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November 23, 2016 - presented by
The kit comes with congatec's first
SMARC 2.0 module – the conga-SA5 – and everything developers
need for the immediate evaluation of the new SMARC 2.0
standard as well as the latest Intel® Atom™ processor
generation. Application engineers of connected Industry 4.0
and wireless IoT devices will love the option of the
integrated wireless interfaces with standardized antenna
connectors on board.
Solid Sands announces its latest update for the SuperTest
Mondrian Release, a radical advancement from previous versions of
SuperTest, providing customers with superior C mathematical library
tests. T...
Lear how to use ANSYS tools for the development of the sensors
and certified software, their connection with third party tools for
car environment simulation and theircapability to integrate
everything as a full virtual prototype.
The 5th MTCA workshop for industry and research will take place
from December 7 - 8, 2016 at DESY in Hamburg. Prior to the workshop
there will be an interoperability and integration session on
Mouser Electronics is now stocking the MRF24WN0MA and MRF24WN0MB
wireless modules from Microchip. The low-power, 2.4 GHz, IEEE
802.11b/g/n-compliant transceiver modules interface with Microchip
Advantech unveils its new comprehensive range of embedded
computing platforms with the latest Intel Atom Processor E3900
series, Intel Celeron Processor N3350 and Intel Pentium Processor
N4200 (former...
This inexpensive evaluation
platform is designed to help you jump into the world of
sensorless motor control with on-board emulation program
and debug through real-time JTAG interface. Extend your
LaunchPad with application-focused BoosterPacks. All 40
pins allow easy access to all
The freely configurable and modular MEN Train Control System
menTCS can be used for all kinds of critical rolling-stock control
functions such as Automatic Train Operation (ATO) and Automatic
Train Pr...
Kontron announced its new embedded mini-ITX motherboard with
Intel Core i3, i5, i7 or 6th Generation Intel Xeon E3 14 nm Quad
Core CPUs. Its extended features and higher performance make the new
At electronica 2016 Maxim showcased a
completely automated digital factory that tested regulation
sized soccer balls. This demo epitomized an Industry 4.0
factory, locally controlled by the
The new remote IO module series from Advanio for the top-hat
rails is called Wolf. The new product series with the striking name
Wolf consists of several analogue and digital IO modules for up to
16 c...
During this webinar we will explain you the use of CoolMOS CE in
lighting applications, which helps you to save cost and enables a
short design time. You will learn what CoolMOS CE is about,
how CoolMOS CE helps to achieve cost-savings, efficiency
improvements, PCB size reductions, etc.
This paper presents an overview of the forces driving the IoT,
the 10 major markets being disrupted, and the importance of
ecosystems and partners in monetizing the IoT. It also explains the
critical need to innovate business models.
ADLINK's EOS-1300 is a compact vision system with 6th
Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3 processors and 4
independent PoE ports. EOS-1300 provides real vision
management with PoE, programmable FPGA, built-in
encoder, trigger, and de-bounce filter. The incorporated
FPGA not only offloads CPU tasking for increased
productivity, but also delivers precise and flexible
control of time-deterministic
SEGGER introduces Wi-Fi modules (2.4GHz and 5GHz supported) for
its emPower Cortex-M Evaluation Platform. Getting a project with
Wi-Fi off the ground has never been easier. Evaluation software is
NXP Semiconductors announce the
availability of the industry's first true single-chip
multi-protocol wireless MCU with comprehensive enablement –
the Kinetis KW41Z MCU family. While
Macronix unveiled its new-generation 12 pin-count bus interface.
This breakthrough design keeps the high speed, high efficiency
features of OctaFlash and uses only 12 pins, sharing the same data
With the TQ Medical-PC platform, TQ is now also focussing on the
field of customer-specific HMI. The Medical-PCs in the device
platform are fanless panel PCs for the medical sector, particularly
for u...
RX71M Revelation Kit – The new HMI Rapid Prototype Board.
Excellent choice for Human Machine Interfaces project at low
cost, with a state of the art GUI is the widely scalable 32bit
RX700 produc...
Manhattan Skyline presents the efusA9, a COM with NXP i.MX 6
processor. The i.MX 6 Cortex-A9 CPU has high processing power and
excellent multimedia features (3D graphics, 1080p Decoder, H.264
Designers can now easily develop high-performance fitness and
medical wearable devices with enhanced functionality using the
MAX32630 and MAX32631 ARM Cortex-M4F microcontrollers from Maxim
During electronica SECO presents the latest roadmap for the
embedded market: boards (Qseven®, COM Express™, SBCs and
Maker boards), integrated systems with a new LCD Panel PC and
IoT g...
Microchip announces an extension to its 32-bit PIC32MZ EF
microcontroller family with its first automotive-grade PIC32 MCUs
and a higher-speed variant operating over the industrial temperature
range. ...
Effectively addressing embedded software security requires a
combination of people, process, and technology. No single
tool, technique, or process will ever provide a complete solution.
This paper explains why some commonly used approaches to security
typically fail and outlines a development strategy for getting
security right.
OPC UA is a multi-platform, plug & play Information Exchange
Standard for industrial smart automation and cloud networking that
is facilitating the convergence of OT and IT. CodeMeter Embedded
fully supports the OPC UA defined Security Profiles and
configurations and provides even stronger security for modern M2M
Hall-effect magnetic sensors are an integral part of modern
electronics, bridging physical movement to digital
information. This technical dive explores the technology,
devices on the market, uses, and fundamental application
The LEC-7338, running on Intel Celeron J1900, is a SFF box PC
that offers quad-core processing power, dual 2.5" HDD/SSD drive bays
(RAID 0/1) and a generous I/O interface for video-heavy
ATP Electronics announces a complete product line of its next
generation storage solutions designed, manufactured, and tested from
NAND wafer to finished SSD. New product lines include new
European Portwell Technology announces the new JAVI Panel PC
series, a fan-less and robust Panel PC with extraordinary I/O
flexibility. To meet various needs and to make it perfectly fit for
various a...
IEI Integration introduces the latest generation of fully-rugged
PDA - MODAT-532. The MODAT-532 is the combination of a 1D/2D imager
barcode scan engine and IP 67 compliant portable device, making it
Mentor Graphics announced the Nucleus real-time operating system
support for the 64-bit ARMv8-A architecture. This architecture
support enables the Nucleus RTOS to leverage the benefits of
Sierra Wireless announced the availability of the FX30, the
industry's smallest, most flexible and rugged programmable cellular
gateway. It provides a pre-certified, integrated embedded
WinSystems announced a new line of single board computers with
dual Ethernet that feature the Intel Atom Processor E3900 Series for
high-performance industrial IoT and other embedded systems. The
Published by ICC Media,
Rauwagnerstr.5, 85560 Ebersberg, Germany To be
removed from this, please click here


text:
Switching from Jekyll to Hugo
Hugo has much faster build times than Jekyll and offers a more powerful design experience. We recommend Hugo in general for static site generation.
Download Hugo binary
The Hugo Jekyll importer was broken for me, so I made my own Jekyll to Hugo converter
Clone a theme into your site, here we use "hugo-flex" theme
cd ~/myHugoSite
git submodule add https://github.com/de-souza/hugo-flex themes/hugo-flex
add to
config.yaml a line:
theme: hugo-flex
Categories, Tags
You may need to rewrite the internal page links to categories and tags, something perhaps like:
find content -type f -name "*.md" -exec sed -i 's,](/category/#,](/categories/,g' {} +
find content -type f -name "*.md" -exec sed -i 's,](/tag/#,](/tags/,g' {} +
I prefer using .yaml over .toml for website configuration, and you can choose with Hugo. To convert options you might see in examples between TOML and YaML etc. consider this web converter
overriding theme files
A key design pattern in Hugo is overriding theme files without editing the theme files themselves that are in a Git submodule. Use the lookup order for partials and templates. This will keep your web design clean, minimal and DRY.
Markdown syntax
Hugo's default Markdown parser is considerably stricter than Jekyll. As a result, you may need to fix pages that don't as strictly conform to Markdown syntax.
redirect page URL
the Hugo front matter tag
aliases is equivalent to Jekyll `redirect_from
- /old-url/

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
Terrier coaching staff recognized for milestone victory
Prior to Saturday's home game against Winnipeg, the Terrier coaching staff of Blake Spiller, the team's head coach and general manager, assistant coach Paul Harland and goalie coach Jim Tkachyk, were recognized for 500 career regular season victories, a feat accomplished in the Terriers' 6-2 win over Selkirk Nov. 3.
"All these positions are important in an organization. Ultimately it is our responsibility to assist our players along to their next stage of life," says Spiller. "We all enjoy the game and competing and having success is a bonus."
The trio has been working together since 2005 and in that time have won eight MJHL championships and the RBC Cup in 2015 as Canadian Junior Hockey League national champions.
Since Spiller assumed the position as Terrier bench boss, the club has compiled a 505-181-4-34-32 regular season record – which equates to an impressive .712 win percentage. The four ties included on that stat line is a testament to the group's commitment to the Terriers, as ties haven't been acknowledged since the 2006/07 season.
Spiller currently sits in fourth place in Manitoba Junior Hockey League career coaching victories – just 14 wins back of Ken Pearson for third. Doug Stokes is the MJHL's all-time wins leader with 670.


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When I started Harpin On Rugby back in August 2008, Leinster were about to embark on yet another season in Munster's shadow, still cursed by the "all style and no substance" tag, with a few far less diplomatic nicknames thrown in for good measure.
But still the season-ticket sales were growing by the year, and gradually a new phrase was being used to describe the capital's provincial rugby set-up : "sleeping giant". It was clear that sooner or later the team would have to produce a standard of rugby on the pitch to match the size of their support.
So when Brian O'Driscoll spoke of "trying to create some sort of dynasty" in his post-match interview with Will Greenwood at Twickenham on Saturday, it wasn't so much a demonstration of arrogance on his part, rather it was an apt description of a process that involved much planning, hard work and dedication to the pursuit of excellence by himself, Michael Cheika and of course now Joe Schmidt that has rightly come to fruition with the unbelievable achievement of three European Championships in four years.
And if you just take into account the final score of this match, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it came from a dominance by the Leinster offence, but that is far, far from the case. A team that was once known purely for its "champagne" brand of back-play has evolved to a point where it can dominate a major final thanks partly to five tries by its forwards but most of all, that fearsome fifteen-headed blue monster of a defence.
For me the deciding of this contest came towards the end of the third quarter. Leinster fans were accused during the week of presuming the match was won before a ball was kicked, but I can assure you the vast majority who have any kind of knowledge of the sport still weren't comfortable when the score was 24-9, especially when the Ulster attacking threat, buoyed as it was by the presence of Ian Humphreys, put an all-out assault on the Leinster try-line.
That very same assault did eventually result in Dan Tuohy crossing in the corner, but only after a exhausting series of events that included turnovers being handed back to them, an intricate lineout move, a spot of blatant holding by Chris Henry on Sean O'Brien off a scrum (thankfully the man-of-the-match chose not to react as he did with Nyanga at the Aviva last year) and an insane amount of phases by the men in white.
And it was the decision to take that scrum which was key. Conventional rugby wisdom would suggest that when you're fifteen points down and twenty minutes to go, a penalty directly under the posts should be kicked to bring your side within a two-converted try margin. But that convention doesn't take into account the fifteen-headed blue monster.
Clearly Ulster captain Johann Muller's thinking was that if his side was going to need two tries against that defence, since they were so deep in the Leinster 22 it was important to get one then because who knows if or when they'd be back there again. His decision to opt for the scrum was absolutely right, but in the end it took so much out of his side that their power-bar was reduced to practically zero and the five points from the try, however deserved, were quickly wiped out by two Sexton penalties down the other end and to all intents and purposes the match was dead.
I really hope the Ulster fans are proud of their heroes. Emblazoning the players' match jerseys with their initials was a nice touch and no matter what the result their value is surely immeasurable. For the first ten minutes it was a white tide coming at the Leinster line much as the yellow Clermont one had in the semifinal and just as I expected they took the lead.
But sadly although he had shown plenty in recent weeks to prove he deserved to be there, young Paddy Jackson clearly wasn't quite ready to produce the goods at this level, and who knows how things would have gone had the more experienced Humphreys started, or indeed if Pienaar had played at 10 with Paul Marshall at scrum-half.
Still though, anyone who suggests they were somehow "played off the park" will have to answer to me. They gave it everything they had, thanks to some outstanding displays all round but particularly by John Afoa, Paddy Wallace and the ever-improving Darren Cave.
It's just that despite their determination and ability they seemed to have that air about them that comes with an imminent change in the head coach's office – something Munster have suffered from this season as did Leinster in 2010. Overall though, the Ulstermen are simply at an earlier stage of their evolution and you can be sure it won't be long before their passionate supporters will have cause to stand up for them again.
Once more I'll leave it to the professional journos to give you detailed descriptions of the five Leinster tries, but one moment has to be highlighted before all others : "that" offload by Brian O'Driscoll.
We weren't having things all our own way going forward by any stretch, but the comforting thing was, as it has been at many stages throughout this amazing season, the offensive mistakes were ours. With our solid defence behind us we knew that with perseverance the try-scoring chances would come and as it turned out they did.
But after all the pre-match hype about the importance of the set-piece, it was ironic that a scrum against the head led to the second try, yet although the move was started by Cian Healy's strength in the tight and finished by his bull-headed determination, in a sport where space must be created by ingenuity and flair, O'Driscoll's backhanded offload to Sean O'Brien, so brilliantly captured by that photo, was nothing short of world class.
And of course it wasn't just SOB & BOD who deserved the plaudits. Awesome the defence may have been, but still the individuals deserve to be mentioned, and nobody has gotten their work done so efficiently without standing out in a Leinster jersey than Kevin McLaughlin. He may have been there for his lineout skills but he was certainly taking his blindside responsibilities just as seriously. Officially our "Unsung Hero Of the Year", perhaps we should be singing his praise a lot more.


text: The Rock It dance sneaker is perfect for dancers who need more support. This shoe is well padded and has patented arch support. The contoured foot bed is removable. Designed with ventilation, a turn spot, and a split sole, these shoes are great for teaching, hip-hop, jazz, ballroom, and Zumba. The soles are non-marking. Women begin sizing with street shoe. Men start 2 sizes up.


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When you recharge your prepaid mobile airtime using electronic top up service at Desta Telecom shops or our sub distributors you will get additional airtime. We are working to engage additional sub distributors and make the […]Read More
Desta Telecom Products Authorized Distributor is a member company of Desta Group. We distribute Ethio Telecom products to sub distributors across the northern region. We distribute all types of Ethio Telecom's pre-paid cards ( 5 […]Read More
Any individuals who want to be a legal sub distributor can contact us here.


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George Hacks partners with the Veterans Health Administration
Last month, the Veterans Health Administration became an official partner of George Hacks. We are proud to join the VHARead more.
Recap | 2nd Annual Medical Solutions Hackathon
At 9:00 AM sharp on January 26th, students began filing into the B1 Level of SEH for the 2nd AnnualRead more.
George Hacks All-Women's Team Takes 3rd Place at Pitch George Competition
The team of Caitlyn Pratt, Sydney Bailes, Shirali Nigam, and Trish Mikolajczyk—all from the BME Department—took Third Place and aRead more.
Recap | George Hacks partners with Lantuun Dohio for Human Trafficking Hackathon
Earlier this month, George Hacks wrapped up its first major event of the year, a two-week human trafficking hackathon inRead more.
George Hacks Launches the Innovators in Action Program
George Hacks launched the Innovators in Action program two weeks ago when we sent 7 students to VCU's 3rd AnnualRead more.
Recap | George Hacks Kogan Makerspace
George Hacks co-hosted a makerspace event to showcase GWU's growing ecosystem of innovation. We opened up interactive activities to engageRead more.
George Hacks visits Halcyon House
Thank you to the women entrepreneurs from the Saudi Arabian Halcyon Incubator Intensive for hosting George Hacks at their PitchRead more.
George Hacks Founder, Konstantin Mitic, and his BME team take first place at 2018 Pelton Award for Outstanding Senior Design
George Hacks congratulates Konstantin Mitic, Paige Botie, Tania Singh, Trisha Talapatra, and Sarah Sopher for their first place win atRead more.
Recap | Inaugural Medical Solutions Hackathon
George Hacks' Inaugural Medical Solutions Hackathon hosted GW students and other undergraduate students from Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia toRead more.


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Many investors let experts make investment decisions for them. Those who want to invest in securities and trade them can do so online via e-trading. There are now many online trading platforms available. They can differ in terms of their user interface, their functions, fee structures and the stock exchanges they offer. With a bit of research, you can find out which platform most suits your needs. With e-trading, PostFinance customers have access to a modern, intuitive online trading platform.
How to invest your money yourself
Investors who want to invest their own money themselves can do so relatively easily these days. There are now many online platforms where you can trade securities. We'll explain how you can trade online yourself and what to look out for.
What you should be aware of when investing yourself
Once you have successfully registered in e-trading, you can automatically access a securities custody account and the standard accounts (CHF, EUR and USD). You can also add other foreign currency accounts yourself at any time. Now you're able to trade securities yourself. Note the tips below:
Define your investment strategy
Even if you are investing your money yourself online, you should define an investment strategy and stick to it.
Spread your risk.
Regardless of whether the strategy you are implementing is more conservative or more high-risk: diversify your portfolio to spread your risk.
Keep an eye on the markets
Those who want to want to trade individual securities themselves need to regularly and continually track the financial markets and individual companies. This will have an influence not only on your positions but also the currencies they are held in.
Order types
Familiarize yourself with the various order types. How do they differ from one other? Which ones are available to you?
Stick to your strategy
Buy and sell securities at the right time. Buy and sell when your strategy requires it, and not whenever the mood takes you or when you receive an alleged sure-fire tip from a friend. You can find out how to avoid psychological pitfalls when making investments in the article "Psychological pitfalls to avoid when investing". This doesn't have to mean that it's not worthwhile managing your own investments – as long as you stick to your strategy. "Why shares are worthwhile".
Find out more about fees
Various fees apply when investing: compare the fees you have to pay for a custody account and individual trades (custody account fees, brokerage fees and stock exchange fees). This is why you need to be well informed. If in doubt ask for assistance at your bank or from a customer advisor. This will help you save on fees.
Manage your own portfolio or purchase your favourite shares
Trading shares independently and managing your own portfolio isn't as complicated as it sounds. Online trading platforms can help you achieve your personal investment goals in the simplest, most intuitive way. They offer an attractive alternative to the traditional advisory services from professionals who address your financial situation or handle investment decisions for you in a bank branch. For example, online platforms can also be used if you want to purchase a specific security that you are interested in or which is from a specific sector – that is, if you don't harbour any ambitions to carry out regular trades yourself.


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Thanks for registering for our Party on Facebook!
Take a moment to mark your calendar now:
May 24th 6:00-PM MDT
During our Party on Facebook we will be interacting LIVE with our followers inside of our private, wives-only Facebook group! Add in a bunch of must-have giveaways, Facebook Lives, and digital PARTY FAVORS for all and you have a recipe for a good time!
Click HERE to make sure you are part of our "For Better & Forever" Facebook Group
Watch your email for more details and information soon!


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No time like the present to get a job or boost your CV
Column by Jaz Abeysekera, marketing manager at Grantham College
With so many new year's resolutions being talked about in offices or at school, there's no better time to act on those promises.
Whether you're looking for a new job or simply wanting to boost your CV to better your future career prospects; experience is increasingly essential.
It doesn't matter whether you're a young person who is still at school or college or you're someone who is part way through your career, showing that you have lots of skills both socially and professionally is crucial. Work experience provides many benefits, giving you skills and experience that will allow you stand out to potential employers as well as helping you choose the right sector to work in.
Whilst having good grades and a wealth of knowledge will always be highly respected, more and more businesses and companies now look to your work experience to see what you are capable of. Whether it's paid or voluntary work, having already worked in a line of work similar to what you would like to go into in the future shows that you will already know the basics, it shows that you have tried it and you are serious about your application and that you are committed to your work. Not only does it boost your CV, it differentiates you from others, it boosts confidence, improves work ethic and gets you into the routine of working life. Work experience also equips you with certain soft skills such as team work, communication skills and commercial awareness, all of which are sought after by employers.
Work experience doesn't necessarily have to be in an area that's related to what you're studying currently or what you would like to go into in the future but it certainly helps. From an employer's perspective, seeing that a potential employee has already been in a similar environment, doing the sorts of things that they could potentially be doing when they work with you is always a bonus.
Having done work experience abroad is even more of a bonus to both you and an employer.
An employer can see that you are willing to step out of your comfort zone, you are willing to try new things and can stand on your own two feet in an unfamiliar place. For you, you get to experience a new country and its culture, see how businesses differ abroad, make foreign friends and maybe you'll even learn a new language.
Look at programmes like Erasmus which many colleges offer for all expenses paid work experience abroad. There are also other companies which aren't linked to education providers which will help you find voluntary work abroad.
Read moreOpinion
More by this authorGrantham Reporter


text:
Da da da dahh de dah de dah dah, de dahh de dah de dah . . .
Match of the day:d=4,o=5,b=100:8c,8f,8a,8c.6,16a,8a,8a,8a,a,8a#,8c.6,16a,8g,8a,8a#,8c,8e,8g,8a#.,16g,8g,8g,8g,g,8a,8a#.,16g,8f,8g,8a,8c,8f,8a,8c.6,16a,8a,8a,8a,a,8a#,8c.6,16a,8a#,8c6,d6,8d6,8e6,8f6,16f6,8e6,16e6,8d6,8f6,8c6,8c6,8d6,8c6,16a#,8a,16a,8g,f
Sounds fairly close on the program I'm playing it on, but may need editing a bit.
(I've just bought a Stylophone, but I'll be taking it to bits for a future project #;¬)
RTTTL for Match of the Day? Answered
Can anyone direct me to a RTTTL file for match of the day? I really need it :)
Flannel UK
Da da da dahh de dah de dah dah, de dahh de dah de dah . . .
ya simpsons theme
That really isn't helpfuf.


text:
|Type of Publication:
|Publication status:
|URI (citable link):
|Girndt, Antje
|Year of publication:
Sexual selection is a strong evolutionary force shaping the traits determining individual reproductive success. Such traits can be crucial for reproductive success before or after copulation (pre- versus post-copulatory sexual selection). However, little is known about how primary and secondary sexual traits vary in relation to male age in socially monogamous but genetically promiscuous (i.e. extra-pair) species. This is a particularly pressing question because extra-pair sires are more often older rather than younger males, which suggests that male age reflects genetic quality to females. Yet, older males are senescent males and produce lower quality offspring. Thus, females should actually avoid mating with older males. Furthermore, it is assumed that males that mate with multiple females achieve fitness benefits (higher lifetime reproductive success) compared to males that mate monogamously. This assumption underlies sexual selection theory. Additionally, it provides a straightforward explanation of why males in socially monogamous species engage in extra-pair mating: it maximises their reproductive success. Surprisingly, this classic claim has not been thoroughly quantified and thus awaits validation.
In this thesis, I examined age-related variation in reproduction. Particularly, I studied how male age relates to mating strategies, sperm traits and reproductive success. I further quantified the fitness consequences of a males mating promiscuously over males mating monogamously. My study species was the house sparrow, Passer domesticus, a predominantly socially monogamous species. I studied captive and wild sparrows, both of exact known ages. Avian studies commonly rely on discriminating between first-year and older breeders only. Such a dichotomous discrimination of age prohibits analyses at all life history stages. Further, I quantified the lifetime reproductive success of wild sparrows. Knowledge of lifetime reproductive success is crucial for understanding, for instance, the fitness consequences of mating decisions.
Extra-pair sires are commonly older males. It has been hypothesized that this is the result of older males having a pre-copulatory advantage over younger males. Chapter 2 put this hypothesis to the test and shows that male age seems unrelated to pre-copulatory male competition. Further, females did not base their pre-copulatory mate choice on male age, which refutes the idea of male age signalling genetic quality to females. Instead, postcopulatory mechanisms seem to underlie the pattern of extra-pair sires being older males.
One of such post-copulatory mechanisms is sperm competition where sperm of multiple males compete for fertilisation of a female's eggs. In birds, sperm can be sampled with relative ease and it is assumed that applying different methods of sperm collection does not affect sperm measurements. Chapter 3 experimentally tested whether two common methods of sperm collection indeed do not affect sperm measurements. Contrasting the previous assumption, sperm length varied according to sperm collection method. Thus, the practice of mixing sperm collection methods should be avoided or, at least, statistically controlled for.
Chapter 4 followed up on the hypothesis that post-copulatory mechanisms might explain why extra-pair sires are often older males. The results showed that sperm morphology and indices of relative testes size seemed to be unaffected by male age. Yet, when considering the number of sperm that reached the egg of females, older males delivered more sperm than younger males. Hence, older males might have a post-copulatory competitive advantage over younger males.
Chapter 5 answers the fundamental question of whether extra-pair paternity maximises male fitness. Surprisingly, the field of evolutionary ecology lacks empirical data supporting this classic claim. The results reveal that a promiscuous male mating strategy does not maximise male fitness, which contrasts expectations from sexual selection theory and calls for reconsidering the validity of this basic assumption.
With this thesis, I thus contributed to clarifying the factors underlying the relationship between extra-pair paternity and male age. In sum, I found that older males have higher extrapair paternity not because of pre-copulatory male competition or female choice but probably because of a post-copulatory advantage. I also updated the current protocol of avian sperm sampling and advocated a standardised method to enhance comparability across and within studies. Finally, I quantified the fitness consequences of extra-pair paternity and discovered that it does not maximise male fitness.
|Examination date (for dissertations):
|Apr 11, 2018
|Dissertation note:
|Doctoral dissertation, University of Konstanz
|Subject (DDC):
|570 Biosciences, Biology
|Link to License:
|In Copyright
GIRNDT, Antje, 2018. Age-associated variation in reproduction and consequences of mating strategies in male house sparrows, Passer domesticus [Dissertation]. Konstanz: University of Konstanz
@phdthesis{Girndt2018Ageas-42416, title={Age-associated variation in reproduction and consequences of mating strategies in male house sparrows, Passer domesticus}, year={2018}, author={Girndt, Antje}, address={Konstanz}, school={Universität Konstanz} }


text: Robby Gallaty @Rgallaty Robby Gallaty is the Senior Pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee. He was radically saved out of a life of drug addiction on November 12, 2002. In 2008, he began Replicate Ministries to equip and train men and women to be disciples who make disciples. He is also the author of Growing Up: How to Be a Disciple Who Makes Disciples (2013), Firmly Planted: How to Cultivate a Faith Rooted in Christ(2015), Rediscovering Discipleship: Making Jesus' Final Words Our First Work (2015), Foundations: A 260-Day Bible Reading Plan for Busy Believers (2015), and The Forgotten Jesus: How Western Christians Should Follow an Eastern Rabbi (2017). Robby completed his Masters of Divinity Degree in Expository Preaching in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Preaching in 2011 from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Today, Robby's gospel conviction and evangelistic zeal drive him to passionately "make disciples who make disciples." Robby and his wife, Kandi, have two young sons: Rig and Ryder. Robby Gallaty's Resources Culture ERLC Podcast Episode Shepherding the flock: Pastoral ministry and cultural engagement by David E. Prince Daniel Darling Robby Gallaty Jimmy Scroggins Bryan Loritts Many pastors are afraid to speak to cultural issues, which is a detriment to the flock they're shepherding. More importantly, there's a lack of discipleship that trains Christians to think biblically about the issues of our neighborhoods. A panel of... Continue... Faith ERLC Podcast Episode Making disciples who engage culture by Robby Gallaty Trying to navigate our way through this ever changing and challenging culture that we live in can be difficult. At the ERLC National Conference, Robby Gallaty gave a message titled, "Making Disciples who Engage Culture." He says that a reformation... Continue... « »


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As I'm gradually chipping away at things, my list currently looks like this:
- Fill, sand, undercoat and paint window frame in Little bedroom.
- Install curtain rod in Little Bedroom.
- Sand and paint exterior of hall cupboard
- Remove remaining wallpaper from hall for plastering.
- Sand and paint door frames.
- Fill, sand and paint front door
- Knock down kitchen wall.
(The last one is wishful thinking). I need to email the builder.
As I'm away most weekends and have a full time job, things are progressing very slowly.


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As large pieces of machinery, forklifts are dangerous and practicing safety with your forklift truck and operators should never be taken lightly. When operating your forklift in Irving, there are guidelines that must be followed. While daily safety forklifts can seem tedious, they are of immense importance and should be made a top priority to ensure the safety of your workers and pedestrians in your workspace.
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"I hope they have a girl, six or seven," said May Belle. "I need somebody to play with."
"You got Joyce Ann."
"I hate Joyce Ann. She's nothing but a baby." (2.4-6)
Here, the characters' expectations about friends are revealed: that they should be the same gender and the same age. While this is a typical attitude toward friendship that a lot of us might share, it's also a reminder that, by narrowing categories for friendship like this, we might miss out. If Jess stuck to these criteria, he wouldn't be able to become great friends with Leslie.
The person slid off the fence and came toward him. "I thought we might as well be friends," it said. "There's no one else close by." (2.49)
Moving from the previous idea, the idea that Leslie doesn't appear overly-girly right away – Jess can't even tell if she's a girl or a boy – might contribute in the long run to Jess's willingness to be friends with her. She doesn't read as "girl" or "boy," but as a "person" and potential friend. The other thing to notice here is that she makes the first move – she's the one who reaches out to Jess, not the other way around. She seems kind of diffident, or shy, here, through her use of "might" and her explanation that "there's no one else" around.
He nodded and smiled again. She smiled back. He felt there in the teachers' room that it was the beginning of a new season in his life, and he chose deliberately to make it so. (4.15)
This is a really cool description of the moment when you first become friends with someone and you realize that it's happening. Here, Jess also has the power of agency. He "cho[o]se[s] deliberately" to have this thing happen, to create this "new season." For someone like him, without resources or much encouragement, it must feel awesome to take control and introduce such a positive thing into his life.
For the first time in his life he got up every morning with something to look forward to. Leslie was more than his friend. She was his other, more exciting self – his way to Terabithia and all the worlds beyond. (4.138)
Like the "new season" (4.15) discussed above, Jess discovers that his friendship with Leslie is constantly bringing him new things and discoveries. She brings joy and excitement to his routine and helps him get excited about experiencing life "for the first time." We can't think of much higher praise to give someone than when Jess says Leslie is not only a part of him but a "more exciting self" – that through knowing her and being her friend, he can get into "all the worlds beyond" what he used to know.
He was angry, too, because it would soon be Christmas and he had nothing to give Leslie. It was not that she would expect something expensive; it was that he needed to give her something as much as he needed to eat when he was hungry. (6.6)
In contrast to the commercial aspects of some Christmas-time gift giving – like May Belle's desire for the Barbie, for example – Jess's desire to give Leslie a gift isn't about displaying his wealth or generosity, or about feeling bad that he doesn't have as much money as she does. Something deep inside him "need[s] to give her something" – because he's her friend, he feels this compulsion to give to her and to make her happy any way he can. We never hear him describe what he wants for Christmas, we only hear him worry about what to get Leslie and how to show her that she matters to him.
He wanted to tell her how proud and good she made him feel, that the rest of Christmas didn't matter because today had been so good, but the words he needed weren't there. (6.23)
The power of Jess and Leslie's friendship is such that it can heal even big wounds and unhappy things like his disappointing family Christmas. Jess's family can't give him what he gave Leslie, or what she gave him. They want to help but they fall short, and that makes them mad. It's not easy or natural, like Leslie's excitement about the dog that Jess gives her for the holiday. Instead, Jess has to turn to Leslie to "feel" "proud and good" – the kinds of feelings that usually come from family but here come from a friend.
There in their secret place, his feelings bubbled inside him like a stew on the back of the stove--some sad for her in her lonesomeness, but chunks of happiness, too. To be able to be Leslie's one whole friend in the world as she was his – he couldn't help being satisfied about that. (7.112)
Jess compares the combination of his feelings for Leslie to a "bubbl[ing] […] stew." Great metaphor, right? This gives us a vivid picture of how his feelings are churning and turning around inside him, evenly mixing between the positive and negative. Even as Jess feels bad for her because she doesn't have other friends, he's happy that she feels as strongly about their friendship as he does.
"She loved you, you know." He could tell from Bill's voice that he was crying. "She told me once that if it weren't for you…" His voice broke completely. "Thank you," he said a moment later. "Thank you for being such a wonderful friend to her." (12.13)
While the timing of this isn't the best – Jess can't really take anything in because of his grief, and immediately starts thinking about how Leslie would've laughed at this – it confirms the news he was so glad for earlier. Their friendship was pure and good, and so important. He mattered to Leslie just as much as she mattered to him. She loved him.
She was scraping at the mud on her bare legs. "I just wanted to find you, so you wouldn't be so lonesome." She hung her head. "But I got too scared." (13.35)
We knew it… May Belle was ready to be Jess's friend all along. He just wasn't yet ready to see it. There was no room in his mind or spirit to treat her like an equal and friend instead of a little sister. May Belle's trying to give him something because he's "lonesome," just like he wanted to give Leslie a great present. Both of them are acting generously towards their friends without thinking about other ulterior motives.
Sometimes like the Barbie doll you need to give people something that's for them, not just something that makes you feel good giving it. Because Mrs. Myers had helped him already by understanding that he would never forget Leslie. (13.57)
Once again, friendship is tied to the idea of generosity. Giving people the things they need is an act of larger friendship. By giving Mrs. Myers praise on Leslie's behalf later in life, Jess thinks he will be thanking Mrs. Myers for assisting him in handling his grief, and also honoring both his memory of Leslie and of his friendship with her.
When you were the only boy smashed between four sisters, and the older two had despised you ever since you stopped letting them dress you up and wheel you around in their rusty old doll carriage, and the littlest one cried if you looked at her cross-eyed, it was nice to have somebody who worshiped you. Even if it got unhandy sometimes. (1.8)
Here the narrator moves into second person to describe Jess's place in his family. Since most of the book is in third person limited omniscient (see "Narrator Point of View" for more), this is unusual. It has the effect of putting readers into Jess's shoes and forcing us to really empathize with his position.
And May Belle would pop her buttons. Her brother was the fastest, the best. That ought to give the rest of the first grade something to chew their cuds on.
Even his dad would be proud. (1.20-21)
Jess's ambition to run fastest is fostered by a desire to please his family. In ascending order, he'll have the glory of being the fastest; the sister he likes best, May Belle, will "pop her buttons"; and "even his dad [will] be proud." That's the most exciting thing about the fantasy of winning – getting approval and acknowledgment from his dad.
Sometimes he felt so lonely among all these females – even the one rooster had died, and they hadn't yet gotten another. With his father gone from sunup until well past dark, who was there to know how he felt? (2.29)
Jess feels like an alien in his mostly female family. Everyone on the farm is female, even the livestock. The only other guy is his dad who's never there. So what this really tells us is that Jess's dad seems like an absent parent and Jess craves his father's approval and attention. Without his dad around, he feels even more isolated and alone.
Durn lucky kid. She could run after him and grab him and kiss him. It made Jess ache inside to watch his dad grab the little ones to his shoulder, or lean down and hug them. It seemed to him that he had been thought too big for that since the day he was born. (2.39)
Jess is jealous of his siblings because he feels like their dad is more loving and affectionate with them. They get the attention he craves. Yet he has to act like a "man," which seems to mean here that he doesn't get hugs and can't spontaneously demonstrate or ask for physical attention or reinforcement.
Lord, it hurt his guts to realize that it was Brenda who was his blood sister, and that really, from anyone else's point of view, he and Leslie were not related at all. (6.5)
We can see here that Jess's feeling about what constitutes family and whom he's closest to in the "real world" doesn't jive with what an outsider might think when just looking in. Brenda, his actual relation, would seem closer to him than his dear friend Leslie, even though that's so far from the truth it's laughable.
It wasn't one of those big sets that they advertised on TV, but it was electric, and he knew his dad had put more money into it than he should have. But the silly cars kept falling off at the curves until his father was cursing at them with impatience. Jess wanted it to be OK. He wanted so much for his dad to be proud of his present, the way he, Jess, had been proud of the puppy. (6.43)
Poor Jess and poor Jess's dad. Even though this present cost more than the Aarons could afford, it's still relatively cheap: it doesn't even work that well. Because it's flawed, Jess's dad is embarrassed and angry: it points to how much money they don't have and how, even when they do more than they can afford, it's still not enough. Somehow, Jess was able to get around this and give Leslie a present that transcend categories of money, but his father has not yet learned how to do so.
"What are you kids doing?" It was the same words that Jess's mother might have used, but it didn't come out the same way. Judy's eyes were kind of fuzzed over as she spoke, and her voice sounded as though it were being broadcast from miles away. (9.13)
Well, we know all about Jess's absent father, and faded mother, and here we see Leslie's mother is absent in a different way. She's there, in the same house as they are, yet she's also not there. Her brain is somewhere else. She makes all the right motions and says the same thing Jess's mother might have, but it doesn't mean the same thing somehow. For one of the first times, we realize that Leslie might have a similar problem to the one that Jess has, just in a different form.
He wondered what it would be like to have a mother whose stories were inside her head instead of marching across the television screen all day long. (9.23)
Jess's mother doesn't come off too well here in comparison to Leslie's – Leslie's is creative and preoccupied in the quest for establishing new knowledge, while Jess's is preoccupied by emptying her mind and letting other people's ideas fill it.
Suddenly his mother let out a great shuddering sob. "O my God. O my God." She said it over and over, her head down on her arms. His father moved to put his arm around her awkwardly, but he didn't take his eyes off Jess. (10.72)
For most of the book, we see Jess's parents through his biased lens, and see them in a negative light – especially in comparison to Leslie's parents, or to Leslie and Jess's own actions. But here we're reminded of their deep love for Jess as we see their fear that he was in danger and their relief that he's OK.
He tried to run faster, but his father passed him and stopped the pickup just ahead, then jumped out and ran back. He picked Jess up in his arms as though he were a baby. (11.10)
This is, finally, the physical affection Jess wanted at the beginning of the book and felt like he couldn't have. But, just as he gets to be the fastest runner when it doesn't matter anymore, here Jess is so grief-stricken over the loss of Leslie that his father's affection doesn't have the positive impact it might have had under more normal circumstances. Affection is still tied to the idea of youth rather than growing up or maturity, as Jess's father cradles him "as though he were a baby."
He would like to show his drawings to his dad, but he didn't dare. When he was in first grade, he had told his dad that he wanted to be an artist when he grew up. He'd thought his dad would be pleased. He wasn't. (2.13)
Poor Jess. At May Belle's age he had larger ambitions than just being a runner, and his dad squashed them. This did more damage to Jess than his dad probably knew. Even though Jess still loved to draw, it became more of a secret thing, and even the encouragement of Miss Edmunds wasn't enough to get Jess to defy his father and be more open about it. It's his friendship with Leslie that helps him recapture that desire to make art.
Jess's face went hot. "Sure," he said recklessly. "Why not?" He turned deliberately toward Leslie. "Wanna run?" he asked.
"Sure." She was grinning. "Why not?"
"You ain't scared to let a girl race are you, Fulcher?" (3.64-66)
Jess turns the tables on his frenemy Gary and accuses him of cowardice so that Leslie can compete in the race too. This shows us how the merest accusation of being fearful can be a powerful motivator. Nobody wants to look like a coward, and sometimes that makes people act foolishly instead of bravely. Here, though, it's definitely brave and right to let Leslie run in the race. We're all about equality, and hope you are too.
Lord, he was such a coward. How could he be all in a tremble just listening to Mrs. Myers read about it? He was worse a baby than Joyce Ann. His dad expected him to be a man. And here he was letting some girl who wasn't even ten yet scare the liver out of him by just telling what it was like to sight-see under water. Dumb, dumb, dumb. (4.43)
Here we have this really interesting connection of manliness to bravery. There's a stereotype here that "be[ing] a man" means not being a "coward." Jess compares himself unfavorably with Leslie, who he calls "some girl," because she's describing something he sees as brave because he'd be scared to do it himself. What Jess doesn't realize yet is that men get scared, too – and that's totally OK. Everyone does from time to time. He shouldn't be embarrassed about it – sometimes there are good reasons to listen to your fear and hesitate.
"You're just yeller, Jesse Aarons. If you wasn't yeller, you'd beat somebody up if they took your little sister's Twinkies." (5.16)
By calling Jess "yellow," May Belle means that he's a coward. (For more on why "yellow" has this connotation, check out the article about it on Stumblerz). Because she's so little, she can't fight this battle herself. The implication here is that if she were her own big brother (we know, that's confusing), she would beat people up for stealing a sibling's snack. Her anger doesn't let her see that there's no way Jess could successfully beat up a seventh grader.
"We must have courage, my king. It may indeed be so."
They swung silently across the creek bed. On the farther bank, Leslie picked up two sticks. "Thy sword, sire," she whispered. (7.32-33)
Leslie gives Jess courage here, as she often does. As you can see with this quote, they take that courage into Terabithia to face their imaginary foes. Although the enemies are imaginary, they feel no less real. Jess and Leslie must arm themselves, remind themselves of their place as rulers, and defend their lands. They have the same kind of attitude inside Terabithia and as they do outside it.
"Leslie, I swear – I'd go in there if I could." He really thought he would, too. "You ain't scared of her, are you, Leslie?" He didn't mean it in a daring way, he was just dumbfounded by the idea of Leslie being scared. (7.70)
Amazingly, Jess discovers that Leslie feels fear too. While this sounds a little bit like him heckling Gary from earlier in the book – about letting girls run races – the narrator specifies here that this has a different tone. Jess is so amazed that Leslie could feel "scared" that he inadvertently taunts her into going in and facing Janice. Where she'd often given him courage in the past, here he inspires it in her.
For Jess the fear of the crossing rose with the height of the creek. Leslie never seemed to hesitate, so Jess could not hang back. But even though he could force his body to follow after, his mind hung back, wanting to cling to the crab apple tree the way Joyce Ann might cling to Momma's skirt. (9.50)
Although Jess compares his desire to "cling to the crab apple tree" to his baby sister "cling[ing] to Momma's skirt," which could be seen as a kind of put-down or negative – not very "manly" – it's actually pretty rational. Jess is right and Leslie is wrong, as later events unfortunately show. The creek is really dangerous. While courage and bravery seem positive and fear seems negative, too much courage can be worse than not having enough. Courage needs to be tempered with reason and rationality.
It wasn't so much that he minded telling Leslie that he was afraid to go; it was that he minded being afraid. It was as though he had been made with a great piece missing… Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts. (9.67)
Jess worries that there's something wrong with him because of the amount of fear he feels – like he was born without the genetic code for bravery or something. Jess's feelings here are reminiscent of his complex concerns about getting Leslie the right Christmas present. He's not worried about how he'll appear to the world – he's being pushed by a powerful inner compulsion, which, in this case, is shame and upset-ness that he's afraid at all.
You know something weird?
What? Leslie asked.
I was scared to come to Terabithia this morning. (11.20-22)
Here Jess is trying for a do-over, having an imaginary/dream conversation with Leslie in which he tries to alter the future and confess his fear to her, perhaps in order to alter the course of future events. Even though he worried so much about confessing his fear about going to Terabithia during the storm, he never got a chance to do it. We can see how he would blame himself for her death because of that. In this conversation, he tries to make that right by admitting his fear and what also seems like a little guilt.
"I'm scared, Jesse. I'm too scared."
"'Course you're scared. Anybody'd be scared. You just gotta trust me, OK? I'm not gonna let you fall, May Belle. I promise you." (13.21-22)
Jess finally realizes that it's all right to "be scared," and tells May Belle that too. There are some circumstances that would scare everybody. Even though they're both afraid, that doesn't stop him from acting bravely. We could argue that he actually acts more bravely because he's determined to deal with the circumstances and overcome his fear.
Of course, her temper had been terrible, and she had screamed at Jess all afternoon and was now too tired to fix any supper.
Jess made peanut-butter sandwiches for the little girls and himself, and because the kitchen was still hot and almost nauseatingly full of bean smell, the three of them went outside to eat. (2.1-2)
This shows us many of the bad things about Jess's life in Lark Creek. Sure, life is tough for everyone, but here it seems especially hard for poor Jess. It's Jess who has to take care of, and essentially be a parent to, the "little girls and himself." They can't even bear to be in their home because of the bad (temporary) smell. His mom can't control her temper and is mean to Jess, even though it sounds like he was working just as hard as she was all day. He doesn't have the luxury of having someone else make dinner for him.
"I know" – she was getting excited – "it could be a magic country like Narnia, and the only way you can get in is by swinging across on this enchanted rope." Her eyes were bright. She grabbed the rope. "Come on," she said. "Let's find a place to build our castle stronghold." (4.102)
Leslie (and Jess) create Terabithia where before there was nothing, through the power of imagination. Like the authors who create magical realities for their child characters to disappear into – C.S. Lewis, E. Nesbit, Edward Eager, and J.K. Rowling, most notably – Leslie imagines and names a vivid world. Unlike the authors and characters in those other books, though, Leslie and Jess really get to enter into and interact with the world they've created.
He believed her because there in the shadowy light of the stronghold everything seemed possible. Between the two of them they owned the world and no enemy, Gary Fulcher, Wanda Kay Moore, Janice Avery, Jess's own fears and insufficiencies, nor any of the foes whom Leslie imagined attacking Terabithia, could ever really defeat them. (4.113)
Here the regions overlap. In Terabithia, Jess and Leslie find safety and protection from every enemy in each region. While their enemies are real and imagined, internal and external, they end up fighting some of the same battles wherever they go. The protection they forge inside and outside of Terabithia defends them everywhere. Jess may feel most confident in Terabithia, at "the stronghold," but with Leslie at his side, he can be confident in Lark Creek too.
They were always nice to Jess when he went over, but then they would suddenly begin talking about French politics or string quartets (which he at first thought was a square box made out of string), or how to save the timber wolves or redwoods or singing whales, and he was scared to open his mouth and show once and for all how dumb he was.
He wasn't comfortable having Leslie at his house either. (4.136-137)
There are different regions within Lark Creek, too. Jess feels out-of-place at the Burkes' home, and also feels like Leslie is out-of-place at his home. Although the differences between homes aren't as sharp as those between Lark Creek and Terabithia itself, they're still deeply felt. Jess's fear that he doesn't belong at the Burkes' comes from a lack of self-confidence and shared knowledge. But he's probably far harder on himself than they would be.
Leslie took a deep breath. "This is not an ordinary place," she whispered. "Even the rulers of Terabithia come into it only at times of greatest sorrow or of greatest joy. We must strive to keep it sacred. It would not do to disturb the Spirits." (4.146)
Terabithia may be made up, but that doesn't mean it's not complex, or that its parts aren't clearly differentiated. There are special and "sacred" places inside Terabithia, reserved only for special occasions: as Leslie puts it, for "times of greatest sorrow or of greatest joy." Her description shows how deep the magic of Terabithia goes, and how great her capacity for imagination is.
Leslie gave a deep satisfied sigh. "I love this room," she said. "Don't you feel the golden enchantment of it? It is worthy to be" – Jess looked up in sudden alarm – "in a palace." Relief. In such a mood, a person might even let a sworn secret slip. But she hadn't […] Terabithia was still just for the two of them. (7.27)
Here, Terabithian qualities bleed into the everyday world. Leslie's special vision, which allowed her to see Terabithia in a patch of forest and then show it to Jess, can transform ordinary and extraordinary places alike. Jess is worried that in her excitement about the golden room, she'll reveal their secret, but he should know better: Terabithia is theirs alone.
All he could think of was dry clothes and a cup of hot coffee and maybe just plunking down in front of the TV for a couple of hours. He was obviously not worthy to be king of Terabithia. Whoever heard of a king who was scared of tall trees and a little bit of water? (9.61)
As great as Terabithia is, it does have its limitations. Lark Creek may be ordinary, but sometimes ordinary comforts, like "dry clothes" and "hot coffee," are exactly what are most needed. Jess feels "not worthy" of Terabithian status because he has these everyday concerns and wants, but we don't think he should. Everybody, even a king, deserves warm clothes and warm drinks.
Entering the gallery was like stepping inside the pine grove – the huge vaulted marble, the cool splash of the fountain, and the green growing all around. Two little children had pulled away from their mother and were running about, screaming to each other. It was all Jess could do not to grab them and tell them how to behave in so obviously a sacred place. (10.53)
Just as Leslie saw the golden room as "a palace" (7.27), Jess views the museum as similar to their "pine grove." This shows how much she's taught him – he can see Terabithia in the outside world too. He realizes that "sacred place[s]" exist outside of Terabithia and that he too has the vision and the ability to access them.
He landed slightly upstream from Terabithia. If it was still Terabithia. If it could be entered across a branch instead of swung into. (13.5)
Jess's loss makes him question the permanence of Terabithia. Can it "still [be] Terabithia" if Leslie's not there to envision it with him, or if the way he used to access it has been permanently tainted and removed? The answer, we find, is yes. Terabithia can still be Terabithia, as long as Jess wants it to be. The power of the visionary now lies with him.
And when he finished, he put flowers in her hair and led her across the bridge – the great bridge into Terabithia – which might look to someone with no magic in him like a few planks across a nearly dry gully. (13.82)
Jess's loss makes him value Terabithia even more, while also realizing its impermanence and value. Even as he crosses "the great bridge into Terabithia" with the help of his ever-growing imagination, he knows what the entrance to Terabithia would look like to an outsider – just some wood "planks." But Jess is someone with "magic in him," and that magic isn't borrowed or reflected from Leslie's magic – it's magic of his very own.
"Oh, all right. But I ain't got no money to give you."
Any money, something whispered inside Jess's head.
"I know, Momma. We'll just take the five dollars Daddy promised us. No more'n that." (1.48-50)
Both of Mrs. Aarons' children are smarter than she is in this unfortunate moment. Ellie tricks their mother into giving her "five dollars" by telling her their father "promised" it – which for all we know, he most likely did not. Meanwhile, Jess silently corrects his mother's grammar. Both Ellie's and Jess's actions show role reversals in which they know more or are wiser than their parent.
The Perkins place was one of those ratty old country houses you moved into because you had no decent place to go and moved out of as quickly as you could. He thought later how peculiar it was that here was probably the biggest thing in his life, and he had shrugged it off as nothing. (1.67)
In a rare moment of perspective that moves outside of the story's timeline, we hear from a future version of Jess, who's reflecting that this was a special, life-altering moment and he yet "shrugged it off as nothing" at the time. But that's normal, not "peculiar" – a lot of the time, we encounter ordinary events and don't realize how or in what way they might impact us later. That's one of the cool things about fiction – it allows this kind of double take and reflection on life.
The reaction didn't seem to bother her. She stood there in front, her eyes saying, "OK, friends, here I am," in answer to their open-mouthed stares while Mrs. Myers fluttered about trying to figure where to put the extra desk. (3.3)
Leslie's innocence in this moment can also be read as purity. She's so open and ready to be "friends" with everyone in the room, even as their "open-mouthed stares" look back at her. She doesn't see those looks for what they can contain: mockery, disdain, and difference. She accepts them and expects to be accepted in return.
He couldn't help turning to watch. She ran as though it was her nature. It reminded him of the flight of wild ducks in the autumn. So smooth. The word "beautiful" came to his mind, but he shook it away and hurried up toward the house. (3.87)
Jess has no choice but to admire Leslie's run, just as Leslie has no choice but to run the way she does. Watching her "beautiful" run inspires beautiful thoughts in him. Jess may not think of himself as smart, sophisticated, or educated, but he creates a beautiful metaphor here when he unconsciously describes Leslie's run as like "the flight of wild ducks in the autumn."
"Did I ever tell you the story of Hamlet?"
He rolled over on his back. "Not yet," he said happily. Lord, he loved Leslie's stories. Someday, when he was good enough, he would ask her to write them in a book and let him do all the pictures. (5.62-63)
Jess doesn't realize that Hamlet or Moby Dick, or any of the rest, aren't necessarily "Leslie's stories" – but, of course, we know they were written by Shakespeare and Melville, and people like that. But, for Jess, they basically come from Leslie herself. Here we see a side of Jess's innocence, as he imagines a future for the two of them in which she writes these stories (which have already been written by other people) and he draws the illustrations – a child's fantasy of a grown-up world.
"Did you know her father beats her?"
"Lots of kids' fathers beat 'um." Will you get on with it?
"No, I mean really beats her. The kind of beatings they take people to jail for in Arlington." She shook her head in disbelief. "You can't imagine…" (7.85-87)
We think this small interchange is one of the most painful things in the book. Leslie, in her innocence, is horrified and amazed by the way that Janice describes her "beatings." For Leslie – the queen of imagination and of Terabithia – to classify those beatings as something that "can't" be imagined, means they must be incredibly, incredibly bad. What compounds this, though, is that Jess isn't amazed or shocked at first by the fact that Janice gets beaten. Instead, he matter-of-factly says, "Lots of kids' fathers beat 'um." What kind of world are these kids living in?
"May Belle's right." Jess reached down into the deepest pit of his mind. "It's because we're all vile sinners God made Jesus die."
"Do you think that's true?"
He was shocked. "It's in the Bible, Leslie." (8.66-68)
Who do you think is more naïve here? Is it Leslie, for wondering whether Jesus did die because of the "vile sinners" on earth? Or is it Jess, for unquestioningly accepting that when something's in the Bible, that means it's "true"?
"Great," she said. "My life has been worthwhile after all." He didn't understand her, but he didn't care. He knew she was happy to be with him, and that was enough to know. (10.53)
Miss Edmunds is talking about things Jess doesn't understand – we can see her as being sarcastic, kind of, but we also get the sense that working and teaching in Lark Creek is pretty thankless. Jess, however, judges her in this moment by her actions rather than her words. Giving someone else pleasure by just keeping them company isn't something that happens a lot for Jess, and that in itself makes him "happy" too.
They had never been there in the dark. But there was enough moon for them to find their way into the castle, and he could tell her about his day in Washington. And apologize. It had been so dumb of him not to ask if Leslie could go, too. (11.15)
Our hearts break for Jess a little here when he denies Leslie's absence and wants to apologize, to turn back the clock, and to hang out with Leslie again. In his denial of the terrible thing that happens, he becomes suddenly, shockingly brave. He's confident that they can make it to Terabithia even "in the dark," and that he can talk with Leslie just like nothing ever happened – smoothing things out by apologizing, and trying so hard to change the past.
Of course, by Monday Jess knew; but still, but still, at the bus stop he looked up, half expecting to see her running up across the field, her lovely, even, rhythmic run. (13.44)
Jess may only be in the fifth grade, but he'd probably have this reaction to Leslie's death no matter how old he was. It's going to take him a while to realize, to remember, that Leslie won't "run up" to the bus anymore, that he won't "see her running" again at all. Just because he knows she won't be there, doesn't mean he's not going to expect or desire it. She's his best friend. He doesn't want her to be gone.
But this year Wayne Pettis would be in the sixth grade. He'd play football until Christmas and baseball until June with the rest of the big guys. Anybody had a chance to be the fastest runner, and by Miss Bessie, this year it was going to be Jesse Oliver Aarons, Jr. (1.19)
Here, we see Jess attempting to transform himself through force of will. He spies an opportunity and wants to take advantage of it. Through hard work, he can make himself into what he wants to be, which in this case is the "the fastest runner."
Jess drew the way some people drink whiskey. The peace would start at the top of his muddled brain and seep down through his tired and tensed-up body. Lord, he loved to draw. (2.11)
The practice of drawing changes Jess from the inside out. It's like a drug, or an addiction. He gets a high from doing it that calms him down and brings him "peace." Even though his father disapproves of Jess drawing, Jess can't help it. He craves the activity and needs the "peace" it brings.
We don't belong at Lark Creek, Julia and me. "You're the proverbial diamond in the rough," she'd said to him once, touching his nose lightly with the tip of her electrifying finger. But it was she who was the diamond, sparkling out of that muddy, grassless, dirty-brick setting. (2.23)
Both Jess and Miss Edmunds ("Julia") recognize the other as someone who doesn't belong. Miss Edmunds is unlike the other teachers in that she recognizes Jess's potential for transformation, seeing talent that needs to be uncovered and polished. While she calls Jess a "diamond in the rough," he sees her as that "diamond." It probably doesn't hurt that her first name, Julia, sounds like "jewel."
Terabithia was their secret, which was a good thing, for how could Jess have ever explained it to an outsider? Just walking down the hill toward the woods made something warm and liquid steal through his body. (4.139)
The act of going to Terabithia has the same physical effect on Jess that drawing does. Whenever he does either of them, he feels "something warm" ("peace" [2.11]) "steal through his body." Maybe it's the mental challenge or use of imagination that's having a physical, calming effect. Maybe his body recognizes something's good for him before his mind can. Either way, despite what other people might think or say, Jess can feel the rightness of going to Terabithia, of drawing, and of moving outside himself.
Jess tried going to Terabithia alone, but it was no good. It needed Leslie to make the magic. He was afraid he would destroy everything by trying to force the magic on his own, when it was plain that the magic was reluctant to come for him. (7.2)
Halfway through the book, Jess still relies on Leslie to get to Terabithia. He thinks both he and Terabithia "need" her "to make the magic," and isn't yet confident enough that he can do it himself. While he's opened up enough to the possibility of seeing Terabithia and sharing in Leslie's creation of it, he doesn't think he can shape it on his own. His transformation into being a magic-wielder is only partially complete.
Leslie's eyes were sparkling. "Arise" – she barely swallowed a giggle – "arise, king of Terabithia, and let us proceed into our kingdom." (9.47)
Like she's knighting someone, Leslie confers magic and kingship on Jess. They both believe in it, and yet recognize the silliness too. When Leslie tells Jess he's the king, he becomes transformed into that king.
He watched the car go out of sight and then turned and ran with all his might to the house, the joy jiggling inside of him so hard that he wouldn't have been surprised if his feet had just taken off from the ground the way they sometimes did in dreams and floated him right over the roof. (10.70)
This pure "joy" is, unfortunately, short-lived. Yet, maybe it's only because it's short-lived that it's so deeply felt. Jess is so overcome with this "joy" that he practically flies, having so much feeling flood through him that he almost comes off the ground. This happiness makes him run faster.
If he got up now and went down to the old Perkins place and knocked on the door, Leslie would come to open it, P.T. jumping at her heels like a star around the moon. It was a beautiful night. Perhaps they could run over the hill and across the fields to the stream and swing themselves into Terabithia. (11.14)
Now Jess is trying desperately to make magic happen, when before he thought he couldn't. It's as though thinking about it hard enough will not only get him into Terabithia, but also will bring back Leslie, alive again, so they can go together.
She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there – like an astronaut wandering about on the moon. Alone. (12.17)
Jess is angry with Leslie for transforming him and then up and leaving. It's a natural stage of grief. He's mad at her because she was taken from him after totally changing him, but not quite finishing the process – leading him partway and then disappearing. He can't unlearn or change back to the way he was, but he also doesn't feel like he can move forward.
It was Leslie who had taken him from the cow pasture into Terabithia and turned him into a king. […] After you stayed for a while and grew strong you had to move on. For hadn't Leslie, even in Terabithia, tried to push back the walls of his mind and make him see beyond to the shining world--huge and terrible and beautiful and very fragile? (13.59)
Finally, Jess realizes that transformations themselves are temporary and keep evolving. In order to honor how Leslie changed him, he has to, in turn, keep on changing. It's not enough to do some growing and then stop. You have to keep doing it, keep challenging yourself, and keep pushing "beyond to the shining world." (It's sort of like how the narrator in Tennyson's poem "Ulysses" also wants to seek a better world: see our section on "Ulysses" for more.)
He didn't worry about a shirt because once he began running he would be hot as popping grease even if the morning air was chill, or shoes because the bottoms of his feet were by now as tough as his worn-out sneakers. (1.1)
This tells us about both the kind of person Jess is and how much money his family has (or, rather, doesn't have). He's determined and doesn't care about how he looks. His family hardly has any money at all. Just consider the fact that he's practicing running in bare feet, perhaps because his "sneakers" are "worn-out," and his feet are just "as tough" as they are.
Lark Creek Elementary was short on everything, especially athletic equipment, so all the balls went to the upper grades at recess time after lunch. Even if a fifth grader started out the period with a ball, it was sure to be in the hands of a sixth or seventh grader before the hour was half over. (1.17)
Even in areas that are already marked out according to class structure – this elementary school doesn't have much money or resources – people still set up their own internal class differences. The elementary school has a miniature class system in which the sixth and seventh graders are superior to the fifth graders, who are then superior to the students in fourth grade and under. In other words, even when you barely have anything, there's still a chance that it can be taken away from you. No wonder Terabithia is so appealing.
But Jess knew what fakes they were. Sniffing "hippie" and "peacenik," even though the Vietnam War was over and it was supposed to be OK again to like peace, the kids would make fun of Miss Edmunds' lack of lipstick or the cut of her jeans. She was, of course, the only female teacher anyone had ever seen in Lark Creek Elementary wearing pants. In Washington and its fancy suburbs, even in Millsburg, that was OK, but Lark Creek was the backwash of fashion. (2.20)
People in Lark Creek are behind the times and don't approve of women who don't wear makeup but do wear jeans. Yet, today, we wouldn't give someone dressed like Miss Edmunds a second thought. Lots of women go out with jeans and with no makeup. No judgment. But the people in Lark Creek really do judge. This shows how much times can change in just a little over thirty years.
Leslie was still dressed in the faded cutoffs and the blue undershirt. She had sneakers on her feet but no socks. Surprise swooshed up from the class like steam from a released radiator cap. They were all sitting there primly dressed in their spring Sunday best. (3.2)
Even though Leslie's family probably has more money than any of the other families in town, that doesn't mean she automatically stands out in a good way. Wealth doesn't guarantee familiarity with new customs or help you fit in with new friends. How would Leslie have known to wear her "Sunday best" to school, especially when, as we learn later, she doesn't even go to church?
"My parents are reassessing their value structure."
"They decided they were too hooked on money and success, so they bought that old farm and they're going to farm it and think about what's important." (4.25-27)
Of course, having the ability to "reassess […] value structure" means having enough money to do so without stressing about putting a roof over your head or food on the table. Because the Burkes have enough money, they can take time to "think about" things that matter, like values, morals, and aesthetics. We wonder if this is a little bit naïve of Leslie's parents because unless they keep providing their family with a certain amount of money and success, they won't have the luxury of working on their "value[s]."
They didn't look like Jess's idea of rich, but even he could tell that the jeans they wore had not come off the counter at Newberry's. There was no TV at the Burkes', but there were mountains of records and a stereo set that looked like something off Star Trek. And although their car was small and dusty, it was Italian and looked expensive, too. (4.135)
It's not just about having money, it's about what you do with it. The Burkes don't flaunt their wealth, but they have nice things, and they're able to express their value system through their purchases. They fill their home with music, books, and art, and although they don't appear stereotypically "rich," they're clearly rich in other ways. (In comparison, with as little money as Jess's family has, they still have a TV, but artistic pursuits are not encouraged in that house.)
His mother always cried poor, but she put a lot of thought and as much money as she could scrape together into making sure she wouldn't be embarrassed by how her family looked. But the day before she planned to take them all over to Millsburg Plaza for new clothes, his dad came home from Washington early. He'd been laid off. No new clothes this year. (8.2)
Imagine only getting new clothes once a year, and then not being able to get them at all. The description of this situation helps us feel more sympathetic to Jess's parents. We can understand his mom's short temper and strain a bit better when we learn about how she does try to get her family looking nice at least once a year, and how much effort even that takes. The timing of Jess's father losing his job is particularly cruel – the money that was saved for new clothes and freshness has to be turned over to living expenses.
When she mentioned lunch, he realized with horror that he would need money, and he didn't know how to tell her that he hadn't brought any – didn't have any to bring, for that matter. (10.57)
Jess was so excited to go on this trip at all that it didn't occur to him to have asked for money. But he "didn't have any," anyway. So even if he'd thought about it, the only outcome would've been saying he might not be able to go because he couldn't afford it. Luckily, Miss Edmunds is gracious enough to take him to lunch as part of their day out together, and Jess is spared any further embarrassment.
Jess and his dad helped them load the U-Haul, and noontime his mother brought down ham sandwiches and coffee, a little scared the Burkes wouldn't want to eat her food, but needing, Jess knew, to do something. (13.64)
Although the Aarons and the Burke families move in different circles – and the fact that Leslie and Jess were friends was most unusual – they're still kind to each other during times of trouble. Even though Jess's mom is worried the Burkes will disdain the refreshments she can provide, she still feels the "need" to provide them.
It also helped to know some things that Bill for all his brains and books didn't know. Jess found he was really useful to him, not a nuisance to be tolerated or set out on the porch like P.T. (7.19)
So, money can't buy everything, and having a formal education doesn't teach you everything either. Jess is glad to discover that even though he feels so inferior to Bill in terms of education and smartness, he still has some knowledge that is valuable. It's important to Jess to be seen as "useful," and sad for us to see him worry that he'll be evaluated as "a nuisance" like a pet dog.
He figured if he worked at it – and Lord, had he worked – he could be the fastest runner in the fifth grade when school opened up. He had to be the fastest--not one of the fastest or next to the fastest, but the fastest. The very best. (1.7)
Jess's desire to be "the fastest" runner is practically the first thing we learn about him. We know right away that he has talent and determination. We also see him trying to carve out a place for himself and achieve something at school, and really become known for something: for being "the very best." That desire to be the best says good things about his character and his moral state.
One time last year Jesse had won. Not just the first heat but the whole shebang. Only once. But it had put into his mouth a taste for winning. (1.18)
This is the root of Jess' ambition: winning. The "taste of winning" – of that short-lived glory – inspired him to train all summer and find a place for himself in the school hierarchy the following year by being the fastest runner. It gave him purpose and direction. Even though it happened "only once," it was enough to make him completely motivated to win the following year.
"All right, Jesse. Get your lazy self off that bench. Miss Bessie's bag is probably dragging ground by now. And you still got beans to pick."
Lazy. He was the lazy one. He gave his poor deadweight of a head one minute more on the tabletop. (1.63-64)
This is all about context. We readers know Jess isn't lazy and so we side with him. We saw him get up and train for his race while the whole house was still asleep, and we just witnessed his older sisters bamboozle their mother into letting them get out of chore duty. Despite that, Jess is the one who gets called lazy and who has to do the most around the house. It just doesn't seem fair.
This was the day he was going to be champion – the best runner of the fourth and fifth grades, and he hadn't even won his heat. (3.73)
Humiliation ensues. Jess worked all summer for this – we saw in the first chapter how hard he trained, and how tired it made him – and now he doesn't even make it to the final round. The story he had written for himself about how this "day" and this year would go is instantly unwound – instead of being fastest, he's not even in the top four.
Jess knew now that he would never be the best runner of the fourth and fifth grades, and his only consolation was that neither would Gary Fulcher. They went through the motions of the contest on Friday, but when it was over and Leslie had won again, everyone sort of knew without saying so that it was the end of the races. (4.2)
It's all over for Jess's dream of being "the best runner" by the end of fifth grade, and it's all because he stood up for a girl and for equality. He was the one who fought for Leslie's ambition to run in the race and, because of that, wasn't able to fulfill his own ambition of winning himself. What's sad about this is that Leslie wins so definitively that no one else takes pleasure in racing or competing anymore.
How could he explain it in a way Leslie would understand, how he yearned to reach out and capture the quivering life about him and how when he tried, it slipped past his fingertips, leaving a dry fossil upon the page? "I just can't get the poetry of the trees," he said. (4.111)
With the excitement of the races dissipating, and with his new friendship with Leslie strengthening him, Jess returns his attention to drawing. His ambition to draw well is as strong as his desire to run fast. Here, though, he seems to get results less quickly. He knows what he wants to do but can't seem to achieve it.
The stream was a little lower than it had been when he had seen it last. Above from the crab apple tree the frayed end of the rope swung gently. I am now the fastest runner in the fifth grade. (12.21)
Numbly, Jess reflects on his achieved and once-longed-for ambition. It's morbid, but he's at the very place where Leslie died, looking at the rope that failed her when she was crossing the creek. Implicitly, we understand that Jess feels like he might have failed her too, by not being there to convince her to wait and go to Terabithia only when the creek calmed down. Instead of thinking about those things, he turns his attention to the fact that he's become the "fastest runner."
He was suddenly ashamed that he'd thought he might be regarded with respect by the other kids. Trying to profit for himself from Leslie's death. I wanted to be the best – the fastest runner in the school – and now I am. (13.45)
This isn't how Jess wanted to win that race or become "the fastest runner" at all. Now he has what he wanted at the very beginning of the book, but it's meaningless. He's the fastest runner now, but it's not because he improved, or trained harder, or got fancy new running shoes. It's because his competition can't race against him anymore.
Now it was time for him to move out. She wasn't there, so he must go for both of them. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength. (13.60)
By absorbing Leslie's ambition into his own, Jess's desire for shaping his future life becomes deeper and more profound. It's no longer about being just the fastest runner in fifth grade, or creating awesome drawings. It's about making a lasting contribution to the world that reflects what Leslie taught him and helps memorialize her in another way. Instead of striving for records or material things, he will "pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength." Because she can't keep on giving that "vision and strength," he'll take on the responsibility of turning those qualities into "beauty and caring," and send them back out into the world.
They gave Jesse all of Leslie's books and her paint set with three pads of real watercolor paper. "She would want you to have them," Bill said. (13.63)
Even though Leslie's no longer there, she's still able to give Jess one last push of encouragement. Through her parents' gift of resources and supplies, she encourages Jess to keep learning, thinking, and drawing. While Jess doesn't have Leslie to tell him stories, he'll have her books, where she found those stories, to inspire him.