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❤️ Tomoharu Saitou 🦁

"is one of the most successful professional Magic: The Gathering players and the owner of Hareruya Store in Tokyo. Career Saitou debuted at Pro Tour Chicago 2000. An 83rd-place finish meant he fell just short of making money. Later the same season, he made his first standout finish by reaching the top eight of the Asia Pacific Championship. His quarter-final opponent was to have been Peter Chao of Taiwan. However, Chao was not able to attend the final day of competition, and asked Saitou for a prize split. The judges ruled this to be bribery and disqualified Saitou, Chao, and Satoshi Nakamura who had acted as their interpreter. After two seasons off tour, Saitou returned the Pro Tour in 2003–04, and to the elimination rounds at the premier level by finishing eighth at Grand Prix Nagoya. In 2005, he made his first Sunday appearance on the Pro Tour. Alongside Tomohiro Kaji, and Kenji Tsumura, he reached the top four of Pro Tour Atlanta. Saitou's team, One Spin, lost in the semifinals to the eventual champions Nova, with Saitou losing to Gabriel Nassif. In 2006, Saitou won Pro Tour Charleston as a member of Team Kajiharu80, along with Tomohiro Kaji and Shouta Yasooka. At the next Pro Tour, held in Kobe, Saitou made his first individual top eight appearance. He lost in the quarterfinals to Pro Tour first-timer and eventual champion Jan-Moritz Merkel. At the end of the 2006 season, Saitou was dubbed the PoY maker, because in the past two seasons his teammates, Tsumura and Yasooka, had won the Player of the year title. The following year, it would be his turn. In 2007, Saitou made his fourth Pro Tour top eight that year, in Yokohama, losing to Kazuya Mitamura in the semifinals. He also top eighted Grand Prix Singapore, and won Grand Prix Strasbourg. At the end of the season, he won the Player of the year title, making him the first player to do so without either winning a Pro Tour or reaching the top eight of multiple Pro Tours. The 2008 season saw Saitou finishing third at Pro Tour Berlin and making the Top 8 of three Grand Prix, but falling 20 points short of defending his title. In 2009 Saitou won back to back Extended Grand Prix in Singapore and Kobe. The following season, he made the top eight of three more Grand Prix, winning in Columbus. At Pro Tour Amsterdam it was announced that Saitou would be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Two weeks before his induction Saitou was disqualified for stalling at Grand Prix Florence. He subsequently received an 18-month suspension from the DCI. One day before the Hall of Fame induction ceremony Wizards of the Coast announced that Saitou would not be inducted due to his suspension. Accomplishments ;Notes *: Tomoharu Saitou reached the top eight of the 2001 APAC Championships as the number 1 seed after two days of competition. He was disqualified for bribery, along with Satoshi Nakamura and Peter Chao. Other accomplishments: * Pro Player of the Year 2007 Suspensions In 2001 after Grand Prix Kobe, Saitou was suspended for 18 months due to consecutive disqualifications. A prize split was interpreted as being bribery resulting in a disqualification at the Asian Pacific Championships. Following that Saitou was disqualified for inappropriately attempting to get his opponent disqualified. As a result of these disqualifications, the DCI suspended Saitou for 18 months.http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php%3FArticle%3D20059+&cd;=1&hl;=en&ct;=clnk≷=us In 2010, Saitou was voted into the Hall of Fame. However, two weeks prior to the induction Saitou was disqualified during Grand Prix Florence leading to an 18-month suspension from the game. Wizards announced without further explanation that Saitou would not be part of the Hall of Fame based on the 2010 ballot. References Living people Japanese Magic: The Gathering players 1983 births People from Tokyo "

❤️ 2008 San Diego F/A-18 crash 🦁

"The San Diego F/A-18 crash was the crash of a United States Marine Corps (USMC) F/A-18 Hornet in a residential area of San Diego, California on December 8, 2008. The pilot, First Lieutenant Dan Neubauer (28) from VMFAT-101, was the only crewmember on board the two-seat aircraft; he ejected successfully, landing in a tree. The jet crashed into the University City residential area, destroying two houses and damaging a third. A total of four residents in one house, two women and two children, were killed. A USMC investigation concluded that poor maintenance caused the engine malfunction. Errors by the pilot and USMC personnel on the ground led to the aircraft crashing into the San Diego residential neighborhood. As a result, in early 2009 the pilot was temporarily grounded and thirteen other officers and enlisted personnel were relieved and/or disciplined. The Marine Corps notified other F/A-18 squadrons of the engine and fuel problems discovered during the investigation. Crash A US Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet similar to the one involved in the accident On December 8, 2008 Lt Neubauer was piloting an F/A-18D-30-MC Hornet (Lot 12), BuNo 164017, from VMFAT-101, based at MCAS Miramar. Along with several other VMFAT-101 aircraft, he was conducting day and night carrier qualifications (catapult launches and tailhook arrested carrier landings) aboard the aircraft carrier offshore 60 miles southwest of San Diego. Neubauer was the only crewmember on board the two-seat aircraft. After taking off from the carrier at 11:11 a.m., Neubauer reported an oil caution light for the right engine, and shut it down after efforts to clear the problem failed. After declaring an emergency, he was first directed towards Naval Air Station North Island, but was redirected by superior officers to his home base of MCAS Miramar when about away from North Island. Neubauer attempted to make an arrested landing at Miramar but the jet lost power in its operating engine while on final approach. Eyewitnesses reported the jet flew slowly eastbound at a low altitude and was dumping fuel (which is not uncommon for an emergency landing). The pilot said that as he broke through the clouds at , his left engine's thrust slipped dangerously low, and he unsuccessfully tried to restart the right engine. The left engine lost more thrust, before its generator dropped offline and the jet lost electrical power. The jet flew over University City High School and crashed into the residential area just past the school about two miles from the Miramar's runway 6L. Neubauer waited "until the last possible moment" to eject from the plane, bailing out at an altitude of just , having attempted to steer away from homes on the ground before the crash. He ejected successfully, landing in a tree in Rose Canyon, just behind a home. The jet crashed into the University City residential area at Cather Ave and Huggins St (between the high school and exit 24 of Interstate 805), destroying two houses and damaging three others. A total of four residents in one house, two women and two young children, were killed.Kovach, Gretel C., "Five Lawsuits Pending In University City Crash", San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 December 2011. Neubauer was taken to a military hospital and treated for unspecified mild injuries, and reported being "horrified" by the crash at that time. Killed on the ground in one home were Youngmi Yoon, 36; her 15-month-old baby, Grace; her 2-month-old newborn daughter, Rachel; and her mother, Suk Im Kim, 60, who had recently arrived from South Korea to help care for her daughter's newborn. The other house destroyed belonged to John and Sunny Wu, who lived there with their two daughters. None of the family was home at the time of the crash but the home and everything in it were lost.Gao, Helen, "Two Families Who Lost Their Homes In Jet Crash Trying To Rebuild Lives", San Diego Union-Tribune, January 31, 2009. Aftermath In the aftermath of the crash, University City residents renewed previous calls for the US military to relocate aircraft from the base to a more remote location. In a counterpoint, homeowners in University City signed disclosure forms saying they were aware of overflying jets and that this "...extraordinarily rare event...got enormous publicity [and] the risk of living in University City and having a plane fall on you is millions to one." Miramar was also the location of the Navy Fighter Weapons School before it was moved to the more remote Naval Air Station Fallon. Marine commanders apologized for the crash and defended the decision to order Neubauer to land at Miramar instead of North Island, which isn't surrounded by residences, stating that double-engine failures are extremely rare. Said Colonel Christopher O'Connor, Miramar's commander, "We are not contemplating changing our emergency procedures at this time. We very seldom fly over the area. We take being good neighbors very seriously."Rogers, Rick, "Marines Defend Protocol For Flights", San Diego Union-Tribune, December 13, 2008. On December 15, 2008, Marine officials stationed in South Korea helped receive Suk Im Kim's remains at Incheon International Airport and transport them to her home in Damyang. The next day, United States Forces Korea commander General Walter L. Sharp sent a delegation to Kim's home headed by Republic of Korea Army Major General Yong-goo Jang and U.S. Marine Corps Major General Frank Panther to express condolences to Kim's son-in-law, Dong-yun Yoon.Jung, Sung-ki, "USFK Pays Respect to Korean Victims", Korea Times, December 17, 2008, p. 22. As of July 2010, in claims had been paid by the government.Kovach, Gretel C., "U.S., Boeing Sued Over Miramar Jet Crash", San Diego Union-Tribune, July 29, 2010. Youngmi Yoon's husband, Dong Yun, publicly forgave Neubauer during a news conference the day after the crash. Said Sunny Wu of the crash, "I don't want to blame anybody. I think everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Just as long as you can learn from your mistake, it's fine." In July 2010, represented by the Los Angeles law firm Panish Shea & Boyle LLP, Yoon sued Boeing and the United States government for $56M. In the suit, Yoon alleges that the government violated many of its procedures in its operation of the mishap aircraft and that Boeing was responsible for the defects in the aircraft's fuel systems which caused the crash. Yoon later stated that the compensation offer from the US government for the loss of his four family members and his home was "insulting". Yoon's lawsuit against the US Navy was heard in a federal district court in San Diego in December 2011.Watson, Julie, "Family sues over F/A-18 crash that killed 4", Associated Press/Military Times, 12 December 2011. On 28 December 2011, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller awarded Yoon, his father-in-law, and mother-in-law's three adult children a total of $17.8 million in damage compensation from the U.S. government, Watson, Julie, Associated Press, "Gov't to pay family $17.8M for military jet crash ", Stars and Stripes, being the highest wrongful death judgment against the United States and 20th highest verdict to date. 28 December 2011. the highest wrongful death judgment against the United States and 20th highest verdict to date. The US government appealed the award, and the appellate decision is pending.Moran, Greg, "Government Appeals $17.8 Million Jet-Crash Award", U-T San Diego, 7 March 2012, p. B2. The Wu family lived in a temporary home for two years until their home was rebuilt. Their homeowner's insurance did not cover all the cost of the reconstruction, temporary lodging expense, or replacement of all their lost possessions. More surprising, according to the Wu family, is that they have yet to receive any compensation from the US Navy. The family has filed a lawsuit against the US government for compensation for their damages. Said Sunny Zhuang-Wu, "I didn’t know the military would be so difficult." Four other lawsuits against the US Navy for crash damage are pending. Investigation On March 3, 2009, an investigation by the Marine Corps concluded that the accident was preventable. The report was generally scathing in its criticism of the conduct of the participants, including the pilot. The commanding officer of the squadron, its maintenance officer, its operations officer, and the operations duty officer were relieved of duty as a result of the investigation. Nine other marines received other disciplinary action. From the report, it appeared that the jet in question had a known track record of trouble in its left engine for several months. Maintenance was deferred after mechanics detected problems in the fuel flow system, a practice that was allowed at the time under established maintenance rules and procedures (since altered to forbid this practice); the aircraft had flown 146 times since the problem was identified. When the right engine was shut down for low oil pressure, the left engine did not receive enough fuel to produce sufficient thrust for flight, leading to the crash. Forty similar aircraft throughout the fleet have been grounded to investigate similar fuel issues. Following the pilot's report of the failure of the jet's right engine, controllers aboard Abraham Lincoln, as well as a civilian air traffic controller, directed the pilot to land at NAS North Island, the closest divert field. Squadron officials, however, ordered the pilot to land at MCAS Miramar after a brief discussion, which the investigation deemed "collectively bad decision-making by the duty officer, by the operations officer and by the squadron's commanding officer." The pilot also failed to consult his emergency procedures checklist during the emergency, as well as unnecessarily lengthening his approach to Miramar by making a 270-degree left turn after bypassing North Island, rather than a shorter 90-degree right turn. Specifically, the report criticized Neubauer for not questioning the order to divert to Miramar more forcefully, which he had briefly questioned. The squadron operations officials had underestimated the urgency of the situation, and placed undue emphasis on returning the pilot to his home field, having in mind the pilot's familiarity with that base, the longer runway, and better repair resources. Despite criticism, Neubauer was returned to a probationary flight status and allowed to resume training in late April 2009, in a decision made by Lieutenant General George J. Trautman, III, the Deputy Commandant for Aviation. See also * United States Marine Corps Aviation * List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (2000–present) References External links *Yoon et al v United States et al - Document 65, includes computations to determine compensation for wage loss and non- economic damage *relevant radio traffic between Shooter 25 (the F/A-18) and San Diego Approach on Dec 8, 2018 *AVweb's Glenn Pew photo sequence of crash * Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 2008 Aviation accidents and incidents in California 2008 in California 2000s in San Diego United States Marine Corps in the 21st century Accidents and incidents involving United States Navy and Marine Corps aircraft December 2008 events in the United States "

❤️ Biodiversity in agriculture 🦁

"Increasing biodiversity in agriculture may increase the sustainability of the farm. The biodiversity of farms is an aspect of agroecology. Background Agriculture creates a conflict over the use of land between wildlife and humans.Macdonald, Key Topics in Conservation Biology, Chapter 16 Land use for agriculture has been a driving force in creating biodiversity loss.1.^ Jackson et al., The Farm as Natural Habitat, Introduction The increase in the amount of pasture and crop land over the last few hundred years has led to the rapid loss of natural habitats. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that more than 40% of earth’s land surface is currently used for agriculture. Because so much land has been converted to agriculture, habitat loss is recognized as the driving force in biodiversity loss.4\. Jackson et al., The Farm as Natural Habitat, Ch. 10 A decline in farmland biodiversity can be traced to changes in farming practices and increased agricultural intensity.5.^ Benton et al., 182 Nonetheless, according to the FAO, "biodiversity is just as important on farms and in fields as it is in deep river valleys or mountain cloud forests". The world has acknowledged the value of biodiversity in treaties in recent years, such as in the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity. Species face habitat fragmentation which can create a genetic bottleneck.7.^ Macdonald et al., Key Topics in Conservation Biology, Ch 4 Monoculture, the practice of producing a single crop on a given piece of land, including crop rotation, produces optimum yields, but has implications for the biodiversity of farms.8\. Jackson et al., The Farm as Natural Habitat, Ch. 10 Heterogeneity, the diversity of the landscape, has been shown to be associated with species diversity. Butterfly abundance has been found to increase with heterogeneity, for example. Land that is not cropped, such as fallow land, grass margins in the spaces between different fields, and strips of scrub along field boundaries increases heterogeneity, and thus the biodiversity of a farm. The plants attract insects, will which attract certain species of birds, and those birds will attract their natural predators. The cover provided by the uncropped land allows the species to move across the landscape.6.^ Benton et al., 183-184 In Asian rice, one study showed crop diversification by growing flowering crops in strips beside rice fields could reduce pests so that insecticide spraying was reduced by 70%, yields increase by 5%, together resulting in an economic advantage of 7.5% (Gurr et al., 2016). See also *Agroecology Notes References * Altieri, Miguel A. 1999. The ecological role of biodiversity in agroecosystems: Agriculture, Ecosystemsand Environment 74: 19-31\. * Benton, Tim G., Vickery, Juliet A., Wilson, Jeremy D. 2003. Farmland biodiversity: is habitat heterogeneity the key? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18: 182-188 * Dabbert, Stephan, 2002, Organic Agriculture and the Environment. OECD Publications Service * Fiedler, Anna K., Landis, Douglas A., Wratten, Steve D. 2008. Maximizing ecosystem services from conservation biological control: The role of habitat management. Biological Control 45: 254-271 Jackson, Dana L, Jackson, Laura L. 2002. The Farm as Natural Habitat. Island Press, Washington. * Leopold, Aldo. 1939. The Farmer as a Conservationist. Pages 255-265 in Flader, Susan L., Callicott, J. Baird, editors. The River of the Mother of God. University of Wisconsin Press. * Macdonald, David W., Service, Katrina. 2007. Key Topics in Conservation Biology. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. * Schmidt, Martin H. Tscharntke, Teja. 2005. The role of perennial habitats for Central European farmland spiders. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 105: 235-242 * Shannon, D., Sen, A.M., Johnson, D.B. 2002. A comparative study of the microbiology of soils managed under organic and conventional regimes. Soil Use and Management 18: 274-283 * Zhang, Wei., Rickets, Taylor H., Kremen, Claire., Carney, Karen., Swinton, Scott M. 2007. Ecosystem services and dis-services to agriculture. Ecological Economics 64: 253-260 Agroecology Ecological restoration Agriculture and the environment Environmental impact of agriculture Habitat Sustainable agriculture "

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