaps, have escaped death; so that, what with the virulence of the plague and the lack of due tendance of the sick, the multitude of the deaths, that daily and nightly took place in the city, was such that those who heard the tale--not to say witnessed the fact--were struck dumb with amazement. [ 031 ] Whereby, practices contrary to the former habits of the citizens could hardly fail to grow up among the survivors.
[ 032 ] It had been, as to-day it still is, the custom for the women that were neighbours and of kin to the deceased to gather in his house with the women that were most closely connected with him, to wail with them in common, while on the other hand his male kinsfolk and neighbours, with not a few of the other citizens, and a due proportion of the clergy according to his quality, assembled without, in front of the house, to receive the corpse; and so the dead man was borne on the shoulders of his peers, with funeral pomp of taper and dirge, to the church selected by him before his death. [ 033 ] Which rites, as the pestilence waxed in fury, were either in whole or in great part disused, and gave way to others of a novel order. [ 034 ] For not only did no crowd of women surround the bed of the dying, but many passed from this life unregarded, and few indeed were they to whom were accorded the lamentations and bitter tears of sorrowing relations; nay, for the most part, their place was taken by the laugh, the jest, the festal gathering; observances which the women, domestic piety in large measure set aside, had adopted with very great advantage to their health. [ 035 ] Few also there were whose bodies were attended to the church by more than ten or twelve of their neighbours, and those not the honourable and respected citizens; but a sort of corpse-carriers drawn from the baser ranks, who called themselves becchini and performed such offices for hire, would shoulder the bier, and with hurried steps carry it, not to the church of the dead man's choice, but to that which was nearest at hand, with four or six priests in front and a candle or two, or, perhaps, none; nor did the priests distress themselves with too long and solemn an office, but with the aid of the becchini hastily consigned the corpse to the first tomb which they found untenanted. [ 036 ] The condition of the lower, and, perhaps, in great measure of the middle ranks, of the people shewed even worse and more deplorable; for, deluded by hope or constrained by poverty, they stayed in their quarters, in their houses, where they sickened by thousands a day, and, being without service or help of any kind, were, so to speak, irredeemably devoted to the death which overtook them. [ 037 ] Many died daily or nightly in the public streets; of many others, who died at home, the departure was hardly observed by their neighbours, until the stench of their putrefying bodies carried the tidings; and what with their corpses and the corpses of others who died on every hand the whole place was a sepulchre.
[ 038 ] It was the common practice of most of the neighbours, moved no less by fear of contamination by the putrefying bodies than by charity towards the deceased, [ 039 ] to drag the corpses out of the houses with their own hands, aided, perhaps, by a porter, if a porter was to be had, and to lay them in front of the doors, where any one who made the round might have seen, especially in the morning, more of them than he could count; afterwards they would have biers brought up, or, in default, planks, whereon they laid them. Nor was it once or twice only that one and the same bier carried two or three corpses at once; but quite a considerable number of such cases occurred, one bier sufficing for husband and wife, two or three brothers, father and son, and so forth. [ 040 ] And times without number it happened, that, as two priests, bearing the cross, were on their way to perform the last office for some one, three or four biers were brought up by the porters in rear of them, so that, whereas the priests supposed that they had but one corpse to bury, they discovered that there were six or eight, or sometimes more. [ 041 ] Nor, for all their number, were their obsequies honoured by either tears or lights or crowds of mourners; rather, it was come to this, that a dead man was then of no more account than a dead goat would be to-day. From all which it is abundantly manifest, that that lesson of patient resignation, which the sages were never able to learn from the slight and infrequent mishaps which occur in the natural course of events, was now brought home even to the minds of the simple by the magnitude of their disasters, so that they became indifferent to them.
[ 042 ] As consecrated ground there was not in extent sufficient to provide tombs for the vast multitude of corpses which day and night, and almost every hour, were brought in eager haste to the churches for interment, least of all, if ancient custom were to be observed and a separate resting-place assigned to each, they dug, for each graveyard, as soon as it was full, a huge trench, in which they laid the corpses as they arrived by hundreds at a time, piling them up as merchandise is stowed in the hold of a ship, tier upon tier, each covered with a little earth, until the trench would hold no more. [ 043 ] But I spare to rehearse with minute particularity each of the woes that came upon our city, and say in brief, that, harsh as was the tenor of her fortunes, the surrounding country knew no mitigation; for there--not to speak of the castles, each, as it were, a little city in itself--in sequestered village, or on the open champaign, by the wayside, on the farm, in the homestead, the poor hapless husbandmen and their families, forlorn of physicians' care or servants' tendance, perished day and night alike, not as men, but rather as beasts. [ 044 ] Wherefore, they too, like the citizens, abandoned all rule of life, all habit of industry, all counsel of prudence; nay, one and all, as if expecting each day to be their last, not merely ceased to aid Nature to yield her fruit in due season of their beasts and their lands and their past labours, but left no means unused, which ingenuity could devise, to waste their accumulated store; [ 045 ] denying shelter to their oxen, asses, sheep, goats, pigs, fowls, nay, even to their dogs, man's most faithful companions, and driving them out into the fields to roam at large amid the unsheaved, nay, unreaped corn. [ 046 ] Many of which, as if endowed with reason, took their fill during the day, and returned home at night without any guidance of herdsman. [ 047 ] But enough of the country! What need we add, but (reverting to the city) that such and so grievous was the harshness of heaven, and perhaps in some degree of man, that, what with the fury of the pestilence, the panic of those whom it spared, and their consequent neglect or desertion of not a few of the stricken in their need, it is believed without any manner of doubt, that between March and the ensuing July upwards of a hundred thousand human beings lost their lives within the walls of the city of Florence, which before the deadly visitation would not have been supposed to contain so many people! [ 048 ] How many grand palaces, how many stately homes, how many splendid residences, once full of retainers, of lords, of ladies, were now left desolate of all, even to the meanest servant! How many families of historic fame, of vast ancestral domains, and wealth proverbial, found now no scion to continue the succession! How many brave men, how many fair ladies, how many gallant youths, whom any physician, were he Galen, Hippocrates, or Æsculapius himself, would have pronounced in the soundest of health, broke fast with their kinsfolk, comrades and friends in the morning, and when evening came, supped with their forefathers in the other world!
[ 049 ] Irksome it is to myself to rehearse in detail so sorrowful a history. Wherefore, being minded to pass over so much thereof as I fairly can, I say, that our city, being thus well-nigh depopulated, it so happened, as I afterwards learned from one worthy of credit, that on a Tuesday morning after Divine Service the venerable church of Santa Maria Novella was almost deserted save for the presence of seven young ladies habited sadly in keeping with the season. All were connected either by blood or at least as friends or neighbours; and fair and of good understanding were they all, as also of noble birth, gentle manners, and a modest sprightliness. In age none exceeded twenty-eight, or fell short of eighteen years. [ 050 ] Their names I would set down in due form, had I not good reason to withhold them, being solicitous lest the matters which here ensue, as told and heard by them, should in after time be occasion of reproach to any of them, in view of the ample indulgence which was then, for the reasons heretofore set forth, accorded to the lighter hours of persons of much riper years than they, but which the manners of to-day have somewhat restricted; nor would I furnish material to detractors, ever ready to bestow their bite where praise is due, to cast by invidious speech the least slur upon the honour of these noble ladies. [ 051 ] Wherefore, that what each says may be apprehended without confusion, I intend to give them names more or less appropriate to the character of each. The first, then, being the eldest of the seven, we will call Pampinea, the second Fiammetta, the third Filomena, the fourth Emilia, the fifth we will distinguish as Lauretta, the sixth as Neifile, and the last, not without reason, shall be named Elisa.
[ 052 ] 'Twas not of set purpose but by mere chance that these ladies met in the same part of the church; but at length grouping themselves into a sort of circle, after heaving a few sighs, they gave up saying paternosters, and began to converse (among other topics) on the times.
[ 053 ] So they continued for a while, and then Pampinea, the rest listening in silent attention, thus began: " Dear ladies mine, often have I heard it said, and you doubtless as well as I, that wrong is done to none by whoso but honestly uses his reason. And to fortify, preserve, and defend his life to the utmost of his power is the dictate of natural reason in every one that is born. Which right is accorded in such measure that in defence thereof men have been held blameless in taking life. [ 054 ] And if this be allowed by the laws, albeit on their stringency depends the well-being of every mortal, how much more exempt from censure should we, and all other honest folk, be in taking such means as we may for the preservation of our life? [ 055 ] As often as I bethink me how we have been occupied this morning, and not this morning only, and what has been the tenor of our conversation, I perceive--and you will readily do the like--that each of us is apprehensive on her own account; nor thereat do I marvel, but at this I do marvel greatly, that, though none of us lacks a woman's wit, yet none of us has recourse to any means to avert that which we all justly fear. [ 056 ] Here we tarry, as if, methinks, for no other purpose than to bear witness to the number of the corpses that are brought hither for interment, or to hearken if the brothers there within, whose number is now almost reduced to nought, chant their offices at the canonical hours, or, by our weeds of woe, to obtrude on the attention of every one that enters, the nature and degree of our sufferings. [ 057 ] And if we quit the church, we see dead or sick folk carried about, or we see those, who for their crimes were of late condemned to exile by the outraged majesty of the public laws, but who now, in contempt of those laws, well knowing that their ministers are a prey to death or disease, have returned, and traverse the city in packs, making it hideous with their riotous antics; or else we see the refuse of the people, fostered on our blood, becchini, as they call themselves, who for our torment go prancing about here and there and everywhere, making mock of our miseries in scurrilous songs. [ 058 ] Nor hear we aught but: Such and such are dead; or, Such and such are dying; and should hear dolorous wailing on every hand, were there but any to wail. [ 059 ] Or go we home, what see we there? I know not if you are in like case with me; but there, where once were servants in plenty, I find none left but my maid, and shudder with terror, and feel the very hairs of my head to stand on end; and turn or tarry where I may, I encounter the ghosts of the departed, not with their wonted mien, but with something horrible in their aspect that appals me. [ 060 ] For which reasons church and street and home are alike distressful to me, and the more so that none, methinks, having means and place of retirement as we have, abides here save only we; [ 061 ] or if any such there be, they are of those, as my senses too often have borne witness, who make no distinction between things honourable and their opposites, so they but answer the cravings of appetite, and, alone or in company, do daily and nightly what things soever give promise of most gratification. [ 062 ] Nor are these secular persons alone; but such as live recluse in monasteries break their rule, and give themselves up to carnal pleasures, persuading themselves that they are permissible to them, and only forbidden to others, and, thereby thinking to escape, are become unchaste and dissolute. [ 063 ] If such be our circumstances--and such most manifestly they are--what do we here? what wait we for? what dream we of? why are we less prompt to provide for our own safety than the rest of the citizens? Is life less dear to us than to all other women? or think we that the bond which unites soul and body is stronger in us than in others, so that there is no blow that may light upon it, of which we need be apprehensive? [ 064 ] If so, we err, we are deceived. What insensate folly were it in us so to believe! We have but to call to mind the number and condition of those, young as we, and of both sexes, who have succumbed to this cruel pestilence, to find therein conclusive evidence to the contrary. [ 065 ] And lest from lethargy or indolence we fall into the vain imagination that by some lucky accident we may in some way or another, when we would, escape--I know not if your opinion accord with mine--I should deem it most wise in us, our case being what it is, if, as many others have done before us, and are still doing, we were to quit this place, and, shunning like death the evil example of others, betake ourselves to the country, and there live as honourable women on one of the estates, of which none of us has any lack, with all cheer of festal gathering and other delights, so long as in no particular we overstep the bounds of reason. [ 066 ] There we shall hear the chant of birds, have sight of verdant hills and plains, of cornfields undulating like the sea, of trees of a thousand sorts; there also we shall have a larger view of the heavens, which, however harsh to usward, yet deny not their eternal beauty; things fairer far for epe to rest on than the desolate walls of our city. [ 067 ] Moreover, we shall there breathe a fresher air, find ampler store of things meet for such as live in these times, have fewer causes of annoy. [ 068 ] For, though the husbandmen die there, even as here the citizens, they are dispersed in scattered homesteads, and 'tis thus less painful to witness. [ 069 ] Nor, so far as I can see, is there a soul here whom we shall desert; rather we may truly say, that we are ourselves deserted; for, our kinsfolk being either dead or fled in fear of death, no more regardful of us than if we were strangers, we are left alone in our great affliction. [ 070 ] No censure, then, can fall on us if we do as I propose; and otherwise grievous suffering, perhaps death, may ensue. [ 071 ] Wherefore, if you agree, 'tis my advice, that, attended by our maids with al??? things needful, we sojourn, now on this, now on the other estate, and in such way of life continue, until we see--if death should not first overtake us--the end which Heaven reserves for these events. [ 072 ] And I remind you that it will be at least as seemly in us to leave with honour, as in others, of whom there are not a few, to stay with dishonour. "
[ 073 ] The other ladies praised Pampinea's plan, and indeed were so prompt to follow it, that they had already begun to discuss the manner in some detail, as if they were forthwith to rise from their seats and take the road, [ 074 ] when Filomena, whose judgment was excellent, interposed, saying: " Ladies, though Pampinea has spoken to most excellent effect, yet it were not well to be so precipitate as you seem disposed to be. Bethink you that we are all women; nor is there any here so young, but she is of years to understand how women are minded towards one another, when they are alone together, and how ill they are able to rule themselves without the guidance of some man. [ 075 ] We are sensitive, perverse, suspicious, pusillanimous and timid; wherefore I much misdoubt, that, if we find no other guidance than our own, this company is like to break up sooner, and with less credit to us, than it should. Against which it were well to provide at the outset. " [ 076 ] Said then Elisa: " Without doubt man is woman's head, and, without man's governance, it is seldom that aught that we do is brought to a commendable conclusion. But how are we to come by the men? [ 077 ] Every one of us here knows that her kinsmen are for the most part dead, and that the survivors are dispersed, one here, one there, we know not where, bent each on escaping the same fate as ourselves; nor were it seemly to seek the aid of strangers; for, as we are in quest of health, we must find some means so to order matters that, wherever we seek diversion or repose, trouble and scandal do not follow us. "
[ 078 ] While the ladies were thus conversing, there came into the church three young men, young, I say, but not so young that the age of the youngest was less than twenty-five years; in whom neither the sinister course of events, nor the loss of friends or kinsfolk, nor fear for their own safety, had availed to quench, or even temper, the ardour of their love. [ 079 ] The first was called Pamfilo, the second Filostrato, and the third Dioneo. Very debonair and chivalrous were they all; and in this troublous time they were seeking if haply, to their exceeding great solace, they might have sight of their fair friends, all three of whom chanced to be among the said seven ladies, besides some that were of kin to the young men. [ 080 ] At one and the same moment they recognised the ladies and were recognised by them: wherefore, with a gracious smile, Pampinea thus began: " Lo, fortune is propitious to our enterprise, having vouchsafed us the good offices of these young men, who are as gallant as they are discreet, and will gladly give us their guidance and escort, so we but take them into our service. " [ 081 ] Whereupon Neifile, crimson from brow to neck with the blush of modesty, being one of those that had a lover among the young men, said: [ 082 ] " For God's sake, Pampinea, have a care what you say. Well assured am I that nought but good can be said of any of them, and I deem them fit for office far more onerous than this which you propose for them, and their good and honourable company worthy of ladies fairer by far and more tenderly to be cherished than such as we. [ 083 ] But 'tis no secret that they love some of us here; wherefore I misdoubt that, if we take them with us, we may thereby give occasion for scandal and censure merited neither by us nor by them. " [ 084 ] " That, " said Filomena, " is of no consequence; so I but live honestly, my conscience gives me no disquietude; if others asperse me, God and the truth will take arms in my defence. [ 085 ] Now, should they be disposed to attend us, of a truth we might say with Pampinea, that fortune favours our enterprise. " [ 086 ] The silence which followed betokened consent on the part of the other ladies, who then with one accord resolved to call the young men, and acquaint them with their purpose, and pray them to be of their company. [ 087 ] So without further parley Pampinea, who had a kinsman among the young men, rose and approached them where they stood intently regarding them; and greeting them gaily, she opened to them their plan, and besought them on the part of herself and her friends to join their company on terms of honourable and fraternal comradeship. [ 088 ] At first the young men thought she did but trifle with them; but when they saw that she was in earnest, they answered with alacrity that they were ready, and promptly, even before they left the church, set matters in train for their departure. [ 089 ] So all things meet being first sent forward in due order to their intended place of sojourn, the ladies with some of their maids, and the three young men, each attended by a man-servant, sallied forth of the city on the morrow, being Wednesday, about daybreak, and took the road; nor had they journeyed more than two short miles when they arrived at their destination. [ 090 ] The estate lay upon a little hill some distance from the nearest highway, and, embowered in shrubberies of divers hues, and other greenery, afforded the eye a pleasant prospect. [ 091 ] On the summit of the hill was a palace with galleries, halls and chambers, disposed around a fair and spacious court, each very fair in itself, and the goodlier to see for the gladsome pictures with which it was adorned; the whole set amidst meads and gardens laid out with marvellous art, wells of the coolest water, and vaults of the finest wines, things more suited to dainty drinkers than to sober and honourable women. On their arrival the company, to their no small delight, found their beds already made, the rooms well swept and garnished with flowers of every sort that the season could afford, and the floors carpeted with rushes. [ 092 ] When they were seated, Dioneo, a gallant who had not his match for courtesy and wit, spoke thus: " My ladies, 'tis not our forethought so much as your own mother-wit that has guided us hither. [ 093 ] How you mean to dispose of your cares I know not; mine I left behind me within the citygate when I issued thence with you a brief while ago. Wherefore, I pray you, either address yourselves to make merry, to laugh and sing with me (so far, I mean, as may consist with your dignity), or give me leave to hie me back to the stricken city, there to abide with my cares. " [ 094 ] To whom blithely Pampinea replied, as if she too had cast off all her cares: " Well sayest thou, Dioneo, excellent well; gaily we mean to live; 'twas a refuge from sorrow that here we sought, nor had we other cause to come hither. [ 095 ] But, as no anarchy can long endure, I who initiated the deliberations of which this fair company is the fruit, do now, to the end that our joy may be lasting, deem it expedient, that there be one among us in chief authority, honoured and obeyed by us as our superior, whose exclusive care it shall be to devise how we may pass our time blithely. [ 096 ] And that each in turn may prove the weight of the care, as well as enjoy the pleasure, of sovereignty, and, no distinction being made of sex, envy be felt by none by reason of exclusion from the office; I propose, that the weight and honour be borne by each one for a day; and let the first to bear sway be chosen by us all, those that follow to be appointed towards the vesper hour by him or her who shall have had the signory for that day; and let each holder of the signory be, for the time, sole arbiter of the place and manner in which we are to pass our time. "
[ 097 ] Pampinea's speech was received with the utmost applause, and with one accord she was chosen queen for the first day. Whereupon Filomena hied her lightly to a bay-tree, having often heard of the great honour in which its leaves, and such as were deservedly crowned therewith, were worthy to be holden; and having gathered a few sprays, she made thereof a goodly wreath of honour, and set it on Pampinea's head; which wreath was thenceforth, while their company endured, the visible sign of the wearer's sway and sovereignty.
[ 098 ] No sooner was Queen Pampinea crowned than she bade all be silent. She then caused summon to her presence their four maids, and the servants of the three young men, and, all keeping silence, said to them: " That I may shew you all at once, how, well still giving place to better, our company may flourish and endure, as long as it shall pleasure us, with order meet and assured delight and without reproach, I first of all constitute Dioneo's man, Parmeno, my seneschal, and entrust him with the care and control of all our household, and all that belongs to the service of the hall. [ 099 ] Pamfilo's man, Sirisco, I appoint treasurer and chancellor of our exchequer; and be he ever answerable to Parmeno. While Parmeno and Sirisco are too busy about their duties to serve their masters, let Filostrato's man, Tindaro, have charge of the chambers of all three. [ 100 ] My maid, Misia, and Filomena's maid, Licisca, will keep in the kitchen, and with all due diligence prepare such dishes as Parmeno shall bid them. [ 101 ] Lauretta's maid, Chimera, and Fiammetta's maid, Stratilia we make answerable for the ladies' chambers, and wherever we may take up our quarters, let them see that all is spotless. And now we enjoin you, one and all alike, as you value our favour, that none of you, go where you may, return whence you may, hear or see what you may, bring us any tidings but such as be cheerful. " [ 102 ] These orders thus succinctly given were received with universal approval. Whereupon Pampinea rose, and said gaily: " Here are gardens, meads, and other places delightsome enough, where you may wander at will, and take your pleasure; but on the stroke of tierce, let all be here to breakfast in the shade. "
[ 103 ] Thus dismissed by their new queen the gay company sauntered gently through a garden, the young men saying sweet things to the fair ladies, who wove fair garlands of divers sorts of leaves and sang love-songs.
[ 104 ] Having thus spent the time allowed them by the queen, they returned to the house, where they found that Parmeno had entered on his office with zeal; for in a hall on the ground-floor they saw tables covered with the whitest of cloths, and beakers that shone like silver, and sprays of broom scattered everywhere. So, at the bidding of the queen, they washed their hands, and all took their places as marshalled by Parmeno. [ 105 ] Dishes, daintily prepared, were served, and the finest wines were at hand; the three serving-men did their office noiselessly; in a word all was fair and ordered in a seemly manner; [ 106 ] whereby the spirits of the company rose, and they seasoned their viands with pleasant jests and sprightly sallies. Breakfast done, the tables were removed, and the queen bade fetch instruments of music; for all, ladies and young men alike, knew how to tread a measure, and some of them played and sang with great skill: so, at her command, Dioneo having taken a lute, and Fiammetta a viol, they struck up a dance in sweet concert; [ 107 ] and, the servants being dismissed to their repast, the queen, attended by the other ladies and the two young men, led off a stately carol; which ended they fell to singing ditties dainty and gay. [ 108 ] Thus they diverted themselves until the queen, deeming it time to retire to rest, dismissed them all for the night. So the three young men and the ladies withdrew to their several quarters, which were in different parts of the palace. There they found the beds well made, and abundance of flowers, as in the hall; and so they undressed, and went to bed.
[ 109 ] Shortly after none the queen rose, and roused the rest of the ladies, as also the young men, averring that it was injurious to the health to sleep long in the daytime. They therefore hied them to a meadow, where the grass grew green and luxuriant, being nowhere scorched by the sun, and a light breeze gently fanned them. So at the queen's command they all ranged themselves in a circle on the grass, and hearkened while she thus spoke:
[ 110 ] " You mark that the sun is high, the heat intense, and the silence unbroken save by the cicalas among the olive-trees. It were therefore the height of folly to quit this spot at present. Here the air is cool and the prospect fair, and here, observe, are dice and chess. Take, then, your pleasure as you may be severally minded; [ 111 ] but, if you take my advice, you will find pastime for the hot hours before us, not in play, in which the loser must needs be vexed, and neither the winner nor the onlooker much the better pleased, but in telling of stories, in which the invention of one may afford solace to all the company of his hearers. [ 112 ] You will not each have told a story before the sun will be low, and the heat abated, so that we shall be able to go and severally take our pleasure where it may seem best to each. Wherefore, if my proposal meet with your approval--for in this I am disposed to consult your pleasure--let us adopt it; if not, divert yourselves as best you may, until the vesper hour. "
[ 113 ] The queen's proposal being approved by all, ladies and men alike, she added: [ 114 ] " So please you, then, I ordain, that, for this first day, we be free to discourse of such matters as most commend themselves to each in turn. " [ 115 ] She then addressed Pamfilo, who sat on her right hand, bidding him with a gracious air to lead off with one of his stories. And prompt at the word of command, Pamfilo, while all listened intently, thus began:
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Greek track star Voula Papachristou has been suspended from her country's Olympic team, after she made a comment about Africans who live in Greece. The comment was widely noticed on her Twitter feed, and resulted in her removal from the London 2012 roster.
On Twitter, Papachristou also reportedly expressed support for the right-wing Greek political party Golden Dawn, particularly its views on immigration.
The Hellenic Olympic Committee said that Papachristou "is suspended after her comments that go against the values and ideals of Olympism."
Papachristou, 23, had been expected to contend for a medal in the triple jump. She had not yet traveled to London. Today, she posted an apology on her Facebook page:
"I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account. I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights.
"My dream is connected to the Olympic Games and I could not possibly participate if I did not respect their values. Therefore, I could never believe in discrimination between human beings and races.
"I would like to apologize to all my friends and fellow athletes, who I may have insulted or shamed, the National Team, as well as the people and companies who support my athletic career. Finally, I would like to apologize to my coach and my family."
The International Olympic Committee has strict rules governing athletes' and coaches' use of social media.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Judge rules against NCAA in O'Bannon antitrust case over athletes' rights to compensation
A federal judge has ruled that the NCAA can't stop college football and basketball players from selling the rights to their names and likenesses, opening the way to athletes getting payouts once their college careers are over.
In a landmark decision issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled in favor of former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon and 19 others in a lawsuit that challenged the NCAA's regulation of college athletics on antitrust grounds.
In a partial victory for the NCAA, though, Wilken said the NCAA could set a cap on the money paid to athletes, as long as it allows at least $5,000 a year for big school football and basketball players.


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Islamic Republic of Iran The iRan | |||||
| |||||
Motto: "For Shah and Country" | |||||
Anthem: "We will really shake you up when we blow ourselves up" by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini | |||||
Capital | Tehrangeles | ||||
Largest city | TheyRan | ||||
Official language(s) | Persian, Twitter, Blog, informal Persian | ||||
Government | Anti Arabic Republic of Anti Jew | ||||
National hero(es) | Xerxes The Great, Darius The Great, Cyrus-The Great Amir Mohammad, Imam Khomeini | ||||
Declaration of Independence |
Always | ||||
Currency | Oil (ريال) | ||||
Religion | Worshiping of dead Arabs that Living Arabs don't like a.k.a. Shia Islam (.33%) Worshiping of dead Jew that living Jews don't like aka Jews (.33%), Hindus (0.33%), Jewish (99%), Bahai (officially non-existent) |
"We only have two exports-Pistachio nuts and massive international ill-feeling."
"This isn't my fault."
iRan (Curvy Lines: عاصمة الرؤوس النووية العالمية Nuclear Capital of the World; Persian: سرزمین بین دو جنگ The Land Between Two Wars; Turkish: Gelecekteki Amerikan Savaş Bölgesi Future American War Zone) is the superest, most non-nuclear, peace-loving, and un-nuclear of the non-nuclear superpowers in the world. It has more young, beautiful girls under black curtains per capita than the puny Zionist enemy of Israel. Also, it is definitely not enriching weapons-grade uranium; and even if it were, it's totally allowed to. In addition, Iran boasts some of the best freedom of the press and freedom of assembly in the world. It also offers the most religiously tolerant living in the whole world. It does not not kill Sunnis and Tehran is full of Sunni mosques. Jews, Baloch and Arab minorities have significant representation in the government. Iranian mullahs preach love and peace. Finally, it does not have a nuclear weapon program, nor did it ever have, does have, will have, or plan to have any kind of program for any kind of weapon that is at all or will ever be nuclear. Ever. For these reasons, Allah selected Iran to guide the world away from Zionism and toward spiritual purity. Everyone else would like to know where to get crack as good as the shit Mr. Ahmanineenaenajaadd [sic] got. If the United States of America runs out of people to blow up, Iran is next on the list. Shame on US and A for shameful invading of innocent countries who mind their own business and happen to all shoot at protesters, beat journalists, and threaten their neighbors (execpt Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Red China, they are the "good" guys. I-ran was the first country to legalise homosexuality as most Ayatollahs have guy-crush themselves. In 1979, i-ran became the first and only country to criminalize wearing of a tie, thanks to Khomeini. Iranians eat books, which is why the Israelis eat them on Wednsday, which in the arab world is "Pray at dawn, then blow shit up day".
There are much signs of education in Iran. However, most of the Supreme Leaders are illiterate.
There are very few subjects taught at school, therefore the few that are taught are learned by the students to new extremes. Subjects taught can be categorized in the following fields: atomic energy, nuclear physics, projectiles and particle dynamics, warfare and Jewbashing. All other subjects are related one way or another to those mentioned in the specified categories. One notable example of scientific advancement, announced by the truthful, holocaust-denying president himself, was the discovery and production of nuclear energy by a 13 year old schoolgirl... no, sorry, that'd too big a lie, she was 16. Phew. Now it's believable. In truth, she is 19.
Iran is world renowned for their holocaust denial programs throughout their University system. One particular science class loosely translated: "The Jews were never made into soap", proves these facts scientifically. Shame on US and A for shameful doing of the Zionists' dirty work by spreading the myth of the Holocaust to justify the occupation of al-Quds!
Iran is actively using and developing advanced technologies in energy and other fields. Since oil is generally regarded as obsolete relic of the early industrial revolution (and therefore sold away cheaply to the world market), Iran concentrates on developing most sophisticated nuclear energy plants. Hence the creation of the Iranian Foundation for the Advancement of the Atom. This was in direct alignment to the progressive policies of the Iranian government, which in turn was always encouraged by Iran's best friend and ally, the United States. Shame on US and A for helping its proxies around the world!
Nuclear Bunnies Programme[edit]
A great deal of hype and propaganda has come from the little Satan (Israel), the Great Satan (America), and the Greatest Satan (Israel) about Iran's non-existent, alleged, and totally absent and non-existent "nuclear" "weapons" "programme." Such a program does not and could not exist; the Ayatollah said so himself, and he is the emissary of Allah on earth. So I think he would know.
The I.A.E.A. (Israeli-American Empire Association), also known as the International Atomic Energy Association, is a mouthpiece for Zionist propaganda, and anyway they have confirmed that not only does Iran not have a nuclear weapons program (which we don't, and anyway, we would deserve it if we did because the US gets to have them), but that Iran has been 100% cooperative and forthright about our nuclear program, which by the way, doesn't exist, and certainly not for military purposes even if it did. Every few months or so we get a very friendly letter from the I.A.E.A. informing us that they will come to inspect a pre-designated nuclear site (which isn't even nuclear, that's Zionist imperial arrogance; and even if it were, it's not military in dimension). They show up and start asking meddling questions that demonstrate conclusively to us that they are brainwashed by disrespectful Jewish-American lies about Iran's alleged nuclear intentions, such as "If this room is just a janitor's closet, how come it has highly enriched isotopes all over it?" So we tell them, "Don't worry, man, it's cool," so they smile and write down our answer and walk away. See? Not even the Zionist enterprise can find an iota of evidence that indicates that our non-nuclear uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz and Qom are nuclear, or military, or illegal. In fact, they don't even exist. There are no cities called Natanz and Qom. Those are Israeli fabrications.
In fact, I would encourage you benighted American sheeple to check out for yourself the latest IAEA report on our not nuclear not weapons not programme, which described our cooperation as "...Not good enough..." Guess you shouldn't believe everything your dishonest, propagandistic, Jewish, corporate media tells you.
Also, Israel has nuclear weapons too, so if you care about our nuclear weapons (which we don't have) but don't care about Israel's then that makes you a racist Zionist pig who hates all Palestinian people everywhere.
Still not convinced? Okay, let's scattershot a few more compelling arguments and see what sticks:
- Iran is religiously tolerant theocracy because we have a Jewish, Christian and Zoroastrian member of parliament. Therefore we don't have a nuclear weapons program, and anyway, we deserve one.
- We have not invaded another country for 200 years. Therefore we don't have a nuclear weapons program, and anyway, we deserve one.
- America wrongly invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Therefore we don't have a nuclear weapons program, and anyway, we deserve one.
- America caused the financial crisis. Therefore we don't have a nuclear weapons program, and anyway, we deserve one.
- America caused global warming. Therefore we don't have a nuclear weapons program, and anyway, we deserve one.
- Israel wrongly invaded Gaza and is occupying Palestine. Therefore we don't have a nuclear weapons program, and anyway, we deserve one.
- America is the only country that has used a nuclear bomb in war. Therefore we don't have a nuclear weapons program, and anyway, we deserve one.
- Noam Chomsky says that America is a failed state. Therefore we don't have a nuclear weapons program, and anyway, we deserve one.
- It was America who overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh (a secular social-democrat just like our current leaders) in 1953. Therefore we don't have a nuclear weapons program, and anyway, we deserve one.
In conclusion, Iran does not have and does not seek nuclear weapons. Anything that bears a coincidental resemblance to a nuclear weapons program is in fact a peaceful civilian nuclear bunnies program (to produce medical isotopes). Shame on US and A for spreading these malicious Zionist lies.
Iranian Space Program[edit]
Iran has launched its first domestically built satellite into orbit in February of 2009. They can now bombard any given coordinate of the world with Cholew-Kebab utilizing this domestically developed space technology!In the year 2044, the Supreme Leader will get exiled by his evil twin brother Kwan, who works for the Sith. The Supreme leader will fly to Jupiter. The Iranians have also recently invented the super-technologically advanced iRan. It features several remote controlled rocket launchers, a machine gun, and a fully-charged bazooka. "I asked my scientists to invent this because I hate it when those UN officials disrupt my music-time," the angry President rambled when interviewed about personal interests, "And I'm going to use it on you if you don't leave."
The UN had reportedly wondered and investigated how an Islamic country could enrich Uranium and were horrified to find that it is in fact Ahminajad's cum that starts the chemical reaction. Shame on US and A for shameful doubting of the magnificence of our dear leader's seed!
History of Iran[edit]
Located to the east, south-east corner of middle-earth, the current leader of Iran is Ayatollah-II prince of darkness. He is more commonly known as "Geda" Ali Shah, head of the Khamenei dynasty. The area we know today as Iran was called "Purrrrsia," in ancient times because the country's founder, Miley Cyrus the Extremely Undeniably Great, invented an early form of kitten huffing. The name was later Anglicized to "Persian" and then shortened again to "Iran".
Iran was originally a state in a much larger country called Weran. Weran was comprised of several states that are today their own independent nations. For example, the country known today as Turdmenistan was at one time a state in Weran known as Theyran.
Theyran was named that to mark and celebrate the running of the Greek soldiers from the advancing Persian army during the first Marathon run in 500 BC. The modern name for this celebrated city is Tehran.
Modern day Kuwait was known as Sheran and modern day Iraq was known as Rerun. Eventually, however, Weran was broken up in The Great Running War.
Twentieth Century History[edit]
In 1905 Reza Shah Pahlavi (a.k.a. Khoda Beyamorzi) (a.k.a. Yoda) was forced by a broad coalition of clerics, bazaar merchants, auto mechanics, and students to introduce broad reforms. Eventually, he buckled, and a new constitution was drafted. For some reason, it was modeled after the constitution of Belgium. This all changed, however, when in 1951 Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh led a democratic coup against the shah. After taking power, Mossadegh led a campaign of nationalistic reforms which culminating in the nationalization of the Anglo Iranian oil company. Great Britain, which naturally had more claim to Iranian oil than Iran, convinced the US government that Mossadegh was a communist and therefore needed to be replaced with a more suitable nationalist. Shame on US and A for shameful participation in Jewish-British overthrow of shameful secular-democratic regime!
For the next 30 something years, Iran was ruled by Shahanshah Yadayadayada, the King of Kings, and he named countless streets and cities after himself. He considered himself to be nice smelling and believed nothing could ever possibly happen to his rule as king. Meanwhile, after being resurrected by the Devil himself after considerable torture in a large green lighted underworld similar to a continuous orgy, The Ayatollah, formerly known as Saruman the lord of Isengard, was given his new title (the Ayatollah) by the Devil, and was instructed to lead an evil revolution in Iran which resulted in millions fleeing the country. After a decade or so of evil doings in Iran, the Ayatollah was called back to the depths of hell by the Devil once again as he was creating too much competition for the Devil; He was quite frankly making the Devil look bad (less evil actually) by comparison.
In 1980, Iran was invaded by Iraq, by disgruntled employee Saddam 'Da Man' Hussein who had changed the region's name from Iran to Iraq in order to steal some sand by pretending it was a whole other country. Eight years later, several million teenagers were dead, and no one had conquered the sand. The UN declared the sand the winner. This event was recently repeated by US and British forces attempting to steal the same expanse of sand, but the granulated earth has proved too resolute in the face of conflict.
Homosexuality in Iran[edit]
It is taught to children at a very young age to reject homosexuals, mock them, and if they do not commit suicide due to stress, to stone them to death in public in a traditional game of stone the jew, homosexual, woman, or infidel.
Polity and Key Figures in Iran's Leadership[edit]
The official form of Iranian Government is crazyashellkillthejewsdeathtoisrealism.
Iran is officially ruled by President I'mmanude Ineedtojihad , (although many senior GOP senators believe it to be pronounced oochnidunijed), but much of the power rests with his lover, former President Khatami. The guardian council also play harmonicas as well as some sort of role. Iran has become a world leader in homosexual rights, with same-sex marriage not only permitted, but required by law (see: gay rights in Iran).
Secretary of Tourism Ahdahmi "Big Ass" Muhummod-ibn-Jafar is noteworthy for increasing tourism by over 3% when he changed Iran's official Department of Tourism slogan from "Stay a while... stay FOREVER!" to the more inviting "Even the lip service is compulsory!"
The unelected leadership of Iran (Note: This is a point of dispute, as the government of Iran insists God put them there), constantly promises its citizens heaven and earth literally, without any proof. If someone ever dares to ask a questions in regards to their authority, the nearest Mullah/Ayatolla normally start babbling verses from Quran in Arabic which no one in Iran understands before issuing a death sentence to the person asking the question.
A major public policy of Iran is that the leaders believe that they, as good responsible leaders, must force everybody to go to heaven. The devil (aka The Great Satan) does not want to be put out of business, and seeks to eliminate the holy leaders of Iran at all costs.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the deputy minister of sanitation and current President of Iran, has proven himself time and time again to be overwhelmingly popular, recently winning re-election with 110% of the popular and deceased vote.
Iran's one and only political party is the ISJFA (Iran Shall Jihad For Allah) party, which maintains a political ideology of authoritarianism, free hugs, and enriching uranium so that Israel may be destroyed by the holy fire of Allah (aka ICBMs).
Contrary to what the Devil-Jew media may tell you, Democracy is alive and well in the Islamic Republic. The concept of "one man, one vote" is one of Iran's most honored traditions. In the recent election, for example, all Iranians were free to vote for one man. Shame on US and A for shameful participation in post-election riots!
Electoral Fraud[edit]
None. President Ahmadinejad has repeatedly refuted allegations of voting irregularities, In response to evidence of excessive balloting (which gave him the 110% victory), he insisted 'fraudulence never happened' and therefore protesters must be wiped off the streets. However, after calls to cease violence against opposition protesters, he simply noted that 'we don't have protesters in Iran'. Shame on US and A for its slanderous insults against perfectly non-corrupt and legit electoral commission of Iran!
Mr Ahmadinejad is an avid admirer of both Tupac and former President George W. Bush. There are rumors from WikiLeaks that the two are secretly golfing buddies and Bush's lawyer in the Bush vs Gore decision was sent to convince the Iranian protesters that the vote was simply too close to call.
Mr. Ahmadinejad declined to become hunting buddies with Dick Cheney , citing "health and personal safety reasons", according to Wikileaks.
In the name of Allah, the use of the name of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this paragraph is prohibited. Shame on US and A for objecting to Iran's use of state censorship!
US Invasion of Iran[edit]
Since the Iranian nuclear program is observed to be growing at a rapid pace, well beyond what the Jews who control the US government had thought was possible, there is rumors that a US invasion of iran is inevitable. However, the US is stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan, and therefore is missing the required manpower to engage Iran militarily. The Iranians themselves on the other hand, do not fear the American government because they keep being told by the Ayatollah that the invisible Imam is on their side which is all a crock of crap designed to fool the Iranian people. The invisible Imam, Imam Mahdi, is Shia's twelfth and final Imam, who is said to have disappeared in the shit-hole of an outhouse (known in Iran as, 'Mostaraab'!) when he was six years old. He is supposed to come out of the hiding from the shit-hole all nicely pickled when U.S. invades Iran. Although there is one big concern, will Arnold Schwarzenegger join the U.S. army?! If so then the Iranians will become worried because even Osama Bin Laden himself claimed that he feared Arnold the Great. Lara Croft is also one of the Yankees the Iranians fear. She has proved her military talents in Tomb Raider 1,2, & 3. Although Ahmadinejad being on Iran side would be a force for the Israeli's to reckon with. Although note that the Jews would love the news of war or even just simple tension with Iran, because the Jewish oil futures speculators, is seen here quoted as saying "No way the U.S. is gonna invade Iran."]] in cooperation with the North American oil companies love to use this excuse to suck people out of their money. This is yet another reason why the Jews love president Ahmadinejaad.
The Iranians have begun an intensive weapons program, arming their soldiers with dustbin lids and oars, allowing them to lull the dumb-as-fuck U.S. troops into thinking they're watching 300, allowing the Iranians to get close enough to hit the Troops, hopefully giving them a headache before being blown to tiny bits. The situation was antagonized when a bunch of Iranians in row boats armed with pea shooters threatened to destroy the U.S.'s orbiting battle station of doom by throwing rocks at it. The CIA reports that Iran has developed atomic weapons capable of destroying a house of cards at 20 yards, and emitting radiation strong enough to give anyone within three yards a slight itch in the crotch. Clearly this madness must end. Shame on US and A for ending the madness!
See also[edit]
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
- Zoroaster
- Middle East
- Shah Abbas the Great
- Persia
- Iranian
- Zorro
- Mazda
- Israeli Self-Destruction
- Prince of Persia


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Out and About Audio
Aah, summertime. Lather on sunscreen, pump up the bike tires, and you're almost set. What's missing? Music! And we're not talking about those antisocial earbuds that cocooned you through the dark winter. We're talking about actual speakers that you can take along with you on outings.
We have three candidates for your consideration. Nothing big and stuffy — rather, a few summery, portable models. Any one of them can liberate you from earbuds, but they differ widely in price and features. Which one will best fit your midsummer milieu? Read on.
Nixon TPS
Aside from our 37th president, you've probably never heard the name Nixon. But that's also the name of a niche company known for high-end watches, handbags, and jackets that has ventured into the world of portable audio with its TPS. In terms of dimensions, the TPS approximates a brick — one that contains a stereo power amplifier, stereo speakers, and a rechargeable battery. The aluminum chassis is available in silver, black, or gray. You plug in your source using the hardwired minijack cable and voilá, you have a portable playback system. To charge the TPS, plug it into your computer's USB port using the hardwired USB cable. In a tricky bit of design, both cables can be wrapped around a spindle and hidden from view under a plastic cap. Concealed inside the spindle is a minijack connection that can be used to daisy-chain two units together for enhanced stereo playback. The concealable cables give the TPS a slick appearance, but we wish it could operate wirelessly. That would be cool. Alas, it cannot.
Operation is extremely simple: slide down the big button at the end, check for the red-glowing power LED, and enjoy your tunes. Besides the power switch, there are no controls, not even for volume. Nixon says the battery will provide up to 6 hours of playback on a complete charge, but we got a long-lived 20 hours.
Sonically, we weren't sure what to expect from a fancy watch company, but it soon became apparent that the TPS was more a Timex than a Rolex. Specifically, we energized its stereo speakers with Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun." Her lead vocals sounded clean and bright, but there was a bit of fuzz when we cranked up our source device's volume control, and there wasn't much stereo separation. We could soak up the sun, but there wasn't much bass to bask in or impact from the catchy drum track.
The Nixon TPS is a low-cost portable boombox, and it sounds like one. It gets the job done and we liked its no-brainer simplicity, but it's hardly presidential material.
$80; nixon.com


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J and I arrived at Joseph-Beth very, very early. So early, they didn't have anything set up yet. So I picked up my reserved copy of the book and we walked around the SouthSide Works for a while, then came back to watch the bookstore employees set up chairs and pounced on seats -- in the first row. J left once to get something to drink, but I pretty much stayed put and worked on the sock. Here is my Harlot-style shot of the sock and where she would soon be talking:
Then she was there, wearing the Bohus -- which, I must tell you, is absolutely stunning in person. I think I must knit one.


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Branding & Identity Materials in Tucson: Strengthen Your Brand Identity
The most valuable asset of any organization is its brand. Building a strong brand helps a company develop recognition and identity awareness, driving more engagement that ultimately leads to sales. If your brand identity is weak or inconsistent, however, you'll be overlooked or forgotten by prospective customers.
Having a strong corporate brand means taking a 360-degree look at all your marketing collateral, both offline and online. Signage, business cards, displays, website, promotional products, collateral, advertising; your brand should be reflected clearly and consistently across all of your marketing efforts.
Color palette, type fonts, graphics and other design elements – everything comes together to support your company's image.
What does your brand say about you? Whatever your company's personality, the experts at Allegra Print Mail Signs Tucson can create for you the business branding and identity materials you need to make a great first and lasting impression.
Contact Allegra Print Mail Signs Tucson today to get started.
Allegra BrandBUILDER gives you customized, fast and affordable options for building or revamping your brand through professionally designed company identity materials. Choose from three, tiered packages to give your organization a whole new look and feel — and ultimately add power to your company branding and drive new sales.
Popular business branding and identity services include:
- Logo design
- Color recommendations
- Marketing collateral development
Contact Allegra Tucson - Park today to learn more about our BrandBUILDER packages.


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For more information go to www.libdems.org.uk/privacy.


text: TU and the Combined Federal Campaign: A Winning Combination for Coldwater Fisheries Conservation Since 1991 TU has participated in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), the main source of charitable giving among federal employees and military personnel. To date, TU has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the CFC. Those donations provide critical funding to TU's initiatives on behalf of trout and salmon. We hope you'll remember to designate Trout Unlimited (agency #11255) when making your annual CFC contribution. Your gift will help TU do even more for coldwater conservation and education. Support TU by designating agency #11255.