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Chimpanzees organize their social relationships like humans
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Diego Escribano1,
Victoria Doldán-Martelli1,
Katherine A. Cronin2,3,
Daniel B. M. Haun4,5,
Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen4,6,
José A. Cuesta1,7 &
Angel Sánchez1,7
Complex networks
Human relationships are structured in a set of layers, ordered from higher (intimate relationships) to lower (acquaintances) emotional and cognitive intensity. This structure arises from the limits of our cognitive capacity and the different amounts of resources required by different relationships. However, it is unknown whether nonhuman primate species organize their affiliative relationships following the same pattern. We here show that the time chimpanzees devote to grooming other individuals is well described by the same model used for human relationships, supporting the existence of similar social signatures for both humans and chimpanzees. Furthermore, the relationship structure depends on group size as predicted by the model, the proportion of high-intensity connections being larger for smaller groups.
Social network analysis has been a very active field for about a century, revealing the complex set of relationships that connect individuals1,2. Among the main objects of interest of social network analysis are personal or egonetworks, which consist of the social networks surrounding selected actors3. A very general observation is that human egonetworks show a layered structure where each layer corresponds to relationships of different emotional closeness4,5,6. These layers have a definite emotional closeness: there is a layer of very close friends, a subsequent one of good friends, and so on. It is convenient to introduce the concept of nested circles, i.e., the sets of all the relationships up to a certain closeness. Typical circles established in the literature contain 5, 15, 50 and 150 individuals—with a scaling \(\sim 3\) between a circle and the next one. There is also evidence for a subsequent circle, formed by acquaintances, of about 500–600 people7.
Social networks have also been studied in a diverse array of species, including mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates8,9,10,11,12,13. In this context, the study of nonhuman primate social networks is of particular interest in light of the complexity of their societies, the variability between species, and their evolutionary proximity to humans14. Layered structures have been reported in both the distribution of primate social group sizes15 and in groups of mammals living in multilevel social systems (mainly baboons, chimpanzees, elephants, and dolphins)16,17. These results suggest that human social networks (specifically, our ego networks) may be quantitatively different from those of other species, and that a similar structure in terms of layers or circles may be underlying the social networks of many species. However, the available data on non human animals do not allow substantiating this claim of similarity, because they are not about individual ego networks but about group-level social structures. In this paper we use a continuous analysis of nonhuman primate social interactions (specifically, of chimpanzees) to show that, even in ego networks, the corresponding underlying structure is consistent with that of humans, due to inherently limited resources of cognition and time applying to both species alike.
To fill this gap, in this paper we present strong evidence that chimpanzees organize their relationships very much like humans do by means of a continuous version18 of the theory introduced in19, consisting of a resource allocation model based on two widely accepted assumptions: the capacity that an individual can invest in social relationships is finite, and relationships of a different intensity carry different costs. This mathematical approach allows us to advance our thinking beyond circles and assign a continuum value to a relationship, which is more reflective of real life and can include, for example, frequency of contact20, number of messages exchanged21, or duration of time spent together21. The formalism developed in18 was applied to face-to-face contact time22, number of messages between Facebook users23, and number of phone calls21, showing a structure similar to that arising when intensities are regarded as discrete categories. This implies that it is not necessary to arbitrarily categorize the data to unveil its structure. As a consequence, egonetworks turn out to be characterized by a new universal scale parameter \(\eta \), which plays the role of (and is consistent with) the scale factor \(\sim 3\) typically found in the discrete setup. We here apply the same formalism to grooming data extracted from over four years of observations of four groups of chimpanzees living in the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, taking grooming as a proxy of the effort devoted to pairwise relationships. Grooming behavior is characterized by one individual manually or orally manipulating the hair or skin of another individual. While this behavior does serve a hygienic function, grooming is well-known to facilitate and reflect social bonding between individual chimpanzees24. We used grooming instead of other relevant behaviors because grooming is one of the most essential social commodities in the lives of chimpanzees and also occurs sufficiently frequently for stable patterns to emerge within a reasonable time frame. Moreover, it is a clearly identifiable behavioral phenomenon with a well-defined direction—this is in contrast to e.g., social proximity, which can be instigated by either partner as well as a coincidental occurrence due to non-social factors like food presence or predation risk. This allows us to compare our results to those obtained when analyzing human ego networks, which are always directed, i.e., it is ego who indicates or shows their relation to the alteri, and not viceversa. As we will see below, our results confirm that the time chimpanzees devote to grooming other individuals is well described by the continuous probability distribution predicted by the model, supporting the existence of similar social signatures for both humans and chimpanzees.
Generally speaking, the amount of grooming between primates is considered to be an indicator of their relationship quality25. Therefore, we apply the formalism summarized above to grooming data of chimpanzees living in the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia between 2015 and 2019. At this sanctuary, chimpanzees live in four different populations without any interaction between individuals from different groups. The number of chimpanzees living in each group differs considerably (groups 1–4, \(n = 26, 60, 11, 14\), respectively), and after preparing the data the number of individuals considered in each group for the analysis is reduced (groups 1–4, \(n = 21, 32, 10, 10\), respectively). Full information about the chimpanzee population studied is provided in Methods and in the Supplementary Information (SI).
To analyze the data, we resort to the theoretical approach in18, where the results for the discrete case19 were extended to relationships characterized by continuous values. Briefly, the discrete approach assumes that L is the total number of relationships in an ego-network and \(\sigma \) is the average cognitive cost of a relationship. Relationships belong to r different categories, each of them bearing a different cost \(s_\mathrm{max}=s_1>s_2>\cdots >s_r=s_\mathrm{min}\). As described in detail in19 (see also Methods below), using a maximum entropy approach it is possible to show that the number of relationships in one circle divided by the previous, smaller one, behaves approximately as
$$\begin{aligned} \frac{\chi _{k+1}}{\chi _k}\sim {\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} e^{\mu }, &{} \mu \rightarrow \infty , \\ 1, &{} \mu \rightarrow -\infty . \end{array}\right. } \end{aligned}$$
where \(\mu \equiv \hat{\mu }(s_{max}-s_{min})/(r-1)\), with \(\hat{\mu }\) a Lagrange multiplier connected to the cognitive capacity constraint \(\sigma \). Therefore, the circles satisfy an approximate scaling relation; in particular, for \(\mu \approx 1\) the usual value of 3 found on empirical data is recovered. On the other hand, the theory also predicts a so-called "inverse" regime, when \(\mu <0\), in which most of the relationships are in the closest circle. This second behavior had not been described prior to the publication of19, when it was checked against empirical data of small migrant communities, confirming its existence.
In the continuum case18, circles are defined as the fraction of links \(\chi (t)\) whose "distance" to the individual is not larger than a specified value t (\(0\le t\le 1\)). Their scaling ratio turns out to be controlled by a new parameter, \(\eta \), the equivalent of \(\mu \) (in fact, it can be shown that \(\eta \approx (r-1)(e^{\mu }-1)\)). In this continuous approach, the separation between the two regimes, the normal and the inverted ones, also takes place at \(\eta =0\). On the other hand, setting the number of circles to the usual value \(r=4\) and assuming, as empirically observed, that \(e^{\mu } \approx 3\)5, we then find \(\eta \approx 6\). More details can be found in Methods below, and in the original references18,19.
With the above approach in mind, given a dataset of relationships with continuous weights, the scaling parameter \(\eta \) can be estimated using the maximum-likelihood method. The basic idea of the fitting procedure is as follows: for every individual chimpanzee, we have the list of other individuals that chimpanzee groomed and how often that chimpanzee was observed to groom each one of them. From these data, we can obtain the range of grooming investment allocated across grooming partners, and also the number of observations devoted to grooming activities. We are then able to obtain the corresponding \(\eta \) parameter characterizing the chimpanzee's distribution of grooming times, and by inserting the value of \(\eta \) in our analytical expression we have the function describing the whole distribution \(\chi (t)\) (see Parameter estimation in Methods for full details). We note that this is very different from the common approach in primatology to regress the response (e.g., grooming times) onto socio-demographic factors like age, sex, and kinship. Instead of regressions to which factors could be added, we fit an analytical expression that yields the distribution of grooming observed in the chimpanzees. In this respect, it is important to note that the model does not depend explicitly on any individual socio-demographics, that would enter the picture only indirectly through the total capability to maintain relationships (i.e., the total amount of time devoted to grooming) and, as a consequence, it provides a different kind of information. Finally, a limitation of our approach is that chimpanzees with very few relationships (despite good sampling effort) can not be included, due to the inaccuracies in the corresponding fits to our analytical expression (see Data curation in Methods for a discussion of how this leads to excluding some individuals from the analysis).
The type of fits of the function \(\chi (t)\), giving the size of the continuous circles, to the data on individual chimpanzees is exemplified in Fig. 1 (plots of the fits for all the individuals considered in the study are provided in the Supplementary Information). The plots clearly show that the fits are not perfect, but on the other hand most points lie within the 95% confidence interval for the fitted distribution, and those that do not are not far from it. As the Supplementary Information shows, there are examples of better and worse fits than those shown here—which have been selected because they had more data for the fitting. One should bear in mind that the chimpanzee data are quite noisy because they have been obtained from chimpanzees living in large, naturalistic enclosures that lead to varying levels of animal visibility, and data have been collected by many different observers over the four-year period (see Methods). Under those circumstances, the fits can be actually considered to be very good, and in fact if we compare them to those reported in18, they are of a similar quality. Therefore, we can conclude that the continuum theory is a good description of how a chimpanzee distributes the time it devotes to grooming other individuals.
Examples of fittings for an individual of each group. Selected individuals are those for which there were more available data points. From left to right, individuals belong to groups 1, 2, 3, and 4. Shown in each case is \(\chi (t)\), the fraction of links whose "distance" to the individual is not larger than t. Red dots are actual data, representing the number of individuals who receive no more grooming than a fraction t of the maximum. The blue dashed line is the fitted function \(\chi (t)\), and the blue-shadowed region is the interval of confidence.
Our analysis of the results for the parameters characterizing all the individuals studied is summarized in Fig. 2. The values for the parameter \(\eta \) obtained from the fits have a mode of approximately \(\eta =4\), while the mean value is close to the mode except for Group 2 where it is closer to 6. The range of obtained values for \(\eta \) falls within the range of expected values, and the mode indicates that typically the scaling ratio of the circles for chimpanzees would be somewhat smaller than for humans, except in Group 2. We believe that the reason for the difference of this group with respect to the others arises from the fact that it is distinctly larger than the rest, both pre- and post-filtering, and that this allows group members to develop a richer social life as far as grooming is concerned—i.e., it allows individuals to devote small intervals of time to grooming many others, leading to higher values of \(\eta \) and more low intensity relationships.
Histograms for \(\eta \) parameter distribution in each group. The red dashed line represents the change of regime \(\eta = 0\) and the blue dashed line the mean value for each group.
The histograms presented show that there are no fits yielding negative values of \(\eta \), which would indicate the existence of chimpanzees with an inverted structure of relationships, like those observed in humans19. However, the values of \(\eta \) close to zero are on the border between regimes, so they should give rise to a larger fraction of individuals in the inner part of the distribution \(\chi (t)\). Figure 3 confirms that this is indeed the case by showing the relationship structure and the \(\chi (t)\) fitted function for two very different examples. On one side of the \(\eta \) scale we have the distribution of grooming times by Kit, whose \(\eta =0.14\) is rather typical of a structure that is intermediate between regimes. Kit devotes quite some time to grooming Kambo, Commander, Bobby and Val, and also a noticeable amount of time to other chimpanzees. Interestingly, this agrees with the fact that Kit is in group 4, the smallest one, in agreement with the situation in which the inverted regime is expected to arise: not so many possible individuals available to groom. On the opposite extreme of the \(\eta \) scale, Fig. 3 shows the results for Genny, in Group 1, with \(\eta =10.3\). In this case, we have a situation which is typical of the normal regime, with a lot of grooming devoted to her baby, some amount to her daughter Gonzaga, and very small amounts to many other individuals. Once again, this is to be expected in so far as Genny lives in Group 1, where there are many chimpanzees she can relate with. Therefore, the results corresponding to different values of \(\eta \) are also quite similar to those found for humans18.
Examples of the relationship between the \(\eta \) parameter and the proportion of relationships of different intensity. \(\chi (t)\) functions and egonetworks for Genny (Group 1 and \(\eta = 10.3\)) and Kit (Group 4 and \(\eta = 0.14\)). Arrows connect the focal individual with those it grooms, while the width of the arrows represents the total amount of time devoted to grooming a specific chimpanzee. Orange ovals represent females, blue ones represent males.
Discussion and conclusions
The results reported in this study show that chimpanzees appear to organize their grooming time in very good agreement with the prediction of the continuum resource allocation theory applied to humans in18. In other words, chimpanzees distribute the time they devote to grooming other individuals in their group very much like humans organize their relationships when the relationship intensity is treated as a continuous value. These findings are in line with previous accounts that grooming can be considered a resource allocation problem26,27,28,29,30. As we see in humans, some chimpanzees solve this allocation problem by investing large amounts of grooming in a few other individuals (more so when the group is small), while others invest small amounts of grooming in many other individuals. In other words, they show the same two allocation strategies observed in human relationships and in the same situations, with inverted structures being more likely in small groups. We note that these findings corroborate grooming as an expression of friendship in non-human primates31, yet more importantly indicate that different social strategies might be at play among chimpanzees, dependent on their immediate group structure. Our results show that chimpanzees living in larger groups employ their social capital differently than chimpanzees in smaller groups, like in humans19,32. This suggests that chimpanzees navigate their social environment flexibly, distributing their social resources across many group members when needed, yet investing more intensely in a few others when possible. In this light, any social forces that affect levels of group cohesiveness (e.g., to what extent a group forms a whole versus a modular, sub-grouping structure) indirectly shape a primate's resource allocation strategy, a link we only know from the science of human sociology1.
The novel finding here is that a nonhuman primate species, chimpanzees, appears to organize their affiliative relationships, or friendships, following the same pattern that we previously characterized for humans. Indeed, it appears that the mean group sizes of all primate species follow the same pattern as we see in the circles of human egonetworks15. Furthermore, the global network structures of some primate species have a similar internal structure16,17,33. By means of our continuum analysis of grooming data, we show that egonetworks in chimpanzees also exhibit a specific organization in terms of (the continuous equivalent of) circles. Our results thus establish that social networks in humans and chimpanzees show similar relationship structure. Further research could leverage the behavioral data of other primate species to determine whether the continuum analysis of egonetworks reveals a consistent pattern in other species living in large social groups.
Environment description
At the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, chimpanzees live in large, forested enclosures ranging from 47 to 190 acres that consist of miombo grasslands and forests, a natural habitat for wild chimpanzee populations34. In their enclosures, the chimpanzees have ample space to roam and exhibit species-typical behaviors, including engaging in natural fission-fusion dynamics35. The four study populations at Chimfunshi live in separate enclosures which precludes the possibility for inter-group encounters. Apart from a small section between Groups 3 and 4, the chimpanzees from the different groups cannot see each other, yet live within hearing-distance from each other (i.e., the groups are stretched out over a crow-fly distance of 3 km). Each of the four groups is composed of a mixture of wild-born chimpanzees and chimpanzees born at Chimfunshi. Wild-born chimpanzees come from various phylogenetic and geographic backgrounds, with a mixture of subspecies. The chimpanzees at Chimfunshi engage in natural foraging behavior on mostly fruiting trees, but also insects and small mammals present in their enclosures. Additionally, they are fed two times a day with a variety of fruits and vegetables to supplement their diets. At nights, the chimpanzees sleep in their woodland enclosures in self-constructed nests (for details see36).
The grooming data were collected as part of a larger, ongoing data-collection effort at Chimfunshi aimed at assessing chimpanzee sociality over time36. Trained staff members conduct focal follows daily with an every-minute scan sampling technique in the ZooMonitor (ZM) application37, a protocol which has been implemented and maintained by the authors (KAC, DBMH, EJCvL) since 2015. The protocol comprises 10min focal follows in which 10 scan points are scored. On each scan, all instances of proximity (<1 m), grooming, social play, and aggression by the focal individual are scored, including the identities of the interaction partners. Data were semi-randomly collected from the fence line, restricted by visibility. We work in a sanctuary setting in which the chimpanzees have ample space to retreat into the forest. As per sanctuary stipulations, we do not enter their enclosures ever, which prevents us from following the chimpanzees into the forest. Hence, the next best thing is to divide the fence line into different sections and start the observations randomly from these different sections, also randomizing the direction (clockwise VS counter-clockwise) in which the search for chimpanzees commences38,39. Upon encountering a chimpanzee within eye-sight, we start behavioral observations on the respective individual using established focal follow protocols (see our main text). After finishing the respective focal follow, we search for the nearest chimpanzee to start the next focal follow. Overall, if the focal follow lasted 5 minutes or less (i.e., due to visibility challenges), we discarded the focal follow. The observation efforts start at a different location each day upon which the first-seen chimpanzee is chosen as the focal. The observation efforts were distributed across the day: typically, per group, one hour was collected between 7am-11am and one hour was collected between 2:30pm and 5pm, after which the chimpanzees retreat into the forest to spend their nights there. All individuals were sampled except for dependent offspring clinging to their mothers.
This study was approved by the ethical committee of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the data collection protocol was approved by the Chimfunshi Research Advisory Board, ref -2014C014). Animal husbandry and research protocols also complied with international standards40 and local guidelines on the husbandry and care for sanctuary-living animals as stipulated by the Zambia Wildlife Association (ZAWA). The study was purely observational in nature and thus did not require specific ethical approval for any changes to the daily husbandry protocols as adhered to by Chimfunshi.
We chose to focus on grooming behavior because of the established relationship between grooming behavior and dyadic relationship quality24, and because we judged the grooming data to be most reliably and consistently collected over the four year period. For our analysis we consider a grooming interaction when an individual has been observed grooming another in the 10 minutes interval it acts as a focal subject, regardless of whether this action takes place during the whole of this period or only during a fraction of it. In this way, we can unify the criteria for considering a grooming action and reduce uncertainty in the data, as in many cases it starts or ends outside the focal observation period. As an alternative, we have assigned a weight to each grooming bout given by the number of minutes it lasted within the observation window. Data analysis using this criterion yields results in very good agreement with those presented here, so we retained the first procedure as is standard in the field.
Prior to constructing networks, we filtered chimpanzees that have groomed less than five individuals in the study period, although we still consider the grooming actions performed on them. This condition does not influence the conclusions, since the calculus of the parameter \(\eta \) is performed individually for each chimpanzee, and is based on the fact that five is the size of the core of grooming ego networks in primates15. Having less than five other individuals would lead to very large errors in the fitting procedure, turning the results of the analysis meaningless for that specific chimpanzee. Most of the individuals filtered out as a result of this criterion have been observed less than 20% of the mean number of observations of the population (\(\sim 300\) times). A few others that had more observations were also excluded by this criterion; those were typically immature individuals who groom very little and are still very dependent on their mothers' actions. With this procedure, we basically selected for the analysis of the egonetwork the chimpanzees older than nine years old, while the infants and the chimpanzees who died between 2015 and 2019 are not considered. Therefore, the restriction allows us to homogenize the population of chimpanzees studied and to extrapolate the results obtained to the case of adults.
For the sake of clarity in what follows, let us briefly summarize the main results from theoretical approaches to the circle structure. In the discrete case19, it is assumed that L is the total number of relationships in an ego-network and \(\sigma \) is the average cognitive cost of a relationship. Relationships belong to r different categories, each of them bearing a different cost \(s_\mathrm{max}=s_1>s_2>\cdots >s_r=s_\mathrm{min}\). As described in detail in19, using a maximum entropy approach it is possible to obtain the probability that a given relationship of the ego-network belongs to category k as
$$\begin{aligned} p_k=Z_r^{-1}e^{-\hat{\mu }s_k}, \qquad Z_r=\sum _{k=1}^re^{-\hat{\mu }s_k}, \end{aligned}$$
where \(\hat{\mu }\) is fixed by letting \(\sigma \) be the expected cost \(\sigma =\mathbb {E}(s_k)\). Using this probability distribution we can calculate \(\chi _k\), the expected number of relationships with costs larger than or equal to that of category k (i.e., the size of the social circles, with \(k=1\) corresponding to the innermost one), as
$$\begin{aligned} \chi _{k}=\frac{e^{k\mu }-1}{e^{r\mu }-1}, \end{aligned}$$
where \(\mu \equiv \hat{\mu }(s_{max}-s_{min})/(r-1)\). As mentioned in the main text, it can subsequently be shown that, for large values of \(\mu \), the scaling ratio, i.e., the size of one circle divided by the previous one, behaves approximately as
As discussed in19, this result predicts the known regime for values of \(\mu >0\), in which the circles satisfy an approximate scaling relation; in particular, for \(\mu \approx 1\) the usual value of 3 found on empirical data is recovered. On the other hand, it also predicts a so-called "inverse" regime, when \(\mu <0\), in which most of the relationships are in the closest circle. This second behavior had not been described prior to the publication of19, when it was checked against empirical data of small migrant communities, confirming its existence.
In the continuum approach (18) the key parameter is called \(\eta \), and it is related to the average cost \(\sigma \) by the implicit equation
$$\begin{aligned} t\equiv \frac{s_{max}-\sigma }{s_{max}-s_{min}}=\frac{e^{\eta }}{e^{\eta }-1}-\frac{1}{\eta }, \end{aligned}$$
and thus \(\eta \) is actually a function \(\eta (t)\), with t defined in the equation above representing a normalized measure of the cost of a relationship (\(t=0\) corresponding to the highest cost and \(t=1\) to the lowest one). Once \(\eta \) is determined, the fraction of relationships with a normalized cost not larger than t is given by
$$\begin{aligned} \chi (t)=\frac{e^{\eta t}-1}{e^{\eta }-1}. \end{aligned}$$
This is the curve that should fit the data. Notice that each individual will be characterized by its own value of \(\eta \).
The scaling ratio of the circles can be obtained from the asymptotic behavior, for large \(\eta \), of the logarithmic derivative of \(\chi (t)\), the fraction of links whose "distance" to the individual is not larger than t, which turns out to be
$$\begin{aligned} \frac{\dot{\chi }(t)}{\chi (t)}=\frac{\eta e^{\eta t}}{e^{\eta t}-1}\sim {\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} \eta , &{} \eta \rightarrow \infty , \\ 0, &{} \eta \rightarrow -\infty . \end{array}\right. } \end{aligned}$$
In this approach, the separation between the two regimes, the normal and the inverted ones, also takes places at \(\eta =0\).
Finally, to connect the two formalisms, we can use the fact that the discrete version of the left-hand side is \((\chi _{k+1}-\chi _k)/\chi _k\Delta t\); then, a comparison between (4) and (7) in the ordinary regime leads to \(\eta \Delta t\approx e^{\mu }-1\). Since \(\Delta t\approx (r-1)^{-1}\), we obtain the equivalence
$$\begin{aligned} \eta \approx (r-1)(e^{\mu }-1). \end{aligned}$$
Interestingly, this result shows that the value of \(\mu \) in the discrete model depends on the total number of layers, r. This fact had not been noticed in previous research because of the implicit assumption of the existence of \(r=4\) layers in the structure of egonetworks (5). Setting \(r=4\) in (8) and assuming, as empirically observed, that \(e^{\mu } \approx 3\)5, we then find \(\eta \approx 6\).
With the above approach in mind, given a dataset of relationships with continuous weights, the scaling parameter \(\eta \) can be estimated using the maximum-likelihood method. As described in18, such an analysis leads to an expression equivalent to (5) to connect the range of data weights to the theoretical parameters, \(\eta \) and \(\sigma \). Thus, for an empirical dataset we can find the values of \(s_{max}\) and \(s_{min}\), which are the largest/smallest possible costs an individual can invest in a relationship, respectively. Then, the value of \(\sigma \), the total cost per item, is determined by
$$\begin{aligned} \sigma = \bar{s}=\frac{1}{L} \sum _{i=1}^{L} s_{i}, \end{aligned}$$
where \(s_{i}\) are the costs associated to each of the relationships, measured in the same units as \(s_{max}\) and \(s_{min}\), and L is the total number of relationships that an individual has. Once these variables are set, the parameter \(\eta \), that characterizes the structure of the egonetwork of each individual, can be estimated solving (5) numerically. Furthermore, an expression for the \(1 - 2\delta \) confidence intervals associated to the parameter \(\eta \) can be found (see18 for details). In what follows we choose a 95\(\%\) confidence interval using \(\delta \) = 0.025.
Data availabilty
Data are available from KAC, DBMH and EJCvL upon reasonable request.
Code implementation and availability
All the numerical analysis carried out are an adaptation of those used in18 (available at https://github.com/1gnaci0/continuous-resource-allocation), using the Python packages scipy.optimize and scipy.integrate.
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Tamarit, I., Cuesta, J. A., Dunbar, R. I. M. & Sánchez, A. Cognitive resource allocation determines the organization of personal networks. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 115, 8316–8321 (2018).
Roberts, S. G., Dunbar, R. I., Pollet, T. V. & Kuppens, T. Exploring variation in active network size: Constraints and ego characteristics. Soc. Netw. 31, 138–146 (2009).
Saramäki, J. et al. Persistence of social signatures in human communication. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 111, 942–947 (2014).
Isella, L. et al. What's in a crowd? Analysis of face-to-face behavioral networks. J. Theor. Biol. 271, 166–180 (2011).
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Watts, D. P. Reciprocity and interchange in the social relationships of wild male chimpanzees. Behavior 139, 343–370 (2002).
Massen, J. J. M., Sterck, E. H. M. & de Vos, H. Close social associations in animals and humans: Functions and mechanisms of friendship. Behaviour 147, 1379–1412 (2010).
Dunbar, R. I. M. Time: A hidden constraint on the behavioural ecology of baboons. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 31, 35–49 (1992).
Waal, F. B. M. The chimpanzee's service economy: Food for grooming. Evol. Human Behav. 18, 375–386 (1997).
Barrett, L., Henzi, S. P., Weingrill, T., Lycett, J. E. & Hill, R. A. Market forces predict grooming reciprocity in female baboons. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 266, 665–670 (1999).
Fruteau, C., Lemoine, S., Hellard, E., van Damme, E. & Noë, R. When females trade grooming for grooming: Testing partner control and partner choice models of cooperation in two primate species. Animal Behav. 81, 1223–1230 (2011).
Kaburu, S. S. K. & Newton-Fisher, N. E. Egalitarian despots: hierarchy steepness, reciprocity and the grooming-trade model in wild chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes. Animal Behav. 99, 61–71 (2015).
Silk, J. B. Using the F-word in primatology. Behaviour 139(2–3), 421–446 (2002).
Bernard, H. R. & Killworth, P. D. On the social structure of an ocean-going researchvessel and other important things. Social Sci. Res. 2, 145–184 (1973).
Shultz, S. & Dunbar, R. I. M. Social complexity and the fractal structure of group size in primate social evolution. Biol. Rev. 96, 1889–1906 (2008).
Ron, T. & McGrew, W. C. Ecological assessment for a chimpanzee rehabilitation project in Northern Zambia. Primate Conserv. 9, 37–41 (1988).
van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Cronin, K. A. & Haun, D. B. M. Reply to Farine and Aplin: Chimpanzees choose their association and interaction partners. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116(34), 16676–16677 (2019).
van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Cronin, K. A. & Haun, D. B. M. Population-specific social dynamics in chimpanzees. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 115(45), 11393–11400 (2018).
Lincoln Park Zoo. (2020). ZooMonitor (version 3.2.) [Mobile app]. https://zoomonitor.org.
Van Leeuwen, E. J., Cronin, K. A., Haun, D. B., Mundry, R. & Bodamer, M. D. Neighbouring chimpanzee communities show different preferences in social grooming behaviour. Proc. R. Soc. B 279, 4362–4367 (2012).
Cronin, K. A., Van Leeuwen, E. J., Vreeman, V. & Haun, D. B. Population-level variability in the social climates of four chimpanzee societies. Evol. Human Behav. 35, 389–396 (2014).
Weatherall, D., Bell, J., Blakemore, C.; Ludlow R., Lord, & Walport, M. (2006) The use of non-human primates in research. Royal Society Reports, https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2006/weatherall-report (last accessed, September 9, 2022).
We are thankful to Robin Dunbar and José L. Molina for discussions on our results. We also thank the Chimfunshi staff and the Zambia Wildlife Authority. DE, VD-M, JAC and AS acknowledge support from project BASIC (PGC2018-098186-B-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by "ERDF A way of making Europe". EJCvL acknowledges support from the Flanders Research Foundation (FWO) in the capacity of a postdoctoral fellowship. DBMH is supported by the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science.
Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC), Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911, Leganés, Spain
Diego Escribano, Victoria Doldán-Martelli, José A. Cuesta & Angel Sánchez
Animal Welfare Science Program, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL, 60614, USA
Katherine A. Cronin
Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL, 60614, USA
Department for Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
Daniel B. M. Haun & Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen
Leipzig Research Centre for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Jahnallee 59, 04109, Leipzig, Germany
Daniel B. M. Haun
Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Biology, University Utrecht, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen
Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos (BIFI), Universidad de Zaragoza, 50018, Zaragoza, Spain
José A. Cuesta & Angel Sánchez
Diego Escribano
Victoria Doldán-Martelli
José A. Cuesta
Angel Sánchez
D.E., V.D.-M., J.A.C. and A.S. designed research, K.A.C., D.B.M.H. and E.J.C.vL. contributed the Chimfunshi data, D.E. and K.A.C. curated the data, D.E. and V.D.-M. analyzed the data, and all authors discussed and interpreted the results and wrote the manuscript.
Correspondence to Angel Sánchez.
Supplementary Information.
Escribano, D., Doldán-Martelli, V., Cronin, K.A. et al. Chimpanzees organize their social relationships like humans. Sci Rep 12, 16641 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20672-z
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20672-z


text: Q: My sprites in p5.play continue to have a strange halo surrounding them Does anyone know why all of my sprites (images) have strange halos drawn around them whenever I run my sketch? Am I using the wrong filetype or transparency settings?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


MAKE UP FOR EVER's ULTRA HD range has pushed back the boundaries of complexion expertise to their limits, offering an amazingly extensive range of 40 shades that adapt to every skin tone, from the lightest to the darkest. In an unprecedented campaign featuring 40 Millenials, each representing one shade of ULTRA HD foundation, MAKE UP FOR EVER celebrates universality and encourages individuals to be who they want to be, without any gender stereotypes. MAKE UP FOR EVER allows everyone to choose who they want to be - male, female, gender fluid - or even a different person each day. With ULTRA HD, the brand encourages everyone to be the ultimate version of themselves, with no limitations to whom they are or whom they want to be.


George Gross, affectionately known as 'The Baron', will be largely remembered for his contributions as a sports journalist. A Toronto Sun article, published on March 22, gives a brief overview of George's journey. I had the privilege of officiating George's funeral service last Thursday. So popular was George Gross, that we were unable to hold his funeral in his own church (St. Giles Kingsway Presbyterian). Instead, we packed almost 600 people into a nearby United Church sanctuary. Many well known sports figures were in attendance; from Red Kelly to Tie Domi, to Pinball Clemons. Tributes were given by George's good friends, Peter Worthington and Bill Stephenson. A third tribute was given by his son, George Jr. John McDermott sang Amazing Grace. By the time I got up to give some biblical reflections, the service had reached the one hour mark. Mindful of the time, I confess that I was hugely tempted to truncate my message. I didn't. I'm glad I pressed ahead. George Gross will be largely remembered as a sports journalist, but I wanted to add an extra layer to the memories of those in attendance. George Gross was also a faithful Christian man. In spite of an intensely busy schedule, George seldom missed Sunday worship. He was supportive of the many ministry initiatives here. He was supportive of me. George was a good friend. He will be missed.
I invite you to view some of the video footage of the service for George Gross, provided by the Toronto Sun.
Maybe I'm the only one, but I suspect that I'm not. We tend to have protected areas in our life. There are aspects of our life that we don't want other people to meddle with. There may even be parts we want to keep hidden from friends and family. Perhaps we have been successful in creating some space, some insulation, protecting these areas of our life from others. But have you ever thought about God's ability to access them? Have you ever considered the fact that nothing can be hidden from God?
I don't point that out to scare you. I don't see God playing the intimidation card on us. I do, however, think it is helpful to admit that nothing escapes God's notice. I think it is important to note that God cares about even the 'small' details of our life. I don't find that to be scary; I find that to be hugely comforting.
This morning I resumed a teaching series, based on the apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians. It's entitled, Let's Be Different. Today we examined Colossians 3:18-24 and noted that Jesus cares immensely about how we get on with our spouse, our children, and our parents. Jesus cares immensely about how we get on in the workplace. Paul's main point: Jesus is supreme over every aspect of our life. Have a listen and let me know your thoughts.
Want a shortcut? Read my sermon notes and let me know your thoughts.
There's nothing like having a blogroll comprised of sharp thinkers who write really edifying stuff. Carey Nieuwhof might be the most prolific blogger on the roll in terms of the frequency of his posts. It's great reading; down-to-earth and easy to apply. Recently, another good friend of mine, Jeff Loach, began blogging. Jeff may be a newbie to blogging, but he's a seasoned veteran when it comes to communicating biblical truth in understandable ways. I've just read a short post by Jeff, entitled, Easter's Over? I hugely appreciated this. Easter is not over…in a sense, it is never over. The Resurrection of Jesus has forever changed the order of things.
I'd love to help keep you thinking about Easter and its profound implications for our lives. I dug up (electronically speaking) my sermon notes from Easter 2004. If you struggle with discouragement or doubt, you may find this to be a timely antidote.
Know of any other helpful online articles/messages on Easter? Post them in the comments section—let's keep the celebration going!
Last week I went on a little road trip to Buffalo to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Buffalo Sabres. On the walk from where we parked to the HSBC Arena I could see some young men in their twenties handing out some sort of flier. Thinking of the kind of crowd that gathers for a hockey game, I assumed this would be a flier advertising for a nearby pub.
I no sooner had put the tract in my pocket for future inspection when I noticed that one of the young men was wearing a sign (with an Old Testament reference that I didn't quite catch on the walk by) and was preaching about the coming judgment and our need to repent.
In the two sentences I heard while passing by, I didn't hear anything that was out of step with what the Bible teaches. To their credit, the guys handing out the tracts were quite pleasant, and weren't the least bit aggressive. Part of me was impressed by the courage of these young men. But, quite honestly, another part of me was a bit embarrassed by their approach.
Perhaps those reading this blog post will tell me I'm just a coward when it comes to boldly sharing my faith. Hey, that's what blogs are about–you get to tell me when you think I'm offside, nuts, or just plain wrong (just do so lovingly please).
I certainly do not want to be unkind by referencing these audacious young lads. But I am eager to hear what you think–are 'Gospel Tracts' a helpful way to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ?
Of course, I realize that open air preaching is not some new phenomenon. The call from the young man to 'repent' belongs to a rich history of preachers from George Whitefield to John the Baptist to the ancient prophets of Israel. My question then, isn't so much about what is 'right' or 'wrong', as it is about the helpfulness of such an approach in our day.
Some might say that the spiritual need of our day is no different than any other day. I would concur with that. But our day is different. Bibles are more readily available today than at any other time in history. The Scriptures are available in more languages today than at any other point in history. The internet puts over a billion people a Google search away from learning something about Christianity. In North America, at least in Buffalo, NY, there are hundreds of local congregations for citizens interested in Christianity to choose from.
So, I think it's worth asking: Does street preaching attract or repel people? I don't doubt that God could use such means to transform lives. Most Christians I know appreciate that the Message has power (Romans 1:16). But is there a better way, a better context, a better backdrop, for sharing the Christian message with others?
That's what I'm looking for–a better way–not a formula, but an approach that honours the person I'm seeking to reach. I worry that those who passed by the young men felt little else but condescension.
I wouldn't want anyone to regard me as being condescending to them. It's possible that I've made people feel that way in the past. That's not good. And so here I am asking you: Are there things we do or say in error, or in haste, that contributes to the hardening of an individual's heart towards Christianity? Can we mess up, at least temporarily, someone's approach to Christ?
I realize that God can work through my errors. I recognize that God's plan is not thwarted by my shortcomings. I'm so glad about that!
I just don't want to cite God's sovereignty in salvation (Romans 9) as my justification for being reckless in how I present Christianity to others. I want to be respectful. I want to be compassionate. I want to be patient. Those who shared the Good News with me modeled all of those qualities. I don't think the ways and manner of the messenger is irrelevant here. I'd love to hear how you are working this out in your life.
Back to the 'Gospel tracts'—most of the ones I've read present a rather awkward string of Scripture references. And in such a limited medium, some essential truths are invariably omitted. I do appreciate, however, the pragmatic advantage of placing something small, concise, and coherent in the hands of those willing to entertain what Christianity teaches. If you're interested in such a resource, the best I've seen is by John Piper. The pamphlet is called 'Quest For Joy'. I love that title. We all want joy. John Piper gets us heading in the right direction.
I am delighted to announce that the proposal to launch The Well received the necessary go-ahead last night from the leadership of St. Giles Kingsway.
What is The Well? For a look at the formal proposal, just click the link. As for my informal take, The Well is church re-tooled for the 21st Century.
The Well seeks to be an irresistible environment, out of which the Message of Jesus Christ is proclaimed and lived out.
The Well is for skeptics. The Well is for those seeking answers. The Well is for those who have had less than positive church experiences. The Well is our rebuttal to those who only imagined churches as boring and irrelevant. The Well is for everyone……The Well is for you.
The Environment – friendly, comfortable…from parking lot attendants, to greeters, to the person serving you coffee and a bagel, we're committed to making you feel welcome.
Children's Ministry – creative, exciting, and safe. Your children will be attended to by compassionate and caring adult leaders.
Are you in? The Well is scheduled to launch on Sunday, September 7, 2008.
Between now and then there is a ton of stuff that has to happen to prepare the environment. If you're reading this, please pray for us. If you live in, or near, Toronto and you want to support The Well with your time and/or resources, please be in touch. I'd be delighted to include you, and to have you share in what God is doing here in central Etobicoke.


It would be nice to have the ability to trigger rules with another switch. For example, my daughter has a bathroom that is attached to her bedroom down a closet hallway. I would like the ability to have it turn off her bedroom switch when she turns her bathroom light on. When she gets in the shower she leaves her bedroom light on with a fan, wasting power, and she would forget her head if it wasn't attached. Another thing to add, since the GE Switches support double tapping the on to do something else, it would be nice to have the ability to double tap the on for a stairwell light and it fire a rule to turn on lights in the upstairs bedroom, etc. I know this can be done with ST so it has the ability for this feature.
I agree it would be very nice to be able to turn on/off other lights when another light switch is turned on/off and it has been suggested before, though not implemented yet. ST has the ability to do a different task when a switch is double tapped vs a single tap however I have never found it to be very reliable. I don't know if it worked more consistently (if it was a communications issue on my end where the hub didn't see the two commands close enough together) or if it was that inconsistent for most.
They have the ability to turn the program into so much more but the rules they have are so limited and inhibiting. They really need to develope rules that a more robust that work more like excel formulas and less like basic sentences for kids.


text:
January 28: Tommy enjoys first win; NRL bans gambling
Fri 28 Jan 2022, 12:01 AM
On this day, Tommy Raudonikis wins his first match as Western Suburbs coach; while the NRL issues a ban on gambling by all players and officials; and Paul McGregor finally makes his comeback.
Former Test halfback Tom Raudonikis celebrates the start of his coaching career at Western Suburbs with a victory when his team down Penrith 20-6 in a trial at Campbelltown. He also enjoyed a win in round one that year over Illawarra 25-24.
The NRL ban all players and officials from gambling on rugby league.
The draw for the World Cup is announced at a launch in Leeds. Australia and England are drawn to meet in the tournament opener at the home of rugby union, Twickenham.
St George Illawarra centre Paul McGregor makes his comeback to rugby league after a 16-month lay-off in the Dragons' 36-12 trial game win over the Sydney Roosters at WIN Stadium. McGregor captained the Dragons in the 1999 grand final but then a shoulder reconstruction wiped out his entire 2000 season. He retired at the end of 2001.
Former Dragons captain in 1999 Paul McGregor
The NRL outline plans for the controversial two-referee system to be introduced at premiership level for the upcoming 2009 season.
South Sydney co-owner Russell Crowe announces a three-year major sponsorship deal with Star City but rejects claims of hypocrisy over previous calls to remove poker machines from South Sydney Leagues Club.
Rabbitohs owner Russell Crowe ©NRL Photos
Five years after the Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal, in a lengthy radio interview, the club's former CEO Brian Waldron finally accepts full responsibility for paying players beyond the cap and apologises for the hurt caused.
An NRL Tribunal suspends former Sydney Roosters prop Martin Kennedy for two years and nine months after finding him guilty of a series of breaches of the game's anti-doping policy. The nine months was added to Kennedy's sentence for "deliberately obstructing an ASADA investigation".
This article contains information from the official records of NRL historian David Middleton.
Sea Eagles 14:09
Trbojevic and Seibold discuss USA reconditioning stint
'Project Turbo' hailed a success as Manly gun eyes round one
Miller discusses Knights move after Sharks release

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Richard Alan McCray (24 November 1937 – 26 October 2021) was an American astronomer and astrophysicist.

McCray received his B.S. in physics from Stanford University in 1959 and his Ph.D. in physics in 1967 from the University of California, Los Angeles with thesis advisor Peter Goldreich. McCray was a research fellow at Caltech from 1967 to 1968 and then an assistant professor at Harvard University from 1968 to 1971. At the department of astrophysical and planetary sciences of the University of Colorado Boulder, he was from 1971 to 1975 an associate professor, from 1975 to 1997 a full professor, from 1997 to 2004 the George Gamow Distinguished Professor Astrophysics, and from 2004 to 2013 a professor emeritus. Since 2013, he has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

He was a visiting scholar at the Goddard Space Flight Center of the NASA in 1983–1984, at Peking University and Nanjing University in Fall 1987, at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Spring 1988, at Columbia University in 1989–1990, and at the University of California, Berkeley in Spring 1997.

McCray's research was concerned with the theory of interstellar gas dynamics and the theory of cosmic X-ray sources. In particular for interstellar gas dynamics, he did research on the formation of interstellar bubbles by stellar winds and superbubbles formed by multiple supernova explosions in galactic gas disks. His research on cosmic X-ray sources has dealt with, among other topics, the mechanism of the transformation of X-ray emission in the optical and UV range for neutron stars and black holes. He studied and modeled the evolution of the spectrum of SN1987A and with several colleagues made some correct predictions about events involving the SN1987A ring system. In addition to theoretical calculations and computer simulations, he made observations using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

He was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1975–1976. He was elected in 1989 a member of the National Academy of Sciences and in 2004 a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1990 he received the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics.

References

1937 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American  astronomers
21st-century American  astronomers
American astrophysicists
Stanford University alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
University of Colorado Boulder faculty
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics
California Institute of Technology fellows

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We spent our honeymoon in beautiful Italy, spending time in Rome, Positano (on the Amalfi Coast), and Sicily. Our wedding was on April 27th, 2013- and we left for our "luna di miele" (as the Italians call it) about 2 weeks after the big day.
We spent 10 days in Italy, though we should've spent much longer!
We narrowed it down the same way we usually narrow down all of our travels: food and drink. It had to be a place where our stomach would be happy, and then from there, we wanted to find a place that could offer both an urban landscape and some beautiful beaches. Southern Italy seemed to be the best bet on all accounts!
It's so hard to choose! The drive along the Amalfi Coast and our views from our hotel in Positano were amazing. Though at the time, Alex definitely wouldn't have agreed that the Amalfi Coast drive was fun (we rented a car and he was the appointed driver). Afterwards, he did admit it was exhilarating. The views were spectacular! Same goes for our views in Positano – the bluest waters and gorgeous cliffs, plus lemons as big as your head! Sicily was also amazing, with wonderful seafood and cannolis, plus amazing white-sand beaches. Hello heaven!
We'd have spent more time in Sicily. There were so many towns to see, and we really didn't get to explore Palermo as much as we wanted to. There's such a vibrant energy to the region.
We planned the general idea (going to "Southern Italy" and a few stops we wanted to make) about 6 months in advance. However, we didn't actually finish a detailed itinerary until about 2 weeks before, which was right after the wedding! In fact there were many hotels and other details we didn't book until we were already there! Guess that goes to show how much wedding planning itself takes out of you! We were "planning pooped"!
Though it wasn't an actual "splurge" as it actually may have saved us money, but a big ticket item was our rental car. We decided early on that we wanted to drive around Southern Italy, for 2 reasons: (1) Alex loves driving and taking road trips, and (2) because we wanted the freedom to go wherever we please. It was a good idea because it allowed us to do and see things we may not have been able to do otherwise, like last minute visits to coastal towns in Sicily and driving through the narrow alleyways of Naples.


AMP Research PowerStep is simply the wold's most advanced running board system. The PowerStep goes into action when it receives an electronic signal from your vehicle's factory door sensors, then it extends to a comfortable entry/exit height in under one second. When you have safely entered or exited the vehicle and closed the door, the PowerStep quickly retracts out of sight, hidden flush with the rocker panels to ensure a clean, original look and maintain ground clearance.


text:
HEAVY SCOTLAND adds Finntroll, Destruction, Fleshgod Apocalypse and Ingested
HEAVY SCOTLAND just got all the heavier with the addition of Finntroll, Destruction, Fleshgod Apocalypse and Ingested.
Held at Edinburgh's Corn Exchange between the 1st-2nd April, they join the already hard hitting line-up that's set to make this the go-to Scottish metal festival in 2017.
They join:
Behemoth (UK/EIRE Exclusive)
Havok
Dyscarnate
Sodomized Cadaver
Shiraz Lane
Centrilia
Conducting the affairs of the festival and hosting the event is alternative tattoo model Femke Fatale.
To help add to the line-up, the festival have launched a Battle of the Bands for an unsigned act to join the world-class billing. Three battles, eight bands, and one winner. The three events are to be held on 28th January, 11th February and 25th February [for more information see the poster below.]
Tickets are now available to purchase from here: http://www.ticketor.com/heavyscotland
VIP bundles: £115 (selling out)
Standard: £80
Standard bundle (with festival t-shirt): £92
Early bird tickets now sold out!
The festival are also delighted to announce hotel discounts in partnership with Tune Hotel. Use the discount code HEAVYSCOT when booking to receive a 15% discount, valid from 30 March - 3 April inclusive.
Set to be the biggest and best new festival dedicated to all things dark, heavy, and vicious, Heavy Scotland is borne out of a love of metal. Aimed at supporting a famously dedicated metal scene but until now without a big festival, Heavy Scotland looks set to put Scotland on the map.
Stay tuned for news of pre- and after-parties as they come.
https://www.facebook.com/heavyscotland
http://www.heavyscotland.com/
https://www.twitter.com/heavyscotland


Omar Z. Robles photographed a number of ballet dancers performing in front of the city's industrial backdrop.
None of the pictures give any indication of the chaos of the surrounding city streets. Instead, the dancers display the human form at its finest as they appear to soar through the air amidst industrial landscapes rather than the safety of a theater stage.
The photographer places his subjects in some of the city's most exposed places including the High Line, South Street Seaport and under the Manhattan Bridge. The dancers appear as immaculately as they would if they were to be on stage with their tutus fluffed and their pointe shoes expertly laced up.


Our dainty floating star necklace makes the perfect gift for you or someone you love! Great simple necklace for everyday wear.
Each necklace comes in your choice of high quality 16k plated white gold, yellow gold or rose gold. Each star floats on a 17.5" chain.
In the "Personalization" box please leave the letter you would like on your star.


Zurich's Hive Club celebrates its sixth birthday with a compilation of exclusive tracks via its Hive Audio imprint this spring.
Taking in tracks from the likes of Luna City Express, Matthias Meyer, Sis, David Keno, and Animal Trainer (who run both the club and label). ʻ6 Years Hive' is a package of sleek, modern house music that reflects both the label and the club's reputation.
Curated by Animal Trainer (Adrian Wöllhaf and Samuel Gmür), the vinyl/digital unmixed compilation kicks off with Jan Blomqvist's emotive, vocal cut ʻI Don't Think About You' – a warm and inviting opener that instantly sets the scene before David Keno's ʻI Know Now' firms up the groove.
Adriatique, one of two new local acts signed up for the comp via their patronage of the club, delivers a Moog-infused low-slung cut in ʻFreakin' while Animal Trainer provide contrast with the wispy melodica of ʻLazy Fat Bird'.
The second slab takes in some heavy hitters in the form of SIS, Matthias Meyer and Luna City Express. SIS, known for material for Villalobos' Sei Es Drum, turns in a hugely atmospheric peak timer with ʻIIkbahar' while Meyer employs loose, disco drums and resonant toms for a decidedly old-school, funk laced slant. Luna City Express ʻTake That' rolls out punchy bass, brass stabs and vocal samples for a rousing piece of Phil Weeks-esque house that shows off their skills in spades. The final slab of ʻ6 Years Hive' kicks off with Rampa & Re.You fr. Kissey ʻSay My Name' – a bubbling, shuffled house excursion with delicate chords, breathy vox and punchy bottom end. Benja & Retro Ardour, the second of the new talent on show, turn in a synth-heavy electro-disco leaning cut while Stil Vor Talent artist Niko Schwind winds things up with an end of night beast in ʻSearchin''. Out 12th of next month.


← Traffic Sign Confusion – A Measure of Disrespect Towards People on Bicycles?
This week, the League of American Bicyclists released its annual Bicycle Friendly State Rankings. For 2012, Wisconsin finds itself 6th, down from 3rd last year and 2nd in 2010.
Although maintaining a high ranking in the LAB rankings is a badge of honor, more than pride is at stake when it comes to being an elite state for bicycling. Wisconsin's reputation as a bicycling mecca earns us a great deal of tourism dollars for our economy. Furthermore, bicycle businesses thrive here due to Wisconsin's historically excellent economic environment for bicycling.
In my opinion, it is reasonable to be concerned that a tarnished reputation as a bicycle-friendly place could make it difficult to attract new bicycle-based businesses and might encourage those located here to seek out places more supportive of bicycling to do business. Wisconsin certainly doesn't want to lose either the jobs or the tourism income stream that have been created in part from our steady investments in bicycling across the state over many years.
You can read the LAB 2012 Bicycle Friendly State Rankings here and their press release on these rankings here. The BFW reaction to Wisconsin's ranking can be found here.


text:
Turkey's president claims US supported ISIS
Obama, Raul Castro meet
Hollande admits nuclear damage in Pacific
An Indian woman shouts at a police personnel during a protest near the home of a minor girl who was raped in New Delhi on October 17, 2015. Photo: AFP PHOTO / Chandan Khanna
NEW DELHI – A toddler and a five-year-old girl were raped in separate attacks in New Delhi overnight with at least one gang-raped, police said on Saturday, as activists warned of an "epidemic" of sexual violence in the capital.
The two-and-a-half-year-old girl was abducted from a religious event in west Delhi by two men on Friday night and raped before being dumped in a park near her home, relatives and police said.
In a separate incident on the other side of the city, the five-year-old was lured to a neighbour's house and raped by three men, a police officer told AFP.
The two attacks come as New Delhi grapples with a grim litany of sexual attacks against women — and in several recent cases, children — that have sparked outrage in India and abroad.
"We have launched a manhunt for the suspects. So far no one has been arrested," Pushpendra Kumar, West Delhi police chief, told AFP of the younger girl's case.
"Two men were involved in the abduction of the girl and the tests have confirmed rape," Kumar said, adding that further examinations would show whether both men raped the toddler.
He said they found the younger child bleeding profusely several hours after she went missing. Police have released CCTV footage of two men riding away on a motorbike with the victim in an attempt to catch the alleged perpetrators.
Police arrested three men overnight in the case of the five-year-old victim, whom tests showed was raped multiple times, after locals managed to catch her alleged assailants and hand them over to the authorities.
"Her clothes were partially torn with blood spots all over them. Some locals saw her and she told them she was sexually assaulted," an officer from Anand Vihar police station in eastern Delhi told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Some of the locals then barged into the house and caught them (the alleged perpetrators) before handing them over to us," the officer said.
Both girls are undergoing medical treatment but are believed to be out of danger.
'When will Delhi wake up?'
The latest attacks come eight days after a four-year-old girl was allegedly raped and slashed with a blade before being abandoned by a railway track in the capital.
Police arrested a 25-year-old man in that attack, in which the young girl suffered severe internal injuries.
"When will Delhi wake up? Till when will girls continue to be brutalised in Indian capital. Gang rape of 2.5 year n 5 year old. Shameful," Delhi Commission for Women chairwomen Swati Maliwal tweeted Saturday.
Describing the assaults as "extremely shocking", Maliwal told Indian television stationNDTV that violence against women had assumed "epidemic proportions" in Delhi.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed anguish over the rapes Saturday, terming them "shameful and worrying" on Twitter, but blamed his political opponent Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government for the security situation in Delhi.
"Repeated rape of minors is shameful and worrying. Delhi police has completely failed to provide safety. What are PM n his LG (lieutenant governor) doing?," Kejriwal tweeted before heading to meet the victims in hospital.
Kejriwal and Modi's administration are jostling for control of the capital's police department, with Delhi city authorities saying they are unable to improve security for women.
They deflect the blame on to Modi's central government which controls Delhi's 84,000 police, the largest metropolitan police force in the world.
Ranjana Kumari, head of Delhi-based Centre for Social Research said the ongoing turf war between the two governments left Delhi vulnerable to such horrific crimes.
"Delhi is not safe and secure for women and the situation is deteriorating," Kumari told AFP.
"Most of these incidents have been reported in lower income areas like slums and densely populated areas, where mostly migrants stay. These men live in crammed spaces with no social or parental control and usually no fear of law," she said.
The fatal gang rape of a young student on a bus in Delhi in 2012 led to an outpouring of anger over frightening levels of violence against women.
India recorded 36,735 rape cases in 2014, with 2,096 of them in Delhi.
Experts say those figures likely under-represent the true scale of the crimes.
Category : World news.


Turns out Rosenstrach is not alone. Recent research from the National Kitchen & Bath Association shows there is movement away from large cabinet-filled kitchens to smaller galley or "in-line" kitchens that are laid out in one straight line.
Kitchen designer Jennifer Gilmer, in Maryland and Virginia, finds that 85 per cent of new homeowners are choosing the cleaner, more contemporary and simple style of a galley kitchen. "People may have grown up in oversized houses with kitchens that were too large and poorly designed, so as a reaction they want smaller, more compact spaces," Gilmer says.
She makes a good case for galley kitchens: They allow you to work without the obstruction of an island or table. They also keep the work area smaller, which means less walking from one appliance to another or to the sink.
McFadden likes to use sleek built-in appliances with clutter-free controls, such as Sub-Zero's integrated refrigerators that sit flush with adjacent cabinets.
For a typical galley layout, McFadden suggests putting the refrigerator on one end, a pantry and wall ovens on the other end, with the sink and cooktop centered in the middle on opposite walls. If the kitchen is wide enough, he recommends putting the cooktop directly across from the sink.
Gilmer recommends always locating the refrigerator on the same side as the sink. "It's natural to take something out of the refrigerator and then need to use the sink prior to preparing the food," she says.
And as any galley/small kitchen owner will tell you, have a large cutting board that can cover your sink and provide a few more feet of counter space.


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