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Home / VARIE /Paolo Diacono
Paolo Diacono was born in Cividale del Friuli around 720 (or perhaps in 730, son of the Lombard nobles Warnefrit and Teodolinda, the first descendant of Leupichi, who supported King Alboin in the passage of the Lombards from Pannonia to Italy. Paul had at least one brother (Arachis) and one sister, who became a nun. His great-grandfather Lopichis, son of Leupchis, was taken prisoner and taken away from Friuli following the failed invasion of the Avars in 610.
The birthplace of Paolo Diacono
He lived in captivity with his four brothers (whose names Paul does not remember) until he managed to escape to Italy, which Paul recounts by tracing the episode of Elijah in the Books of the Kings of the Bible. Once he returned to his father's house, Lopichis found it in ruins: he managed to rebuild it with the help of relatives and friends and took a wife, but was unable to regain the remaining part of his father's estate, as it had been in the hands for decades. of other people and their acquisitions were legitimized with usucapione (a right that took effect after thirty years of possession, which will then be sanctioned also by Lombard law).
He fathered the grandfather of Paul the Deacon, Arachis and therefore these Warnefrit, father of Paul. Paolo reached Pavia at a young age to pursue his studies in what was then the Lombard capital. He trained at the court of King Rachis, a pupil of a certain Flaviano and at the school of the monastery of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, where he obtained the position of teacher. He remained at the court with the successive kings Astolfo and Desiderio. He too became the tutor of Adelperga, daughter of Desiderio, whom he followed when she married the Duke Arechi II of Benevento. The fall of the kingdom In 774 he experienced the collapse of the Lombard kingdom and entered Montecassino (it is not known for what title exactly, whether as a monk or a layman). Between 782 and 787, due to the imprisonment of his brother Arachis, who was taken to France in 776 as a prisoner after being captured in the battle that pitted the rebel of the Duke of Friuli of Rotgaudo, Duke of Friuli against the new occupants (perhaps Paul himself did not was extraneous to the conspiracy), entered the court of Charlemagne. Paolo Diacono was commissioned by these to teach along the journey (therefore to join the expedition) the Greek language to the clerics charged with accompanying his daughter Rotrude, betrothed to the emperor Constantine, to Constantinople. He refused the assignment, but the marriage, in any case, did not take place. In 782, Paul wrote a letter from Montecassino in elegiac meter to Charlemagne, begging him to redeem his brother: in the letter he describes the poverty of his sister-in-law who had to support four children, Paul's nephews . He is mentioned in a Carolingian capitular, in which he is charged, thanks to his philological skills and his knowledge of patristics, to compile a Homiliarium, that is, a collection of homilies for the individual feasts of the year, which, over time, had been corrupted from the ignorance of the copyists "They committed themselves perhaps with right intention, but not with adequate capacity". All this is part of the Carolingian revival which included, among many purposes, the correction, copying and distribution of the basic religious and secular texts of the ancients: for example, Alcuin of York was entrusted with the correction and revision of the Vulgate. . In France he acquired a certain notoriety and prestige as a grammar teacher. Once his brother was released, Paolo Diacono left the Carolingian court and became a monk in the monastery of Montecassino.
In 787 he returned to Montecassino, where among other things he wrote the Historia Langobardorum, his most famous work in which he narrates, between myth and history, the events of his people, from the departure from Scandinavia to the arrival in Italy up to the reign of Liutprand - thus avoiding the story of the defeat suffered by the Franks. The writing of the text committed Paolo Diacono for two years, from 787 to 789. He died on 13 April 799: the event is recorded in the obituary of Cassino. He was buried in the monastery, in the church of San Benedetto, in front of the chapter, but the subsequent renovations of the monastery have erased all traces of the tomb.
- Vittorio Podrecca
- Adelaide Ristori
- Paolo Diacono
- Oliviero Pielci, known as Olivo


Lots of what you've seen posted here so far talks about pregnancy and infant loss from a mother's perspective. Mothers carry babies, mothers birth babies, mothers love babies, mothers lose babies, mothers grieve babies.
But a father's grief is often ignored, thrown under the rug. He may set aside his grief to care for his wife. He may not know how to express the pain he feels at the loss of his baby. Do any of us?
If you know a dad who lost a baby, please consider his grief too. Think of him when you send food. Think of him when you give hugs. Think of him when you lend a listening ear. And keep him in your heart.
To hear dads talk about their grief after the loss of a baby, we invite you to watch one of the videos we viewed during our Film Night & Panel Discussion, "When the Storm Hits" (in French, subtitled in English).
Please share, this video may help a dad you know too.


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De moerasbospriemkever (Bembidion mannerheimii) is een keversoort uit de familie van de loopkevers (Carabidae). De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort werd in 1827 gepubliceerd door Carl Reinhold Sahlberg.

Bembidion

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Why Women Are Not At The Top (of Politics, Business, and Culture)
Posted on January 9, 2012 by whiskeysplace
Women have more freedom, power, and control over their lives in the West than any group of women ever, before. Women today have more wealth, freedom, comfort, and stability than any other group of women before. And yet, still they rarely occupy the highest rungs of power, being absent from political leadership, commercial leadership, and cultural leadership. A Black man was elected President of the US before a woman. Why?
Because women won't sacrifice the … sexiness in men. And no sexy, dominant Alpha male will put up with a woman having a career and power greater than his. That's why they are Alpha males in the first place. For a woman to advance to the top, she has to be … Margaret Thatcher. Or Leslie Blodgett of Bare Escentuals. Or Carly Fiorina of H-P. Married to a "boring" beta male who is supportive and stays out of the spotlight.
Lucy Kellaway at the Financial Times was the first to make this clear:
The biggest reason that alpha women don't become CEOs is that they have made the common, yet fatal, error of marrying an alpha man.
My evidence for this is based on long observation of the women I know. Some of them did brilliantly for a bit, but then their careers stalled. The problem was not that they had had too many children (successful women seem to have lots of them) but that their alpha husbands insisted on putting their own careers first.
Until last week this was just a vague prejudice. But on Wednesday I sat down with the FT's list of the 50 top business women and Googled each one, searching for information about their home lives. Annoyingly, some of them have succeeded in keeping their private lives private, but with the rest I found my theory spectacularly well borne out. Nearly all have children, but I could not find a single one with an alpha male husband.
The only whiff of an alpha mate came from the household of Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon, whose husband was the CEO of Bloomingdale's. I use the past tense not because he lost the job, but because he lost his wife – the marriage didn't last.
Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi and the world's most powerful businesswoman, is married to a man who quit his job and became a consultant to fit in with his wife and children. Ditto with Irene Rosenfeld at Kraft, whose husband decided to be self-employed 20 years ago to help her. Ditto with Ursula Burns at Xerox.
There are three pretty obvious reasons an alpha husband is a problem for the aspiring female CEO. First is logistics. If you want to be really successful you need to be mobile. You need to have a husband like Gregg Ahrendts, who wound up his construction business so Angela could move to London to be CEO of Burberry. You also need to have someone who is prepared to see the children occasionally. And above all you need a bit of encouragement. If you have spent all day competing with men at work, you don't want to go on competing at home. You want someone like Lloyd Bean, Ursula Burns's husband, who worked at Xerox long before she joined, but who claimed delight when his wife whizzed past him in the fast lane. Or like the husband of the Indian banking supremo Chanda Kochhar. She says he is "genuinely happy about my progress".
The lesson for a future female corporate queen is to give more thought to her choice of spouse. She should go for someone who is mentally her match, but who is happy to play a supporting role. In other words, Mr Right should be a male Kate Middleton.
Alas, there is a problem here in both demand and supply. High-flying women are programmed to go for high-flying men. Most men aren't attracted to women who are more successful than they are. And until those things change, there is not going to be more than the odd sprinkling of women emerging from the sticky yellow marzipan into the glorious royal icing on top.
As Business Week noted:
When Carly Fiorina became Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) first female chief executive officer, the existence of her househusband, Frank Fiorina, who had retired early from AT&T (T) to support her career, was a mini-sensation; now this arrangement isn't at all unusual. Seven of the 18 women who are currently CEOs of Fortune 500 companies—including Xerox's (XRX) Ursula Burns, PepsiCo's (PEP) Indra Nooyi, and WellPoint's (WLP) Angela Braly—have, or at some point have had, a stay-at-home husband. So do scores of female CEOs of smaller companies and women in other senior executive jobs. Others, like IBM's (IBM) new CEO, Ginni Rometty, have spouses who dialed back their careers to become their powerful wives' chief domestic officers.
This role reversal is occurring more and more as women edge past men at work. Women now fill a majority of jobs in the U.S., including 51.4 percent of managerial and professional positions, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Some 23 percent of wives now out-earn their husbands, according to a 2010 study by the Pew Research Center. And this earnings trend is more dramatic among younger people. Women 30 and under make more money, on average, than their male counterparts in all but three of the largest cities in the U.S.
However, for most women, that trade-off, a supportive house-husband screams "Kitchen Bitch" and thus, poison. Most women would rather their husbands be high-flyers, than themselves. Because their reflection of self-worth is based on their sexual marketplace value (sad but true for most women, sad because that is so transient like a flower), and their sexual marketplace value is based around how much of a dominant, sexy Alpha asshole they can land.
Women don't go further in politics because they are unwilling to marry Denis Thatcher. An amiable businessman who kept his mouth shut and loyally supported his wife. They have fantasies of being Hillary Clinton, who did not sacrifice the Alpha Asshole Male, and still got to be a Senator and Secretary of State. [This is why many women love Hillary — she got the Alpha Asshole, and the power, at least in part.]
Men who rise, mostly do so by either blind luck and opportunity, plus "seize the day" aggression and vision (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg), or grind-it-out steady rises like say, Howard Schultz generally require a supportive spouse. Business and politics are high-stress careers, and supportive advice and comfort are generally a requirement for those grinding it out, a decade at a time, to rise to the top. This is true for both men and women.
Men, more than women, tend to realize this and trade off on Alpha sexiness. This is particularly true when men are younger and less powerful, and thus less attractive to women, they will often settle and marry the best woman they can get. Sticking with her for the most part means no costly divorces, no emotional upheaval, and the perception of stability and sensibility, that boards of directors prefer. No one wants say, a Mark Hurd. A guy who is a walking lawsuit machine.
Women on the other hand, feel that settling is both a betrayal of their natures, and a slur on their very person. Saying basically that they are so ugly and unsexy that the best they can do is some "supportive" aka "kitchen bitch" beta male instead of the sexy bad boy Alpha asshole they crave.
Thus women are trading off opportunity for sex. This is entirely predictable, since eggs are expensive, and sperm cheap, women generally prefer less perceived risk and men more, comparatively speaking. Women will trade off the opportunity to become a top leader, for sexy times, most of the time.
It is the unwillingness to trade away those sexy times, in favor of beta male "kitchen bitch" supportiveness, that keeps women from occupying half or more of the CEO suites, upper reaches of political leadership, and the cultural power centers (such as directing, producing, and so on). Rising up that way requires generally guys women just can't stomach.
The goal of feminists is to have it all — the sexy bad boys AND the power. Like most fantasies, too much of it tends to be destructive. Because real problems are never solved by ghost-dancing fantasies and fairy tales.
This entry was posted in alpha, beta, more, power, sexy, women. Bookmark the permalink.
14 Responses to Why Women Are Not At The Top (of Politics, Business, and Culture)
Ulick Mcgee says:
Great post. I hadn't come across this insight before.I wonder how many of the women CEO's are consciously choosing a supportive man who is their equal versus how many of the women end up with pussies because they have such forceful personalities. Right now, I suspect that we are dealing with some very clever women who can consciously control their life choices. Once this goes mainstream, however, and the less self-aware, run-of-the-mill ball breaker gets in on the game, it may become sexist for a man not to want to be a kitchen bitch. Will SWPL men line up to declare their support for this lifestyle or will TEOTWAWKI happen first? Whatever, I suspect that it won't be long before the Feminist PC multiculturalists start to hold up househusbands as the most moral men amongst us.
flavia says:
The author you quote also makes the mistake of labeling a high powered female CEO as an "alpha" woman. The female alpha is the one all the guys want…as it is with a male alpha. Power does not make the genders alpha-desirability from the opposite sex does. A very beautiful and charming poor woman is more alpha than say, Hillary Clinton. Anyway, here's the big secret as to why women are not big time politicians/CEOs. It's fucking boring. Politics is stupid, redundant, meaningless and boring. So boring. Working a corporate job is soul crushing. And since power and money really are not as important in attracting a mate for females, there is really little incentive. Men seek power and fortune for the women, not because spending 60 hours a week in "synergy" meetings or kissing ugly babies to gain some State Legislature seat for some flyover state is so appealing. Politics are stupid. Working is stupid. Why any woman would get into it is beyond me. I thank god every day I was born a woman. All I had to do was be clean, nice, choose wisely and voila. Someone just magically brings me money every day and supports me. It's a pretty sweet gig.
A very beautiful and charming *and young* poor woman is more alpha than say, Hillary Clinton.Fixed that for you.
But Whiskey,Carly Fiorina is considered to be a psycho-bitch from hell. Meg Whitman is also said to be one who cracked up. Women are lousy leaders. Theyre dumb. Theyre lousy leaders who screw things up. They treat their subs like shit. They dont "nurture"(pun intended) the talent,reward it,guide it;in short they demand to be followed,but they dont lead. They get MASSIVE uplift from affirmative action,with companies seeking to gain publicity for having a girl leader(s),but in reality they perform poorly. (The jew Rosenfeld from Kraft does appear to be an exception…) I am reminded of the "lady" (in reality a bull dyke lesbo carpet-muncher)who was put in charge of a Navy ship and ran it aground. A complete drooling idiot man-hating psycho. I dont think all the well-endowed toyboy ass-tapping S. American wife-beater shirt wearing Bad Boys in the world can make a shrewish,overrated,affirmative action bitch into a great leader. Get rid of divershitty and then lets see what happens!
BTW w/regard to Hillary:She must be the most BORED woman in the world. It must drive her crazy having to deal with all that "statecraft" bullshit as Sec of State,when you know all she wants to do is empower,empower,empower girls and women. (And she prob sucks asbadly as those other two maroons,Madeline NotSoBright and Rice!)
Margaret Thatcher was an effective leader. Palin, until she was run out by financial attrition warfare (lawsuits against her middle class finances) notably achieved a corruption fighter in Alaska — sending everyone a check for oil/gas royalties instead of corruptly spending it on cronies. Nikki Haley has fought the old-line Republican guard in South Carolina (and Obama) on the issue of jobs and grabbing shipping for Charleston. The Republican Governor of New Mexico has launched corruption fighting probes, and cut spending (never popular).I would not say ALL but about half of women leaders are incompetent. Given the general incompetency level of all leaders of either sex, that's pretty good.There is also a world of difference between those like Palin, Haley, Thatcher, etc. who rise up from middle class backgrounds, and those like Hillary or Argentina's Kirchner or Pelosi who trade on wealthy/powerful husbands and/or fathers.
map says:
I wonder what happened to the stock price of all these "women run" companies.
With all due respect to Flavia, who appears to have an interesting and insightful blog, her definition of "alpha female" is incorrect; the FT article had it right.An "alpha female" is essentially the same as an alpha male – confident, competent, usually good looking. The only difference between them is that women all want the alpa male because he is an alpha male. With alpha females, it ain't necessarily so. Her alphaness may be a turnoff to guys, especially if she is not extremely attractive. However, an alpha female can be extremely attractive to guys if she is beautiful because she will be more likely than her less confident beta female sisters to know how to use her "sexual capital" to get what she wants from men.
But Linda MacMahon is a CEO married to an Alpha male. Perhaps all the other women are in the wrong industry?
Barry Wood says:
Here is an interesting anecodte that might be relevant.For most of the sixties Germain Greer blazed a trail of sexual promiscuity across London, sleeping with and then dropping a string of the best known men of the day.At the same time of course she was preaching the Gospel of feminist liberation and puring sheer venom on conservatives right and left. A left-wing hardliner as ever their was.Yet who did she want to marry?A controversial right-wing business magnate called Algy Cluff who made his fortune in the African gold mining industry. As Cluff's autbiography revealed, he declined. Probably for the best.
I wonder what happened to the stock price of all these "women run" companies.Companies with women directors perform badly on stock market, report claimshttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/shares/6023097/Companies-with-women-directors-perform-badly-on-stock-market-report-claims.html
It stands to reason that anyone in these kinds of time-consuming positions either can't be married or has a supportive spouse. Men or women. I don't know *any* senior male execs at my F200 company who has a wife who is nearly as high powered as they are. These women are well educated and had careers before and in early years of marriage but then scaled down as hubby's career ramped up. It makes sense, as someone needs to manage the domestic aspect of things, and if one person is working 60+ hours plus lots of travel, then the other person *must* do it. Outsourcing it mostly to third parties is very passe in the UMC (i.e., the "working rich"). There are exceptions to this, but they are exceptional.It's much less common, therefore, for women to be in this position because few of them marry men who are willing to do this (or, stated differently, few are willing to marry men who would be willing to do this). My anecdotal experience working in corporate America for 20+ years … among the female senior execs I know, a substantial number are either never married (2-3 times as high, percentage wise, as the male peer group) or are divorced (at least twice as many as the male peers). Only the remaining minority are married, and most of these either have no children (again, among the group of married senior execs, the number who have not had kids is 2-3 times as high as the male peer group) or are "capped" in advancement and not advancing to the higher echelons. I can count the number of women who had househusbands on one hand and still have enough fingers left to type pretty well.In my personal experience, women will opt for everything else (divorce, avoiding children, not marrying) in preference to the househusband route. There is a small minority of women who *will* actively choose the househusband route from the beginning, and they tend to be the small number that advances very far indeed, to the CEO level. But they are outliers among women in terms of the choices they want to (or are willing to) make (and, frankly, quite a few of these women are not "stunners" in any case, and are making do with a mate market that is less than ideal for them in any case).
I'm in an interesting situation, in that my wife, on paper, "has it all": a successful career, a high income, three beautiful, healthy kids, handsome husband, etc. etc. But she also understands — implicitly — that all of that depends utterly on my grace and efforts. When she gets a compliment in a professional or social situation, I am always the first reason she attributes her success to. She'll be the first to admit that without my active help and assistance, she'd be a crappy mom, a lousy employee, and an utterly miserable, unfulfilled bitch. In other words, the only way she can live the feminist ideal of "having it all" is by cooperating with and acknowledging the necessity of having a man in her life to help her. That really grates on her feminist colleagues who ask her "how she manages it all" and she says, "only with the help of my big strong man. I couldn't do anything without his assistance.http://alphagameplan.blogspot.com/2011/12/conservative-woman-misses-point.html?showComment=1325181429484#c7152388433256979295
I thank god every day I was born a woman. All I had to do was be clean, nice, choose wisely and voila. Someone just magically brings me money every day and supports me. It's a pretty sweet gig. Ummm, I don't think Flavia is in a relationship. Are there any men who just "voila" give women money?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Future of football: Will parents see sons in Damar Hamlin and pull kids from sport| Opinion
"As I've thought about the severity of Hamlin's injury, I would not be surprised if more parents of young boys keep them out of football," Jessica A. Johnson
Jessica A. Johnson
Contributed Commentary
Jessica A. Johnson writes for Creators Syndicate and teaches English composition at Ohio State's Lima campus. smojc.jj@gmail.com, @JjSmojc
On Monday night, I prayed for Buffalo Bills' safety Damar Hamlin as if he were my son after witnessing his scary collapse in a playoff implicating matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The football world was in silence and shock for nearly an hour as Hamlin's life hung in the balance and was saved by the Bills' medical staff administering CPR. This, no doubt, is the most terrifying game situation I have seen in all of my years watching pro football since the 1980s.
Rob Oller:Injury to Bills' Damar Hamlin forces fans to deal with uncomfortable feelings
Football fans in my generation who grew up during this decade remember the horrific injury that Washington Redskins' quarterback Joe Theismann suffered after a brutal hit from New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor.
This game was also a Monday Night Football showcase, and fans in the stands and those watching on television saw Theismann's right leg snap like a toothpick with one bone piercing through his skin after Taylor landed on him.
Fast forwarding to today, three months before Hamlin's heart stopped in live play Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a head cranial concussion during Week 4 of the NFL season in a game against the Bengals. Watching Tagovailoa wincing in pain on the ground with his fingers and arms locked was just as traumatizing as seeing Hamlin lay unconscious after tackling Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.
More:Damar Hamlin in critical condition after collapse during Bengals game. Here's what we know
While we wait for medical updates on Hamlin, who remains in critical condition, NPR reported that some doctors believe he experienced commotio cordis, which is caused by a fierce blow to the chest resulting in cardiac arrest.
As I've thought about the severity of Hamlin's injury, I would not be surprised if more parents of young boys keep them out of football.
This issue was addressed in the season 5 episode of "Black-ish" titled "FriDre Night Lights" back in 2019. In the storyline, Andre "Dre" Johnson is thrilled that his middle son Jack makes his youth football squad as a punt returner, but Jack's mother Rainbow, who is a doctor, immediately shuts down the idea of him playing due to her concerns about concussions and CTE — Chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Jessica A. Johnson:"We need to pray for and forgive Derek Chauvin"
Jessica A. Johnson:Advice to grads existing 'OZ' for real world: 'Never let your dreams die'
Rainbow reluctantly decides to let Jack suit up, but at his first game she and Dre eventually panic as they watch the hard hitting of 12-year-olds. Dre frantically runs on the field and carries Jack off during the first quarter. When they get home, Dre and Rainbow explain to their frustrated son that the sport is too dangerous but end up letting him play flag football as a compromise.
The same year "FriDre Night Lights" aired the National Federation of State High School Associations reported that participation in football declined by 31,000, its lowest drop since the 1999-2000 school year.
Overall, this decrease is currently not threatening the popularity of football as the NFSHSA data also showed that more schools added "traditional 11-man football teams." However, there is rising apprehension among parents that tackle football is just becoming too rough.
For the past several years we have learned more about CTE and head trauma, two of the primary reasons many parents will not let their sons play. Hamlin's chest injury is sure to heighten more unease.
In the meantime, the heartfelt support and prayers that Hamlin's family has received from people around the world asking God to intervene is awe-inspiring. I believe that as James 5:16 says, "[t]he effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
Michael Arace commentary:Football's toll on brain may have deadly results
Let's continue to fervently uplift Hamlin for a full recovery as he has much life ahead of him beyond football.


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>> Entertainment
>> Music
Vegas birthday becomes gift for lounge performer
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
6121074-0-4
Usually when a guy's parents bring him to Las Vegas for his 21st birthday, the visit is memorable for all the wrong reasons.
But not for Patrick Sieben. He'll never forget his 21st birthday celebration with his parents at Planet Hollywood Resort. It kick-started his local performing career.
Last year, the Siebens were in the hotel's lounge listening to pianist/singer Matt Newbold. He pulled Sieben onstage to sing "Happy Birthday" to him and invited him to sing a song.
Turns out, Sieben was a pretty good singer. One song led to a few more and by the end of the night, Newbold had given him his card.
"A few months later, I was just looking for an opportunity to come out and play a few shows. I called Matt, and he told me to call his agent," says Sieben, 22. He's been performing his solo act around town since June. "Yep, that was a good weekend."
Sieben, who also plays piano and guitar, describes his style as "alternative pop rock." It's kind of a cross between Jason Mraz and Matchbox Twenty with a little Foo Fighters and Bruno Mars thrown in.
Sieben graduated from the University of Denver with a music degree earlier this year and has set his sights on a full-time performing and recording career. He recently released his first album, "Awakenings," and has landed several recurring gigs around town.
Originally from Minnesota, Sieben grew up playing piano and took up the guitar at 15. He played gigs around St. Paul and was so successful, he got to quit his job at Dairy Queen in junior high school.
When it came time to go to college, music seemed like the right choice, he says, even though he was the lone working musician in his family.
In March, he will be going to Kuwait to play music for American troops. Until then, you can catch him from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturdays at Martini Ranch in Texas Station. For more information or future performing dates, visit his website at patricksieben.com.
— By SONYA PADGETT
Posted on: Entertainment, Music
Tony Bennett returns to Las Vegas Strip for 3 shows
By John Katsilometes / RJ
July 15, 2019 - 9:09 am July 15, 2019 - 12:28 pm
Tony Bennett, who turns 93 in August, most recently performed on the Las Vegas Strip with Lady Gaga.
July 14, 2019 - 3:20 pm July 15, 2019 - 9:23 am
The new retail outlet from "Pawn Stars" co-star Rick Harrison began construction last week.
Raiders owner Mark Davis, Oscar Goodman reunite at Las Vegas event
Raiders owner Mark Davis enlivened the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health scene by delivering a $25,000 check.
Powerhouse resort execs assembling NFL draft party in Las Vegas
Bill McBeath of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Derek Stevens of the D Las Vegas and Circa are among those on the NFL Draft party committee.
Keith Urban to usher in new Colosseum at Caesars Palace
Country superstar Keith Urban is hauling in his "Graffiti U World Tour" into the currently under-renovation theater on Sept. 6-7.
Jerry Lawson, leader of a cappella Persuasions, dies at 75
By Andrew Dalton The Associated Press
They had many famous fans including Rod Stewart, the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, the members of Boyz II Men and Frank Zappa.
Cirque du Soleil explores the public stock option
The Las Vegas Strip's predominant production company might go go public next year — possibly as early as January.
'Hammer's House Party Tour' makes Las Vegas house call
By Jason Bracelin / RJ
MC Hammer, Sir Mix-A-Lot and others revisit one of hip-hop's most fun eras on tour together.
Bellagio Conservatory leads this week's best bets in Las Vegas
An Italian journey awaits guests at the Bellagio Conservatory where this summer's exhibit showcases four regions of Italy through Sept. 7.
This week's 5 best bets for music in Las Vegas
Young Jesus, with their intricate, involved and frequently explosive indie rock, which percolates with jazz and prog underpinnings, play the Bunkhouse.
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Rice husks, an agricultural waste, were thermally treated and evaluated as an adsorbent for petroleum with the goal of being used as a remediation strategy for petroleum spills of petroleum based products. The petroleum sorption capacity was examined of thermally-treated, carbonized rice husks which are mainly composed of silicates. Results showed that the petroleum sorption capacities of the carbonized rice husks prepared at 700ºC is 15,2 g/g for heavy crude petroleum. The effects of heating temperature, contact time and petroleum density on the petroleum sorption capacity of carbonized rice husks were investigated. The phase composition, microstructure and morphology of the carbonized rice husks were investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis, FTIR spectrometry and Scanning Election Microscope (SEM).
KUDAYBERGENOV, K. K.; ONGARBAYEV, Ye. K.; MANSUROV, Z. A.. Thermally treated rice husks for petroleum adsorption. International Journal of Biology and Chemistry, [S.l.], n. 3, p. 3-12, june 2012. ISSN 2409-370X. Available at: <http://ijbch.kaznu.kz/index.php/kaznu/article/view/45>. Date accessed: 24 apr. 2019.


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Trophic position of archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix) in the Malaysian estuaries
Simon Kumar Das, Mazlan Abd. Ghaffar
School of Environmental & Natural Resource Sciences
The study objectives were to identify (i) the diet composition of two co-occurring archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix), (ii) their potential food preferences, and (iii) their overall trophic level in Malaysian estuaries. For this purpose the stomachs of 128 archerfishes ranging in size of 9.8-22.5 cm and 8.7-23 cm, respectively, were examined from selected Malaysian estuaries. Crustaceans, in particular red clawed crab (Sesarma bidens), occurred in the majority of stomachs and constituted 72.55 and 66.43% of the diet by weight in T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix, respectively. Insects were mostly Formicidae, Dytiscidae, Araneidae, and Cerambycidae and occurred in 10.8, 12.0; 5.1, 6.3; 4, 5.3; 3.2, 1.7% in T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix species and constituted the second most important food category consumed. Other crustaceans and shrimp (Penaeus sp.) constituted 4.4 and 2.7% of the diet by weight and were the third most important food type consumed by the two species. Moreover, these species hardly ever exhibited cannibalistic traits; Toxotes spp. comprised only 5.5% of stomach contents and was observed only in the T. jaculatrix species. Stomach content and trophic level analysis denoted that T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix are strongly carnivorous species. Furthermore, diets did not differ significantly between sizes or sexes and geographic location.
Journal of Applied Ichthyology
Penaeus
stomach content
Araneidae
food preference
Das, S. K., & Abd. Ghaffar, M. (2010). Trophic position of archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix) in the Malaysian estuaries. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 26(1), 84-88. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0426.2009.01351.x
Trophic position of archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix) in the Malaysian estuaries. / Das, Simon Kumar; Abd. Ghaffar, Mazlan.
In: Journal of Applied Ichthyology, Vol. 26, No. 1, 02.2010, p. 84-88.
Das, SK & Abd. Ghaffar, M 2010, 'Trophic position of archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix) in the Malaysian estuaries', Journal of Applied Ichthyology, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 84-88. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0426.2009.01351.x
Das SK, Abd. Ghaffar M. Trophic position of archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix) in the Malaysian estuaries. Journal of Applied Ichthyology. 2010 Feb;26(1):84-88. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0426.2009.01351.x
Das, Simon Kumar ; Abd. Ghaffar, Mazlan. / Trophic position of archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix) in the Malaysian estuaries. In: Journal of Applied Ichthyology. 2010 ; Vol. 26, No. 1. pp. 84-88.
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title = "Trophic position of archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix) in the Malaysian estuaries",
abstract = "The study objectives were to identify (i) the diet composition of two co-occurring archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix), (ii) their potential food preferences, and (iii) their overall trophic level in Malaysian estuaries. For this purpose the stomachs of 128 archerfishes ranging in size of 9.8-22.5 cm and 8.7-23 cm, respectively, were examined from selected Malaysian estuaries. Crustaceans, in particular red clawed crab (Sesarma bidens), occurred in the majority of stomachs and constituted 72.55 and 66.43{\%} of the diet by weight in T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix, respectively. Insects were mostly Formicidae, Dytiscidae, Araneidae, and Cerambycidae and occurred in 10.8, 12.0; 5.1, 6.3; 4, 5.3; 3.2, 1.7{\%} in T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix species and constituted the second most important food category consumed. Other crustaceans and shrimp (Penaeus sp.) constituted 4.4 and 2.7{\%} of the diet by weight and were the third most important food type consumed by the two species. Moreover, these species hardly ever exhibited cannibalistic traits; Toxotes spp. comprised only 5.5{\%} of stomach contents and was observed only in the T. jaculatrix species. Stomach content and trophic level analysis denoted that T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix are strongly carnivorous species. Furthermore, diets did not differ significantly between sizes or sexes and geographic location.",
author = "Das, {Simon Kumar} and {Abd. Ghaffar}, Mazlan",
journal = "Journal of Applied Ichthyology",
T1 - Trophic position of archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix) in the Malaysian estuaries
AU - Das, Simon Kumar
AU - Abd. Ghaffar, Mazlan
N2 - The study objectives were to identify (i) the diet composition of two co-occurring archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix), (ii) their potential food preferences, and (iii) their overall trophic level in Malaysian estuaries. For this purpose the stomachs of 128 archerfishes ranging in size of 9.8-22.5 cm and 8.7-23 cm, respectively, were examined from selected Malaysian estuaries. Crustaceans, in particular red clawed crab (Sesarma bidens), occurred in the majority of stomachs and constituted 72.55 and 66.43% of the diet by weight in T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix, respectively. Insects were mostly Formicidae, Dytiscidae, Araneidae, and Cerambycidae and occurred in 10.8, 12.0; 5.1, 6.3; 4, 5.3; 3.2, 1.7% in T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix species and constituted the second most important food category consumed. Other crustaceans and shrimp (Penaeus sp.) constituted 4.4 and 2.7% of the diet by weight and were the third most important food type consumed by the two species. Moreover, these species hardly ever exhibited cannibalistic traits; Toxotes spp. comprised only 5.5% of stomach contents and was observed only in the T. jaculatrix species. Stomach content and trophic level analysis denoted that T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix are strongly carnivorous species. Furthermore, diets did not differ significantly between sizes or sexes and geographic location.
AB - The study objectives were to identify (i) the diet composition of two co-occurring archerfish species (Toxotes chatareus and Toxotes jaculatrix), (ii) their potential food preferences, and (iii) their overall trophic level in Malaysian estuaries. For this purpose the stomachs of 128 archerfishes ranging in size of 9.8-22.5 cm and 8.7-23 cm, respectively, were examined from selected Malaysian estuaries. Crustaceans, in particular red clawed crab (Sesarma bidens), occurred in the majority of stomachs and constituted 72.55 and 66.43% of the diet by weight in T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix, respectively. Insects were mostly Formicidae, Dytiscidae, Araneidae, and Cerambycidae and occurred in 10.8, 12.0; 5.1, 6.3; 4, 5.3; 3.2, 1.7% in T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix species and constituted the second most important food category consumed. Other crustaceans and shrimp (Penaeus sp.) constituted 4.4 and 2.7% of the diet by weight and were the third most important food type consumed by the two species. Moreover, these species hardly ever exhibited cannibalistic traits; Toxotes spp. comprised only 5.5% of stomach contents and was observed only in the T. jaculatrix species. Stomach content and trophic level analysis denoted that T. chatareus and T. jaculatrix are strongly carnivorous species. Furthermore, diets did not differ significantly between sizes or sexes and geographic location.
JO - Journal of Applied Ichthyology
JF - Journal of Applied Ichthyology


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2. Take self defense steps.
Self defense does not symbolize your talents in martial arts and karate. It is not possible for every woman to take martial art training. Self defense includes your safety kit and your quickness to respond. Once the attacker attacks you, use your pepper spray and your electronic shocker to mess the attacker. Don't try to play karate with the attacker unless you are too good at it. Next try shouting out loud using the word "HELP" so that if anyone around pass by anywhere around you can hear you and help you out.
3. Run away and escape.
Sometimes, predators come by whispering into your ears to accompany them, be it in a car or into a building. They may promise you not to hurt you. DONOT TRUST THEM let how sober and gentle they look. Best option during such time is to run away and shout for help. Kidnapping happens when predators attacks.
4. Always keep your doors closed to avoid Home Invasions.
Intruders sometimes enter home in disguise. Unless you know that person ringing your doorbell do not open the door. Keep your apartment guards informed if you observe any unknown person toddling near your home every day. Moreover keep your cell phone, knife, pepper spray and electronic shocker near to you whenever any unrecognizable person rings your doorbell.
5. Keep your car doors locked while driving and travelling.
Carjacking is very common now a day. To avoid car keep your car doors locked and windowed tightened up while you are driving or travelling in a car. Do not hire a driver before checking his background. Now-a-days there are companies which provide car drivers. Contact any trustable company if you need driver.


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23 Must-See Astronomy Events in the 2023 Night Sky
The New Year is upon us – and you know what that means! It's time to turn over calendars, come up with resolutions, and look forward to another orbit 'round the sun. After passing perihelion on January 4th, the Earth will move on its elliptical orbit to its furthest point from the sun on July 4th, and then return back 3 million miles closer by this time next year.
The celestial dance is consistent, and that means that some of the best events in the 2023 night sky are similar from years past; others are new and exciting opportunities to get out and enjoy the night sky. From newly-discovered comets and renamed meteor showers to chances to spot the foundational objects in our solar system, 2023 promises many nights of enjoyable time under the stars if you take advantage of them.
In this post, I'll help you accomplish your New Year's resolution to go stargazing more by highlighting 23 of the best astronomy events of the year. These are the events I have on my calendar, though there are of course others – and I highlight them each month in my Night Sky Guides (which you can see on the Explore page). Whether you use this as your guide for the year – or just as your starting point – you'll be delighted by any chance you have to see these events. Read on to discover the best night sky events in 2023.
January 4 – Peak of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower
February 1 – C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Reaches its Brightest
March 21 – Ceres at Opposition
March 21 – Best Night for the Messier Marathon
March 29 – Makemake at Opposition
April 19 – Hybrid Solar Eclipse
April 20 – Haumea at Opposition
April 23 – Peak of the Lyrid Meteor Shower
July 22 – Pluto at Opposition
August 13 – Peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower
August 27 – Saturn at Opposition
September 19 – Neptune at Opposition
October 9 – Peak of the Draconid Meteor Shower
October 14 – Annular Solar Eclipse Across the U.S.
October 18 – Eris at Opposition
October 22 – Peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower
October 28 – Partial Lunar Eclipse
November 3 – Jupiter at Opposition
November 13 – Uranus at Opposition
November 18 – Peak of the Leonid Meteor Shower
December 2 – Peak of the Andromedids Meteor Shower
December 14 – Peak of the Geminid Meteor Shower
December 23 – Peak of the Ursid Meteor Shower
Photo credit: Donovan Shortey via Flickr
The new year kicks off with a bombastic event – as it always does – with the peak of the Quadrantids meteor shower in early January. This meteor shower radiates from a point in the sky where a constellation no longer "exists" – Quadrans Muralis was an early constellation that is no longer part of the 88 official constellations in the sky.
The Quadrantids are one of the most active meteor showers of the year, though most people don't realize how well the hourly rate of meteors compares to the more popular showers like the Perseids and Geminids. The difference between these latter-year showers and the Quadrantids is that the peak of the Quadrantids is very short – usually just a few hours. This means that if it occurs in the daylight, dawn, or dusk hours, it can be hard to see any meteors at all that year.
Unfortunately, that applies in 2023: the peak of the Quadrantids will occur after dawn, around 9am EST, making this a hard year to see any of these celestial fireworks marking the new year.
You might have already heard about the mouthful-of-a-name Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), which has been making headlines for the incredible imagery some astrophotographers have captured – as well as the chance for all of us to spot it in the sky (and potentially with the unaided eye!).
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered in early March 2022, and will pass around the sun on January 12th. On February 1st, it will be at its closest to Earth on its 50,000-year orbit, and this is an ideal night to get out to try and spot it. It's most likely the case you'll need binoculars to do so, though it may brighten enough for the unaided eye in good dark sky conditions.
There are lots of resources about C/2022 E3 (ZTF) out there – I recommend googling to see the latest headlines if you want to spot it as it sails by.
The only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, Ceres is the largest object among the many millions that make up that part of the solar system. As the largest, it was the first spotted too – that's why its designation is officially "1 Ceres." In 2023, it's also the first of the dwarf planets you could try and spot when it reaches opposition (the night where it is opposite the Sun from our earthly perspective, and thus well-lit for viewing).
Ceres will be in the constellation Coma Berenices and is relatively easy to spot with binoculars or a smaller telescope, thanks to its proximity to Earth.
For those not familiar, the Messier catalog includes 110 deep space objects; the Messier Marathon is an unofficial event where astronomers attempt to see all 110 events in a single night. All 110 events are only visible in the sky between late February and early April, and it's obviously critical to have no light interference from the Moon.
In 2023, there's one good weekend near a new moon where you can try and "run" the Messier Marathon: the weekend of March 21. On this night, you'll want to plan a trip to a very dark-sky spot, bring your telescope, and plan to stay up all night gazing deep into the universe.
Named for the god of fertility in the Rapanui mythology of the Easter Islands, the dwarf planet Makemake is one of the many interesting not-quite-planetary objects in our solar system. Even better, the annual best night to see Makemake occurs early in the year.
On the night of March 29th, Makemake will reach opposition and be at its most brightly lit by the sun; it will be visible in the constellation Coma Berenices if you want to try and spot it with your telescope or other stargazing equipment.
Photo credit: Gregory Slobirdr Smith via Flickr
While you wouldn't think it, there are lots of terms that seem to be new in the field of astronomy – at least to me. One term I had never heard before this year was "Hybrid Solar Eclipse," which is apparently how you can describe the solar eclipse happening on April 19th.
See, this eclipse varies a lot depending on where you see it – and not just in an "I'm in the path of totality and you can only see a partial eclipse" kind of way. This eclipse is actually a hybrid total/annular solar eclipse: for those on the path where the Moon completely blocks the Sun, some (most) people will see a total solar eclipse, and a small number will see an annular eclipse.
Totality/annularity will only be visible to those in a small swath of western Australia, East Timor and eastern Indonesia, so be sure to check out my guide for this solar eclipse for all the details if you live in that part of the world.
It's been fun trying to spot the dwarf planets this year, right? Let's try again: dwarf planet Haumea will reach opposition during the daylight hours of April 20th, so that night is a great time to try and spot this solar system object named for the goddess of childbirth and fertility in Hawaiian mythology.
Haumea will be in the constellation of Boötes and you'll need stargazing equipment to spot her (either a telescope or high-powered astronomy binoculars); you'll also want to use some sort of starfinder app to make it easier.
I consider it a good luck sign that my birthday is always marked by a meteor shower: the Lyrids generally peak on the night of April 22nd (into the 23rd, my birthday). This year, the radiant point of the meteor shower – the constellation Lyra – will be visible above the horizon all night long. Additionally in 2023, a nearly new moon will pose little interference, so it's a great first opportunity to see one of the year's major meteor showers.
If you want to learn more about how to see the Lyrids this year, I have a guide for that!
While there are certainly astronomical events in the three months between the end of April and late July, I did not choose to feature them in this list. I'd encourage you to check out my monthly guides to the night sky for more info about what's happening during those months.
After reading about Ceres, Haumea, and Makemake, you might be thinking: What about Pluto? Surely Valerie didn't demote it off her list in 2023 in addition to conceding its status as a dwarf planet?!
Never fear, fellow astronomy fan: Pluto is on my list of dwarf planets you can (and should) try to spot in 2023! Beloved Pluto reaches opposition on July 22nd (actually in the morning hours, so your best chance to see Pluto is the night of the 21st-22nd).
You'll definitely need a telescope and some sort of app to help you located and spot distant and beloved Pluto in the constellation Capricornus.
No list of yearly astronomy events is completed without including the most popular meteor shower of the year, the Perseids.
The Perseids typically peak somewhere between August 12th-14th each year. This year it's predicted they'll peak right in the middle, on the morning of the 13th. Before the sun rises that day, you can expect to see up to 150 meteors per hour – hence why this is such a popular astronomy event to see!
Like for the Lyrids a few months earlier, the Moon will be in an excellent nearly-new phase for the Persieds in 2023.
Ready to plan your Perseids-viewing experience? Check out my guide.
As the second half of the year goes by, there are some great opportunities for seeing the gas giants and ice giants in our solar system. In particular, you'll want to try and spot these planets when they're at "opposition" – meaning they're directly opposite from the sun, with the earth in the middle.
The first good opportunity like this happens just after the Perseids, when Saturn reaches opposition on August 27th. Saturn will be visible in the constellation Capricornus and in the sky most of the night; it'll reach its highest point around midnight local time – wherever you're observing from.
While Saturn is visible to the unaided eye, a telescope will make this an even better experience. Saturn's rings are visible even with low-cost, smaller telescopes (such as those in the $100 to $200 range); obviously a bigger telescope will bring even more definition to the resplendent scene. (Can you tell Saturn is my favorite planet to view through a telescope? Those rings are just so magical!)
Note that for all of these opposition events this year, I chose photos that are more similar to what you'll see looking through a standard telescope rather than professional photos from Hubble or other observatories.
Following up on Saturn's (good) opposition, next up is Neptune. Distant Neptune reaches opposition on September 19th, and you'll definitely need a telescope to see it. (Neptune is never visible to the unaided eye, even in perfect dark sky conditions or when at opposition and relatively brighter.)
Neptune will be located in the constellation Aquarius, which might be hard to find if you don't use a star finder app or have a telescope with that function. Instead, look for big, bright Jupiter, which is close to Neptune in the sky and use that as a guide. Speaking of Jupiter being relatively close to Neptune in the night sky…
After a series of oppositions and some great chances to go planet-gazing, it's time to head back out for more meteor showers. The autumn is prime season for shooting stars, so bundle up!
First up is the Draconids meteor shower, which peaks in the evening hours of October 9th. The good fortune of moon phases and meteor showers continues, as the moon will be a small waning crescent on this night, and present little interference for viewing.
While generally a slow meteor shower with only meteors per hour, the Draconids are a variable shower – some years we are treated to literally thousands of meteors per hour. Nobody has made predictions for 2023 yet, so keep your ears peeled for news as we get closer to the day. Additionally, I have a guide for seeing the Draconids that will help you plan a night out to see them, however many there are.
Photo credit: Hideyuki KAMON via Flickr
It's safe to say that few countries get more into the astronomical hype than the U.S., so it's no surprise that there is already lots of buzz around the annular solar eclipse that will cut across North and South Americas later this year.
Annularity will be visible in a wide diagonal swath from Oregon to Brazil, and many great national parks in the Western U.S. will be in the path – the time to plan a trip is now as many are already running out of availability for overnight accommodations before and after the eclipse.
I'm thinking of planning a community meetup at one of the parks to view this solar eclipse together. Interested? Let me know here.
Want dwarf planet "BINGO" in 2023? Here's your chance!
After opportunities to spot Ceres (March), Haumea (March), Makemake (April), and Pluto (July), the final of the dwarf planets reaches opposition on October 18 – that's right, Eris! (Are we on a game show or something?)
In any case, Eris reaches opposition overnight on October 18th, and will be visible in the constellation Cetus. You'll need a telescope to spot relatively large Eris… despite being nearly the same size as Pluto, it's twice as far away and will require good familiarity with your equipment and some sort of star finder to be seen.
Photo credit: Mike Lewinski via Flickr
Roughly two weeks later, we're in for a another treat: on the night of Friday, October 21st, the Orionids meteor shower will reach its peak. While the Moon will be slightly less agreeable (nearing its third-quarter phase), you'll still have a good chance to spot meteors streaking away from their recognizable radiant point near the constellation Orion.
While the Orionids aren't nearly as active as other major meteor showers – with only an average of 15 meteors per hour – they are still worth heading out to see. While we don't know what 2023 will bring yet, the Orionids is another one of the meteor showers each year that occasionally produces "fireballs" – exceptionally bright and dramatic displays as meteors enter the atmosphere. The chance to see a fireball is always worth heading out for!
Photo credit: Farhan Perdana (Blek) via Flickr
Live in the eastern hemisphere? This one's for you! Following on the annular eclipse two weeks earlier, viewers in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Western Australia will be able to see a partial lunar eclipse on the night of October 28th and morning hours of the 29th (depending on time zone).
Partial lunar eclipses aren't as exciting as their total counterparts – but even a partial "blood moon" is still interesting! I'll update my lunar eclipse guide for this eclipse roughly four weeks before the event, so bookmark it if you live in this part of the world and want all the details.
After a break from planet-viewing, Jupiter reaches its own opposition on the night of September 26th. It makes sense that Neptune and Jupiter will have opposition in close succession due to their relative proximity in the sky form our perspective.
In any case, Jupiter will be in the constellation Pisces, and since this gargantuan gas giant is visible to the unaided eye, you won't need a telescope to see it. However, should you choose to use one, even smaller telescopes will reveal the four Galilean moons of Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede. A bigger telescope will reveal even more of Jupiters many, many moons (last count was 79).
As with Saturn and Neptune, Jupiter will reach its highest in the sky around midnight local time, so that's the best opportunity to go out and see it if you stay up late.
Rounding out your top chances to see the planets further from the sun than we are, Uranus will reach opposition on the night of November 9th – and like its fellow giants, this makes it a great night to try and observe.
While Uranus is visible to the unaided eye in pristine dark sky locations, I recommend a telescope for this astronomy event. Uranus will be in the constellation Aries and a New Moon, making for easy spotting if you have the right equipment and a star-finder app (or should I say planet-finder?).
While there are other astronomical events as the months wind down in 2023, the three main ones I want to highlight in this post are meteor showers.
First up, the Leonids, which peaks in the middle of November. This year, that's expected to be overnight from November 18th to 19th, as the constellation Leo will be visible above the horizon throughout most of the night. Like the Orionids, the Leonids aren't super active – roughly 15 meteors per hour, on average – but can also produce fireballs.
Need extra help spotting the Leonids this year? I've got a guide to help!
Never heard of the Andromedids meteor shower before? Neither had I – before I started researching which events I should recommend this year.
The Andomedids meteor shower, so named for its radiant point near the constellation Andromeda, are one of the most minor meteor showers during a normal year… and they haven't even always been called the Andromedids! (They were historically referred to as the Decemberϕ-Cassiopeiids, but the radiant point has drifted from Cassiopeia to Andromeda in the last few years.)
In any case, after strong activity in late November 2021, astronomers predict that the Andromedids may have another good year in early December 2023. This is much like the predictions (and hype) around the Tau Herculids in 2022 – it may turn out to be a dud, but do we really need another excuse to go stargazing? (No!)
Bonus! Astronomers are also predicting that 2023 will be the first year Earth encounters debris from comet 46P/Wirtanen (part of the Rosetta mission). If there are any meteors caused by this comet, they are expected to be visible on December 12. I'll update this post or create a new one if more information becomes available.
After two years of moon interference in 2021 and 2022, this is the year with the best prospects of spotting Geminids in a deeply dark sky. A nearly-New Moon will mean the only thing you need to worry about to see the Geminids is dressing warmly (and the weather, of course).
If your skies are clear though, this is a must-see meteor shower. The Geminids typically peak around 120 meteors per hour, almost on par with the Perseids on any given year. Additionally, colder weather makes for clearer skies and less atmospheric interference – so while you'll need to bundle up to enjoy this meteor shower, the viewing prospects are actually better than during the late summer Perseids.
Don't forget to check out my guide to seeing the Geminids meteor shower for extra tips.
Last, but certainly not least, winter begins with the December Solstice and peak of the Ursids meteor shower. This is a substantially less active meteor shower than the Geminids, so let's just manage that expectation now: the average rate of meteors per hour is only about 10 for Ursids. Additionally, the moon will be quite bright on this night, so it's not as good for spotting meteors as other nights during the year.
Nevertheless, watching shooting stars is a nice way to end 2023, which is why I always recommend it if your skies are clear and you own enough layers to stay warm.
Have any questions about these astronomical events in the 2023 night sky, or are there others I should add to the list? Let me know in the comments!
Share this to help others enjoy the night sky!
Valerie Stimac
Valerie is the founder and editor of Space Tourism Guide. She grew up in Alaska, has lived across the U.S., and traveled around the world to enjoy the night sky from many different perspectives. Join her on this journey to explore space right here on earth.
11 Must-See Astronomy Events in the November Night Sky (2022)
11 Must-See Astronomy Events in the January Night Sky (2023)
How to See the 2022 Draconids Meteor Shower
Tom Cannon
Valerie,
Thanks for providing this year-long overview of the night sky. It gives us amateur astronomers a "look ahead" to special things to view intge Heavens. Much Appreciated!
Glad to help, Tom. Thanks so much for commenting, and I hope you have a year of clear skies!
About Me & STG
Hi! My name is Valerie, and I'm the founder of Space Tourism Guide! 👋🏻
I founded STG to help others learn about and experience the night sky. I hope you find resources here to help you do just that.
You can learn more about my mission here or read about me and the rest of the team here
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Featured products & technologies
First demonstration of multi-color 3-D in vivo imaging using an ultra-compact Compton camera
By Hamamatsu Corporation
In the field of nuclear medicine, a team led by researchers at Waseda University has developed an ultra-compact Compton camera that incorporates a Hamamatsu silicon photomultiplier array to perform fast 3-D in vivo imaging with multiple types of radioactive tracers. A 3-D color image of a live mouse was captured in just 2 hours.
Aya Kishimoto, et al., Waseda University Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering (Tokyo, Japan)
Scientific Reports (published online on May 18, 2017)
"In the field of nuclear medicine, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) are the two most common techniques in molecular imaging, but the available radioactive tracers have been limited either by energy range or difficulties in production and delivery. Thus, the use of a Compton camera, which features gamma-ray imaging of arbitrary energies from a few hundred keV to more than MeV, is eagerly awaited along with potential new tracers which have never been used in current modalities. In this paper, we developed an ultra-compact Compton camera that weighs only 580 g. The camera consists of fine-pixelized Ce-doped Gd3Al2Ga3O12 scintillators coupled with multi-pixel photon counter arrays. We first investigated the 3-D imaging capability of our camera system for a diffuse source of a planar geometry, and then conducted small animal imaging as pre-clinical evaluation. For the first time, we successfully carried out the 3-D color imaging of a live mouse in just 2 h. By using tri-color gamma-ray fusion images, we confirmed that 131I, 85Sr, and 65Zn can be new tracers that concentrate in each target organ."
View the paper on the journal website


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Part two: Aviva Premiership imports and exports
RW Staff
The 2016/17 Aviva Premiership season is fast approaching, so we take a close look at which teams are bolstering their roster, and with who...
TAGS: HighlightNewcastleNorthamptonSaleSaracensWaspsWorcester
By Alex Shaw
Following on from our look at the ins and outs at the first six Aviva Premiership clubs this off-season, we now turn our attentions to Newcastle Falcons, Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks, Saracens, Wasps and Worcester Warriors.
Reigning champions Saracens have been busy refreshing their squad in an attempt to retain their title, whilst both Newcastle and Worcester have been looking to make the savvy signings which they hope will once again keep them out of the relegation spot in the Premiership table.
The side from the North-East have had a busy offseason, albeit without signing too many household names. Winger Vereniki Goneva arrives from Leicester, bringing with him proven try-scoring ability, whilst Kyle Cooper (Sharks) will look to fill the shoes of influential hooker George McGuigan, who has taken the well-trod path south to Leicester. The North American trio of Nick Civetta (RC I Medicei), Evan Olmstead (London Scottish) and David Tameilau (San Francisco Rush) all arrive at Kingston Park, as do former U20 notables Andrew Davidson (Glasgow Hawks) and Harrison Orr (Ealing Trailfinders). The club's English-qualified quota has also been boosted by the signings of Sam Egerton (England 7s), Joel Hodgson (Yorkshire Carnegie), Sam Lockwood (Jersey) and Ben Sowrey (Worcester).
Flying Fijian: Vereniki Goneva will join Newcastle Falcons
There has been plenty of upheaval in Newcastle ahead of the new season, with the Italian duo of Joshua Furno and Giovanbattista Venditti (both Zebre) joining McGuigan in departing the club. Todd Clever and the two Tuilagi brothers, Anitelea and Alesana, have all been released, whilst Kane Thompson, Gonzalo Tiesi, Scott Macleod and Rob Hawkins have all retired. Eric Fry (Sacramento Express), Ruki Tipuna (Rangataua) and Richard Mayhew (Yorkshire Carnegie), all of whom provided valuable depth for the Falcons last season, have also left the club.
There's been relatively little business of note in Northampton ahead of the 2016/17 season, with the signing of Louis Picamoles from Toulouse the clear standout addition and one which is already being billed as potentially the signing of the season. The Frenchman will add to the wealth of options in Northampton's back row and help guarantee them the front-foot ball they missed at times last season following the departure of Samu Manoa.
Pyrenees powerhouse: Picamoles takes the place of Samu Manoa at the base of the Saints' scrum
Scrum-half Nic Groom arrives from the Stormers, filling the void left by Kahn Fotuali'i's move to Bath. The South African will compete with Lee Dickson for playing time and given the age of Fotuali'i, should be seen as a positive move for the future. Promising loosehead Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi has left for London Irish, whilst Jon Fisher heads to Bristol, with opportunities few and far between for the two players in Northampton's deep pack. Hooker Charlie Clare arrives from Bedford Blues and will help Saints during Dylan Hartley's duties with England.
Every year Sale have to deal with a high turnover of players and it's been no different in 2016. Standout players Danny Cipriani and Tommy Taylor have both left for Wasps, whilst experienced heads Chris Cusiter and Mark Easter have both retired from rugby. AJ MacGinty (Connacht) and Rob Webber (Bath) are the men tasked with filling in for Cipriani and Taylor, and Mike Phillips (Racing 92) will be the latest in a long line of stellar scrum-halves to ply their trade in the North-West. Kieran Longbottom (Saracens) and Halani Aulika (London Irish) have been brought in to bolster an impressive scrum from last season and help mitigate the loss of Vadim Cobilas to Bordeaux.
Star-spangled: AJ MacGinty will take up fly-half duties following the departure of Danny Cipriani
Rugby League convert Joshua Charnley (Wigan Warriors) will hope to replicate his impressive try-scoring record in the 15-a-side code, alongside the likes of Nev Edwards and Will Addison, and comes with big expectations, with the last man to make the Wigan-to-Sale move none other than Jason Robinson. Lou Reed (Cardiff Blues), Dan Mugford (Nottingham) and Laurence Pearce (Leicester) complete Sale's cadre of summer recruits.
The reigning Premiership and European champions have made some eye-catching additions this summer and if they can gel quickly, the men from North London look a strong candidate to retain their titles. Veteran Springbok Schalk Burger (Stormers) will replace the retiring Jacques Burger, with his leadership and versatility making him invaluable for periods when Saracens have to do without Billy Vunipola and Maro Itoje. Likewise, full-back Sean Maitland (London Irish) and fly-half Alex Lozowski (Wasps) should show their worth when Alex Goode and Owen Farrell are on international duty. Lozowski will also have to fill the sizeable shoes of retiring fly-half Charlie Hodgson.
Veteran: Schalk Burger replaces his namesake Jacques in the back row
Vincent Koch (Stormers) replaces the departing Kieran Longbottom after a stellar 2015 Super Rugby season, whilst incoming Fijian Savenaca Rawaca (Fiji 7s) has all the potential in the world, whether that's in the midfield or out on the wing. Lock Mark Flanagan (Bedford Blues) wraps up Saracens' summer signings, with highly-promising youngsters Aaron Morris (Harlequins) and Biyi Alo (Worcester) completing the notable departures.
The Coventry-based outfit have gone all out to show they are no longer shopping in the budget section of the supermarket, bringing in Kurtley Beale (Waratahs), Danny Cipriani (Sale) and Kyle Eastmond (Bath) to spearhead their new-look back line. Charles Piutau has completed his long-awaited move to Ulster, whilst George Smith has returned to Australia, meaning that two of Wasps' star performers last season will not be at their disposal in 2016/17. The freed up resources have been ploughed into the tight five, with Marty Moore (Leinster), Tommy Taylor (Sale) and Matt Symons (London Irish) all arriving at the Ricoh Arena.
X-Factor: Kurtley Beale joins an already star-studded back line at Wasps
Bradley Davies (Ospreys), Alex Lozowski (Saracens), Lorenzo Cittadini (Bayonne), Carlo Festuccia (Zebre) and Ruaridh Jackson (Harlequins) have all moved on, with Andrea Masi, Ben Jacobs, James Downey and Ed Shervington all retiring. The multitude of openings these moves have created have resulted in the arrivals of Tom Woolstencroft (Bath), Marcus Garratt (Cornish Pirates), Craig Hampson (Bristol), Guy Armitage (London Welsh), Tom Cruse (London Irish) and Nick de Luca (Biarritz).
Having successfully avoid relegation upon their return to the Premiership in 2015/16, Worcester have taken strides this year to further distance themselves from a return to the Championship. The signing of Ben Te'o from Leinster has been the marquee piece of business from the Warriors this year, but the additions of Jackson Willison (Grenoble) and Biyi Alo (Saracens) should also bolster their chances of having a successful 2016/17 season.
Big Ben: Ben Te'o will beef up Worcester's back line
Francois Hougaard's deal has been extended, whilst on-loan back rower Marco Mama (Bristol) made his move a permanent one. Will Spencer (Bath) and Matt Williams (Northampton) also arrive at the club, with the former helping make up for the departure of Darren O'Shea to Munster. Other losses this summer include Charlie Mulchrone (Harlequins), Andy Symons (Gloucester) and Ben Sowrey (Newcastle).


text:
A DSL for building UIs, with (currently/at least) a textual syntax.

## Installation

Import all projects, except for `*.tests` and `uiscript-examples` into an Eclipse workspace.
After (clean-)building, there will likely be errors in the file `TypeExtensionsImpl.xtend` in the project `com.dslconsultancy.uiscript.core` under `src/com.dslconsultancy.uiscript.extensions.impl`.
(This seems to be due to a form of "deep cyclicity" that manages to stump Xtext/Xtend's build organisation.)
"Touch" that file by doing either of the following:

* Open `TypeExtensionsImpl.xtend`, type a character, delete it, and save.
* Execute `touch` on that file from the command-line + F5 in Eclipse to Refresh.

As soon as the workspace is error-free, you can start the `com.dslconsultancy.uiscript.xtext.ui` project as Eclipse Application.
In the 2nd Eclipse, import the `uiscript-examples` project for some examples.

## Code base organization

Currently, UIScript is based on EMF (specifically: Xcore and Xtend) and Xtext.
However, in the future we might provide an alternative implementation (!) based on projectional editing, running in the JavaScript ecology.

This repository contains a number of Eclipse projects which are at least compatible with:

* Java8
* Eclipse Neon.2 Release (4.6.2)
* Xtext (and Xtend) 2.11
* Xcore 1.4.0
* EMF 2.12.0

Everything but the first can be [downloaded here](http://www.eclipse.org/Xtext/download.html) as one install.

The Eclipse projects are:

* `com.dslconsultancy.uiscript.core`: contains the type definitions for the AST in Xcore, helper classes (to be used as `extension`s in Xtend) and maybe some (code) generation.
* `com.dslconsultancy.uiscript.xtext*`: the usual set of Xtext-related Eclipse projects.
* `uiscript-examples`: contains some example "prose" in UIScript-format.

### Tricks/patterns

At a number of places, implementations are explicitly separated from their interfaces using Google Guice's `@ImplementedBy` annotation.
This is done for pure compilation/build speed when working on the DSL, since it prevents a cascading compilation/build "in Xtend-space" when only internals of an implementation are being changed.
The drawback is the cyclic compile dependency (since both files refer the other).

In these cases, the interface resides in a file `TypeExtensions.java` that contains e.g.

```
@ImplementedBy(TypeExtensionsImpl.class)
public interface TypeExtensions {

	boolean isFooBar();	// (example!)

}
```
while the implementation resides in a file `TypeExtensionsImpl.xtend` that contains at least:

```
@Singleton
class TypeExtensionsImpl implements TypeExtensions {

	override isFooBar() { true }

}
```

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Posted inTompkins County
Tompkins court plan may mean never having to sit in court for low-level traffic tickets again
by Michael Smith October 19, 2016 October 19, 2016
ITHACA, NY – On Tuesday, members of the Tompkins County Legislature were briefed on the progress of an initiative that may consolidate the operations of municipal courts across the county.
County Administrator Joe Mareane explained that the program sprang out of initiatives aimed at sharing services between municipalities, with the goal of both for efficiency purposes and "improving the quality of justice" coming from town and village courts. There is a similar plan being considered for consolidating law enforcement services.
The Tompkins County Council of Governments appointed a task force in 2015 to investigate the possibilities of such a program. Ithaca attorney Ray Schlather, the chair of that task force, presented the details to the legislature.
Schlather lumped the proposed changes into three camps: those that could be implemented right away by the county, those that could be implemented immediately with collaboration from towns and villages, and those that would be long-term goals that would take significant effort to change.
Consolidating cases
The Task Force's most significant recommendation fell into that first category. This proposal called for the consolidation of all misdemeanor and violation level Driving While Intoxicated cases (including Driving While Impaired by Drugs) into a single countywide part of State Supreme Court.
Schlather said that the change would help address a significant burden on the town and village courts, as well as some unevenness in the quality of justice. Statistics show there are about 350 DWI cases a year, county-wide. About one-third of those are in the city, with the rest being in the outlying towns and villages, Schlather said.
"What we learned is that there is both a burden on the towns and village courts, as well as some level of unevenness in the delivery of justice," Schlather said. He further suggested that a consolidated DWI court could be a model for other counties, but may also pave the way for a county-wide court for handling all misdemeanor charges.
The biggest issue in implementing this, Schlather explained, would be convincing the state to appoint an additional county justice to Tompkins, as no new justices were have been added in Tompkins as its population has increased over the years.
Other short-term changes that could be implemented include the establishment of a county-wide youth court, a consolidated after-hours arraignment system, and the establishment of a Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program.
Changes that would require collaboration with town and village courts included things like improving convenient electronic access to court resources and better synchronized scheduling to avoid dragging assigned counsel all across the county on a given night.
Reducing jail burden
Other solutions focused on reducing strain on the jail.
"There should be, not just the presumption, but should be an absolute rule that first-time offenders accused of misdemeanors or less should be released on the own recognizance," Schlather said. "Bail is just a way to ensuring someone returns to court. In this world of high technology, nobody can hide. There's no reason why we have bail and have people sitting in jail because they can't come up with $500. It's stupid, it costs a lot of money."
On a similar note, it called for doing away with "debtors' prison." In other words, people wouldn't be arrested and jailed because they couldn't afford to pay fines or surcharges. Instead, a judgment could simply be entered against the person. As Schlather pointed out, maybe they could pay it later if they are free, but they're certainly not going to pay it if they're imprisoned. It would also save time and energy that would be spent arresting and processing those people.
"Black Box Justice"
Schlather described one possible long-term, aspirational goal of such a program "Brave New World-ish."
"I see the day — and I shudder when I even say it, because it goes against the grain of everything I stood for when I started out in law 40 years ago — but I see the day where we have what I call 'black box justice," Schlather said. "I'm talking about low-level misdemenaors, traffic offenses, the kinds of things that really have no consequence outside of the individual and, frankly, the public purse."
Schlather explained a system that would handle minor cases electronically. Offenders who, for example, got a traffic ticket, could check their fine online, see what deductions they might be able to get through the DA's office, plead guilty and have their case evaluated electronically. They could pay their fine without setting foot in (or waiting endlessly in) a courtroom.
Regarding what's next, Legislature Chair Michael Lane said that the County would first need a request from TCCOG to move forward, on actions such as initiating the conversation with the Office of Court Administration. Legislative consideration would then proceed through the Legislature committee structure, most likely beginning with Public Safety.
The full Municipal Courts Task Force report can be read on the county's website.
Tagged: budget, tompkins county legislature
Michael Smith reports on politics and local news for the Ithaca Voice. He can be reached via email at msmith@ithacavoice.com, by cell at (607) 229-0885, or via Google Voice at (518) 650-3639. More by Michael Smith


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text:
MeetInnovators
Marc van der Chijs from Tudou
Marc van der Chijs is a successful foreign entrepreneur in China. He shares about casual gaming and his business model.
Meet one of the few successful foreign entrepreneurs in China
Find out about how he cofounded Tudou, China's version of Youtube
Learn about casual gaming, one of the major growing online markets and the business model behind it
Play one of their most popular games (scroll to the end of the interview)!
This interview was arranged by Georg Godula and Markus Fuhrmann from Web2Asia.com
Full Interview Audio and Transcript
Interview Audio:
(54 min)
[audio:http://meetinnovators.com/2009/09/01/marc-van-der-chijs-from-spil-games-asia-docs/marc_van_der_chijs_full.mp3]
High Speed Audio Interview:
[audio:http://meetinnovators.com/2009/09/01/marc-van-der-chijs-from-spil-games-asia-docs/marc_van_der_chijs_fast.mp3]
Full Interview Transcripts:
Hobbies and Interests: Endurance sports, good food and wine.
Sports teams: Doesn't have any favorite teams; just does sports himself.
Favourite Books:
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Favourite Entrepreneurs: Jason Calacanis, Steve Jobs.
Twitter url:: http://twitter.com/chijs
Personal Blog: http://www.marc.cn
Company website: http://www.spilgames.com
Fast Track Interview
Adrian Bye: Today I am sitting in the Shanghai office of Marc van der Chijs, who is the CEO of Spil Games Asia. He has also worked in a start up called Tudou, which is basically the YouTube for China. This is an interview I have really been looking forward to doing because Marc is living in China as an expat. Marc, thanks for joining us. Can you tell us a little about who you are and where you come from?
Marc van der Chijs: Sure. I'm Dutch originally. I'm 36 and married with two kids. I have been in China for about ten years now. I came here originally working for DaimlerChrysler in Northeast Asia and did that for a couple of years. During that time, I saw a lot of entrepreneurial opportunities in the market, but they were things I couldn't do while working for a multinational.
In 2002, I decided to quit my expat job with its good life, nice car, nice house, and business flights all over the world to go back to a smaller apartment with a bicycle and study Chinese for a while. My idea was to study for one year and then see if I could set up my own business. After one month, I started setting up my business along with working on my studies. In January 2003, I quit my studies after I finished the first semester of Chinese and started my first real business full time.
Adrian Bye: Let's talk about some of the companies you have been involved with here in China. Let's start with Tudou. Why don't you tell us a little bit about how Tudou works?
Marc van der Chijs: Tudou is basically comparable to what YouTube is doing in the US. The main difference is that we're only doing it in China with all of our servers inside China. The content is similar in that it's a lot of user-generated content, but it's also a lot of professional-produced content with TV shows and movies. We have our own HD channel too.
Tudou is much more than just the funny clips you see on YouTube; they're there as well, but it's just one part of it. Professionally-produced content is much more important. It's also the direction that we are going into ourselves. We are investing in our own productions and co-producing feature films at the moment.
Currently, Tudou has over 100 million uniques per month. That's only China, of course. People will play about 3 billion clips a month on the site.
Adrian Bye: Why don't you tell us about your current company Spil Games?
Marc van der Chijs: Spil Games is originally a Dutch company that started in 2001 with affiliate deals, chatting and all these kind of things. In 2004, they decided to look at online games as flash games, and they built some flash games websites, mainly in Europe at that time. In 2005, they started to look at more international markets, and asked me to help as a consultant to set up a website for them in China.
When I was building the first website here and trying to get the licenses and all these things in China, I realized that the game market was going to be huge. After about one or two months, I called them and said, "I think I want to do this full time. I think I see a huge opportunity here, but I want to do it independently. I'm not going to be a subsidiary to your companies. Let me handle this here." Basically, the original deal was that they invest money in the company, but let me run it.
Then it became a bit bigger than we originally thought. Originally, the idea was to build one website in China. Now, I have two big portals here. We're probably number two in the market for flash games at this moment with about 32 million uniques per month.
We also have a game studio here where about 50 people make flash games and produce one or two new games a week. We also run websites in India and Indonesia and just started in Japan.
Adrian Bye: Can you help me understand the casual gaming market and the business model behind it?
Marc van der Chijs: The games are normally single player games. Some have multi-player games, but most are relatively simple games. You play them for 10 to 20 minutes maybe. The users are different. It's not something you play for hours like World of Warcraft or lots of big MMO games.
The business model at this point is still mainly advertising around the game or advertising inside the game. For example, a pre-roll before you start playing the game or billboards inside the game. For instance, you click on a game and it opens a small window and around this window you see some banner ads.
I do see the business model changing to virtual items more and more. For example, people will not pay for these games because they're too cheap. People may want to pay for additional levels though. For example, if the game has five levels, but you can see in the game that there's three more levels that you can't enter, they may be willing to pay a small amount like a quarter or 50 cents for those extra levels. When they're hooked to a game, people may feel like, "Okay, it doesn't really matter if I pay a quarter right now."
If you build casual games into a social network such as either on your own social network or play them on Facebook, people may also be willing to pay more to get a better sword, a better car, a high score, or to beat their friends. Actually, I think that's going to be a new revenue stream for flash games. You see that already in the big, massive multiplayer online games, and I think it's going to be something in the more simple flash games.
The other thing for casual games is it's going to be on mobile phones, I believe. It's still not that big, of course, but I think Spil Games could do a lot more in a few years.
Adrian Bye: Is the company profitable?
Marc van der Chijs: We're making money. I feel now is the time to grow in the Chinese market. If you sit down, relax, and think that things are going well, people are going to pass you on the left and right. You have to keep on growing and investing in the company. We decided to spend almost everything that we've earned and put it back into the marketing through building new good games and being present on direct websites.
We don't really use things like Google ads or Baidu ads. We use our games to do the marketing. We build new games and give these away for free to other competitor-based websites. They get free content, but they're branded with our website game.com.cn. Then people see one or two new games every week on their website where they only play games. Eventually they will click on our logo in the games, go to our site, and realize that game.com.cn is a little bit better than the site they are currently playing on. That's the major reason why we have grown so much over the past two to three years.
Adrian Bye: How do knock offs work here and how do you guys defend against them?
Marc van der Chijs: People copy all the time, and that's fine. We always think we have better game designs and better game play. Copying is not enough, though. You need more. You need innovation. You need to understand the game play.
That's also why we give away our games actually. We feel that if we give away our games, we have branding. If people copy them, the game play wouldn't be as good as our game play, so it doesn't really hurt us that much. People probably realize that the brand of games we distribute is a lot better than the people who copy our games.
Adrian Bye: You talked a little about social networking. Is there any kind of social networking built into Spil Games or is that going to come out in the future?
Marc van der Chijs: We're working very hard on these things. At this point, in China, we actually have social networking functions as part of the passport function we have, but it's not enough.
We're now seeing that social networks are actually becoming competitors. The social networking sites in China are more gaming sites than real social networks. People don't really post their private life and pictures anymore, but they post their high scores and even screen shots from the games. It's also extremely viral.
This wouldn't work outside China probably, but it does work here. The market here is so different from the market outside China. For example, I always assume that pop ups would be death for the website. If I look at pop ups on our websites, we don't see any change in traffic. It doesn't deter people, and here you don't even have complaints.
Adrian Bye: Could this be because China is still in a state of change and not all these people are engaged in what they are going to be doing yet?
Marc van der Chijs: No, it really has to do with the fact that people like a chaotic look on their websites. For example when I started the first Spil Games websites, I started with a very clean, nice design from Holland that made it very easy to find the right games. The games were all in categories, and there was not too much advertising. We launched it and drove some traffic. People started playing the games, but they didn't come back. We were like, "What are we doing wrong?" We tried it for about a month. Some people were coming back, but most people just came once and didn't return.
I thought, "Maybe we are not doing the right games?" Then I was talking to my team, and we decided to give it a try with a very Chinese looking site. We built a Chinese website with blinking ads, a chaotic look, and pop ups. We launched it, and from that moment it started growing. We drove traffic, and people stayed and then returned. It completely blew me away; China is so different. In every single country in the world, even India, we use a similar design for our website, except for China. The design doesn't work. China is really different.
Adrian Bye: Why do you think people are attracted to a more chaotic look?
Marc van der Chijs: I think they're used to a more chaotic life. Look on the streets: all the neon advertising to the sounds blaring from all those stores, the honking cars, and people screaming. They're used to this. I think they're sort of looking for it in the internet as well. I feel they may not feel happy when it's too quiet somehow. That's the only thing I can think of. It's probably in the minds of people who are used to a chaotic life.
Adrian Bye: I'm fascinated by China. If I want to move to China and get started here, what would your advice be to someone like me who would be an expat?
Marc van der Chijs: Learn Chinese. That's the mistake I made originally. I should have learned more Chinese. It would have made my life a lot easier. I still need translators for meetings because you want to make sure you understand everything. Second of all, spend some time here before you get started. Build your network. If you're really right off the plane, you cannot start a business here because you just don't know how it works.
Things work differently from what you read in the official laws. You need to know the right people. Some of the things are still done the old way. You really need your network here. You cannot rely on regulations, and you need to really understand how it works.
Find a good local business partner. There are so many regulations you have to go through, and you need to know the right people. As a foreigner, if you're not going to do it, you're going to fail. Find a good Chinese business partner, and then the chances of success are a lot higher.
As far as working with foreign companies, if you look at what Google has been doing or Yahoo over the years here, none of them have really been successful. The main reason is they're too dependent on their mother company. If you do something for another company here, make sure you're independent where you can decide what to do, run your own business the way you think it should be done, and not have to wait for the mother company to make decisions.
For example, last year we had the earthquake in China followed by a three day national mourning period. We were informed on Sunday night at 3:00 a.m. that all the sites had to close down. If you have to wait for your headquarters in the Valley, for example, to wake up, it would be like 18 hours later to get their approval to do this and maybe they need to have a meeting there.
You're going to be too late, and you're going to be punished because they didn't close their sites. With those sorts of things, you need to be flexible and react quickly. If you have to wait for your headquarters to make a decision, you're going to be too late because the local entrepreneurs can make decisions right away.
Uphill Rush 2 (English):
More game links:
Uphill Rush (English)
Uphill Rush 2 (Chinese)
Uphill Rush (Chinese)
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