constraining photos on Flickr

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The short circular from Askrigg to Mill Gill Force showcases much of what I love about the Yorkshire Dales. Woodland, geometric fields divided with dry stone walls, sheep, and fantastic rivers. All of which are surrounded by shapely limestone hills in wide open glacial valleys.

The route starts with a tricky though delightful woodland walk following the beck past characterful gnarled beech trees. Both Mill Force and Whitfield Gill Force offer dramatic scenery and photographic possibilities, although as ever with woodland photography, cloudy days are preferable to helpfully constrain contrast.

With the walk so far enclosed, either under canopy or within the beck gorge, the optional route back along Low Straights Lane offers a refreshing change as you walk up out of the woods to a walled track that contours the hill. Once again, you are reminded of the big skies and wide open grandeur of The Dales.

Re-Move by Nicholas Galanin

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Re-Move is a free clinic specifically geared toward removing "tribal tattoos" and "native inspired tattoos" in addition to offering tattooed lines of separation and their removal.

Lines that qualify include but are not limited to: International border lines, state lines, the line between men, and the line between people and land.

Skin is the tissue we are born in, we experience pain and pleasure and violence through it. Skin is the tissue used to define, constrain, label and separate us.

Tattoo uses the surface tissue or our bodies to display knowledge, ignorance, desire, connection, love, allegiance and stories.

Tattoo has been practiced by people all over the world to identify, adorn, and designate us in every direction from celebration and honor to degradation and ownership.

Colonization and religious conversion attempted to forcibly remove the practice of tattoo from Indigenous cultures.

The rampant tattooing of "tribal/Native inspired" tattoos is continued colonization of culture through commodification and fictionalization.

Re-Move highlights removal of culture, and removes divisions damaging to culture today. We extend our services to cover the removal of lines that damage culture for all of us, Indigenous and settler, human and non-human.

Collaborative Performance w/ Merritt Johnson at MOCNA, Sante Fe 2017

CAIRNRYAN LIGHTHOUSE, LOCH RYAN, CAIRN POINT, CAIRNRYAN, WIGTOWNSHIRE, SCOTLAND. by CHRIS NEWMAN

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VIEW FROM THE FERRY FROM LARNE IN N. IRELAND TO CAIRNRYAN IN SCOTLAND.

THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1847, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.

Upsala_2017 12 28_5720 by Harvey Barrison

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The day starts at 7:30 am with a 40-minute drive to the Punta Bandera dock to take a boat on Lago Argentino to Upsala Glacier, a large valley glacier on the eastern side of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Its higher portion lies in a disputed territory between Chile and Argentina. The glacier terminus is at Upsala channel of Lago Argentino. The Upsala Glacier is well known for its rapid retreat that has been ongoing since the glacier was first documented in 1810. The glacier showed almost continual recession up until 1999. The acceleration in ice motion during the two decades preceding 1999 may have been augmented by the release of backstress when the glacier retreated beyond the islands in Brazo Upsala. Another period of even faster retreat started in 2008. As of 2018 Upsala Glacier has retreated to such degree that it no longer constrains its tributary Bertacchi Glacier. The boat then drops us off at the Estancia Cristina, an Argentine cattle and sheep ranch located inside Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz Province. It is here that we take a 4x4 for 45 minutes up a mountain, stop and continue up for another 20 minutes, reaching the summit around 12:30 pm. The ranch was founded in 1914 by Joseph Percival Masters, an Englishman who came to Patagonia with his wife in 1900; Estancia Cristina is named for Masters' daughter Cristina. Located on the coast of Brazo Cristina, a northern channel of Lago Argentino, Estancia Cristina still keeps the history of the Masters family alive. Its lodge has 20 rooms distributed over 5 buildings and it his here that we had lunch followed by a presentation of the traditional Mate, an Argentinean tea and a tour of the ranch. We then take the boat back to Punta Bandera and arrive back at the hotel at 8:00 pm.

#56 astrodeep200407a HUDF, Spitzer 840 KB five oldest tiny galaxies 3022X2496 heic0714aa by Rich Murray

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ubiquitous bright blue 1-12 pixel sources on darker 3D fractal web in five

2007.09.06 IR and visible light HUDF images, Nor Pirzkal, Sangeeta

Malhotra, James E Rhoads, Chun Xu, -- might be clusters of earliest

hypernovae in recent cosmological simulations: Rich Murray 2008.08.17

rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.htm

Sunday, August 17, 2008

groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroDeep/25

groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/85

www.flickr.com/photos/rmforall/1349101458/in/photostream/

The 5 closeups are about 2.2x2.2 arc-seconds wide and high, about 70x70 pixels.

The HUDF is 315x315 arc-seconds, with N at top and E at left.

Each side has 10,500x10,500 pixels at 0.03 arc-second per pixel.

Click on All Sizes and select Original to view the highest resolution image of

3022x2496 pixels, which can be also be conveniently seen directly at their Zoomable image:

www.spacetelescope.org/images/html/zoomable/heic0714a.html

Notable in the deep background of the five closeups are ubiquitous bright blue sources, presumably extremely hot ultraviolet before redshifting, 1 to a dozen or so pixels, as single or short lines of spots, and a few irregular tiny blobs, probably, as predicted in many recent simulations, the earliest massive, short-lived hypernovae, GRBs with jets at various angles to our line of sight, expanding bubbles, earliest molecular and dust clouds with light echoes and bursts of star formation, and first small dwarf galaxies, always associated with a subtle darker 3D random fractal mesh of filaments of H and He atomic gases.

As a scientific layman, I am grateful for specific cogent, civil feedback, based on the details readily visible in images in the public domain.

www.spacetelescope.org/images/html/heic0714a.html

Hubble and Spitzer Uncover Smallest Galaxy Building Blocks

In this image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, several objects are identified

as the faintest, most compact galaxies ever observed in the distant

Universe.

They are so far away that we see them as they looked less than one billion

years after the Big Bang.

Blazing with the brilliance of millions of stars, each of the newly

discovered galaxies is a hundred to a thousand times smaller than our Milky

Way Galaxy.

The bottom row of pictures shows several of these clumps (distance expressed

in redshift value).

Three of the galaxies appear to be slightly disrupted.

Rather than being shaped like rounded blobs, they appear stretched into

tadpole-like shapes.

This is a sign that they may be interacting and merging with neighboring

galaxies to form larger structures.

The detection required joint observations between Hubble and NASA's Spitzer

Space Telescope.

Blue light seen by Hubble shows the presence of young stars.

The absence of red light from Spitzer observations conclusively shows that

these are truly young galaxies without an earlier generation of stars.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and N. Pirzkal (European Space Agency/STScI)

Id: heic0714a

Object: HUDF, UDF, Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Type: Cosmology

Instrument: ACS

Width: 2750

Height: 3312

Downloads

Images

www.spacetelescope.org/images/original/heic0714a.tif

Fullsize Original 17.085 MB

www.alternatiff.com/

view with free software AlternaTIFF

alternatiff-1_8_4.exe for Firefox browser

Large JPEG

3,422 KB

Screensize JPEG

387 KB

www.spacetelescope.org/images/html/zoomable/heic0714a.html

Zoomable

Copyright-free material (more info).

www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMCGRMPQ5F_index_1.html

hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/31

hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/31/image/

www.spitzer.caltech.edu/

www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0714.html

www.spacetelescope.org/news/text/heic0714.txt

HEIC0714: EMBARGOED UNTIL 18:00 (CEST)/12:00 PM EDT 06 September, 2007

www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0714.html

News release:

Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes find “Lego-block” galaxies in early

Universe

06-September 2007 The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA

Spitzer Space Telescope have joined forces to discover nine of the

smallest, faintest, most compact galaxies ever observed in the distant

Universe. Blazing with the brilliance of millions of stars, each of the

newly discovered galaxies is a hundred to a thousand times smaller than

our Milky Way Galaxy.

The conventional model for galaxy evolution predicts that small galaxies

in the early Universe evolved into the massive galaxies of today by

coalescing. Nine Lego-like “building block” galaxies initially detected

by Hubble likely contributed to the construction of the Universe as we

know it. “These are among the lowest mass galaxies ever directly

observed in the early Universe” says Nor Pirzkal of the European Space

Agency/STScI.

Pirzkal was surprised to find that the galaxies’ estimated masses were

so small. Hubble’s cousin observatory, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope

was called upon to make precise determinations of their masses. The

Spitzer observations confirmed that these galaxies are some of the

smallest building blocks of the Universe.

These young galaxies offer important new insights into the Universe’s

formative years, just one billion years after the Big Bang. Hubble

detected sapphire blue stars residing within the nine pristine galaxies.

The youthful stars are just a few million years old and are in the

process of turning Big Bang elements (hydrogen and helium) into heavier

elements. The stars have probably not yet begun to pollute the

surrounding space with elemental products forged within their cores.

“While blue light seen by Hubble shows the presence of young stars, it

is the absence of infrared light in the sensitive Spitzer images that

was conclusive in showing that these are truly young galaxies without an

earlier generation of stars,” says Sangeeta Malhotra of Arizona State

University in Tempe, USA, one of the investigators.

The galaxies were first identified by James Rhoads of Arizona State

University, USA, and Chun Xu of the Shanghai Institute of Technical

Physics in Shanghai, China. Three of the galaxies appear to be slightly

disrupted -- rather than being shaped like rounded blobs, they appear

stretched into tadpole-like shapes. This is a sign that they may be

interacting and merging with neighbouring galaxies to form larger,

cohesive structures.

The galaxies were observed in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) with

Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Near Infrared Camera and

Multi-Object Spectrometer as well as Spitzer’s Infrared Array Camera and

the European Southern Observatory’s Infrared Spectrometer and Array

Camera. Seeing and analysing such small galaxies at such a great

distance is at the very limit of the capabilities of the most powerful

telescopes. Images taken through different colour filters with the ACS

were supplemented with exposures taken through a so-called grism which

spreads the different colours emitted by the galaxies into short

“trails”. The analysis of these trails allows the detection of emission

from glowing hydrogen gas, giving both the distance and an estimate of

the rate of star formation. These “grism spectra” -- taken with Hubble

and analysed with software developed at the Space Telescope-European

Coordinating Facility in Munich, Germany -- can be obtained for objects

that are significantly fainter than can be studied spectroscopically

with any other current telescope.

# # #

Notes for editors

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation

between ESA and NASA.

Pirzkal’s main collaborators were Malhotra, Rhoads, Xu, and the GRism

ACS Program for Extragalactic Science (GRAPES) team.

Image credit: NASA, ESA and N. Pirzkal (European Space Agency/STScI)

If you wish to no longer receive these News and Photo Releases, please

send an email to distribution@spacetelescope.org with your name.

For more information, please contact:

Nor Pirzkal ;

European Space Agency/Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA

Tel: 410-338-4879

Lars Lindberg Christensen ;

Hubble/ESA, Garching, Germany

Tel: +49-(0)89-3200-6306

Cellular: +49-(0)173-3872-621

Ray Villard ;

Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA

Tel: +1-410-338-4514

Whitney Clavin

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA

Tel: +1-818-354-4673

AST HUDF Spitzer IR 9 galaxies z 4-5.7, N Pirzdal, S Malhotra, JE Rhoads, C Xu, 2007.05.01 28p

www.spacetelescope.org/news/science_paper/0612513.pdf

arXiv:astro-ph/0612513v2 1 May 2007

Optical to mid-IR observations of Lyman-! galaxies at z about 5 in the HUDF: a young and low mass population

N. Pirzkal 1,2,

S. Malhotra 3,

J. E. Rhoads 3,

C. Xu 4

ABSTRACT

High redshift galaxies selected on the basis of their strong Lyman-! emission tend to be young ages and small physical sizes.

We show this by analyzing the spectral energy distribution (SED) of 9 Lyman-! emitting (LAE) galaxies at 4.0 < z < 5.7 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF).

Rest-frame UV to optical 700°A < " < 7500°A luminosities, or upper limits, are used to constrain old stellar populations.

We derive best fit, as well as maximally massive and maximally old, properties of all 9 objects.

We show that these faint and distant objects are all very young, being most likely only a few millions years old, and not massive, the mass in stars being ! 106 − 108 M!.

Deep Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) observations of these objects, even in cases where objects were not detected, were crucial in constraining the masses of these objects.

The space density of these objects, ! 1.25× 10−4 Mpc−3 is comparable to previously reported space density of LAEs at moderate to high redshifts.

These Lyman-! galaxies show modest star formation rates of ! 8 M! yr−1, which is nevertheless strong enough to have allowed these galaxies to assemble their stellar mass in less than a few ×106 years.

These sources appear to have small physical sizes, usually smaller than 1 Kpc, and are also rather concentrated.

They are likely to be some of the least massive and youngest high redshift galaxies observed to date.

Subject headings: galaxies: evolution, galaxies: high redshift, galaxies: formation, galaxies: structure, surveys, cosmology

1 Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

2 Affiliated with the Space Science Telescope Division of the European Space Agency, ESTEC, Noordwijk,

The Netherlands

3 School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

4 Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, 500 Yutian Road, Shanghai, P.R. China 200083

____________________________________________________________

See similar images:

notable bright blue tiny sources on darker 3D fractal web in HUDF VLT ESO

28 images from 506 galaxies, z about 6 , RJ Bouwens, GD Illingworth,

JP Blakeslee, M Franx 2008.02.04 draft 36 page: Rich Murray 2008.08.17

rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.htm

Sunday, August 17, 2008

groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroDeep/26

groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/86

bright blue 1-4 pixel sources on darker 3D fractal web in IR and visible light

HUDF images -- might be the clusters of earliest hypernovae in the

Naoki Yoshida and Lars Hernquist simulation: Rich Murray 2008.07.31

rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.htm

Thursday, July 31, 2008

groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroDeep/24

groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/84

____________________________________________________________

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@comcast.net

505-501-2298 1943 Otowi Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/messages

groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroDeep/messages

____________________________________________________________

1:72 Gotha Go 146 A-0 (license-built Ki-46II 'Dinah'), aircraft '5F+EL' of 3(f.)/14. Aufklärungsgruppe, Deutsche Luftwaffe; Froid-Chapelle (France), summer 1940 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) by Dizzyfugu

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+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Gotha 146 was a fast reconnaissance aircraft that was used throughout WWII by the German Luftwaffe, and one of the results of a mutual technology exchange program with Japan.

The Go 146 was actually a license-built, modified variant of the excellent Mitsubishi Ki-46. The latter type's career started in late 1937: the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force issued a specification to Mitsubishi for a long-range strategic reconnaissance aircraft to replace the Mitsubishi Ki-15.

The specification demanded an endurance of six hours and sufficient speed to evade interception by any fighter in existence or development, but otherwise did not constrain the design by a team led by Tomio Kubo.

The resulting design was a twin-engined, low-winged monoplane with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage. It had a small diameter oval fuselage with the pilot and observer situated in individual cockpits separated by a large fuel tank. The engines, two Mitsubishi Ha-26 radials, were housed in close fitting cowlings to reduce drag and improve pilot view.

The first prototype aircraft, flew in November 1939 from the Mitsubishi factory at Kakamigahara, Gifu.Tests showed that the Ki-46 was underpowered, and slower than required, only reaching 540 km/h (336 mph) rather than the specified 600 km/h (373 mph). Otherwise, the aircraft tests were successful. As the type was still faster than the Army's latest fighter, the Nakajima Ki-43, as well as the Navy's new A6M2,an initial production batch was ordered.

To solve the performance problems, Mitsubishi fitted Ha-102 engines, which were Ha-26s fitted with a two-stage supercharger, while increasing fuel capacity and reducing empty weight to give the Ki-46-II. This machine was also demonstrated to German officials, who became immediately aware of its potential.

Knowing that the German Luftwaffe lacked this fast type of aircraft (German reconnaissance aircraft of that time were either slow artillery observation types, or variants of bombers or heavy fighters), the RLM immediately asked for a batch of airframe kits in order to adapt it to the European theatre and test its capabilities.

The result was a delivery of seven engine-less airframe kits that arrived in Germany in early 1940. In the meantime, with the help of blueprints and other documentations, an alternative engine installation had been devised - the German aircraft was to be powered by liquid-cooled DB 601 engines, which delivered more power than the Ha-102 and offered improved aerodynamics, despite the necessity to add radiators under the outer wings.Effectively, many stock parts from the Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter were incorporated, so that development time was very short.

In May 1940 the first batch of the Gotha 146 (which had officially been described as a further development of a four seat, twin-engine transport aircraft from the 1930s) was ready, and they were immediately transferred to the Western Front and based in France.

Allocated to the 14. Aufklärungsgruppe, the Go 146 A-0 machines carried out various reconnaissance tasks over the North Sea, Great Britain and France, and they were also used for camouflage trials: each of the five aircraft sported a different paint scheme, raging from uniform, all-over grey to disruptive geometrical patterns, reminiscent of Dazzle camouflage!

The Go 146 was popular among its crews, since it was fast, agile and easy to fly. During the test phase in summer 1940 the Go 146 proved to be slightly faster than its Japanese Ki-46 ancestor, and with a top speed of more than 375 mph (600 km/h) it was hard to intercept by any British or French fighter. The results were so convincing that serial production was ordered, and from October 1940 on the Go 146 A-1 was produced in limited numbers, and the type was steadily developed further, including the change of the nose section that came withe the Ki-46III and augmented engines.

Specifications:

Crew: two (pilot and observer)

Length: 11.00 m (36 ft 1 in)

Wingspan: 14.70 m (48 ft 2¾ in)

Height: 3.88 m (12 ft 8¾ in)

Wing area: 32.0 m² (344 ft²)

Empty weight: 3,263 kg (7,194 lb)

Loaded weight: 5,050 kg (11,133 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 5,800 kg (12,787 lb)

Powerplant:

2× Daimler-Benz DB 601B-1 liquid-cooled inverted V-12, 809 kW (1,100 hp) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 625 km/h (345 knots, 388 mph) at 5,800 m (19,000 ft)

Cruise speed: 400 km/h (217 knots, 249 mph)

Range: 2,474 km (1,337 nmi, 1,537 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,720 m (35,200 ft)

Wing loading: 157.8 kg/m² (32.3 lb/ft²)

Climb to 8,000 m (26,250 ft): 17 min 58 sec

Armament:

1x 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine gun in the observer's cabin, facing rearwards

The kit and its assembly:

This sounds like a weird idea, but the Luftwaffe had seriously been interested in the Ki-46, even though no aircraft ever made it to Europe. On the other side, several German aircraft were delivered to Japan (including the Bf 109E, Ju 87 and Me 210) for trials, so reversing this procedure makes sense.

Anyway, a German version would certainly not have been powered by radials, since this type of engine was not very popular in Europe and rather seen as a "slow" option for bombers. So the idea was born to convert a stock Ki-46 II into a prototype with German liquid-cooled engines - and it was easier to realize than expected!

The basis is the Airfix Dinah, a vintage and very simple kit. Fit is basically good, but the clear parts were (in my case) somewhat damaged around the edges of both canopies. Engines and landing gear are also basic - so I used different wheels, and the radials were replaced, anyway.

I used DB 601 engines, taken from an Airfix Bf 110 C kit, which also donated the radiators.

The latter were easy to place outside or the engine nacelles, the engines took some effort. The DB 601's height is perfect for the nacelles, just the width had to be enlarged in order to fit the original, circular shape of the radials' attachment points.

The remedy was simple: two long cuts in the upper cowling made the new engines flexible and wide enough to press them onto the nacelles' front ends! Some putty was necessary to hide gaps and smooth out the intersection, but the result looks very natural!

Otherwise not much was changed. The cockpits and the pilots were taken OOB, I just added a typical ring antenna under the fuselage and an additional pitot under the nose.

Painting and markings:

The fun part, even though it took a while to find something... different. The typical RLM 70/71/65 splinter scheme with a low waterline for prototypes or bombers of the BoB era was a valid option, but soooo boring.

While looking for inspiration I stumbled across some experimental schemes that had been tested on Bf109E fighters from JG53 - and that's what I finally settled upon.

What the Go 146 now carries is effectively a mix of two schemes: the stylish, geometric pattern was taken from one Bf 109, the colors (RLM 61/02/71/65) from another. Everything was painted with brushes and without masks, some light panel shading, black ink and grinded graphite were used for weathering.

The markings are minimal, typical for German reconnaissance aircraft of the time and based upon Bf 110 of the 14. Aufklärungsgruppe, the decals come from various aftermarket sheets and the code was puzzled together from single letter decals (TL Modellbau). A coat of acrylic matt varnish finally sealed the kit.

An exotic whif, and despite the weird basic idea I made it even more spectacular through the strange paint scheme which reminds of similar experiments by the US Navy. Odd thing is that I had the idea for a German Ki-46 on the agenda for quite a while, but this was/is to become a beefed-up Ki-46III for the late WWII period.

Building this kit's ancestor now, even before the Ki-46III conversion even started, is a little odd - but confirms the feasibility of an engine change and adds another contribution to the 2015 "Battle of Britain" Group Build at whatifmodelers.com.

Independence Hall by Michael Righi

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When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -- Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. -- And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

-- John Hancock

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

NZ Bus No. 368 at the Lambton Interchange 20/7/2017 by Wayne Duncan

2

One of Wellington's endangered species scheduled to face extinction at the end of October, captured outbound from the Wellington Railway Station Interchange bus hub on the Route 7 service to Kingston on Thursday, 20 July 2017.

NZ Bus 368 (EWE102 10 March 2009) / 2009 Designline Citybus Trolley / VIN:7A874010908008246 / Designline B43DW bodywork. Go Wellington, Kilbirnie

NZ FIRST WANTS TO KEEP THE TROLLEYBUSES, AND BUILD LIGHT RAIL TO THE AIRPORT

Wellington.Scoop, June 27 2017

NZ First has stated that it would retain Wellington’s trolleybuses and renew the buses’ electricity supply. It also says it wants Wellington Airport served by light rail.

Denis O’Rourke, NZ First’s transport spokeperson, makes these statements in an interview published in this month’s issue of Logistics and Transport NZ, the magazine of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. The magazine asked for his party’s views on New Zealand’s transport for the future.

The same question was asked of all the other political parties. But NZ First was the only one to be specific about the needs of Wellington.

Here’s what he says:

New Zealand First has a firm commitment for excellent quality public transport services for the major population centres … We will make greater use of the Land Transport Fund and other sources of revenue including direct Government grants to ensure that public transport is well resourced.

We support the full development of the Auckland City Rail Link System as soon as possible; we would retain the Wellington electric trolleybus service and would renew its electricity supply; and we want to see Auckland Airport served soon with a passenger heavy rail link through Puhinui, and the Wellington and Christchurch Airports served with light rail. There would be a long-term strategic plan for electrification of rail and public transport services.

New Zealand First would also empower regional councils with the authority to levy regional fuel taxes, to be replaced as soon as possible by efficient road pricing mechanisms, to provide the means for both funding regional transport needs (and to take the pressure off rates) and to facilitate demand management objectives. Overall we would require the strategic selection of the modes of the modes of public transport in any region to give funding priority to the most efficient longterm best cost/benefit systems, taking into account the full range of real costs including externalities and also of wider socio-economic benefits.

Transport economist Neil Douglas comments::

If NZ First gets enough seats, then they could make trolleybus retention and upgrade of the power supply a condition of supporting a National or Labour Government, with detailed project planning via a tender to the private sector for light rail to Wellington Airport starting immediately. This would be the Canberra solution whereby we could get light rail in five years, and paid for by Central Government.

CHRIS LAIDLAW: SOME CLEAR-EYED FACTS ABOUT WELLINGTON BUSES

Dominion Post, 21 July 2017

OPINION: You've got to hand it to Dave Armstrong – his opinion piece (The dirty truth about Wellington buses, July 17) makes the answer to the city's public transport challenges seem very simple.

And that answer? Soldier on with ageing, inefficient trolleybuses, ignoring the costs and the fact their presence constrains development of an efficient network.

He has clearly not noticed that Greater Wellington Regional Council is looking well beyond the immediate future to a modern all-electric bus fleet, and that this transformation is well under way.

Here are a few facts:

- Bringing the trolley infrastructure (overhead wires, substations, power supply and underground cabling) up to scratch would have cost ratepayers at least $50 million. Dave's figure of $18m is probably a reference to the $17m Wellington Electricity said was necessary solely to make the substations safe by modern standards (let alone efficient).

- Greater Wellington voted to replace the trolleys, not "quick smart" as Dave suggests, but after rational analysis of the huge upgrade cost, the additional running cost ($6m a year and climbing), the inflexibility of the trolley routes (which made modifying the wider bus network very difficult) and the arrival of full battery-electric bus technology.

- Wellington Electricity, which maintains the power supply and substations and supplies power to the overhead lines, said, significantly, that upgrading this outmoded form of transport was "throwing good money after bad". Keeping the trolleys running became effectively a non-option.

- Wrightspeed technology is hardly a "praiseworthy but flawed" approach to reducing emissions. Yes, such hybrid buses could consume 75 per cent of the fuel of a regular diesel bus, but that's the maximum consumption under extreme conditions (namely, fully loaded on steep hills). Overall, it would be a lot less. In spite of this, they don't seem to be green enough for Dave.

Here are some more facts: Greater Wellington does not have its head in the sand about climate change or the need to get a modern bus fleet on the region's roads as soon as possible. That was a fundamental factor in recent bus tenders, the results of which will become apparent from July next year when the region will have a fleet of 400 buses, most of them brand new. Eighty per cent will meet or better the Euro V emissions standard, and two-thirds will meet the Euro VI standard – the toughest in the world.

That achievement alone will give the region one of the cleanest fleets in the world. Harmful emissions will immediately fall 38 per cent in Wellington compared with current levels (and 86 per cent in the Hutt Valley where older buses operate). It's a massive improvement – not an "if" or a "maybe". It's a guarantee.

An all-electric fleet can't happen overnight just because Dave and others say it should. These things happen incrementally and we are on our way. From next July, thanks to investment by new operator Tranzit,10 all-electric double-deckers will begin operating in the city (along with 50 ultra-low-emission diesel versions). Another 22 all-electric double-deckers will follow over the next three years.

Some people still object to the fact it will take years to reach an all-electric fleet at this rate – to which I would answer: yes, but we will have the cleanest-burning diesels to carry us through the transition, and it is the longer-term guarantee that counts. And all going well, we will also have a fleet of Wrightspeed hybrid buses.

Finally, there's the $1.3 billion investment over the next five years in the region's transport services and infrastructure as the number of commuter trips on buses, trains and ferries rises from the present 36 million a year to 42 million by 2021. The result will be a modern, integrated public transport network – the best in the country – and one we can be proud to call our own. Such a network will attract commuters out of their cars – and that's where we can make the biggest impact on climate change.

Now there's a story worth writing about.

- Chris Laidlaw chairs Greater Wellington Regional Council.

THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT WELLINGTON BUSES – AND WHY GWRC WANTS TO KEEP IT SECRET

Stuff, July 17 2017

By Dave Armstrong

OPINION: It's a situation every Wellington cyclist or pedestrian knows well. You come up behind a diesel bus stopped at the lights. Then the lights change and the bus moves forward. You are left choking and spluttering in the wake of sooty exhaust.

But the unpleasantness is only part of the problem. Diesel emissions contribute to greater air pollution – which ultimately leads to higher levels of respiratory disease, therefore higher health costs. Then there's climate change.

The Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) might tell you that diesel emissions are the unfortunate but necessary cost of having a public bus system. Besides, the technology will eventually improve and get cheaper. GWRC chairman Chris Laidlaw even reckons we are 'likely' to see some electric buses in Wellington soon. "Hopefully", before you can say "melting polar icecap", Wellington will have entirely electric buses.

The trouble is, fully electric buses aren't yet available, and our clean, green trolleybuses are being sent to the electric chair at the end of October. That means our supposedly environmentally friendly city will be reliant on dirty diesel buses, probably cheap hand-me-downs from Auckland, for "at least" eight months.

Perhaps Wellington needs to replace the motto on its coat of arms from Suprema a Situ to Supremely Sooty until we're fully electric. Liberal Wellingtonians of the type who sit on the GRWC would be horrified to be compared with Donald Trump, but when it comes to climate change, are we that different?

So why did the GWRC get rid of trolley buses if there was no clean, cost-effective alternative readily available? Privately owned Wellington Electricity estimated that it would cost between $18 million and $52 million to upgrade the dilapidated electricity substations powering the trolleys. Funny how councillors who wanted to get rid of the trolleys only quoted the upper limit.

Why had the substations run down? That often happens when you privatise a public asset. After council-owned Capital Power was sold off in the 1990s – thanks a lot, Fran Wilde and Mark Blumsky – it went through four different owners to eventually become Wellington Electricity. Successive corporate owners have made handsome capital gains and profits, but haven't invested in infrastructure.

We don't know exactly how much upgrading the substations would have cost because the GWRC voted down a motion asking for an independent expert review of the estimated cost. They simply voted – with the exception of Greens Sue Kedgley and Paul Bruce – to get rid of the trolleys quick smart. Could this be the biggest environmental backfire since diesel buses first sputtered into town?

The good news is that new operator Tranzit will be using buses that emit 38 per cent less harmful pollutants than current ones. Even better, NZ Bus will be fitting 57 Wellington trolleybuses with Wrightspeed motors. These are hybrid engines with rechargeable electric batteries.

According to NZ Bus chief executive Zane Fulljames, the fleet of 57 trolleybuses "could" be converted in time for use on NZ Bus routes when new contracts start in July next year.

But how green are these buses really? According to NZ Bus, they could use as much as 75 per cent of the diesel used by a normal diesel bus, though the company is looking at ways to reduce this. A best-case scenario "could" see some buses running entirely on rechargeable batteries.

NZ Bus should be applauded for trying to come up with a solution, however flawed. Meanwhile, I propose that GRWC councillors who voted to get rid of the trolleys so soon should be made to travel on sooty diesel buses for the rest of their natural term – until the next election.

I'm not happy hearing councillors and providers using words like "likely", "might", "could", "hopefully", "ideally", "maybe", "element of risk" and "time will tell" when it comes to public transport. I want to commute on an efficient clean bus, not come in on a wing and a prayer.

In the meantime, can I suggest GWRC issues free face masks to ratepayers who have to walk or cycle near the diesel buses when they sputter down from Auckland. And the face masks could also work as cunning disguises during the next local body elections for GWRC councillors who voted to get rid of the trolleys.

#58 astrodeep200407a HUDF, Spitzer #4 5.42z old tiny galaxy 493X493 heic0714aa by Rich Murray