Normalizes photos on Flickr

Gordie by oneflashatatime

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Wave normalization by solerab

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NGC7380_30Aug2025-TRIBand-SHO by Fabio Acquarone

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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

Two lives, two destinies, two stories... by CHILDREN AT RISK FOUNDATION - Brazil

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Tell us their stories...

I can’t say too much about these two yet because I’m still trying to discover who they really are and what their lives are about.

Bit by bit I will peace together their intricate past, to match with their confused present, to face their equally unknown but complicated future.

But here’s an introduction to put you in the picture...

Boaz is probably 13 years old -- he doesn’t really know and we’re still looking for his birth certificate, has only been on the streets for the last 8 months. He landed there with a slightly older brother, Ben Hur, when they ran away from home together. Ben Hur has since disappeared, trafficked by professionals to the coast to serve as a sex slave for wealthy women after he was tempted into a posh car by his future “madame” or female pimp and taken to the port of Santos.

Ben Hur was tall, blond and dashing according to previous neighbours; an ideal candidate to serve such a demanding market and probably a match for academy award winner, Charlton Heston, who won his only oscar for the role in 1959. Boaz decided not to leave in that car and that decision was certainly a decisive one in his own life. Street kids are prone to disappear in many different ways, this being one of them.

Leonardo is 17 years old. We know because he still has his ID-card. He’s been on the streets for a couple of years and serves as street “father” to Boaz, who prefers to be called Bruno for some reason. Street fathers are usually older, more experienced street kids who gang together with younger kids to easier support themselves without having to get involved in criminal acts. They create a kind of dependency which is pretty hard to break out of as long as they are on the streets. As their lives gradually “normalize” during rehabilitation, so does this kind of unhealthy relationship.

Leonardo landed on the streets after leaving FEBEM (the government reform school for young law-breakers, better known as the state sponsored school of crime). He ended up being locked away because of an armed robbery together with his cousin that went wrong. His then 15-year old cousin got hit in the spine by two shots from the police and now suffers from paraplegia, seated in a wheel chair roaming the streets of São Paulo.

Leonardo has a great natural talent that will probably help him find a new future in his already turmoiled life. Click on this link and wait for the download, then listen to this talented young musician, who both plays the guitar and sings.

I wonder why they didn’t discover that in FEBEM?

Hoje A Noite Não Tem Luar

Ela passou do meu lado

Oi, amor - eu lhe falei

Você está tão sozinha

Ela então sorriu pra mim

Foi assim que a conheci

Naquele dia junto ao mar

As ondas vinham beijar a praia

O sol brilhava de tanta emoção

Um rosto lindo como o verão

E um beijo aconteceu

Nos encontramos à noite

Passeamos por aí

E num lugar escondido

Outro beijo lhe pedi

Lua de prata no céu

O brilho das estrelas no chão

Tenho certeza que não sonhava

A noite linda continuava

E a voz tão doce que me falava

O mundo pertence a nós

E hoje a noite não tem luar

E eu estou sem ela

Já não sei onde procurar

Não sei onde ela está

Hoje a noite não tem luar

E eu estou sem ela

Já não sei onde procurar

Onde está meu amor?

Original Music & Lyrics: Legião Urbana

Don't be alarmed! 2 photos posted in this "video" by weezerbee9

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When I see birds exhibiting so-called "anting" behavior, or sprawled out spreading their wings at odd angles in the hot sun, it never fails to make my heart skip a beat, thinking the bird is about to expire. The purpose of this behavior is to maintain feather health.

This Western Bluebird flew down to the ground and did a "face plant" with outspread wings. Stayed in that position for several seconds (seemed like an eternity), and flew off, happy as a Lark.

Took awhile for my pulse to normalize, though!

Shanghai Skyline by Jocelyn Pantaleon Photography

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Shanghai is the largest city by population in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the largest city proper by population in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities of the PRC, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010. It is a global city, with influence in commerce, culture, finance, media, fashion, technology, and transport. It is a major financial center and the busiest container port in the world.

Located in the Yangtze River Delta in eastern China, Shanghai sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the middle portion of the Chinese coast.

Hello eveyone! I recently got back from my trip to China. It is a beautiful country to explore, with a very different culture. It was very interesting, nonetheless. I'm still trying to get over the jet lag, having to sleep in the daytime and unable to sleep at night. It looks like it will take me a while to normalize my body clock.

This was a challenging shot, because I did not have my tripod with me. The light was absolutely beautiful. For this 4 sec exposure, I had to rely on placing the camera on top of a pillar and hold my breath, as steady as I could possibly be. I guess I am still old school, pushing the ISO down to 100. If I had pushed it up to the 400-640 ISO range, maybe I could have had a steadier shot.....oh well this is what I have to share with you. Enjoy!

Hope you're enjoying this Holy Week, in a spiritual way.

As always, thanks for stopping by and looking, I appreciate your comments and visits.

Untitled by Leigh Anne Brader

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Ariana & Harper

Maryland

September 2016

2020 - Vancouver - DTES - How Do We End The Overdose Crisis ? by Ted McGrath

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One final shot to wrap up this streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) series.

This alley wall graffiti poses a valid question, "how do we end the drug crisis"?

A more pertinent 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.

UPDATE: 12 JUNE, 2020

When the encampment in Oppenheimer park was cleared out, another one to replace it sorung up on Port of Vancouver lands.

FROM THE VANCOUVER SUN:

A judge on Wednesday granted an injunction to shut down an encampment of largely homeless people near CRAB Park on Vancouver’s waterfront.

11 June, 2020 Vancouver Sun reporter Keith Fraser

The order of B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson came following an injunction application filed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, the federal agency that operates the parking lot where the camp was set up in May. The camp has grown to upwards of 130 to 150 people living in dozens of tents and other structures.

A judge on Wednesday granted an injunction to shut down an encampment of largely homeless people near CRAB Park on Vancouver’s waterfront.

The order of B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson came following an injunction application filed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, the federal agency that operates the parking lot where the camp was set up in May. The camp has grown to upwards of 130 to 150 people living in dozens of tents and other structures.

The judge gave the encampment three days in which to cease occupation of the parking lot, removing all tents, shelters, personal items, rubbish and other things on the site.

He said the injunction was good for 15 days, meaning that the port will have to come back to court in 15 days if everyone in the encampment is not gone and police haven’t dealt with it.

The port had sought an enforcement order giving police the power to arrest and remove anyone remaining on the site but the judge, noting that the police had agreed to carry out the injunction without an enforcement order frequently granted in such injunction cases, declined to make that order.

During two days of submissions in court, the port argued that the same COVID-19 concerns that had closed down a tent city at nearby Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside following an order issued by the B.C. government also applied to the homeless at CRAB Park.

Lawyers for the port also cited complaints from nearby residents about lack of social distancing within the encampment, near continuous burning of an open-flame bonfire and smoke entering apartments, trash within the encampment and an increase in garbage and needles in the area.

People were seen urinating and defecating in the bushes and ocean and loud music and noise was heard, according to the port, which also argued that there was housing available to accommodate the homeless.

Lawyers for the homeless questioned whether there was in fact alternative accommodation available and argued that their clients felt safer being in the tents at CRAB Park than on the streets.

They claimed that the liberty rights of their clients would be violated if they were made to close down the encampment.

But the judge sided with the port, concluding that there would be irreparable harm to the port should the encampment remain in place and the balance of convenience favoured the injunction being granted.

Outside court, Doug Ehret, a homeless man who has been staying at the site, said he was “greatly disappointed” in the judge’s decision.

“He has a home to go to tonight. I don’t. He’ll sit in a million-dollar home in a sauna. I’ll sit beside a fire, but you know what — I’ll be better off because I have people who love me and actually give a crap.”

Michael Costley, a Gastown resident who has had concerns about the site, said as excited as he is about the ruling seemingly going in their favour, he’s hopeful the campers will respect the decision just as residents in the area have respected the campers’ right to protest.

“Our fear as a local resident is that they’re just going to move over into CRAB Park. That’s what I would do if I was them, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t.”

Fiona York, who identified herself as an advocate for the encampment, said there would be a meeting on Wednesday night to decide what their next steps are.

“It’s going to be up to the residents. Everybody is well aware about what’s been happening, how they feel about it.”

kfraser@postmedia.com

twitter.com/keithrfraser

UPDATE: 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.

UPDATE: 17 July 2020 - BC Coroners Service:

This report summarizes all unintentional illicit drug toxicity deaths in British Columbia (accidental and undetermined) that occurred between January 1, 2010, and June 30, 2020, inclusive. It includes confirmed and suspected illicit toxicity deaths (inclusion criteria below).

Illicit Drug Toxicity Deaths in BC January 1, 2010 – June 30, 2020

• In June 2020, there were 175 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths. This represent a 130% increase over the number of deaths seen in June 2019 (76) and a 2% increase over the number of deaths in May 2020 (171).

• The June 2020 total represents the highest number of illicit drug toxicity deaths ever recorded in a month in B.C to date.

• The number of deaths in each health authority is at or near the highest monthly total ever recorded.

• The number of illicit drug toxicity deaths in June 2020 equates to about 5.8 deaths per day. The number of illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2020 equates to 4 deaths per day for the year.

• In 2020, 68% of those dying were aged 19 to 49. In 2019 and 2018, 67% were in this age range. Males accounted for 80% of deaths in 2020 to date, slightly higher than in 2019 (76%) and consistent with 2018 (80%).

• The townships experiencing the highest number of illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2020 are Vancouver, Surrey, and Victoria.

• Fraser and Vancouver Coastal Health Authority have had the highest number of illicit drug toxicity deaths (228 and 205 deaths, respectively) in 2020, making up 59% of all such deaths during this period.

No deaths have been reported at supervised consumption or drug overdose prevention (2) sites.

UPDATE: 07 August 2020:

Ian Mulgrew: Vancouver Sun 07 August, 2020

Drug decriminalization a half-baked proposal

Opinion: ‘We have to find a different paradigm here,’ says Dr. Richard Mathias of the University of B.C. faculty of medicine. ‘The paradigm we have is killing Canadians’.

Four years after the authorities declared opioid deaths a public health emergency in B.C., the crisis rolls along like a Monty Python plague skit: Bring out your dead!

While there are daily briefings about COVID-19, which has killed fewer than 200 people in B.C., overdoses that have killed more than 700 so far this year receive little more than a monthly mortality update.

The number of drug deaths in each health authority is at or near the highest on record, without a cure, vaccine or solution in sight.

Instead of truly confronting the crisis, governments seem to be continually finding reasons to stall and shy away from discussing what is needed.

There is little evidence our political leaders want to talk about the issue beyond wringing their hands and mouthing anodyne concern.

The B.C. government won’t even provide the costs associated with the more than 30,000 people weaned off illegal drugs and now on Big Pharma substitutes.

“As this matter is before the courts (because users have launched a class-action lawsuit) it is not appropriate for us to share any information that is not publicly available at this time,” said Tracey Robertson, senior public affairs officer.

“This includes the costing associated with Methadone, Methadose and Metadol-D treatment. That said, we are able to provide you with the number of patients on Methadone (15,459), Methadose (12,026), and Metadol-D (3,589), as of April 2020.”

Believe it or not, it was 15 years ago that B.C.’s public health officers demanded the government decriminalize drug offences.

In a strident, progressive paper, they said it was time to address the harmful effects of the criminal prohibition against substances such as heroin and (at the time) marijuana.

They emphasized that anti-drug laws were based on racism and cultural biases, not evidence of harm, and the prohibition was causing far more damage to health and to society.

Titled “A Public Health Approach To Drug Control in Canada”, that 38-page paper recommended reform of federal and provincial laws and international agreements that deal with illegal drugs, development of national public health strategies to manage all psychoactive drugs, including alcohol and prescription drugs, improved monitoring, and more education.

Governments ignored it, and the echoes that followed over the years.

By 2019, even before her fame, Dr. Bonnie Henry was still trying to get that 2005 message heard.

In May, federal Minister of Health Patty Hajdu was asked to introduce a nationwide exemption for drug possession so no one would have to fear arrest and jail, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, even the nation’s chiefs of police — who fought drug reform to protect their budgets — have joined the bandwagon, saying we should decriminalize drug possession.

The chiefs say it would improve the health and safety outcomes for drug users while reducing property crime, repeat offences and the demand for drugs in communities.

Really? After all these years of filling our jails with drug users while gangs prospered and proliferated, the cops have finally figured that out?

Heck, even Premier John Horgan, who recently sounded like he didn’t have a clue about addiction, is apparently all for decriminalization.

It’s about time.

Banning opiates, cocaine and other substances has proven to be as stupid as trying to ban alcohol.

Our drug laws are an abject failure. Still, decriminalization is not the answer to the opioid crisis any more than it was for marijuana.

It’s a halfway house of pain. Which is why we need a discussion.

Decriminalization allows the user to consume without risk of arrest, but does nothing to address the illegal black market, with its tainted products, violence and indiscriminate sales to kids.

Criminal drug laws protect traffickers from taxation, regulation and quality control. They maintain artificially high prices for drugs that cost pennies, and they produce an underground economy where disputes get settled not in court, but with guns.

There are better ways to control drug use.

It’s time to adopt a new legal regime to regulate drugs — their potency, retail sales, warning labels, age limits and other restrictions such as prescriptions.

Decriminalization won’t do that. Legalization will.

We need an integrated strategy of prevention, research, education and social programs to address poverty and the homelessness that has far too many people sleeping in parks.

We have to start discussing that aid package and dealing with addiction as seriously as we have attacked the coronavirus.

Legalization is not a panacea. It does not end drug use or violence.

But it will stop people with a medical issue being turned into criminals, and help us reduce the overdose deaths, the black market and the violence.

The 2005 anti-drug strategy called for a national dialogue, and Dr. Richard Mathias, of the University of B.C. faculty of medicine, emphasized: “We have to find a different paradigm here. The paradigm we have is killing Canadians.”

It didn’t happen.

Today, more than ever are dying. That 15 years have passed isn’t a joke, it’s an indictment.

imulgrew@postmedia.com

twitter.com/ianmulgrew

I am a Sincere Man from the Land where Palm trees grow. by Doda -Maryoga

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Memorial a José Martí

José Martí ( 1853 - 1895 ) - the Cuban National Hero -

- the Soul of the Cuban Revolution -

✺ "Every Human being has within him an Ideal Man, just as every piece of marble contains in a rough state a statue as beautiful as the one that Praxiteles the Greek made of the God Apollo."

✺ "Our own Greece” is preferable to the Greece that is not ours; we need it more. Statesmen who arise from the nation must replace statesmen who are alien to it. "

✺ "To Change Masters is not to be Free."

✺ "Mountains Culminate in Peaks, and Nations in Men ; It is the Duty of Man to raise up Man.Everything that divides Men is a Sin against Humanity. "

✺ "The Soul, equal and Eternal, emanates from bodies of different shapes and colors. Whoever foments and spreads antagonism and hate between the Races, sins against Humanity."

✺ " I come from all places and to all places I go,because happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason and knowledge of the harmony of the universe; all is beautiful and unceasing, all is music and reason, and all, like diamond, is carbon first, then Light .... "

✺ "Being Cultured is the only way to be Free."

✺ "In a time of crisis, the Peoples of the World must rush to get to know each other."

✺ " I am a Sincere man from the Land where Palm trees grow,and I want, before I die ,to cast these verses from my soul ... "

I wish to leave the world

By its natural door;

In my tomb of green leaves

They are to carry me to die.

Do not put me in the dark

To die like a traitor;

I am good, and like a good thing

I will die with my face to the Sun ... José Martí

Exploring Vedado,Havana's "Forbidden" Neighbourhood,the city's financial district,just a few miles west of Old Havana.Thick swaths of forest were converted into a closed military defense zone by Spanish colonizers,hence the name “Vedado” which means “forbidden” in Spanish.Memorial a José Martí takes the central stage in the Revolution Square in Vedado.

( It is the largest monument to a writer in the world,the second one is the Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott standing in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh.)

The Pyramidal Tower,built with a five-pointed star shape representing the Vertices of Freedom,has José Martí 's 18 metres,white marble sculpture on a pedestal at its base.

The National hero is seated in a thinking pose with a lookout over Havana.The huge Monument encased in grey Cuban marble quarried from the Isle of Pines ( Isle of Youth ),is 142 metres tall and 78,50 in diameter, and has a stairway of 579 steps.It is the tallest structure in all of Havana and was placed in here in 1958.It also houses a museum where you view portraits and relics from Martí’s life and you read about 80 quotes from his writings engraved in gold and spread out into five halls.

- Cubans Duly Honoured their National Leader -

José Martí - aka the Cuban Apostle - is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American poets and intellectuals.

He was a writer,poet,essayist,professor,a really remarkable figure in Latin American literature,and an important revolutionary philosopher and political theorist.His passionate belief in Democracy and Justice made him a hero for all Cubans.

After his death, one of his poems from the book, "Versos Sencillos" (Simple Verses) was adapted to the song "Guantanamera",which has become the patriotic song of Cuba.

PS : While it is the sovereign right of the Cuban people to cherish Jose Marti as their own son of the soil,it can be said honestly and accurately without the slightest disagreement from the unselfish Cuban people that Marti belongs not only to Cuba but to all of the Americas,to all Nations.

☼ இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—...இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ— 🌻🌻🌻 இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—...இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ— 🌻🌻🌻☼

- Update 25 March 2019 -

✺ " In a time of Crisis, the Peoples of the World must rush to get to know each other." Jose Marti

While Greece celebrated the Day of Independence on the 25th of March,I was glad to see on Twitter that Clarence House & BBC announced Prince Charles' three-day historic trip to Cuba.

The Prince of Wales,heir to the British throne,and his wife,Duchess of Cornwall,landed in Cuba on 25 March 2019.

The UK supported the trip to the communist-run island in hopes of boosting commercial and cultural ties with Cuba.The trip was seen as an attempt to help form closer ties between the UK and Cuba and strengthen British-Cuban relations as part of a broader normalization of the island's relations with the West.

Trade between the two countries has fallen off sharply in recent years,but nonetheless,around 200,000 British holidaymakers come to the island each year.Now,the UK sees opportunities in Cuba's booming tourism sector as well as energy.

As this year marks the 500th anniversary of the city of Havana,their Royal Highnesses attended a wreath-laying ceremony for Cuba's National hero,José Martí.

Prince Charles stood in silent contemplation as a large wreath of Roses was laid at José Martí Memorial in Revolution Square.

And then,came the Celebration of Literature with a new bronze sculpture of the English poet, playwright and actor William Shakespeare.

To Be or not to Be ...

The Royal couple toured Old Havana's historic centre on foot where they viewed a plaque to commemorate the Royal visit,and HRH the Prince of Wales along with local historian Dr. Eusebio Leal unveiled the statue of the Bard.

( Dr. Eusebio Leal is director of the restoration programme of Old Havana and its historical centre,UNESCO World Heritage.

He is also the President of the Commission of Monuments in the City of Havana and a specialist in Archeological Sciences.)

✺ " In a time of Crisis, the Peoples of the World must rush to get to know each other." Jose Marti

Orion Widefield by William Ostling

11

Full write-up here: theastroenthusiast.com/orion-widefield/

Cradled in cosmic dust and glowing hydrogen, stellar nurseries in Orion the Hunter lie at the edge of a giant molecular cloud some 1,500 light-years away. Spanning nearly 25 degrees, this breath-taking vista stretches across the well-known constellation from head to toe (left to right). The Great Orion Nebula, the closest large star forming region, is right of center. To its left are the Horsehead Nebula, M78, and Orion’s belt stars.

Equipment:

Nikon D800

50mm f1.4 lens

GEM 28

NINA

Nikonhacker

Acquisition:

ISO 800, F2.8

Taken from a bortle 1 zone in Northwest CT

155 x 240s subframes (10 hours) – Taken on 12/26/2022, 12/27/2022

Processing:

Pre-processing and stacking

- All subframes were calibrated and normalized through WBPP

- The subframes were debayered and split into monochrome channels

- The subframes were registered with distortion correction

- the subframes were registered based on a PSF snr estimate

- The subframes were normalized using local normalization

- Each channel was integrated separately using the ESD clipping algorithm

Preparation of all frames:

- Stacking artifacts were cropped

- the RGB channels were combined to create an RGB image

- the RGB image was plate solved

- DBE was applied iteratively

- the RGB image was photometrically color calibrated

Linear noise reduction

- A low-contrast mask was applied

- Two iterations of TGV noise reduction were applied, one targeting high-frequency noise and one targeting low-frequency noise

- A medium-contrast mask was applied

- MMT targeting all 8 scales was applied to remove large-scale noise

Stretching

- The stars were seperated from the nebula using Starnet 2

- the RGB image was stretched using Arcsinh stretch

Non-linear adjustments:

- LRGB combination

- HDR, LHE, and curves to increase local contrast

- MLT was applied targeting 5 layers of luminance

- The background level was set to .09

- the stars were stretched using Arcinh stretch

- The image was relinearized and the stars were added back

Website: theastroenthusiast.com/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/

Candidates for another babble speech. by fernandoprats

24 24

Milk dZi 2 Eyes by Oleg

6 3

The main bead - "Two Eyes" Agate Pure dZi bead.

Two eyes in Tibet denote the masculine and feminine principles in the world and the harmony between them. This is also the concept of Yin Yang in Feng Shui.

Many call it the "bead of LOVE". It is believed that the bead attracts love and partners, builds relationships. This is only partly true. First of all, the bead harmonizes the internal balance of male and female, then the surrounding space reacts accordingly. Thanks to inner harmony, existing relationships are normalized and what was previously empty is filled. Updates in life will not keep you waiting if you wear a 2-eyed Pure bead all the time.

Local normalization by Antonio Jiménez

2

Trasteando con los filtros G'MIC para GIMP

東京タワー　Tokyo Tower by ELCAN KE-7A

6 1

日中国交正常化50周年を祝して、中国のナショナルカラーにライトアップされた東京タワー。展望デッキには「未来」が点灯。

The Tokyo Tower was lit in Re to mark the 30th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China on January 31, 2022.

23 people by ela.ch

25 11

Today we were 23 people and a dog #fridayforfuture

I don't know who wrote this, but, lately, I can read it every time when I feel helpless.

Please make time and read it for yourself.

"The first thing to do when you find out about abrupt climate change and near term extinction is to panic. Then, you will obsess over the idea because it’s so hard to believe. You will find Guy McPherson, Extinction Rebellion, Sam Carana, Paul Beckwith, Scientist Warning, the Collapse Chronicles, Deep Adaptation, Jem Bendell, IPCC, Environmental Coffee House and you will look up all the people they interview.... and on and on further down the rabbit hole.

You will imagine the most horrific scenarios of how our civilization will collapse. You will be overwhelmed with pain when you imagine how your loved ones will die. You will want to tell your loved ones and you probably do. You will wonder why mainstream society is not panicking like you are. Then you’ll wonder if it’s really true. If you tell your loved ones they will think you are delusional and having a nervous breakdown. They might even distance themselves for you.

You will find out that the fossil fuel industry understood that this catastrophe will happen and hid the info. You will learn that just about every political leader in the world knows about the catastrophe ahead of us because they meet every year to talk about it (UN Conference of the Parties COP). Then, you will be filled with rage, disgust, and helpless.

Rage and anger will come over you like a tsunami. How could it be possible that the fossil fuel industry knew what would happen? How could the politicians let this happen? And even now, let it continue to happen? They knew total climate chaos is what would happen with the use of fossil fuels. How could they not care? How fucked up are they to make billions even trillions of dollars over killing everyone and everything in this planet?

How is it possible that even now, most people don’t care? People stay in denial and pretend everything is ok. You will fall into the abyss of anger and hatred for the corporations, the politicians, the super-rich, the people that don’t recycle, etc...

Then more fear, incredibly intense anxiety, rage, denial, rage, horror, will continue to haunt you. You will imagine death everywhere you go. Nature will overwhelm you because you will feel we killed it. Everywhere you go. Just going for a walk becomes painful because you know everything will die. Looking at a child will break your heart and fill you with a sense of deep deep sadness, unlike anything you have ever experienced before.

But, at some point, you will reach the gratitude stage.

Where you accept our “predicament”, our demise, or catastrophic death... whatever you want to call it.

You will focus on gratitude, where the idea of NTE disappears. You will feel like you are the luckiest person to live in such a beautiful place and to have the means to access it. You will find that it doesn’t matter where you live, you will feel like it’s a wonderful place because you are filled with gratitude. You will think about your family and friends and feel fortunate to be with them.

On this stage, everything is a blessing.

Then there’s a joy. Your heart will fill with joy and delight. Everything is beautiful and wonderful. You will feel a wave of happiness that you can’t really explain.

Sometimes in the moments of gratitude when you are walking, a sudden wave of guilt rolls in and so starts the negative parts of this cycle.

The beautify is lost.

You notice how the plants and trees are drying and dying. The sense of guilt is debilitating because you feel like you are part of the problem, that you are killing the planet just like everyone else. You feel guilty and ashamed because, before, you could not see how we are killing this unique amazing planet. You might have even made fun of those “environmentalists”. Maybe, at this point, you try to change your lifestyle to be more “sustainable or ecological.” You might even encourage your friends and family to change their choices to consume less and reduce their carbon footprint. You wonder what climate “activism” is and you might join groups like Climate Strike, Extinction Rebellion....etc.

Then you read an article on the latest UN report or IPCC or scientific study....that says everything is more fucked up than we thought it was. The phrase “faster than expected” starts to sound like a line from a song you hate but it plays over and over in your head. Then you feel anger over the reality that this catastrophe was expected.

Then, another crazy extreme weather event happens and you start to think

“This is It” .........maybe.

You will obsess about the timeline.

When will the shit hit the fan? or your local fan or your personal fan. You might start “prepping.” You obsess about what could happen in your area and then the cycle of the horror of the thought of how you and your loved ones will die starts again.

Eventually, you realize no one really knows what is happening, how fast it’s happening and what will eventually happen to you. But you know it’s soon and no one will tell you when “this is it”.

And surprisingly, you might even start to normalize this catastrophe.

Throughout this process you long for people to talk about this stuff with. You want to feel less alone and crazy. So you spend a lot of time on this FB group and others. This feels like an obsession. Because this world seems more real than your everyday life. You learn how to cope or not cope with living in 2 worlds. One is your every day, nothing is happening, climate change doesn’t matter. And the other, we are totally and completely fucked and we deserve it and “it” (collapse, “end of the world”) is imminent. You might think, this is could be our last good year or summer or winter or season or month. “ The timeline will change based on your emotions and how you understand the latest “science” and the extreme weather you read about or witness or experience or who you believe is telling “the truth”.

The important thing is for you to feel like you are not alone.

Because even in your darkest, most isolating, self-destructive, enraged moments you are not “alone”. You are not the only one that feels this indescribable pain, you are not crazy. And expressing your emotions is ok. And feeling like this is a “normal” appropriate response to the understanding we caused the 6th mass extinction event in planetary history and there’s nothing we can do to “fix” it and you will witness unimaginable suffering is totally a “rational” responsible. Others have reacted this way too. Your experience is unique and valid but it’s not totally crazy or “overreacting.” You are brave and strong to look at the situation as best as you can, tell it like is and still continue to live your life. You eventually “come to peace” with this tragedy, even if it’s just for a tiny moment. The sense of gratitude and joy and most importantly time will out weight all the pain.

You will understand that the gift of this knowledgeable is TIME.

You have time to react, reflect, and act as it makes sense to you. You have time to “enjoy what you have” while you have it. You have time to tell the people you love, that you love them. You have time to get “closure” on things that need closing. You have time to “make peace” with Nature. You have time to enjoy the life you live. You have the opportunity to let go of the stuff that really doesn’t matter. For example, the act or guilt of not contributing to a retirement account, the pressure of debt, in the long run, doing things you don’t want to do, that you thought would get you to a place you want to be in the future you weren’t sure you wanted anyway.

You have the gift of time.

This opens the door to the cycles of hellish thoughts and experiences but also to the beauty and gratitude and love and joy of the world you have in front of you right now.

So, here is my “hopium” bit. It seems obligatory to end an article or talk on a kind of positive hopeful note.

The world is ending, it’s our fault, and we can’t fix it.

You have no control. The end is coming, you might have a choice on how you will meet it (emotionally, intellectually).

And, if you are panicking and not ready to deal with this, that’s totally normal. If you want to watch funny cat videos and scape with or without “substances” that’s ok too. If you want to “go back” to not worrying about this stuff that’s ok too.

There is no one way or right way to deal with this stuff.

Now you know.

Here it is.”

J. M.

Friday for future by ela.ch

27 11

Today we were 23 people and a dog #fridayforfuture

I don't know who wrote this, but, lately, I can read it every time when I feel helpless.

Please make time and read it for yourself.

"The first thing to do when you find out about abrupt climate change and near term extinction is to panic. Then, you will obsess over the idea because it’s so hard to believe. You will find Guy McPherson, Extinction Rebellion, Sam Carana, Paul Beckwith, Scientist Warning, the Collapse Chronicles, Deep Adaptation, Jem Bendell, IPCC, Environmental Coffee House and you will look up all the people they interview.... and on and on further down the rabbit hole.

You will imagine the most horrific scenarios of how our civilization will collapse. You will be overwhelmed with pain when you imagine how your loved ones will die. You will want to tell your loved ones and you probably do. You will wonder why mainstream society is not panicking like you are. Then you’ll wonder if it’s really true. If you tell your loved ones they will think you are delusional and having a nervous breakdown. They might even distance themselves for you.

You will find out that the fossil fuel industry understood that this catastrophe will happen and hid the info. You will learn that just about every political leader in the world knows about the catastrophe ahead of us because they meet every year to talk about it (UN Conference of the Parties COP). Then, you will be filled with rage, disgust, and helpless.

Rage and anger will come over you like a tsunami. How could it be possible that the fossil fuel industry knew what would happen? How could the politicians let this happen? And even now, let it continue to happen? They knew total climate chaos is what would happen with the use of fossil fuels. How could they not care? How fucked up are they to make billions even trillions of dollars over killing everyone and everything in this planet?

How is it possible that even now, most people don’t care? People stay in denial and pretend everything is ok. You will fall into the abyss of anger and hatred for the corporations, the politicians, the super-rich, the people that don’t recycle, etc...

Then more fear, incredibly intense anxiety, rage, denial, rage, horror, will continue to haunt you. You will imagine death everywhere you go. Nature will overwhelm you because you will feel we killed it. Everywhere you go. Just going for a walk becomes painful because you know everything will die. Looking at a child will break your heart and fill you with a sense of deep deep sadness, unlike anything you have ever experienced before.

But, at some point, you will reach the gratitude stage.

Where you accept our “predicament”, our demise, or catastrophic death... whatever you want to call it.

You will focus on gratitude, where the idea of NTE disappears. You will feel like you are the luckiest person to live in such a beautiful place and to have the means to access it. You will find that it doesn’t matter where you live, you will feel like it’s a wonderful place because you are filled with gratitude. You will think about your family and friends and feel fortunate to be with them.

On this stage, everything is a blessing.

Then there’s a joy. Your heart will fill with joy and delight. Everything is beautiful and wonderful. You will feel a wave of happiness that you can’t really explain.

Sometimes in the moments of gratitude when you are walking, a sudden wave of guilt rolls in and so starts the negative parts of this cycle.

The beautify is lost.

You notice how the plants and trees are drying and dying. The sense of guilt is debilitating because you feel like you are part of the problem, that you are killing the planet just like everyone else. You feel guilty and ashamed because, before, you could not see how we are killing this unique amazing planet. You might have even made fun of those “environmentalist”. Maybe, at this point, you try to change your lifestyle to be more “sustainable or ecological.” You might even encourage your friends and family to change their choices to consume less and reduce their carbon footprint. You wonder what climate “activism” is and you might join groups like Climate Strike, Extinction Rebellion....etc.