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In a recent investment note, Whitney George, the Co-Chief Investment Office of Royce & Associates (the company that manages the Royce family of funds) explained that he is finding attractive opportunities in the technology sector. As investors watch initial public offerings (IPOs) of hot tech names go through the roof, it might seem odd to hear the tech sector associated with value investing. However, George notes that there has been an interesting divergence in the sector, with social media and other new technology companies having explosive IPOs that are eerily reminiscent of "the late '90s dot.com frenzy" juxtaposed against "mature technology companies… that have been languishing and experiencing multiple compression."
Although George manages or co-manages a great many Royce funds, it was interesting to take a look at Royce Low-Priced Stock Fund (RYLPX), a portfolio for which he is the sole lead manager (he has an assistant manager, but not a co-manager). Making this even more intriguing is the fact that Royce considers this fund a "Opportunistic Theme" fund, meaning that it specifically seeks out broader trends that George thinks are exploitable.
It should be noted that the Royce fund family focuses on small capitalization stocks (those with market caps under $15 billion, though the focus is on companies of $5 billion or less) using a value investment style. The family isn't trying to be all things to all people—it does what it does and that's it. Like the family's other managers, George is, essentially, looking to find attractive investment opportunities trading for less than his estimate of their perceived worth as businesses.
George uses a bottom-up investment approach, focusing on such things as balance sheet strength, internal rates of return, and the ability to generate free cash flow. He prefers companies that have strong historical track records and the potential for successful futures. In the research process, George will interview company managements, customers, suppliers, and competitors. The goal is to find a solid company selling between 30% and 50% below his estimate of the company's value. With that company value in mind, a sell target is normally created for each position.
George is finding that small tech companies are as attractively priced today as they have at any time over the last decade. Basically, investors are ignoring many tech names because they are so enamored by a "narrow segment of the tech market" in the pursuit of rapid growth even though many "boring" companies are generating solid free cash flow. In addition, George highlights the growing opportunities for technology in the developing world and in areas such as power efficiency in the developed world.
As of June 30th, the manager held some 40 information technology companies in Royce Low Priced Stock Fund, representing over 17% of the fund and the second largest sector weighting. A few of his largest holdings in the space include Fairchild Semiconductor International (FCS), NETGEAR (NTGR), International Rectifier (IRF), and Brooks Automation (BRKS).
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. designs, develops, and markets analog, discrete, interface and logic, non-volatile memory, and optoelectronic semiconductors, with a focus on providing discrete and analog power management and interface solutions. The company operates three segments: Mobile, Computing, Consumer and Comm. (MCCC); Power Conversion, Industrial and Auto (PCIA); and Standard Products. It operates four fabrication plants and three assembly plants.
The company recently acquired TranSiC, which is a silicon carbide power transistor company, with multiple patents, as it seeks to expand its high-voltage technology portfolio. TranSiC's technology allows for faster switching, lower resistance, improved thermal performance, and requires smaller passive networks than existing silicon applications. Some end markets this technology might benefit include drilling, solar and wind inverters, and electric and hybrid vehicles. This supports the company's efforts to stay ahead of the curve by developing a new wave of products across various market segments.
NETGEAR, Inc. develops networking products for small business and home users. It offers ethernet networking products, broadband products, and wireless networking offerings. NETGEAR sells its products primarily through sales channel networks, which includes traditional and online retailers, and direct market resellers in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia/Pacific.
NETGEAR got off to a fast start in 2011 and has been putting some its cash to work. Indeed, the company recently completed the purchase substantially all of the Customer Networking Solutions division of Westell Technologies. This provider of carrier class broadband networking products generated about $40 million in revenues in 2010 and will deepen NETGEAR's penetration of the North American telco market. The $33.5 million price tag is well within NETGEAR's means, representing a modest chunk of the $200-million plus in cash on its debt-free balance sheet.
International Rectifier Corporation makes semiconductor power-conversion devices for automotive, computer, consumer electronics, telecommunications, industrial, and government/space applications. It is a leading producer of HEXFET power MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors) and IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors). In 2010, foreign business represented 77% of the company's sales.
Although recent bottom-line results have been solidly positive but mixed when compared to the previous year, the top line has been growing more consistently. Moreover, management has been upping its revenue guidance based on the expectation of solid performances in the appliance, industrial, and automotive end markets, along with seasonal strength at the consumer and computing segments. At the end of the day, a balance unencumbered by debt puts International Rectifier in a solid competitive position over the long haul.
Brooks Automation, Inc. is a market leader in cluster-tool and in-line process automation, factory interfaces, and factory-automation software. The company's products are designed for the global semiconductor and related businesses, such as the data storage and flat panel display industries.
Brooks recently sold its contract manufacturing business to Celestica Inc. for $79 million in cash. The sale was executed in order to raise cash and to allow Brooks to enter adjacent markets, such as the April 1st purchase of RTS Life Sciences. The new unit carries a higher gross margin than the rest of BRKS and management has identified room for cost cuts. Moreover, it expects the life sciences market to grow 25% per year.
At the time of this article's writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.


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It was a joke! In fact I am a great Latin-and-Greek - lover. I really promote Latin and Greek. And I really think more people should speak it! Although you have to be understandable! So you'll never see me talking Greek or Latin when not everybody I am talking to understands what I am saying! But with Latin or Greek fellows, why not talk Latin or Greek sometimes. It can onlyy be a good exercise!
And there are many people who talk Latin or Greek and even today! There are even journals entirely in Latin and Greek! Latin poets also today, etc. etc.
Latin and Greek aren' t dead and I think they never will be, certainly not when I am alive!Greek geeks, but we all know that Latin is exstincted cause of his lack of an article.

Uh-oh. Here's another one who says Latin is dead, Episcopus! You'd better cure them...

Keesa

subset: commoncrawl


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- AltCar Auto Show
- Beijing Auto Show
- CES Auto Show
- Chicago Auto Show
- DC Auto Show
- Detroit Auto Show
- Frankfurt Auto Show
- Geneva Auto Show
- LA Auto Show
- NAIAS Auto Show
- New York Auto Show
- Paris Auto Show
- Philadelphia Auto Show
- SEMA Auto Show
- San Diego Auto Show
- Shanghai Auto Show
- St. Louis Auto Show
- Tokyo Auto Show
Auto Show: 2014 New York Auto Show
2015 Subaru Outback: New York Auto Show
What Is It?
The Subaru Outback is an all-wheel-drive station wagon that gives shoppers a carlike alternative to an SUV. Subaru has fully redesigned the Outback for this year's New York Auto Show, giving the car a new look, more interior space, better fuel economy and additional standard equipment.
The most obvious changes to the 2015 Subaru Outback come to the wagon's exterior, where it's been given a totally new look. That look is based on the all-new Subaru Legacy, which debuted earlier this year at the Chicago Auto Show. Compared to the outgoing model, the new one offers a cleaner, simpler look.
The interior also boasts a simpler look, leaving behind last year's large U-shaped center control stack for a more straightforward appearance. But that doesn't mean that it's short on equipment: New features include "welcome lighting," available steering-linked fog lights, PIN code access in upscale Limited models and rear cross-traffic alert to help drivers back out of parking spots. The Outback's interior also offers larger dimensions than the outgoing model's cabin for improved passenger room.
Under the hood, the 2015 Outback boasts two engines: a 175-horsepower 2.5-liter 4-cylinder, and a 256-hp 3.6-liter 6-cylinder. The 4-cylinder is standard in most models, while the 6-cylinder is unique to the upscale Outback 3.6R Limited. All Outback models will use a continuously variable automatic transmission, which will help the wagon return 25 miles per gallon in the city and 33 mpg on the highway in 4-cylinder models. Those figures mark an increase of 1 mpg city/2 mpg hwy.
How Much?
Subaru has not yet announced pricing, but we'd expect something close to the base price of around $24,500 with shipping.
When Can You Get It?
Summer 2014
Add It to Your Shopping List Because...
For many shoppers, the Subaru Outback is an excellent alternative to an SUV. Featuring standard all-wheel drive, raised ground clearance and room for the whole family, the Outback offers just about everything an SUV does. But it also boasts more impressive fuel economy and a carlike driving position. The 2015 Subaru Outback seems to improve on the popular formula, touting the latest technology and a totally new look that gives the car a more modern appearance.
Other Cars to Consider
Toyota Venza -- The Camry-based Toyota Venza offers a carlike ride that's similar to the Outback, and it also boasts impressive fuel economy. But the Venza has never caught on like the Outback, probably due to its larger size and Toyota's already-crowded crossover lineup.
Subaru XV Crosstrek -- If you like the idea of the new Outback but not its family-sized proportions, the XV Crosstrek is an excellent alternative. Boasting the same engine and raised ground clearance as the Outback, the XV Crosstrek is smaller and more maneuverable. It's also available with a hybrid powertrain.
Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen -- If you don't need the Outback's all-wheel drive or added ground clearance, you might want to consider a Jetta SportWagen. It offers largely the same formula, boasting a carlike ride and expansive cargo room, but it's less expensive than the Outback, and you can get it with a fuel-efficient diesel engine.


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The Port's Harbor Square Redevelopment brochure; a follow-up
First of all, thank you for all the thoughtful comments we received about the Harbor Square redevelopment brochure recently mailed to you. We sincerely appreciate them.
We do need to reemphasize one thing, though. The brochure is not the plan.
In fact at the moment we are several months away from having a finalized plan.
The brochure was meant to show, first that significant progress was being made in the planning process toward determining the future of Harbor Square, and second, it attempted to show an example of the sort of imaginative, yet practical, things it might be possible to do there.
The thoughts and ideas presented reflected the cooperative work of many of our community's best minds over the past two years, as well as a large amount of public input that the Port received during a series of public meetings.
The brochure showed an idea, not the idea. At this point there is no preferred alternative.
Without boring you with the numerous administrative details that go into a major public project like this, let me simply say that the elected Commissioners of the Port of Edmonds will be asked to approve a Harbor Square Redevelopment Master Plan sometime during 2012, after which the process will continue with review by the City of Edmonds.
The goal is to achieve an amendment to the City's Comprehensive Plan that will enable the entitlement process to continue.
At their March 12 meeting the Commissioners discussed the process that they would be following in arriving at a finalized plan.
As a next step, they authorized moving forward to complete the SEPA process. (That acronym stands for the State Environmental Policy Act.)
It anticipates a 30-day public comment period, after which the Commission will be presented with final parameters, which will allow them to then decide how to proceed further.
There are many steps and we will have numerous opportunities to give you progress reports before a final plan is approved. Stay tuned.
One additional point of clarification: The most frequent questions and comments we have received thus far concern the future of the Harbor Square Athletic Club.
It is a key assumption by everyone involved that the Athletic Club will continue to be an integral part of Harbor Square's future.
They have a long-term lease and are an anchor tenant.
Throughout the planning process, as options have been considered, ideas about them moving to another location in Harbor Square have been discussed.
For example, the tennis courts could move to another area, but any such ideas are just that, ideas.
Exploring ideas is what this careful planning process is all about.
Occasionally some ideas develop a life of their own and become rumor, but until you hear it from the Port or some other official source nearly all such rumors will be nothing more than that, rumors.
Meanwhile I want to thank you once again for your comments and in particular for your interest in the Harbor Square redevelopment project.
Quite literally, we can't do it without you.


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1. Reading view displays a Word document in full fidelity. You can page through the document or jump to a particular page.
2. On the File tab, click Print to print the document (also available in Editing view).
3. Click Find to search the document. Search results are highlighted in the document, and you can browse from one result to the next.
4. Click Edit in Browser to edit the document in the browser; click Open in Word to work on it in the Word desktop application.
5. Editing view is optimized for adding and formatting text.
6. Word Web App has the familiar look and feel of Word.
The Home tab has commands for formatting text. You can apply direct formatting, such as bold, italics, and underline, and you can apply styles for a cohesive, professional-looking document.
Use the Insert tab to add tables, pictures, or clip art. Clip art comes from the collection of images available from Office.com. You can also add new sections and pages to the document on the Insert tab.
Use the View tab to switch back to Reading view, to see the effect of your changes.


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My friend is currently over the moon because she just managed to snag what in her words is an "optimal interest rate" for her new home. She shared with me a couple of tips, which I thought were extremely helpful. For those of you looking to haggle the best rate, read on for some helpful guidance, which may very well save you thousands of dollars:
- Check the Market Rates: Do your research on what mortgage rates are like in the market right now. This way you'll have a better idea of a realistic rate to negotiate for and it'll be good ammunition to use when you're haggling. Check out Bankrate.com to look up the rates in your area.
- Use a Financial Calculator: Compare how much you'll be paying monthly to get a sense of how much you'll save with different rates. This might incentivize you to haggle for a better rate and shop around more. Bankrate has a good mortgage calculator.
- Know What Will Get You a Good Rate: The best way to get a good rate is to have a good credit score, a big do3wn payment, and consistent employment history. This is so the lender will know that you're a low risk borrower, and will be willing to let you have a lower rate. Take all these factors into consideration and see if you can work on some of them. Give yourself some time to boost your credit score if you can.
- Comparison Shopping: Shop around! My friend did the savvy thing by approaching her bank and finding lenders through zillow.com and bankrate.com. This information will help you negotiate a better rate. Lenders are required to give you a "good faith estimate" in three days after you submit your loan application so get your GFEs in order to use it for pitting lenders against each lender.
- Haggle, Haggle, Haggle: A lower mortgage rate means that the lender will be getting less commission, so you need to find a way to convince them using the tips I just mentioned. It's never fixed so don't feel like there is a standard rate or feel bad about haggling. Remember that lender fees are also negotiable so keep that in mind, too!
Do you have more tips on getting a better rate?
This story was provided by our content partner, POPSUGAR, a website that delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest in entertainment, fashion, beauty, fitness, shopping, and more.
7 Financial Must Haves from the First-Time Home Buyer
4 Personal Finance Principles to Live By for a Richer Life
The 45-Day Rule to Keep Credit Applications from Wrecking Your Score
13 Things Causing Your Bills to Skyrocket
The Pros and Cons of Paying Cash for a House


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Shankaran Sitarama's curator insight, January 17, 2015 2:41 AM
Is this the right solution? Are we assuming that online courses replace on-campus courses straight-away? why not have contact-based blended courses as an alternative. I guess it is work of start-ups to innovate and disrupt. Innovative solutions have to come from there.
ismokuhanen's curator insight, April 4, 2016 9:10 AM
An interesting free download for anyone interested in MOOCs. You can download each chapter individually.
Bobbi Dunham's curator insight, April 15, 2016 3:45 PM
Well...if you want to know everything about MOOCs, look no farther. Better yet, take a MOOC and see for yourself.
elearning at eCampus ULg's curator insight, February 17, 2015 3:11 AM
Just shows that things still need to be done but why suing ?
elearning at eCampus ULg's curator insight, February 17, 2015 3:13 AM
I would encourage all the teacher in higher education to follow this advice as well. Seeing how your science is tought somewhere else, by someone else and in a different way can be quite interesting


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Collaboration can provide benefits to the individual and the group across a variety of contexts. Even in simple perceptual tasks, the aggregation of individuals' personal information can enable enhanced group decision-making. However, in certain circumstances such collaboration can worsen performance, or even expose an individual to exploitation in economic tasks, and therefore a balance needs to be struck between a collaborative and a more egocentric disposition. Neurohumoral agents such as oxytocin are known to promote collaborative behaviours in economic tasks, but whether there are opponent agents, and whether these might even affect information aggregation without an economic component, is unknown. Here, we show that an androgen hormone, testosterone, acts as such an agent. Testosterone causally disrupted collaborative decision-making in a perceptual decision task, markedly reducing performance benefit individuals accrued from collaboration while leaving individual decision-making ability unaffected. This effect emerged because testosterone engendered more egocentric choices, manifest in an overweighting of one's own relative to others' judgements during joint decision-making. Our findings show that the biological control of social behaviour is dynamically regulated not only by modulators promoting, but also by those diminishing a propensity to collaborate.
1. Introduction
Collaborative efforts, for example, when lions hunt in prides or human scientists toil together in the laboratory, can provide benefits to the individual and the wider social group [1–3]. In perceptual decisions, human groups can achieve a performance benefit by combining individuals' information [4], and the potential for benefits from such information aggregation by groups is an important concept in disciplines like political science [5]. Similar benefits from collaboration can accrue to groups in tasks assaying intelligence [6], and collaborative efforts also underlie many cooperative behaviours in choices over the division of resources such as food or money [1,7]. However, a tension exists between collaborative and more self-oriented behaviours: for example, while groups may benefit from a collective intelligence [6] they can be subject to problems such as 'group-think' [8]. Previous work on biological factors influencing this balance has identified factors that promote collaboration (e.g. the hormone oxytocin [9] and neural reward mechanisms [10,11]). Instead, here we test whether a candidate agent, the hormone testosterone, can diminish collaboration.
Testosterone is implicated in a variety of social behaviours, and these data point to a potential to diminish collaboration. Higher endogenous testosterone correlates with increased anti-social behaviour in female prisoners [12], higher aggression [13] and more punitive reactions to unfair offers in a bargaining game [14]. Consistent with a potential to disrupt social collaboration, administering exogenous testosterone decreases facial mimicry as measured by facial muscle responses to photographs of emotional faces [15]; decreases the ability to infer emotional states from photographs of eyes [16]; and decreases ratings of trustworthiness in photographs of faces [17]. It has been argued that such findings reflect a more general role for testosterone in increasing a motivation to dominate others (i.e. achieve or maintain social status) [18,19]. Increased status-seeking would in turn predict decreased collaboration in that it entails that individuals, by being more assertive, may be less willing to take account of the opinions of others.
However, when identifying testosterone's effects on social choice, it is important to have a control for testosterone's effects on non-social decision making. In individual choice, endogenous testosterone in men and women has been correlated with psychological variables such as attention [20] and economic variables, such as risk-taking [21]. Administering exogenous testosterone has widespread effects on non-social cognition, for example on working memory [22], spatial memory [23] and reward processing [24]. In particular, testosterone's known associations with reward-related processing [21,24,25] can complicate the interpretation of its effects in traditional economic tasks assaying social choice [26]. These concerns motivate a focus here both on collaborative decision-making without an economic dimension, and also on the need to dissociate testosterone's potential effects on social and individual choice.
To isolate the impact of testosterone on collaborative and individual decision-making, we exploited a task that assays each of these components independently [4]. In our task, individuals must share information, and actively collaborate, to gain a performance benefit in a visual perceptual decision task. The task was performed by pairs of participants (dyads) who initially made a perceptual decision alone, enabling us to measure the sensitivity of each individual's non-social decision-making by estimating the slope (Sindiv) of their psychometric function (figure 1). Then, in trials where the dyad's initial responses diverged, one participant announced a collective decision (agreed on via direct verbal negotiation between dyad members), providing a psychometric function for the dyad (Scollective) that reflected collaborative sensitivity. To successfully collaborate, individuals must appropriately weight their own opinion and that of the others prior to a joint decision [5]. We were agnostic about testosterone's potential effects on individual decisions, but predicted that testosterone would causally disrupt collective decision-making.
2. Methods
(a) Participants
Seventeen pairs of participants (dyads) comprised our study sample (mean age 21.7 years, range 18–30; one further dyad was excluded for below-chance behavioural performance). We confined our sample to women, in whom prior evidence links behaviour to both endogenous [12,13,21] and exogenous testosterone [17,26]. All 34 participants were healthy, had normal or corrected to normal visual acuity, took no medication other than long-standing contraceptives (seven took combined oestrogen and progestogen contraception; one took progestogen only contraception), reported regular menstrual cycles (29.1 ± s.d. 2.2 days, range 29–35 days) and were tested between days 1 and 14 of their cycle. All gave informed consent and were paid for attendance.
(b) Experimental procedure
In a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over design, 80 mg testosterone undecanoate was administered orally (Restandol testocaps; figure 1a). Oral testosterone undecanoate is widely used clinically and has well-known pharmacokinetics [27–29], such that all participants consumed breakfast to aid drug absorption; and the gap between drug administration and the start of behavioural testing was 6–7 h. On two separate days (mean 5.9 days apart, range 3–7 days), the dyad attended at 08.45 when both members received either testosterone or placebo and returned at 15.00 for behavioural testing (figure 1b).
Blood samples were taken on each attendance at the laboratory. Total serum testosterone was measured with a standard, commercially available Roche Modular testosterone assay using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay methods in the University College London Hospitals biochemistry laboratory. Biochemical data were available from 14 of the 17 dyads, with hormonal data from the remaining three dyads incomplete owing to administrative errors in the biochemistry laboratory.
(c) Behavioural methods
In our task, both dyad members sat in a room and performed a 2-alternative forced choice task on identical stimuli presented on separate monitors (figure 1c and see the electronic supplementary material for full details). On each trial, there were two intervals and participants initially decided alone in which interval a target (a higher contrast grating) appeared. Target contrast varied between trials, enabling us to measure the sensitivity of each individual's non-social decision-making by estimating the slope (Sindiv) of their psychometric function (figure 1d), which was determined using standard methods ([30] and see the electronic supplementary material for details) by plotting the proportion of trials in which the target was reported in the second interval against the contrast difference at the target location (the contrast in the second interval minus the contrast in the first). A large slope indicated highly sensitive performance. After these initial individual decisions, participants then saw their partner's choice. In trials where the dyad's initial responses diverged, one participant was randomly selected to announce a collaborative decision reached after free discussion. As was the case for individuals, we derived a psychometric function for the dyad, where collaborative success was reflected in the slope (Scollective). Feedback either followed the individual decision if they initially agreed, or alternatively followed their joint decision.
(d) Data analysis
Statistical tests were carried out using paired or independent sample t-tests or mixed analyses of variance (ANOVA) in SPSS v. 17.0; reported p-values are two-tailed.
3. Results
As expected, our hormonal manipulation engendered a large increase in total serum testosterone when comparing the time of behavioural testing (mean 9.3 ± s.d. 9.0 nmol l–1) with either morning baseline (1.2 ± s.d. 0.5; paired t-test t27 = 4.7, p < 0.0001) or placebo (1.1 ± s.d. 0.6; paired t-test t19 = 4.2, p < 0.001). Crucially, testosterone administration had no effect on individual decision-making. Individual sensitivity (Sindiv) under testosterone was no different from placebo when all 34 participants were considered (Sindiv; placebo 3.11 ± s.d. 1.68; testosterone: 2.99 ± s.d. 1.76; paired t-test t33 = 0.5, p > 0.6). This was also the case when considering either the better (Smax placebo 3.80 ± s.d. 1.70; Smax testosterone 3.69 ± s.d. 1.88; paired t-test t16 = 0.2, p > 0.8) or worse performing member of each dyad (Smin placebo 2.41 ± s.d. 1.38; Smin testosterone 2.28 ± s.d. 1.33; paired t-test t16 = 0.5, p > 0.6). The proportion of trials where the dyad's initial decisions diverged also remained unaffected by testosterone (placebo 0.37 ± s.d. 0.10; testosterone 0.39 ± s.d. 0.08; paired t-test t16 = 0.9, p > 0.4).
Having shown that testosterone did not compromise individual decisions, we could then ask if it had a selective impact on the ability to successfully share information. The logic of effective collaboration is that, if achievable, it benefits the individuals more than acting alone [1–3]. We tested this by asking if testosterone affected the performance benefit each individual accrued from working together, measured by Scollective – Sindiv (figure 2). We found that testosterone caused a marked decrease in the individual performance benefit arising from collaboration (Scollective – Sindiv placebo 1.13 ± s.d. 1.33, testosterone 0.54 ± s.d. 1.02; paired t-test t33 = 3.3, p < 0.005). Furthermore, testosterone disrupted the benefit of collaboration for the better participant (Scollective – Smax placebo 0.44 ± s.d. 1.14, testosterone −0.17 ± s.d. 0.59; paired t-test t16 = 2.2, p < 0.05) as well as for the worse participant in each dyad (Scollective – Smin placebo 1.82 ± s.d. 1.15, testosterone 1.24 ± s.d. 0.86; paired t-test t16 = 2.4, p < 0.05). Thus, even from a purely self-interested point of view both dyad members were handicapped when testosterone disrupted the performance benefits from collaboration.
In an evolutionary framework [2,7], our data implicate testosterone as a proximate, mechanistic modulator of collaboration, and specifically one that reduces the ability to collaborate. On this basis, we would expect testosterone to disrupt collaboration via a consistent bias in collaborative decision-making. To test this prediction, we focused on participants' responses as they announced collaborative decisions, where they must appropriately weight each dyad member's opinion. Two considerations might explain how testosterone interferes with this weighting. First, testosterone could lead to a consistent overweighting of the other's opinion, engendering allocentric (other-centred) decision-making, in line with its effect of increasing offers when given in a bargaining game [26]. Second, it could cause consistent overweighting of participants' own opinions, where such egocentricity parallels its effects on trade-offs in animals, for example to eschew parental responsibilities and increase courtship [31,32].
To arbitrate between these competing hypotheses, we computed an egocentric–allocentric (E–A) ratio of the number of trials where the announcer agreed with themselves to the number they agreed with the other. Each hypothesis makes a clear prediction: an allocentricity bias decreases the E–A ratio; and an egocentricity bias increases the E–A ratio. Our data fitted predictions from the second hypothesis, namely that testosterone consistently causes an egocentricity bias (figure 3). The E–A ratio increased under testosterone (1.61 ± s.d. 1.17) relative to placebo (1.26 ± s.d. 0.83; paired t-test t33 = 2.4, p < 0.05). This increased E–A ratio was consistent across both the best and worst-performing dyad members, as shown in a 2 decision-maker (Smin, Smax) by 2 drug (placebo, testosterone) mixed ANOVA in which there was a main effect of drug (F1,16 = 5.8, p < 0.05) but not decision maker (F1,16 = 0.1, p > 0.7) and no interaction (F1,16 = 0.6, p > 0.4). We also note that this egocentricity bias was not accompanied by altered deliberation time for collective decisions (placebo 7.56 s ± s.d. 3.25; testosterone 7.44 ± s.d. 2.89; paired t-test t33 = 0.5, p > 0.6); which in the light of the broader choice literature suggests that the effect was not related to decision uncertainty that is usually accompanied by reaction time changes [33]. Neither E–A ratio nor sensitivity measures were related to total serum testosterone levels (details in the electronic supplementary material). Finally, given a recent study suggesting participants' beliefs about which drug had been administered might affect choice [26]; we tested for this and found no difference in E–A ratio when participants believed they had received placebo (mean = 1.58 ± s.d. 1.18, n = 44) compared with when they believed they had received testosterone (1.21 ± s.d. 0.62, n = 20; independent samples t-test t62 = 1.3, p > 0.1; details in electronic supplementary material).
4. Discussion
In our paradigm, testosterone causally and selectively disrupted individuals' ability to successfully collaborate and aggregate their information in order to achieve a performance benefit. Further, this effect was selective because while disrupting collective decision-making, testosterone left individual decisions unaffected, which is important in the light of testosterone's widespread associations with aspects of non-social choice such as attention [20], working memory [22], spatial memory [23] and reward processing [24]. Finally, we demonstrated that, across both the better and worst-performing members of the dyads, testosterone disrupted collaboration by increasing the egocentricity in individuals' choices, operationalized as an enhanced weighting of one's own relative to another's evidence.
Our finding that testosterone increased egocentric choices accords with a broader literature concerning testosterone's role in social choice, and in particular with an interpretation of that literature which proposes that testosterone's role is to increase dominance or status-related behaviours [18,19]. High social status is associated with elevated testosterone in humans [13,19], chimpanzees [34] and other mammals [35]. A greater drive for social status leading to greater assertiveness during social interactions might reasonably be expected to impair an individuals' ability to appropriately weight the opinion of another, consistent with our findings. Indeed, the increased egocentricity in an individual's choices that we observe could be interpreted as a form of signalling, whereby the individual is signalling their dominance in the context of a collective decision.
Increased dominance can be detrimental to collaborative decision-making, as shown previously during reasoning tasks where high variance in the verbal contributions of group members (i.e. groups with highly dominant individuals) led to a significantly attenuated performance benefit from collaboration [6]. Other possible effects of testosterone previously related to its role in status-related behaviour [18] may also contribute to less effective information aggregation in our dyads, for example in reducing trustworthiness ratings of faces [17] and decreasing the ability to infer emotional states through photographs of eyes [16]. In addition to potential status-related effects of testosterone, our finding of increased egocentricity has interesting parallels with testosterone's role in sexual and reproductive behaviours, where testosterone relates to more self-orientated behaviour as evident in reduced parenting and increased courtship in birds [31,32], rodents [36] and rural Senegalese men [37]. Importantly, our task involves no conflict over resources as accurate integration of information is in the best interest of the dyad members, which suggests that the effects of testosterone we observed are not caused by it rendering individuals more selfish.
While the idea that testosterone increases status-related or self-orientated behaviours accords well with the wider literature, future work could usefully examine potential causes of this increased egocentricity in choice that are not addressed in our current study. The observation that testosterone did not affect individual choices militates against explanations for more egocentric choices in terms of general motivational [38] or attentional [20] effects. Because we did not use monetary rewards, this militates against potential explanations in terms of testosterone's known effects on reward processing, which can explain results in more traditional economic paradigms [26]. However, another potential cause of increased egocentricity in individuals' choices is increased confidence in an individual's own original choices, an idea now testable within a framework that assays meta-cognition [39]. A second possibility is that testosterone disrupts collaboration by reducing an individual's ability to signal their confidence, and future work could extend our design such that only one dyad member received testosterone on each day to ask whether one or both dyad members exhibit a bias. A third possibility is that testosterone might render individuals less susceptible to social influence more generally, a potential cause of more egocentric choices that could be explored in variants of classic experiments such as those described by Asch [40].
Social animals reap benefits from collaboration across a wide variety of tasks, ranging from those involving information aggregation (as seen here), reasoning [6] or the division of resources such as food or money [1–3]. Indeed, the potential benefits from information aggregation, for example, are used to support the use of juries (i.e. groups of observers) in the criminal justice system [5]. However, collaborating too freely is not always beneficial, and therefore the biological mechanisms controlling the balance between more collaborative and self-oriented behaviours must dynamically tune behaviour to the social environment. While a previous focus has been on factors promoting collaboration [9–11], here we highlight an opposing biological influence that increases self-orientated or status-related behaviours at the expense of collaboration. Our data show that the humoral agent testosterone modulates the delicate trade-off between collaboration and a more egocentric disposition.
The experiment was approved by the local ethics committee.
C.D.F. is supported by the Danish National Research Foundation, and B.B. by a post-doctoral fellowship from the British Academy, the Danish National Research Foundation, the Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication and the European Union MindBridge project. This work was supported by Wellcome Trust Programme Grant 078865/Z/05/Z to R.J.D. The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging is supported by core funding from the Wellcome Trust 091593/Z/10/Z. We thank Sanjay Manohar and Ben Pearson for helpful discussions on data analysis.
- Received December 2, 2011.
- Accepted January 11, 2012.
- This journal is © 2012 The Royal Society
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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Spanish sparrow
|Spanish sparrow
|Male in Sardinia
|Scientific classification
|P. hispaniolensis
|Binomial name
|Passer hispaniolensis
(Temminck, 1820)
The Spanish sparrow or willow sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. It is found in the Mediterranean region and south-west and central Asia. It is very similar to the closely related house sparrow, and the two species show their close relation in a "biological mix-up" of hybridisation in the Mediterranean region, which complicates the taxonomy of this species.
The Spanish sparrow is a rather large sparrow, at 15–16 cm (6–6.5 in) in length, and 22–36 g (0.78–1.27 oz) in weight. It is slightly larger and heavier than house sparrows, and also has a slightly longer and stouter bill.[2] The male is similar to the house sparrow in plumage, but differs in that its underparts are heavily streaked with black, has a chestnut rather than grey crown, and has white rather than grey cheeks.[3][4][5][6] The female is effectively inseparable from house sparrow in its plumage, which is grey-brown overall but more boldly marked. The female has light streaking on its sides, a pale cream supercilium, and broad cream streaks on its back.[7][8]
The two subspecies differ little in worn breeding plumage, but both sexes are quite distinct in fresh winter plumage, with the eastern subspecies P. h. transcaspicus paler with less chestnut.[7]
The Spanish sparrow's vocalisations are similar to those of the house sparrow. The male gives a call somewhat different from that of the house sparrow when displaying at its nest. This call is a pair of strident, disyllabic chirps, similar to those of the house sparrow, but louder and high-pitched, transcribed as chweeng-chweeng, cheela-cheeli. A similar call, softer and more like the house sparrow's tschilp, is used by birds arriving or departing at roosting sites. The Spanish sparrow's other calls are almost the same as those of the house sparrow. A soft quer quer quer is given at the nest by mated pairs, a quer-it flight call is given by flocking birds, and a chur-chur-it call is given as a threat.[9]
Taxonomy and systematics[edit]
The Spanish sparrow is a close relative of the house sparrow in the genus Passer and the sparrow family Passeridae.[10] Its taxonomy is greatly complicated by the "biological mix-up" it forms with the house sparrow in the Mediterranean. In most of the Mediterranean, one or both of the two species occurs, with only a limited degree of hybridisation. On the Italian Peninsula and Corsica, the two species are replaced by the Italian sparrow, a puzzling type of sparrow apparently intermediate between the Spanish sparrow and the house sparrow.[2][11]
The Italian sparrow has been classified as a hybrid with the house sparrow, the same species as the Spanish sparrow, the same species as the house sparrow, and as a separate species. The Spanish sparrow also hybridises freely with house sparrow in parts of northern Africa (north-eastern Algeria, Tunisia, and north-western Libya), forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrow to pure Spanish sparrow.[2][11] On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, there are more apparently intermediate birds of unknown status.[12]
Phylogenetic studies of nuclear mitochondrial DNA pseudogenes show that the house sparrow is closely related genetically to the Italian sparrow but not the Spanish sparrow.[10][13]
The Spanish sparrow was first described by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck as Fringilla hispaniolensis, from a specimen collected at Algeciras, in southern Spain. The usual English name refers to the description of the species from Spain. The name willow sparrow, referring to the moist habitat of this bird, is sometimes used, especially when the Italian sparrow is considered the same species.[11][14] The genus name Passer is the Latin for sparrow, and hispaniolensis is New Latin for "Spanish".[15]
Two subspecies of Spanish sparrow are usually recognised, the western nominate subspecies hispaniolensis, and the eastern transcaspicus, described by Austrian ornithologist Viktor von Tschusi zu Schmidhoffen in 1902 from Ýolöten, Turkmenistan.[14] Birds in Anatolia and Cyprus are usually considered to belong to P. h. transcaspicus, but birds as far east as Ceylanpınar have been noted as intermediates, and the difference between the two subspecies may be clinal.[16]
Distribution and habitat[edit]
The Spanish sparrow has a highly complex distribution in the Mediterranean region, Macaronesia, and south-west to central Asia. It breeds mostly in a band of latitude about fifteen degrees wide, from the Danube valley and the Aral Sea in the north to Libya and central Iran in the south.[17] Its range has expanded greatly by natural colonisation over the last two centuries, in the Balkans, where it reached Romania, Serbia, and Moldova from 1950 onwards;[2][18] and in Macaronesia, where its range expansion has been attributed to introductions and travel by ship, but was more likely natural colonisation by migrating birds.[19] Vagrants occur widely, as far north as Scotland and Norway.[2][17]
Subspecies hispaniolensis[edit]
The western subspecies hispaniolensis breeds in parts of Iberia and North Africa, some islands, and the Balkans. In Iberia it is uncommon, occurring in the Tagus valley and sporadically in the northern meseta, the eastern coast, and in the Guadalquivir and Guadiana valleys.[17][20] While the house sparrow and the Spanish sparrow form a "hybrid swarm" in the eastern half of the Maghreb, they coexist with little hybridisation in the western half.[17][21] In northern Italy and Corsica the Spanish sparrow is replaced by the Italian sparrow, and the two intergrade in southern Italy, as well as Malta, Crete, and nearby islands such as Rhodes.[17] The Spanish sparrow is not known to breed in the Balearic Islands, the Aegean Islands, Corfu, or the Peloponnese, but it occurs on Sardinia, Pantelleria, and smaller islands near the coast. In the Balkans, it occurs patchily from Montenegro across into the Danube valley of Romania and northern Serbia. It is found in mainland Greece and Bulgaria, where it is also uncommon.[17][22][23]
The Spanish sparrow is likely to have been established on the western Canary Islands for some time, as it was found on Lanzarote when a naturalist first visited the island in 1828. In the 1830s, it was recorded on Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife and since the 1940s it has reached all the other islands.[17][19] It reached Madeira in May 1935, when numbers of sparrows were found across the island after nine days of strong, continuous easterly winds.[2][19] It seems to have reached Cape Verde around the same time it reached the Canaries, and it was first recorded there on Santiago by Charles Darwin in 1832. From then onwards it reached all the other larger islands, in a poorly recorded extension of its range.[17][19][24]
Subspecies transcaspicus[edit]
The eastern subspecies transcaspicus breeds from Anatolia and Cyprus through the Middle East and Central Asia to far western China. In the Middle East it breeds through Syria and Lebanon to about as far south as Jerusalem. It breeds in eastern Turkey, but is a very rare breeder in Iraq and Kuwait.[16] It breeds sporadically in Azerbaijan and Dagestan, north to the Terek River valley. In Iran, it breeds in most of the country except the Persian Gulf region, also breeding in central and northern Afghanistan. In Central Asia, it breeds from the regions of the Turkmenistan-Iran and Tajikistan-Afghanistan borders north to parts of the Syr Darya basin in Kazakhstan, and westwards to Lake Alakol, the Karatal River, and a corner of China.[16] Here it has also expanded its range, in the area around Lake Alakol in Kazakhstan, where agriculture was not developed until the 1950s.[25] It winters in the plains of the Indian subcontinent and the Persian Gulf.[16]
In most of its range, the Spanish sparrow occurs alongside the house sparrow. In such areas, both species breed in farmland and open woodland, with the Spanish sparrow preferring moister habitats. In areas where house sparrows are absent, the Spanish sparrow may live in urban habitats, as in the Canary Islands, Madeira, and some Mediterranean islands. In a few urban areas, such as those in eastern Sardinia, the primary sparrow species is the Eurasian tree sparrow.[26] Before the Spanish sparrow arrived in the Canary Islands and Madeira, the rock sparrow was the sole native sparrow. In the Canaries, the Spanish sparrow occurs in most habitats, having ousted the rock sparrow from all but the driest localities. In Madeira the Spanish sparrow is common in cultivated areas, but it has not fully adapted to nesting in buildings or breeding in the drier north of the island.[17][19][27] The Spanish sparrow is not common on most of the Cape Verde islands, due to the presence of the endemic Iago sparrow, and the house sparrow on São Vicente. On Fogo, where it is the sole species of sparrow, it is common in all habitats, breeding both in the houses of São Filipe and on the cliff walls of the volcano Pico do Fogo.[17][19]
Behaviour and ecology[edit]
The Spanish sparrow is strongly gregarious, flocking and breeding in groups. In the winter, it mostly wanders nomadically or makes regular migrations.[2][28]
Little is known of the Spanish sparrow's survival, and the maximum age recorded is eleven years.[9][29][30]
Like other sparrows, it feeds principally on the seeds of grains and other grasses, also eating leaves, fruits, and other plant materials. Young birds are fed mostly on insects, and adults also feed on insects and other animals during and before the breeding season.[31][32][33] Nestlings are fed almost exclusively on insects for their first few days, and are gradually fed larger amounts of grains.[34] The portion of insects in nestling diets is recorded at a range from 75 to over 90 percent.[35] In preying on insects, the Spanish sparrow is opportunistic, feeding on whichever insects are most common.[36] In Central Asia, these are caterpillars, ants, grasshoppers, and crickets.[31] While migrating through Central Asia in the spring, the Spanish sparrow feeds mostly on crops in cultivated areas, and while breeding it feeds mostly on insects, wild plants, and seeds from the previous year.[34]
The Spanish sparrow nests in large colonies of closely spaced or even multiple shared nests. Nests are usually placed in trees or bushes, amongst branches or underneath the nests of larger birds such as white storks. Colonies may hold from ten pairs to hundreds of thousands of pairs.[37] Each pair lays 3–8 eggs, which hatch in 12 days, with the chicks fledging when about 14 days old.[2][38] Males spend more time constructing nests than females.[39]
The European population of the Spanish sparrow comprises between 2,800,000 and 6,200,000 breeding pairs or 8,400,000–18,600,000 individuals. Partly from the European population, the global population is estimated to be between 17 and 74 million individuals.[1][40] There have been population decreases in some parts of Europe, but in other areas the population has increased[40][41] and the species is not seriously threatened, so it is assessed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.[1]
- ^ a b c BirdLife International (2012). "Passer hispaniolensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Snow & Perrins 1998, pp. 1506–1509
- ^ Clement, Harris & Davis 1993, pp. 446–447
- ^ Shelley 1902, pp. 235–237
- ^ Dresser 1902, p. 291
- ^ Metzmacher, M. (1986). "Moineaux domestiques et Moineaux espagnols, Passer domesticus et P. hispaniolensis, dans une région de l'ouest algérien : analyse comparative de leur morphologie externe". Le Gerfaut (in French and English). 76: 317–334.
- ^ a b Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 164–165
- ^ Oates 1890, p. 239
- ^ a b Summers-Smith 1988, p. 177
- ^ a b Allende, Luis M.; Rubio, Isabel; Ruíz-del-Valle, Valentin; Guillén, Jesus; Martínez-Laso, Jorge; Lowy, Ernesto; Varela, Pilar; Zamora, Jorge; Arnaiz-Villena, Antonio (2001). "The Old World sparrows (genus Passer) phylogeography and their relative abundance of nuclear mtDNA pseudogenes" (PDF). Journal of Molecular Evolution. 53 (2): 144–154. doi:10.1007/s002390010202. PMID 11479685. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011.
- ^ a b c Töpfer, Till (2006). "The taxonomic status of the Italian Sparrow – Passer italiae (Vieillot 1817): Speciation by stabilised hybridisation? A critical analysis". Zootaxa. 1325: 117–145. ISSN 1175-5334.
- ^ Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 169–170
- ^ Arnaiz-Villena, A; Gómez-Prieto P; Ruiz-de-Valle V (2009). "Phylogeography of finches and sparrows". Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60741-844--3.
- ^ a b Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 162–163
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London, United Kingdom: Christopher Helm. pp. 193, 294. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ a b c d Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 170–171
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 165–169
- ^ Obratil, S. (1985). "The range of the Spanish sparrow, Passer hispaniolensis (Temminck) in Bosnia and Herzegovina". Larus. 36–37: 49–57.
- ^ a b c d e f Summers-Smith 1992, pp. 42–47
- ^ Roman, J.; Onrubia, A.; Roviralta, F.; Balmori, A.; Fernandez, J.; Sanz-Zuasti, J.; Gutierrez, C.; Jubete, F.; Roman, F.; Garcia, J.; Olea, P. P. (1997). "Sobre el status del gorrion moruno, Passer hispaniolensis (Temminck, 1820), en la submeseta norte". Ecologia (in Spanish). Madrid. 11: 453–456. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 November 2010.
- ^ Metzmacher, M. (1986). "La distribution des Moineaux, Passer, en Algérie : observations complémentaires". Le Gerfaut (in French, English, and Dutch). 76: 131–138. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2011.
- ^ Sladen, Alexander B. (1918). "Further Notes on the Birds of Macedonia". The Ibis. 10. 6.
- ^ Chasen, F. N. (1921). "Field Notes on the Birds of Macedonia. With special reference to the Struma Plain". The Ibis. 11. 3 (2).
- ^ Gould 1838, p. 95
- ^ Summers-Smith, J. D. (1990). "Changes in distribution and habitat utilisation by members of the genus Passer". In Pinowski, J.; Summers-Smith, J. D. Granivorous birds in the agricultural landscape. Warszawa: Pánstwowe Wydawnictom Naukowe. pp. 11–29. ISBN 83-01-08460-X.
- ^ Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 171–172
- ^ Lack, David (1969). "The numbers of bird species on islands". Bird Study. 16 (4): 193–209. doi:10.1080/00063656909476244.
- ^ Metzmacher, M. (1986). "Organisation spatio-temporelle de la reproduction chez le Moineau espagnol Passer hispaniolensis en zone semi-aride". L'Oiseau et la Revue française d'Ornithologie (in French and English). 56: 229–262.
- ^ "AnAge entry for Passer hispaniolensis". AnAge: the Animal Ageing and Longevity Database. Retrieved 25 June 2010.
- ^ Cramp & Perrins 1994, p. 311
- ^ a b Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 178–179
- ^ El-Sehhar, A. & Fraval, A. (1984). "Diet of the Spanish sparrow, Passer hispaniolensis (Temm.), in Morocco; seasonal and geographic variations". Actes de l'Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Morocco. 4 (1): 53–61.
- ^ Ali, Sálim (1963). "A Note on the Eastern Spanish Sparrow, Passer hispaniolensis transcaspicus Tschusi, in India". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 60 (2): 318–321.
- ^ a b Gavrilov, E. I. "The Biology of the Eastern Spanish Sparrow, Passer hispaniolensis transcaspicus in Kazakhstan". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 60 (2): 301–317.
- ^ Marques, Paulo M.; Boieiro, Mário; Canário, Filipe; Vicente, Luís (2003). "Variation of Nestling Diet Across the Breeding Season in Spanish Sparrow Passer hispaniolensis in Southern Portugal". Ardeola. 50 (1): 71–75. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2011.
- ^ Metzmacher, M. (1983). "Le menu des jeunes Moineaux domestiques, Passer domesticus L., et espagnols, Passer hispaniolensis Temm., en Oranie (Algérie)". Cahiers d'Ethologie appliquée (in French and English). 3 (2): 191–294. Archived from the original (PDF, French abstract only) on 25 July 2011.
- ^ Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 173–177
- ^ Gavrilov, E. I. (1962). "A Contribution to the Biology of the Spanish Sparrow Passer hispaniolensis transcaspicus". The Ibis. 104: 416–417. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1962.tb08669.x.
- ^ Metzmacher, Maxime (1990). "Climatic factors, activity budgets and breeding success of the Spanish Sparrow [Passer hispaniolensis (Temm.)]". In Pinowski, J.; Summers-Smith, J. D. Granivorous birds in the agricultural landscape. Warszawa: Pánstwowe Wydawnictom Naukowe. pp. 11–29. ISBN 83-01-08460-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2011.
- ^ a b BirdLife International (2004). "Passer hispaniolensis, Spanish Sparrow" (PDF). Birds in Europe: population estimates, trends and conservation status. Conservation Series No. 12. Cambridge, England: BirdLife International. p. 263.
- ^ Dinetti, Marco (2008). "I passeri Passer spp.: da "problematici" a specie di interesse conservazionistico" [The Sparrows Passer spp.: from "pest species" to species of conservation concern]. Avocetta. 32: 61–68. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
Works cited[edit]
- Clement, Peter; Harris, Alan; Davis, John (1993). Finches and Sparrows: an Identification Guide. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03424-9.
- Cramp, S.; Perrins, C. M., editors (1994). Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. 8. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-854679-5.
- Dresser, H. E. (1902). A manual of palæarctic birds. London: Self-published.
- Gould, John (1838). Darwin, Charles, ed. The Zoology of the H.M.S. Beagle, under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy, R. N., during the years 1832 to 1836. Part III: Birds. London: Smith, Elder, and Company.
- Oates, Eugene W. (1890). Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma: Birds. II. London: Taylor and Francis.
- Shelley, G. E. (1902). The Birds of Africa, Comprising All the Species Which Occur in the Ethiopian Region. III. London: R. H. Porter.
- Snow, D. W.; Perrins, C. M. (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic (Concise ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-854099-X.
- Summers-Smith, J. Denis (1988). The Sparrows: a Study of the Genus Passer. illustrated by Robert Gillmor. Calton, Staffs, England: T. & A. D. Poyser. ISBN 0-85661-048-8.
- Summers-Smith, J. Denis (1992). In Search of Sparrows. illustrated by Euan Dunn. London: T. & A. D. Poyser. ISBN 0-85661-073-9.
Further reading[edit]
- Gavrilov, E. I. (1968). "A possible regulation mechanism of the sex ratio in the Passer hispaniolensis Temm". Intern. Stud. Sparrows. 2: 20–24.
- Meise, W. (1936). "Zur Systematik und Verbreitungsgesghichte der Haus- und Weidensperlinge, Passer domesticus (L.) und hispaniolensis (T)". J. Orn. (in German). 94: 631–672.
- Metzmacher, M. (1985). Stratégies adaptatives des oiseaux granivores dans une zone semi-aride. Le cas des moineaux domestiques Passer domesticus L. et des moineaux espagnols Passer hispaniolensis TEMM (Thesis) (in French).
- Metzmacher, M. (1990). "Climatic factors, time activity budget and breeding success of the Spanish sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis TEMM.)". Proceedings of General Meetings of the Working Group on Granivorous Birds, INTECOL.
- Ogilvie-Grant, W. R. (1912). Catalogue of the collection of birds' eggs in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume V: Carinatæ (Passeriformes completed). London: Taylor and Francis.
- Sharpe, R. Bowdler (1888). Catalogue of the Passeriformes, or Perching Birds, in the Collection of the British Museum. Fringilliformes: Part III. Containing the Family Fringillidæ. XII. London: Taylor and Francis.
- Shirihai, Hadoram (1996). The Birds of Israel. London: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-640255-8.
External links[edit]
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Passer hispaniolensis.
|Wikispecies has information related to Passer hispaniolensis
- Media related to the Spanish sparrow at the Internet Bird Collection
- Spanish sparrow at ARKive


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From Gramps
Accessibility support
- GNOME Accessibility provides some guidances:
- KDE accessibility team is a small on-line community of developers and other volunteers dedicated to ensure that our favorite desktop is accessible to all users, including those of us with physical handicaps.
- AEGIS acronym stands for Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards.
- Possibility project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating groundbreaking open source software for persons with disabilities.
Gramps aims to provide the best accessibility support. Unfortunatly, all parts of the interface have not been always tested for persons with disabilities. Gramps team try to do its best for a complete accessibility support.
Into Glade
- Gtk label
GtkLabel automaticaly generates accessibility keys on next GtkEntry and UndoableEntry fields. Remember that Gramps also uses custom widgets like StyledTextEditor and ValidatableMaskedEntry, which do not always provide relation with a GtkLabel.
- Toggle buttons and Icons on toolbar
Gramps often uses toggle buttons and alone image (no label), this excludes blind people and generates a poor interface for accessibility.
Think on accessibility support for widgets without Gtk label or alone image on a toggle button, by adding:
<property name="AtkObject::accessible-name" translatable="yes" comments="">Name access</property> ... <accessibility> <relation type="labelled-by" target="label209"/> </accessibility>
Into python
# mark the root of this window with its PID so we can easily identify it # as this app root_atk = atk.get_root() root_atk.set_description(str(os.getpid()))
label_acc = label_widget.get_accessible() entry_acc = entry.get_accessible() label_acc.add_relationship(atk.RelationType.LABEL_FOR, entry_acc) entry_acc.add_relationship(atk.RelationType.LABELLED_BY, label_acc)


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The Singapore airshow is held every two years and is Asia's largest aerospace and defense event. Held at the Changi Exhibition Center next to Singapore's airport, it brings together some of the world's biggest military, commercial and business aircraft manufacturers, who are seeking to tap Asia's high-growth market.
The last event in 2010 saw deals worth about $10 billion signed. This year, too, major manufacturers have been showcasing some of their most important products.
Click ahead for highlights from the show, including some new planes, some old ones and a few unusual models.
By: Deepanshu Bagchee
Posted: February 15, 2012


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14 Apr 2009 16:30:06 PM
Quick Hits: Fight Bookings, More Dana White Media Exposure, + More
(Jacare vs. Mayhem 1, to refresh your memory.)
According to Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza's manager, they're planning on a fight "for the title" at Dream.9 on May 26. Nothing is confirmed yet, Jacare's manager told Tatame, but right now it looks like it will be a rematch between Jacare and "Mayhem" Miller for Gegard Mousasi's vacated middleweight belt. If true that would make for a tight turnaround for Miller, who's slated to take on Kala Hose in Hawaii at Kingdom MMA on April 18. Call it making up for lost time. Or maybe he's just assuming that it won't take much out of him to whup on Hose in front of his Hawaiian peeps.
– As we saw earlier today, Dana White's threats to step back from the limelight might be the slightest bit hollow, but ESPN plans to actually make him talk on video when they send their E:60 crew to Montreal for a story on his recent video blog controversy. The piece will allegedly seek to compare White to the heads of other major sports organizations, asking what would have happened to them had they gone all nasty on a female sports reporter and her anonymous sources. We just hope E:60 has learned from their past mistakes. If they ask him about steroids, the interview's over.
– Spike TV sent out another 'in your face!' press release today to announce that Saturday night's replay of UFC 94 was the "#1 program among Men 18-34 in all of television (cable and broadcast) during its time period." The replay peaked at 2.4 million viewers for the main event and averaged 1.9 million over the three-hour broadcast, which, as Spike is kind enough to point out, bested HBO's Winky Wright/Paul Williams bout, which drew a measly 1.5 million viewers. What you're wondering is, did they mention how it compared to Strikeforce's viewership? They did not. But they know you're thinking about it anyway.
– Remember the rumored bout between Mark Coleman and Stephan Bonnar? The UFC made it official for UFC 100 today, but relegated it to the "may not be broadcast" prelims. On one hand, that's a hell of a place to end up after such a great career (talking about Coleman, obviously. I said great career, not one great fight). On the other hand, if there's one UFC card where you can feel okay about being pushed to the prelims, it's that one.


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Hundreds of bags of picnic trash are removed every weekend from Kittatinny Point in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, according to Park Superintendent John Donahue.
Hundreds of bags of picnic trash are removed every weekend from Kittatinny Point in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, according to Park Superintendent John Donahue.
But not this summer.
The popular recreation destination, parking area for hiking to Sun Fish Pond and canoe access will be closed as part of sequestration — the government's order to federal agencies to reduce annual budgets by 5 percent.
Milford Beach will also be closed, including the beach, picnic area, boat launch, canoe access, parking lot and the McDade Recreational trailhead.
The park service will save $52,000 in cleaning supplies, trash bags, toilet paper and trash removal services.
Trash is the reason the park cannot simply close the visitor's centers and keep the gates open to these facilities, as it trims $473,224 from its 2013 operating of $9.5 million.
Park managers cut from some of the most popular destinations because that is where they spend the most money, Donahue said.
Smithfield Beach is more popular than Milford Beach, but there is a fee to get into Smithfield Beach, and they did not want to lose the revenue, Donahue said Wednesday.
"We're approaching the sequester as if it will be a permanent situation," Donahue said.
The park customarily hires 37 seasonal workers, but only 20 will be hired this year because of sequestration.
The NPS has 102 park employees. Of those, 79 are full time. At last count, 24 of the full-timers earned more than $80,000 annually and eight of them more than $100,000.
Carl Wilgus, president and CEO of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, said the changes will have an effect on local tourism, but he didn't know to what extent.
The park is one of the biggest draws in the $2 billion Poconos tourism industry.
He said he had been trying to reach Donahue on Wednesday, but the two hadn't been able to connect.
He said he's "disappointed" at the planned closings of Milford Beach and Kittatinny Point, but wanted to talk to Donahue about his backup plans for visitors.
"We want to see how it's going to affect our visitor experience," Wilgus said. "We want to understand what options exist and how we can adapt. There had to be reasoning in these closings."
Local golf may also take a hit in the budget trimming.
The NPS will "most likely not be able to perform maintenance of the golf course this year," Donahue said, although it is still making a final decision.
"It was a huge expense last year," Donahue said.
The NPS-run historic golf course, one of the first in the nation, surrounds the Cliff Park Inn, bar and restaurant.
The inn closed abruptly in October 2011, and the NPS has been searching for a new lease holder to repair and operate the damaged inn and facility.
Local golfers have worried the course would be ruined if its delicate greens are not maintained.
The Pocono Pony bus service, which has provided free rides for park visitors, kayaks and bikes as an experimental program for the last three years, will be curtailed this summer.
Although it is not part of the sequester cuts, transportation funding has dried up.
The bus will only run on holiday weekends.
Friends of the Delaware Water Gap are seeking money to get the bus back to a daily service, Donahue said.
Trash cans will no longer be provided at Buttermilk Falls, Caddoo Access, Flatbrookville in New Jersey and at George W. Childs Recreation Site.
Visitors to those sites will be required to take their trash with them when they leave.
Donahue is concerned that it will mean more litter in the park.
The NPS will now spread the word about the closures and reduced services to the New York City and Philadelphia markets, in English and Spanish, so the touring public knows, spokeswoman Kathleen Sandt said.
The park is in the middle of a $430,000 re-signing project along Route 209.
The project, to replace or add a total of 337 signs, is part of a larger, $3 million traffic safety project that park officials are implementing.
It would have been enough to make up for this budget cut, but that money is from the Federal Highway Administration and not part of the park's operating budget.
Projects like this, or perhaps road work or roof repair on a building, will continue as grant money comes for special projects, Donahue said.
Pocono Record Writer Michael Sadowski contributed to this report.


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Since the Spring Training Countdown Clock tells me that Pitchers and Catchers report less than three weeks from now, I thought that this would be as good a time as any to get into some of the different issues that figure to be sorted out in Goodyear for the 2009 season. Unless you REALLY have an interest in the WBC rosters (and as long as no Indians' pitchers are on said roster, I don't) or want to deeply examine why the prospect of Garko running around in the outfield makes me think of John Belushi as a Decathlete plugging "Little Chocolate Donuts", there's not a lot that figures to be happening on the Reservation between now and February 12th, outside of the wildly entertaining Winter Press Tour. Thus, to pass my time until February 12th (get here already!), I thought that I would try to break down the different aspects of the Tribe roster in a series of pieces and get into some of the questions facing the Tribe that will hopefully find an answer before the team heads East from Goodyear to Arlington for the Season Opener against the Rangers on April 6th. Starting out the series, let's get right into what looks to be the area of the team that is probably the most important part of the team, but also arrives to Arizona with the most question marks around it - the starting rotation as a whole and, more in depth as to how the middle-to-back-end of the rotation looks to be filled out by the candidates to fill out the rotation to start the season. Obviously, there's a lot of folks who plan on attending that middle-to-back-of-the-rotation party, but how about we start with a little bit on some things to watch in Spring Training for the pitchers that figure into the top two slots in the rotation, whose importance cannot be underestimated given the question marks behind them. Starting at the top, Cliff Lee's 2008 remains the great (and wonderful) mystery of the season as he elevated himself from presumed back-end-of-the-rotation fodder to winning the Cy Young. While his 2008 seemed to come out of nowhere as his numbers had all declined to some degree from his 2004 and 2005 seasons to the point that him getting the 5th spot out of Winter Haven last year was no sure thing (remember this one?), there's no debate that Lee's season was a revelation, as he outperformed every pitcher in the AL by attacking hitters, getting ahead in counts, and looking to be in total control with every pitch. His success can be traced to his ability to spot his fastball and limit baserunners, which resulted in his ability to get strikeouts to rise, without compromising the amount of hitters he walked. To that end, it will be interesting with Lee this Spring to watch his K rate to see that he's striking batters out with the consistency that he did last year, after seeing it drop for a couple of previous years, and watching to see that he's keeping with the low BB rate that helped his tremendous 2008 season. If he can keep up the tremendous ratio of K to BB as he did in 2008, or at least show the similar signs in Spring Training that mean that he's still attacking hitters with his fastball and throwing strikes with location. If he is, there's no reason to believe that 2008 simply will be remembered as the year that Cliff turned the corner into an elite pitcher, and not the aberration that some believe it to be. With Carmona, you're really looking at a total body of work that started with the mostly forgettable 2006 season that saw him get into one whale of a groove when he entered the bullpen (0.95 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 26 K, 7 BB over 28 1/3 IP in his first 22 games as a reliever) until the wheels famously came off when he was given the chance to close. He followed that off with his breakthrough 2007 as a starter, when he was statistically one of the top five pitchers in baseball, only to come back with his downright disappointing 2008 season, during which his 0.83 K/BB ratio (that would be more BB than K) didn't...um, rank real high in terms of MLB pitchers and puts in perspective how "off" he was all season. Anyone else feel like they're riding the Blue Streak or the old Big Dipper on this one...up, down, up, down... So this should be an "up" year, which means the third consecutive Cy Young for the Tribe, right? It's pretty hard to predict what to expect with him as when he's on, he's essentially unhittable (one more drink before last call, Torii?) but when he's off, he allows things to domino on him in terms of allowing baserunners by giving up consecutive walks and hits. Let's just say that if he stays healthy, that's step one, which hopefully leads to him finding more success as he attempts to iron out the mechanical problems that allowed batters to simply sit on his sinker and wait for him to throw strikes. But if you're looking something to watch in Spring Training for Carmona, watch his walk totals as the number of walks he gave up in 2007 (2.55 per 9 innings) more than doubled in 2008 (5.22 per 9 innings) to see if he's hitting the strike zone consistently and if he's forcing hitters to swing at his sinker by throwing it for a strike. Additionally, watch the pitch count for him as the number of pitches that it took him to get through an inning in 2007 (14.59 on average) saw an uptick in 2008 (to 16.8 on average). While 14.59 to 16.80 isn't a huge jump, realize that Carmona's sinker is designed to initiate grounders and is meant to be swung at and put into play, so the more pitches that he throws, the more that it means that hitters are simply sitting back, waiting for him to throw strikes. Past those top two, there are players assumed to be starters in the rotation, if only because of their lack of options (Reyes) or a guarantee from the GM (Pavano), assuming health and some semblance of effectiveness in Goodyear. For the 5th spot then, the Indians look to have a gaggle of LHP who will be vying to break camp with the parent club and not simply fill out the Columbus rotation and wait for their chance. For the pitcher that could be assumed to be the de facto #3 starter entering Goodyear, it must be asked - will the real Anthony Reyes please stand up? A hotshot prospect that turned into a suspect over the course of a few years, The Man with the Flat Brim came to Cleveland and put up some phenomenal numbers, posting a 1.83 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP, over 6 starts for the Tribe. While he didn't miss many bats (only 15 K in 39 1/3 IP, admittedly a small sample size) for the Tribe, he did go through the St. Louis system as a strikeout pitcher of sorts, striking out 136 batters in 128 2/3 IP for AAA Memphis as a 23-year-old in 2005. After that season, Reyes famously ascended to the Majors in time for the Cards' 2006 WS victory before, perhaps more famously, butting heads with St. Louis Pitching Coach Dave Duncan on what type of pitcher Reyes should be. Whether getting out from under Duncan is a good thing in the long-term remains to be seen, but the early results in his time with Carl Willis portend good things for 2009. If you buy into projections at all (and, if you do, B-Pro's book should be out by Valentine's Day), know that the Bill James projection for Reyes in 2009 (3.88 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, and 135 K to 53 BB in 168 IP) has him re-capturing the magic that seemed to leave him in 2006. If those numbers shake out, or even come close to shaking out, Reyes slots very nicely as the #3 starter that can go a long way to settling the middle of the rotation and serving as the bridge between the top two in front of him and the bevy of LHP behind him. After Reyes in terms of pitchers who, assuming health and with the expectation that they don't spike themselves in Goodyear, look to have a spot in the rotation going into Spring Training, Carl Pavano is the veteran reclamation project whose signing has received probably more attention than it truly deserves. If he can truly be counted on to stay healthy and, if healthy, effective will be one of the Spring's more intriguing developments. I'm interested to see how the Indians handle his inning load in Arizona - if they're going to treat him with kid gloves with the idea that they want him to stay healthy of if they're going to throw him out there with the rest of the pack and see what he has left in the tank. Beyond that, obviously his performance will be closely monitored and it will be interesting to see what the Indians do if he's obviously struggling in Spring Training. That is, if Pavano goes out this Spring and just gets blown up in every outing, will the Indians eat their $1.5M gamble and let the youngsters slot themselves for one more spot or do they give Pavano a few shots in the regular season before the cord is cut? Of course, Pavano could make all of these points moot and just pretend that the year is 2004 again and become a fixture in the rotation right out of the gate. As for me...I'm not going to hold my breath for that to happen. If Reyes and Pavano are assumed to have spots in the rotation to begin the season, there really is only one spot left in the rotation for the likes of Laffey, Sowers, Huff, and Jackson to battle it out for. Out of those names, probably the leader at the starting gate for the 5th spot is Laffey, who has thrived at every level that he's pitched at (save his time in Buffalo last year when arm discomfort compromised his effectiveness) and his performance after being promoted to the Indians last May. How much has the still-23-year-old Laffey dominated the minors? Take out his 2008 in Buffalo, during which he experienced arm issues, and his minor league statistics are pretty impressive - 3.38 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP over 583 2/3 IP. Unlike some of the other pitchers in the mix, Laffey has experienced a modicum of success in MLB over the course of two seasons now, enough that the Tribe coaching staff may have a level of confidence in that they know what to expect from him after the last two years, over which he's posted an MLB line of a 4.34 ERA (104 ERA+) and a 1.40 WHIP. Not exactly top-of-the-rotation stuff, but if that's what the Indians are getting out of their 5th starter (or perhaps 4th, dependent on how this all shakes out), they could do quite a bit worse. With Laffey, maybe his ceiling is as a 4th or 5th starter, but if he's 4th or 5th starter right now who can eat innings and post respectable numbers from that spot, it's worth giving the Babyfaced Bulldog the first crack at showing he belongs out of Goodyear. In the interest of full disclosure, if we're talking about a LHP who has shown that he can thrive in the minors, and has experienced success in the Bigs, Jeremy Sowers fits the bill as well as Laffey. Sowers has a minor-league career line of a 2.50 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP over 413 2/3 IP, with a tremendous 2008 in Buffalo that saw him post a 2.08 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP with 43 K and 17 BB in 60 2/3 IP. Upon that unbridled minor-league success, throw the second half of his 2006 season (3.57 ERA, 1.19 WHIP over 88 1/3 IP in 14 starts) that remains etched in everyone's memory to some extent as he showed flashes of brilliance, even if nobody could figure out how he was achieving the results he was. Since that run of innings in 2006, though, Sowers hasn't been able to find MLB success, compiling a 5.88 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP for the Tribe over the last two years. The question needs to be asked as to why Jeremy Sowers has not been able to replicate his 2006 success and why is he able to dominate AAA hitting, only to see MLB hitters tee off on him? I don't know...and truthfully, some small part of me wants to believe that Sowers can come back to something close to his 2006 success or that he can finally translate his minor-league success to the Bigs. But at this point, it's going to take quite a bit of convincing for me not to believe that Sowers is not unlike that AAAA position player who thrives against AAA competition but is unable to translate that success to a prolonged MLB career. If Laffey is the leader at the gate in this field, Dave Huff is the definite dark horse as Huff proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can be successful in AAA with the type of performance in his 16 starts in Buffalo (particularly the 81 K to 15 BB in his 80 1/3 AAA innings) that would translate to success in MLB. Based purely on potential and statistics that portend MLB success, Huff has a leg up on the rest of the candidates with his ability to miss bats and his varied and effective pitch repertoire, which revolves around his ability to spot his fastball and using his change-up to complement his fastball. An X-factor with Huff is that he only pitched 146 1/3 innings in AA and AAA last year after being limited to 59 2/3 innings in 2007. Limiting innings in MLB, particularly for young pitchers, is something that the Indians have always been very cognizant of and limiting Huff's innings may be in the Indians' minds when deciding which LHP is going to break camp in the rotation. Huff isn't likely to throw more than 150 or 160 innings this year and where he throws those innings remains to be seen as is Huff is going to be on an inning limit for the season, so do the Indians want Huff to throw most of those in Columbus? Finally, unlike the rest of the candidates, however, is not on the Indians' 40-man roster and would have to be added - which would be an easy hurdle to clear if Huff forces his way onto the team out of Goodyear. As for the long shot in the starting gate, the idea that Zach Jackson figured onto the 25-man roster out of Goodyear as it was (incorrectly, it turns out) assumed that he was out of options. The thought was that Zachson could fill the role of the long man/spot starter out of the gate to allow the rest of the bullpen to settle in Cleveland and Columbus and to give the Indians the luxury of having a pitcher whose workload and frequency of work was not one that they had to closely monitor. With the extra option however, it's pretty obvious that Jackson at this point will fill that role...just not on the 25-man roster. He looks like a depth starter who is likely to shuttle back and forth between Columbus and Cleveland if he's called to do so. It's likely that a number of these other pitchers slot ahead of Jackson in terms of long-term viability in the rotation, but I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a spot start at some point in 2009, if only because he's already on the 40-man and a scheduled start for him in Columbus may coincide with a need in the big-league rotation. The thought that Jackson could fill the role of a long man for the Tribe in 2009, able to eat innings and pitch without the promise of regular appearances went by the wayside a bit in the past few weeks as the Indians loaded up on veteran depth to go along with their high-ceiling young prospects. At this point in his career, he'll turn 26 in May without any real MLB success (career MLB ERA of 5.49, career MLB WHIP of 1.52) or a minor-league track record (career MiLB ERA of 4.62, career MiLB WHIP of 1.43) that would project that he just hasn't been able to turn the corner in MLB, so it's getting late soon for The Zach Attack to show that he's a legitimate option in a legitimate rotation and not just the spot starter/long man that he looks to be right now. When it comes to breaking down the rotation going into Spring Training, Arizona may give us a peek as to whether the Indians can reasonably expect Lee v.2008 and Carmona v.2007 to anchor their rotation and let the rest of the starters sort themselves out. If either is close to as good as they have been, the Indians' rotation could boast one of the top pitchers in the AL. If both can come close to replicating their successful seasons of the past, the Indians will have arguably the best 1-2 punch in MLB, not just the AL. Past those two, if Reyes and Pavano are healthy and don't completely implode in Goodyear, both are going to be breaking Spring Training in the rotation. Where they slot in the rotation really doesn't matter that much to me as if both are healthy and even moderately effective into...let's say May, then the Indians will be thrilled with them in the middle of their rotation. As for the rest of the candidates going for the 5th spot, I would think that the spot is Laffey's to lose at this point as he had the most success in MLB in recent years and the fact that the all of these guys all have options remaining means that they can all be stashed in Columbus to sort themselves out and to allow the Indians to mix-and-match and dip into their depth to find the hot hand as the season progresses. Lots of questions face all of these candidates and the idea that Jake Westbrook returns to the rotation in July still seems to be out there as a bit of a wild card in the deck. How much can reasonably expected out of Westbrook remains to be seen (if, in fact, he even comes back that early and is ready to pitch in MLB), but the 2009 rotation looks to be a pretty fluid situation, Jake or no Jake, where the Indians may be seeing their rotation evolve from the Season Opener all the way into the Fall, depending upon the performances of the individual pitchers. It is always possible that a guy like Scott Lewis emerges this Spring to jump ahead of everyone, but to me most of these guys that don't get the 5th spot (SLewis included) simply serve as the depth that figures to be leaned upon to find the right mix of pitchers to fill out the rotation.
The rotation is likely to play a big role in what the 2009 Indians do, and some of the questions that need to be answered to ensure that the rotation remains a pillar of this team (or at least close to it) figure to find some answers in Goodyear.


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Statement Skirt (& Necklace)
Added Jan 20, 2013
by saxsilverain
Espoo, Finland
statement pants are all the rage at the moment. but i prefer wearing skirts. so instead, i made a statement skirt. (actually, i made a skirt because i only had a limited amount of the fabric, LOL.)
the second i saw this fabric, i knew i had to have it. the print shows all kinds of treasures: gold coins, crosses and coins, and even… um, smoking pipes? well, whatever the artist was thinking when he/she made the print, i adore it! the fabric itself is normal cotton, the kind that is usually used for patchwork. that means it's matte, and when i wear this kind of print, i want it to SHINE. be GLOSSY. anything BUT matte.
luckily i have an extra black organza fabric lying in my cupboard. so i put an organza layer on top of it, and started cutting & sewing.
i used no pattern, just calculated the radius of my waistline, and cut the fabric in circle. for the zipper, i sew it so that it's exposed (my first time of sewing exposed zipper). too bad i didn't have the same colored thread as the zipper's allowance, i ended up using black and it shows (of course). it's not that neat, but it'll do for now.
for the hem of the organza layer, i tried melting it with electrical soldering iron, but the fabric's too thin that it mostly just completely got burnt away instead. i persistently tried it though, and in the end i guess the result was okay-ish. it should hold until the next time i wash the skirt.
if you think you see something hanging at the bottom of the skirt, don't worry, your eyes are correct. the organza i used wasn't just plain organza. it has spider patches! 2 crazy fabrics in one. just how big of a statement can you make with this skirt?
after i was done with the skirt, i realized that i still have remnants of the print fabric. one piece of the remnant was a perfect circle, cut out of the waist part of the skirt. i immediately ironed an interface fabric to it and glued it to a scrap of leather, glued some fake stones here and there, sew some snap buttons on the opening at one side… and now i also have a statement necklace! :)
Material Notes
1 m of print cotton (1.10 m wide),
1 m of polyester organza,
20 cm metal zipper,
1 small hook,
2 small snap buttons (for necklace)
3 Comments Sign in to add a post
Jan 22, 2013, 12.40 AMby skeeler
1 Reply
Jan 23, 2013, 04.38 PMby saxsilverain
thank you :)
Jan 21, 2013, 11.30 AMby libra-s
What a fun skirt to have!! I also love your top and stockings!! Great ensemble!!
1 Reply
Jan 21, 2013, 07.30 PMby saxsilverain
many thanks! :)
Jan 21, 2013, 07.54 AMby Mary Athey
Fab,skirt!! I love this as its.so different. The collars.a.work of art.as.well x
1 Reply
Jan 21, 2013, 07.31 PMby saxsilverain
thank you, they were also fun to make! :)
Add to Favorites 3 people added it


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About Us
What is the Science and Engineering Challenge?
The Science and Engineering Challenge (SEC) is a nationwide STEM* outreach program presented by the University of Newcastle in partnership with communities, Rotary clubs, universities and sponsors.
Through the SEC, students experience aspects of science and engineering which they would not usually see in their school environment.
The SEC runs a range of programs but focuses on inspiring students in year 10 to consider a future career in science and engineering by choosing to study the enabling sciences and mathematics in years 11 and 12.
*STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics


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I am currently accepting players for playing in my first tournament which quickly made it to 13/16 players, but then has been stuck at 13 players for the last 4-5 days. I'm sure this will eventually fill, but am also asking the following for future reference assuming I run more tournaments.
I am wondering what the proper ways of recruiting on the site are. For example, I'm assuming it's a no-no to "advertise" in other tournament threads (I would think that would be annoying and disrespectful to the organizer of those tournaments). What about in game chat? For me, I don't know that I want to constantly see posts in the chat about this tournament or that tournament so I could see that as being annoying or not allowed. I've seen others suggest PM'ing players, but I haven't really built any online "relationships" with other players yet. So who do I target?
I really don't want to annoy people with trying to be overly pro-active in recruiting and don't want to step on any toes, so I'm curious what the best ways are to recruit in a proper manner.


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Electro-Harmonix: Vacuum tubes and a visit to the factory
Founding Years (1967 - 1968)
Electro Harmonix was founded by Mike Matthews in October of 1968 in NYC, USA. Himself an R&B keyboard player, he had traded his passion of music for a job as a salesman for IBM in 1967. Shortly afterwards he realized that his job at IBM no longer suited him, and he was interested in trying once again to make career for himself as a keyboard player. Concerned he may not be able to support his (now ex) wife while being unemployed, he aspired to save some money to support her before embarking on his journey to stardom. Partnering with an acquaintance of his, an audio repairman who claimed to have his own custom circuit for a fuzz pedal, they jobbed construction of their new pedal to a contracting house, and began distributing the pedals under a deal with the Guild Guitar Company. Fuzzboxes were in demand following a trail of hits involving their sound, including (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones two years prior, and recent popularization of Jimi Hendrix. The latter connection resulted in the pedals being branded the 'Foxey Lady'.
Following the unexpected and unexplained departure of his partner, Matthews was introduced to inventor and electric engineer Robert Myer through IBM colleagues. Together the two began conceptualizing a circuit designed to emulate Jimi Hendrix's use of a Distortion-Free Sustain. While testing a prototype of the Distortion-Free Sustainer pedal, which Matthews did by simply plucking the strings of an electric guitar, as he did not play guitar, he noticed another small box connected to the prototype. When asked, Myer explained this box was a line booster, designed to boost the guitar's passive signal to an appropriate level for the prototype. Matthews listened as the guitar's volume increased greatly as the booster was turned on, and asked Myer what was involved in manufacturing the pedal. The pedal consisted of a simple circuit and used just one transistor. Shortly afterwards, Matthews founded Electro Harmonix to produce this and other pedal designs throughout 60's, 70's and early 80's.
Turns out that EHX also manufacturers a huge percentage of the world's vacuum tubes in its factory in Russia, which are then sent back to New York for testing and pairing before being sold to vintage and high-end audio fans, as well as manufacturers like McIntosh.
Gadget site boingboing had a really good time checking out the factory floor to see the hand-made vacuum tube testing machines, as well as talking to the engineers that sit around all day and try to figure out how to get the ideas for new FX processors out of their crazy boss's head and into working hardware.
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TUXEDO — When Stu Wirth landed his first coaching job, he had the same goals as many young coaches.
TUXEDO — When Stu Wirth landed his first coaching job, he had the same goals as many young coaches.
I want to teach these young ladies how to play soccer.
I'd like to produce a winning program.
And I wouldn't mind winning a state title.
As expected, the early years were a bit of a struggle for Wirth. He started the Tuxedo varsity program from scratch in 1988, and one- and two-win seasons were the norm. But as time moved on, the ex-football player developed a feel for the game, and his players grew with him.
Finally, in his sixth season, Wirth guided Tuxedo to a Section 9 championship and a berth in the state finals. The Tornadoes came up a goal short of the state crown, but it was a tremendous accomplishment nonetheless.
There comes a point, though, when spending time with other people's children is not as important as tending to your own. Wirth started a family and one ... two ... three kids later it was time to make a big choice.
He stepped down as Tuxedo's varsity coach.
"We had all that success in the beginning, and the program was moving along in a very positive way,'' Wirth said. "After 10 years it got to the point where I was reaching the end. I was ready to move on.''
Wirth stepped away from the Tuxedo program, but not from soccer. He reconnected with his family in a meaningful way — he became a soccer dad and coached his kids on local youth teams.
"The attraction to coach them up at that level was very inviting and I wanted to share that time with them,'' he said.
A funny thing happened, though — Wirth ended up getting the best of both worlds. On one hand, he was able to spend more time with his kids. On the other, he learned to appreciate the game on a whole new level, gaining an understanding of how to develop talent at the lower levels and how to create good habits at an early age.
"It was a nice way to bridge the gap,'' Wirth said, "because I had never coached at that level before, and understanding where these kids get their skills from.''
The desire to return to competitive coaching grew stronger, and Wirth returned to the Tuxedo varsity job in 2007 after a 10-year absence. A year later, he guided Tuxedo to a Class C sectional title.
"I missed that competitive piece to it, because that is what you get at the varsity level,'' Wirth said. "I am really enjoying the kids and taking nothing for granted this time. I am trying to enjoy the ride while it lasts.''
Tuxedo competes in the same league as Tri-Valley, where Mary Feusner has coached for 35 years. Wirth admires her longevity and her passion for the game. He's glad he took some time away from the varsity game to devote to his family, but now he can see himself in this for the long haul.
"Oh, there are times out here where I don't know if I'm going to make it to tomorrow,'' he said, "and then there are times of the year when I know I can go another 20 years. Day by day, things change, but I'm still loving it and I hope to be coaching 10 years from now and enjoying the team and the players and everything else as much as she does.
"This is what I've always envisioned — if I can still love it, still teach and still have the respect of my players, I want to be around as long as I can.''
For Wirth, one step back was definitely a leap forward in his coaching.
Twitter: @KenMcMillanTHR