text:
Canolo Alvarez lost to Dmitry Pivol and snatched his immaculate crown
Canelo Alvarez unanimously decided against Dmitry Pivol of Russia. (AP Photo / John Locher)
Canelo Alvarez He found the limit of a heavenly ascent that seemed eternal. Dmitry Bivol Understood all the resources of the Mexican Multi-Champion. The saddest night came for Canelow after 12 rounds dominated by Biol, which resulted in a unanimous decision with three generous scorecards of 115-113. Until the last moment, the ghost of the judges haunted the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, but in the end Canolo succeeded in confirming the bitter test he had to endure forever on his record.
Unlike other competitors that have shrunk with the environment, Biol showed coolness from the start. His boxing was elegant and athletic. Canelo went for the power shots that knocked out the 168-pound giants, regardless of size difference. But Pivol and his jaw told a different story today. The Mexican used his best performance, using the right surface as a compass, but could not disturb a robot rival, could not draw gestures on his face, and he had the answer to every puzzle.
The undisputed champion of the Super Middleweights could not find the soft zones of Pivolin, who kept his feet refreshed during the twelve rounds. Alvarez's frantic attempt was countered by a barrage of punches from Dmitry Pivol. The Russians had more perseverance than any other competitor who had troubled Sal Alvarez, such as Janet Kolovkin, Erisland Laura and Miguel Angel Cotto.
Every Bivol strike was a drama. Light Heavyweight Carnelow took on inherent dangers, and today he felt the punch of his rival, which made him a real possibility to reel him out and knock out. It had not happened to Alvarez for twelve years, at the same place and at the age of 20, he made his debut in Las Vegas and was on the edge of the abyss against Jose Miguel Cotto.
See also How to Deposit Cash at an Online Casino in Australia
The consensus decision did justice to Bivol's precision and weak boxing, he came off as a solid champion and now, with this amazing win, opposes the pound table to pound today. The two fighters opened the door for a rematch, which would certainly be a delicacy in terms of promotion and sales, having been absent from this first fight in previous months. Janet Kolovkin and the trio can wait once or say goodbye. It is clear that Alvarez's mentality will lead him to revenge with Pivol.
If the defeat to Floyd Mayweather in 2013 had turned Canelo Alvarez into a monster, today's defeat, against a sensible but powerful rival, would have abruptly halted his dominance and he would have to regain it with a blow. If Biol loses today, Canello Alvarez's opponents will not let him down. But he won and he did it because he was a top fighter, making nine successful defenses for the crown he won in 2016.
Alvarez will continue to be the undisputed champion at 168 pounds, but he failed to win a second light heavyweight belt. (AP Photo / John Locher)
That is the boxing and high performance game. The best have to fight the best. The more competition you have the more you will win. Probably no discipline punishes failure, in which the records speak for themselves, but now Canelo faces another lofty challenge: tackle this difficult fall and regain the number one spot. He already did that when he was beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013.
See also After Real Madrid's refusal, Cristiano Ronaldo was transferred to Manchester City
In the long run, it becomes clear that it will always have opponents. It is not possible to keep all the fans happy as far as Canello is concerned. But his legacy already belongs to the highest standards. Going to Light Heavyweight was insane, he stopped Sergei Koval in 11 rounds three years ago, but today his sky is the limit: Dmitry Pivol, will be remembered forever from today. Canello lost to a rival, but no one doubted it: his golden age was still a long way off.
You may also be interested | In the video
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His coach Juan Cortes reveals: "Chino Miranda will not recover" | 123
Ryan Sánchez comfortably controls the 800m in Justas


'S e prìomh-bhaile bun-reachdail Bhoilibhia a tha ann am Sucre. Tha àrd-chùirt a' Cheartais (Corte Suprema de Justicia) suidhichte an seo. Tha am baile suidhichte sa mheadhan na dùthcha. Canar gur e: "the Jewel of South America" a th' ann. Chaidh am baile a stèidheachadh anns a' bhliadhna 1538 le Pedro Anzures. Tha sean-bhaile Surce gu math cliùiteach airson nan togalaichean anns an stoidhle tradaiseanta. Ann an 1991 chaidh a dhìon leis an UNESCO mar Làrach Dhualchas na Cruinne.
Air a tharraing à "https://gd.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucre&oldid=499664"
Chaidh an duilleag seo a dheasachadh 17 dhen Ògmhios 2015 aig 19:35 turas mu dheireadh.


text:
From Morocco to Cuba, this Guy is Documenting the World's Endangered Cinemas
When I go to the cinema lately, I'll admit, it does feel nostalgic, almost as if I'm doing something like they did "in the old days"– and my local cinema isn't even a charming independent one. Should we blame it on Netflix? From our smartphones to internet-abled TV, today we have more entertainment options at our fingertips all the time, than ever before. Netflix has over 85 million members and operates in more than 190 countries worldwide. You'd like to think that cinemas will never disappear, but are you sure they really won't?
If it did happen, at least German-born photographer Stephan Zaubitzer will have documented most of what we lost. In an ongoing archive of photographs, Stephan has been taking pictures of cinemas in city centers around the world, endlessly fascinated by their dark interiors and outlandish architecture that always stands out from their urban surroundings. It all started in Morocco in 2003 when his flight was delayed in Burkina Faso and so he went out into the city to explore and began photographing the city's movie theatres. The rest is history– and a lot of its fascinating old cinemas.
I'd also like to add one to the list– The Abandoned Secret Cinema of the Sinai Desert.
If you'd like to sneak into more of California's most beautiful art deco cinemas, go here.
You might also be interested in this project dedicated entirely to documenting the architecture of Africa's old cinemas; photographing them, mapping them and finding out as much as they can about them.
Interesting side note– did you know that Mumbai in India has the second largest number of surviving Art Deco buildings in the world after Miami?
All of Stephan Zaubitzer's cinemas are here.
Casablanca & other American Film Classics being Preserved inside a Nuclear Bunker
The Abandoned Secret Cinema of the Sinai Desert
Let's Sneak into California's most Beautiful Art Deco Cinemas
Welcome to One of the Last Cinema Prop Houses in Paris
Chasing American Dreams at the 1st Miss Soviet Union Beauty Pageant
17 Messy Nessy Adventures to Bucket List for 2017
Here, here, a Tumblr dedicated entirely to Vintage French Photos you probably Haven't Seen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Stone Coyotes are an American band that debuted with their first album in 1998. They hail from Massachusetts but tour primarily in Texas as that is where they receive their most radio airplay.

Background
Barbara Keith founded the family-revolved band in Massachusetts with her family. Doug Tibbles is her husband, and John Tibbles is his son, her stepson.  Barbara Keith is mainly the guitarist, and also writes most of their songs. Doug started playing drums for the band shortly before the trio was formed, when Keith was signed with Warner Brothers. John learned to play the bass guitar at eleven and started playing in the band when he was eighteen.

Be Cool
Be Cool is a New York Times bestselling crime novel written by Elmore Leonard. The novel, published in 1999, is the sequel to Get Shorty (1990), and was made into a major motion picture in 2005. Barbara Keith was a major influence to this novel, especially its plot. The song "Odessa" was written for the book. Five of her songs are mentioned in the actual text.

Discography

Hit The Ground Running (2019) EP
Sally in the Doorway (2017)
Rock Another Day (2014) Red Cat Records
A Wild Bird Flying (2012) Red Cat Records
I Couldn't Find You (2011) Red Cat Records
My Turn (2010) Red Cat Records
A Rude Awakening (2009) Red Cat Records
VIII (2008) Red Cat Records
Dreams of Glory (2006) Red Cat Records
Fire it Up (2005) Red Cat Records
Rise from the Ashes (2003) Red Cat Records
Ride Away from the World (2003) Red Cat Records
Born to Howl (2001) Red Cat Records
Situation out of Control (2000) Red Cat Records
Church of the Falling Rain (1998) Red Cat Records

References

External links

Rock music groups from Massachusetts
American country rock groups

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
module PerformanceMonitoring
  class PrometheusDashboard
    include ActiveModel::Model

    attr_accessor :dashboard, :panel_groups, :path, :environment, :priority, :templating, :links

    validates :dashboard, presence: true
    validates :panel_groups, array_members: { member_class: PerformanceMonitoring::PrometheusPanelGroup }

    class << self
      def from_json(json_content)
        build_from_hash(json_content).tap(&:validate!)
      end

      def find_for(project:, user:, path:, options: {})
        template = { path: path, environment: options[:environment] }
        rsp = Gitlab::Metrics::Dashboard::Finder.find(project, user, options.merge(dashboard_path: path))

        case rsp[:http_status] || rsp[:status]
        when :success
          new(template.merge(rsp[:dashboard] || {})) # when there is empty dashboard file returned rsp is still a success
        when :unprocessable_entity
          new(template) # validation error
        else
          nil # any other error
        end
      end

      private

      def build_from_hash(attributes)
        return new unless attributes.is_a?(Hash)

        new(
          dashboard: attributes['dashboard'],
          panel_groups: initialize_children_collection(attributes['panel_groups'])
        )
      end

      def initialize_children_collection(children)
        return unless children.is_a?(Array)

        children.map { |group| PerformanceMonitoring::PrometheusPanelGroup.from_json(group) }
      end
    end

    def to_yaml
      self.as_json(only: yaml_valid_attributes).to_yaml
    end

    # This method is planned to be refactored as a part of https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/219398
    # implementation. For new existing logic was reused to faster deliver MVC
    def schema_validation_warnings
      self.class.from_json(reload_schema)
      nil
    rescue ActiveModel::ValidationError => exception
      exception.model.errors.map { |attr, error| "#{attr}: #{error}" }
    end

    private

    # dashboard finder methods are somehow limited, #find includes checking if
    # user is authorised to view selected dashboard, but modifies schema, which in some cases may
    # cause false positives returned from validation, and #find_raw does not authorise users
    def reload_schema
      project = environment&.project
      project.nil? ? self.as_json : Gitlab::Metrics::Dashboard::Finder.find_raw(project, dashboard_path: path)
    end

    def yaml_valid_attributes
      %w(panel_groups panels metrics group priority type title y_label weight id unit label query query_range dashboard)
    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Fisker the latest EV maker eyeing deal to go public, report says
JOSHUA FRANKLIN, BEN KLAYMAN and REBECCA SPALDING
Electric vehicle maker Fisker Inc. is in talks to go public through a sale to a so-called blank-check acquisition company, modeled after a successful deal earlier this year by peer Nikola Corp., people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Nikola shares are up more than 60 percent since it went public last month through such a deal, as investors place bets on which startup will be the next Tesla Inc. Earlier this month, autonomous vehicle technology company Velodyne Lidar agreed to be bought by blank-check company Graf Industrial Corp. for $1.6 billion, fueling a rally in the latter's shares.
Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp., which is backed by private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc., is leading a bidding war among special purpose investment firms for Fisker, and could clinch a deal for close to $2 billion as early as next week, the sources said.
The sources requested anonymity as the deal talks are confidential. Fisker and Spartan declined to comment.
Spartan's shares rallied on the news and surged 39 percent to close at $14.99 in New York on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Fisker said it has raised $50 million from hedge fund veteran Louis Bacon, with the money going toward engineering for the SUV it aims to roll out in 2022.
The deal, done through Bacon's private investment vehicle Moore Strategic Ventures LLC, values Fisker at more than $1.6 billion a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The Torrance, Calif.-based EV startup was founded by Henrik Fisker, who is best known for designing luxury cars at BMW and Aston Martin. He made a previous attempt at an EV.
However, Fisker Automotive, the company that manufactured it, filed for bankruptcy in 2013 and its remaining assets were bought by Chinese auto parts maker Wanxiang Group in 2014.
Now he's betting that the Fisker Ocean, unveiled at the CES in Las Vegas earlier this year, can be a viable rival to Tesla Inc.
Bloomberg contributed to this report.
Sponsored Content: Software helps address the affordability challenge
Sponsored Content: Video | Ally Executive Director on the importance of hiring veterans in the auto sector


text:
Britain to seize jihadists' passports: Cameron
Speaking in the Australian parliament, British Prime Minister David Cameron outlines plans in a new UK counter-terrorism bill to seize passports from British jihadists and stop them returning from fighting overseas. Duration: 01:09
Britain to seize jihadists' passports: Cameron
Britain to seize jihadists' passports and stop them returning home
/ Canberra (Australia) – 14 November 2014 10:09 – AFP
Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday outlined plans to seize passports from British jihadists and stop them returning from fighting overseas, while proposing landing bans on airlines that fail to comply with London's no-fly lists.
Some 500 radicalised Britons are estimated to be fighting in Iraq and Syria, both of which are facing a major offensive from the Islamic State (IS) militant group.
"We will shortly be introducing our own new Counter-Terrorism Bill in the UK," Cameron said in a speech to Australia's parliament before travelling to the G20 leaders' summit in Brisbane, adding that there was "no opt-out from dealing with this".
"New powers for police at ports to seize passports, to stop suspects travelling and to stop British nationals returning to the UK unless they do so on our terms.
"New rules to prevent airlines that don't comply with our no-fly lists or security screening measures from landing in the UK."
British media reports said the legislation, to be introduced in parliament this month, would block individuals from returning from Syria and Iraq to Britain for at least two years unless they comply with strict measures.
These could include being escorted back to Britain and then facing prosecution, bail-style reporting conditions and deradicalisation courses.
Border guards and airport police would also be given new powers to seize passports from those they suspect of planning to travel abroad for terrorism, the reports said.
Australia is facing a similar scenario to Britain with at least 73 of its nationals having their passports cancelled to prevent them travelling to Iraq and Syria, as concerns mount that they could return home and commit violence.
At least 71 Australians are currently fighting in the two nations, the government says. At least 15 have been killed — two of them as suicide bombers — and Canberra recently passed a law criminalising travel to terror hotspots without good reason.
Britain raised its terror threat risk level to "severe" in September — meaning an attack is thought "highly likely" — due to fears over the situation in Iraq and Syria.
– Tackling social media –
But Cameron said that as well as handling the extremist threat, the root cause must be dealt with.
"And let's be frank. It's not poverty, though of course our nations are united in tackling deprivation wherever it exists," he said.
"It's not exclusion from the mainstream. Of course we have more to do, but we are both successful multicultural democracies where opportunities abound.
"And it's not foreign policy. No, the root cause of the challenge we face is the extremist narrative. So we must confront this extremism in all its forms.
"We must ban extremist preachers from our countries. We must root out extremism from our schools, universities and prisons.
"As we do so we must work with the overwhelming majority of Muslims who abhor the twisted narrative that has seduced some of our people."
Cameron acknowledged the growing problem of young Muslims being enticed by extremist material on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
"There is a role for government in that. We must not allow the Internet to be an ungoverned space," he said.
"But there is a role for companies too. In the UK we are pushing companies to do more, including strengthening filters, improving reporting mechanisms and being more proactive in taking down this harmful material.
"We are making progress but there is further to go."
Last month, the European Union, Facebook and Twitter agreed to work together to combat online extremism and discussed steps to block gruesome beheading videos.
But US Internet firms have sometimes been uneasy about blocking extremist material, seeing themselves as platforms rather than publications, and worrying about the implications for free speech, which is strongly protected under US law.
mp/jit/sls
Tags : Cameron, Passports, Jihadists, seize, britain
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text:
Q: C double not working as expect I am writing some where I need to divide 29 by 10. But when I do so and store it in a double, it outputs 2.0000 instead of 2.9. Can someone explain why this is happening and how to fix it?
double a = 29/10;

output: 2.0000

A: The double works as expected, it's just that you are not assigning it an expression of type double.
What you assign it is an int, a result of dividing 29, an int, by 10, an int. This is 2, because the remainder is discarded when you divide integers.
Changing 29 to 29.0 or 10 to 10.0 will fix this problem.

A: 29 / 10 performs integer division. Result is 2 (with a remainder of 9).
Try (double)29 / 10 or 29.0 / 10.

A: This is a classical C mistake: you are doing an integer division and requesting a floating point result.
You should do a floating point division with
double a = 29.0/10.0;

You should read What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic if you want to discover all details about floating point operations.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Best of our wild blogs: 14 Jun 11
Remembering Navjot Sodhi
a facebook page memorial
Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [6 - 12 Jun 2011]
from Green Business Times
Strange anemones at Kranji
Olive-backed Sunbird's blue nest: Continuing saga
六月华语导游 mandarin guide walk@SBWR,June
from PurpleMangrove
Gilled
from The annotated budak and
Renowned conservation scholar, 49, dies
Navjot Sodhi's research helped cut Singapore house crow population by 90%
Grace Chua Straits Times 14 Jun 11;
CONSERVATION scholar Navjot Sodhi, whose research helped pest control agencies cut Singapore's house crow population to a 10th of its former size, died of lymphoma on Sunday. He was 49.
The internationally renowned scholar, who taught in the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Bio-logical Sciences, led perhaps the world's first study on a local house crow population in 2000.
His work helped environment agencies cut down and stabilise the population of these raucous scavengers by clearing hawker centre tables of scraps and reducing their tree roosts, whittling down the number of crows from about 100,000 in 2002 to 10,000 today.
Besides advising on the environment here, Professor Sodhi was one of the department's most prolific authors, and was instrumental in helping Singapore punch well above its weight in conservation biology, ecology and biodiversity research.
He served as an editor on top journals such as Biological Conservation and Conservation Biology, and co-authored several books.
Said colleague and department head Paul Matsudaira: 'He was one of the intellectual leaders in the department, and raised awareness about ecology and climate change in Singapore.' He added that Prof Sodhi was a mentor to students, post-doctoral researchers and junior faculty staff.
Prof Sodhi, a Canadian citizen, was born near Chandigarh in India's Punjab region and grew up catching insects to study, said his daughter Ada, 21.
His doctoral research at Canada's University of Saskatchewan was on falcons, and when he started at NUS as an assistant professor in 1995, he focused on tropical rainforest birds.
But Prof Sodhi's research soon spanned every order of creature and every aspect of conservation biology.
His daily uniform included a baseball cap - frequently worn backwards - and bermuda shorts. On field trips, an ever-present, elderly pair of Swarovski binoculars dangled from his neck.
Former student Koh Lian Pin, now an assistant professor at ETH Zurich, said of Prof Sodhi: 'He once told me he didn't care if I danced naked as long as I got the job done.'
A Sikh and a staunch vegetarian, he baulked at eating unfamiliar dishes out in the field, preferring spaghetti from a can, but at home loved to cook and eat.
Assistant Professor David Bickford, who worked with Prof Sodhi as a post-doctoral researcher, then as a full-time teaching staff member, called his death 'a devastating loss'.
'He had these incredible insights about what the next frontier was, what questions to ask next,' he added.
Prof Sodhi was never afraid to speak his mind, Dr Bickford noted.
A 2010 paper he co-authored raised the ire of the Singapore Government by suggesting Singapore was the worst environmental offender among 178 countries, having lost most of its forests and more than half its birds to urbanisation.
The authors conceded that Singapore was something of an outlier as it is a city-state and ought to be compared with other cities such as Hong Kong.
Yesterday, condolences also poured in from as far afield as Canada, the United States and Australia, reading like a Who's Who of ecology.
On his website Conservation Bytes, University of Adelaide professor Corey Bradshaw called Prof Sodhi a 'top bloke', and said: 'He has probably been directly responsible for the protection of thousands of species that would otherwise no longer be with us.'
Stanford University ecologist Paul Ehrlich said: 'He was one of the great stars of conservation science, but also a wonderful (and funny) colleague and friend.'
Prof Sodhi is survived by his wife Charanjit, 52, and children Ada, an undergraduate, and Darwin, 18, who will enter university this year.
Yesterday, his friends, colleagues and former students put a memorial page of photos and anecdotes up on Facebook.
A funeral service will be held at Mandai Crematorium, today at 3.45pm.
labels singapore, singapore-biodiversity, singapore-general
Malaysia: Three surprised fishermen net three angel sharks
New Straits Times 13 Jun 11;
Villagers holding the 7m-long angel shark in Kampung Chempaka near Kuantan yesterday. — NST picture by Shahrul Nizam Mohamad
KUANTAN: Three fishermen were nearly thrown overboard when three angel sharks got caught in their fishing nets.
Zulkifli Mohd Nor, 46, said: "Even though the nets were heavier than usual and we were nearly thrown overboard, we continued pulling up the nets.
"The weather also wasn't good but we really wanted to get our catch that morning."
He said the largest of the three sharks was almost 200kg while the two smaller ones, believed to be offspring, weighed 60kg each.
Zulkifli said this was fourth time he had caught angel sharks.
He expected the three sharks to fetch RM3,000.
He added that he and his friends would sell the sharks to wholesalers at the Fisheries Development Authority complex.
labels global, global-marine, marine, sharks-fins
Tree-frog biodiversity warning for Amazon
Tree-frog hot spots in the Amazon have been established over tens of millions of years, say scientists.
BBC News 13 Jun 11;
To explain why some areas have greater species richness, experts analysed the distribution of 360 tree-frog species.
They found that the most diverse sites were established over 60 million years ago and more recently colonised areas had fewer unique species.
Researchers suggest this is evidence that damaged rainforest could take millions of years to recover.
Scientists from Stony Brook University, New York, US, aimed to shed light on an ongoing debate with their study published in the journal Ecology Letters.
"The question of why there are more species in the tropics has been a puzzle to biologists for more than 200 years, and a particularly challenging part of the problem is to explain why some sites in the rainforest can have more species than an entire continent," explained principal investigator Dr John Wiens.
In the past, species richness had been attributed to climate and some scientists believed that the biodiversity of tropical rainforest was due to their hot wet conditions.
However, by studying the distribution of 360 different tree-frog species from around the world, Dr Wiens found that not all tropical rainforest habitats were home to many different species.
"We found that many tropical rainforest sites have the same, limited number of tree-frog species as some sites in the temperate zone," he said.
"These tropical rainforest sites with low species diversity are in regions that have been colonized by tree-frogs relatively recently, like northwestern South America, Central America, and Australia."
By analysing the DNA relationships between species, Dr Wiens and his colleagues were able to map tree-frog evolution to understand where and when they originated.
The team discovered that areas of high species richness were established before the dinosaurs became extinct.
"The Amazon rainforest have large numbers of tree-frog species per site because tree-frogs have been present and producing new species [there] for more than sixty million years," said Dr Wiens.
The suggestion that high species diversity is established over millions of years could have serious implications for vulnerable habitats.
"As more of the Amazon rainforest is being destroyed and more species are driven to extinction by human activities, the loss of species richness during our lifetimes may actually take tens of millions of to recover from," Dr Wiens warned.
labels amphibians, forests, global, global-biodiversity
Bangladesh plans special force to protect tigers
Ethirajan Anbarasan BBC News 13 Jun 11;
Bangladesh is setting up a special force to save the critically endangered Royal Bengal Tiger and other animals.
The 300-member force will be deployed mostly around the Sundarbans mangrove forests, one of the last refuges of the tigers.
The decision came months after they seized three tiger skins and a large quantity of bones, the biggest haul of illegal tiger parts in decades.
The Sundarbans forests stretch between Bangladesh and India.
Around 400 tigers still live in the area.
Until now poaching has not been considered as the chief threat to the tiger population in Bangladesh.
But the arrest of a poacher with tiger skins and bones earlier this year raised fears that an organised poaching group was operating in the mangrove forests.
Officials admitted they did not have enough manpower, resources and training to counter the poachers, who they said were using increasingly sophisticated techniques to trap the tigers.
Minister of Environment and Forests Hasan Mahmud said that the setting up of the new wildlife force was long overdue.
"The forest department staff in Bangladesh need more training, because now the poachers are very sophisticated," he said.
"Their sophistication has been increased but the sophistication of the forest department has not been increased over the last couple of years. So, we have to train them and we have to equip them."
Most of the money to set up the new Wildlife Crime Control unit will come from the World Bank loan of $36m (£21.8m).
The new force will also tackle a growing trade in the illegal trafficking of wild animals.
Recently, officials seized a number of protected wild animals from people who were keeping them illegally.
Earlier this month, customs officers at Bangkok airport in Thailand found hundreds of freshwater turtles and crocodiles packed in suitcases on a flight from Bangladesh.
labels big-cats, global, wildlife-trade
Malaysia: 2,000ha of swamp forest encroached by illegal farmers
Stuart Michael The Star 14 Jun 11;
MORE than 200 farmers have encroached 2,000ha into the Kuala Langat South Peat Swamp Forest and only a major operation can force out the culprits.
Selangor Forestry Department assistant director (operations and enforcement) Mohd Yussainy Md Yusop said 30% of the 6,908ha of the forest reserve had been encroached.
"Each farmer plant crops at least on 10ha in the forest reserve and employ workers to take care and harvest the crops.
On June 6, the department arrested five Indonesian workers for encroaching into the reserve and planting cash crops.
There are now remanded at the Telok Panglima Garang police station.
Yussainy said the department took statements from three employers and they would be charged with trespassing.
Under the Forestry Act 1984, Yussainy said those found encroaching into forest reserves could be fined up to RM10,000 or jailed up to three years or both if found guilty.
"The profits raked in by the farmers amount to thousands of ringgit and they are willing to take the risk of being jailed or fined.
"The money that they rake from the crops like banana, soursop, papaya, sweet corn, tapioca, sweet potato, turmeric, lengkuas (galangal), ginger, serai (lemongrass) and chilli is just too good. Some of these farmers are millionaires,'' he claimed.
He said on Oct 25 last year, the department had given notice to the farmers to move out.
"Then, the department had planted 100,000 trees of different species to let the forest regrow but it is having a tough time doing so.
"These illegal farmers sprayed poison on the young trees and planted their crops instead. This shows how bold they are and have no respect for the law.
"Some may think that having cash crops at forest reserves is not as bad as chopping down the trees. But they fail to realise that pesticides can be harmful to the surrounding forest,'' he said.
labels forests, global
Indonesia's deforestation rate drops to 600,000 hectares per year: Minister
Antara 13 Jun 11;
Pasaman, West Sumatra (ANTARA News) - Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said the pace of deforestation in Indonesia has already dropped and now reaches 600,000 hectares per year.
"The figure is lower than in 1999-2002 when it was recorded at four million hectares a year," he said after opening a coordination meeting between the West Java provincial governor and mayors and district heads of the region.
He said the fastest pace of deforestation was recorded in East, West and South Kalimantan, Lampung and South Sulawesi.
To offset the deforestation the minister said the government plans to plant 1.5 billion trees across the country this year.
"This is part of the efforts to reduce natural disasters and anticipate climate change," he said.
"Deforestation has reduced forests in terms of quality as well as quantity," he said.
Due to that forest potentials to contribute to the state`s income have also dropped, he added.
He said the government has produced a decision to stop issuing permits for forest exploitation.
He said there would also be no tolerance for illegal logging in the country in view of its impact on the environment and community.
The minister said the critical forests in the country at present are recorded at 40 million hectares while the country`s total forests reach 187 million hectares.(*)
Editor: Heru
Vietnam: environmental disaster from on-sand shrimp ponds
VietNamNet 13 Jun 11;
The broad coastal area in My An commune, Phu My district of Binh Dinh province has been devastated with dense on-sand shrimp ponds.
The coastal area has been excavated by local residents who have been trying to create large ponds for shrimp hatcheries. As a result, the coastal protection forests have disappeared, the underground water has become exhausted. The waste from pond shrimp has been left everywhere on the beaches, giving out a terrible smell. Tens of thousands of local residents here are facing an environmental disaster.
The seaside has been "cut into small bits"
According to Pham Van Tra, Head of Sub-department for Agriculture and Rural Development of Phu My district, the coastal area in the communes of My An and My Thang covers an area of 500 hectares, including the 200 hectares the Binh Dinh provincial authorities have reserved for hatching shrimp on sand
Some years ago, the provincial authorities leased the land to some companies which use the premises to hatch shrimp on sand. AE leases more than 50 hectares. The US-based Asia Hawaii Ventures also leases nearly 50 hectares.
However, the companies have been using small parts of the leased area for their shrimp hatchery projects. AE, for example, is using 10 hectares, while Asia Hawaii 18 hectares. As for the remaining land area, the companies have spontaneously re-leased to local residents who create lakes to hatch shrimp on sand.
Currently, in My An and My Thang Communes alone, 70 households have illegally built up lakes for shrimp hatcheries, which cover an area of 30 hectares in total.
According to the Binh Dinh Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, the province now has 140 hectares of water surface area, mostly located in Phu My district with 118 hectares, Phu Cat with 15 hectares, and in the Hoai Nhon district.
Shrimp ponds exhaust fresh water
The shrimp hatchery areas in My An and My Thang communes have been well known as an area with limited fresh water sources in comparison with other localities. For the last many years, local residents have always been facing a fresh water shortage.
Since shrimp ponds have appeared, a lot of water wells have also appeared. According to local authorities, every hectare of shrimp ponds needs 50,000 cubic meters of fresh water.
Meanwhile, the survey conducted by the Binh Dinh Sub-department for Environment Protection showed that the underground water layer in the shrimp hatchery areas in the province has become salty. The wells with the depth of 4-5 meters now cannot be used, and local residents have to seek water at the depth of over 20 meters.
The sub-department has also warned that the massive exploitation of underground water to serve on-sand shrimp hatchery areas will cause the layer landslide and exhaust the fresh water sources, badly affecting the production and lives of local residents.
Bui Thai Son, Deputy Head of the Phu My district's Division for Natural Resources and the Environment, said that no on-sand shrimp hatchery pond in Phu My has a good waste treatment system. The shrimp ponds all discharge waste to low-lying land, or directly to the sea. In My An, shrimp ponds' owners discharge waste to the empty sand-banks next to the ponds.
"We know that the waste from shrimp ponds will harm the environment, but it will be very costly to build waste treatment systems. Therefore, no one has such a system here," said Vo Van Han, a farmer in Xuan Thanh hamlet said.
In fact, according to Son, in the past, there were two reservoirs for treating waste in the shrimp hatchery area of My A. However, after a period of operation, both of the reservoirs got broken. As a result, the waste from hundreds of ponds flows to canals and then go directly to the sea.
Source: SGTT
labels aquaculture, global, marine, pollution, water
UK supermarkets bid to get shoppers to switch to sustainable fish
Sainsbury's to offer free samples of lesser known species and M&S is to promote use in ready meals and frozen foods
Rebecca Smithers The Guardian 13 Jun 11;
UK supermarkets are stepping up their efforts to encourage shoppers to buy fish from sustainable sources in a fresh attempt to alleviate pressure on threatened stocks.
Currently 80% of fish bought by British consumers is one of the 'Big Five' staples – cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns. But experts predict that some popular species could be extinct in the wild by 2050.
On Friday Sainsbury's – the UK's largest retailer of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fish and seafood products – will offer customers asking for one of the 'Big Five' an alternative, lesser known species to try out free.
Suppliers will largely bear the cost of the drive to encourage shoppers to broaden their fish repertoire and try out little-known but sustainable species – coley, pouting and megrim, rainbow trout and mackerel. Shoppers will be targeted at the chain's 387 UK stores with fresh fish counters through the new 'Switch the Fish' campaign which will also feature regional roadshows and recipes.
Sales of "alternative" species of fish and seafood soared after being championed in Channel 4's Fish Fight campaign – led by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – which launched in January. Initial supermarket sales figures suggested consumers were favouring coley, dab, mussels, squid and sardines over the salmon, cod and tuna in the TV programmes, which highlighted the wasteful use of "discard" in fishing practices while encouraging shoppers to take the pressure off popular fish stocks by being more adventurous in what they eat.
Yet new research carried out by YouGov for Sainsbury's and publishedon Monday shows that shoppers remain set in their ways. Nearly half (41%) of Britons eat cod at least once a month while a fifth of people eat tuna at least once a week. At the same time, 84% of Britons have never even tried megrim while 82% have never eaten pouting. Some 43% of fish eaters are put off trying a different type of fish if they were unsure about its taste, while 31% of people admit they would not try a new fish if they did not know how to cook it.
Supermarkets came under strong criticism last month from the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), which said they should be doing more to help the environment and boost dwindling fish stocks by helping shoppers to make the right choices.
Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer is to use the profits from its 5p food carrier bag charge to finance its 'Forever Fish' campaign starting later this month, which will promote the use of sustainable fish not only in fresh products but also in ready meals, takeaway and frozen foods. Money will also go to the environmental charity WWF to help clean up beaches and support threatened species such as turtles and dolphins.
Marc Bolland, M&S chief executive, said: "We will work together with our customers, our people and their children to promote a healthy future for our beaches, seas and fish. Forever Fish involves schools, charities, fishermen and fisheries so we can all enjoy cleaner beaches, more sustainable fishing and healthy fish."
Sainsbury's move is backed by the government and chef Jamie Oliver. Richard Benyon, the fisheries minister, said: "This is exactly the sort of thing we've been working hard for in government – sustainable fish stocks and the conservation of our precious marine environment for future generations.
"If more people start to choose a wider variety of fish, this will help in our battle to end the terrible waste of millions of edible fish being thrown back into the sea dead because of an outdated system."
Oliver, who took part in the Fish Fight campaign, added: "Earlier this year I joined the debate to encourage people to try new, less loved fish, which had a great response."
labels consumerism, global, marine, overfishing
Global research chief sees rice boom in Africa
David Williams Yahoo News 13 Jun 11;
MADRID (AFP) – Subsaharan Africa could double or triple rice yields and one day even export to Asia where urban sprawl and rising sea levels threaten paddies, a global research chief said Monday.
Large parts of Subsaharan Africa, in the Sudan, for example, have vast tracts of land suitable for paddy rice production, said International Rice Research Institute director general Robert Zeigler.
But these lands have yet to be harnessed.
As a result, Africa now imports about 40 percent of its rice needs from Asia.
In 2009, paddy production rose 3.44 percent to 24.43 million tonnes in African countries, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation data showed.
But demand grew 4.2 percent in the same year, said the Africa Rice Centre's annual report, forcing the continent to import 10 million tonnes of rice at a cost of $4 billion ($2.8 billion euros).
"We are looking to double or triple the yields in Africa - they are very low now," Zeigler said in an interview in Madrid, where he was picking up a BBVA Foundation award to the institute for development cooperation.
"Within 10 years we will begin to see increases in national production statistics, I don't have any doubt about that," he said.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) plans a "green revolution" in Africa built on improved grains, better infrastructure, basic mechanised farm tools and the development of agricultural research.
In the longer term, demand for rice will carry on growing in Asia but land for paddies is already saturated and it may decline as Asian megacities encroach on farms and Delta areas are swamped by a rising sea and increasingly severe storms because of climate change, Zeigler said.
"If you look at Subsaharan Africa there are areas, very, very large areas that have a lot of land, very good land, that have a lot of water and there are hardly any people who live there," he said.
"These are areas that could be future sources for global food supply," Zeigler said, citing areas in the Sudan, Mali, Senegal, Ghana, and along the Niger Delta.
China was already investing in some of these areas in Africa, he said. Such investments should be properly managed, the research chief said, but not refused.
"It could be that 25 years from now, India and China will be sourcing a significant amount of their staples from Subsaharan Africa," Zeigler said.
"If that is managed properly that could be a tremendous boon to the farmers in Africa, take pressure off land in Asia and if it is done properly everybody wins."
The Manila-based IRRI, which has programmes in Mozambique, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda, has teamed up with Africa Rice, which is a formal linkage of over 20 Subsaharan countries to push rice output in the continent.
Rice grains in Africa have deteriorated over time, and new varieties are needed with shorter growing seasons and resistance to drought and disease, including the endemic African virus, Rice Yellow Mottle Virus.
But African countries also need to build better roads between farms and markets, and develop water irrigation, which is particularly crucial to rice farming, Zeigler said.
Also, in Africa much of the farming is done by a woman using hoes, often while carrying babies.
In rice farming, where level fields are crucial to proper water distribution, fertilization and impeding weeds, farms will have to start using simple two-wheeled ploughs with small diesel or gasoline engines.
Finally, Africa would have to develop a network of agricultural researchers.
labels food, global
Putting nature back into agriculture: FAO
Save and Grow farming model launched by FAO
FAO 13 Jun 11;
13 June 2011, Rome - FAO today announced the launch of a major new initiative intended to produce more food for a growing world population in an environmentally sustainable way.
FAO's call for sustainable crop production intensification, more than half a century after the Green Revolution of the 1960s, is contained in a new book, Save and Grow published by FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division.
Smallholder farmers
The new approach calls for targeting mainly smallholder farmers in developing countries. Helping low-income farm families in developing countries – some 2.5 billion people – economize on cost of production and build healthy agro-ecosystems will enable them to maximize yields and invest the savings in their health and education.
Green Revolution technology saved an estimated one billion people from famine and produced more than enough food for a world population that doubled from three to six billion between 1960 and 2000.
New millennium
However, the present paradigm of intensive crop production cannot meet the challenges of the new millennium. In order to grow, agriculture must learn to save.
The Save and Grow approach draws partly on conservation agriculture (CA) techniques which do away with or minimize ploughing and tilling, thus preserving soil structure and health. Plant residues provide cover over fields and cereals cultivation is rotated with soil-enriching legumes.
Other techniques developed by FAO and its partners over the past several years as part of the Save and Grow toolkit include precision irrigation, which delivers more crop for the drop, and "precision placement" of fertilizers, which can double the amount of nutrients absorbed by plants.
Integrated pest management, whose techniques discourage the development of pest populations and minimizes the need for pesticides, is yet another key element.
Such methods help adapt crops to climate change and not only help grow more food but also contribute to reducing crops' water needs by 30 percent and energy costs by up to 60 percent. In some cases crop yields can be increased six-fold, as shown by trials with maize held recently in southern Africa. Average yields from farms practicing the techniques in 57 low-income countries increased almost 80 percent, according to one review.
Ecosystems approach
The Save and Grow model incorporates an ecosystem approach that draws on nature's contribution to crop growth – soil organic matter, water flow regulation, pollination and natural predation of pests. It applies external inputs at the right time and in the right amount – no more and no less than plants need.
The approach builds on lessons learned from the Green Revolution of the 1960s which focused on raising crop production without much attention to the environment.
Decades of intensive cropping may have degraded fertile land and depleted groundwater, provoked pest upsurges, eroded biodiversity and polluted air, soil and water and it can be noted that the yield growth rate of major cereals is declining.
To feed a world population projected at 9.2 billion in 2050, which involves meeting double the demand for food in developing countries, there is no option but to further intensify crop production. To eradicate hunger and meet demand by 2050, food production needs to increase by 70% in the world and 100% in developing countries.
The key to meeting the challenge lies in sustainable crop production intensification, or Save and Grow. But this will involve a shift from a homogeneous model of crop production to farming systems that are knowledge-intensive and adapted to specific locations.
Support to farmers
It will also require significant support to farmers so they can learn the new practices and technologies, while governments will also need to strengthen national plant-breeding programmes so as to deploy new seed varieties that are resilient to climate change and use external inputs more efficiently.
Policymakers must provide incentives for adoption of the new model such as rewarding good management of ecosystems. The key is boosting agricultural investment. Developed countries should increase the share of agriculture in official development assistance to the developing world. Developing countries themselves should allocate a larger part of their national budgets to the agriculture sector. And domestic and foreign private investments need to be increased.
UN calls for eco-friendly farming to boost yields
Yahoo News 13 Jun 11;
ROME (AFP) – The United Nations food agency on Monday called for greater use of environmentally sustainable techniques by poor farmers in order to increase crop intensity to feed the world's growing population.
"The new approach calls for targeting mainly smallholder farmers in developing countries," the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement accompanying a report entitled "Save and Grow".
"Helping low-income farm families in developing countries... economise on cost of production and build healthy agro-ecosystems will enable them to maximise yields and invest the savings in their health and education," it said.
"In order to grow, agriculture must learn to save," it said, pointing to lower crop yields in recent years despite an increase in environmentally unsustainable farming practices aimed at increasing intensive farming.
The eco-friendly techniques recommended by FAO include using plant residues to cover over fields, rotating cereals cultivation with soil-enriching legumes, more precise irrigation for fields and better use of fertilizers.
"Such methods help adapt crops to climate change and not only help grow more food but also contribute to reducing crops' water needs by 30 percent and energy costs by up to 60 percent," the report said.
"In some cases crop yields can be increased six-fold, as shown by trials with maize held recently in southern Africa," it said.
"Average yields from farms practicing the techniques in 57 low-income countries increased almost 80 percent," it added.
FAO called on governments both in the developed and in the developing world to increase investments in order to provide incentives for poor farmers to adopt the new, more environmentally friendly farming techniques.
Farmers Must Boost Sustainable Crops To Feed World: FAO
Svetlana Kovalyova PlanetArk 15 Jun 11;
The ravages from half a century of intensive farming must give way to a more sustainable approach if farmers are to feed the world in 2050, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday.
Global farm output must increase 70 percent, including a nearly 100 percent jump in developing countries, to feed the world in 2050, the FAO said.
At the same time, farmers must conserve resources and protect environment, said the FAO, which expects the world's population to rise to about 9.2 billion in 2050 from 6.9 billion in 2010.
Climate change and growing competition for land, water and energy with industries mean agriculture can no longer rely only on intensive crop production.
That approach has caused land degradation, excessive water use, pest resistance and other problems in many countries, the FAO said in its Save and Grow report.
"It is also clear that current food production and distribution systems are failing to feed the world," it said pointing that the total number of undernourished people in 2010 was estimated at 925 million, higher that it was 40 year ago.
The goal of feeding the world is further complication by the shortage of new arable land for crop expansion, the agency said.
A new approach based on sustainable intensification of crop output is necessary to allow farmers produce more from the same area of land by raising yields and at the same time conserve resources and cut the negative impact on the environment, it said.
Required steps include the use of high-yield seeds, including genetically improved ones, as well as mix of mineral fertilizers and natural sources, efficient water use and limited use of pesticides alongside crop rotation.
INVESTMENT NEEDS
This should help small farmers increase their incomes by raising output and reducing costs, the report said.
Small farmers, especially in the developing world, would need financial, technical and educational support from governments and international organisations, it said.
The world needs to invest a total gross $209 billion, at constant 2009 prices, a year in agriculture in developing countries to achieve the needed increases by 2050, the FAO said, reiterating its 2009 estimates.
The figure includes primary agriculture and services, such as storage, processing and marketing.
The FAO reiterated that current investment in agriculture in developing countries is "clearly insufficient."
(Editing by Jason Neely)
labels food, global, global-biodiversity


text:
Share this Story: Windsor-Essex County Humane Society deals with rabbit flood
Windsor-Essex County Humane Society deals with rabbit flood
Have you considered a rabbit for a pet? The Windsor-Essex County Humane Society took in so many bunnies this year, they're offering a deal on adoption.
Dalson Chen
Sherry Leclaire of the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society holds Eckhart - one of many rabbits available for adoption. Photographed Nov. 26, 2021. Photo by Dax Melmer /Windsor Star
Have you considered a rabbit for a pet? How about two?
The Windsor-Essex County Humane Society is getting desperate in its search for potential bunny owners after a year of taking in more rabbits than ever.
Windsor-Essex County Humane Society deals with rabbit flood Back to video
"All kinds of rabbits. We have pretty much every kind of rabbit!" said Melanie Coulter, executive director of the local Humane Society. "And a lot of them are pretty social."
Coulter said that the Humane Society has received 275 domesticated rabbits so far this year. That's around double the number of rabbits that the Humane Society received last year (131) and the year before that (149).
It's all part of an ongoing "bunny crisis" that's being experienced by Humane Society and animal shelter organizations across Ontario, Coulter said.
"It's actually happening over in Michigan, too," Coulter said. "They told us they've been swamped with rabbits as well… It's definitely something that's widespread."
And the surge doesn't seem to be waning. In the past week alone, 13 rabbits were turned over to the Humane Society — just as the organization was hoping to put a brake on surrendered bunnies.
A rabbit named Eckhart takes a break under the care of Sherry Leclaire of the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society. Photographed Nov. 26, 2021. Photo by Dax Melmer /Windsor Star
Therefore, the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society is offering a deal: For an adoption fee of just $50, the organization will spay or neuter the rabbit, treat it for parasites, and microchip it so that you can give it a forever home.
Adopt two rabbits, and the fee for the second one will be waived. In other words: Adopt one, get another free.
"It's a great deal," Coulter urged. "You can get a pair for only $50. That's not the standard."
Not just dogs and cats! We have guinea pigs, mice, rats, gerbils, and rabbits...lots and lots of rabbits...looking for loving homes! If you have been thinking about a new "small animal" friend, check out https://t.co/mfH14xdID4#adoptmeplease #loveinasmallpackage pic.twitter.com/rTwdq8RXAo
— Windsor Humane (@windsorhumane) November 20, 2021
A wide variety of rabbits are currently available, Coulter said. There's floppy-eared Percy and his bonded buddy Dust Bunny. There's a perky-eared fuzzball named Chester, a lady named Cindy Hopper, and many more.
If you're a first-time bunny owner, Coulter said the main thing to understand is that domesticated rabbits can't be treated like big hamsters. They can't be put in a cage and left alone.
"Rabbits need time outside of their cage. They need social interaction. They need to be fed hay to keep their digestive systems healthy," Coulter explained.
"Think of them more like vegetarian cats."
Domesticated rabbits munch hay at a shelter in Vancouver in this 2018 file photo. Photo by Gerry Kahrmann /Postmedia News Group
If you want to feed your rabbit carrots, do so only on special occasions: Root vegetables and fruits are not a natural part of a rabbit's diet, and should be considered treats. The bulk of a domesticated rabbit's diet should be hay, leafy greens, and limited amounts of feed pellets.
But just because rabbits are prey animals by nature doesn't mean they can't be affectionate. Coulter said that when a rabbit becomes comfortable with you and accustomed to handling, it may seek you out for pets and touches. "They don't like to be picked up, typically, but many of them really do like interaction on their own terms."
As for why so many rabbits are being given up for adoption this year, Coulter said it's a bit of a mystery.
"That's the big question. No one knows for sure. There's some suspicion that perhaps people got rabbits when they couldn't find dogs to adopt at the height of the pandemic. But that's only a suspicion."
Dogs from Oklahoma ready for adoption at Windsor-Essex Humane Society
Justice the dog dies with Kingsville family at his side
Windsor-Essex Humane Society microchips 72 pets at first-ever, three-species event
It probably hasn't helped that rabbits can breed as fast as… well, rabbits. "That's definitely a factor," Coulter said. "Some of the rabbits we've taken in were a large number from a single home."
"Sometimes people purchase rabbits and don't know their sexes. If they're opposite and they haven't been fixed, they can reproduce pretty quickly. Suddenly, it's more than the household can handle."
To check out the rabbits up for adoption at the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society, visit the "Small Animals" section of windsorhumane.org , or call 519-966-5751 for information on making an application.
dchen@postmedia.com


text:
View source for DSDP/Packaging/Proposal
← DSDP/Packaging/Proposal
DSDP Packaging (D-Pack) is a proposed open-source sub-project under the [http://www/eclipse.org/dsdp Device Software Development Platform] top-level project. The goal of this project is to enable ''multiple'' entry-level distributions of Eclipse that respectively provide turnkey environments for very ''specific'' developer communities found in the broader embedded systems marketplace. This proposal is in the Pre-Proposal Phase as defined in the [http://www.eclipse.org/projects/dev_process/development_process.php Eclipse Development Process] document and follows the [http://www.eclipse.org/projects/dev_process/pre-proposal-phase.php Eclipse Proposal Guidelines]. It is written to declare the intent and scope of the project, as well as to solicit additional participation and input from the Eclipse and embedded developer community. You are invited to comment upon and/or join this project. Please send all feedback to the http://www.eclipse.org/newsportal/thread.php?group=eclipse.dsdp.packaging newsgroup. == Background == While usage of Eclipse continues to grow amongst embedded software developers, creation of turnkey (entry-level) downloads satisfying the needs of this community—not unlike what's currently provided through the [http://www.eclipse.org/epp/ EPP] project—remains elusive for a number of reasons. For starters, the community of embedded software developers will always remain a very fragmented one due to the sheer diversity of the underlying hardware platforms targeted by this community—ranging from powerful multi-core SOCs capable of supporting Linux and Java, right down to resource-constrained 8/16-bit MCUs with little/no runtime support. Given this diversity, attempts to create a ''single'' distribution of Eclipse targeting embedded software developers would clearly prove futile. Making matters worse, any usage of Eclipse for embedded software development invariably requires integration of legacy host tooling (such as a compiler) along with legacy target content (such as an RTOS) specific to the hardware platform at hand. Not only do these elements maintain an existence outside of the Eclipse IDE per se, these tools and content often carry non-EPL licenses that would ultimately ''preclude'' their provisioning from any eclipse.org server. Responding to this reality, turnkey Eclipse distributions (bundling the necessary tools/content) which serve specific segments of the embedded community do, in fact, exist outside of eclipse.org—whether offered by software vendors such as Wind River or by silicon vendors such as Texas Instruments. The [http://wascana.sourceforge.net/ Wascana] project at SourceForge–providing a turnkey Eclipse/CDT distribution for Windows development–follows a similar pattern. == Scope == To reiterate, the goal of this project is to enable multiple entry-level distributions of Eclipse that respectively provide turnkey environments for very specific developer communities found in the broader embedded systems marketplace. As an initial objective, the project will focus upon a ''generic packaging methodology'' that can be adopted and tailored on a case-by-case basis to the needs of specific distributions serving particular embedded market segments. From a technical perspective, the new [http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox/p2 Equinox p2] provisioning infrastructure affords an obvious starting point for any methodology formulated through this project's efforts. The clean separation between installation metadata and the installable artifacts themselves, for example, seems particularly responsive to some of the challenges of bundling legacy tools/content outlined earlier; the metadata and artifacts, as a case in point, might respectively carry different licenses as well reside at different sites. The ability to hierarchically compose installable units into larger (installable) entities also faciliates re-use of common sub-elements (say, a particular compiler) across multiple turnkey distributions ultimately served from different sites. Recognizing that these turnkey distributions will ultimately be provisioned outside of eclipse.org—even some suitable baseline version of the Eclipse IDE containing CDT plus stock DSDP elements would ideally deliver a pre-populated list of p2 update sites which themselves might serve non-EPL tools/content—this project will proactively encourage and facilitate creation of ''external'' distribution sites required to deliver turnkey Eclipse-based environments to embedded software developers; such sites become models of the methodology and exemplars for others to emulate. Strange as it may seem, this project may ''not'' necessarily deliver any source code—at least not in its initial phases. Rather, the project will serve as a central meeting point for collectively crafting a packaging methodology that serves the provisioning needs of the embedded communities already engaged with the CDT and DSDP, by effectively applying the ''existing'' Equinox p2 technology to the specific use-cases at hand. Without a dedicated eclipse.org project providing some necessary leadership, however, turnkey distributions of Eclipse serving embedded software developers will remain sparse, sporadic, and siloed. == Organization == This project would be lead by Bob Frankel, who recently retired from Texas Instruments after a long and productive tour of duty spanning three decades. Besides serving as one of the earliest advocates for leveraging the Eclipse/CDT framework as the backbone for TI's own IDE, much of Bob's effort throughout this decade has been focused upon developing and evangelizing [http://rtsc.eclipse.org/docs-tip/Main_Page RTSC]—software technology which enables component-based development in C/C++ targeting diverse embedded platforms, and which has formally joined the Eclipse/DSDP community through a [http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/rtsc/ project] of its own. ;Initial Committers :Bob Frankel, Individual :Dave Russo, TI :Martin Oberhuber, Wind River ;Interested Parties ;Project Mentors :Martin Oberhuber, Wind River :Doug Gaff, Wind River == References == * initial discussions on packaging beginning in 2007 can be found [http://wiki.eclipse.org/DSDP/Packaging/Background here] * raw notes from a BoF session held at EclipseCon 2008 can be found [http://wiki.eclipse.org/DSDP/Packaging/Meetings/Mar_18_2008_EclipseCon_BoF here] * raw notes from a series of meetings held in early 2009 can be found [http://wiki.eclipse.org/DSDP/Packaging/Meetings here]
Return to DSDP/Packaging/Proposal.
Retrieved from "http://wiki.eclipse.org/DSDP/Packaging/Proposal"


text:
Greg Neish (né le  à High River, dans la province du Manitoba au Canada) est un joueur professionnel canadien de hockey sur glace.

Carrière en club
En 1987, il commence sa carrière avec les Skipjacks de Baltimore dans la Ligue américaine de hockey.

Statistiques
Pour les significations des abréviations, voir statistiques du hockey sur glace.

|-
|1987-1988 || Skipjacks de Baltimore || LAH ||2 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||10 ||- ||- ||- ||- ||-
|-
|1987-1988 || Chiefs de Johnstown ||  AAHL ||5 ||1 ||2 ||3 ||34 ||3 ||1 ||1 ||2 ||5
|-
|1988-1989 || Lancers de la Virginie || ECHL ||42 ||18 ||17 ||35 ||151 ||- ||- ||- ||- ||-
|-
|1989-1990 || Lancers de la Virginie || ECHL ||49 ||19 ||28 ||47 ||215 ||4 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||40
|-
|1992-1993 || Rebels de Roanoke Valley || ECHL ||39 ||14 ||16 ||30 ||149 ||- ||- ||- ||- ||-
|-
|1990-1991 || Nighthawks de New Haven || LAH ||2 ||1 ||0 ||1 ||0 ||- ||- ||- ||- ||-
|-
|1991-1992 || Lancers de la Virginie || ECHL ||3 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||14 ||- ||- ||- ||- ||-
|-
|1992-1993 || Thunder de Wichita || LCH ||34 ||16 ||17 ||33 ||212 ||- ||- ||- ||- ||-
|-
|1993-1994 || Thunder de Wichita || LCH ||55 ||15 ||21 ||36 ||325 ||10 ||1 ||4 ||5 ||53
|-
|1994-1995 || Thunder de Wichita || LCH ||59 ||12 ||19 ||31 ||337 ||10 ||1 ||2 ||3 ||99
|-

Notes et références

Naissance en septembre 1966
Joueur canadien de hockey sur glace
Joueur des Lancers de la Virginie
Joueur des Rebels de Roanoke Valley
Joueur des Nighthawks de New Haven
Joueur des Skipjacks de Baltimore
Joueur du Thunder de Wichita
Attaquant de hockey sur glace
Naissance à High River


Decades later, however, one of the men involved in digging them up confessed that the plates were a forgery, perpetrated with the intent of fooling Joseph Smith. Modern scientific testing of the one remaining plate confirms they were created using 19th century methods. So did Joseph fall for the hoax? Not quite. He briefly gave these artifacts due consideration, but did not try to acquire them, retain them, or ultimately find them of any value.
Despite all the anticipation for a "sequel" to the Book of Mormon, nothing ever came. No translation was ever produced or published. No manuscript of a purported translation has ever turned up. Both William Clayton and Parley P. Pratt mentioned what appear to be some preliminary interpretations of a "portion" of the plates, which they attributed to Joseph, but Joseph himself never provided any kind of translation, in full or in part.
When the plates were first brought to Joseph, rather than utilize any revelatory tools— such as prayer or a seer stone —Joseph sent "for [his] Hebrew Bible & Lexicon." An eyewitness remembered him also comparing the characters on the plates with "his Egyptian alphabet," and Pratt said they were being compared to the Egyptian papyri in Joseph's possession.
In other words, Joseph took preliminary steps toward an ordinary translation by comparing the squiggles on these plates to other ancient writings he was familiar with. This apparently produced no findings of any significance. If he ever sought out a revelatory translation, he evidently never received or claimed to have received one.
The evidence from Joseph Smith's journal for early May 1843 indicates that, "whatever JS initially thought about the plates, he soon lost interest in them." The numerous entries in Joseph's journal indicate that Joseph was busy entertaining several guests, holding court, attending business and religious meetings, overseeing economic transactions, and much more—but only one brief mention of the Kinderhook Plates is made. Some evidence even suggests Joseph wanted them examined by the Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, so perhaps Joseph even suspected their fraudulence or had concluded that they were not religiously significant.
Likewise, some of the men sincerely bringing the Kinderhook plates to Joseph Smith hoped he would use his gift of seership to look into his seer stone and translate the plates. The Kinderhook story reminds us that the gifts of the Spirit are not to be used to satisfy the idle curiosities of man. Instead, Joseph approached these artifacts by using ordinary language translation methods, and in the end did not produce even a proposed translation.
In fact, evidence suggests his secular examination efforts did not go very far. Analysis from historians Mark Ashurst-McGee and Don Bradley indicate that the translated "portion" mentioned by William Clayton and Parley P. Pratt comes from a single "boat-shaped" character in the Egyptian Alphabet (a vaguely similar character appears on one of the Kinderhook Plates facsimiles). If he made any effort to acquire a revelatory translation, that also did not succeed. Today, we can see why: the Kinderhook plates were not legitimate. They were not "of ancient date," so his gift of translation did not come to bear.
Figure 3 Illustration o the "boat-shaped" character in the Kinderhook plates and the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language. Image via Book of Mormon Central.
While some critics try to use this story as evidence that everything about Joseph Smith was a fraud, the historical evidence suggests that Joseph ultimately did not fall for the hoax—he never tried to purchase the plates, hire scribes, and go into translation mode, like he did with the ancient Egyptian papyri he had purchased in Ohio. He never produced a "Book of Kinderhook." Whatever Joseph Smith may have thought of the Kinderhook plates, the Lord could not be fooled. God would not and did not reveal a translation of these bogus artifacts.
 W. P. Harris, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons 4, no. 12, May 1, 1843, 186.
 Charlotte Haven, "A Girl's Letters from Nauvoo," Overland Monthly 16, no. 96, December 1890, 630; letter written May 2, 1843.
 Parley P. Pratt and Orson Pratt to John Van Cott, May 7, 1843; in Brian M. Hauglid, "'Come & Help Build the Temple & City': Parley P. and Orson Pratt's Letter to John Van Cott," Mormon Historical Studies 11, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 155.
 "A Gentile," letter to James Gordon Bennett, May 7, 1843, in "Late and Interesting from the Mormon Empire on the Upper Mississippi," New York Herald, May 30, 1843. The editor of the Quincy Whig even stoked the fires: "Some pretend to say, that Smith the Mormon leader, has the ability to read them. … if Smith can decipher the hieroglyphics on the plates, he will do more towards throwing light on the early history of this continent, than any man now living." "Singular Discovery—Material for Another Mormon Book," Times and Seasons 4, no. 12, May 1, 1843, 186–187; originally published in the Quincy Whig 6, no. 2, May 3, 1843.
 Wilbur Fugate to James T. Cobb, June 30, 1879, in Wilhelm Wyl (Wymetal), Mormon Portraits (Salt Lake City, 1888), 207–208. This wasn't the only time folks came to Nauvoo with the intent of exposing Joseph Smith as an impostor. A year earlier, in April 1842, Henry Caswell visited Nauvoo and later said he showed Joseph a copy of a medieval Greek manuscript. Joseph allegedly identified the manuscript as Egyptian, which Caswell took as evidence of Joseph's ignorance of ancient languages. For a reasonable assessment of this incident, see John W. Welch, "Joseph Smith's Awareness of Latin and Greek," in Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, ed. Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center, 2015), 311–314.
 See Stanley B. Kimball, "Kinderhook Plates Brought to Joseph Smith Appear to Be a Nineteenth Century Hoax," Ensign, August 1981, online at lds.org.
 Near the end of June, a broadside published by John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, still promised, "The contents of the Plates, together with a Fac-simile of the same, will be published in the 'Times & Seasons,' as soon as the translation is completed." See "A Brief Account of the Discovery of the Brass Plates Recently Taken from a Mound near Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois," (Taylor & Woodruff, June 24, 1843).
 See George D. Smith, ed., An Intimate Chronicle: The Journal of William Clayton (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1995), 100; Pratt to Van Cott, May 7, 1843, in Hauglid, "Come & Help Build," 155.
 JS Journal, May 7, 1843, in Hedges, Smith, Rodgers, eds., Journals 3:13.
 "A Gentile," letter to Bennett, May 7, 1843. This source mistakenly associates the Egyptian Alphabet with the Book of Mormon, instead of the Book of Abraham, an understandable mistake for an outsider. The Egyptian Alphabet is part of the corpus known by historians as the Kirtland Egyptian Papers. It has Egyptian characters from the Joseph Smith Papyri with attempted "interpretations" next to them. Currently, there is disagreement among scholars regarding the nature and purpose of the KEP and their relationship to the Book of Abraham. For various perspectives, see Kerry Muhlestein, "Egyptian Papyri and the Book of Abraham: A Faithful Egyptological Point of View," in No Weapon Shall Prosper: New Light on Sensitive Issues, ed. Robert L. Millet (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center, 2011), 228–229; Brian M. Hauglid, "The Book of Abraham and the Egyptian Project: 'A Knowledge of Hidden Languages'," in Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, edited by Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015), 474–511; John Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center, 2017), 13–39.
 Pratt to Van Cott, May 7, 1843, in Hauglid, "Come & Help Build," 155.
 See Brian M. Hauglid, "Did Joseph Smith Translate the Kinderhook Plates?" in No Weapon Shall Prosper: New Light on Sensitive Issues, ed. Robert L. Millet (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center, 2011), 93–103.
 Hedges, Smith, Rodgers, eds., Journals 3:13 n.28.
 See Kimball, "Kinderhook Plates," on lds.org.
 Years later, in a letter to a Mr. Flagg, one of the men who brought the plates to Nauvoo indicated that he did not know, at the time, that the plates were a hoax, and that he was sincerely interested in learning more about them. See W.P. Harris to Mr. Flagg, April 25, 1855, in "A Hoax: Reminiscences of an Old Kinderhook Mystery," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 5 (July 1912): 271–273.
I found this article very interesting. Similar to Mark Hoffman trying to foist his fraudulent documents upon the world in 1985. The leaders of the LDS Church took an initial interest in the documents, but only described them as "interesting." Many people were deluded and some even left the church because of these forgeries. I doubt many of them returned to activity even after the documents were proven to be fraudulent. We still have to be vigilant today. There are so many influences out there attempting to dissuade the faithful.


text:
Arts International
Look at Samarran Glass Offers Insights on 9th Century Trade
August 22, 2018 August 23, 2018 AMANDA PAMPURO
artifacts, history, Iraq
Glass artifacts from Samarra, in modern-day Iraq, representing different compositional groups. (Schilbille et al.)
(CN) – At the height of the Abbasid empire in the mid-ninth century, the palace city of Samarra was lavishly decorated with glass. Colorful tesserae, purple millefiori, and small perfectly translucent shapes adorned the walls, meant to inspire a sense of wonder and awe and perhaps even remind visitors of Solomon's crystal palace.
A study published by PLOS One on Wednesday reveals new insight into where some of Samarra's famed glass was manufactured in a "radical reinterpretation of the scale and sophistication of production and interregional trade of glass during the ninth century."
The study was funded by a British Academy Small Research Grant and the European Research Council.
"Glass is a very fascinating material on so many levels … it is produced on a very large scale and it was traded widely so we can literally follow trades, economic and other exchange networks in the first millennium," said Nadine Schibille, a research scientist at the National Center for Scientific Research in Orleans, France, who led the study. "To me it's more interesting than ceramics because it's a high-temperature technology and needs more specific skills, and well, anyone can make pottery."
Schibille and her team studied 265 pieces of glass from three different museum collections, ranging from simple items to "sophisticated vessels with pinched, stamped, engraved, or linear wheel-cut decorations."
Using lasers to remove micro-samples, researchers ionized the particles in plasma at 8,000 degrees Celsius. The samples were then analyzed with mass spectrometry revealing their chemical makeup.
Through this technique, researchers uncovered the raw materials used in the making of each glass artifact and where they came from. The study identified 58 elements and sorted most of the artifacts into two clear categories: glass containing high levels of potash and magnesia, likely made with soda-rich plant-ash, and glass with low levels of potash and magnesia, likely made with soda from a mineral source.
A third category holds several miscellaneous items that fit neither pattern.
These "soda-lime silica glasses (are) typical of late Byzantine and early Islamic assemblages from the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia," the team found.
Most of the tesserae was imported from Syria-Palestine or Egypt, whereas other glass samples were likely manufactured nearby, showing "the diversity of the Abbasid glass industry and the existence of deliberate production strategies."
While many historians postulate that glass was manufactured in medieval Samarra, without archaeological evidence of furnaces or workshops this remains a subject of debate.
Samarra was founded on the eastern bank of the Tigris River in 836 A.D. by al-Mu'tasim, the eighth Abbasid caliph or emperor. At the peak of its power, the Abbasid Empire stretched from Uzbekistan to India.
Samarra "was a military encampment. That's what it means by palace city in this particular case, it was like these large U.S. bases in the desert down in Arizona," said Alastair Northedge, a professor emeritus at the University of Paris who has spent much of his life studying Samarra.
Built from beaten earth and adobe-style mud bricks, at 58 square kilometers Samarra remains the largest dense city to have survived from the time period. For more than 50 years, Samarra served as the empire's capital city until the role was returned to Bagdad in 892.
Mesopotamia, Northedge said was "one of the earliest countries in history to use glass on pottery, or glaze on pottery, which seems to have happened about the same time as China."
Since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported the site of the ancient palace city "has been occupied by multinational forces that use it as a theatre for military operations."
In addition to the bullet holes that now decorate the palace walls, the al-Askari mosque, a nearby Shi'a holy site, was bombed in February 2006 and June 2007.
"Hardly any work has been done in Iraq for many decades because of the difficulties of going there. With Saddam Hussein and the sanctions of the war and the occupation after 2003, lots and lots of difficulties have discouraged people from working there which means there's lots of details to check," said Northedge, who last visited the archaeological site in 2017.
"It was a little bit dangerous, but archeologists do that. You can't be a good archeologist and stay safe," he reflected. "You have to take some risks and you accept it."
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It is going to be a September to Remember with the season 7 premiere and Sunset on the Beach only a few weeks away now. To kick it off we thought we would run a September to Remembe contest and give away something valuable. Originally, we thought that since to any Hawaii Five O and Alex O'Loughlin fan, the season 6 DVD is like gold, we would give that away. BUT after much thought, we decided that we probably don't have the rights to run a contest like that and decided instead on a $25 Amazon eGift Certificate. (based on US dollars).
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A little before 10 one hot morning last summer, a few men with clipboards made their way around the crowded lobby at the nonprofit Crisis Assistance Ministry. Men, women and children awaited a turn to tell their stories to agency counselors who – they hoped – could give them enough money to keep the power on or avert eviction for not paying the rent.
In April scholar Matthew Desmond debuted a national database of eviction data, 83 million court records dating to 2000. His data ranked North Charleston, S.C., atop a list of 100 U.S. cities in the rate of eviction judgments. Greensboro, N.C., and Columbia, S.C. were also in the top 10. Charlotte was 21st.
Dennis and Ladner volunteer with the Homeless Prevention Project, a partnership between nonprofits Crisis Assistance Ministry and the Charlotte office of Legal Aid of North Carolina. The project aims to help as many people as possible stay in their homes. With approximately 30,000 eviction notices filed each year in Mecklenburg County, avoiding unnecessary eviction could mean hundreds of low-income households not facing potential homelessness.
Why does any of this matter? Evictions can have cascading financial effects on households. Families already struggling to pay rent can face late fees, eviction court costs, new apartment fees, utility deposits and moving costs, as well as loss of pay – or even a job – for missing work to find and move to a new home. Children's lives lack stability when they must change schools or spend time in shelters. Tenants with an eviction complaint on their record, even if they avert eviction, can be blacklisted from finding another landlord willing to rent to them.
The best-selling 2016 book by sociologist Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, brought new attention to evictions. Desmond's lecture in Charlotte last September, sponsored by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and six other community partners, sold out. At the same time, the interwoven problems of poverty and instability have drawn major attention in Charlotte after news in 2013 that the city ranked 50th of 50 large city regions in a Harvard University/UC Berkeley study examining upward economic mobility among children in low-income families. Charlotte's nonprofit, government and business leaders convened a wide-ranging initiative that studied the problem and recommended action.
To volunteer with the Homeless Prevention Project contact Hannah Guerrier, hannahg@legalaidnc.org or 704-971-2590.
The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, with funding from Mecklenburg County Community Support Services, has issued three reports looking at different facets of eviction. The most recent – Charlotte-Mecklenburg Evictions Part 3: One-month snapshot of eviction court records – was released May 23. Researchers for the first time analyzed local eviction data from Mecklenburg County court records, combing through a one-month snapshot of court eviction papers from July 2016.
Despite eviction's sometimes devastating effects, unless you're a lawyer or a landlord you may not know much about the legal process or what rights tenants have – and don't – in an eviction. Unlike criminal defendants, defendants in civil courts don't have the right to an attorney, and only a tiny fraction have a lawyer in court – unlike most landlords seeking to evict. The Homeless Prevention Project aims to chip away at that imbalance. It's the brainchild of Crisis Assistance Ministry CEO Carol Hardison and Ted Fillette, long-time senior managing official (now retired) with the Charlotte office of Legal Aid of North Carolina.
Of the 30,000-some Mecklenburg eviction cases typically filed annually in recent years, Fillette estimates Legal Aid will represent about 350 to 400 – a little more than 1 percent – "and we will win 95 percent of those cases," he says. With just three lawyers in its housing unit, Legal Aid can't possibly take all the cases that seem to have merit that come to their attention. So the idea is for the Homeless Prevention Project to arm tenants with enough information that, if facing eviction, they'll understand the court process and the law and can raise any valid issues that might help them stay in their home.
In the conference room at Crisis Assistance Ministry, Keith Dennis and George Ladner offer plenty of information to tenants, only a few of whom say they face imminent eviction. Instructions: Save receipts. Take photos, and print them out. Get a printed copy of your lease. "Leases are generally your No. 1 piece of evidence," Dennis says.
The audience is incredulous that paper printouts of photos are needed, that text messages or photos on a phone aren't good enough. "Evidence is paper. Or people," Ladner repeats.
He and Dennis give tips for going to court: Practice what you'll say. Show up on time. Bring all your evidence.
Until the 1970s, tenants in North Carolina had almost no rights. Many landlords wouldn't even bother to go to court. Instead, in what are called "self-help evictions," they would lock tenants out, cut off utilities or take their property.
But a series of court cases in the '70s began changing things. One of the most powerful curbs on landlord abuses throughout the state started at a small brick house on Cosby Place in east Charlotte's Merry Oaks neighborhood.
As the court documents tell it, in December 1974 Ada and Jeffrey Love rented it and moved in. Two weeks later they had a spat, and he left, taking his things and telling the landlord's agent they were moving out. Three days later the couple came back for her things. Their possessions were gone, including, Fillette recalls, irreplaceable baby photos. Although the landlord, Robert Pressley, had not gone to court for an eviction, his workers had cleaned out Ada Love's things.
The Loves, with Fillette as one of their lawyers, sued and won. But what changed landlord-tenant dealings in the state was that Mecklenburg District Court Judge Fred Hicks ruled the landlord's actions were unfair or deceptive acts that violated the state's unfair trade practices law. Hicks awarded treble damages. In 1977 the state Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.
Today, even though later laws gave tenants more rights – such as the bar on retaliatory evictions – that doesn't mean tenants know those rights or that they get fair treatment in court.
Spend some time in eviction court and you glimpse the complications and complexities – and the degree to which random chance can change lives. It's small claims court, and magistrates preside. Although many magistrates have law degrees, they aren't required to.
The court process for eviction is complicated, and tenants often aren't familiar with it. An undetermined number of tenants move out before any eviction filings take place in court, in so-called "informal evictions." Maybe the landlord offers them money to just leave, or maybe they see eviction looming and move out to keep an eviction off their record.
If the case goes to court, a landlord must first file a Complaint in Summary Ejectment, stating the reason for eviction. Court records show 28,471 of those eviction complaints were filed in Mecklenburg County during the 2015-16 fiscal year (July 1, 2015-June 30, 2016). In July 2016 alone, the institute's latest eviction research found, 1,940 eviction cases were filed in Mecklenburg County.
Tenants can be ejected for not paying rent, breaking terms of the lease, or criminal activity. If a lease has ended and the tenant is staying on a month-to-month or week-to-week basis, the landlord can, with proper notice, evict for pretty much any reason, including selling the property – increasingly common in booming Charlotte as developers buy smaller, older rental properties and demolish them to build new, more expensive housing.
After the complaint is filed, a small claims court date is set for several days later. Landlords tend to have lawyers in eviction court and tenants mostly don't. The institute's study of July 2016 Mecklenburg County court records found the landlord had legal representation in 82 percent of the complaints. A series of studies in multiple jurisdictions over the past 20 years shows the percentage of tenants with lawyers ranged from 20 percent to zero. Does that matter? It appears to. A Harvard Law Review study published in 2013 found that two-thirds of tenants with a legal aid attorney were able to stay in their homes.
Some cities are trying to remedy that disparity. Last year, New York – after a class action suit dating to the 1980s – said it would guarantee that all families facing eviction get the right to legal counsel in housing court. But the program isn't required to go into full effect until 2022.
According to a 2017 report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, last year Washington, D.C., set aside $4.5 million to pay legal fees for families facing eviction, and Philadelphia approved spending $500,000 so low-income renters being evicted could get lawyers.
Tenants often don't even come to court. On two days of eviction court I observed last summer, slightly more than half the people listed on the docket did not answer when their names were called. If the plaintiff (landlord) isn't there, the case is dismissed. If tenants aren't there or don't hear when the magistrate calls their names, the magistrate almost always enters an eviction judgment against them.
"The first time many people learn a judgment has been entered against them is when they get a note from the sheriff," says Fillette.
The institute's research found that of the July 2016 cases, in 84 percent of the cases where a magistrate entered a judgment to evict, the tenants did not appear in court.
If a magistrate orders that the tenant can be evicted – which happened in 61 percent of the 28,471 Mecklenburg cases in fiscal year 2015-16 – the tenant has 10 days to appeal or to move out. Unless there's an appeal, the landlord who has won the eviction files a "writ of possession." Then the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office is notified to go with the landlord to padlock the home, which usually means the landlord or a maintenance worker changes the locks. Sometimes tenants pay their rent, and the padlocking is called off. Sometimes they're gone by the time the sheriff's deputy arrives.
Of the 1,940 eviction cases filed in Mecklenburg County that month, 61 percent received a judgment to evict.
Among those cases with a judgment to evict, in 47 percent (558 cases) a writ of possession for the tenant to be removed was issued. Of those 558, in 196 cases (33 percent) the writs weren't executed because the tenants paid the landlord or just moved.
Most eviction attempts were due to not paying rent. The median amount of rent unpaid or past due was $850.
In North Carolina, tenants have some defenses that can sometimes avert an eviction, such as a claim of retaliatory eviction. Or a tenant can raise a defense related to domestic violence. Sometimes landlords want to evict a domestic violence victim due to multiple police calls or property damage from an abuser. If there's evidence domestic violence is playing a role in the landlord's wish to evict, that defense could trump other reasons the landlord might give, and the magistrate can refuse the eviction.
It's mid-July in eviction court. The tenant, a burly middle-aged man, tells the magistrate his side of the situation. "They said they were selling the house. They said don't pay the rent, just leave." He says he's been in the house four years, has four kids. He found another place but can't move in until Aug. 23. The rental agent told him he could stay until Aug. 25, he says. But now that agent has filed to evict him. "All I need is 30 days to get out," the tenant tells the magistrate.
The magistrate asks to see the lease. The property manager says he doesn't have it.
After more back and forth, the magistrate announces she is giving the landlord possession of the property – an eviction.
In the next case, with the same rental agent, the story is similar. The tenants say they were told the owner wanted to sell. The tenant in court says her son, a postal worker, tried to pay the rent but the agent wouldn't accept it. "He is not in arrears," she tells the magistrate. Now the landlord has filed to evict by the end of July. Again, the magistrate OKs that eviction.
Her remark is key. Fillette, who has been watching, says that without a lease in evidence, the evictions should not have been ordered.
Another day, a month later, in another courtroom, another magistrate deals with a landlord who isn't sure if he has a written lease with his tenant. The magistrate tells him: "If you have a written lease you have to have it in here with you if you're evicting someone." Without that evidence, she says, she can't order an eviction.
The man with four children – who was evicted in the July court appearance by the other magistrate – appears to have been the victim of bad luck. If his case had gone before the other magistrate, with no lease for evidence, he might well not have been evicted.
It's that kind of information the Homeless Prevention Project hopes to give tenants who find themselves in court. The first class of trained volunteers was in 2014. Since then, the project has trained about 40 volunteers with about a dozen consistently rotating through what's typically a four-day-a-week schedule at Crisis Assistance Ministry, says the project manager, Hannah Guerrier of Legal Aid of North Carolina.
After his July court appearance, by mid-September the man with four children had vacated his modest house in a 10-year-old subdivision in northwest Charlotte. The house sat empty, grass needing mowing. No for-sale sign was up.
The postal worker from the second case and his mother had worked it out with the landlord after court and had signed a new lease for higher rent – from $995 to $1,250 – for their house in another 10-year-old subdivision in northwest Charlotte.
In the third case, involving a yet another house in a similar 10-year-old northwest Charlotte subdivision, the tenants had worked it out with the landlord and not been forced to leave. But they bought a house and in September were moving out.
The small brick house on Cosby Place – at issue in that landmark 1977 tenants' rights case – was sold in 1993 to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, a nonprofit affordable housing agency, which sold it a year later to a resident who, public records show, still owns the house and lives there.