The common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is a medium-sized perching bird in the starling family, Sturnidae. It is about 20 centimetres (8 inches) long and has glossy black plumage, which is speckled with white at some times of year. The legs are pink and the bill is black in winter and yellow in summer; young birds have browner plumage than the adults. It is a noisy bird, especially in communal roosts, with an unmusical but varied song. The starling has about a dozen subspecies breeding in open habitats across its native range in temperate Europe and western Asia, and it has been introduced elsewhere. This bird is resident in southern and western Europe and southwestern Asia, while northeastern populations migrate south and west in winter. The starling builds an untidy nest in a natural or artificial cavity in which four or five glossy, pale blue eggs are laid. These take two weeks to hatch and the young remain in the nest for another three weeks. The species is omnivorous, taking a wide range of invertebrates, as well as seeds and fruit. The starling's gift for mimicry has been noted in literature including the medieval Welsh Mabinogion and the works of Pliny the Elder and William Shakespeare. This common starling was photographed at Bodega Head on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California.Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg
My interests are weird, usually exotic, generally nerdy, and widely ranging. When editing stuff, I tend to stick to stuff I know, although recently I've become obsessed with RC patrolling:
(they are listed sort of in order of importance to my life)
I am Jewish, and strongly so. Since Grade 4 up until Grade 12, I went to a Jewish day school. At university, I still study and am passionately interested in this wonderful and vibrant religion. I am in WikiProject Judaism (see below) and am working on improving Jewish articles.
I also practise Shotokan karate, and have earned my black belt, Shodan (first degree). I go to karate not only for the physical exercise and the defence knowledge, but also the self discipline, and the social aspect, as I have many friends there.
I love learning new languages: As well as the ones on my Babel, I’m working on classical Greek, Japanese, Russian, and I hope to learn Gaelic and Arabic. I also think it would be really cool to speak a fictional language, like Quenya or Klingon.
I also pretend to have a life, as manifested by my “hobbies” - cooking, which I enjoy VERY much and am a contributor on WikiCookbooks; photography, (which actually is what brought me to Wikipedia: a friend suggested I add some pictures to articles); and my collections of stuff, notably seashells, of which I have hundreds and am interested in both scientifically and aesthetically.
Building off that, I am interested in biology, and especially marine biology. I'm majoring in classics, however, and hope to be a teacher. I'm also considering a career in anthropology/enthnoarchaeology.
I also absolutely LOVE travelling, and was privileged enough at the tender age of 14, to take half a year off school and take a sabbatical around the world with my family. It was an unbelievable experience. See list below of countries visited.
I grew up in Ontario, Canada, and have graduated from high school. I am attending Brandeis University this year.
According to this quiz I'm a Cultural creative and a Romanticist. Not bad...
You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.
I found Wikipedia in May of 2005. I’m already addicted to Wikipedia (I scored 430 on the Wikipedia Addiction test). I’ve added pictures, and also have expanded several stubs and substubs, especially in the Judaism sector, and have translated some articlea from the Hebrew and am working on more. Some projects that I am particularly proud of:
The Hebrew alphabet: I rewrote the individual article of every letter in the Hebrew alphabet so that they were standardized to the same format; see Aleph (Hebrew), Aleph (letter), Beth, etc...
Conchology - it was the shortest of stubs; I expanded it to fit Entomology instructure; conchology used to be my hobby, and I might add pictures of my collection.
I made this holiday box after seeing the Christmas box on Andrew's page. I'm really happy that lots of people used it. So yes, I support the "War on Christmas" (what a POV name... maybe we should call it the War for Religious Freedom; or maybe the War for Religious Diversity; maybe even the War on Christian Domination... i like that one!)
I hereby award you the Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar for the newcomer... thing. Thanks! That was really nice! From: Evan Robidoux 02:14, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
For your hard work and dedication to improving Wikipedia, I, Sharkface217, hereby award you this Original Barnstar. Good job! Sharkface217 19:56, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
bouquet / Blumenstrauß / vonička to Mr.Sputnikcccp!
I'm going to start adding more pictures, as I've FINALLY got a new camera: the CanonA510. So, I'm really excited and will be back photographing before long, when I can find time in between school and karate, and work, and after school classes, etc..
I finally took the plunge and made myself a user page in Hebrew. You can see it here: [1].
My user page was vandalised for the first time, on 13 December 2005, at 9:09 PM, by User:155.97.66.49! He called me a pedophile after I reverted several of his edits to the Pedophilia article. I was reverting the vandalism when User:Sango123 beat me to it.
More vandalism: I woke up one morning to see this on my user page:
Although I make feeble attempts at proper usages of grammar and spelling, my levels of rhetoric are still rather infantile and my ideals should be treated accordingly. I am a vegetarian and refuse to eat meat because I believe that cows were put on this earth by the good graces of God to look pretty, and plants were not. And although the bible of which I hold my faith (the same one that was written by my Creator) instructs me on when, how and to eat meat, I believe that my ideals far surpass this "master plan". Even though my religious beliefs ban me from advocating homosexuality, my secular beliefs condone it wholeheartedly. I am a reconstructionist Jew, but some of my beliefs are detrimental to the text in which I hold my religion. This user is secular to the point of assimilation.
Well, I thought I had fairly decent levels of grammar, spelling, etc.. but I guess not. As for the vegetarianism, well, I don't exactly believe cows are for looking pretty. However, if anons want to argue bible with me, I'll bite. The bible does instruct me to eat meat, but only after the expulsion from Eden (where we were all vegetarians), after we demonstrated to God that we could not be trusted to uphold a higher moral standard than taking the lives of other creatures. Part of my vegetarianism is trying to repair that trust by upholding that higher moral standard; by sparing innocent animal lives, among other things. As for homosexuality and religion, that's too big of an argument to get into on my user page, but let's just say I have lots of counter-arguments. And I can say with certainty that I do NOT consider myself secular to the point of assimilation. I was rather insulted, acually. After all, man-to-man sex is banned twice; lashon harah (taking care not to hurt other people's feelings with hurtful/untrue words) is banned 17 times. What does that say about where our priorities should lie? As well, the Torah does not forbid homosexuality. The Torah's commandment is against "a man sleeping with a man in the way that he would sleep with a woman" - that is to say, my interpretation is that this forbids a relationship based on power (which is what the man-woman relationship was back then - the women being powerless). The Torah forbids a man to submit into a position of domination by another man; thus, we learn that man-man relationships (and we could do well to apply this to all relationships) should only be loving and with mutually commitment, and should be handled with care to allow both partners to feel valued and significant in this relationship. That's my opinion, of course, and I allow others to respectfully disagree. As for the vandal's last point; I actually am not reconstructionist, I just go to a reconstructionist synagogue but consider myself "under-construction-ist" (just joking). I would say I am fairly observant, I keep Shabbat, I keep kashrut, I try and follow the ethical life God has set out for me in the Torah and our later interpretations of it (Torah sheBa'al Pe); even so, I do not affiliate with any movement. I think the last thing Judaism needs is more fragmentation. We're as divided as it are; what ever happened to "K'lal Yisrael"? I may seem a little radical or edge to some, but that's the way I am. And that's enough for today. СПУТНИКСССР 12:43, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
I keep seeing everyone with this stuff, so I guess this is necessary.
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This user has big problems with using Simple English and they do not understand English at all. Please be polite and benevolent or use another language.
This userbox used to say: This user is a Ninja, with dominion over everything totally sweet. but then I found the site. I was mildly amused for about five seconds but soon became sad and disgusted. The video of him showing his "bo staff skills" made me ashamed to be from the same species. And so, I'm afraid this userbox can no longer be present on my page.
This user is very strongly vegetarian and will not talk about meat at all or accept any references to meat
This user practices Shotokan karate, and is extremely skilled with their hands, feet, knees and elbows, as well as bo, sai, and other weapons. If you meet them in a dark alley, you probably should leave them alone.
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