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I'm always on the lookout for a good patch of blueberry bushes. Not just to eat. For me, for photography, it's about the color. While their berries may be blue, it's their vibrant red leaves in the fall that keep me on the hunt. I think I have written about this before, but red foliage in the dawn light is one of my favorite colors to photograph. It just glows. There are a few spots that I have bookmarked in my brain to return to in future autumns to see if I can catch that glow.
I made this photograph here on my way up South Moat mountain last fall. I started the day at Diana's Bath making photographs of the waterfalls, and then my hiking buddy Chris picked me up and we drove down to the Kanc and left my car at the waterfalls. This car spot allowed us to traverse the Moats from South to North, which is a very nice hike. This photo is not from dawn, but rather from sometime after in the morning. With nice, even light --and blueberry bushes on the brain -- I was able to find this arrangement of tree trunks and boulders on the hillside. Perhaps if I were there before sunrise, the leaves would even glow in the dawn light. Might need to add it to my mental list of blueberry patches to revisit in future falls.
Recycling the Mack Granite model from before but this time with a set back axle. The truck has a push bar at the front so it can lock into other loads I'm building. I've put a lowbed trailer behind it with a Mack RD800. I haven't built a trailer that I'm happy with for the RD800 yet so thought it could be the load for this model! Maybe in future it will have a modular trailer and a ballast body with a generator on.
And speaking of things which are no more, Wednesday 21st December 2022 saw the curtain fall on Marshalls of Sutton on Trent's W22 service, operating between Walton Academy in Grantham, and Coddington via Long Bennington, Fernwood, Balderton and Newark.
Started in September 2016, the W22 was designed in collaboration with Walton Girls High School (as it then was), as a quicker way of getting the students to school - whereas previously, students would have to go on a tour of all the other Grantham schools first, the new route ran non-stop from Long Bennington to Walton Girls High School, bypassing Grantham town centre, and allowing everyone about an extra 20 minutes in bed - plus getting them back home 20 minutes faster in the afternoon.
Back then, even with the introduction of the W22 and subsequent revisions to the other 22's, all six deckers heading from the Newark area in to Grantham were pretty much full - but unfortunately, over time, numbers have dropped off, with the W22 seeing the largest reduction in students travelling, to the point that a single decker has been utilised for the service for much of this school year so far.
Whilst I'm not sure of the exact reason for the overall drop in patronage (nor am I sure anyone would be to put an exact finger on it), I'd hazard a guess that the reasons are a) the schools in the Newark area have vastly improved in the last few years, possibly leading to less parents sending their children to Grantham's schools; b) the opening of the Suthers School on the edge of Newark in September 2020 would've also provided several hundred new places for children in a brand new school, again possibly enticing parents not to send their kids to Grantham; c) some parents may no longer be able to afford the expense of sending their children to Grantham anymore, with an annual bus pass costing many hundreds of pounds; and d) most relevant to the W22, the conversion of Walton Girls High School to become Walton Academy in September 2019, at which point boys began to be accepted into the school for the first time, would presumably have increased the amount of students on roll at the school - but crucially (for the bus) reduced the amount of students from further afield that the school could accept.
To that end, it was announced in November that the W22 would come to an end in December 2022, six years after its inception, with students for Walton Academy redirected on to the other 22's from the Newark area.
In one final twist to this tale, Walton Academy operate a different school calendar to all the other secondary schools in Grantham, meaning that sometimes, they end up being the only secondary school in the town which is actually open - and in that event, a special timetable comes in to play, in which only the 22A and W22 ran - the 22A operating as usual between Grantham and Claypole, and the W22 operating as usual between Walton Academy and Coddington - but then extending to Collingham in lieu of the 22B. (In future, the 22A will be extended to Newark on such 'Walton Academy only' days.)
All the other secondary schools in Grantham closed last week, so today's final journey, operated by Optare Versa OP121 (still in Marchants of Cheltenham's red livery, but with very smart golden Marshalls fleetnames applied) was the 1545 from Walton Academy to Collingham via Newark - probably the first time this variation of the route has been captured on camera... and the last! It's seen here on Kitty Briggs Lane, having just left the school.
They say a diamond is forever, while Eraclitus said that "no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man". When we are speaking about the Tiliment, we can say that even at a larger scale, you will never see the same river twice. This wonderful braided channels riverbed morphology is changing every day. Channels used by water today may be dry after next small flood. Large pools will probably move tens or hundreds meters away from the first place where you saw them, and will be deeper or shallower, larger or smaller. You can't tell and the most exciting aspect of this kind of river is that actually nobody can predict what will happen in future, even when men try to curb it.
Cultural performance of the Pokot people.
The Pokot people are categorized under the larger Kalenjin tribes grouping of Kenyan Nilotic speakers because they have oral traditions of a similar origin. They speak the Pokot language. The Pokot people live in the Baringo and Western Pokot districts of Kenya and also in the Eastern Karamoja region of Uganda. The Pokots are dived into two main sub-groups depending of their location and way of life. The two groups are the Hill Pokot who practice both farming and pastoralism, and live in the rainy highlands in the west and in the central south. The second group is made up of the Plains Pokot who living in dry and infertile plains, herd cows, goats and sheep.
As a result of their nomadic lifestyle, adopted by most of the Pokot, they have interacted with different peoples in their history and therefore incorporated social customs of neighbors into their life. The Turkana and the Karamojong of Uganda, who they neighbor, appear to have had the most influence on the Pokot. Those who are cultivators mainly grow corn/maize. Nevertheless, whether a pastoralist or a farmer, wealth among the Pokot is measured by the number of cattle one has. The other major uses of cows are in bride price and barter trade. As long as a Pokot man has enough wealth in terms of cows to offer, marrying more than one wife is allowed.
Dairy products like milk are an important part of the diet of the Pokot. Porridge made from wild fruits boiled with a mixture of milk and blood, a repast rich in nutrients and iron is the staple of the Pokot diet. Using a special arrow, it's shot into the neck of a cow to drain blood without permanently causing harm to the animal.
The Tororot being the utmost god according to the Pokot, prayers and sacrifices are made to him during ethnic festivals and dances that are organized by their elders. Also, the Pokot have diviners who are in charge for maintaining the spiritual balance within their society. Being superstitious and believing in sorcery and sometimes calling on various forms of shielding lucky charms to ward off the ill will of any sorcerers is a part of their tradition. They also worship other deities like the sun, moon and believe in the spirit of death.
Governing within the Pokot community, is through a number of age-sets and association with any particular set is be determined by the age during which a Pokot goes through their initiation into that set group or society. It is typically between the ages of fifteen and twenty for the men while, it is around twelve, for the women. Matrimonial binds for the youngsters are allowed, once the initiation has been accomplished. As well, they begin taking part in the local economic functions. The bonds formed within the initiation groups, are close and are functional in future political ties as they progress through the positions in the tribal organization. At old age, they get a certain degree of status and the esteem that goes with it. Presiding over important tribal decisions, festivals and religious celebrations are the duties among others that elders are in charge of.
The Pokot are quite proud of their culture are bound to hold on to it in the future. Generally, Pokot women wear colorful necklaces and beaded headgears, brass jewelry and big loop type earrings whereas men wear just a few wrap garments and cowhide capes and shirts. They use beaded skirts to distinguish those females who have been initiated from those who haven't. Pokot warriors wear red clay on their hair, special headgears of feathers. Dances are an important aspect of their culture especially during social-cultural events.
Sony RX1 User Report.
I hesitate to write about gear. Tools are tools and the bitter truth is that a great craftsman rises above his tools to create a masterpiece whereas most of us try to improve our abominations by buying better or faster hammers to hit the same nails at the same awkward angles.
The internet is fairly flooded with reviews of this tiny marvel, and it isn’t my intention to compete with those articles. If you’re looking for a full-scale review of every feature or a down-to-Earth accounting of the RX1’s strengths and weaknesses, I recommend starting here.
Instead, I’d like to provide you with a flavor of how I’ve used the camera over the last six months. In short, this is a user report. To save yourself a few thousand words: I love the thing. As we go through this article, you’ll see this is a purpose built camera. The RX1 is not for everyone, but we will get to that and on the way, I’ll share a handful of images that I made with the camera.
It should be obvious to anyone reading this that I write this independently and have absolutely no relationship with Sony (other than having exchanged a large pile of cash for this camera at a retail outlet).
Before we get to anything else, I want to clear the air about two things: Price and Features
The Price
First things first: the price. The $2800+ cost of this camera is the elephant in the room and, given I purchased the thing, you may consider me a poor critic. That in mind, I want to offer you three thoughts:
Consumer goods cost what they cost, in the absence of a competitor (the Fuji X100s being the only one worth mention) there is no comparison and you simply have to decide for yourself if you are willing to pay or not.
Normalize the price per sensor area for all 35mm f/2 lens and camera alternatives and you’ll find the RX1 is an amazing value.
You are paying for the ability to take photographs, plain and simple. Ask yourself, “what are these photographs worth to me?”
In my case, #3 is very important. I have used the RX1 to take hundreds of photographs of my family that are immensely important to me. Moreover, I have made photographs (many appearing on this page) that are moving or beautiful and only happened because I had the RX1 in my bag or my pocket. Yes, of course I could have made these or very similar photographs with another camera, but that is immaterial.
35mm by 24mm by 35mm f/2
The killer feature of this camera is simple: it is a wafer of silicon 35mm by 24mm paired to a brilliantly, ridiculously, undeniably sharp, contrasty and bokehlicious 35mm f/2 Carl Zeiss lens. Image quality is king here and all other things take a back seat. This means the following: image quality is as good or better than your DSLR, but battery life, focus speed, and responsiveness are likely not as good as your DSLR. I say likely because, if you have an entry-level DSLR, the RX1 is comparable on these dimensions. If you want to change lenses, if you want an integrated viewfinder, if you want blindingly fast phase-detect autofocus then shoot with a DSLR. If you want the absolute best image quality in the smallest size possible, you’ve got it in the RX1.
While we are on the subject of interchangeable lenses and viewfinders...
I have an interchangeable lens DSLR and I love the thing. It’s basically a medium format camera in a 35mm camera body. It’s a powerhouse and it is the first camera I reach for when the goal is photography. For a long time, however, I’ve found myself in situations where photography was not the first goal, but where I nevertheless wanted to have a camera. I’m around the table with friends or at the park with my son and the DSLR is too big, too bulky, too intimidating. It comes between you and life. In this realm, mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras seem to be king, but they have a major flaw: they are, for all intents and purposes, just little DSLRs.
As I mentioned above, I have an interchangeable lens system, why would I want another, smaller one? Clearly, I am not alone in feeling this way, as the market has produced a number of what I would call “professional point and shoots.” Here we are talking about the Fuji X100/X100s, Sigma DPm-series and the RX100 and RX1.
Design is about making choices
When the Fuji X100 came out, I was intrigued. Here was a cheap(er), baby Leica M. Quiet, small, unobtrusive. Had I waited to buy until the X100s had come out, perhaps this would be a different report. Perhaps, but probably not. I remember thinking to myself as I was looking at the X100, “I wish there was a digital Rollei 35, something with a fixed 28mm or 35mm lens that would fit in a coat pocket or a small bag.” Now of course, there is.
So, for those of you who said, “I would buy the RX1 if it had interchangeable lenses or an integrated viewfinder or faster autofocus,” I say the following: This is a purpose built camera. You would not want it as an interchangeable system, it can’t compete with DSLR speed. A viewfinder would make the thing bigger and ruin the magic ratio of body to sensor size—further, there is a 3-inch LCD viewfinder on the back! Autofocus is super fast, you just don’t realize it because the bar has been raised impossibly high by ultra-sonic magnet focusing rings on professional DSLR lenses. There’s a fantastic balance at work here between image quality and size—great tools are about the total experience, not about one or the other specification.
In short, design is about making choices. I think Sony has made some good ones with the RX1.
In use
So I’ve just written 1,000 words of a user report without, you know, reporting on use. In many ways the images on the page are my user report. These photographs, more than my words, should give you a flavor of what the RX1 is about. But, for the sake of variety, I intend to tell you a bit about the how and the why of shooting with the RX1.
Snapshots
As a beginning enthusiast, I often sneered at the idea of a snapshot. As I’ve matured, I’ve come to appreciate what a pocket camera and a snapshot can offer. The RX1 is the ultimate photographer’s snapshot camera.
I’ll pause here to properly define snapshot as a photograph taken quickly with a handheld camera.
To quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So it is with photography. Beautiful photographs happen at the decisive moment—and to paraphrase Henri Cartier-Bresson further—the world is newly made and falling to pieces every instant. I think it is no coincidence that each revolution in the steady march of photography from the tortuously slow chemistry of tin-type and daguerreotype through 120 and 35mm formats to the hyper-sensitive CMOS of today has engendered new categories and concepts of photography.
Photography is a reflexive, reactionary activity. I see beautiful light or the unusual in an every day event and my reaction is a desire to make a photograph. It’s a bit like breathing and has been since I was a kid.
Rather than sneer at snapshots, nowadays I seek them out; and when I seek them out, I do so with the Sony RX1 in my hand.
How I shoot with the RX1
Despite much bluster from commenters on other reviews as to the price point and the purpose-built nature of this camera (see above), the RX1 is incredibly flexible. Have a peek at some of the linked reviews and you’ll see handheld portraits, long exposures, images taken with off-camera flash, etc.
Yet, I mentioned earlier that I reach for the D800 when photography is the primary goal and so the RX1 has become for me a handheld camera—something I use almost exclusively at f/2 (people, objects, shallow DoF) or f/8 (landscapes in abundant light, abstracts). The Auto-ISO setting allows the camera to choose in the range from ISO 50 and 6400 to reach a proper exposure at a given aperture with a 1/80 s shutter speed. I have found this shutter speed ensures a sharp image every time (although photographers with more jittery grips may wish there was the ability to select a different default shutter speed). This strategy works because the RX1 has a delightfully clicky exposure compensation dial just under your right thumb—allowing for fine adjustment to the camera’s metering decision.
So then, if you find me out with the RX1, you’re likely to see me on aperture priority, f/2 and auto ISO. Indeed, many of the photographs on this page were taken in that mode (including lots of the landscape shots!).
Working within constraints.
The RX1 is a wonderful camera to have when you have to work within constraints. When I say this, I mean it is great for photography within two different classes of constraints: 1) physical constraints of time and space and 2) intellectual/artistic constraints.
To speak to the first, as I said earlier, many of the photographs on this page were made possible by having a camera with me at a time that I otherwise would not have been lugging around a camera. For example, some of the images from the Grand Canyon you see were made in a pinch on my way to a Christmas dinner with my family. I didn’t have the larger camera with me and I just had a minute to make the image. Truth be told, these images could have been made with my cell phone, but that I could wring such great image quality out of something not much larger than my cell phone is just gravy. Be it jacket pocket, small bag, bike bag, saddle bag, even fannie pack—you have space for this camera anywhere you go.
Earlier I alluded to the obtrusiveness of a large camera. If you want to travel lightly and make photographs without announcing your presence, it’s easier to use a smaller camera. Here the RX1 excels. Moreover, the camera’s leaf shutter is virtually silent, so you can snap away without announcing your intention. In every sense, this camera is meant to work within physical constraints.
I cut my photographic teeth on film and I will always have an affection for it. There is a sense that one is playing within the rules when he uses film. That same feeling is here in the RX1. I never thought I’d say this about a camera, but I often like the JPEG images this thing produces more than I like what I can push with a RAW. Don’t get me wrong, for a landscape or a cityscape, the RAW processed carefully is FAR, FAR better than a JPEG.
But when I am taking snapshots or photos of friends and family, I find the JPEGs the camera produces (I’m shooting in RAW + JPEG) so beautiful. The camera’s computer corrects for the lens distortion and provides the perfect balance of contrast and saturation. The JPEG engine can be further tweaked to increase the amount of contrast, saturation or dynamic range optimization (shadow boost) used in writing those files. Add in the ability to rapidly compensate exposure or activate various creative modes and you’ve got this feeling you’re shooting film again. Instant, ultra-sensitive and customizable film.
Pro Tip: Focusing
Almost all cameras come shipped with what I consider to be the worst of the worst focus configurations. Even the Nikon D800 came to my hands set to focus when the shutter button was halfway depressed. This mode will ruin almost any photograph. Why? Because it requires you to perform legerdemain to place the autofocus point, depress the shutter halfway, recompose and press the shutter fully. In addition to the chance of accidentally refocusing after composing or missing the shot—this method absolutely ensures that one must focus before every single photograph. Absolutely impossible for action or portraiture.
Sensibly, most professional or prosumer cameras come with an AF-ON button near where the shooter’s right thumb rests. This separates the task of focusing and exposing, allowing the photographer to quickly focus and to capture the image even if focus is slightly off at the focus point. For portraits, kids, action, etc the camera has to have a hair-trigger. It has to be responsive. Manufacturer’s: stop shipping your cameras with this ham-fisted autofocus arrangement.
Now, the RX1 does not have an AF-ON button, but it does have an AEL button whose function can be changed to “MF/AF Control Hold” in the menu. Further, other buttons on the rear of the camera can also be programmed to toggle between AF and MF modes. What this all means is that you can work around the RX1’s buttons to make it’s focus work like a DSLR’s. (For those of you who are RX1 shooters, set the front switch to MF, the right control wheel button to MF/AF Toggle and the AEL button to MF/AF Control Hold and voila!) The end result is that, when powered on the camera is in manual focus mode, but the autofocus can be activated by pressing AEL, no matter what, however, the shutter is tripped by the shutter release. Want to switch to AF mode? Just push a button and you’re back to the standard modality.
Carrying.
I keep mine in a small, neoprene pouch with a semi-hard LCD cover and a circular polarizing filter on the front—perfect for buttoning up and throwing into a bag on my way out of the house. I have a soft release screwed into the threaded shutter release and a custom, red twill strap to replace the horrible plastic strap Sony provided. I plan to gaffer tape the top and the orange ring around the lens. Who knows, I may find an old Voigtlander optical viewfinder in future as well.
Not a good day for shot, as the weather was so gloomy. I keep upload this Kemaro Island photostream as I will not revisit to this place in future. You guys can't imagine how difficult for me and my friend to reach this place which I consider unsafety at all ....^_^
Thanks for the views, comments, faves...Cheers ^_^
I'm on Google + Page yemaria
500px yemaria
Location : Kemaro Island, Palembang, South Sumatera, Indonesia
The vivid colours of twilight facing the Snowdon horseshoe from Nant Gwryd.
Bare footed I made my way into the centre of the river to capture this image.. maybe in future I will remind my self that we are still in winter and this river flow is full of melted snow. I could barely feel my toes as I quickly ran back to the car.
The Orion constellation is one of the most brilliant. In legend, it represents a mighty hunter brought down by his own pride.
He boasts he could slay all wild animals but he was killed by a scorpion. The constellation's most celebrated feature is the huge nebula 1,500 light years away that lies within the hunter's sword.
Amongst the hundreds of stars in the system are two super giants, Betelgeuse and Rigel, 430 and 770 light years away, respectively.
Germain, channeled by Lyssa Royal, tells us that Orions are 89% Vegan and 11% Lyran. Note that Vega is a star in the Lyra constellation of stars, whereas the Orions we are interested in are apparently from the Betelgeuse and Rigel star systems.
Of the Orions who are Vegan (89%) in nature, most are of the human type - a smaller percentage is nonhuman.
Of the Orions who are Lyran stock (11%), most are light-browned skin, and about 10% are Caucasian type with light hair. Although their bodies are water based like ours they have an oily, fatty content acting like a lubricant. Also, as we indicated earlier, the little Greys occupy a small percentage of the Orion population; their origin, Zeta Reticuli, is a neighbor of the Orion constellation.
Thus, overall, the genetic differences are quite marked.
Orions have a reputation for possessing an aggressive nature and have been involved in many destructive wars. Note that the masculine energy is associated with the evolution of beings from the star systems of Orion, which are related to Earth, whereas inhabitants of the Sirius star system, also very much involved with Earth, carry the feminine energy or polarity.
Although there is a symbiosis between consciousness and technology, the Orion races probably pushed this principle to the limit and developed advanced technology (of a type) while still war-waging. The typical scenario was the Light against the Dark; peace-loving Orions opposed by self-serving 'aggressive' Orions.
According to Light Network there are three major players in the galaxy:
the Intergalactic Confederation of different star systems throughout the galaxy
the Reptoid Federation, a conglomeration of many reptoid species
the Orion Empire, ruled by one leader
Now within the domain of the Orion Empire, three groups formed, the dominant Orion Empire, the Black League resistance (to the Empire), and the victims of both these groups.
Even though this pattern of behavior still operates it is less widespread and many individuals have been awakened since the incarnation in Orion of a great avatar.
The authoritarian trait, present on Earth, is not typical amongst ET civilizations and has been acquired from Orion.
Many Orions, including the Black League, went to Maldek and settled - this is the planet in our system that was inhabited by many of the so-called fallen angels, who were given the opportunity to reform.
As is well known, the civilization failed to turn to a more spiritual path and the planet was destroyed, leaving the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Some sources indicate it was struck (or disturbed) by the huge planet Nibiru as it entered our system in its counter-direction to the other planets. Many of these Dark forces are on Earth at this time; hence the authoritarian nature that pervades this planet, including an enforced reliance on authority.
On the positive side, however, the Orions have contributed their mental powers for the development of smoothly running systems on Earth. They beam the yellow ray frequency to earth for the stabilization of the intuitive powers within human consciousness.
They are the source for many organizational structures of government, business and industry. Nevertheless this energy is only relevant to Earthman's frequencies, which we shall outgrow and then receive other energies from more advanced races, such as the Lyrans.
Of the genetic percentages mentioned above, the smaller group of nonhuman Vegans would cover the Greys and reptilians and accompanying varieties.
It is not uncommon for abductees to refer to small aliens (Greys) directed by a single tall alien (reptilian type, or sometimes, Nordic). The Greys tend to be servants or mercenaries for the tall reptilians.
These Greys and Dracos are known as the Rigelians (from the Rigel star) and are extremely dangerous.
The Orions, who have Vegan characteristics, have particularly striking eyes. In fact their priests, who live twice as long as the general population - about a thousand years - have bright blue eyes, which change to that color as a result of strict spiritual training, involving diet and psychic experience. The common color for the eyes is brown. Their height is usually in the 7 foot- tall category.
The duties of these priests is the education in theory and practice of all aspects of relationships for both marital and premarital subjects, including procreation rituals, in which full intimacies occur during a 24-hour stay in the priest's temples as a normal custom. Appearance remains similar from young to old with no senility. Attraction is not physical; awareness of inner-consciousness dominates.
In spite of the spiritual implications, there appears still to remain within the Orion civilizations the never-ending conflict between the Orion Empire and the Black League resistance. The Empire appears to be run mainly by the Greys working with a Federation of Draconian Reptilians, with the aim of extending their domination to other planets.
These Greys are mainly the ones who negotiate treaties and secret deals with Earth governments.
The resistance group have apparently built cities in and within the mountains. The Empire enforces controlled procreation, numbers of children, etc. and also enforces by Orion law that it is 'forbidden to remember'. The resistance group, however, are free from this mental control. The priests would seemingly be either from this category or the victim group.
Their customs are bound to rituals; imagination is not very free and children are told of the myth of Earth: of the freedom to be anything.
A civilization, particularly expressing what we understand by Orion energy - more masculine - would be the race from planet Vivinau nearer towards the the centre of the galaxy.
This is the home of the Warrior League. The Warrior League brings order to their society, and is essentially divided into,
the 'amenable' - people who would not rule and are subsequently trained to be amenable (no resistance, or anarchy, terrorists, protestors)
the 'omnipotent' - those who would rule
The interaction of this race with humans was considered by the Orions to have the purpose of bringing a similarly designed order to us claiming this is a duty on their part given by the 'Creator'.
They notice now, however, they are ineffective; their last monitors having visited Earth in 1957 with decreasing influence to the present. They accept that the Creator no longer requires their assistance - their energy - on Earth any more, and that the Creator apparently has other plans.
These warriors wonder how we will cope. They apparently operate on the principle of destroying negativity, criminals, terrorists, to bring order, not seemingly recognizing that ultimately rehabilitation is the only way, or simply not reflecting these 'negativities' into the environment from one's own mind.
This latter, is clearly the path for humans, hence the Creator's removal of this Orion influence.
Zoltec of the warrior league answers questions via channeling in the Explorer Race books. He states that the average height of this race is over 7 feet tall. They have a similar body to humans but tougher skin. They consider humans weak, physically, mentally and emotionally - they utilize the power of passion.
Their form and means of help to Earth has been through the so-called men-in-black (MIB).
Much has been written about these mysterious 'emissaries'. From the Earth person's viewpoint more negativity seems to be associated with these MIB than positive.
But they insist that they have protected us from the negative Sirians and also (ironically) from all such races as the Pleiadians, who are,
'trying to get you to imitate them... they are chaotic.'
Also the MIB influence government decisions by advocating adherence to their successful societal model and that societies which have used that form of government on Earth have survived the longest.
Note that they praise and respect the Roman Empire.
The MIB are of human size and roughly similar appearance but contain the Orion soul essence. The bodies are cloned by the little Greys who are also in the Orion system. These clones with Orion souls are the MIB.
They are sent in small space capsules to Earth; a journey taking about seven years. On arrival they are trained for a year or so in Earth customs, etc., at an Orion station. They apparently cannot stand our weak energy.
Zoltec refers to the anarchy from the Black League, which he states originally brought down Atlantis, and he likens them to our terrorists. Prior to Atlantis they were chased from the Orion planets to Maldek, a small planet in our solar system with an ordered civilization according to Zoltec, destroyed by the Black League, now a cluster of asteroids between Jupiter and Mars.
According to Zoosh a propulsion fuel was developed to accelerate them beyond light speed for their escape.
The fuel, a 'hydrogen-oxygen combinant' was unstable but extremely powerful. It was manufactured in large quantities and was sufficient to destroy the planet. Many of these destructive beings then incarnated on Earth.
When asked how they communicate with the Creator, he describes visitations of the 'All-Powerful' in the form of a female warrior of golden light with armor and sword. She is described as the ultimate female; just to be touched with her sword was 'a wonderful thing.' The above Orion warrior material is taken from the Explorer Race books.
Clearly the only way the Creator could communicate to these warriors was in a form acceptable to them - virtually in their own making. They appear to be totally blocked of feminine energy or a world in which all problems can be solved harmoniously. In spite of their psychical abilities, their experience, intelligence and technology, they are stuck.
If they knew, however, what evolution had in store for them they would misunderstand it and reject it - simply because of the necessary feminine energy.
Hence it seems they must have more limited perception in this area than humans. When Zoltec was asked about the future of Orion (and they have advanced technologies for seeing future probabilities, etc.) he replied he didn't want to know. They didn't like what they saw; reminded them of humans - weak.
As a final piece of information about the Orions of some interest was the fact that they apparently created the huge cavern under Cape Good Hope. The Shining The Light books describe the size of this as of the order of magnitude as Rhode Island.
Following one of the many Atlantis disasters, in which the surface of Earth was not habitable, the Atlanteans, who survived, sent out signals for help.
The Orions apparently immediately responded and shortly arrived in a large ship. According to the Zoosh material their technology was such that they built the cavern about 150 miles under Cape Good Hope and did this in about 16 hours - primarily for the Atlanteans.
However, their motivations weren't without self-interest. Any opportunity to preserve a connection with Earth was taken advantage of in case they needed to utilize it in the future, such as for resources.
Thus they did in fact examine the probabilities for their future which showed they did need the connection with Earth for the next 100,000 years. They thus set up equipment in one 'corner' of the cavern, and protected it with fields, even of a nature to make Atlanteans sick if they came close.
After this they left for their home planet in Orion.
PIRATE ALIENS
It is not uncommon for extraterrestrial civilizations to spawn rebellious members which are ostracized from their native planet.
We mentioned in the first chapter a digressive strain from the reptilians race called the Drakon. Here we shall concentrate on small pirate groups, in particular, from the relatively advanced civilizations of,
Orion
Sirius
the Pleiades
These comprise not more than a handful of pirates who revel in plundering planets like Earth and exploring time travel in such linear 3D highly objective realities.
Different aliens seek different resources whether it is sea water, sand, quartz, minerals or genetic material, etc.
But they have apparently learned that generally it is to their benefit to exercise cooperation with our secret government and negotiate deals with them. Over the years the government has acquired advanced technologies from ETs as a result of these negotiations.
A particularly notorious renegade cabal are the Xpotaz. In the Shining The Light books they are referred to as particularly dangerous time travelers. They no longer have a home planet.
An example is given in which the Xpotaz, which had established itself by force as go-between for other alien pirate's deals with the secret government, would warn all other rebel parties approaching Earth with a view to acquiring resources.
They would threaten them with their 'time beam weapon'; a dreaded device with which few would argue - unless they were contacted first.
Nevertheless, along came the Zetas; their first mission to Earth, seeking genetic material. This took place in the 1920s. There were nine Zeta aliens in their spacecraft, which was a product of hundreds of thousands of years of advanced technology.
Their intention was to contact Earth's governments, which would be the secret government or One World Government and negotiate a deal for the acquisition of genetic material from humans. A combination of some degree of etiquette or ethics, and cooperation for cover-ups from the public made government contact logical and wise.
The Zeta ship's approach to Earth was intercepted by the Xpotaz pirates. These Zetas were given the standard warning that unless they cooperated and conducted negotiations with the government through, and to the benefit of, the Xpotaz they would be subject to the time-beam weapon.
It had never been necessary to use it as no aliens were foolish enough to defy the Xpotaz. Nevertheless the Xpotaz were quite ready to use it to set an example to others.
Needless to say the Zetas ignored them. One must keep in mind that the Zetas had developed unsurpassed intellect. Their ships were constructed of the same material as their cloned bodies (compressed light, which was a little like plastic), and could - as they did with their bodies - bilocate: appear in two places at once.
In addition, on entering their ships, one apprehended that the interior of the craft was greater than the outside dimensions permitted. They were exceedingly advanced, but highly specialized, resulting in an inordinate failure to understand others, combined with a certain naivety and arrogance.
Thus they rejected three warnings from the Xpotaz.
The time-beam device was directed at the Zeta spacecraft. The ship was transported back in time half-a-billion years at a location better described as the other side of the universe. Channel source Zoosh referred to this as a sad state of affairs. There was no hope of them finding their way home. To this day since the 1920s they are still lost and in fact are not expected even to be rescued within their lifetimes of another 200 years.
Underhand deals with the secret government were also negotiated by other pirate aliens such as ones from Orion and Sirius but the most treacherous are the Xpotaz.
According to the Shining The Light series of books the Orions contacted our secret government around 1910 and in return for a small laser device, obtained government agreement to turn a blind eye while they took over human bodies by force - this was as per the well-known 'walk-in' procedure, except that most walk-ins are benevolently arranged.
This means that the soul entering has agreement with the soul leaving.
Generally the departing soul is leaving a dying body and the exchange mechanics are quite complex. The new personality is rarely aware immediately that they have taken over a human body. They have the same memories, karma, ailments, etc. The Orion's purpose in controlling human bodies was of course negative.
Thus the government obtained laser technology from aliens. It took them about 30 years to understand and duplicate the laser, culminating in the development of a laser gun.
Regarding the Orion renegade's intention to take over (a few) human bodies, it amounted to nothing more than an attempt. The energy for humans was incompatible and the plot failed. Needless to say the government obtained their end of the deal.
Now regarding deals from the Sirians, the renegades originally from this planet were few in number, much less than Orion and Zeta Reticuli. Also remember that these pirate aliens in general are outcasts from their home planet - in particular Orion and Sirius but also even a number from the Pleiades (in the case of the Sirians though, these were probably the so-called negative Sirians).
The few negative Sirians apparently planned to set up conditions to harness the Earth's core. The government allowed them to utilize their technology involving a very small amount of the core, and in exchange the Sirian pirates gave them a medical chamber which was claimed to heal all ills.
The problem was, in using it discreetly in the underground bases, it required an antenna extending above ground level, directed at the sun. The extreme secrecy that the government required prohibited its application. As a result it was used very little.
The Zetas themselves did many deals. It is difficult to categorize them as negative or positive since as we have seen in the chapter on the extensive Zeta program there was a higher purpose.
The basic arrangement with the secret government was that the government turned a blind eye to the abductions to enable the Zetas to obtain genetic material. The Zetas were also given quartz, which is abundant on planet Earth, but scarce in Zeta Reticuli. In return, the Zetas were apparently almost naively generous.
The government would have accepted much less. Again this is an example of the Zeta's over specialization, resulting in a failure to evaluate relative importance and the nature of other beings.
The government were given a complete space drive.
The Zetas also gave the secret government a crystal technology that would give free energy. Free energy or over-unity energy means the device harnesses not mechanical and chemical energy, but energy from space, cosmic energy or sun light, etc. Every point in our space potentially contains an unlimited amount of energy and certain systems will extract this by resonance.
This Zeta system of free energy was achieved by internal reflection of the Sun's rays.
As is typical, however, the secret government did not make it available to the masses and kept it for themselves. The government gave them quartz and sand in exchange.
The government in fact utilized the device for nefarious purposes. The crystal technology could be used with the secret government time machines (see Montauk material) and genetic experiments to enable them to synthesize the DNA of the Zeta aliens.
This technique was successful, resulting in the creation of a slave race of cloned Zeta-type aliens.
A method was used to prevent 'normal souls' from entering the bodies - only degenerate beings and consciousness were attracted (note that as stated previously, 'normal souls' wouldn't enter clones anyway).
This build is part of a larger display I’m developing for exhibition next year, where I’ll be revisiting and expanding on the concept of Neo Fabuland—a reinterpretation of the classic Fabuland aesthetic, much like how Neo-Classic Space draws inspiration from the original Classic Space theme. If you’re curious, you can read more about the goals of the project here.
I currently have several builds in progress for this display, and this is the first one to be completed.
While not directly based on any specific Fabuland set, this watermill draws loose inspiration from 3679 Flour Mill and Shop. It features a weathered stone-and-timber structure beside a millpond, complete with a working waterwheel, lily pads, reeds, and rounded rocks. The water cascades over the rocks to form a small waterfall. I’m especially pleased with the textures throughout—the flowing water, the stonework, and the building itself—as well as a custom spreading tree technique I developed for this scene (and will likely reuse in future Neo Fabuland builds).
This build also showcases my approach to Neo Fabuland windows, using brick-built frames with vinyl-cut sticker panes to echo the distinctive charm of original Fabuland designs.
The progressive, evolution story
is one huge MISTAKE
which, ironically,
depends on MISTAKES
as its mechanism ...
Mistake
- upon mistake
- upon mistake
- upon mistake
So that the whole human genome
is created from billions of mistakes.
If, after reading this, you still believe in the progressive evolution story - you will believe anything.
EVOLUTION .....
What is the truth about Darwinian, progressive (microbes to human) evolution?
Although we are told it is an irrefutable, scientific fact .....
the real fact is, as we will show later, there is no credible mechanism for such progressive evolution.
So what was the evolutionary idea that Darwin popularised?
Darwin believed that there was unlimited variability in the gene pool of all creatures and plants.
However, the changes possible were well known by selective breeders to be strictly limited.
This is because the changes seen in selective breeding are due to the shuffling, deletion and emphasis, or duplication, of genetic information already existing in the gene pool (micro-evolution). There is no viable mechanism for creating new, beneficial, genetic information required to create entirely new body parts ... anatomical structures, biological systems, organs etc. (macro-evolution).
Darwin rashly ignored the limits which were well known to breeders (even though he selectively bred pigeons himself, and should have known better). He simply extrapolated the strictly limited, minor changes observed in selective breeding to major, unlimited, progressive changes able to create new structures, organs etc. through natural selection, over an alleged multi-million year timescale.
Of course, the length of time involved made no difference, the existing, genetic information could not increase of its own accord, no matter how long the timescale.
That was a gigantic flaw in Darwinism, and opponents of Darwin's ideas tried to argue that changes were limited, as selective breeding had demonstrated.
But because Darwinism had acquired a status more akin to an ideology than purely, objective science, belief in the Darwinian idea outweighed the verdict of observational and experimental science, and classical Darwinism became firmly established as scientific orthodoxy for nearly a century.
Opponents continued to argue all this time, that Darwinism was unscientific nonsense, but they were ostracised and dismissed as cranks, weirdoes or religious fanatics.
Finally however, it was discovered that the opponents of Darwin were perfectly correct - and that constructive, genetic changes (progressive, macro-evolution) require new, additional, genetic information.
This looked like the ignominious end of Darwinism, as there was no credible, natural mechanism able to create new, constructive, genetic information. And Darwinism should have been heading for the dustbin of history.
Darwin's idea that a single, celled microbe could transform itself into a human and every other living thing, through natural selection over millions of years, had always been totally bonkers. That it is, or ever could have been, regarded as a great 'scientific' theory, beggars belief.
However, rather than ditch the whole idea, the vested interests in Darwinism had become so great, with numerous, lifelong careers and an ideological agenda which had become dependant on the Darwinian belief system, a desperate attempt was made to rescue it from its justified demise.
A mechanism had to be invented to explain the origin of new, constructive information.
That invented mechanism was 'mutations'. Mutations are ... literally, genetic, copying MISTAKES.
The general public had already been convinced that classical Darwinism was a scientific fact, and that anyone who questioned it was a crank, so all that had to be done, as far as the public was concerned, was to give the impression that the theory had simply been refined and updated in the light of modern science.
The fact that classical Darwinism had been wrong all along, and was fatally flawed from the outset was kept quiet. This meant that the opponents of Darwinism, who had been right all along, and were the real champions of science, continued to be vilified as cranks and scorned by the mass media and establishment. Ideology and vested interests took precedence over common sense and proper science.
The new developments were simply portrayed as the evolution and development of the theory. The impression was given that there was nothing wrong with the idea of progressive (macro) evolution, it had simply 'evolved' and 'improved' in the light of greater knowledge.
A sort of progressive evolution of the idea of evolution.
This new, 'improved' Darwinism became known as Neo-Darwinism.
So what is Neo-Darwinism? And did it really solve the fatal flaws of the Darwinian idea?
Neo Darwinism is progressive, macro evolution - as Darwin had proposed, but based on the ludicrous idea that random mutations (accidental, genetic, copying mistakes) selected by natural selection, can provide the constructive, genetic information capable of creating entirely new features, anatomical structures, organs, and biological systems. In other words, it is macro-evolution based on a belief in the total progression from microbes to man through billions of random, genetic, copying MISTAKES, over millions of years.
However, there is no evidence for it whatsoever, and it is should be classified as unscientific nonsense which defies logic, the laws of probability and Information Theory.
Mutations are not good, they are something to be feared, not celebrated as an agent of improvement or progression.
The vast majority of mutations are harmful, they cause illness, cancer and deformities, which is not surprising. It is precisely what we would expect from mistakes.
If you throw a spanner into the works of a machine, you wouldn't expect it to improve the operation of the machine.
Ironically, evolutionists fear mutations as much as everyone else. You won't get evolutionists volunteering to subject themselves or their families to mutagenic agents, you won't get them deliberately going to live near chemical or nuclear plants - in order to give their idea of progressive evolution a helping hand.
Evolutionists know that mutations are very risky and likely to be harmful, and not something anyone should desire.
Yet, perversely, they still present them as the agent responsible for creating the constructive, genetic information which, they claim, progressively transformed the first living cells into every living thing that has ever lived, including humans. Incredible!
People are sometimes confused, because they know that 'micro'-evolution is an observable fact, which everyone accepts. Disgracefully, evolutionists cynically exploit that confusion by citing obvious examples of micro-evolution such as: the Peppered Moth, Darwin's finches, so-called superbugs etc., as evidence of macro-evolution.
Of course such examples are not evidence of macro-evolution at all. The public is simply being hoodwinked and lied to, and it is a disgrace to science. There are no observable examples or evidence of macro-evolution and no examples of a mutation, or a series of mutations capable of creating new anatomical structures, organs etc. and that is a fact. It is no wonder that W R Thompson stated in the preface to the 1959 centenary edition of Darwin's Origin of the Species, that ... the success of Darwinism was accompanied by a decline in scientific integrity.
Micro-evolution is simply the small changes which take place, through natural selection or selective breeding, but only within the strict limits of the built-in variability of the existing gene pool. Any constructive changes outside the extent of the existing gene pool requires a credible mechanism for the creation of new, beneficial, genetic information, that is essential for macro evolution.
Micro evolution does not involve or require the creation of any new, genetic information. So micro evolution and macro evolution are entirely different. There is no connection between them at all, whatever evolutionists may claim.
Once people fully understand that the differences they see in various dogs breeds, for example, are merely an example of limited micro-evolution (selection of existing genetic information) and nothing to do with progressive macro-evolution, they begin to realise that they have been fed an incredible story.
A dog will always remain a dog, it can never be selectively bred into some other creature, the extent of variation is constrained by the limitations of the existing, genetic information in the gene pool of the dog genus, and evolutionists know that.
To explain further.... Neo-Darwinian, macro evolution is the ridiculous idea that everything in the genome of humans and every living thing past and present (apart from the original genetic information in the very first living cell) is the result of millions of genetic copying mistakes..... mutations of mutations .... of mutations.... of mutations .... and so on - and on - and on.
In other words, Neo-Darwinism proposes that the complete genome (every scrap of genetic information in the DNA) of every living thing that has ever lived was created by a long series ... of mistakes ... upon previous mistakes .... upon previous mistakes .... upon previous mistakes etc. etc.
If we look at the whole picture we soon realise that what is actually being proposed by evolutionists is that, apart from the original information in the first living cell (and evolutionists have yet to explain how that original information magically arose?) - every additional scrap of genetic information for all - the biological features, anatomical structures, systems and processes that exist, or have ever existed in living things, such as:
skin, bones, bone joints, shells, flowers, leaves, wings, scales, muscles, fur, hair, teeth, claws, toe and finger nails, horns, beaks, nervous systems, blood, blood vessels, brains, lungs, hearts, digestive systems, vascular systems, liver, kidneys, pancreas, bowels, immune systems, senses, eyes, ears, sex organs, sexual reproduction, sperm, eggs, pollen, the process of metamorphosis, marsupial pouches, marsupial embryo migration, mammary glands, hormone production, melanin etc. .... have been created from scratch, by an incredibly long series of small, accumulated mistakes ... mistake - upon mistake - upon mistake - upon mistake - over and over again, millions of times.
That is ... every body part, system and process of all living things are the result of literally billions of genetic MISTAKES of MISTAKES, accumulated over many millions of years.
All this from an original, single, living cell.
If, for example, there is no genetic information for bones in the original living cell, how could copying mistakes of the original, limited information in such a single cell produce such entirely new information?
Incredibly, what we are asked to believe is that something like a vascular system, or reproductive organs, developed in small, random, incremental steps, with every step being the result of a copying mistake, and with each step being able to provide a significant survival or reproductive advantage in order to be preserved and become dominant in the gene pool. Incredible!
If you believe that ... you will believe anything.
Even worse, evolutionists have yet to cite a single example of a positive, beneficial, mutation which adds constructive information to the genome of any creature. Yet they expect us to believe that we have been converted from an original, single living cell into humans by an accumulation of billions of beneficial mutations (mistakes).
Conclusion:
Progressive, microbes-to-man evolution is impossible - there is no credible mechanism to produce all the new, genetic information which is essential for that to take place.
The evolution story is an obvious fairy tale presented as scientific fact.
However, nothing has changed - those who dare to question Neo-Darwinism are still portrayed as idiots, retards, cranks, weirdoes, anti-scientific ignoramuses or religious fanatics.
Want to join the club?
What about the fossil record?
The formation of fossils.
Books explaining how fossils are formed frequently give the impression that it takes many years of build up of layers of sediment to bury organic remains, which then become fossilised.
Therefore many people don't realise that this impression is erroneous, because it is a fact that all good, intact fossils require rapid burial in sufficient sediment to prevent decay or predatory destruction.
So it is evident that rock containing good, undamaged fossils was laid down rapidly, sometimes in catastrophic conditions.
The very existence of intact fossils is a testament to rapid burial and sedimentation.
You don't get fossils from slow burial. Organic remains don't just sit around on the sea bed, or elsewhere, waiting for sediment to cover them a millimetre at a time, over a long period.
Unless they are buried rapidly, they would soon be damaged or destroyed by predation and/or decay.
The fact that so many sedimentary rocks contain fossils, indicates that the sediment that created them was normally laid down within a short time.
Another important factor is that many large fossils (tree trunks, large fish, dinosaurs etc.) intersect several or many strata (sometimes called layers) which clearly indicates that multiple strata were formed simultaneously in a single event by grading/segregation of sedimentary particles into distinct layers, and not stratum by stratum over long periods of time or different geological eras, which is the evolutionist's, uniformitarian interpretation of the geological column.
In view of the fact that many large fossils required a substantial amount of sediment to bury them, and the fact that they intersect multiple strata (polystrate fossils), how can any sensible person claim that strata or, for that matter, any fossil bearing rock, could have taken millions of years to form?
What do laboratory experiments and field studies of recent, sedimentation events show? sedimentology.fr/
You don't even need to be a qualified sedimentologist or geologist to come to that conclusion, it is common sense.
Rapid formation of strata - some recent, field evidence:
www.flickr.com/photos/101536517@N06/sets/72157635944904973/
All creatures and plants alive today, which are found as fossils, are the same in their fossil form as the living examples, in spite of the fact that the fossils are claimed to be millions of years old. So all living things today could be called 'living fossils' inasmuch as there is no evidence of any evolutionary changes in the alleged multi-million year timescale. The fossil record shows either extinct species or unchanged species, that is all.
When no evidence is cited as evidence:
www.flickr.com/photos/101536517@N06/15157133658
The Cambrian Explosion.
Trilobites and other many creatures appeared suddenly in some of the earliest rocks of the fossil record, with no intermediate ancestors. This sudden appearance of a great variety of advanced, fully developed creatures is called the Cambrian Explosion. Trilobites are especially interesting because they have complex eyes, which would need a lot of progressive evolution to develop such advanced features However, there is no evidence of any evolution leading up to the Cambrian Explosion, and that is a serious dilemma for evolutionists.
Trilobites are now thought to be extinct, although it is possible that similar creatures could still exist in unexplored parts of deep oceans.
See fossil of a crab unchanged after many millions of years:
www.flickr.com/photos/101536517@N06/12702046604/in/set-72...
Fossil museum: www.flickr.com/photos/101536517@N06/sets/72157641367196613/
What about all the claimed scientific evidence that evolutionists have found for evolution?
The evolutionist 'scientific' method has resulted in a serious decline in scientific integrity, and has given us such scientific abominations as:
Piltdown Man (a fake),
Nebraska Man (a pig),
South West Colorado Man (a horse),
Orce man (a donkey),
Embryonic Recapitulation (a fraud),
Archaeoraptor (a fake),
Java Man (a giant gibbon),
Peking Man (a monkey),
Montana Man (an extinct dog-like creature)
Nutcracker Man (an extinct type of ape - Australopithecus)
The Horse Series (unrelated species cobbled together),
Peppered Moth (faked photographs)
The Orgueil meteorite (faked evidence)
Etc. etc.
Anyone can call anything 'science' ... it doesn't make it so.
All these examples were trumpeted by evolutionists as scientific evidence for evolution.
Do we want to trust evolutionists claims about scientific evidence, when they have such an appalling record?
Just how good are peer reviews of scientific papers?
www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full
Want to publish a science paper?
www.nature.com/nature/journal/v434/n7036/full/nature03653...
www.nature.com/news/publishers-withdraw-more-than-120-gib...
Piltdown Man was even used in the famous, Scopes Trial as positive evidence for evolution.
Piltdown Man reigned for over 40 years, as a supreme example of evidence of human evolution, before it was exposed as a crudely, fashioned fake.
Is that 'science'?
The ludicrous Hopeful Monster Theory and so-called Punctuated Equilibrium (evolution in big jumps followed by long periods of stasis) were invented by evolutionists as a desperate attempt to explain away the lack of fossil evidence for evolution. They are proposed methods of evolution which, it is claimed, need no fossil evidence. They are actually an admission that the required fossil evidence does not exist.
Piltdown Man... it survived as alleged proof of evolution for over 40 years in evolution textbooks and was taught in schools and universities, it survived peer reviews etc. and was used as supposed irrefutable evidence for evolution at the famous Scopes Trial..
Nebraska Man, this was a single tooth of a peccary. it was trumpeted as evidence for the evolution of humans, and artists impressions of an ape-like man appeared in newspapers magazines etc. Such 'scientific' evidence is enough to make any genuine, respectable scientist weep.
South West Colorado Man, another tooth .... of a horse this time... presented as more evidence for human evolution.
Orce man, a fragment of skullcap, which was most likely from a donkey, but even if it was human. such a tiny fragment is certainly not any proof of human evolution as it was made out to be.
Embryonic Recapitulation, the evolutionist zealot Ernst Haeckel (who was a hero of Hitler) published fraudulent drawings of embryos and his theory was readily accepted by evolutionists as proof of evolution. Even after he was exposed as a fraudster, evolutionists still continued to use his fraudulent evidence in books and publications on evolution, including school textbooks, until very recently.
Archaeoraptor, A so-called feathered dinosaur from the Chinese fossil faking industry. It managed to fool credulous evolutionists, because it was exactly what they were looking for. The evidence fitted the wishful thinking.
Java Man, Dubois, the man who discovered Java Man and declared it a human ancestor ..... admitted much later that it was actually a giant gibbon, however, that spoilt the evolution story which had been built up around it, so evolutionists were reluctant to get rid of it, and still maintained it was a human ancestor. Dubois had also 'forgotten' to mention that he found the bones of modern humans at the same site.
Peking Man, made up from monkey skulls which were found in an ancient limestone burning industrial site where there were crushed monkey skulls and modern human bones. Drawings were made of Peking Man, but the original skull conveniently disappeared. So that allowed evolutionists to continue to use it as evidence without fear of it ever being debunked.
The Horse Series, unrelated species cobbled together, They were from different continents and were in no way a proper series of intermediates, They had different numbers of ribs etc. and the very first in the line, is similar to a creature alive today - the Hyrax.
Peppered Moth, moths were glued to trees to fake photographs for the peppered moth evidence. They don't normally rest on trees in daytime. In any case, the selection of a trait which is part of the variability of the existing gene pool, is not progressive evolution. It is just normal, natural selection within limits, which no-one disputes.
The Orgueil meteorite, organic material and even plant seeds were embedded and glued into the Orgueil meteorite and disguised with coal dust to make them look like part of the original meteorite, in a fraudulent attempt to fool the world into believing in the discredited idea of spontaneous generation of life, which is essential for progressive evolution to get started. The reasoning being that, if it could be shown that there was life in space, spontaneous generation must have happened there and could therefore be declared by evolutionists as being a scientific fact.
Is macro evolution even science? The answer to that has to be an emphatic - NO!
The usual definition of science is: that which can be demonstrated and observed and repeated. Evolution cannot be proved, or tested; it is claimed to have happened in the past, and, as such, it is not subject to the scientific method. It is merely a belief.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with having beliefs, especially if there is a wealth of evidence to support them, but they should not be presented as scientific fact. As we have shown, in the case of progressive evolution, there is a wealth of evidence against it. Nevertheless, we are told by evolutionist zealots that microbes to man evolution is a fact and likewise the spontaneous generation of life from sterile matter. They are deliberately misleading the public on both counts. Evolution is not only not a fact, it is not even proper science.
You don't need a degree in rocket science to understand that Darwinism has damaged and undermined science.
However, what does the world's, most famous, rocket scientist (the father of modern rocket science) have to say?
Wernher von Braun (1912 – 1977) PhD Aerospace Engineering
"In recent years, there has been a disturbing trend toward scientific dogmatism in some areas of science. Pronouncements by notable scientists and scientific organizations about "only one scientifically acceptable explanation" for events which are clearly outside the domain of science -- like all origins are -- can only destroy the curiosity of those who must carry on the future work of science. Humility, a seemingly natural product of studying nature, appears to have largely disappeared -- at least its visibility is clouded from the public's viewpoint.
Extrapolation backward in time until there are no physical artifacts of certainty that can be examined, requires sophisticated guessing which scientists prefer to refer to as "inference." Since hypotheses, a product of scientific inference, are virtually the stuff that comprises the cutting edge of scientific progress, inference must constantly be nurtured. However, the enthusiasm that encourages inference must be matched in degree with caution that clearly differentiates inference from what the public so readily accepts as "scientific fact." Failure to keep these two factors in balance can lead either to a sterile or a seduced science. 'Science but not Scientists' (2006) p.xi"
And the eminent scientist, William Robin Thompson (1887 - 1972) Entomologist and Director of the Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control, Ottawa, Canada, who was asked to write the introduction of the centenary edition of Darwin's 'Origin', wrote:
"The concept of organic Evolution is very highly prized by biologists, for many of whom it is an object of genuinely religious devotion, because they regard it as a supreme integrative principle. This is probably the reason why the severe methodological criticism employed in other departments of biology has not yet been brought to bear against evolutionary speculation." 'Science and Common Sense' (1937) p.229
“As we know, there is a great divergence of opinion among biologists … because the evidence is unsatisfactory and does not permit any certain conclusion. It is therefore right and proper to draw the attention of the non-scientific public to the disagreements about evolution. But some recent remarks of evolutionists show that they think this unreasonable ......
This situation, where scientific men rally to the defence of a doctrine they are unable to define scientifically, much less demonstrate with scientific rigor, attempting to maintain its credit with the public by the suppression of criticism and the elimination of difficulties, is abnormal and unwise in science.”
Prof. W. R. Thompson, F.R.S., introduction to the 1956 edition of Darwin's 'Origin of the Species'
"When I was asked to write an introduction replacing the one prepared a quarter of a century ago by the distinguished Darwinian, Sir Anthony Keith [one of the "discoverers" of Piltdown Man], I felt extremely hesitant to accept the invitation . . I am not satisfied that Darwin proved his point or that his influence in scientific and public thinking has been beneficial. If arguments fail to resist analysis, consent should be withheld and a wholesale conversion due to unsound argument must be regarded as deplorable. He fell back on speculative arguments."
"He merely showed, on the basis of certain facts and assumptions, how this might have happened, and as he had convinced himself he was able to convince others."
"But the facts and interpretations on which Darwin relied have now ceased to convince."
"This general tendency to eliminate, by means of unverifiable speculations, the limits of the categories Nature presents to us is the inheritance of biology from The Origin of Species. To establish the continuity required by the theory, historical arguments are invoked, even though historical evidence is lacking. Thus are engendered those fragile towers of hypothesis based on hypothesis, where fact and fiction intermingle in an inextricable confusion."—*W.R. Thompson, "Introduction," to Everyman’s Library issue of Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (1958 edition).
"The evolution theory can by no means be regarded as an innocuous natural philosophy, but rather is a serious obstruction to biological research. It obstructs—as has been repeatedly shown—the attainment of consistent results, even from uniform experimental material. For everything must ultimately be forced to fit this theory. An exact biology cannot, therefore, be built up."—*H. Neilsson, Synthetische Artbildng, 1954, p. 11
Berkeley University law professor, Philip Johnson, makes the following points: “(1) Evolution is grounded not on scientific fact, but on a philosophical belief called naturalism; (2) the belief that a large body of empirical evidence supports evolution is an illusion; (3) evolution is itself a religion; and, (4) if evolution were a scientific hypothesis based on rigorous study of the evidence, it would have been abandoned long ago.”
DNA.
The discovery of DNA should have been the death knell for evolution. It is only because evolutionists tend to manipulate and interpret evidence to suit their own preconceptions that makes them believe DNA is evidence FOR evolution.
It is clear that there is no natural mechanism which can produce constructional, biological information, such as that encoded in DNA.
Information Theory (and common sense) tells us that the unguided interaction of matter and energy cannot produce constructive information.
Do evolutionists even know where the very first, genetic information in the alleged Primordial Soup came from?
Of course they don't, but with the usual bravado, they bluff it out, and regardless, they rashly present the spontaneous generation of life as a scientific fact.
However, a fact, it certainly isn't .... and good science it certainly isn't.
Even though evolutionists have no idea whatsoever about how the first, genetic information originated, they still claim that the spontaneous generation of life (abiogenesis) is an established scientific fact, but this is completely disingenuous. Apart from the fact that abiogenesis violates the Law of Biogenesis, the Law of Cause and Effect and the Second Law of Thermodynamics, it also violates Information Theory.
Evolutionists have an enormous problem with explaining how the DNA code itself originated. However that is not even the major problem. The impression is given to the public by evolutionists that they only have to find an explanation for the origin of DNA by natural processes - and the problem of the origin of genetic information will have been solved.
That is a confusion in the minds of many people that evolutionists cynically exploit,
Explaining how DNA was formed by chemical processes, explains only how the information storage medium was formed, it tells us nothing about the origin of the information it carries.
To clarify this it helps to compare DNA to other information, storage mediums.
For example, if we compare DNA to the written word, we understand that the alphabet is a tangible medium for storing, recording and expressing information, it is not information in itself. The information is recorded in the sequence of letters, forming meaningful words.
You could say that the alphabet is the 'hardware' created from paper and ink, and the sequential arrangement of the letters is the software. The software is a mental construct, not a physical one.
The same applies to DNA. DNA is not information of itself, just like the alphabet it is the medium for storing and expressing information. It is an amazingly efficient storage medium. However, it is the sequence or arrangement of the amino acids which is the actual information, not the DNA code.
So, if evolutionists are ever able to explain how DNA was formed by chemical processes, it would explain only how the information storage medium was formed. It will tell us nothing about the origin of the information it carries.
Thus, when atheists and evolutionists tell us it is only a matter of time before 'science' will be able to fill the 'gaps' in our knowledge and explain the origin of genetic information, they are not being honest. Explaining the origin of the 'hardware' by natural processes is an entirely different matter to explaining the origin of the software.
Next time you hear evolutionists skating over the problem of the origin of genetic information with their usual bluff and bluster, and parroting their usual nonsense about science being able to fill such gaps in knowledge in the future, don't be fooled. They cannot explain the origin of genetic information, and never will be able to. The software cannot be created by chemical processes or the interaction of energy and matter, it is not possible. If you don't believe that. then by all means put it to the test, by challenging any evolutionist to explain how genetic information (not DNA) can originate by natural means? I can guarantee they won't be able to do so.
It is true to say - the evolution cupboard is bare when it come to real, tangible evidence.
For example:
1.The origin of life is still a mystery, evolutionists have failed to demonstrate that the Law of Biogenesis (which rules out the spontaneous generation of life) is not universally valid.
2.They have no explanation for where the first, genetic information came from.
3.They assume (without any evidence) that matter is somehow intrinsically predisposed to produce life whenever the environmental conditions for life permit.
4.They deny that there is any purpose in the universe, yet completely contradict that premise by assuming the above intrinsic predisposition of matter to produce life, as though matter is somhow endowed with a 'blueprint' for the creation of life.
5.They have no credible mechanism for the increase of genetic information required for progressive evolution and increasing complexity.
6.They have failed to produce any credible, intermediate, fossil examples, in spite of searching for over 150 years. There should be millions of examples, yet there is not a single one which is a watertight example.
7.They regularly publish so-called evidence which, when properly examined, is discovered to be nothing of the sort: Example ... Orce Man (the skullcap of a donkey!).
8.They use dubious dating techniques, such as circular reasoning in the dating of fossils and rocks.
9. They discard any evidence - radiocarbon dating, sedimentation experiments, fossils etc. that doesn't fit the preconceptions.
10. They frequently make the claim that there has to be life on other planets, simply on the assumption (without evidence) that life spontaneously generated and evolved on Earth which they take it for granted is a proven fact.
11.They cannot produce a single, credible example of a genuinely, beneficial mutation, yet billions would be required for microbes to human evolution.
There is much more, but that should suffice to debunk the incessant hype and propaganda that microbes-to-human evolution is an established, irrefutable fact.
It should be enough to put an end to the greatest fraud that has been foisted on the public in scientific history.
We are constantly told by evolutionists that the majority of scientists accept progressive evolution (as though that gives it credence) ... but most scientists, don't actually study evolution in any depth, because it is outside their field of expertise. They simply trust what they are taught in school, and mistakenly trust the integrity of evolutionists to present evidence objectively.
That is another great MISTAKE!
Evolutionism: The Religion That Offers Nothing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=znXF0S6D_Ts&list=TLqiH-mJoVPB...
FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE
The Law of Cause and Effect. Dominant Principle of Classical Physics. David L. Bergman and Glen C. Collins
www.thewarfareismental.net/b/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/b...
"The Big Bang's Failed Predictions and Failures to Predict: (Updated Aug 3, 2017.) As documented below, trust in the big bang's predictive ability has been misplaced when compared to the actual astronomical observations that were made, in large part, in hopes of affirming the theory."
kgov.com/big-bang-predictions
November 2025
Curator - An AI Photography Critique system
Caption: a city street with a bus and a car
Style: Street
Interestingness: 6.27/10 (★★★☆☆)
Critique: Overall, this image captures a typical street scene in an urban environment, reflecting the essence of city life with its mix of architectural elements and human activity. The main visual strength lies in the contrast between light and shadow, which adds depth to the photograph and highlights certain aspects while leaving others in darkness.
As for secondary observations, there seems to be room for improvement regarding composition; the image feels somewhat unbalanced due to an uneven distribution of subjects across the frame. Additionally, although it's a street photography style piece, one could argue that capturing more decisive moments or interactions between people would elevate its storytelling potential and potentially increase the score.
One actionable improvement is considering adjusting the framing slightly so as not to cut off parts of the buildings on either side, allowing for better visual flow within the image. Overall, while it's a snapshot with clear intentions, refining these elements could enhance both technical execution and narrative impact in future works.
Camera: Ricoh, GR III, lens:GR LENS 18.3mm F2.8, 18mm, f/5.6, ISO200
Posting shots on other social media showed me many churches had to be revisited. Just about the last one to be thus revisited was Minster-in-Thanet, as the album had 55 shots from two previous visits, and I thought such a large and imposing church deserved more.
So, after seeing online its now open every day, we headed off there this morning.
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Minster Abbey on the Isle of Thanet was founded in AD 669 by Domneva, niece of King Erconbert of Kent. The enormous parish church, built some distance to the south-west of the abbey, dates from two distinct periods. The nave is Norman, a magnificent piece of twelfth-century arcading with tall cylindrical pillars. The chancel and transepts are thirteenth century, with a three-light east window, each one double shafted inside. This end of the church has a simple stone vaulted ceiling which adds greatly to the grandeur. The glass is by Thomas Willement and dates from 1861. Ewan Christian restored the church in 1863 and added vaulted ceilings to the transepts. They had been intended by the medieval designers, but were never built. There is a set of eighteen fifteenth-century stalls with misericords and an excellent sixteenth-century font and cover.
kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Minster+in+Thanet
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MINSTER.
THE next parish to Monkton eastward is Minster, antiently written both Mynstre, and Menstre, being so named from the Saxon word Minstre, signifying a church or monastery. It is divided into two boroughs, viz. Way Borough and Street Borough; the former of which lies on the ascent on the northern side of the street; the latter contains the street and church, with the southern part of the parish.
THIS PARISH is about three miles and an half from east to west, and near as much from north to south. The farms in it are perhaps as large as in any other parish in this county; the occupiers of which are, in general, men of considerable ability. The west part of this parish is bounded by a lynch or balk, which goes quite across the island to Westgate, called St. Mildred's Lynch, an account of which has already been given before, and which is the bounds of this manor from that of Monkton, as well as of the parish. This lynch has formerly been much broader than it is now, many of the farmers, who occupy lands bounding on or near it, having through a coveteous humour, not only dug up the mould or top of it, to lay on their land, but in some places have ploughed upon it. Too many instances of this kind are practised in other places, not only of this island, but of the county in general, so that there is scarce a remembrance left where those balks or lynches have been; such has the greedy avarice of the occupiers been, and this is one instance of the ill consequence of the neglect of the courts leet and baron. The village of Minster lies nearly in the centre of it, on low ground at the foot of the high lands, having the church on the south side of it; northward of the village it rises to high land, being a fine open champion country of uninclosed corn land, on which are situated Minster mill, Allan Grange, and Powcies, the latter at the extremity of the parish, close to which was, till lately, a small grove of oaks, the only one in this island. Lower down, about a mile southward, is Thorne manor, and beyond that Sevenscore farm. At the south-eastern extremity of the parish, and partly in St. Laurence, is Cliffsend, or Clyvesend, so called from its being at the end of the cliff, which extends from Ramsgate; it was antieutly a part of the estate of St. Augustine's monastery, and is called by Thorne in his Chronicle, the manor of Clyvesend. Here are now two considerable farms besides cottages.
About a mile and an half south-east from Minster church, is Ebbsfleet, formerly called by the various names of Hipwines, Ippeds, and Wipped's fleet; this seems to have been a usual place of landing from the ocean in this island; here it is said Hengist and Horsa, the two Saxon generals, first landed with their forces, about the year 449. Here St. Augustine, often called the Apostle of the English, first landed, in the year 596; and here too St. Mildred, of whom mention has been made likewise before, first landed from France, where she had been for instruction in the monastic life; and not many years ago there was a small rock at this place, called St. Mildred's rock, where, on a great stone, her footstep was said, by the monkish writers, to have remained impressed. (fn. 1) Below the church of Minster, southward, is the large level of marshes, called Minster level, at the southern extremity of which runs the river Stour, formerly the Wantsume, which, as has already been noticed before, was antiently of a much greater depth and width than it is at present, flowing up over the whole space of this level, most probably almost to the church-yard fence, being near a mile and an half distance; but the inning of the salts by the landholders, which had been in some measure deserted by the waters of the Wantsume at different places, so far lessened the force of the tide, and of the river waters mixing with it, that it occasioned the sands to increase greatly near this place, where it was at length entirely choaked up, so that a wall of earth was made by the abbot of St. Augustine, since called the Abbot's wall, to prevent the sea at high water overslowing the lands, which now comprehend this great level of marshes, at present under the direction and management of the commissioners of sewers for the district of East Kent. A part of these marsh lands have been much improved by means of shortening the course of the river Stour to the sea, by the cut at Stonar, which lets off the superfluous water in wet seasons with greater expedition, and a very valuable tract of near two hundred acres has been lately inclosed by a strong wall from the sea near Ebbs-fleet. Between the above-mentioned wall and the river Stour lie a great many acres of land, which the inhabitants call the salts, from their being left without the wall, and subject to the overflowing of the tide, so long as it continued to flow all around this island. Over against the church is a little creek, which seems to have been the place antiently called Mynstrefleet, into which the ships or vessels came, which were bound for this place. As a proof of this, there was found some years ago in a dyke bounding on this place, in digging it somewhat deeper than usual, some fresh coals, which very probably had fallen aside some lighter or boat in taking them out of it. (fn. 2)
I ought not to omit mentioning, that on the downs on the north part of this parish, where the old and present windmills were placed, is a prospect, which perhaps is hardly exceeded in this part of the kingdom. From this place may be seen, not only this island and the several churches in it, one only excepted; but there is a view at a distance, of the two spires of Reculver, the island of Sheppy, the Nore, or mouth of the river Thames, the coast of Essex, the Swale, and the British channel; the cliffs of Calais, and the kingdom of France; the Downs, and the town of Deal, the bay and town of Sandwich, the fine champion country of East Kent, the spires of Woodnesborough and Ash, the ruins of Richborough castle, the beautiful green levels of Minister, Ash, &c. with the river Stour winding between them; the fine and stately tower of the cathedral of Canterbury, and a compass of hills of more than one hundred miles in extent, which terminate the sight.
In the marshes on the south of this parish, there was found in 1723, an antique gold ring; on the place of the seal, which seemed to represent an open book, was engraved on one side an angel, seemingly kneeling, and on the other side a woman standing with a glory round her head; on the woman's side was engraved in old English characters, bone; on that of the angel, letters of the same character, but illegible. A fair is kept in this village on a Good Friday for pedlary and toys.
By the return made to the council's letter, by archbishop Parker's order, in the year 1563, there were then computed to be in this parish fifty-three housholds. By an exact account taken of Minster in 1774, there were found to be in this parish one hundred and forty-nine houses, and six hundred and ninety-six inhabitants; of the houses, sixteen were farm-houses, and one hundred and thirty three were inhabited by tradesmen, labourers, and widows.
THE MANOR and ABBEY OF MINSTER was antiently called Thaket manor, and continued so till, from the foundation of the abbey or minster within it, it acquired the name of the manor of Minster, though in the survey of Domesday, taken in the year 1080, it is still called Tanet manor, Kar exoxnv; but I have met with it no where else so late by that name.
This manor was in the year 670 in the possession of Egbert, king of Kent, whose two nephews Ethelred and Ethelbright, sons of his father's elder brother Ermenfride, deceased, (who left likewise two daughters, Ermenburga, called also Domneva, married to Merwald, son of Penda, king of Mercia, and Ermengitha, were left to his care, under promise of their succeeding to the kingdom. These princes were kept under the inspection of one Thunnor, a flattering courtier, who persuaded the king to have them murdered, left they should disturb him in the possession of the throne; which Thunnor undertook and perpetrated. To expiate this crime, the king, by the advice of archbishop Theodore, and Adrian, abbot of St. Augustine's, sent to Domneva, who had taken the vow of chastity on her, to offer her any satisfaction for this crime, when, as an atonement, she requested of the king, according to the custom of those times, to grant her a place in Tenet, where she might build a monastery to their memory, with a sufficient maintenance, in which she, with her nuns, might continually pray for the king's forgiveness, who immediately by his charter, which concludes with a singular curse on the infringers of it, (fn. 3) granted her for the endowment of it full one half of this island, being the eastern part of it, comprehended within the bounds of this manor, and since separated from the western part of the island and manor of Monkton, by a broad bank or lynch, made quite across the island, since called St. Mildred's Lynch, and remaining at this day.
The story of this grant, as told by Thorn, a native of this parish, and a monk of St. Augustine's monastery, in his chronicle of that abbey, is, that Egbert granting Domneva's petition, demanded of her how much land she desired; who replied, as much as her deer could run over at one course; this being granted, the deer was let loose at Westgate, in Birchington, in the presence of the king, his nobles, and a great concourse of people. Among them was Thunnor, the petrator of the murder, who, ridiculing the king for the lavishness of his gift and the method of its decision, endeavoured by every means to obstruct the deer's course, both by riding across and meeting it; but Heaven, continues the chronicler, being offended at his impiety, whilst he was in the midst of his career, the earth opened and swallowed him up, leaving the name of Tunnor's-leap, or Thunor's hyslepe, to the ground and place where he fell, to perpetuate the memory of his punishment, though it was afterwards called Heghigdale. Meanwhile the deer having made a small circle eastward, directed its course almost in a strait line south-westward across the island from one side to the other, running over in length and breadth forty-eight plough-lands; and the king, immediately afterwards delivered up to Domneva the whole tract of land which the deer had run over.
This tract or course of the deer, which included above ten thousand acres of some of the best lands in Kent, is said to have been marked out by the broad bank, or lynch, across the island, since called St. Mildred's Lynch, thrown up in remembrance of it; (fn. 4) but notwithstanding this well-invented story of Thorn, it is more probable that this lynch was made to divide the two capital manors of Minster and Monkton, before this gift to Domneva.
Puteus Thunor, (or Thunor's leap) says the annalist of St. Augustine's monastery, apparet prope Cursum Cervi juxta Aldelond; and the place where the king stood to see this course is represented to be by it, where formerly was a beacon, it being some of the highest land hereabouts, where the king might see the course. This Puteus Thunor, or Thunorslep, is very plainly the old chalk pit, called Minster chalk-pit, which its not unlikely was first sunk when the abbey and church here were built, and the bottom of it in process of time, being overgrown with grass, gave occasion for the invention of this sable of Thunor's being swallowed up by the earth at this place. The name of Thunorslep has been long since obliterated, and even the more modern one of Heghigdate has been long forgotten. Weever says, he lieth buried under an heap of stones, which to that day was called Thunniclam.
Domneva being thus furnished with wealth and all things necessary, founded, in honor of the B.V. Mary, a monastery, or cloyster of nuns, afterwards called ST. MILDRED'S ABBEY, on part of this land, on the south side of the island near the water, in the same placewhere the present parochial church stands. Archbishop Theodore, at the instance of Domneva, consecrated the church of it, and she afterwards appointed the number of nuns to be seventy, and was appointed by the archbishop, the first abbess of it; she died here and was buried on the glebe of the new monastery. Ermengitha, her sister, was after her death sainted, and lived with Domneva, in the abbey here, where she died, and was buried in a place about a mile eastward of it, where the inhabitants have found numbers of bones, and where it is probable, she built some chapel or oratory. In a field or marsh called the twenty acres, a little more than a quarter of a mile eastward of the church of Minster, are several foundations, as if some chapel or oratory had been built there. (fn. 5)
Domneva was succeeded as abbess by her daughter Mildred, who was afterwards sainted. She is said to have been buried in this church. On her death Edburga succeeded in the government of this monastery, who finding it insufficient for so great a number of nuns, built another just by, larger and more stately, which was consecrated by archbishop Cuthbert, and dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul; and to this church she, about the year 750, removed the body of St. Mildred, at whose tomb many miracles were said to be wrought afterwards. Edburga was buried at Minster in her own new church, and was afterwards sainted. She was succeeded as abbess of this monastery by Sigeburga. In her time was the first depredation of the Danes in Thanet; who sell upon the people, laid every thing waste, and pludered the religious in this monastery; from this time they continued their ravages throughout this island almost every year; hence by degrees, this monastery fell to decay, and the nuns decreased in number, being vexed with grief and worn down with poverty, by the continual insults of these merciless pirates, who landed in this island in 978, and entirely destroyed by fire this monastery of St. Mildred, in which the clergy and many of the people were shut up, having fled thither for sanctuary; but they were, together with the nuns, all burnt to death, excepting Leofrune the abbess, who is said to have been carried away prisoner.
The Danes, however, spared the two chapels of St. Mary, and of St. Peter and St. Paul, in one of which divine service was afterwards performed, for the inhabitants of this parish and the adjoining neighbourhood. The antient scite of the monastery, together with this manor, and all the rest of the possessions of it remained in the king's hands, and they continued so till king Cnute, in the year 1027, gave the body of St. Mildred, together with the antient scite of the monastery, this manor and all its land within this island and without, and all customs belonging to this church, to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, which gift was confirmed by king Edward the Confessor. (fn. 6)
The abbot and convent of St. Augustine becoming thus possessed of this manor, fitted up the remains of the abbey to serve as the court-lodge of it; accordingly it has ever since borne the name of Minstercourt. In the survey of Domesday, taken in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, anno 1080, this manor is thus described, under the general title of Terra æcclæ Sci Augustini, the land of the church of St. Augustine.
In Tanet hundred. St. Mildred's.
The abbot himself holds Tanet manor, which was taxed at forty-eight sulings. The arable land is sixty-two carucates. In demesne there are two, and one hundred and fifty villeins, with fifty borderers having sixty-three carucates. There is a church and one priest, who gives twenty shillings per annum. There is one salt-pit and two fisheries of three pence, and one mill.
In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth four times twenty pounds, when the abbot received it forty pounds, now one hundred pounds.
Of this manor three knights hold so much of the land of the villeins as is worth nine pounds, when there is peace in the land, and there they have three carucates.
After which king Henry I. granted to the monastery of St. Augustine, about the 4th of his reign, a market, to be yearly held within this their manor of Minster, with all customs, forseitures, and pleas; which was confirmed among other liberties by Edward III. in his 36th year, by inspeximus.
King Henry III. in his 54th year, anno 1270, granted to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, free-warren in all their demesne lands of Minster. (fn. 7) King Edward II. in his 6th year, confirmed to the abbot free-warren in this manor among others, and next year anno 1313, in the iter of H. de Stanton and his sociates, justices itinerant, the abbot, upon a quo warranto, claimed and was allowed sundry liberties therein mentioned, in this manor, among others, and likewise free-warren in all his demesne lands of it, view of frank pledge, and wreck of the sea; one market weekly on a Friday, and one fair yearly on the eve and day of St. Mildred the Virgin, and other liberties therein mentioned; as having been granted and confirmed by divers of the king's predecessors, and allowed in the last iter of J. de Berewick and his sociates, justices itinerant; and that king Edward II. by his charter in his 6th year had sully confirmed all of them, and by the register of this monastery, of about this time, it appears that this manor had within its court the same liberties as those of Chistlet and Sturry. King Edward III. in his 5th year, exempted the abbot's homagers and tenants of this, among other of their manors, from their attendance at the sheriff's tourne, and afterwards by his charter of inspeximus in his 36th year, confirmed to this abbey all the manors and possessions given to it by former kings; and by another charter, the several grants of liberties and confirmations made by his predecessors, among which were those abovementioned; and king Henry VI. afterwards confirmed the same.
Next year the abbot and his servants taking distresses on their tenants of this manor, the tenants, to the number of six hundred, met and continued together for the space of five weeks, having got with them a greater number of people, who coming armed with bows and arrows, swords and staves, to the court of this manor and that of Salmanstone, belonging likewise to the abbot, laid siege to them, and after several attacks set fire to the gates of them. For fear of these violences, the monks and their servants at Salmanstone kept themselves confined there for fifteen days, so that the people enraged at not being able to encompass their ends in setting fire to the houses, destroyed the abbot's ploughs and husbandry utensils, which were in the fields; and cut down and carried away the trees on both these manors.
At the same time they entered into a confederacy and raised money here by tallages and assessments, by means of which they drew to them no small number of others of the cinque ports, who had nothing to lose, so that the abbot dared not sue for justice in the king's courts; but a method it seems was found to punish these rioters, or at least the principal of them, who were fined to the abbot for these damages six hundred pounds, a vast sum in those days, and were imprisoned at Canterbury till the fine was paid. The uneasiness of the tenants under such respective suits and services, seems to have occasioned the abbot and convent to have compounded with them, which they did in the year 1441, anno 20 Henry VI. By this composition the abbot and convent agreed, that the tenants should not in future be distrained for the rents and services they used to pay; but instead of them should pay compositions for every acre of the land called Cornegavel and Pennygavel, (fn. 8) which composition for the Cornegavel and Pennygavel land, continues in force at this time, being sixpence an acre now paid for the Cornegavel land.
In the time of king Richard II. this manor, with its rents and other appurtenances, was valued among the temporalities of the abbot and convent, at 232l. 4s. 3d. per annum; and the quantity of land belonging to it was by admeasurement 2149 acres and one rood.
In which state this manor continued till the final dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, which happened in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, together with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands; at which time the manor and rents were of the value of 276l. yearly. (fn. 9) After which, the see of this manor, with the antient court-lodge of it, formerly the monastery, and then called Minster-court, with all the lands and appurtenances belonging to it, continued in the crown, till king James I. in his 9th year, by his letters patent, granted to Sir Philip Cary, William Pitt, esq. afterwards knighted; and John Williams, citizen and goldsmith of London, this lordship and manor of Menstre, with its rights, members, and appurtenances, late parcel of St. Augustine's monastery, except and reserved to the king's use, all advowsons and patronages of churches, chapels, &c. belonging to this manor; and he granted likewise all the rents of assize called Cornegavel land, in the parish of St. John, parcel of this manor; and the rents of assize of free tenement called Pennygavel land, in the parishes of St. Peter and St. Laurence, (fn. 10) to hold the manor, with its right, members and appurtenances, of the king, as of his manor of East Greenwich, by sealty only, in free and common socage, and not in capite, nor by knight's service; and to hold the rents of assize of the king in capite, by the service of one knight's fee; which grant and letters patent were conconfirmed by an act specially passed for the purpose, that year.
Some years after which, the heirs of the beforementioned Sir Philip Carey and John Williams, then Sir John Williams, bart. of Carmarthenshire, divided this estate; in which division, the manor itself with the court-lodge, part of the demesne lands, royalties, and appurtenances, was allotted to Sir John Williams, bart. (who died in 1668, and was buried in the Temple church, London); whose descendant of the same name, bart. of Carmarthenshire, dying without male issue, his daughter and sole heir, then the widow of the earl of Shelburne, carried it in marriage, at the latter end of king Charles II.'s reign, to Col. Henry Conyngham, afterwards a major-general in king William's reign, who died possessed of it in 1705. He left two sons, William and Henry, and a daughter Mary, married to Francis Burton, esq. of Clare, in Ireland. William, the eldest son of the general, succeeded him in this manor and estate in Minster, but died without surviving issue, upon which this estate descended to Henry Conyngham, esq. his younger brother, second son of the general, who was in 1753, anno 27 George II. created baron Conyngham, of Mount Charles, in Donegall, in Ireland; and afterwards by further letters patent, in 1756, viscount Conyngham, of the same kingdom; and again in 1780, earl Conyngham, and likewise baron Conyngham, of the same kingdom, with remainder of the latter title to his sister's sons. He married Ellen, only daughter of Solomon Merret, esq. of London, by whom he had no issue. He died s.p. in 1781, and was succeeded in his title of baron Conyngham by his nephew Francis Pierpoint Burton Conyngham, eldest son of his sister Mary, by her husband Francis Burton, esq. above-mentioned, which Francis, lord Conyngham, died in 1787, leaving by his wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Nathaniel Clements, esq. and sister of Robert, lord Leitrim, (who survived him) two sons, Henry, who succeeded him in title, and Nathaniel, and three daughters, Catherine married to the Rev. John Shirley Fermor, of Sevenoke; Ellen, to Stewart Weldon, esq. and Henrietta.
Henry, so succeeding his father as lord Conyngham, was created in December 1789, viscount Conyngham and baron Conyngham, of Mount Charles, in Donegall, to whom the inheritance of this manor and estate now belongs; but the possession of it for life is vested in the right hon. Ellen, countess dowager Conyngham; widow of Henry, earl Conyngham, above-mentioned. The arms of lord viscount Conyngham are, Argent, a shake-sork, between three mullets, sable. Supporters. The dexter—An horse charged on the breast with an eagle, displayed, or, maned and hoofed of the last. The sinister—A buck proper, charged on the breast with a griffin's head, erased, or, attired and unguled of the last. Crest—Anunicorn's head erased, argent, armed and maned, or. Motto—Over fork over.
A court leet and court baron is held for this manor, by the stile of the courtleet, and view of frank pledge, for the manor of Minster, in the hundred of Ringslow, alias Tenet, and the court baron for the said manor.
The court-lodge, formerly a part of the nunnery, was, after the dissolution of it, made use of as a farmhouse, in which some of the monks of St. Augustine resided, to manage the estate of it, which they kept in their own hands. On the north side of it, which seems to have been the front or entrance, is a handsome stone portal, on the top of which, in the middle, within a circle, are the arms of the abbey of St. Augustine, viz. Sable, a cross, argent. At a small distance from it stood antiently a very large barn, sufficient to hold the corn growing on all the demesnes, being in length 352 feet, and in breadth 47 feet, and the height of the walls 12 feet, with a roof of chesnut. When the estate was divided, 154 feet in length of this building was carried to Sevenscore farm, where it was burnt, by an accident unknown in 1700, and the remaining part here was burnt by lightning afterwards. On the south side of the house stood a chapel, said to have been built by St. Eadburga, the third abbess here. In it the body of St. Mildred is said to have been placed by her, or rather translated from the other monastery. Some of the walls and foundations of this chapel were remaining within the memory of some not long since deceased, but it is now so entirely demolished, that there is nothing to be seen of it, excepting a small part of the tower, and of the stairs leading up into it. Just by these ruins of the tower is a small piece of ground, in which lately in digging for mould, several human bones were dug up. There is a view of the remains of this nunnery in Lewis's Thanet.
THE OTHER PART of this estate, the scite of which lies about a mile eastward from Minster-court, since known by the name of SEVENSCORE, on which is built a substantial farm-house, with large barns and other necessary buildings, was allotted to —Carey, in whose successors viscounts Falkland, this estate continued down to Lucius Ferdinand, viscount Falkland, who not many years since alienated it to Josiah Wordsworth, esq. of London, whose son of the same name died possessed of it about the year 1784, leaving two sisters his coheirs, one of whom married Sir Charles Kent, bart. and the other, Anne, married Henry Verelst, esq. who afterwards, in right of their respective wives, became possessed of this estate in undivided moieties; in which state it still continues, Sir Charles Kent being at this time entitled to one moiety, and Mrs. Verelst, the widow of Henry Verelst, esq. above-mentioned, who died in 1785, and lies buried in this church, being entitled to the other moiety of it.
WASCHESTER is an estate lying at a small distance westward from Minster church, part of which was formerly parcel of the demesnes of the manor of Minster, and was included in king James's grant to Sir Philip Carey, William Pitt, esq. and John Williams, goldsmith, as has been mentioned before in the account of that manor; they in the year 1620, joined in the sale of them to Jeffry Sandwell, gent. of Monkton, who purchased other lands of different persons in this parish, Monkton and Birchington, the whole of which he sold in 1658, to John Peters, M. D. Philip le Keuse, and Samuel Vincent, which two latter alienated their shares soon afterwards to Dr. Peters; at which time all these lands together, not only comprehended Waschester farm, but likewise part, if not the whole of another called Acol. From Dr. Peters this estate descended to Peter Peters, M. D. of Canterbury, who died in 1697, upon which the inheritance of it descended to his sole daughter and heir Elizabeth, who in 1722 carried it in marriage to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, whose second wife she was; he died possessed of it in 1757, upon which it descended to their only daughter and heir Elizabeth, who entitled her husband, the Rev. William Dejovas Byrche, to the fee of it. He died in 1792, leaving an only daughter Elizabeth, married to Samuel Egerton Brydges, esq. of the Middle Temple, barrister-atlaw, but now of Denton-court, who in her right possessed it, and afterwards sold it to Mr. Ambrose Maud, who now owns it.
SHERIFFS COURT is an estate lying somewhat less than a mile westward from Waschester, in the hamlet of Hoo in this parish; it was formerly called Sheriffs Hope, from the hope, or place of anchorage for ships, which sailed in the river Wantsume, which once ran close by this place. It is said by some to have taken its name from its having been part of the possessions of Reginald de Cornhill, who was so long sheriff of this county that he lost his own name and took that of Le Sheriff, from whence this place gained the name of Sheriffs hope, or court. He was sheriff from the 4th to the 9th years of king Richard I. in the last year of that reign and during the whole reign of king John. His arms are on the stone roof of the cloysters at Canterbury, being Two lions passant, debruised of a bendlet, impaling three piles. After this name was extinct here, the family of Corbie became possessed of this estate; one of whom, Robert de Corbie, died possessed of it in the 39th year of king Edward III. whose son Robert Corbie, esq. of Boughton Malherb, leaving a sole daughter and heir Joane, she carried it in marriage to Sir Nicholas Wotton, who, anno 3 Henry V. was lord mayor of London. His descendant Sir Edward Wotton procured his lands in this county to be disgavelled by the acts both of 31 Henry VIII. and 2 and 3 Edward VI. and from him this manor descended to Thomas, lord Wotton, who dying anno 6 Charles I. without male issue, his four daughters became his coheirs, of whom Catherine the eldest carried this estate in marriage to Henry, lord Stanhope, son and heir of Philip, earl of Chesterfield, whose widow Catherine, lady Stanhope, sold it to Henry Paramor. He was the tenant and occupier of Sheriff's court, being the eldest son of John Paramor, of Preston, the grandson of Thomas Paramor, of Paramor-street, in Ash, near Sandwich. They bore for their arms, Azure, a fess embattled, counter embairled, between three etoils of six points, or. (fn. 11) . He left it to his brother Thomas Paramor, whose grandson of the same name died possessed of it in 1652, and was buried with his ancestors in this church; from his heirs this estate was alienated to Thatcher, in which name it continued, till at length it was sold by one of them, to Mr. Robert Wilkins, gent. of St. Margaret's, Rochester, who possessed it for many years. He died without issue, and it has since become the property of Mrs. Terry, the present owner of it.
TO THIS MANOR is appurtenant the small MANOR OF PEGWELL, or COURT STAIRS, in the parish of St. Laurence.
ALDELOND GRANGE, usually called Allen Grange, situated about a mile northwardfrom Minster church, on the open high land, was so called in opposition to Newland Grange, in St. Laurence parish. It was antiently part of the possessions of the abbey of St. Augustine, and was in the year 1197, assigned by Roger, the abbot of it, to the sacristy of the abbey, for the purpose of upholding and maintaining the abbey church, as well in the fabric as ornaments, but on the condition that the sacrist for the time being, should perform all such services to the court of Minster as were due, and had been accustomed to be done for the land of it. (fn. 12)
The measurement of this land, according to Thorne, amounted to sixty-two acres; and to this Grange belong all the tithes of corn and grain, within the limits of the borough of Wayborough, excepting those which are received by the vicar. On the dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. this estate, then amounting to six score acres, came, with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands, where it did not continue long, for he settled it in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, on his new founded dean and chapter of Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of it continues at this time.
It has been demised by the dean and chapter, on a beneficial lease, the rack rent of it being 413l. per annum, for twenty one years, to Mr. Edward Pett, of Cleve-court, the present lessee of it. Messrs. Jessard and Paramor are the under lessees and occupiers of it.
POWCIES, which stands about half a mile northeastward from Allan grange, was formerly a gentleman's mansion, a large handsome building standing on much more ground than it does at present, with a gate house at the entrance into the court before it; all which being pulled down, a modern farm-house of brick has been built on the antient scite of it.
This seat was once in the possession of the family of Goshall, of Goshall, in Ash, where Sir John Goshall resided in king Edward III.'s reign, and in his descendants it continued till about the reign of king Henry IV. when it was carried in marriage by a female heir to one of the family of St. Nicholas, owners likewise of the adjoining manor of Thorne, in whom it continued down to Roger St. Nicholas, who died in 1484, leaving a sole daughter and heir Elizabeth, who entitled her husband John Dynley, of Charlton, in Worcestershire, to the possession of it. By her he had two sons, Henry and Edward, the eldest of whom succeeded to this estate, which he afterwards alienated, about the middle of queen Elizabeth's reign, to John Roper, esq. of Linsted, afterwards knighted, and anno 14 James I. created baron of Teynham; whose great grandson Christopher, lord Teynham, in king Charles I.'s reign, conveyed it to Sir Edward Monins, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1663, leaving Elizabeth his widow surviving, who held it in jointure at her death in 1703; upon which it devolved to the heirs and trustees of Susan, his eldest daughter and coheir, late wife of Peregrine Bertie, deceased, second son of Montague, earl of Lindsey; and they, in the reign of king William and queen Mary, joined in the sale of it to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1712, as did his son Sir Robert in 1733. After which it became, with his other estates, vested in his three daughters and coheirs, and on a partition of them, anno 9 George II. this estate of Powcies was wholly allotted, among others, to Anne the eldest sister, wife of John, viscount St. John, which partition was confirmed by an act passed next year; after which it descended down to their grandson George, viscount Bolingbroke, who in 1790 alienated it to Mr. Henry and John Harnett, the present possessors of it.
THORNE, or as it is vulgarly called, Thourne, is a manor in this parish, situated about a mile southward from Powcies above mentioned, being so named from the quantity of thorny bushes growing on and about it. This manor was antiently the seat of a family which took their name from it, one of them, Henry de Thorne, was owner of it in the year 1300, anno 29 Edward I. and resided here; against whom it seems complaint was made to the abbot of St. Augustine, that he caused mass to be publicly said in his private oratory, or chapel, (the remains of which are still so entire as to be made use of as a granary, &c.) at this his manor of Thorne, (apud spinam) to the prejudice of the mother church, and the ill example of others; and he accordingly was inhibited from so doing in future, by the archbishop's letters to the vicar of Minster, dated that year. And under the cross in this church, in the north wall of it, is an antient tomb or coffin of solid stone, let into the wall under an arch of antient Saxon ornaments. On the stone which covers the tomb is a cross flory, on each side of which are two blank shields, and round the edge of the stone these words in old French letters: Ici gift Edile de Thorne, que fust Dna del Espine. This seems probable to have been one of the family, owners of this manor.
After this family of Thorne were become extinct here, that of Goshall, of Goshall, in Ash, appear to have been possessors of this manor; in whom it continued till about the reign of king Henry IV. when it went by marriage by a female heir to one of the family of St. Nicholas, in whose descendants it continued down to Roger St. Nicholas, who died in 1474, and as appears by his will, was buried before the image of St. Nicholas, in the chancel of Thorne, at Minster. Roger St. Nicholas, his son and heir, left an only daughter Elizabeth, who entitled her husband John Dynley, esq. of Charlton, in Worcestershire, to the possession of it. After which it continued down in the same owners as Powcies last above-described, till it came into the possession of George, viscount Bolingbroke, who in 1790 alienated it to Mr. Henry Wooton, the present owner of it.
See a custom for the demise of tenements by will within the borough of Menstre, secundum consuetudinem manerii, anno 55 Henry III. Itin. Kanc. rot. 18, in Robinson's Gavelkind, p. 236.
Charities.
THE OCCUPIER of Salmeston Grange, in St. John's parish, is bound by his lease to distribute to six poor inhabitants of the parish of Minster, to be nominated by the minister and churchwardens, in the first week, and on the middle Monday of Lent, to each of them, nine loaves and eighteen herrings; and to three poor people of the same, to each of them, two yards of blanket; and every Monday and Friday in each week, from the Invention of the Holy Cross to the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, to every poor person coming to Salmeston Grange, one dishfull of peas dressed.
THOMAS APPLETON, of Eastry, yeoman, by his will in 1593, gave to the relief of the poor of this parish, the sum of 5l. to be paid to the churchwardens yearly, for the use of the poor people, inhabitants there, fourteen days before Christmas day, the same to be paid out of certain lands belonging to him, called Hardiles, in the parish of Woodnesborough.
RICHARD CLERK, D. D. vicar of Minster, partly by deed in 1625, and partly by will on Nov 6, 1634, gave 120l. to be lent unto four parishioners, born in Minster, whose fathers were deceased, and they not sufficiently stocked, for the term of one, two, or three years, but not exceeding that; the interest arising from it to be divided among the poor of the parish. With this money the trustees purchased houses, which are at present divided into four tenements, besides the parish work-house, called the seoffees houses; and seven other tenements, called Cheap Row, the rent of which is annually distributed in clothing to the poor persons of the parish. They are all at present let to the churchwardens and overseers for the time being, by a lease of 99 years, from 1729, at the rent of 6l. This trust is now vested in Mr. William Fuller, of Doctors Commons, as heir of the last trustee; the trust not having been filled up since the year 1696.
JOHN CAREY, esq of Stanwell, in Middlesex, by will in 1685, gave 10l. per annum to be paid yearly to the churchwardens, out of his farm of Sevenscore; to be disposed of to the poor yearly, on St. Thomas's day.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Westbere.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is a very handsome structure, consisting of a nave and two side isles, a cross sept, and east chancel; the nave is of Saxon, the transept and chancel of gothic architecture; the last is curiously vaulted with stone, and provision was made for the same in the transept, but it was never completed. In it are eighteen collegiate stalis, in good preservation. At the west end of the church is a tall spire steeple, in which is a clock and five bells.
When the Danes plundered and burnt the abbey of Minster, they seem to have spared the two chapels of St. Mary, and of St. Peter and St. Paul, or however the stone work of them was preserved, and not burnt with the roof and other works of timber. The former of these was afterwards made into the present parish church, and has since been considerably enlarged.—The nave or body of the church seems to have been the old building; the pillars of which are thick and short, and the arches all circular, and a low roof was probably upon them, according to the simplicity and plainness of those times; but since the wall has been built higher, as appears by the distance there is, betwixt the top of the arches and the wall plate across; and an handsome chancel added at the east end, and a square tower on the west, with a high spire covered with lead placed on it. The chancel or choir and the middle of the cross are vaulted, and by the footings which are left, it was certainly intended that the whole cross should have been finished in the same manner. The eighteen stalls mentioned before, have very handsome wainscot behind, according to the mode of those times; in these the monks, vicars, and priests used to sit during the performance of divine service. Besides the high altar in this church, there were before the reformation other altars in it, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St. James, and St. Anne. At these, as likewise before the Holy Cross, were lights constantly burning; for the maintenance of which, there were societies or fellowships, who contributed towards the maintenance of them, and those who died left in their last wills constantly small sums of money for that purpose. Under the middle of the cross was the rood-lost, the going up to which out of the chancel is yet to be seen, as are the mortice holes in which the timbers were put, on which the lost was built. On the north wall of it is the antient tomb of Edile de Thorne. On the pavement, as well as in the church porch, are several large flat gravestones, the inscriptions, if any on them, entirely worn away; they seem very antient, and are not improbably, memorials of some of the religious of this place, but they do not seem always to have lain where they do now. On the front of the tower of the steeple is a shield, carved in the stone work, viz. A fess, between three lion's passant. Among other memorials in this church, in the chancel, is one for Francis, son and heir to Edward Saunders, gent. of Norbourne-court, which Edward married the female heir of Francis Pendrick, esq. by his wife, who was nurse to queen Elizabeth. He died anno 1643; arms, A chevron, between three elephants heads, impaling a saltier, ermine, between three leopards faces. In the middle isle a monument for Bartholomew Sanders, gent. and Mary his wife, daughter of Henry Oxenden, esq. of Wingham; arms, Per chevron, sable and argent, three elephants heads, counterchanged, impaling Oxenden. On a mural monument are the effigies of a man and woman. kneeling at a desk, for Thomas Paramor, esq. sometime mayor of Canterbury, and Anne his first wife; arms, Azure, a fess embattled, between three stars of six points, or, impaling or, on a chevron, three stars of six points, sable, between as many dragons heads, quartered. In the north isle are several memorials for the Paramors. On a wooden frame, near the altar, a memorial for Col. James Pettit, obt. 1730. On the south side of the chancel, a mural monument for Mary, youngest daughter of Robert Knowler, gent. of Herne, wife of John Lewis, vicar of this church, obt. 1719. A memorial for John Lewis, formerly vicar of this church, obt. 1746, æt. 72. A memorial for Elizabeth Blome, daughter and coheir of John Blome, gent. of Sevenoke, obt. 1731; arms, in a lozenge, A cross fitchee, and cinquefoil, quartered with a greybound, current. A mural monument for Harry Verelst, esq. of Aston, in Yorkshire, formerly governor of Bengal, obt. 1785; he married Anne, coheir of Josiah Wordsworth, esq. of Wadworth, in Yorkshire, and of Sevenscore, in this parish, and left by her four sons and five daughters. In the south isle memorials for the Harnetts, Kennetts, and Colemans. In the middle isle are memorials for several of the Jenking's. Leland, in his Itinerary, vol. vii. p. 130 says, S. Florentius jacet in Cemiterio S. Mariæ in Thanet, cujus Tumba Crescit signis. (fn. 13)
On the top of the spire was formerly a globe, and upon that a great wooden cross, covered with lead, over which was a vane, and above that, an iron cross; but about the year 1647, the noted fanatic Richard Culmer, having got the sequestration of this vicarage, took it into his fancy that these were monuments of superstition and idolatry, and got these crosses demolished by two persons of the parish, whom he had hired, after he had himself before day, by moon light, fixed ladders for them to go up and down, from the square of the tower to the top of the spire. But if all the figures of a cross are monuments of idolatry, and to be removed, the poor caitiff has done his work but by halves, or rather not all, when he took down these from the spire and left the church standing, which is itself built in the form of a cross.
The church of Minster was antiently appendant to the manor, and as such was granted with it, first to Domneva, and afterwards became part of the possessions of the abbey founded by her here; and after the destruction of it came with the manor, by king Cnute's grant, to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, to which it became appropriated in the year 1128, anno 29 Henry I. and was at that time assigned, with the chapels of St. John, St. Peter, and St. Laurence, with all rents, tithes, and other things, belonging to them, to the sacristy of that monastery; which regulation was confirmed by archbishop Theobald, and afterwards, in 1168, by pope Alexander, who consigned it to the reparation of the church of the monastery, which had been but just before burnt down. (fn. 14)
In the year 1176, anno 23 Henry II. the tenants of the Halimot, or manor court of Minster, agreed, that from thenceforth they would all cop their corn; and that they and their heirs, then and for ever afterwards, should pay all their tithes lawfully by cops, and all other matters of tithes, which they were accustomed to pay, as amply as they had ever paid them from the time of the dedication of the church of St. Mary of Menstre.
By an agreement entered into in 1182, between the archbishop and the abbot of St. Augustine's, this church was exempted from the payments of all dues and procurations to the archdeacon; and that year the archbishop confirmed this church to the monastery; which agreement was renewed in 1237, by archbishop Edmund; and further, that the abbot and convent should present to the archbishop, in the chapels of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Laurence, fit perpetual chaplains to the altarages in them, provided those altarages were worth ten marcs, with which the chaplains should be content, on pain of forfeiting the same; the vicar of the mother church of Menstre, having a sufficient vicarage taxed from antient time in the same, taking and receiving in right of his vicarage, the tenths of small tithes, viz. of lambs and pigs, and the obventions arising from marriages and churchings, which were forbid at the chapels, and were solemnized, &c. at the mother church only, and the burials of certain corpses, being those of the tenants or occupiers of lands in these chapelries, who were to be buried at Minster, unless the vicar gave leave to the contrary. At the same time the archbishop, with the consent of the archdeacon, confirmed this church to the abbot and convent, together with the several archiepiscopal confirmations of it, and those of the several kings of England. This part above-mentioned of the revenue of the vicarage of Minster, arising from these chapelries, has long since been lost, except that out of Salmestone Grange, amounting to 10s. a year; which, perhaps, might be a composition for the tenths of the small tithes, &c. in them. The altarages above-mentioned were the customary and voluntary offerings at the altar, for some religious office or service of the priest. To augment these, the regular and secular priests invented many things. For it is to be observed, that only a portion of these offerings, to the value of ten marcs, or 6l. 13s. 4d. was what the chaplains of these three chapels were presented to, and that they were accountable for the residue to the abbot and convent, and that if they presumed to detain any more of these offerings beyond that sum, they were to be deprived even of that. For this reason, they were to swear to the abbot and convent, to give a true account of the offerings made at their several altars, on their respective offering days, and in no shape to detriment their parish of Menstre, as to legacies or obventions, personal or predial, but to conserve all the parochial rights of the same, entire and untouched, to the utmost of their power. Then marcs appear now but a small sum for the maintenance of a parish minster; but when the value of money at the time when this composition was made is considered, it will be found to be a handsome and generous allowance to a chaplain, especially as their stipends were then paid by authority; ten marcs were then equal to more than sixty pounds now, and in a council held at Oxford but fifteen years before, it was decreed, that where the churches had a revenue as far as five marcs per annum, they should be conferred on none but such as should constantly reside in person, on the place, as being a sufficient maintenance. In 1348 H. Kinghton informs us, a chaplain's usual stipend was no more than four or five marcs, or two and his board; as for the chaplains of these three chapels, though they were to receive no more than ten marcs of these altarages, they were not excluded the enjoyment of the manses and glebes, given to these chapels when they were first consecrated, which made some addition to their income, and perhaps enabled them to keep a deacon to assist them. (fn. 15)
On the great and principal festivals, the inhabitants of these three chapelries, preceded by their priests and other officers, with their banners, tapers, &c. were used to go in procession to Minster, their mother church, there to join at the solemn mass and other divine service then performed, to make their offerings and pay their accustomed dues, in token of their subjection to their parochial or mother church.
The appropriation of the church of Minster, together with the advowson of the vicarage, continued, in manner as has been already mentioned, with the abbot and convent till the dissolution of their monastery in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, together with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands. After the dissolution of the monastery, there could not be said to be any parsonage or appropriation of this church, for the demesne lands of the manor of Minster, which are very extensive in this parish, were subject, as to the tithes of corn, to only a small modus or composition to the vicar, of eighteen shocks or cops of wheat, and eighteen shocks or cops of barley, or thereabouts; and the vicar was intitled, in right of his vicarage, to the corn tithes of the lands in the remaining part of the parish, as will be further noticed hereafter.
When the vicarage of this church was endowed and a vicar instituted, is no where found; but certainly it was before the year 1275; for in the act of consecration of the church or chapel-yard of St. Laurence that year, when that chapel was made parochial, mention is made of the vicar of Menstre, &c. and in the year 1384, anno 8 Richard II. this vicarage was valued at thirty marcs. After the dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, the advowson of this vicarage continued in the hands of the crown, till king Edward VI. in his first year, granted it, among other premises, to the archbishop, since which it has continued parcel of the pos sessions of that fee, the archbishop being the present patron of it.
This vicarage is valued in the king's books at 33l. 3s. 4d. and the yearly tenths at 3l. 6s. 8d. In 1588 here were three hundred communicants, and it was valued at 1501. It is endowed with a manse and glebe of about twenty-four acres of land, upland and marsh; all the corn tithes, and other tithes of that part of the parish called Street-borough; and of about one hundred acres in the other borough, called Weyborough, except the corn tithes of the demesnes of the manor of Minster, for which the modus or composition above-mentioned is paid.
¶The land in Minster level, which is pasture, paying but four-pence an acre for tithes, Dr. Richard Clarke, vicar here in 1597, made a composition with his parishioners, by which they obliged themselves to pay him at the vicarage house, within three days after every quarter, after the rate of twelve-pence an acre for their marsh land, or else to lose the benefit of the composition. (fn. 16) Dr. Meric Casaubon, who succeeded Dr. Clarke, would not abide by this composition, but afterwards compounded with the occupiers, at the rate of twelve-pence an acre for the worst of the land, and of fourteen pence and sixteen pence for that which is better; and in the year 1638 he demanded his tithes of the marsh land in kind, or eighteen pence per acre, which was agreed to by the parishioners, and paid by them till the year 1643; when the civil wars being begun, and this county in the power of the parliament, Dr. Casaubon, being continually threatened to be turned out of his vicarage, was content to receive one shilling per acre for the marsh land; in which manner he received it till the end of the year 1644, when this vicarage was sequestered, and one Richard Culmer was put into possession of this vicarage, (fn. 17) who to ingratiate himself with the parishioners, agreed to take no more than twelve pence an acre of them, as did Dr. Casaubon in 1660, on his being restored to this vicarage; at which rate the tithes were afterwards uniformly taken, till the time of the present vicar; the several vicars not being disposed to quarrel with their neighbours, though the land now lets for as much again as it did in Dr. Casaubon's time, viz. at 28s. an acre and upwards. There have been several litigations and issues at law tried between the present vicar, Mr. Dodsworth, and his parishioners, on account of this modus for the marsh land, all which have been decided in the vicar's favor, who set aside the modus of one shilling per acre by the verdict in his favor, and now takes from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. for the grass land, according to its goodness; yet there are ten acres of grass land late in the possession of Josias Fuller Farrer, esq. which never having paid more than four-pence per acre, remain at that composition. The present value of it is about 350l. per annum.
This was BC (Before Confidence); when I was very apprehensive of stepping out. In those days I stayed in and took plenty of pictures, in various outfits, findng my "style". A couple years after this session I had an image consult, that included a color analysis, with my local BeautiControl consultant. Turns out I'm a Winter and yellows are one of the colors that I should avoid!
I recommend getting an image consult. It really increased my confidence.
There are two other things that had huge positive effects on my confidence; GG friendships and encouagement, and electrolysis. I plan to write about these in future posts.
Photoshoot at a Pokot village.
The Pokot people are categorized under the larger Kalenjin tribes grouping of Kenyan Nilotic speakers because they have oral traditions of a similar origin. They speak the Pokot language. The Pokot people live in the Baringo and Western Pokot districts of Kenya and also in the Eastern Karamoja region of Uganda. The Pokots are dived into two main sub-groups depending of their location and way of life. The two groups are the Hill Pokot who practice both farming and pastoralism, and live in the rainy highlands in the west and in the central south. The second group is made up of the Plains Pokot who living in dry and infertile plains, herd cows, goats and sheep.
As a result of their nomadic lifestyle, adopted by most of the Pokot, they have interacted with different peoples in their history and therefore incorporated social customs of neighbors into their life. The Turkana and the Karamojong of Uganda, who they neighbor, appear to have had the most influence on the Pokot. Those who are cultivators mainly grow corn/maize. Nevertheless, whether a pastoralist or a farmer, wealth among the Pokot is measured by the number of cattle one has. The other major uses of cows are in bride price and barter trade. As long as a Pokot man has enough wealth in terms of cows to offer, marrying more than one wife is allowed.
Dairy products like milk are an important part of the diet of the Pokot. Porridge made from wild fruits boiled with a mixture of milk and blood, a repast rich in nutrients and iron is the staple of the Pokot diet. Using a special arrow, it's shot into the neck of a cow to drain blood without permanently causing harm to the animal.
The Tororot being the utmost god according to the Pokot, prayers and sacrifices are made to him during ethnic festivals and dances that are organized by their elders. Also, the Pokot have diviners who are in charge for maintaining the spiritual balance within their society. Being superstitious and believing in sorcery and sometimes calling on various forms of shielding lucky charms to ward off the ill will of any sorcerers is a part of their tradition. They also worship other deities like the sun, moon and believe in the spirit of death.
Governing within the Pokot community, is through a number of age-sets and association with any particular set is be determined by the age during which a Pokot goes through their initiation into that set group or society. It is typically between the ages of fifteen and twenty for the men while, it is around twelve, for the women. Matrimonial binds for the youngsters are allowed, once the initiation has been accomplished. As well, they begin taking part in the local economic functions. The bonds formed within the initiation groups, are close and are functional in future political ties as they progress through the positions in the tribal organization. At old age, they get a certain degree of status and the esteem that goes with it. Presiding over important tribal decisions, festivals and religious celebrations are the duties among others that elders are in charge of.
The Pokot are quite proud of their culture are bound to hold on to it in the future. Generally, Pokot women wear colorful necklaces and beaded headgears, brass jewelry and big loop type earrings whereas men wear just a few wrap garments and cowhide capes and shirts. They use beaded skirts to distinguish those females who have been initiated from those who haven't. Pokot warriors wear red clay on their hair, special headgears of feathers. Dances are an important aspect of their culture especially during social-cultural events.
MANY THANKS FOR YOUR KIND COMMENTS AND FAVS........ PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT MY PHOTOSTREAM, FOR GENERAL PHOTOS ACROSS THE WHOLE SPECTRUM NATURE AND WILDLIFE.
I am pleased to inform you that my grey/gray hawk photo was featured as the front cover photo for a quarterly bird magazine in the Tucson area of Arizona, USA.. I took the photo in 2014 whilst visiting friends in Tucson.
Its range is throughout Mexico and south eastern USA, within the Sonora desert. To increase the profile of the Gray Hawk along the San Pedro River, where it is currently endangered, the photo will also be featured in future editions.
Here is the link to the publication of the magazine, which credits the cover photo to myself:
www.tucsonaudubon.org/images/stories/vflycatcher/VF_OND16...
A sketch of the front elevation of Chalgrove Maor house. I did this while the students were making their initial assessment of the the building, trying to unravel the complex development of the structure, before they set to work drawing a plan of it. The "Understanding Historic Buildings" course aims to provide students with a basic framework for tackling historic buildings, drawing and measuring forming an important part of this, though not the important part. I asked the students later if they had thought to make notes in this way, none did on the day but thought perhaps they might in future as it provided a useful base for noting many significant details that would have helped them work out subtle changes to the building.
A prospective screenprint. It would be 10" x 8" and cost $15. If you would like a print of this image here's the deal:
If a mere 20 people tell me they will buy a copy of this I will print it. Let me know of your wanting of one either:
• In a comment here (not just a fave).
• with an @octophant message on Twitter.
* with a wall post on the Octophant Facebook Fan Page.
I'll be gathering wants through the weekend and printing (if I print it) next week. The edition will be 10 more than the number of wants I receive. You are under no obligation to buy even if you tell me you will. This is just an experiment is using the internet for gauging interest in future printing efforts.
So there you go. Want one?
I would like to invite participation in this project. If you wish to take part, anonymously if you prefer, please send your `confession' to the following address:
Dr John Perivolaris
Grouse Lodge
Dippen
Isle of Arran
KA27 8RW
Scotland
United Kingdom
You are free to interpret the term `confession' as freely as you wish. Your `confession' may be textual, photographic, artistic, or object-based, or even a combination thereof.
Participation implies that you are willing to have your `confession' included, credited or anonymously, in future online/physical publication and/or exhibition.
I've seen this one on the move a couple of times but was really glad I finally managed to catch it today. I think it's been spotted before by several other Flickr friends but nice to see it still on the go. It's amazingly clean, almost certainly garaged, I wouldn't be surprised if it has been regularly polished too.
I left a note under the wiper just incase the owner may decide to sell in future.
Same owner since June 1989 and just 45k miles at its last MOT.
Hello everyone! Happy... Sunday!
First of all, this is my friend's Amanda (I swear I never liked this sculpt until I've seen this girl in person. She is INCREDIBLE)in a wig that will be available as a pre-made next week. Made in Error. Thanks Storenvy. (more about that in this post)
I haven't posted much here lately. I've been working so hard to sort out all of our packing and preorders and styling videos and apartment hunting and I guess it all got too much for me yesterday and I literally imploded and spent the day in tears, snot bubbles and panic attacks.
We have at least applied to a new apartment, conveniently located RIGHT BY A POST OFFICE and after 2 weeks of solid packing til 2am every morning, to get everything ready for posting the second they open in the morning, I'm SO thrilled about that. We're both pretty exhausted and tired and run down and ideally need a couple of days at the end of the next week to relax before we get cracking on the next order. Which I have to admit I am actually really excited about. We've got so much more range and unique wigs to make from the orders placed so far and so I'm really pleased I'll be able to actively post everything we're working on.
We learned a lot from this past preorder. We learned just how productive we can be every single day, how long packing really takes and how much storenvy sucks. It was our busiest preorder and we made so many wigs that I can only be proud of us for getting them all done in the allocated time but I realise we really underestimated just how long it would take to get everything out the door. I just wanted to be able to make for everyone who wasn't able to get a wig in the sale and then I suppose I hit my limit. We won't take preorders even half as big as that last one in future and we will go back to premades after this next one currently finishes (Theres still a few days to order those by the way. We'll probably close next friday or Sunday)
I have a lot of shipping notices to send out today (it was supposed to be yesterday but I ended up in SUCH a state that I literally didn't have the capability of looking at my screen due to a migraine from hell. I'm much better now though so shipping notices will be sent out and anyone who needs 3 more days for us to remake the wigs that were incorrect will be notified.
There are about 15 wigs that got messed up because Storenvy malfunctioned so i'll be working until Wednesday correcting the mistakes and then from Wednesday we'll probably have some premades available from the wigs that were made in error.
I will have styling videos up in the next couple of days too. I appreciate that since we have to brush everything down for safe packing, sometimes wigs can look super underwhelming when you receive them and the last thing I want is for people to be disappointed so I've really tried to fit in some recordings of exactly what to do to make your wigs look like they do in our photos in just a couple of minutes.
I said I wasn't going to have rambly text updates for a while but theres just been so much going on I feel like I need to just throw it out there. xD
We also have our new team member working with us now but I'll talk about that once I've managed to close this last preorder completely. I get in such a state knowing people are waiting but I promise you we're doing our best!
Until then have a wonderful remainder of your weekend and an epic week.
My first ever smoke photography! There is lotta noise and grain in the photo....hopefully will improve in future!
Both the Vulcan and Vantage are based on my previous builds of respective cars. This set comes with some interesting parts, hope to put them to good use in future mocs.
Instructions:
rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-104152/KMPMOCS/76910-aston-marti...
Thanks for dropping by!
My Instagram - www.instagram.com/kmpmocs
Facebook - www.facebook.com/kmpmocs
Name: James Currey
Arrested for: not given
Arrested at: North Shields Police Station
Arrested on: 27 July 1905
Tyne and Wear Archives ref: DX1388-1-75-James Currey
Images are also available of his accomplices John Curry www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/16091228264/in/album-72157... and Robert Smith www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/19144732584/in/dateposted/.
The Shields Daily News for 28 July 1905 reports:
“THEFT FROM SMITH’S DOCK. THREE NORTH SHIELDS MEN SENT TO PRISON.
At North Shields Police Court today, Robert Smith (48), fireman, 9 Middle Street, Milburn Place; John Curry (39), 25 Front Street, and James Curry (35), 3 West Street, Milburn Place, marine store dealers, were charged on remand with having stolen from Messrs Smith’s Pontoon Dock, on the 25th inst., a quantity of brass valued at £4 17s 1d.
John Craigie, foreman fitter with the prosecutors, said that on the morning of the 26th inst. he went into the engine room of the pontoon and missed a quantity of brass. In the afternoon of the same day he accompanied an officer to No.25 Front Street, Milburn Place, and there identified a portion of the stolen metal.
James C. Smith, store keeper with Messrs Smith’s Dock Coy. Ltd, said that on the morning of the 26th inst. He missed a quantity of brass, and afterwards went to the Central Police Station. He was there shown a quantity of brass, which he identified as the property of Messrs Smith. The total weight of the metal was 116 lbs and the value was $4 17s 1d.
Joseph Garrick, a rigger and stevedore, said that on the 25th inst, he saw Smith and James Curry go into the Aberllelyn Arms in Front Street, Milburn Place. At a late hour on the same night he saw Smith go over the wall of Messrs Smith’s premises, enter the engine room and afterwards leave with a bag of metal. He gave information to the police.
PC Cuerton said that at 11.40pm on the 25th inst. he saw John Curry go into his house and at midnight he saw his brother leave the house and walk in the direction of his own.
Detective Sergt. Scougal said that at noon on the 26th inst. he went to the house of John Curry with a search warrant and found underneath the bed a quantity of brass, which was identified as the property of Messrs Smith by the witness Craigie. He then proceeded to No. 9 Middle Street, where he saw Smith. He told him he was going to take him to the Bull Ring Police Station, whereupon his wife said: “What’s the matter, Bob?”. Accused replied: “There has been some brass stolen from Smith’s”. Witness charged him with having stolen the brass, and he replied: “I know nothing about it”.
At five o’clock the same afternoon he met the two Currys in the Borough Road and told them he was going to take them to the Bull Ring Police Station. They both replied: “It is only a bit of spite because we would not do the same as him”. The following morning he charged the three of the prisoners with the theft. Smith replied: “I have nothing to say”. John Curry replied: “We got the best part of the brass from the saw mills, We only got two small pieces from Smith and gave him a couple of bob for them”. James in answer to the charge said they got most of the metal from the saw mills. Formally charged, the whole of the prisoners pleaded guilty.
Mr G.R. Duncan, who represented the accused, said that Smith, who could produce discharges covering a period of twenty years, showing an excellent character, had been employed for some time as a fireman by the prosecuting firm. Unfortunately, having got some drink, he yielded to the temptation while working on the night shift, and in consequence had lost his situation. Both he and his wife were most distressed about it. The two Currys were licensed marine store dealers bearing good characters.
The Chairman said the case was too serious to be dealt with under the First Offenders’ Act and the amount involved was too large to permit of a fine being imposed. The prisoners would each be committed for a month".
This may not have been Curry's last brush with the courts. The Shields Daily News for 15 November 1907 reports:
"WIFE ASSAULT.
James Curry, a young man, was summoned for having assaulted his wife on the 9th inst. Complainant said that on the date in question her husband came home drunk and without receiving provocation badly used her, blackening one of her eyes. He was frequently drunk and whenever he was in that condition he ill-treated her, using pokers, chairs and anything else he could lay his hands on. She had him before the magistrates nine years ago and she had then only been seven months married. Defendant promised to behave himself better in future. The Chairman (Coun. Addison) severely repromanded the dfendant in imposing a fine of 10s and costs or 14 days."
These images are a selection from an album of photographs of prisoners brought before the North Shields Police Court between 1902 and 1916 in the collection of Tyne & Wear Archives (TWA ref DX1388/1).
(Copyright) We're happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of The Commons. Please cite 'Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums' when reusing. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions and commercial use of the original physical version apply though; if you're unsure please email archives@twmuseums.org.uk.
Preston Bus's final day on the 280 Preston-Skipton. I think BT11UWH is laying over here ready to take the last ever Skipton-Preston service under Preston Bus management at 17.15. The service is to continue uninterrupted but operated in future by Stagecoach.
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The July 2018 Wrightbus Streetlite WF with Factory Built bodywork snapped in the Coastlands carpark in Paraparaumu on Tuesday, 24 July 2018.
Operator - Uzabus
Depot - Kapiti
Fleet Number - 9010
Registration – LMQ674 (first NZ rego 10 July 2018)
Chassis Type - Wrightbus Streetlite WF
Chassis No. - SA9DSRXXN18141010
Body Manufacturer - Wrightbus
Body Date - 2018
Seating Codes - B29DW
Livery - Metlink
A REVIEW OF WRIGHTBUS FROM AUSTRALASIAN BUS AND COACH
By Paul Aldridge
Wrightbus may not be a brand on everybody’s lips in Australasia just yet, but with its innovative and tidy-looking StreetLite midibus packing a big micro-hybrid punch it soon just might be. We took one for quick spin and came away well impressed. Visually the Streetlite is distinctive from front to back.
It takes a few moments to fathom what great exports Northern Ireland has produced, but once the penny drops it’s a quality list of who’s who. There’s F1 ace Eddie ‘Irv the Swerve’ Irvine; pro golfer Rory McIlroy – who once formed a sporting power couple with tennis star Caroline Wozniacki; and who could forget the legendary Manchester United footballing icon George Best – who famously quipped, "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars – the rest I just squandered."
With reputations for doing things that stand out like that, it’s no doubt Northern Ireland’s Wrightbus has high expectations to meet. And it does so with oodles of class and style.
In terms of buses, Wrightbus is best known for that updated version of the London Routemaster double-deck – or so-called ‘Boris Bus’ – but with units like its micro-hybrid Streetlite midibus on the market here now it’s well placed to make its equally indelible mark.
Recently, we were handed the keys to test drive a Streetlite WF 8.8m (Wheel Forward) and good impressions were instant. Visually the Streetlite is distinctive. The large, round-based front window goes extremely low. This definitely is a positive for driver visibility and gives the bus a modern, open appearance that makes this bus easily recognisable as a Wrightbus.
The internals echo the front round window shape with a curved roofline and rear window.
Overall internally, the curved roofline gives the appearance of more headroom and tall occupants should feel right at home here.
The Streetlite 8.8m as tested had a seating capacity of 33 and a maximum standing capacity of 39 passengers and is a wheel-forward model. What’s that, you may ask?
This allows for a flatter floor area that offers more flexibility with seating options. This option is great particularly in the smaller buses, as passenger capacity and comfort can be maximised.
One safety feature that we hadn’t seen before was the emergency exit door placed halfway back on the driver’s side. This could be used for front or side collisions if they impacted on the normal exits, or if quick evacuation of passengers was needed. It’s a feature you’d hope to never use, but would certainly be welcomed in emergency situations.
A comfort feature that was impressive is the padded backrest that is placed for use by wheelchair users. The area has a safety bar that can be placed in securely by the driver for extra protection and passenger stability. This padded backrest would be both a good comfort feature, as the back of the chair is placed against it. It would give passengers somewhere to rest their head and this would give extra protection in case of collision or harsh braking. Often wheelchair provisions are adequate and safe, but comfort isn’t a consideration.
LOOKS TO THRILL
Externally, the placement of the headlamps outside the impact zone, the one-piece bumper and top-mount wipers are all design features part of the Wrightbus ethos to achieve low lifetime operational costs. Nice one!
Driver daily checks are made simpler with the addition of service accessibility doors while the fuel tank access is height improved with a raised, simple-to-reach access point. Drivers that fuel up will understand why this feature is beneficial for what can often be an uncomfortable job. The driver’s area is what you would expect from a route bus – basic but comfortable and spacious enough for long legs.
We got the chance to have a substantial drive through suburban areas, just as this bus would be expected to do on routes.
The Daimler OM906LA Euro 6 engine is quite powerful for a four-cylinder at 208hp. Although unloaded, uphill there was plenty of torque and it was quiet zippy, so you could feel that the capacity was certainly there to have plenty of power when fully loaded. The Voith gearbox changes were seamless and smooth, no complaints here. Suburban Melbourne has many narrow laneways and so maneuvering was easy, the Streetlite certainly passing the suburban driving test with aplomb.
Overall, the Streetlite was definitely as expected and does not disappoint.
LOCAL INPUT?
While we do like to see Australian-made components or features on a bus or coach and local knowledge and craftsmanship utilised, this British-built bus certainly is impressive by what it brings to our industry. When you drive some buses or coaches it is what you see that is impressive, but with the Streetlite the small details behind the economy of this vehicle show that Wrightbus thinks way beyond just the visual. Yes, it is an every-day route bus, it’s not built to be luxurious and impressive, but the impact of features to lifetime running costs and economy would certainly help operators looking at a vehicle in this class make a smart financial long-term choice.
WHO BRINGS IT IN?
Patico Automotive was founded in 2006. Originally named Irizar Oceania, it was founded with the distribution rights for its very first imported product, the luxury Spanish coach brand made in Brazil called Irizar.
Managing director of Patico Automotive Tony Fairweather said: "We introduced the first of these coaches in 2008 and from that initial product we have grown the business into a range of other luxury and niche-type bus products. When we started to take on other brands we had the name change to Patico."
Part of Patico’s philosophy is to represent high-quality, proven products that can be aimed at a mid-market price point. Fairweather said, "Our intention is to be able to introduce products to the Australian market that bring advanced safety features, total cost of ownership-type models. We like to bring styling and options not available on other Australian buses to the market; we are a niche importer and distributer – we like to offer a point of difference to operators."
GETTING IT WRIGHT
Wrightbus, explains Fairweather, is primarily a UK company founded in Northern Ireland by Robert Wright in 1946. It’s a 100 per cent family-owned business with a very unique culture for a business of its size. Initially locally produced, it now has major manufacturing facilities in south-east Asia, so it is building lots of double-deckers for Hong Kong and Singapore.
Eventually it will supply product out of its Malaysian facility to Australia and New Zealand, though it still has a big plant in Ireland.
"As well as their product being progressive and market leading, they are a very ethical and moral company. They invest a lot back into the local communities; uniquely they have a church on site, which is their church and one of the Wrights is the minister of the church – a very unique business for modern times and they aren’t just in business to make money. They want to make a difference to the world through their products and profits.
"We focus on the specific criteria of safety features and total cost of ownership. For the Wrightbus products, they are world leaders in this category.
"The UK manufacturers in both route bus and city bus arguably are, too – they all make integrated CBU products that focus on lowering costs of manufacturing and have low operational costs for the life of vehicle. So the total cost of ownership, life of products, cost for the UK models are – arguably on a per passenger transfer basis – significantly cheaper than the standard models used in Australia," Fairweather explained.
"What these products offer operators is size flexibility. The CBU products (Completely Built Up) mean you can build at eight-, nine-, or 10-metre and … can adapt your fleet to suit your route requirements opposed to a ‘one product fits all’.
"To use an analogy, you don’t see Qantas running 747s between Sydney to Melbourne, they have smaller, more-economical planes to do these routes. Arguably, operators globally need that flexibility in terms of fleet, and UK manufacturers offer that flexibility," he continued.
TECHNOLOGY VERSUS COSTS
Fairweather explains why Wrightbus fills the price gap for operators while current technologies are developing.
"In particular they have a proprietary driveline technology that is extremely unique. They have recognised that electrics and hydrogen, of which they do produce technologies, are still currently expensive and when you look at the total cost of ownership model they have developed micro-hybrid technology, which is still using the highly efficient diesel engine (Euro 6 Daimler).
"They have taken it to a form of electrification, which is not a battery-style electrification; it is an ancillary electrification, which means that by fitting extra alternators the electricity is being generated by the diesel engine."
He continued: "They have also electrified key components that are typically operated off the diesel engine – to me one of the most impressive examples is the power-steering pump. In a rear-engines bus, like we are driving today, you fundamentally have the power steering being powered from down the back by the diesel engine and the hydraulics having to run all that distance and back again.
"On a typical diesel engine it’s using diesel fuel to run the engine to be able to run the hydraulics, where as in the case of an electrification process the power steering is actually electrified and operated [from] the alternator and only being used when power steering is needed when you turn a corner.
"Subsequently, it’s using a lot less energy – in this case of the diesel engine, diesel fuel for operation."
"Wrightbus are getting with their proprietary micro-hybrid technology an extra 18 per cent fuel efficiency over the standard diesel engine," Fairweather said.
"Another benefit is it’s not substantially more expensive to fit this technology in comparison to a full hybrid.
"In terms of total cost of ownership of a bus, at the moment the micro hybrid is world class. It’s cheaper than electric. We do have electric trucks and I believe that electric is the future in buses, but it is still a few years away for the economics of it to stack up. That’s why we have chosen Wrightbus," said Fairweather.
This makes understandable financial sense, as with all new technologies they often are not initially cost effective, but time and volume of sales usually change that.
GREEN MACHINE
When he was asked about the green technologies being used by Wrightbus, Fairweather explained: "Of all the manufacturers in green technologies, they [Wrightbus] have options in everything, and I mean everything. They have two different types of hybrid – parallel and series, they have electric and hydrogen options – alternative fuels are their thing! But they and the operators keep coming back to the micro hybrid at the moment for lifetime costs of ownership, it’s what stacks up. They are developing all these other technologies and as they transition – and it will, 100 per cent electric will become viable – they have it ready, proven and tested.
"They have a big order going into Scotland at the moment for electrics, but they are fully government subsidised so financially they stack up."
This interim technology is adopted because the Streetlite model we are test driving would currently be close to double the purchase cost if fully electric.
PREMISES AND SUPPORT
"For smaller volume orders they are fully built in Northern Ireland, but for larger orders they will be fulfilled by the Malaysian facilities.
"All Australian orders are currently from Ireland. Malaysia is their other primary manufacturing facility and in future this will have the added cost savings of duty-free arrangements we have here with Malaysia," Fairweather explained.
"Ordering time is four-five months from initial order – that can be from one to 30, even up to 50 units all have the same order time".
Asked whether the Streetlite had any Australian made componentry or features he said, "It comes fundamentally ready to roll, just small components like CCTV cameras can be added, but Wrightbus do offer many variations and optional extras so they come ready to operate.
"The intention with Wrightbus is to deploy in volume. Where we deploy volume we will have mobile technicians established. We have this same commitment in New Zealand; there currently are 14 going into Wellington and we will have a mobile technician there. We have one in Auckland as well," said Fairweather.
Specs:
DISTRIBUTOR: Patico Automotive
MAKE: Wrightbus
MODEL: Streetlite WF 8.8m
ENGINE: Daimler four-cylinder OM934 Euro 6
POWER: 208hp/155kW
TRANSMISSION: Voith 824.6 four-speed fully automatic
Digital Photography
For my fourth week of my concentration, I tried something I saw half online, and half in my mind. ANNNND, it turned out nothing like I thought it would. First of all, I scouted this location out a few days before and it looked like it would work pretty well. But, this was on a cloudy day where there weren't any shadows and the light wasn't bleeding through the trees and onto the ground like that. So, all these rays of light on the ground weren't there. Overall, I really don't like this photo and the other was even worse. I couldn't get either to have the look i went for. I was really disappointed this week because I wanted two photos, but the second was almost the same, just in portrait mode with a different pose. But, it really didnt even look like he was levitating. I think this was because of the bad angle I chose to shoot from first and foremost. But, I also had trouble with the shadow and getting the correct color I wanted.
All in all, this does fit my concentration because of the balloon as the prop and the natural landscape. But, it didnt work out as I had planned. However, this is something I would like to reshoot in future weeks with a better location and angle of the lens. Those looked like the biggest two problems.
21.21 x 13.85 | 240 ppi
Formerly a Lord of Edelis, and one of the few of that order to survive that country's downfall. With his country now conquered by the Teraxian Empire, he is responsible for the upbringing of the rightful king, Prince Cade.
Another SALVATION WIP. Not quite in the same league as the past two. The torso design might be reused in future.
EWS liveried 67009 runs along the Powderhall Branch towards the site of Easter Rd Station with the 6B46 empty binliner from Oxwellmains on 26th May 2015. With the inevitable flats under construction it's unlikely that this stretch of line will catch much sunshine in future.
Never will you learn....winds pick up and forces you to look back at yourself in turn...never, will you learn...kick me I will still spurn! Hold and whisper to me "you will still in time find what you yearn"....no, words are not what I want, when will you ever learn? Untie and save my thoughts, so cold and lonely; it's not empty promises of dreams that can sustain me...love planted as a seed, deep in my heart to flourish, grow tall and anchor my soul is what I need. Truth that the wheel for me in future will turn? Windpump on the hill....an answer I await to this day still...
Eyes of human being is capable to say the words of soul with its visual language. Eyes of this child is complaining against Child Labour and wanting her innocence and childhood back. Poverty and illiteracy, these two rectifiers are giving the pace of child labor. If you have that inner eyes, then you can able to read those eyes. They are complaining about us and our society. Society and we can retrieve their childhood by putting a little contribution to them. Doesn’t she deserve that one chance that she is lacking behind? Yes. She deserves. However, we are the people who don't have that much time to read those eyes and it's complaining. A little contribution of everyone can make huge differences to their lives.
So, please come forward and try to contribute a little for those innocent eyes that inherent enormous opportunities which can lead this country in future. Therefore, please try to listen to those eyes and what they are trying to say to us. If we can able to hear the voice of a single eye then we can able to build a healthier, wealthier Bangladesh in future times.
Special thanks and gratitude for previewing my photostream. You all are most welcome to criticize the photo as well as can comments and favorites if you like.
|| PEACE ||
© All Rights Reserved; 2013.
Norfolk Southern SD40-2/GP38-2 units cross Lillian Lane, Mount Bethel, PA, with the Portland turn on 19 October 2017.
Word is that this traffic destined for the Delaware Lackawanna shortline will in future be diverted via Scranton and the last Portland run was on 18 Jan 2018.
IMG_6233_1600
This is a classic I’m stoked to have finally gotten a picture of, and even though the image isn’t brilliant, it’s better than nothing ey! I can’t remember exactly when I first started seeing this truck, but I can tell you it was a regular sight while on the way to visit my grandparents. We always pass the Sydney Markets in Flemington which is a damn big place, enough so that Veolia bases a front-lift onsite. Alongside their FL I would more often than not see a white RL, which has been a couple of trucks in the past if I recall correctly, but exactly what I can’t remember. The most recent RL I was seeing had a body which I previously couldn’t identify, only knew it was different with a big tailgate, and it was sitting on top of a pretty old ACCO (D or E series). Well for a while that truck had disappeared from its regular parking spot, crushing my dreams to stand beside and check it out. Then one day I’m talking to a certain somebody on the phone who tells me he’s looking at a truck he’s been trying to take a photo of for a while. He took a couple of snaps to send to me and what do you know, it’s the truck I had been seeing for ages at Sydney Markets, only now the ACCO had been upgraded to an 08/09/10 model. Days later I was tipping off at Visy Smithfield and parked inside that place was this white unit, which I saw there a few times and noticed would head out to work around late morning. I have no doubt that this beast does paper and cardboard recycling, but who owns and operates it is a mystery. For all I know it might be an unmarked Visy truck or it’s run by a subcontractor to Visy? I can imagine this RL reversing up to loading docks to be loaded with loose cardboard and I’m sure it probably even gets fed bales, but that Garwood lifter on the back is obviously a telltale of some MGB work. Whatever the situation with this truck, I’d definitely love to see it in action and chat with the driver or anybody who can tell me the story about this oldie. Oh and I almost forgot to mention the body is a Norba build, making me wonder how much equipment came from Europe back in the day. Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity for some closer and all around pictures of this truck in future.
The timber tram/bus shelters are important for their association with the development of public transport in Brisbane, particularly the tramway system. The shelters are important for remaining in continuous use as waiting shelters for the public transport system in Brisbane since the early 20th century. The shelters are important as evidence of the former tram routes and of a form of public transport no longer in existence in Brisbane. In form, materials, arrangement of elements and location these shelters are representative of tram/bus waiting shelters. Robust functional structures with simple elegant lines the shelters are distinctive visual elements in the streetscape. The tram/ bus shelters are important for their association with the work of the Brisbane City Council’s Transport Department, responsible for the operation of the tramway system from 1925 to 1969.
Shelter Design Trams were a feature of Brisbane streets from 1885 until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1950s The Brisbane Tramway Trust and then the Brisbane City Council erected a number of timber waiting shelter sheds along the tram/bus routes. Most shelters were constructed by Brisbane City Council in response to petitioning by community groups or progress associations. A survey of usage was undertaken by BCC to determine the most viable locations for the shelters. Waiting sheds promoted the use of the tram/bus system by providing a comfortable waiting area with some protection from the elements. Some shelters were large and purpose-built for the site but most were free-standing shelters constructed to standard designs. In this survey three standard shelter types used during this period were identified – P.1008 Standard Waiting Shelter (hipped roof pavilion shelter); Standard Small Type Tramway Shelter Shed No. 2512 (skillion roof shelter); and the gable roof shelter. Only drawings for the P.1008 and No. 2512 types were located during this study.
The gable roof shelter design may have been from a shelter constructed earlier in the 20th century during the time The Brisbane Tramway Company owned and operated the tramway network. The shelter in Chatsworth Road near the corner with Upper Cornwall Street was constructed in 1915 to shelter Greenslopes tram patrons. It had points for lights that the tram drivers would turn on at sunset and off when the last tram left. The P.1008 drawings were drawn up by the Brisbane City Council Department of Works, Planning and Building Branch and signed by City Architect F.G. Costello in 1946. The Standard Small Type Shelter No. 2512 was drawn up by the Transport Department of the Planning and Building Branch and signed by City Architect F.G. Costello in 1945. The P.1008 type shelter closely resembles the shelters constructed by the Brisbane Tramway Trust in the 1920s and 1930s. No drawings for these earlier shelters have been located and this study has been unable to confirm that the 1946 drawings were based on these earlier shelters but the physical evidence suggests that this is the case. The designs for the shelters are uncharacteristic of work designed by Costello which may indicate that the shelter designs are continuing an earlier idiom.
Brisbane Tramway History:
In 1884 a private company, the Metropolitan Tramway and Investment Company, laid Brisbane’s first tram tracks along approximately 10.5 kilometres from Woolloongabba to Breakfast Creek, with branches to the Exhibition Building and New Farm. The company began the operation of a horse-drawn passenger tram system in 1885 with the trams running on rails from the North Quay to the Exhibition Building and Breakfast Creek and later extending the routes to Bulimba Ferry, New Farm, Logan Road and West End.
A power station to supply current to electric trams was constructed in Countess Street in 1897 and The Brisbane Tramways Company introduced the first electric trams to Brisbane that year after purchasing the early horse car system, converting it to electric operation and expanding and extending the routes. Brisbane’s tramway system experienced rapid expansion in response to the growth in the City’s population. From a population of 101,554 in 1891 Brisbane had expanded to a population of 139,480 in 1911, which then doubled to 209,168 by 1921. The number of cars in operation increased from 20 in 1897 to 172 in 1916. At the conclusion of the First World War there was general support for the notion that the tramway system be owned and operated by a public authority rather than a private company. In 1922, the Brisbane Tramway Trust was inaugurated by an Act of Parliament and the Trust assumed ownership and control of the tramways in January 1923. The tramway system had failed to keep pace with the expansion of Brisbane so the Trust faced a considerable backlog of work. It undertook the construction of repair workshops and car depots, laying of additional tracks, purchase of additional cars and the introduction of remote control of points at busy intersections. Innovations introduced by the Trust included the construction of passenger waiting shelter sheds, advertising in trams and a suggestions board scheme. The 1920s and 1930s was a period of tramways expansion following the Brisbane City Council acquisition of the tramways system from the Brisbane Tramways Trust in 1925. The Council continued with the upgrading and extension of the system. During the first half of the 20th century public transport was important in Brisbane and remained the principal form of transport for most residents. By the 1950s Brisbane had one of the highest levels of public transport usage in Australia. The tram system was the principal form of public transport in Brisbane until the 1960s. It is thought that the hipped roof and skillion roof shelters identified in this study were constructed between the 1920s and 1950s by the Brisbane Tramway Trust and then by Brisbane City Council. Most of the routes on which these shelters have been identified were constructed during this period. Further research is required to establish construction dates for the gable roof shelters. As the tram routes to Windsor and Coorparoo were established in 1914 and 1915, the shelter construction post dates this. The construction of the hipped roof waiting shelter in Merthyr Road, New Farm was approved by the Trust in 1924 and probably constructed in 1925.
In 1924 the Brisbane Tramway Trust extended the tram service to Ashgrove, demonstrating a confidence in the future of the suburb. The release of 855 allotments in the Glenlyon Gardens estate in 1924 was the catalyst for the development of Ashgrove as a residential suburb. It is thought that the waiting shelters along Waterworks Road (Ithaca Bridge, Oleander Drive and Stewart Place) were constructed at sometime between the mid-1920s and the 1940s. The Rosalie line opened along Elizabeth Street, Rosalie in 1904 and was extended in 1930 to Rainworth, terminating in Boundary Road adjacent to Rainworth Primary School. The shelters on Boundary Road were built after this 1930 extension of the line. Between 1937 and 1939 the tramline extended to Bardon and the Simpsons Road shelter was built some time after this. From 1940 the Brisbane City Council trialed the use of buses with diesel engines in areas not serviced by trams. In 1940 a diesel bus service ran from Kelvin Grove through Herston and along Butterfield Street to the City. The shelter on Butterfield Street remains as evidence of the diesel bus service which became the backbone of Brisbane City Council public transport after the closure of the tramway system in 1969.
Following the Second World War, Brisbane experienced a housing boom which encouraged the Council to extend its electric tramway network. At this time the Monday to Friday the morning peak services had 246 tram cars operating and 296 cars were required to meet the evening peak traffic. During the day each route was serviced by a tram every ten minutes. However from the 1950s various factors converged to influence a decline in the patronage of the tram system. An increasing reliance on the private motor car reduced the number of tram passengers and the growth of the Brisbane City Council’s bus fleet gradually outstripped that of the tram system. Urban sprawl saw more and more families move to outer suburbs not connected to the tram system, and a lack of investment in the technological development of trams compared with increasing expenditure on diesel buses contributed to the conversion of Brisbane’s public transport system from trams to buses. In 1962 the Paddington tram depot was burned to the ground with the loss of 65 trams (20% of the fleet). In 1965 the Wilbur Smith Plan, a report on the future transport and traffic requirements of Brisbane, recommended the closure of the tramway system and a conversion to a bus program. As a result of all these various influences and events, the tram system in Brisbane was discontinued in 1969. The tram waiting shelters remain, providing evidence of a mode of transport no longer in use.
Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.
A few years ago I acquired several Leitz items including a 13.5cm Hektor f/4.5 (screw mount) lens from 1958. Although I have generally been very pleased with the performance of the Leitz lenses I own, the Hektor produced images with a very disappointing lack of sharpness unless closed well down (beyond f/11).
The Hektor is not the Leitz lens with the finest reputation. Not knowing much about Leica in general at the time: I just assumed my sample was typical, and ceased using it for the most part.
Fast forward to 2022 and my IIIf had become one of the cameras I most often used. So I decided to revisit the Hektor. Once again, although I obtained one or two decent photos with it stopped almost fully down, sharpness was mostly, very poor. So poor, in fact, that I concluded my sample must have been compromised in the past, in some way, by persons unknown. I just couldn't see Leitz sending such a poor optic out the door. Wide open, it was diabolically bad. Indeed, a few hours of online research turned up plenty of images made with other 13.5cm Hektors which were a great deal better than those produced by my own, at any aperture.
Fortunately, the 13.5cm Hektor f/4.5 is one of the most affordable of all Leitz lenses and copies are readily available. In late 2022 I purchased another example from a trusted seller (who was kind enough to take some digital test images with the lens for me, prior to ordering it). Having been once bitten, I decided that some basic test images with the new example (also, a 1958 build), were worthwhile, to obtain some first hand data about its behaviour at all its apertures from f/4.5 to f/32.
Thus, this series of ostensibly identical images of Hobart's (in)famous Tasman Bridge, which I made at Lindisfarne on the Eastern shore of the River Derwent in February 2023.
I make no claim to the series being a definitive benchmark for the characteristics of the 13.5cm Hektor. The images were made because of my own curiosity, to inform my use of the new lens in future. That said, I have shared them here in case they might be helpful for other film photographers.
Friday 3rd February 2023.
Camera: Leica IIIf RD 35mm Rangefinder (1952).
Lens: Leitz 13.5cm Hektor f/4.5 (1958).
Film: Ilford FP4 Plus ISO 125 35mm black & white negative.
Exposure: 1/50 @ f/4.5.
Development: ID-11 1 + 3 20C/21m.
Other details:
A Leitz APDOO accessory self timer and Linhof tripod were used to release the shutter without reducing stability. The Hektor couples accurately to my well-adjusted IIIf rangefinder at infinity, and was set to its infinity stop for these photos. Only shutter duration and aperture were altered between images, to maintain a nearly equivalent amount of exposure for each image during the series.
The processed film was scanned using a well set up Epson V700 at 3200ppi 16 bit depth and saved as tiff. Each image was very slightly cropped to remove any film rebate acquired during the scan to the standard 35mm format 3:2 ratio, and very slightly reduced in size to 15 x 10 inches at 300ppi resolution using a bicubic sharper resizing algorithm in Photoshop 2020. Minor adjustments were made to brightness and contrast in several cases, (to compensate for any slight variations in exposure resulting from the slowly changing evening light levels and the Leica's not completely linear scale of shutter speeds).
The edited tiffs were resized to 2400 x 1600 pixels using bicubic sharper resizing again, sharpened with a 2 pixel high pass filter, and saved as RBG jpegs with minimum possible compression before being added to Flickr.
COPYRIGHT 2023 TASMANIA FILM PHOTOGRAPHY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Dippen
Isle of Arran
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You are free to interpret the term `confession' as freely as you wish. Your `confession' may be textual, photographic, artistic, or object-based, or even a combination thereof.
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Another set of photos I got to do this time with with Noreen , Again I got to meet some cracking people had a great time shooting these and hope to work with her in future projects.
All the best on your Graded unit Noreen.
Smoke Machine borrowed from SM Lighting.
MUA - Noreen Wilson
Frankenstein -David Milligan
Bride - Yvonne Hughes
Lighting Assistant - He knows who he is.
Walt Disney World, Epcot - 02/17/11
Crash test dummy that's part of the display at the Test Track pavilion in Future World.
Skygarden
20 Fenchurch Street is a commercial skyscraper in London that takes its name from its address on Fenchurch Street, in the historic City of London financial district. It has been nicknamed 'The Walkie-Talkie' because of its distinctive shape. Construction was completed in spring 2014, and the three-floor 'sky garden' was opened in January 2015. The 38-storey building is 160 m (525 ft) tall, making it the sixth-tallest building in the City of London and the 12th tallest in greater London.
Designed by architect Rafael Viñoly and costing over £200 million, 20 Fenchurch Street features a highly distinctive top-heavy form which appears to burst upward and outward. The entrance floor and 34 floors of office space are topped by a large viewing deck, bar and restaurants are included on the 35th, 36th and 37th floors; these are, with restrictions, open to the public.
The tower was originally proposed at nearly 200 m (656 ft) tall but its design was scaled down after concerns about its visual impact on the nearby St Paul's Cathedral and Tower of London. It was subsequently approved in 2006 with the revised height. Even after the height reduction there were continued concerns from heritage groups about its impact on the surrounding area. The project was consequently the subject of a public inquiry; in 2007 this ruled in the developers' favour and the building was granted full planning permission. In 2015 it was awarded the Carbuncle Cup for the worst new building in the UK in the previous 12 months.
In July 2017 the Hong Kong food company Lee Kum Kee Groups agreed to purchase the building from Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group for £1.3 billion.
The new tower at 20 Fenchurch Street was designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly in a postmodern style. The top-heavy design is partly intended to maximise floor space towards the top of the building, where rent is typically higher.
The building uses double- and triple-glazed panelized aluminium cladding on its exterior.
The 'sky garden' at the top of the building was claimed to be London's highest public park, but since opening there have been debates about whether it can be described as a 'park', and whether it is truly 'public' given the access restrictions. The garden spans the top three floors, which are accessible by two express lifts and include a large viewing area, terrace, bar and two restaurants. Fourteen double-deck lifts (seven low-rise up to the 20th floor, seven high-rise above the 20th floor) serve the main office floors of the building.
The south side of the structure is ventilated externally to improve efficiency and decrease solar gain, whilst the east and west faces incorporate extensive solar shading. There is a southern entrance in addition to the main northern entrance set back from Fenchurch Street.
The building won the Carbuncle Cup in 2015, awarded by Building Design magazine to the worst new building in the UK during the previous year. The chairman of the jury that decided the prize, Thomas Lane, said "it is a challenge finding anyone who has something positive to say about this building", whilst a town planner at the nearby Royal Town Planning Institute described the building as "a daily reminder never to let such a planning disaster ever happen again.
During the building's construction, it was discovered that for a period of up to two hours each day if the sun shines directly onto the building, it acts as a concave mirror and focuses light onto the streets to the south. Spot temperature readings at street-level including up to 91 °C (196 °F) and 117 °C (243 °F) were observed during summer 2013, when the reflection of a beam of light up to six times brighter than direct sunlight shining onto the streets beneath damaged parked vehicles, including one on Eastcheap whose owner was paid £946 by the developers for repairs to melted bodywork. Temperatures in direct line with the reflection became so intense that a reporter for the newspaper City A.M. was able to fry an egg in a pan set out on the ground. The reflection also burned or scorched the doormat of a shop in the affected area. The media responded by dubbing the building the "Walkie-Scorchie" and "Fryscraper".
In September 2013, the developers stated that the City of London Corporation had approved plans to erect temporary screening on the streets to prevent similar incidents, and that they were also "evaluating longer-term solutions to ensure the issue cannot recur in future". In May 2014, it was announced that a permanent awning would be installed on the south side of the higher floors of the tower.
The building's architect, Rafael Viñoly, also designed the Vdara hotel in Las Vegas which has a similar sunlight reflection problem that some employees called the "Vdara death ray". The glass has since been covered with a non-reflective film.
In an interview with The Guardian, Viñoly said that horizontal louvre windows on the south side that had been intended to prevent this problem were removed at some point during the planning process. While he conceded that there had been "a lot of mistakes" with the building, he agreed with the building's developers that the sun was too high in the sky on that particular day. "[I] didn't realise it was going to be so hot," he said, suggesting that global warming was at fault. "When I first came to London years ago, it wasn't like this ... Now you have all these sunny days."
The 'sky garden' has been criticised since opening for the tight restrictions and advance booking requirements placed on the visiting public, and for failing to meet pre-construction expectations of the extent and quality of the "garden". Oliver Wainright, architecture critic of The Guardian, described it as "a meagre pair of rockeries, in a space designed with all the finesse of a departure lounge".
The City of London Corporation's former chief planner, Peter Rees, who approved the structure, said: "I think calling it a sky garden is perhaps misleading. If people [are] expecting to visit it as an alternative to Kew, then they will be disappointed." In July 2015 it was reported that planners are to consider a landscape architect's alterations to the layout, following claims it is not consistent with illustrations submitted with the original planning application. The 'sky garden' was a key feature in sealing approval for the building, which is situated outside the main cluster of skyscrapers in the City.
In July 2015 it was reported that the building has had an unexpected impact on wind strength at street-level. The City of London Corporation received an increased number of complaints about draughts around 20 Fenchurch Street following its completion. The Corporation's head of design, Gwyn Richards, said: "The wind outcome at street level experienced post-construction on a number of projects differs somewhat to the conditions we were expecting from the one outlined in the planning application wind assessments."
(Wikipedia)
20 Fenchurch Street ist ein Hochhaus in der Fenchurch Street in der City of London. Es wird angesichts seiner Form auch als The Walkie-Talkie bzw. The Pint (engl.: das Bierglas) bezeichnet. Ursprünglich war eine Höhe von 200 m geplant; diese wurde jedoch aufgrund der Nähe zur St Paul’s Cathedral und dem Tower of London auf 160 m reduziert. Im Jahr 2015 wurde das Gebäude mit dem Carbuncle Cup ausgezeichnet, einem Preis für das hässlichste Gebäude, das in den letzten zwölf Monaten im Vereinigten Königreich fertiggestellt wurde.
Auf der obersten Etage des Hochhauses befindet sich eine für die Öffentlichkeit zugängliche große Aussichtsplattform, inmitten derer sich außerdem die Sky Gardens befinden.
Das Vorgängergebäude war ein 25-stöckiges Hochhaus des Architekten William H. Rogers, erbaut 1968. Es war eines der ersten Hochhäuser in der City of London.
Das Gebäude wurde vom uruguayischen Architekten Rafael Viñoly entworfen.
Nach oben hin vergrößern sich stetig die Flächen der Stockwerke, sodass die oberste Etage weit über den Grundriss des Gebäudes hinausragt. Hierdurch wird eine Maximierung der Flächen der oberen Etagen ermöglicht, die höhere Mieteinnahmen als die unteren generieren. Da nur die Südseite von direktem Sonnenlicht getroffen wird, ermöglicht eine Belüftung der Fassade eine effiziente Klimatisierung des Gebäudes, während West- und Ostseite weitestgehend im Schatten liegen.
Die Krümmung der Glasfassade hatte während der Bauzeit zur Folge, dass reflektierte Sonneneinstrahlung an bestimmten Stellen in der Umgebung so stark gebündelt auftrat, dass z. B. Kunststoff an geparkten Autos beschädigt wurde. Daher wurden mehrere Parkplätze gesperrt. Daraufhin wurden auf der Südseite Lamellen angebracht, die Sonnenlichtreflexionen verhindern. Ein ähnliches Problem tritt beim ebenfalls von Rafael Viñoly entworfenen Hotel Vdara in Las Vegas auf.
Der dreistöckige botanische Garten „Sky Garden“ auf dem Dach ist Londons höchster öffentlicher Park. Der Zutritt ist gratis, aber es ist eine Voranmeldung nötig.
(Wikipedia)
I think sometimes she forgets what my face looks like without the camera in front of it. Ah well - there are worse things she could be covering in future therapy sessions than that:)
TAG 20 Things about me (English)
Pra quem ainda não leu em português: m.flickr.com/#/photos/142058145@N07/27885393326/in/set-72...
1 - Resuming to not turn in drama, then in my childhood I didn't gain dolls and I had few toys. I had a plush clown when I was five, it was my first toy. But I had (and still have) a lot of fear, clown panic... (I stayed with him for two days and I buried him because of the phobia, then I was afraid of my mother would find out and dug him up, but I never found him again.) So I've never been interested in going to circus. Then I won a little train and a little horse at age 8 and these were my only toys during childhood ... My dream was to have a Barbie, but I could never have. Sometimes I played with those of the neighbor, they were all beautiful and everything original. But it wasn't always that I could play
2. My first Barbie was when I was 17, very late. I was so happy I felt like a child, I played a lot, there came the second, third ... Until I discovered the articulated Fashionistas so I didn't wanna know about the non artculated anymore so I gave them all, later I saw that they didn't take care of them, I saw them all faded in the hands of the children to whom I donated ... I was very sad because they did not give value .... when I was a child I dreamed a lot to have.
3. For me for a long time only existed Barbie, when I saw the Monster High for the first time I though they were ugly, I delayed to enjoy them and today I love. ... It took me much longer to discover the Pullips it was only the end of 2015 that I went to research about them and fall in love, also fall in love with Blythe as well, but since the money is short I had to decide between both and I stayed with the Pullips for being less expensive, already come customized and matte. I still want to have a Blythe but I don't know if I'll have an Orginal Takara or one of the similars... Icy, TBL, Basaak,Tangkou, Facture or Jecci5 in future.
4. As a child I was very creative and I created stories, but now I can't do stories for my Pullips 'cuz for me they're all cute and sweet. Maybe when I can buy another clothes for them my imagination will flow better. Always keeping the stock clothes isn't cool.
5. I love drawing, but my style is manga and comics when I try to draw dolls that have different proportions (in this case disproportionate ones) I still have a little difficulty, but I'm already improving in this type of format.
6. I love animes and manga my favorite is Sailor Moon. Others that I love is Sakura Card Captor, Rayearth, Full Moon, among others.
7. I love pink, when I was a child I really liked yellow and hated red, this taste for colors was changing and today my favorite is pink! I do like red but it's there in the tenth position along with yellow that I still like today, but not that much. The color I least like is navy blue.
8. I'm a very shy person, I don't like to stay in places where there are a lot of people and this shyness always disturbs me. But I'm a calm person, so I don't get angry so easely.
9. I have many phobias I'll mention a few, I'm afraid of the clown figure (as I said), of insects (But I collect toy insect) dark (Although lately I have overcome this fear and sometimes even prefer the darkness), I am afraid of elevators, escalators, of height at last many fears.
10. I love very much cute stuffs. I'm always in love with ribbons, plush toys... etc.
11. I have a dark side sometimes, when I put the pink aside a bit (almost all mine is pink) and I want to wear everything black, skull bracelets, spikes etc, I even dye my hair pink and various other colors and finally bluish black, but later I regretted it because it took a long time to leave the color off (I'm blonde). For me is pink or is black. I use other colors but I feel better between these two.
12. I'm a lazy person, but I'm effortful when it needs.
13. My dream is to live in Japan, but it's still far away.
14. I love studying languages since childhood, I speak (almost) fluent English and Spanish. I speak some in Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, Esperanto and German. I am very easy to learn the spoken language, but the writing that breaks the head a little.
15. I'm a vegetarian with the goal of becoming vegan one day, I'm too fresh to eat. I love pudding and salty. I love broccoli pizza. I do not drink anything alcoholic and I do not smoke.
16. I am very problematic, I have rhinitis, sinusitis, hypothyroidism (lately it has worsened and I gained a lot weight), I have depression and anxiety attacks. I am deaf in my left ear because of an accident that happened to me when I was in my first days of life.
17. I love to sing, my favorite styles are pop, pop rock, brb, dance and electronics.
18. I love cats and everything related to cats, if I could I would have thousands and give love to them all. I have a female kitten named Lilly.
19. I have been married for almost four years and my husband entered the Dolls hobby because of my influence.
20. I'm detail person, perfectionist, when I wanna do something I revise the maximum that can to it to be in my taste, I hate when a detail goes out of place .... When I go to buy in stores the dolls I take several equal to see which is the best.
And that's it .... Forgive me for the very large text and for those who have read so far, thank you very much. ❤😍
An unprocessed image of a star field taken by Proba-3’s ASPIICS coronagraph and analysed by the Royal Observatory of Belgium. The vertical stripes in this image are due to an ongoing instrument calibration and will not appear in future images.
To observe the solar corona, Proba-3 carries ASPIICS, short for Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun. This instrument, developed for ESA by Centre Spatial de Liège, Belgium, is made up of a large occulting disk mounted on the Occulter spacecraft and a solar coronagraph system carried by the Coronagraph spacecraft.
While the two spacecraft were still attached to each other, the team tested the accuracy of the mission’s pointing. Essentially, the operators rotated the spacecraft by telling it which stars it should be facing. ASPIICS images of the star field were then used to verify if the pointing was correct.
Andrei Zhukov, Principal Investigator for the ASPIICS coronagraph at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, explains: “We looked at the star maps to see which stars would be visible for Proba-3 on that specific date. Choosing a single star would not be enough, because then you cannot be sure which star you are looking at. Ideally, you want at least three stars – a triangle like that can give you full orientation information.
“We chose two bright stars from the constellation of Ophiuchus – meaning ‘serpent-bearer’ in Ancient Greek – which are marked with the Greek letters δ (delta) and ε (epsilon). They are situated close enough to fit into an ASPIICS image, together with a few weaker stars. The Ophiuchus constellation is actually visible to the naked eye from anywhere on Earth.”
Andrei then asked the control team to point the spacecraft towards those stars and to capture an image of the star field using the coronagraph’s optical instrument.
“With excellent precision, the spacecraft pointed exactly where we asked it to. When we got the images, we saw the two stars straight away. They are very sharp – this is great news, because it means that during the ten seconds it took to capture the image, the spacecraft were very stable.”
At least eight stars are visible in this ASPIICS image, which is enough to confirm the pointing of the telescope. Positioning both spacecraft precisely will be crucial for observing the corona. If their alignment is off even by a few millimetres, the Sun will not be fully covered by the occulter, leading to unwanted light interrupting the observations.
In the precise alignment, the 1.4-m large disc on the Occulter spacecraft – the external occulter – will fully cover the Sun. Even then, however, so-called ‘stray light’ will spill over the occulter’s edges, creating a haze that would interfere with the corona observations.
To block the stray light, the coronagraph is equipped with another, internal occulter. In the star field image, this internal occulter is visible as a black ring, corresponding to a blackened section of one of the coronagraph’s lenses.
Andrei adds: “You can also see cosmic rays in the image, marked in purple. This is normal – in coronagraph images, cosmic ray hits often look like stars. There was a second image taken some time apart – in this one, the stars stay, and the cosmic rays appear in different locations.
“Overall, we were very pleased with the accuracy of the spacecraft pointing and the quality of the image. It made us even more excited to see the corona images, expected as early as March.”
The Royal Observatory of Belgium is hosting the ASPIICS Science Operations Centre (SOC) – a dedicated team responsible for creating operational commands for the coronagraph based on requests from the scientific community and sharing the resulting observations.
Credits: ESA
Acknowledgements: ESA/ROB
Mấy nay học hành khá tốt. vui lm :D sắp tới có nhiều việc phải làm. try my best kaka ~
www.dailymotion.com/video/xl7rm5_vietsub-wgm-khuntoria-ep...
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Mưa rồi..đang ngồi type desc cái mưa ngon lành thôi. và mình đang xem last episode của khuntoria. cảm động quá. so touched :xx lovely couple hihi^^ wanna be like this in future. tự nhiên nhớ 1 người. chả biết sao nữa. mưa vầy cũng vui ha :)
Memo to self - Don't overexpose colour slide film. My latest slide film has just been returned from the processors and it is almost all overexposed. I thought the last slide film I got back was too dark so I gave this one a bit more exposure. Bad mistake! Overexposed print film is fine but slide film loses all detail in the highlights which can't be recovered. I've managed to make something of this image but the blown highlights in the clouds at the right hand side have defeated me. I've decided to put this up as a reminder to get the exposure right in camera in future and, if the image has real potential, to bracket.