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Starless version
Original image : flic.kr/p/2mAbyBW
-Equipment-
Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)
Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -15°C
Guiding: ZWO OAG
Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ5
Filter: Optrolong L-eXtreme
-Acquisition-
Light :218x300s ( 18h ) at Gain:101 Offset:49
Dark-100x300s Flat-50 Bias-100
Date : Take on 5 night 29, 30 september 2021
and 7, 8, 9 october 2021
Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5
-Software-
Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight
I use the ForaxX palette for HOO combination
ForaxX website : thecoldestnights.com
And the Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon
darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/
-Pre Processing in PixInsight-
Image Calibration
Cosmetic Correction
Debayer
Subframe Selector
Star Alignement
Local Normalization
Drizzle x2
Dynamic crop
-Processing
Split the master_LRGB into L, R, G, B layer
DynamicBackgroundExtractor each layer
___RGB layer___
Split RGB channels for build Ha and Oiii
Ha=R Oiii= B*0.3+G*0.7
EZ_Soft Stretch
HOO combination with Foraxx formula
R=Ha
G=((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii
B=Oiii
Starnet++ for remove stars and build a mask nebula
Color Saturation
Curves Tansformation (K,saturation,hue)
Saturate stars for push up stars color
SCNR with star Mask for remove green in stars (OSC camera)
Bring back the stars with PixelMath
___L layer___
Ez_Deconvolution
Ez_Denoise
Ez_Soft Stretch
Ez_HDR
Local Histogram Equalization with nebula mask
UnsharpedMask with nebula mask
___LRGB___
Final Curve Transformation
DarkStructureEnhance script
EZ_Star Reduction
Starnet ++ in pixinsight to remove Stars
Save as BMP 32bit file
Clear skies !
Gaslighting.
Cultivarea discernământului performanțe critice artă înaltă evocarea textelor critice întrebări de afaceri reale răspunsuri demonstrații analize abordări,
codes cachés explorations esthétiques romantiques découvrir des œuvres intersections représentations juxtapositions surprenantes visions du monde,
καθιερωμένες αναφορές ριζικά σημεία στίξης αυστηρή σύνταξη προδοσία φανταχτερές προτάσεις ζωτικής σημασίας πειστικά γράμματα μιλούν έντονοι λεκτικοί συνειρμοί,
ترجمة الأوامر العقلانية ، النقاط غير المنتظمة ، الميزة المزدوجة ، توليد التعديلات ، الشحنات غير المحددة ، شظايا الفروق الخطابية المعاصرة العصرية,
formas suasorias ebullientes tripudiantes absurditates metaphysicae phrases normalized notae indeclinabiles logicae picturesque exempla intendens oculos legentium,
発行された本を彷彿とさせる明白なマスター黄金の方向煮るピアノ技術の調理エラー重要なお茶ありそうもないレシピフレーバーウォーターを装った比喩が明るく照らされた.
Steve.D.Hammond.
2025-01-28
Winter Star Party, Scout Key, FL
This is an HOO image. I processed using a workflow that included narrowband normalization. It is interesting to compare this image with the same image I posted a few weeks ago where I used the Foraxx palate.
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC
Guide Camera: QHY5III462
Telescope: Vixen ED80SF F/7.5
Mount: Losmandy G11
Integration: 32 x 900s=450m (7.5h)
Filter: Optolong Ultimate Dual
Capture: NINA
Processing: Pixinsight, Affinity
iTelescope T21
The comet is now rapidly fading. It is also descending toward the horizon in twilight so it is a race to see if the tail disappears before the comet is unobservable.
All four images processed together to normalize the brightness decline.
One of the astronomy events of 2024, and one that was widely observed,
Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.
The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.
The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).
The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Lazarevsky Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge located in St. Petersburg. It crosses the Little Nevka River, connecting Krestovsky Island and Petrogradsky Island. The bridge carries four lanes of road traffic and features an asymmetric design, with cable stays anchored to a pylon on the Krestovsky Island side.
Lazarevsky Bridge was completed in 2009. It replaced another bridge on the same site, which was built in 1949. The old bridge was a beam bridge made of steel and wood.
Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.
The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.
The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).
The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
This is how Artsy and I work during the 2nd half of the day. She's really a great partner to do pair programming with, always enthusiastically endorsing my craziest ideas and also silently taking the blame for many of my blunders.
"Yuck, who wrote this code? Was it you Artsy?" -- her face with a guilty look on it (it was actually me).
"Did we normalize that vector before taking the cross product?" -- blank expression telling me exactly what I need to know.
Artsy is also great at letting me know when it's time to take a break. I'm not sure what her official title would be, maybe Software Engineering Cheerleader or Assistant Software Engineer?
Target: NGC281 Pac-Man Nebula
The Pacman nebula is named for the video game it resembles. If you put the moon in front of this nebula you would just block it. It is located 9200 light years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia, which resembles a W or M in the northern skies.
Gear:
Mount: ZWO AM5
Main Cam: ZWO ASI294MC Pro @ gain 121 and 14F
Guide Cam: ZWO ASI120MM Mini with ZWO 30mm f/4 scope
Lens: Sigma 150-600 @ 600
Filter: Antlia ALP-T 5nm Ha and Oiii
Acquisition:
Light frames: Best 48 of 66 5 minute subs totaling 4 Hr integration
Sessions: 20-Sep-23
Location: Waller, Texas country road
Bortle: 5/6 ?
Moon: none for most of session
Processing
• PI - Subframe selector, WBPP
• GraXpert background
• PI SPCC
• PI Russel Croman - BXT NXT STX
• PI Starless Edits
○ Bill Blanshan Mike Cranfield Narrowband Normalization Tool
○ Bill Blanshan GHS Stretch
○ Curves
○ Dark Structure Enhance
• PI Stars Edits
○ Arcsinh Stretch
○ SCNR, Invert and SCNR
○ Curve Saturation
• PS ACR Black point, Highlights, Clarity, Dehaze
• PS Selective Colors
• PS Screen stars layer, copy stars layer/brighten it/mask in selective stars
• PS Watermark
Todo apunta a que la circulación de este tren se ha normalizado por completo constituyendo un poderoso aliciente para acercarnos al norte de la provincia de Burgos todos los jueves que podamos. Mi llegada a Pancorbo me recordó los viejos tiempos en los que según te bajabas del coche aparecía un tren al que, como mucho, le hacías una foto de circunstancias. Este jueves me ocurrió con un bonito TECO de Transfesa que se presentó segundos después de mi llegada. Pero, cuando aún no había terminado de soltar la inevitable retahila de improperios, llegó el turno de un siderúrgico de Renfe procedente de Miranda de Ebro.
" ¿Pero esto que es?" - me preguntaba una y otra vez sin salir de mi estupefacción.
Muy desconcertado, comencé a caminar hasta alcanzar el punto desde el que hice esta foto y en el trayecto me di la vuelta no menos de diecisiete veces por si acaso volvía a circular un tren, pero ya la línea había vuelto a su mísera realidad y no volví a ver un mercante hasta que tres horas después apareció el frutero de Continental. En esta ocasión contaba con la colaboración de un amigo que me dio la hora estimada del paso del tren por Pancorbo. La foto parecía que iba a ser un juego de niños pero a la hora señalada el tren se hacía de rogar y en su lugar se presentaba, arrastrándose a paso de tortuga, una solitaria y grafiteada 253 que para más recochineo se detuvo un buen rato a la altura del fotógrafo. Finalmente continuó su trayecto hacia Miranda y en ese momento reparé en una enorme nube que se había formado de la nada y que amenazaba con ocultar el sol. Pasaban los minutos y el TECO seguía sin aparecer mientras que la nube crecía irremisiblemente. Cuando por fin apareció el preciado objetivo del día lo hizo con tanta parsimonia que casi me da un ataque de ansiedad porque, además, la nube estaba a punto de tapar el sol. Finalmente el tren llegó a mi altura y su lentitud se convirtió en una ventaja porque pude hacerle fotos desde diferentes encuadres, algo que no es nada fácil cuando usas una cámara compacta. Finalmente la nube no consiguió salirse con la suya y pocos minutos después se evaporó para no volver a incordiar en toda la mañana.
Everything indicates that the circulation of this train has been completely normalized, constituting a powerful incentive to get closer to the north of the province of Burgos every Thursday that we can. My arrival at Pancorbo reminded me of the old days when, as you got out of the car, a train would appear to which, at most, you took a photo of circumstances. This Thursday it happened to me with a beautiful freight of the company Transfesa that appeared seconds after my arrival. But, when I had not yet finished releasing the inevitable string of insults, it was the turn of a Renfe steel freight from Miranda de Ebro.
" But what is this?" - I asked myself over and over again without leaving my stupefaction.
Very disconcerted, I started walking until I reached the point from which I took this photo and on the way I turned around no less than seventeen times in case a train was running again, but the line had already returned to its miserable reality and I did not see a freight again until three hours later Continental´s fruits freight appeared. On this occasion I had the collaboration of a friend who gave me the estimated time of the train passing through Pancorbo. The photo seemed like it was going to be child's play but at the appointed time the train was hard to come by and in its place appeared, crawling at a snail's pace, a solitary and graffitied TRAXX locomotive that, to be more annoying, stopped for a long time at the height of the photographer. Finally it continued its journey towards Miranda and at that moment I noticed a huge cloud that had formed out of nowhere and threatened to hide the sun. The minutes passed and the freight continued without appearing while the cloud grew inexorably. When the cherished goal of the day finally appeared, it did so slowly that I almost had an anxiety attack because, furthermore, the cloud was about to cover the sun. Finally the train reached my height and its slowness became an advantage because I was able to take photos of it from different frames, something that is not easy when you use a compact camera. Finally the cloud was not able to get away with it and a few minutes later it evaporated so as not to bother again in the whole morning.
L(RGB) = 6x480s(5x240s:5x240s:5x240s)
L = 1x1bin
RGB = 2x2bin
12" R-C in rodeo, new mexico (lightbuckets.com LB-0003)
stacked with deepskystacker
initial processing with pixinsight 1.5
- normalization of ngc1977 vs. m42 data
- all subs aligned to luminance data
- rgb merge
- combined ngc1977 and m42 data with pixel math to produce a single image
- deconvolution
- histogram stretch (x10) of merged rgb data and luminance data
enfuse:
- HDR blend of all exposures generated in pixinsight
- luminance: hard mask, mean=0.54026, sigma=0.23154
- rgb: hard mask, mean=0.64026, sigma=0.23154, l-star grey projector
- had to duplicate the unstretched exposure 8 times to recover trapezium
photoshop: remove geosynchronous satellite streaks
pixinsight:
- histogram fixes and color calibration of rgb images
- histogram fixes, dark structure enhancement and atrous wavelets on luminance image
- LRGB merge
- chop composite image back into 2 separate images
- further histogram fix of ngc1977 to better match m42
hugin:
- stitch of ngc1977 and m42 images
lightroom:
- fix red/magenta saturation (pixinsight is running without color management... long story)
- crop
comments: the deconvolution is kind of bad... its heavy duty signal processing work that requires more patience than i could muster. as a result i've got some ringing and sharpening of bogus features.
it was really hard to get the two images to have the same brightness even though the exposures were the same. different nights, different amount of moon, different sky transparency all conspire to make two identically exposed images very different.
finally this is HDR so although the relative brightness between m42 and ngc1977 should be correct, the dynamic range of both have been greatly compressed. most other treatements of these objects show ngc1977 much fainter than seen here. but what is realistic when dealing with astrophotography?
Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.
The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.
The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).
The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
“Writing Our America” longreads.com/2017/02/09/writing-our-america/
DONALD TRUMP’S FIRING OF JAMES COMEY IS AN ATTACK ON AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trump-has-atta...
―original photo by @junpyo18, 11 Feb. 2017
I try to lead a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, in my kitchen there is always the most healthy food that prolongs life and supplies the body with vitamins. Today I want to share with you 5 products that are almost always in my refrigerator.
⠀
Blueberries. Improves vision and slows down the aging process. Normalizes the work of the heart and blood vessels. It is useful for people with anemia and for its prevention. Of course, you can't get it all year round, but you can make stocks, and then plant compote (the main thing is not to pour water hotter than 60 degrees).
⠀
Nuts: pine nuts, pistachios, peanuts and others. All of them fill the body with energy, minerals and vitamins. Improve memory.
⠀
Fish. Preferably salmon or other oceanic fish containing a large amount of fish oil. Helps to clean blood vessels. And it's very easy to cook it.
⠀
🍅Persimmon. This is a natural storehouse of vitamins: A, P, E. I always buy it in winter. I love a soft, ripe one that melts in my mouth. I feel worse about the binder.
⠀
Sea cabbage. Contains spirulina, which prolongs life and helps the brain to avoid senile dementia. And a great addition to salads.
⠀
Of course, there are also dairy products and other vegetables. But it is all of the above that I love and buy most often.
And what products do you consume?
Share in the comments.👇
⠀
#dress #face #flashphotography #grass #hair #happy #head #leg #peopleinnature #plant #NikonD850
This view to the eyes and the chirping of birds in the background is indeed a therapy in itself... IMO, if that doesn't normalize your heart rate and blood pressure, then something is surely not right with you!
Hardly find time with my camera these days. Couldn't resist grabbing it with me while I took some visiting relatives for a stroll at Longwood Gardens.
The word autumn comes from the ancient Etruscan root autu- and has within it connotations of the passing of the year.[11] It was borrowed by the neighbouring Romans, and became the Latin word autumnus.[12] After the Roman era, the word continued to be used as the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French) or autumpne in Middle English,[13] and was later normalized to the original Latin. In the Medieval period, there are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century, it was in common use.
Paul Tracy - CHAMP Cars - Road America, Aug 12, 2007. INDECK - Forsythe Championship Racing. Tracy started 16th and finished 12th in the race, won by Sebastien Bourdais. This shot was taken from the inside of Canada Corner (Turn 12) at Road America. Cars decelerate rapidly at the end of a straight that is hidden from my view, then turn 90 degrees right, flashing in front of me for a second before racing back up a sweeping hill.
So the shot had to be timed based on sound and fleeting glimpses of the approaching car. I wanted to blur the colored curbing but capture the car close-up. So panning smoothly but very quickly was key to the shot. No cropping or Photoshop special effects here - I only normalized the lighting and contrast.
Technical Specs:
Camera/lens: Canon 5D with 70-300mm zoom set at 300mm
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/25
ISO: 400
About the Target
Messier 16, also known as the NGC 6611, and is associated with the popular names of :The Eagle Nebula", "The Star Queen Nebula", "The Spire", and lets not forget its most famous feature "The Pillars of Creation". It is a diffuse emission nebula associated with a star cluster in the constellation of Serpens. It is located about 5700 light years away.
Wikipedia tells us the following about the Pillars of Creation:
"Images produced by Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen using the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 greatly improved scientific understanding of processes inside the nebula. One of these became famous as the "Pillars of Creation", depicting a large region of star formation. Its small dark pockets are believed to be protostars (Bok globules). The pillar structure resembles that of a much larger instance in the Soul Nebula of Cassiopeia, imaged with the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2005[ equally characterized as "Pillars of Star Creation". or "Pillars of Star Formation".[11] These columns – which resemble stalagmites protruding from the floor of a cavern – are composed of interstellar hydrogen gas and dust, which act as incubators for new stars. Inside the columns and on their surface astronomers have found knots or globules of denser gas, called EGGs ("Evaporating Gaseous Globules"). Stars are being formed inside some of these.
X-ray images from the Chandra observatory compared with Hubble's "Pillars" image have shown that X-ray sources (from young stars) do not coincide with the pillars, but rather randomly dot the nebula. Any protostars in the pillars' EGGs are not yet hot enough to emit X-rays.
Evidence from the Spitzer Telescope originally suggested that the pillars in M16 may be threatened by a "past supernova". Hot gas observed by Spitzer in 2007 suggested they were already – likely – being disturbed by a supernova that exploded 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. Due to the distance the main blast of light would have reached Earth for a brief time 1,000 to 2,000 years ago. A more slowly moving, theorized, shock wave would have taken a few thousand years to move through the nebula and would have blown away the delicate pillars. However, in 2014 the pillars were imaged a second time by Hubble, in both visible light and infrared light. The images being 20 years later provided a new, detailed account of the rate of evaporation occurring within the pillars. No supernova is evidenced within them, and it is estimated in some form they still exist – and will appear for at least 100,000 more years."
About the Project
I don't know about you, but Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula is one of my Favorite objects in the sky. I think it started when I first saw the "Pillars of Creation" shot by the Hubble Space Telescope back in 1995.
www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-pillars-of-creation
That incredible image impressed me for a long time, so when I first started my astrophotographic journey 2019, it was one of the first targets I went after. It was a pretty crude image but I could see the "eagle" so I was pretty happy with it. Last summer I revisited M16, capturing images over two nights (a first for me at the time) and I processed it with Pixinsight - which I was just learning - and got a results that was a distinct improvement. At the time - a One-Shot-Color Camera was what I had, so no Hubble Palette for me. I upped my game by gathering more subs and experimented with more sophisticated processing techniques.
This Year's Capture
But this year - I was really psyched to try m16 for a third time. This time I had a telescope platform with a slightly longer focal length and I had a brand new ASI 2600MM-Pro Mono setup - so for the first time, I would be able to shoot with Narrowband and use the Hubble Palette to render the image in away similar to seen in that first Hubble image.
Then we hit Rochester's Monsoon Season of 2021……
I began this project back on the Fourth of July and took a 2.5 hours of subs before having to shut down. Given my site's tree line, I only have about a 3 hour window where I can shoot any given target. With some luck, 3 or 4 more nights should do it and I would have - I hoped - a wonderful image.
Since then I have set my gear up twice to try and capture more subs, only to be shutdown by the clouds. Finally - on Wednesday the 14th, ClearOutside suggested I had an opening. Gary Optiz - who is not only an accomplished astrophotographer but also a real weather wiz, warned me that we would be in the smoke plume from the forest fires out west and that would certainly impact imaging. The Moon was also up as well, but not too bad yet. This would be about my last opportunity to shoot for this project this year, so I had to go for it. The captures seemed to go well but the sky transparency was very bad due to the smoke and because of the high humidity (dew was forming on the scope tubes and running off in streams!)
The Resulting Data
When I looked at the data the next day - I could see that I would have some processing challenges. First I had way fewer frames than I wanted (the story of my life!). When I scanned all of my frames with Blink I found about 25% of them had some evidence of very thin clouds passing through the frame. This would normally would cause me to cull these images before stacking - but I had so few frames this time - I was very reluctant to do so. I really fought hard for those frames and I wanted to get some value from them.
The Processing
The problem here is that the impacted images had very different gradients depending on when they were taken. This would cause what would look like a higher variance for a given pixel when sampled across the subs. This would raise havoc with the rejection algorithms and would cause the final pixel values to be off. I have been hearing about a new script in Pixinsight called NormaliseScaleGradients that does something kind of cool. After calibration and registration, you pick a reference frame and each sub is normalized to the gradient seen in THAT reference frame. This effectively removes arbitrary differences due to thin clouds, stray lights and such. Now that all of the subs look more similar - the rejection algorithms can work more effectively and the image integration can now use more subs - weighted by their noise profiles. This suggests that even pretty bad frames can add some useful data to the final integrated results.
So I keep most of the bad images in the mix, they had their gradients normalized, and they were included in the final master image, weighted by noisy they were compared to other images.
Anything that lets you keep hard-fought subs into the mix is my friend!
I also had a problem where the size of the stars were a function of when I took the images. Narrowband stars always look a little funky anyways- and this was certainly not going to help.
So processing took a lot of time. I was very careful to maximize what I could with deconvolution and I was also able to shrink some of the star sizes using the deconvolution function by taking the point spread function model created by PFSImage and trimming the outer edges a bit before application. I picked up this type from a video by Adam Bock and it did help shrink the images. But I still had mismatched between the filter channels so I spent a lot of time with star masks trying to help things out. And I did help things a bit - they were much better than when I started, but having said that - don't look to carefully at the stars in this image as they the are still a mess!
Capture Information
Lights Frames
• 18 x 300 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, Gain 100.0, Astronmiks 6nm Ha Filter
• 14 x 300 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, Gain 100.0, Astronmiks 6nm OIII Filter
• 15 x 300 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, Gain 100.0, Astronmiks 6nm SII Filter
• Total of 3.9 hours
Cal Frames
• 30 Darks at 300 seconds, bin 1x1, -15C, gain 100
• 25 Dark Flats at Flat exposure times, bin 1x1, -15C, gain 100
• Flats done separately for each evening to account for camera rotator variances:
○ 25 Ha Flats
○ 25 OIII Flats
○ 25 SII Flats
Capture Hardware
Scope: Astrophysics 130mm Starfire F/8.35 APO refractor
Guide Scope: Televue 76mm Doublet
Camera: ZWO AS2600mm-pro with ZWO 7x36 Filter wheel with ZWO LRGB filter set,
and Astronomiks 6nm Narrowband filter set
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Camera Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Mount: Ioptron CEM60
Polar Alignment: Polemaster camera
Software
Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second guessing, editor regret and much swearing…..
A cable-stayed bridge has one or more towers (or pylons), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern or a series of parallel lines. This is in contrast to the modern suspension bridge, where the cables supporting the deck are suspended vertically from the main cable, anchored at both ends of the bridge and running between the towers. The cable-stayed bridge is optimal for spans longer than cantilever bridges and shorter than suspension bridges. This is the range within which cantilever bridges would rapidly grow heavier, and suspension bridge cabling would be more costly.
Cable-stayed bridges have been known since the 16th century and used widely since the 19th. Early examples often combined features from both the cable-stayed and suspension designs, including the Brooklyn Bridge. The design fell from favor through the 20th century as larger gaps were bridged using pure suspension designs, and shorter ones using various systems built of reinforced concrete. It once again rose to prominence in the later 20th century when the combination of new materials, larger construction machinery, and the need to replace older bridges all lowered the relative price of these designs.
The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.
The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).
The Great American Solar Eclipse
Observed and imaged on August 21st, 2017 from Sainte Genevieve, MO. (Totality of 2min 40sec)
This High-Dynamic-Range composite of the corona consists of 11 different exposure times ranging from 1/1000" to 1".
Equipment:
OTA: William Optics GT81 w/0.8x reducer (382mm fl at f/4.7)
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G (HEQ-5)
Imaging camera: Canon t3i (unmodified)
Software:
EQMOD
SETnC (automated camera control for eclipse imaging)
Photoshop
PixInsight
Acquisition:
ISO100
1/1000"
1/500"
1/250"
1/125"
1/60"
1/30"
1/15"
1/8"
1/4"
1/2"
1"
PreProcessing:
Photoshop:
Opened each exposure as a layer and manually aligned them all to each other.
Exported each aligned exposure as a TIFF.
PixInsight: (my take on the "Mean Stacking" method)
Used ImageIntegration tool with Average combination, no PixelRejection, no Normalization, and ignoring Weights and any NoiseEvaluation to stack all of the exposures together as an effective HDR.
Processing:
PixInsight:
DynamicCrop
HistogramTransformation x3 (using RangeMasks to essentially perform a masked stretch)
PixelMath equation "1-(1-$T)*(1-$T)" in conjunction with a RangeMask to push the outer corona details
HDRMultiscaleTransform with a scale of 9 layers
CurvesTransformation for slight contrast
UnSharpMask to sharpen outer corona with a RangeMask, and then inverting the RangeMask to sharpen the inner corona
LocalHistogramEqualization with an L mask to increase contrast and details in outer corona, then doing same thing but with a RangeMask to only work on inner corona.
CurvesTransformation for slight contrast
ACDNR for slight noise reduction
Export as TIFF
Photoshop:
Added the earthshine moon as a crop from my 1" exposure.
Histogram transformation followed by curves on the moon layer to show contrast in the moon.
UnSharp tool on the moon layer to sharpen moon features
Dust and Scratches with a 2pixel radius on the moon layer.
Final curves adjustment on the moon layer.
Flatten layers
MatchColor with a mask to saturate the prominences.
Flatten and export
Kevin was given some flowers on his birthday, so I decided to get some nice macro shots of them.
Also, can we please normalize giving men flowers? I think it's adorable.
TS-Optics Photoline 140mm f/6.5
ToupTek ATR2600C
iOptron CEM70G
Antlia Tri Band RGB Pro 2"
TS-Optics TSFlat3
49 frames - 300 sec
Moon 43%
Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)
Pixinsight NarrowBand Normalization - Palette SHO
Found this baby gecko in the kitchen sink this evening. It was on the side which houses the garbage disposal. I covered the disposal hole with a cup and chased it around for a minute or two before I was able to finally grab the little critter.
Since I don't see baby geckos too often, I decided I'd shoot it before I let it go.
After I slowly wandered around the house gathering up my camera gear and tripod, then went through the process of setting everything up, I let loose of the "slight" grip I had on it in order to get it into position to be shot.
As I slowly released pressure, it became quite clear he wasn't going anywhere. He didn't move at all. Even when I tried to scoot him off my finger, he just looked up at me and laid there...Legs splayed and motionless.
I was horrified thinking I had accidentally turned it into a little quadriplegic...And where on Earth was I gonna find an electric wheel chair small enough?!
After I dropped a little water on his head he slowly began to normalize. I guess my "slight" grip crushed the wind outta the little fella.
My new problem was I couldn't get him off me. I think he thought I was his mother. I'm not sure how he could have thought that since I wasn't wearin' a shirt at the time.
Anyway, I took advantage of him calling my hand home and took a number of photos. Most of 'em turned out pretty well. He was a great poser and wasn't frightened at all by the flash.
I'll post some others at a later date.
You can get a better view of him here.
IC410 CGEPro/STL6303/AOL/MOAG/TO A130 Ha Oiii Sii 9X900 bin1 Each channel normalized on max emmision, Instead of Hubble mapping this has H-alph as blue, Sii as red, Oii as green. I kind of like this mapping better, something is just unpleasant when you mix green with red :) This change was performed simply by extracting the RGB channels and recombining in a different order.
Renfe Viajeros S.A. (grupo Renfe Operadora): la UT 463-199 entra en la estación de Soto de Rey, realizando un tren de Cercanías hacia Oviedo. Esta UT fue construida con solo dos coches (numerada como 462-099), y durante un tiempo fue utilizada por el fabricante CAF como tren de investigación de desarrollos tecnológicos propios. En el año 2009 se le añadió un remolque intermedio, pasando a formar parte de la serie 463, y normalizándose con el resto de la serie.
Renfe Viajeros S.A. (Renfe Operadora group): the EMU 463-199 enters the Soto de Rey station, working a Cercanías train to Oviedo. This EMU was built with only two cars (numbered 462-099), and for a time it was used by the manufacturer CAF as a research train for its own technological developments. In 2009 an intermediate trailer was added, becoming part of the 463 series, and normalizing with the rest of the series.
Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.
The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.
The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).
The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
This piece is really a culmination of the past year and so many thoughts and fears that it brought to the forefront on my mind. It feels to me like so many of our collective difficulties lately have been somehow rooted in apathy. We've gotten so used to seeing our planet in her worst possible state that it's almost completely normalized for so many. Our waste is out of control and it's killing all of us - not just the marine life filled with plastic bags and prescription medications. It's gotten too easy to ignore the damage we're doing because it's not constantly in our face. Can you imagine what would happen if someone picked up their 7 year old from school only to find they'd ingested plastic bags, or trash tangled in their clothes. But that is what our oceans look like and people are constantly releasing balloons into the air without a thought as to what will happen when a bird gets tangled in the strings. Plastic cutlery is used once and thrown away, and it's that thought that inspired this piece. We have become so accustomed to doing things 'the easy way' that we don't realize the impact of our waste on the planet. I'm really not trying to be cruel, it just seems like we don't pay attention to important things until it's an emergency and without a doubt, this IS an emergency. There is no question about it - we are strangling this beautiful planet and ourselves in the process. We are stripping the things away from her that she needs to survive and to sustain our lives. Doesn't that seem counter-intuitive to you? I constructed this piece from many, many shots of plastic cutlery to form their own 'murmuration' - sort of a 'bird's eye view' of the ocean's pillaging. People of planet Earth, we have to do better than this. We are bigger than this and can be compassionate with our world as well as each other. We are capable of that and SO much more.
Anima Series 6
Lismore NSW Australia 2025
HUMANITY 101
When we communicate with someone through a social network, we’re already disconnected from them physically.
We’re not in each other’s physical presence to experience the tone of their voice, their body language and gestures, their personal energy – but at least there’s ‘someone’ on the other end of the line.
Yet when the other person uses an AI to communicate, there’s a double layer of disconnect.
No longer are we indirectly sharing with or responding to another human being, but instead we’re indirectly talking to their program!
And here’s the rub -
Once we normalize communicating via AI, the last vestige of human contact disappears altogether and is replaced by an automated proxy.
It’s not thoughts and feelings typed directly by hand into a keyboard we’re dealing with, but a language model that mimics human behaviour through a probability distribution algorithm that predicts a likely human response.
There’s no beating heart at the other end of the phone line, no lived history, no physical encounter of the world – just a set of mathematical instructions.
Speaking for myself, I’d rather communicate with a real person.
I’d rather invest my valuable time and energy with a fellow biology rather than with a soulless machine – however clever.
Why?
Because I value humanity. I value our physical existence and the opportunity to share that experience with likeminded souls.
It’s what being human is all about – reaching out to someone, not some ‘thing’.
Darwin Jingili Water Gardens Day 3-4
After 3 three days of enacting a forced repetitive activity, I am starting to feel obsessive. I have a clear mind, however, I am annoyed by not being able to achieve other to-do duties of the day. Not that walking through Jingili Water Gardens is overbearing. I am finding it pleasurable. The oxygen is clean, birds are singing, people are greeting and the temperature is wonderful. What I am finding obsessive is that writing a reflection is time-consuming. So to alleviate this pressure I am restricting my reflection from a daily event to incorporating two days of walking through Jingili Water Gardens into one reflection.
Do I feel driven to engage in one reflection per activity? Yes.
Do I feel anxiety and guilt for not achieving my goal? Yes.
Did I underestimate the commitment? Yes.
In three days I lost control of my task and had to reprocess how I am to achieve purpose without re-purposing or letting go. My holiday intention was to not 'just do it' with the purpose of performing an activity that bridges yesterday, today, and tomorrow. That is a bridge I have identified to assist in gaining creative insight.
In regards to simultaneously observing my thinking and my thoughts about my thinking, I have realized a subset that underlies my problem. My day three and four walks around Jingili Water Gardens were more or less the same, however not exactly the same. The people involved are becoming real. Certain people appear at the same location every second day. Others appeared further along or behind their point of interaction. I even noted an individual's loop point. In each iteration, my behavior is normalizing. It is no longer a question on whether I say "good morning". It is now a question of whether I maintain expectations.
My Jingili Water Gardens walk now includes cognitive empathy. That is, I am thinking about my interaction and the third person's interaction. Does the push-bike rider evade me, or do I demonstrate prior evasion? Do I stand ground, step aside, smile, or frown based on their physical conveyance. Then once demonstrated, do we both accept the contract is as ongoing?
This cognitive realization gained by employing repetition, questions my good as well as the good of combined interaction and that of the third person initiative. Each small smile or frown can be quickly established as the norm, however, each interaction occurs in a slightly different place along the path. Does this mean that each interaction with the same person can be influence by where and when? Then if I alter my reaction to each location am I distorting my emotional empathy to confuse the comforts of repetition? Do I maintain consistency for the satisfaction of sameness disregarding the actual difference?
My thoughts are now questioning the identification of purpose. If I ignore the interactions I ignore my intention of gaining understanding through repetitive activity. Are fleeting interactions as important as the actual length and time of walk? Likewise, are the inhabiting people of the tourist location as important as the UNESCO world heritage site? Underneath this reflection is whether my cognitive gain of completing an activity of the intended activity or is it the minor and fleeting people interactions within the activity, the gained merit?
Thinking about this problem could be part of the creative problem I started with. In short, my problem could be someone else's perspective. Rather than trying to solve my problem through my cognitive questioning, I should apply my interpretation of other people's thinking of me.
If I am to stay focussed on repetitive behaviors I may need to self-reflect as someone else rather than being self-focussed. This could be a formal way of letting myself into myself as a third person. Can I become inclusive of myself through a base of problem-solving myself? Constructing a user-friendly approach that pays attention to my cognitive misunderstandings and emotional positioning on the service/products that I create. That is collaborating with myself as a third person(s).
www.jjfbbennett.com/2020/07/darwin-jingili-water-gardens-...
Click on the shot to see it over black background !!!
Frankly speaking I'm an adorer of places like Edessa, because honestly there is a unique, beautiful and interesting shot at almost every place you may cast your glance at !!! It is practically one of the places that can be called a photographer's paradise ...
I honestly believe that it is a mistake to shoot at only alternative views of the main theme ... You should try to search for secondary, minor details that deffinitely exist around a major worth seen event, that make a positive impact on you and try to take them down by setting off the element that hit your eye in the first place !!!
Undoubtedly my friends a successful shot is a shot that initially makes an intense impression on the photographer ... This is, I believe, the third component of a successful photograph (the other two being proper lighting and interesting synthesis) ...
In other words, don't bother to try to impress others with a theme that basically you are not impressed by !!! It's simply not gonna happen !!!!
EXIF: NIKON D90 with Nikon Nikkor 18 - 55 lens, Shutter Speed priority (I was after the long exposure effect of the waterfall), f 32 (a very small f value chosen by D90 in order not so much to define the clarity of DOF but to normalize the exposure of the shot and to compensate for the large shutter speed), ISO 200, focal length 42 mm, manual exposure selection, cloudy weather adjusted white balance, center weighted average light metering mode, use of ND HOYA X2 filter, HDR made by only one original RAW shot with shutter speed 1/4 s, managing to accurately convey the scene's cloudy atmospere's lighting conditions to the viewer, flash didn't go off, no tripod ....
© Copyright - All rights reserved
01 April 2018
Its into the 9th year since I shot this and the situation in the DTES has only deteriorated. Governments have worsened the situation by piling more social housing in the area adding to the “customers with no cash” syndrome. The area is named “Canada’s poorest postal code” by activists and the poverty pimps love the situation making the area one of “Canada’s richest postal codes”, the only differenence being the pimp money goes home at night. Helpful groups support too many by offering them food daily with zero obligation. Its become an impossible sitiuation to address given the current state of political governance.
I wish this was just a sick April Fools Day joke but unfortuantely not.
Sleeping on a sidewalk in the Downtown East Side (DTES) of Vancouver BC takes on a different sense of survival than is observed in many west side sleepers. A combination of mental issues, drug sale and use, area resident poverty and the resulting community of "Customers With No Cash" combine for a perfect locale to take advantage of people on the edge where living is not comparable to what most of us bring to mind in our own comfortable world. Prostitution and drugs are a large part of this community. One can not help feel sorry and remorseful this exists in self important Vancouver.
The irony of this photo is it was shot about 10 feet from the entrance of BC Housing's recently opened Orange Hall office (open 10 am to 4 pm Monday to Friday) 297 Hastings Street at Gore Ave. This situation has steadily gone downhill since the Federal Governemt cut back funding for social housing.
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH:
From BC Housing website:
October 3rd, 2014
VICTORIA – The B.C. government is strengthening the non-profit housing sector by transferring provincially-owned properties to non-profit housing providers.
The Province owns approximately 350 parcels of land throughout British Columbia that are currently leased long-term to non-profit housing providers who own and operate social housing buildings on these properties.
The non-profit housing sector has been asking for this step for many years. Having ownership of the land will improve a non-profit’s ability to support better long-term planning and selfsufficiency. Owning the lands they operate on will also help non-profits secure the financing they need to be sustainable.
In order to transfer title, the Province will end these leases, and then transfer ownership of the land to the societies. The properties will be transferred at fair market value. The Province will assist the societies to secure mortgages on the properties. The current operating agreement that BC Housing has with each non-profit society will remain in place. Approximately 115 properties will be transferred by March 31, 2015, and the rest will be transferred over the next three years.
In addition, the Province is looking to transfer ownership of two properties currently managed by BC Housing to non-profit societies. The Province will begin the process by posting Expressions of Interest for Nicholson Tower and Stamps Place in Vancouver shortly.
Tenants will not be impacted by these transfers, and the amount of affordable housing stock will remain stable. Non-profit societies have been providing social housing in B.C. for more than 60 years. Today more than 90% of social housing is managed by non-profit societies.
THE GLOBE & MAIL:
FRANCES BULA
VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Oct. 13 2014
Vancouver won’t solve street homelessness until both the city and province focus on targeting the limited supply of expensive social housing to those who need it most, say experts.
That means help can’t go to anyone who passes through a shelter or an outdoor camp or even to someone who sleeps outside temporarily. In the vast majority of cases, people who become homeless experience it briefly and are able to avoid losing housing again.
But people working on eliminating homelessness do not always understand that the thousands of people who experience homelessness in a year don’t all need expensive subsidized housing. That should be reserved for the chronically homeless, who are not sufficiently helped by temporary assistance with rent or other social supports.
“For nearly 90 per cent of people counted as homeless, they’ll get themselves out of homelessness on their own,” says Tim Richter, who led Calgary’s 10-year plan to end homelessness and is now the president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. “It’s critical to set priorities. It shouldn’t be first-come, first-served.”
One of the region’s most experienced homelessness researchers, former Vancouver city-hall staffer Judy Graves, said the city is reaping the results of city and provincial staff not always setting the right priorities for the past six years. This past winter, Vancouver still had a count of 533 people sleeping outside (less than in 2008, but more than in 2011), even though the province and city have opened up thousands of new social-housing units rented at welfare-level rates.
It’s an issue that is returning to haunt Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who promised in 2008 to end street homelessness by 2015, during this fall’s civic-election campaign.
His administration, which has pushed the issue non-stop since he was first elected, has recently exceeded previous efforts by jumping last month into paying for all the costs of converting a downtown Quality Inn to transitional housing, as well as all the costs of a new shelter nearby. Usually the province covers the majority of costs for both of those kinds of housing.
But Ms. Graves said even that unusual effort, accompanied by several hundred other new provincial units about to open, isn’t going to solve the problem by January, 2015.
That’s because the province is only committed to using half of the incoming housing units for the chronically homeless. And city staff also don’t always correctly identify who is the most in need.
“Both the city and province have bought into housing by wait lists,” said Ms. Graves. “It just can’t work. You have to work as though you’re in a disaster zone.”
She said she had doubts that the majority of people who camped in Oppenheimer Park over the summer were homeless, but they got priority for the scarce number of rooms available.
As well, in the early stages of the province’s big social-housing construction push, which will see 14 towers completed with around 1,400 units by the end, non-profit operators were simply moving people from residential hotel rooms into the new buildings.
That meant the housing didn’t go to the chronically homeless and the most in need, but worse, it then allowed landlords in the residential hotels to do renovations, raise rents, or refuse new low-income tenants once the former tenants were relocated to social housing.
That then reduced the overall number of private, low-cost housing units in the city. Ms. Graves said the whole region is experiencing an acute shortage of those kinds of private units now. It has become a game of musical chairs for housing-outreach workers to get a low-cost unit for someone trying to get out of shelters or off the street, she said.
All cities are grappling with constant pressures that create more homelessness at the front end: low working-class incomes that can’t keep up with gentrification and rising rents key among them, said Ms. Graves. That has left cities trying to solve the problem at the back end, trying to house all the people made homeless as a result of many larger forces.
24 HRS VANCOUVER - 16 OCT 14
16 Oct 2014 24 Hours VancouverJANE DEACON Comment at vancouver.24hrs.c
Laura Dilley, PACE Society Action Week, PACE plans to draft housing recommendations for city council before the coming election.
“Oftentimes we will create housing models not including the voices of those we would be housing,” said Dilley.
Rising rent prices that force people out of SROs is a significant factor, as well as landlords who refuse to rent to sex workers out of legal concerns, said Dilley. Low- income housing conditions that require tenants stay in at night or guests to sign in are also significant barriers. She estimates between 10 to 15% of sex workers fall under the category of “survival” or street- based prostitution. For that vulnerable population, simply switching professions is often not an option, said Dilley.
“They’re really forced and entrenched to continuously do that work because they have no options out of it, because we have such stigma in our society that they can’t seek help, they can’t find affordable housing, so they’re really stuck in that situation,” she said.
17 April 2019:
B.C. drug users demand clean supply, but fear they won’t live to see it happen
By David P. BallStar Vancouver
Tues., April 16, 2019
VANCOUVER—Several hundred Vancouverites marked three years since the province declared a public health emergency over the thousands of people killed by overdoses.
But as they marched Tuesday from the safe-injection clinic Insite through downtown Vancouver, advocates say “contaminated” drugs have taken a toll on their own leaders.
For B.C. Association of People on Methadone member Garth Mullins, the losses are mounting, and it’s been destabilizing and “disorganizing” for the drug-reform movement.
“We’ve lost rank and file members and leaders in such high numbers over the last five years,” he said, wearing a distinctive black case of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone on his belt. “It’s hard to organize or think strategically when you’re always doing triage, planning a memorial.”
Just last month the president of his organization, Chereece Keewatin, died from a fentanyl overdose. Mullins knew Keewatin for at least six years, and invited her to join the editorial board of the podcast Crackdown, of which he is executive producer.
“Chereece was really little, but she had this tremendous capacity to lift people’s spirits,” he said in an interview. “You’d have meetings where we talk about really, really bleak subjects, but she had these funny asides to cut through the bleakness.
“She made people laugh. In that way, she took responsibility for the whole collective emotional state of the group.”
It’s not just the B.C. Association of People on Methadone that’s seen the direct “casualties” of what Mullins called “a war.” The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and the national Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs have also lost high-ranking board members in recent years.
Since 2016, nearly 11,000 people have died across Canada from opioid overdoses, according to the most recent federal and provincial data. The majority of those deaths were from opioids such as fentanyl or its more deadly variants, but B.C. remains the epicentre for roughly a third of those deaths, 1,500 of them last year alone.
On average, four British Columbians died every day from overdoses last year, much higher than the national average and largely unchanged since the province’s April 2016 declaration of a public health emergency.
11 May 2020
.
A wall mural in the DTES poses a valid question, "how do we end the drug crisis"? A more basic question, how did we get here?
Vancouver, B.C. is consistently ranked at the top of the list for the world’s most liveable cities - but not for many in the DTES.
The city has a dirty little secret that it has been trying to suppress for decades. The historic four-block area near East Hastings and Main Street — the DTES — known as one of the “poorest postal codes” in Canada, has a combination of drug use, HIV, homelessness, prostitution, mental illness, and crime all making up this poor off neighbourhood.
To be successful as a drug lord you need a steady, reliable, cheap supply of product, a location where you can operate relatively free from prosecution and away you go. The prime location ingredients Vancouver offers is the DTES.
Over the decades continuing city administrations have built a community of “customers with no cash” by loading the DTES with blocks of not for profit social housing. Along with the myriad of Single Room Occupancy hotels (SRO's) the area is prime territory for the drug trade.
Social housing should be spread throughout the city to provide a society of different financial means for common support - IMO.
Administrations over the years have been loath to attempt social housing in the rich city enclaves due to onerous push back. It was and still is more expedient to keep adding more social housing in the DTES where there is minimal opposition.
***** Today there are at least 6 City of Vancouver development permit applications on file for more social housing in the DTES.
The process is welcomed by the myriad of DTES support service groups who like their clientele close at hand and the clientele are fine with it as services are nearby.
DTES government and service support groups along with poverty pimp lawyers who have a hissy fit if anyone tries to change the dial, while also making money off the situation, has resulted in the perfect condition for drug dealers to flourish.
Social housing residents, many older, Asian and often mentally challenged are living in a hell hole neighbourhood with little individual voice.
In recent years, the area is seeing an east creeping gentrification. This is causing the DTES street population to be squeezed into a smaller footprint resulting in more confrontation and the appearance of a worsening situation even though overall the numbers of street people remains fairly constant.
The amount of taxpayer dollars spent in the area is staggering with little to show for the investment.
Vancouver has always had a drug problem. The opioids of choice — and the increasingly staggering death toll — have changed over the years.
In 2017 Fentanyl killed so many Canadians it caused the average life expectancy in B.C. to drop for the first time in decades. But for crime kingpins, it became a source of such astonishing wealth it disrupted the Vancouver-area real estate market.
SOME BACKGROUND:
Excerpt from the Province Newspaper by reporter Randy Shore 18 March, 2017.
When members of the Royal Commission to Investigate Chinese and Japanese Immigration came to Vancouver in 1901, they got an eyeful.
“There were whole rooms of Chinese lying stretched out on beds with the opium apparatus laid out before them — all unmindful that their attitudes and surrounding conditions are being taken note of to assist in keeping the remainder of their countrymen entirely out of Canada,” reported the Vancouver World newspaper.
The fringes of Vancouver’s Chinatown have always been the centre of Canada’s opiate trade. Ever more potent and easily smuggled versions emerged through the decades, culminating in the scourge of synthetic opiates — fentanyl and carfentanil — thousands of times more powerful and many times more deadly than opium.
Opium was a source of revenue for governments of the day. A federal duty imposed on importers fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars between 1874 and 1899. In B.C. ports, and cities charged hundreds of dollars to purveyors in the form of business licences.
Between 1923 and 1932, more than 700 Chinese men were deported for drug-related violations.
Under constant pressure from the police, opium users began to inject their hit, as the technique created no smoke or aroma and used smaller equipment, which could be easily hidden. In the 1920s and 1930s, white users tended to be young criminals, “racetrack hands, and circus and show people” who smoked opium or sniffed heroin.
By the mid-1930s, heroin was one of the most common drugs in circulation and white users were increasingly taking the drug intravenously, especially as prices rose due to scarcity brought about by vigorous law enforcement.
The outbreak of the Second World War put opiate addicts into a state of crisis, as opiate drugs were required in great quantities for the war wounded. The street price of a hit — whether heroin, morphine or codeine — shot up and crime along with it.
In the post-war period, right through to the mid-’60s, Vancouver was ground zero for Canada’s intravenous drug scene, made up mainly of petty criminals, troubled youths fed by drug lords.
Before the ’40s were over, highly refined white heroin had appeared and it was coming from overseas to satisfy a hungry market in Vancouver, home to half of the country’s drug users.
Heroin use remained a constant undercurrent in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside during the ’70s and ’80s, even as alcohol was the neighbourhood’s real drug of choice.
But a flood of a new and even more potent “China White” heroin arriving into the city reignited public outrage in the early ’90s. A spate of 331 overdose deaths in 1993 spurred B.C. coroner Vince Cain to call for the decriminalization of heroin and addicts be prescribed the drug to legally maintain their habit.
It would be nearly 15 years before the Study to Assess Long-term Opioid Maintenance Effectiveness (SALOME) began in Vancouver, just about the time a new threat emerged.
Up to 80 times as powerful as heroin, fentanyl hit the streets and reduced the risk for traffickers as it was so concentrated, transportation was easier.
The carnage wrought by fentanyl has been without precedent.
Heroin seized in drug busts is routinely cut with fentanyl and in recent months the presence of carfentanil.
SUMMARY:
Where will this go next, who knows ?
The richest of societies should be especially judged by how they treat their least fortunate, and Vancouver has its challenge set out for the foreseeable future.
UPDATE 23 MAY 2020 - VANCOUVER SUN
John Mackie: The Downtown Eastside is a war zone disaster — stop ghettoizing it.
John Mackie, Vancouver Sun 23 May 2020
Twenty years ago local musician Kuba Oms was recording at the Miller Block, a now defunct Hastings Street recording studio near Save-On-Meats.
He jaywalked and was stopped by a cop, who handed him a ticket.
“I said ‘Are you kidding me?’” Oms recounts. “You know there’s a guy shooting up over there, and a crack dealer over there. And the cop said ‘That’s a health issue.’”
That story pretty much sums up the city’s attitude toward the Downtown Eastside over the past few decades.
In some ways the cop was right — it is a Vancouver health issue. But letting people openly do drugs in public and turn Hastings and the wider Downtown Eastside into a ghetto is political correctness gone mad.
Drive down Hastings Street between Abbott and Gore and you’ll see dozens, even hundreds of people hanging out on the street, in various states of sobriety. They are definitely not social distancing. It’s a miracle that COVID-19 hasn’t swept the entire area.
The height of this madness was the recent occupation of Oppenheimer Park. Vancouver has real issues of homelessness, but to some degree Oppenheimer was about a fringe group of politicos manipulating the homeless.
Many police resources were diverted to the park and there was a crime wave in nearby Chinatown — one business closed because they were being robbed a dozen times a day.
The province recently made hotel rooms available for the homeless people occupying Oppenheimer Park, so things have calmed down somewhat. But the big question is what happens in a few months? Is government going to find permanent homes for them?
Odds are if they do, it will be in highrises in the Downtown Eastside. For decades that’s where the city and province have been concentrating social housing, especially for the mentally ill and drug addicted.
Their argument is these residents feel comfortable there. But the reality is the more poverty is concentrated, the worse the area seems to become.
Maybe it’s time for the city of Vancouver to give its head a shake and realize that its much-ballyhooed Downtown Eastside Plan is actually part of the problem, not the solution.
Part of the plan decrees you can’t build condos on Hastings between Carrall Street in Gastown and Heatley Avenue in Strathcona, or in historic Japantown around Oppenheimer Park.
Development in those areas has to be rental only, with at least 60 per cent social housing. This pretty much ensures that no market housing is built in the poorest area of the city.
When the plan was unveiled in 2014, Vancouver’s former head planner Brian Jackson said the aim was to ensure that low-income people in the Downtown Eastside weren’t displaced.
“The plan is attempting to achieve balance,” he explained then.
In fact, the plan does the exact opposite. There is no balance in the Downtown Eastside: It’s been turned into a ghetto. A friend who’s worked there for two decades calls it a war zone.
The city desperately need some market housing, co-ops and development on Hastings and around Oppenheimer. The anti-poverty activists will scream blue murder that it’s gentrification, but it’s actually normalization. You don’t have to displace anybody, you just have add a different mix to make it safer.
I live in Strathcona, where about 6,500 people live in social housing and about 3,500 in market homes. It’s a close-knit neighbourhood that has the balance Brian Jackson was taking about — it’s diverse and features a variety of incomes.
Japantown and the Downtown Eastside could be a real neighbourhood again if the city retained its stock of handsome historic buildings but allowed some development of its many non-descript structures.
It could be like Strathcona, even the West End. But I fear it could get even worse, if the planners and politicians continue to concentrate all the Lower Mainland’s poverty and social ills in one small area.
jmackie@postmedia.com
John Mackie is a veteran Postmedia reporter who has written several stories about Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside Plan.
13 JULY, 2020
Vancouver can’t catch up to its housing crisis
ADRIENNE TANNER
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED 13 JULY 2020
It is obvious now the cheers that erupted when Vancouver’s longest running tent city was dismantled were wildly premature. Fearing a COVID-19 outbreak would take hold in the overcrowded inner-city camp, the provincial government in April acquired emergency housing in hotels for homeless people living there and cleared the site.
Many camp residents embraced the offer of a clean room. Some refused and relocated outdoors. The camp shifted, first to some empty Port of Vancouver land, and when a court order quickly shut it down, finally landed in Strathcona Park. With each move, it grew.
Today there are about 150 tents Strathcona Park, roughly double the number there were in Oppenheimer Park. How many inhabitants are truly homeless is anyone’s guess. Some of the tents were erected by activists with homes. Others belong to people living in single room occupancy hotels, the worst of which are noisy, bug-infested and so hot that some residents prefer to spend summer outside.
There is already an air of permanence to the camp; the city has installed porta-potties, fresh drinking water and handwashing stations. Park rangers drop by a few times daily. The area is reasonably clean, but these are early days.
Strathcona residents are largely sympathetic to homeless people, but are understandably unhappy about losing a large chunk of park space. They fear the same violence and social disorder that cropped up at Oppenheimer is inevitable; there has already been a small fire and there appears to be a bike chop shop on site. There are cries for the city to sanction a permanent tent city location – elsewhere, of course.
So how exactly did the province’s efforts to shut down a tent city and house homeless people backfire so badly? The city and provincial officials have been out-manoeuvered and out-organized by anti-poverty activists who seized a COVID-19 opportunity when they saw it.
The pandemic raised fears the Oppenheimer tent city would turn into a reservoir of disease that could overwhelm the health system. The activists know that’s why the government cleared the camp and purchased hotels for social housing. They understand this is the moment to highlight society’s failure to solve homelessness, even if their end goals seem to differ. Some are calling for permanent housing – others prefer the idea of a permanent, free-wheeling tent city.
The sorry truth is, even with the addition of 600 units of temporary modular housing and, more recently, the purchase of three downtown hotels, there are still more homeless people than homes. Successions of governments at all levels have allowed this crisis to grow. They’ve failed to build enough social housing. Failed to provide adequate mental health services. Failed to fund enough drug rehabilitation programs for those who want to quit and provide a safe drug supply for those who can’t.
So, now here we are with the largest homeless camp the city has ever seen and another stressed-out neighbourhood. Legally, the new tent city may prove more difficult to dismantle – it’s a large park and the tents are well spaced so the pandemic may not wash as a valid reason. And unless housing is available for everyone who is homeless, it is unlikely the courts would grant an injunction.
Solving problems associated with homelessness is a huge challenge. We can start with housing, but that alone is not nearly enough. Many of the people living in the hotels and park are drug users. Many are mentally ill. Some are both. It takes money – and lots of it – to provide decent housing and supports for this segment of society.
But to cave to demands for a permanent tent city is an American-style admission of defeat. The park board seems resigned to tent cities in parks and is considering a bylaw seeking to control locations. City council has resisted sanctioning a permanent spot, instead offering up land for new social housing. The province has stepped up with money for temporary modular housing and purchases of hotels.
It will be tough to keep neighbourhoods onside if more parks are rendered unusable for recreation. There is only one palatable solution; the provincial government must stay the course and keep adding decent, affordable housing. It won’t be cheap or easy. Catchup never is.
01 APRIL 2022
More than 2,200 British Columbians lost to illicit drugs in 2021
The toxic illicit drug supply claimed the lives of at least 2,224 British Columbians in 2021, according to preliminary data released by the BC Coroners Service.
“Over the past seven years, our province has experienced a devastating loss of life due to a toxic illicit drug supply,” said Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner. “This public health emergency has impacted families and communities across the province and shows no sign of abating. In 2021 alone, more than 2,200 families experienced the devastating loss of a loved one. In the past seven years, the rate of death due to illicit drug toxicity in our province has risen more than 400%. Drug toxicity is now second only to cancers in B.C. for potential years of life lost. We cannot simply hope that things will improve. It is long past time to end the chaos and devastation in our communities resulting from the flourishing illicit drug market, and to ensure, on an urgent basis, access across the province to a safe, reliable regulated drug supply.”
The last two months of 2021 saw the largest number of suspected illicit drug deaths ever recorded in the province, with 210 deaths in November and an additional 215 in December. The 2,224 total number of deaths is 26% more than the 1,767 illicit drug-related deaths investigated by the BC Coroners Service in 2020, and equates to an average of 6.1 lives lost every day.
The provincewide death rate in 2021 was 42.8 per 100,000 residents. Every health authority in B.C. experienced a record loss of lives.
Since the public health emergency into substance-related harms was first declared in April 2016, more than 8,800 British Columbians have been lost to toxic drugs.
Toxicological testing once again underscores the reality that the illicit drug supply continues to be unstable and increasingly toxic. Fentanyl was detected in 83% of samples tested in 2021. Carfentanil was present in 187 results, almost triple the number recorded in 2020 (66).
Additionally, 50% of samples in December tested positive for etizolam, more than three times the rate of detection in July 2020 (15%). Benzodiazepines create significant challenges for life-saving efforts as naloxone does not reverse its effects. As with previous reporting, almost all test results included the presence of multiple substances.
“We need decision-makers at all levels to recognize and respond to this public health emergency with the level of urgency it demands,” Lapointe said. “The reality is this: every day we wait to act, six more people will die. COVID-19 has shown what is possible when goverments act decisively to save lives. And in order to save lives in this public-heath emergency, we need to provide people with access to the substances they need, where and when they need them. Time has run out for research and discussion. It is time to take action.”
Additional key preliminary findings are below. Data is subject to change as additional toxicology results are received:
In 2021, 71% of those who died as a result of suspected drug toxicity were between 30 to 59, and 78% were male.
The townships that experienced the highest number of illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2021 were Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria.
By health authority, in 2021, the highest numbers of illicit drug toxicity deaths were in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health authorities (765 and 615 deaths, respectively), making up 62% of all such deaths during this period.
By health authority, in 2021, the highest rates of death were in Vancouver Coastal Health (49 deaths per 100,000 individuals) and Northern Health (48 per 100,000).
By Health Service Delivery Area, in 2021, the highest rates of death were in Vancouver, Thompson Cariboo, Northwest, Northern Interior and Fraser East.
By Local Health Area, in 2021, the highest rates of death were in Upper Skeena, Merritt, Enderby, Lillooet and North Thompson.
Quotes:
Dr. Nel Wieman, deputy chief medical officer, First Nations Health Authority –
“The number of deaths due to toxic drug poisonings for 2021 translates to devastating losses of First Nations people: daughters and sons, aunties and uncles, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and grandfathers and grandmothers. These are people who loved and were loved. In every year since this public health emergency was declared, B.C. First Nations people have been over-represented in toxic drug-poisoning events and deaths. We must change our understanding of the root causes of substance use and addiction, and work together to address the stigmas surrounding toxic drug use and the people who use drugs. We must continue to invest in Indigenous-specific, culturally safe harm-reduction, treatment and recovery services that are accessible, timely and free from discrimination and racism.”
Guy Felicella, peer clinical adviser, Vancouver Coastal Health –
“I join the thousands of British Columbians who are heartbroken, frustrated and angry over this unfathomable loss. Every one of these deaths was preventable and represents a failure to act, a failure to learn from mistakes. Change nothing and nothing changes. That’s been the story now for years as the approach throughout this crisis has been to meet policies where they’re at, rather than meeting people who use drugs where they’re at. This approach is killing and continues to kill people. Who has the courage to step forward and make this stop?”
AUGUST 2023
Today’s release of the report on drug toxicity deaths for the month of July 2023 by the BC Coroners Service is a stark reminder that the ongoing toxic-drug crisis continues to have a devastating impact on communities across our province. We hold in our hearts the memories of the 198 people lost in July in British Columbia.
The coroners service said the 1,455 deaths from January to July are the most ever reported in the first seven months of the year since a public health emergency over drug poisoning deaths in the province was declared in 2016.
It puts the province on pace to potentially exceed the 2,383 deaths recorded in 2022. A total of 12,739 people in the province have died from drug overdoses in the seven years.
30 NOVEMBER, 2023
At least 2,039 British Columbians have died from toxic drugs so far this year, according to preliminary figures released by the B.C. Coroners Service on Thursday, 29 November, 2023.
Of those, 189 people died in October, which is about 6.1 deaths a day. Most of the dead were between 30 and 59 years of age, and more than three-quarters were men, according to the coroner.
While the largest number of deaths reported so far has been in urban centres, such as Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria, the health authority with the highest rate of death in 2023 is Northern Health, with 61 deaths per 100,000 residents, according to the coroner.
As in previous months, fentanyl was found in most — 85 per cent — of the illicit drugs tested, often combined with other opioids or stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine.
Earlier this month, Interior Health issued a drug advisory warning for people who use drugs that some substances being advertised as hydromorphone on the black market contain isotonitazine, a drug the coroner says is as potent as fentanyl.
Unregulated drug toxicity is the leading cause of death in B.C. for people aged 10 to 59, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural disease combined, the coroner said.
Since a public health emergency was declared in 2016, more than 13,000 people have died.
JANUARY 2024:
Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, has released the following statement regarding the BC Coroners Service year-end report on illicit drug toxicity deaths:
“Today, as we reflect on the year behind us, our hearts are heavy with the loss of 2,511 people in British Columbia to toxic drugs. Each of these lives was precious and important, each with their own story, their own dreams and people who love them. They were part of our community, and their loss is felt deeply by us all.
So what is the game plane to stop it?
C. seeks to keep cash seized from Downtown Eastside gang
Courtesy Kim Bolan and the Vancouver Sun.
Kim Bolan is an experienced and award-winning journalist who has covered gangs in British Columbia for the past 40 years. Bolan also investigated the Air India bombing for 25 years until the publication in 2005 of her book, Loss of Faith.
The B.C. government has filed a lawsuit against a group of alleged Downtown Eastside drug traffickers, seeking the forfeiture of more than $150,000 seized from them.
The lawsuit, filed this week by the director of civil forfeiture, names four defendants that it alleges are part of a criminal organization investigated by the Vancouver Police Department.
While the group is not named in the statement of claim, details of the VPD probe outlined in the court document match an investigation into Zone 43 — a gang that originated in Montreal but has taken over the Downtown Eastside in recent years. Zone 43 has connections to B.C.’s notorious Wolfpack gang alliance.
In June, the VPD announced arrests of several Zone 43 gangsters, though they were released pending approval of charges.
The VPD said it had seized firearms, 24 kilos of drugs and $150,000 in cash during searches on May 14 in Vancouver and Burnaby.
The civil forfeiture lawsuit refers to three VPD searches done on the same date in the same cities and alleges Shayne Cozier-Flanagan, Evantee Jevontee Eustace Stoney, Tristin Johnson and Raimon Geday were “participating in the activities of a criminal organization.”
When police searched Stoney’s apartment on the 30th floor at 2388 Madison Ave. in Burnaby, they found $143,910.75 in Canadian currency and $607 in U.S. currency, the lawsuit said.
Officers seized another $5,800 at Cozier-Flanagan’s suite, also on the 30th floor, at 5665 Boundary Rd. in Vancouver, it said.
About $3,417 was seized from Johnson, who also lives in the Madison apartment, when he was arrested in the 300-block of East Hastings. Another $1,920 was found in Geday’s room in a supportive housing building on Kaslo Street, the lawsuit said.
The VPD also seized a 2017 Acura RDX, of which Stoney is the registered owner and which was used “to facilitate the trafficking of controlled substances,” the civil forfeiture director alleged.
The statement of claim notes that both Stoney and Geday have previous trafficking convictions and are banned from possessing firearms.
All four men named in the lawsuit “trafficked in controlled substances in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and the surrounding areas,” the lawsuit alleges.
In the Boundary apartment, police also found a money counter and business cards with the number to call to purchase drugs — known as a ‘dialer’ number.
In the Madison suite, the VPD also found dilaudid pills, oxycodone pills and “score sheets” documenting drug sales, collection and debts.
In Geday’s room, police found crack cocaine, powdered cocaine, crystal methamphetamine and another 275 dilaudid pills, as well as score sheets, bear spray and “miscellaneous drug packaging materials.”
The cash and car should be forfeited to the government because they are proceeds of or were used for unlawful activity, the lawsuit alleged.
The crimes committed include possession for the purpose of trafficking and trafficking, committing offences for the benefit of a criminal organization, conspiracy, money laundering and failure to declare taxable income, it alleged
No statements of defence have yet been filed on behalf of the four men.
Vancouver Police Insp. Phil Heard said at the June news conference that Zone 43 gangsters “pose a very significant risk to the public. They’re involved in a well-documented conflict ongoing in the province of Quebec with a rival group.”
Sources say the gang is still selling drugs in the Downtown Eastside.
AUGUST 2025:
The law protects the rights of the most vulnerable among us to live in filth and despair
Pete McMartin: I'm tired of how homelessness and addiction take up so much oxygen in the social discourse.
Published Aug 03, 2025
In 2014, Vancouver Sun reporter Lori Culbert and I wrote a weeklong series of stories identifying the government social welfare programs — and their cost to taxpayers — in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Over 100 programs existed just for housing. Thirty provided health care, 30 offered family services and a miscellany of another 100 services — including a food bank for pets — brought the total to 260 social welfare agencies operating solely within the eight square blocks of the DTES.
Those 260 programs served just 6,500 clients.
Five years earlier, in 2009, Province reporter David Carrigg also did a survey of the programs available in the DTES, and he identified 174 social welfare agencies offering services to about 5,000 clients.
In other words, in the five years between Carrigg’s survey and Culbert’s and mine, not only had the number of people needing help grown but so had the number of agencies serving them.
And the cost to taxpayers?
Over $360 million annually.
That astounding figure — almost a million dollars a day — did little to satisfy the DTES’s voracious appetite for tax dollars. More to the point, it did nothing to eradicate the misery and living conditions of the people who lived there.
Rather than winning the war on poverty — and what a quaint phrase that seems now — governments engineered a truce, with the unstated understanding that if they couldn’t solve the problem or spend their way out of it, they could contain it. Those 260 social service bureaucracies weren’t solutions to an intractable problem; they were barricades. They ghettoized their impoverished clientele by concentrating the services on which they depended.
And let’s be honest: The public was complicit in this, and content for it to continue as long as the misery stayed confined within the borders of the DTES.
And yet here we are. The squalor spreads. It corrodes a once-vibrant downtown core. It infiltrates the suburbs. Daily acts of random violence and vandalism have become normalized, while a cornucopia of drugs — some decriminalized, some tolerated, many deadly — act as accelerants.
In 2016, a year after our survey, provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall declared a public health emergency under the Public Health Act due to the alarming rise in opioid-related overdose deaths. Since then, over 16,000 people have died from those opioids. That’s not progress. It’s a plague.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, has worked. Over the decades, the problem has been studied to death — admittedly, a poor choice of words — with consultants and academics and the legions of poverty industry advocates offering up solutions that ultimately fail. They fail because they’re predicated on two simple criteria:
1. Give us more money.
2. Give us more of everything — housing, hospital beds, food banks, drugs, injection sites, counselling or — and this is always implicit — empathy, with a side order of collective guilt.
I’ve seen this in my own newspaper.
In one recent opinion piece, the author laments that it has been the public’s and governments’ norm “to daily bypass our downtrodden, our homeless, our addicted or mentally ill on the street as though they are either invisible or merely equivalent to lampposts” — to which I have to reply: ‘Are you f—ng kidding me?’
The public and its governments have done exactly the opposite and, short of bathing their feet with Christ-like piety, have directed billions of tax dollars not only to ease the suffering of the homeless, the addicted and the mentally ill, but also to make them completely dependent upon those dollars.
Another Sun story — this one again by Culbert — examined the merits of involuntary care through the experiences of three addicts who underwent the process, and while two saw it as beneficial and helped them get clean, the third condemned it as “dehumanizing” and a cause of her PTSD. Though she no longer does drugs, she said that if she relapses she would prefer to take her chances with street drugs that could possibly kill her rather than be readmitted to hospital against her will.
Well, OK, I thought, ‘You’re an adult. Good for you for having the honesty to express that choice, however idiotic I may find it.’
But what I thought was missing in her testimonial was (a) any appreciation of the monumentally expensive efforts governments and the public had tried to make on her behalf, however ill-informed she may have believed those attempts to be, and (b) her failure to recognize the destructive effects that a relapse would have not just on her own health and family, but, more importantly, also on the collective health of the public, who would be asked to offer up yet more money, and deal yet again with her relapse — providing she survives it.
Finally, in The Sun, there was another column, this one by Sam Sullivan, who wrote that, after 52 years, it was time to end the DTES “experiment” and the restrictive housing policies that he believes led to the homelessness and violence bedevilling it.
Funny thing about that.
Between 1993 and 2005, Sullivan was a Vancouver city councillor, and for three years after that, he was mayor. Yet despite the fact that his 15-year tenure at city hall placed him in the midst of that DTES experiment, if not close to its helm, it is only now, 20 years later, that he publicly declares the experiment to be a failure, and — as far as I could tell from reading his opinion piece — without taking any responsibility for it.
I will refrain here, in my own column, from claiming to speak for the public or with any inkling of what popular sentiment might be.
But this is how I feel:
My patience is Exhausted.
I’m tired of the endless, self-regenerating calls for more studies and more funding when all I see is a colossal waste of money and effort leading to no improvement. I’m tired of how homelessness and addiction take up so much oxygen in the social discourse. I’m tired of civil rights that supersede my own, and treat the right to defecate in the streets with greater regard than my right to be offended by it.
Finally, I’m tired of a social welfare system that not only encourages dependency, but refuses, out of moral timidity, to also admit its complicity in it, and which shies away from asking hard questions about personal responsibility and the consideration of measures more draconian than safe injection sites — measures like a return to complete drug criminalization, a higher threshold of minimum sentences for trafficking, the establishment of rehabilitation centres or work camps exclusively in wilderness areas far from the temptations of cities, the discontinuation of any efforts that facilitate drug use, and yes, the robust expansion of an involuntary care system.
It’s also my opinion that none of these measures, given the current legal climate, will become reality, at least for the foreseeable future. Under our Constitution and the Criminal Code, the law, in its majestic equality, protects the rights of the most vulnerable among us to live in filth and despair, and, as so often happens, bring about their own deaths.
How enlightened we have become! What progress we have made! We’ve reached that point when now sleeping under bridges, begging in the streets and stealing one’s daily bread are no longer evidence of a system’s failure.
They are the system.
This image is about comparing Photoshop processing (my customary tool) of lunar data to PixInsight processing. This image, processed in PixInsight, is rendered from the same data as the Crater Copernicus image processed in Photoshop and posted on 2022-08-22.
My impression of this image is that although it reveals more detail than the one originally posted, there seems to be some remaining softness that can be improved by better seeing and use of a UV-IR cutt filter
After registration and stacking in Autostakkert, all follow on processing to this image was in PixInsight instead of Photoshop.
PixInsight processes used:
ChannelExtraction to pull out separate RGB channel images
LinearFit to normalize channel levels
ColorCombination to reassemble into a single RGB image
UnsharpMask for sharpening
CurvesTransformation for RGB, saturation and CIE c* component stretches
This narrowband image was made from my backyard mini-observatory in north central Phoenix, Arizona, USA. The bright star in the center is Sadr in the constellation Cygnus. The colorful region around the star is from nebulosity called the Gamma Cygni Nebula (which is actually behind the star Sadr) excited by bright stars in the region.
The night sky is very bright in my backyard from urban light pollution and the moon was half illuminated during the imaging sessions so my Sky Quality Meter readings were between 17.5 and 17.9 magnitudes per square arcsec - Bortle 8-9 ish.
Even so, I am somewhat amazed with the detail one can obtain in such an environment with the technology available to today’s astrophotographer. The nebulosity in the image is falsely colored and roughly follows the Hubble palette scheme called SHO where atomic emissions from Sulphur, Hydrogen, and Oxygen are mapped into the colors Red, Green, and Blue. In this case the overly green from strong abundance of hydrogen has been modified to be more yellow. The star colors are natural and even spectrally calibrated to be true color.
My equipment is an Astro Physics Mach 2 mount, Takahashi Epsilon 160 ED hyperbolic Newtonian telescope, Optec LEO focuser, Chroma 3-nm filters, and QHY 600 PH cooled, full frame CMOS camera. The image was constructed from 219 3 minute unguided exposures (70+ each for Ha, OIII, and SII filters) and 15 1 minute each RGB exposures for the stars. I imaged on 3 nights - one filter per night. I also collected darks, dark flats, and flats. I normally use sky flats but made do with LED panel flats in this case. Mount control was with NINA connected to the Astro Physics APCC software. I used Direct Guide in NINA so I could dither without guiding - works very well with the Mach 2’s absolute encoders. Image acquisition was via NINA running on a mini PC in the observatory but off the mount (the Mach 2 has through the mount cabling for power and USB-3). Filters are Chroma 3 nm narrowband and Chroma RGB and camera is the QHY 600 PH short back focal length version.
Processing in Pixinsight. Narrowband channels: WBPP-> Gradient Correction for each filter -> BXT -> NXT -> SXT -> HT stretch -> ChComb as SHO -> Narrowband Normalization to adjust colors. RGB stars -> ChannelCombination RGB -> Gradient Correction -> AutoColor -> SPCC -> BXT -> ArcSinh Stretch -> SXT -> HistogramTransformation stretch of SXT stars file. Narrowband SHO image and RGB-Stars Image blended in ImageBlend script using Screen blend mode. Save as .xisf then 16 bit Tiff for final contrast adjustment in Photoshop then export as jpegs.
There is a lot of detail in this image. It’s fun to drive around in the image and try to imagine what has been going on in this part of the universe. Another example of Mother Nature’s art.
Sh2-308 is the minor project of SHARA N.8, and this is my personal interpretation.
Minor only in the number of poses, in fact it has been a long time that I have hoped to get my hands on this deep-sky object that has always fascinated me.
Thanks to Bill Blanshan's formulas for the normalization of narrowband channels and the transfer of RGB stars to NB, I obtained a result that leaves me very satisfied. Hoping to be able to return one day to this object with a greater number of poses, I greet you and wish you clear skies
Minds erased, bodies normalized, blank faces: the soldiers who fight for The Void used to be human. Not anymore.
The Void's Infantry Squads feature 6 to 10 Body Units (i.e. soldiers). Squadron 777 is known for having been created after Squadron 776 and before Squadron 778.
From left to right:
The Leader , is Officer L-284. The device he's holding displays tactic maps and simulations, and allows him to override mental control over his subordinates.
The "Medic" , is Officer M-178. His job is to spray the Serum held in his container on the bodies of fallen soldiers, whoever they are. Their cellular remnants are reorganized to become new Soldiers for The Void.
The Comm Officer , C-355, carries a trans-dimensional device to receive orders and report to the entity leading The Void, Its Obscenity "The Unnamable", the Beginning and the End of Everything.
The Troopers are Privates P-2641, P-2642 and P-2643. The latter is riding a standard Light Support Antigrav Vehicle.
Built for DA4 www.flickr.com/groups/14677828@N25/
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A message to our players:
If you haven't noticed yet, Pride has come to RF. Please feel free to interact with the booth in the square to take photos, or roleplay around any of Denver Pride items strewn about the square, main street, and park. We would love to take this month to celebrate with you all both IC and OOC. One of the driving values of Riverside Falls roleplay sim is not just acceptance, but inclusion and celebration of people of all sexuality and genders. The roleplay community on SL has a long string of bias and judgement surrounding character gender and players behind them. I've spoke with a lot of you about this personally in the past, but it's something that is very important to us to address here on RF. Since we opened in January, we've worked to normalize and celebrate people exploring characters and stories that excite them, make them feel confident, and make them feel like they have the ability to truly step into the shoes of anyone they wish to be. We have strived to provide a community OOCly that is based on love, acceptance, and inclusion, to encourage all of you gorgeous faces and sexy voices to not be afraid to be who you are as the player behind the screen. It's been beautiful watching you all explore characters of different genders and sexualities, and learning to walk in the shoes of either the person you feel you were meant to be, or a person you'd like to understand more. Perhaps I am biased, but I truly see a community of people who have normalized diversity, embraced all different walks of life, and I feel incredibly lucky to have you all here with me. A build is just a build, but you all have truly made RF into not just a safe community, but an encouraging one. Thank you for all the time, effort, money, stories, and love you've poured into the sim, I hope you all enjoy our little Denver Pride, because it's truly all about y'all.
I don't know how many of you caught my BBC TV debate last weekend with Lord Trembath, President and Chair of the illustrious Moral Renaissance movement. Here I am captured getting ready to go before the cameras - and keen to look the part of a notorious high-society prostitute and Madame!
You can probably catch the whole show now on your BBC I-Player (if you care to trawl through all the Olympics highlights!), but for those of you in a hurry, here is an extract to whet your appetites!
💋💋💋💋💋😉
Lord Trembath: Surely, Lady Rebecca, you would not deny that your so-called Sodality is engaged in the systematic corruption of young women of the English aristocracy?
Lady Rebecca: I deny it emphatically. The Sodality approaches no one, seeks-out no one. On the contrary: we make entry into our Sisterhood as difficult as we can. We test all of our pledges most rigorously.
Lord Trembath: But you are testing them – and please forgive me if I misunderstand your purposes here – you are testing them for their degree of sexual and moral depravity?
Lady Rebecca: Your Lordship, you must understand that we are receiving enthusiastic applications week in, week out - from young couples of the English ruling classes. Both parties in the marriage are always mustard keen for the wife – typically a newlywed – to be admitted into the Sodality. It is seen by such couples as a mark of social success. My organization simply provides a platform and a network through which these couples are able to practice the lifestyle that they have coveted.
Lord Trembath: Your critics claim, Lady Rebecca, that you have normalized a lifestyle of adultery, cuckolding, prostitution and sex-work amongst formerly respectable aristocratic ladies.
Lady Rebecca: My understanding, Lord Trembath, is that such practices and pass-times were normalized two or three hundred years ago - if not more! The fact is, these young ladies of which you speak dream of becoming high-class courtesans, sex workers, cuckoldresses, dominatrices and XXXXX porn stars. Candidly, this is the only thing that their expensive education has prepared them for. I merely help to release their inner vixen. The rather more startling thing is the degree to which the husbands relish their own ruthless cuckolding. It seems that we have become a nation of “wife watchers” – at least within society’s upper echelons!
Lord Trembath: Then surely you admit that you are deliberately undermining the institution of marriage?
Lady Rebecca: The institution of marriage? I believe Simone De Beauvoir hit on the fundamental truth about marriage, when she observed that a wife "was simply a prostitute with only one customer." In the Sodality, we work to extend a wife's sphere of influence!
Toodle Pip!
Love and Kisses to All My Friends and Fans!
xxxxxx
Lady Rebecca Georgina Arabella Lyndon
Duchess of Basingstoke
Aristocrat : Disciplinarian : Horsewoman
Nikon F80
AF Nikkor f1.8/50D
Agfaphoto Vista Plus 400
CineStill C-41
Plustek 8200i
I never got along with TLRs, even though I had very good results from my old Lubitel 2 and my early Yashica-Mat, I always felt queasy trying to focus and frame through their rectangular viewing screens and the shape and weight were somehow always putting me off.
So why did I buy this Flexaret you might ask. Well, having spent 8 years as a medical student in Prague throughout the '90s (a period when I was completely indifferent to photography) I recently came to realize that Czechoslovakia (as it was known back in the day) had a significant tradition in camera manufacture and the Flexaret series were probably the pinnacle of that industry. I also recently learned that one of the consequences of the Russian invasion in 1968 was the cessation of their production as the Soviets re-arranged czechoslovak industrial production as part of the "normalization" process. Nostalgia kicked in and I decided to buy one for old times' sake. I opted for the basic "Standard" model that lacks the frame counter and double exposure prevention mechanism which supposedly is the Achilles's heel of the Flexarets, the classic ruby semitransparent windows for frame counting off the film's backing paper at the back are more than enough. It's "windows" because the Flexaret comes with a small metallic film mask that allows you to shoot 6x4.5, so two different windows are necessary.
The camera sits somewhere inbetween the Lubitel and the Yashica-Mat in overall quality feel (but closer to the Japanese camera rather than the Soviet one as it is made of aluminium and not bakelite) and mine is in truly great condition even if it's an earlier model. It was supposedly CLA'd recently and it sure feels that way. I shot a test roll of expired Portra 160VC and images came out really great, the 4-element 3.5/80 Belar lens has a good reputation and it sure lived up to it. My major complaint has to do with the viewing screen which is rather dark and makes focusing somehow difficult in subdued light, even though it's classes above the one on the Lubitel and I survived that one, right? Another thing that needs attention when you first shoot with it, is the long excursion of the shutter button which together with the rather light construction makes it easy to get blurred images even at 1/60s if you're not careful. A soft shutter release button and a steady hand will surely correct this. Other than that, a very nice Eastern Bloc camera that doesn't really feel like one and shoots really good images if you get accustomed to its minor quirks.
“That’s quite correct, Lord Hartlepool. All of the girls who work for me here at The Salon are married and titled aristocrats. We find that everything is so much simpler that way.
“Our husbands are – in every case – fully aware of our chosen profession, and are 100% supportive of our career choice. In fact, there’s usually a long queue of very excited husbands, waiting for a free space in our voyeur’s gallery. They love to catch a glimpse of their beautiful wives engaged in high-class sex work. It also seems that both my personal influence and the organization that I co-founded – The Sodality of the Sisterhood of Pleasure – have played a significant role in normalizing the cuckolding lifestyle and professional prostitution amongst ladies of the English upper class! One does what one can to make the world a happier place.”
“Now, my Lord, which one of my ladies would you like to be introduced to? Lady Alice Grainger will be free in about half an hour… Would you like me to tell you about her specialities – and her boudoir tricks?”
Toodle Pip!
Love and Kisses to All My Friends and Fans!
xxxxx
Lady Rebecca Georgina Arabella Lyndon
Duchess of Basingstoke
First part of the almost 4 hours long capture. This one is covering about 2h 46minutes. Start time at 10:59 PDT and end at 13:45 PDT. The clouds were interrupting it several times . Some post processing will be needed to normalize the frames.
82 frame animation.
It will take some time while the file is loaded!
When opened in full screen mode the animation automatically loops endlessly.
Last night I finally met a long time Internet Friend (before Flickr even) from France in Shinjuku for an evening of photos and fun. We had a good time and talked about our experiences with Japan, the culture, language, etc. while having a beer and enjoying some Yakitori.
Since I have arrived here in Japan, life has been sooooo busy, but I think I have settled into a routine of sorts, so life is normalizing for me. =)
Currently Listening:
This wide-field image of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) uses a HOO palette applied with the Narrowband Normalization process in Pixinsight. The image includes the Triffid Nebula (M20) on the left, the star cluster M21 just above M20, the small star cluster and associated nebulosity, Bochum 14 located between M8 and M20, and the star cluster, NGC 6544 on the far right.
This image was obtained with a RASA 8, ASI2600 MC Pro camera, and IDAS NBZ II dual narrowband filter from the middle of Idaho Falls (Bortle 7). Because of the 43.5 degree N latitude of Idaho Falls and the configuration of the roll-off roof I was only able to image this location for 25 minutes. This image was compiled from 24, 60 sec. images and processed in Pixinsight and PS. It has been downsized from the original pixel dimensions of 5830 x 4030 pixels for posting.
Israir Airbus A320 4X-ABG rolling on runway 23 at Glasgow to depart to Berlin. The aircraft flew the Israeli national football team from Tel Aviv to Glasgow to play Scotland at Hampden on 9th October. 4X-ABG wears a special livery marking the Bahrain–Israel Normalization Agreement.
Let’s believe the dialectical faith of wokeism (woke Marxism), let’s join their dialectical cult! Since society is full of injustice and inequality, let’s tear it down and rebuilt it into a communist utopia—let’s Build Back Better. Let’s awaken to a higher consciousness, let’s awaken to a critical consciousness (critical Marxism)—to negative thinking (capitalism is bad). You’re a racist (a capitalist). The system (capitalism) is systemically racist. Let’s awaken the inner activist, let’s awaken the communist revolutionary. What will all this evolve into? It will evolve into the abolishment of private property. Communism: you will own nothing and be happy. Communism: equality for all! Communism: it’s for the greater good! Communism: the ends justify the means: murder, starvation, and the gulags! Marxism causes tribalism and division, because it’s intolerant of everything it doesn’t like. Get your reeducation: diversity, equity, and inclusion. DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion): a precursor to a Social Credit Score System. ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance): a Social Credit Score System for companies (Can anybody say: Bud Light!). The Green Transition: equality (poverty) for all! Climate communism: climate justice, climate equity, climate sustainability, climate lockdowns! Sustainability: the road to a good global citizen consciousness!
The fifth tenet of the Communist Manifesto: “Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.” Three cheers for central banking…not! Lenin: “The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.” Three cheers for fait money…not! Stakeholder Capitalism is Fascism. Why do you think the (WEF) World Economic Fascists like to talk about Stakeholder Capitalism? The Free Market is the enemy of Stakeholder Capitalism. Grover Cleveland: “Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.” Say what: corporate personhood? So, that’s nothing, the coming New World Order will obtain Beasthood—666 worship the Beast. The Metaverse Beastsystem: techno-spiritualism in which humanity will be free from the limitations of mind, body, and soul; a techno-spirit of oneness with the universe—universal collectivism: Mystery Babylon, Babylon the Great, and the Tower of Babel—antichristism.
Here is a report by Oxford University and Imperial College London for the UK Government:
Flying (page 6):
2020-2029: “All airports except Heathrow, Glasgow and Belfast close with transfers by rail.”
2030-2049: “All remaining airports close.”
Food (page 6):
2020-2029: “National consumption of beef and lamb drops by 50%, along with reduction in frozen ready meals and air-freighted food imports.”
2030-2049: “Beef and lamb phased out, along with all imports not transported by train; fertiliser use greatly reduced.”
Tacitus: “The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state.”
www.ukfires.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Absolute-Zero-...
The NWO commies at the United Nations have outlined an agenda to decriminalise ‘consensual sex’ between adults and minors in a report titled: “The 8 March Principles for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Criminal Law Proscribing Conduct Associated with Sex Reproduction, Drug Use, HIV, Homelessness and Poverty.”
Principle 16-Consensual Sexual Conduct (page 22-23):
“Moreover, sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual in fact, if not in law. In this context, the enforcement of criminal law should reflect the rights and capacity of persons under 18 years of age to make decisions about engaging in consensual sexual conduct and their right to be heard in matters concerning them. Pursuant to their evolving capacities and progressive autonomy persons under 18 years of age should participate in decisions affecting them, with due regard to their age, maturity and best interests, and with specific attention to non-discrimination guarantees.”
Mark my words: pedophilia will one day become normalized (a human right).
share-netinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/8-M...
2 Timothy 3:13 “Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
Daniel 11:36 “Then the king (the Antichrist) will do exactly as he pleases; he will exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and will speak astounding and disgusting things against the God of gods and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is determined [by God] will be done.”
'While you were sleeping'
Abu Dhabi, 24th Jan 2013 at 7AM.
I specialize in aerial photography and spend a lot of time shooting subject from helicopters. One thing I miss about shooting from a moving aircraft however is stability. I love HDR photography and to shoot 5 or 7 bracketed exposures where the longest one can last several seconds or even minutes, you need a stable, solid platform. Your camera has to be fixed to a sturdy tripod - plain and simple.
This is why I always wanted to shoot from the roof of the World Trade Center Tower 1 in Abu Dhabi when it reached the 98th floor! From its peak, I could have a true bird's eye perspective of the town below without the drawbacks of the aircraft as a shooting platform. (ok, I guess I'm a bit spoiled, lol)
It took a long time to secure the permit to access the construction site and when I set the date to shoot the town, another rare thing happened; low rolling fog. Any cityscape photographer will be able to tell you that there is NOTHING as beautiful as the fog over the city in the early morning hours. What an incredible blessing and lucky it was to be shooting from the tallest floor in town, as the only photographer ever to be allowed on its roof on the morning with fog which happens once or twice a year at most!
I was so excited when I saw the view in front of me that I completely forgot to look at the platform I was standing on; a wooden scaffolding on the OUTSIDE of the building, over 330 meters high. I was too happy to shit myself from fear! I used Manfrotto Magic Arms to fix the camera onto the scaffolding handrail as the ledge I was standing on was only 30 cm wide and there was no space whatsoever to spread the tripod.
I quickly snapped 7 bracketed exposure to created a dynamically blended cityscape of Abu Dhabi.
I've won several photo competitions worldwide with this shot but to me, what matters the most is the thrill which goes into producing a single frame such as this one. The greatest reward I get from photography is a sense of satisfaction and self fulfillment.
Gear: Canon 5dmk2 and Canon TS-E 17mm f4.0L. This lens is quite possibly the best piece of glass you can buy for Canon or any other DSLR maker. Promote Remote Control was used for quick and painless exposure bracketing.
Software: I started in Lighroom 4.1 where I pre-processed the bracketed exposures and exported them as 16-bit TIFF files to Oloneo PhotoEngine for HDR tonemapping. Once I got my HDR base image, I exported it as a 16-bit TIFF image to Photoshop 5.1 where the real work begain. I'm using dynamic blending technique where various patches are applied across the image in order to 'normalize' the dynamic range of the image. I strive for a natural, if somewhat stylized look in my work. I most definitely dislike the cartoonish, flat looking and overcooked HDR images.
Primary grading was accomplished with Color Efex Pro and Nik Software Viveza 2. To sharpen the image, I use NIK Software Output Sharpener which I highly recommend. It does what it's supposed to do without degrading your image with nasty halos and excessive texture structuring.
“Totalitarianism is not a historical coincidence. In the final analysis, it is the logical consequence of mechanistic thinking and the delusional belief in the omnipotence of human rationality. As such, totalitarianism is the defining feature of the Enlightenment tradition.” ‒ Mattias Desmet
Totalitarianism is a product of the Enlightenment tradition. It places faith in human rationality. It’s a belief system in which man’s intellect can save man, the world, and the universe. Man will solve man’s problems, thus bringing salvation to mankind. Its priests desire to form a new society built on rationality. They want a world without pain and suffering. They even want to conquer death. Science, man’s new religion, has its own creation story. In this story, man has been reduced to particles that interact according to the laws of mechanics. Life and mankind were randomly produced without any purpose or direction. Man is seen as a machine; he works (repetitively) as a machine; he will merge with machine. The universe is also a machine, and it too will eventually be manipulated. The spiritual elect of this religion look forward to an artificial heaven on earth, where man and nature have been replaced by perfect technological clones. Once this happens, man will have conquered both man and nature. He will then gain eternal life. He will synthetically live forever. “Amen and Hallelujah!” shout the transhumanists. As a result, the totalitarians will have realized their goal of a superman/super race like the New Soviet Man/Aryan Race. The idolatry of science, which aims to create a perfect world, will ultimately result in a dystopian nightmare. Their rationality will become irrational. Secular humanism will fail.
“Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement.” – Humanist Manifesto I
With science came technological advancement. These advances separated man from nature, tradition, and family. The industrial revolution changed the social fabric of society. Before industrialization, most families lived in rural areas and did agricultural work. The family worked together to support itself. Multiple generations lived together in the same area. Extended families were an important part of society. After industrialization, many families moved to urban areas and did manufacturing work. They became cogs in the machine, working meaningless jobs. This movement split up the extended family unit. Then there was one: the nuclear family. “The dynamics of industrialization contributed to the rise of single-parent families. Factors such as increased divorce rates, the normalization of out-of-wedlock childbirth, and the empowerment of women to raise children independently all played a role in this shift.” As you can see, the nuclear family has not fared too well. Technology produced the radio, television, and social media, which have created an antisocial society. Technology was supposed to make life easier; it was supposed to make us happier, yet it has made us lonely and unhappy. Society has lost its meaning. People come home from meaningless jobs, only to live meaningless social lives online. Wolves chase after those separated from the herd, because they are easy targets. When the isolated are rounded up and killed, no one will fight for them because they are isolated from the herd. Those who are alone and isolated will be seen as useless eaters by their enemies. “To keep you is no gain; to kill you is no loss.” Indeed, a lonely society is very prone to accepting totalitarianism.
The Enlightenment was supposed to empower us, yet we have become more powerless. The Enlightenment was supposed to make us more independent, yet we have become more dependent. Plus, technology is controlled by the few. With science, a perfect artificial world is being built. It’s creating a fake Garden of Eden that is full of genetically modified foods, lab-grown meat, sex dolls that look like Eve, and synthetic-fiber clothing to hide our naked bodies of sin. Don’t eat the genetically modified fruit, it will kill you! Automated machines, robots, and artificial intelligence will replace man’s toil. Artificial wombs will replace the pain of childbirth. The digital paradise being constructed dehumanizes us. It steals our humanity. It makes us insecure, unempathetic, narcissistic, apathetic, cowardly, lonely, and isolated. An insecure society is less resilient. An insecure society is easier to control. An unempathetic, narcissistic, apathetic, and cowardly society will look the other way when people are rounded up and killed. A lonely and isolated society is weak and submissive. They feel empty and meaningless, and they have little self-worth. Such a society yearns for direction and authority. They are weak and lazy and want someone (the state) to take care of them.
We have a dumbed-down society. The education system teaches us how to be cogs in the machine. Mass media is a giant propaganda machine, indoctrinating the masses. The ignorant zombies have been trained to listen to the experts. These experts lead the sheep with twisted data and statistics. Thus, the people are easily led. Safety: give up your freedom of privacy to fight terror. Misinformation: give up your freedom of speech to fight hate speech. 15-minute cities: give up your freedom of movement to fight climate change. Mass immigration: give up your culture for multiculturalism. Abortion is women’s health. Euthanasia is good. By the way, how many genders are there? Society has been molded and shaped. You have been taught what to think, not how to think.
“I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.” ‒ John D. Rockefeller
Students have been indoctrinated and radicalized by feminism, gender theory, critical race theory, and decolonialism. The goal: abolish women, gender, race, borders and nations. All hail the tranhumanist new world order! The youth are taught that capitalism is bad and socialism is good. They’ve been taught to hate their own country, traditions, values, and culture. They’ve been taught to hate their own race! Humiliation is a tool of control to shape and guide them. If a person loses their identity, they can be easily manipulated and brainwashed. Our youth have been taught that a communist revolution is necessary to overthrow capitalism. The end justifies the means! Therefore, radicals in the education system have raised up an army of woke activists. These woke evangelists have been poisoned by envy, hate, and bitterness. It doesn’t help that subversive billionaires are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into supposed ‘organic’ protests, which are being organized by professional protesters (communist agitators). Wokeism is the new puritan movement of today, with its moral values and commandments. These born-again socialists preach the dialectic gospel of social(ist) justice and equality. These radicalized saints promise a perfect world. A radicalized society is prone to accepting totalitarianism. In fact, it’s extremely prone to accepting totalitarianism. Especially when the youth are radicalized!
“Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.” ‒ Vladimir Lenin
Science, the religion of the day, has become corrupted. Fraud in scientific research is increasing. Falsified scientific papers are becoming more and more common. The perception of reality can be steered by crunching numbers in any desired fashion. (Climate change data is famous for distorting numbers.) Totalitarians mold the perception of reality with propaganda. The COVID-19 hysteria, with its “follow the science,” was proof of its degeneration. People blindly became disciples of the experts. Their apostles commanded: Mask up, even though it’s ineffective! Social distance, even though it’s useless! Take a PCR test, even though it’s unreliable! Take the vaccines, even though they haven’t been properly tested! Ivermectin is bad, even though it can help some patients! The population must be locked down, even though it’s physically and mentally bad for their health and weakens their immune system! Herd immunity, what’s that? Small businesses must be shutdown, even though big corporations like Walmart can stay open! Schools must be shut down, even though the average age of death is 70+ years old! Fire the unvaccinated healthcare workers, even though the emergency rooms are supposedly full and short-staffed! TicTok nurses! Dance, baby, dance! We’re in a pandemic, can’t you see!?! Falsely mark down unrelated deaths as COVID deaths—beef up those numbers! Big numbers, big money! Since this is science, we must suppress opposing ideas! Science that censors different opinions is not science. Much of society faithfully trusted the science, with its religious experts and scientific doctrines, numbers and graphs. In Nazi Germany, children were conditioned to accept any form of authority without question. Without question, many people blindly obeyed the COVID restrictions. To this day, some people mask up in public. They are religious zealots! They still haven’t woken up from their indoctrination. The science of today: take a big pharma flu shot, rather than rely on your own immune system; take a big pharma flu shot, rather than eat foods that are high in antioxidants like vitamin C. Could you not just find a natural vitamin C supplement? Nope! We love big pharma! We love big corporations! We love Big Brother! We love fascism! Since you’ve been trained to be a consumer, you’ll consume what has been marketed to you. Oh, the science of propaganda! Ah, the science of marketing!
“Scientism has remained to this day one of the strongest Gnostic movements in Western society.” – Eric Voegelin
During COVID-19, people were not only begging for totalitarian measures, but they were applauding them. They wanted strict rules to ease their uncertainty, fear, and insecurity. They coped with their insecurity by running others down. The big bad enemies were not the Jews, but the unvaccinated. Fear needs an enemy! People were calling for the unvaccinated to be rounded up. Some even wanted the unvaccinated killed. This made them feel more secure, like they had the upper hand. They had the camaraderie of the mob; they felt like they belonged! The extra rules helped ease their anxiety. They felt more in control of their fear. The fellowship of the mob helped to further ease their stress and insecurity. There is security in numbers! They rebuked, denounced, and excommunicated heretical friends and relatives who strayed from the holy narrative. They felt righteous, because they were supposedly fighting for a righteous cause. This made them feel virtuous. They were crusaders for the truth, and they felt heroic! They felt relief as they took out their frustrations on their enemies. They blew off steam! They felt good! They felt energized!
These people had an authoritarian mindset. Their true selves, their true natures, came to the surface. They had a mob mentality. They had a pack mentality. These people were so filled with fear, hysteria, and panic that they could not think straight. They lost their ability to calm down and think things through. They could not regulate their fears and emotions. As a result, they could not think critically. How can one think critically in a panic? In fact, since they were taught to be cogs in the machine, they weren’t really taught to be critical thinkers. Just as a child must learn how to walk, a child must be taught how to critically think. They were taught to solve problems related to the machine, but they were not taught to think outside the machine. That is why they say things like: I support free speech, ‘but’ not hate speech. They don’t even understand how speech operates under the framework of free speech. They literally can’t understand the concept of free speech! It’s over their heads. Will these people ever change? Nope, I’ve yet to see any of them apologize for their actions during COVID. Given the right crisis, our society will accept totalitarianism.
Big government, with its increased bureaucracy, administration, and management, loves to make ever-increasing rules and regulations. We are drawing closer and closer to totalitarianism. We will soon have a totalitarian system with digital biometric IDs, central bank digital currencies, and social credit scores. We are becoming a total surveillance society. Our data is being collected, tracked, analyzed, and sold. COVID caused a worldwide hypnosis, a mass hysteria, in which the masses were ready to trade their freedoms for safety. Nothing much has changed. The world’s population is slowly being boiled like a frog; it’s slowly being corralled into a worldwide authoritarian system. Like Nazi Germany, many today would pick totalitarianism if they were promised economic solutions in a time of financial hardship. If we had another great depression like the 1930s, many in our decadent society would pick a totalitarian system. They would choose digital IDs, CBDCs, and social credit scores if they could receive universal basic income to feed their families. Is it really a stretch to see why people would accept the Mark of the Beast?
In the fourth industrial revolution, man will physically merge with technology. Of course, this technology is supposed to make man smarter and healthier. It’s supposed to turn man into the perfect superman. How can the imperfect make the perfect? Man is an imperfect sinner. He has sinned against God. God is perfect, and sin is imperfect. Perfection and imperfection do not mix. Righteousness and sin do not mix. Light expels darkness, God expels sin. God’s punishment for sin is death. God will permit sinful man to utilize his strength and rationality to attempt to work out his own salvation. Ultimately, man will fail. Christ will return to stop man from destroying all life on earth at the battle of Armageddon (Matthew 24:22). Jesus will destroy those who, in their sin, are destroying the earth (Revelation 11:18). Jesus first came as a sacrificial Lamb for the atonement of sins. The second time, Jesus will come as a roaring lion to destroy His enemies. His enemies will choose His imposter, the antichrist. They will accept the transhuman Mark of the Beast. As a result, they will forfeit salvation. Only in Christ (the perfect sacrifice) is sin forgiven. Will you accept His salvation? Or will you try, in your sin, to work out your own salvation?
Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and fellowship with him, and he with Me.”
This is a view of the Cygni Nebula (IC1318) taken with a dual narrowband filter and rendered with a HSO-like pallet using Narrow Band Normalization routine in Pixinsight. The bright blue star is gamma Cygnus (Satr) and the bluish open star cluster is NGC 6910. The Butterfly Nebula and Crescent Nebula are part of this large nebulous region.
The image was taken from the middle of Idaho Falls (Bortle 7) with a RASA 8 and ASI2600 MC Pro camera.
h + chi, the famous double cluster in the constellation Perseus. The object was already know to the greek astronomer Hipparchus 130 B.C.
Object: h + chi Persei (NGC 869 + NGC 884, Perseus Double Cluster)
Optics: GSO Newton 8" F4 + GPU
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MMC @-20°C, Gain=75, Offset=15
Filter: ZWO EFW 7x36mm, ZWO 36mm Filters
Exposure: total ~1h, R 40x30sec, G 40x30sec, B 40x30sec, L (mixed from RGB), 200 Bias, 40 Darks, 40 Flats per channel
Date: 2017-10-16
Location: Schwaig
Capture: Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: Off-Axis, ASI120MM, PHD2
Image Acquisition: Stephan Schurig
Image Processing: Stephan Schurig
AstroPixelProcessor 1.070: Calibration, Registration, Normalization, Integration, Channel Combination, Background Flattening & Calibration, Star Colors Correction, Auto Digital Development
Photoshop 20.0.1: Levels, Curves, Exposure (Gamma, Offset, Exposure), Masked Nik Dfine 2 Denoise, Masked Dynamic (Dynamic, Saturation), Star Shrink, Masked HighPass Sharpening, Levels
This is an image shot in a special way and then processed further to look like a painting. If you are interested, the details of how this was done are below. The subject is turbulent, rapidly flowing, flood-stage water in a small river.
Creating the image was fun. Here is how it was done:
NB1 - Although the image was finally heavily posterized during editing, its textured character is not artificial. It is due to the movement of the water during exposure at a deliberately intermediate shutter speed: 1/30s.
IMO, substantially faster shutter speeds (e.g. 1/250s+) make flowing water look artificially "frozen." Much slower speeds (e.g. 5s+) make flowing water look artificially "fuzzy." In contrast, shutter speeds around 1/30s capture rapidly moving water "in the act of flowing." However, for sharpness, it is also necessary to use either a camera or lens with image stabilization (as here) or a tripod.
NB2 - The dramatic contrast is also due to the way the image was shot before processing. It was deliberately over-exposed, so that it initially appeared washed out. The dramatic contrasts are the result of the editing program's subsequent effort to normalize the exposure when its "auto-levels” tool was applied.
NB3 - The overall blue tint is completely artificial. It was a cloudy winter day. To the eye, the water was mostly shades of gray. During editing, I just set a blue filter at a hue I liked that also produced a range of intensities that I liked.
NB4 - After all that, I used the my editing program's Posterize tool and Sharpen Luminance tool.
The whole process was fun. 😎
Location: River Wiese, during a flash flood caused by a sudden winter thaw. Basel City, Kanton Basel-Stadt, Schweiz (Switzerland).
In my album: Dan's Water World.