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Space Shuttle Discovery’s move from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, is complete as the sun comes up over NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A tail cone has been installed over its three replica shuttle main engines to reduce aerodynamic drag and turbulence during its upcoming ferry flight. At the SLF, Discovery will be hoisted onto a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, with the aid of a mate-demate device. The SCA, a modified Boeing 747 jet airliner, is scheduled to ferry Discovery to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17, after which the shuttle will be placed on permanent public display in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. For more information on shuttle transition and retirement activities, visit www.nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: (NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)
Hermanni Keko: Ray Tracing
"Hermanni Keko’s (b. 1987) new exhibition is named Ray Tracing, alluding to an analog apparatus for perspective drawing invented by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). Dubbed Dürer’s door, the device uses threads to transfer three-dimensional objects onto a flat surface by emulating the path of light from the object to the viewer’s eye. The Dürer’s door reference makes a broader metaphoric statement about Keko’s exhibition, for he applies the method in reverse, intuitively tracing rays from the eye back to the object. Keko’s fuzzy, conceptual rays acquire a variety of shapes and forms as he inscribes them on his canvas. The lines dance upon the canvas as the hook that holds together the floating compositional elements, which the artist describes as existing in a state of flux, constantly unfurling in temporary guises of form and color, ever-changing and regrouping in new configurations. This state of flux is like a metaphor for human life and the way our selfhood and personality are constantly moving and changing, whether compelled by inner forces or external exigencies.
What ultimately intrigues Keko about painting is color and its combinations. His paintings abound in clusters and splashes of color that correspond to the artist’s intuitive experience of different hues. Employing an intuitive approach, Keko strives to infuse his work with emotional intensity and direct, palpable energy. Although his process begins with an analytical projection, Keko’s art has less to do with intellect than with human experience and what it means to be human. What matters to him is how different color combinations feel – which, at its core, has less to do with color theory than sensing and responding as an individual and a human being.
Hermanni Keko graduated from the Lahti Institute of Design in 2012 and received his master’s degree in fine arts from Aalto University in 2019. He has held solo exhibitions at TM Gallery in 2018, and he took part in the Young Artists’ Exhibition at Kunsthalle Helsinki in 2019."
Biking in Niagara on the Lake.
Update: Here's a brief description of my Geotagging (Embedding the Geographical information to the photo) process.
1. I have a small portable GPS Data Logger (Globalsat DG-100) in my camera bag at all times. A GPS Data Logger is a relatively cheap device, and it doesn't have an LCD screen or any real time MAP features, but what this device does is when activated it records my location on an interval time. It has three customizable time settings, for example when I'm riding my bicycle I set it to every 30 seconds. The device can run for many hours, even days, logging my whole trip in every 30 seconds. The GPS Data Logger records the location based on the local satellite time.
2. This step is very important. You have to set your camera's time and date carefully. What I do, which seems to work fine, is to set my camera to the time on www.timeanddate.com on local time. Just search for the city you're in and set your camera's time to that.
3. When I get to a computer I download the logged GPS info and export a GPX or KMV file. These files can be used in any application that supports GPS, such as Google Earth. You can see your whole trip in Google Earth by opening these files. To dowload the log files from the device I use the software that comes with it, but other devices like Sony's (see below) are easier to work with.
4. Time to attach the GPS information to photos. I use a software called RoboGeo which is great. You open a bunch of images, and then you open the GPS log file (from step 3) and RoboGeo automatically matches the time your photo is taken to the GPS log file and can stamp the file with the GPS info. So the GPS information is embedded to the image file's EXIF info without changing anything else.
The only complaint I have about RoboGeo is that it doesn't support RAW files. It does however support TIF and JPG files, so I Geotag my 16bit TIF converted photos or the final web ready JPG files. When you upload the Geotagged JPG files to flickr, they automatically show up on the map. Very cool indeed!
4a. RoboGeo is poweful application, and one the fun things you can do with it is exporting a KMV file with embedded images, so you see your photos show on Google Earth and other application and website (like www.gpsvisualizer.com)
Here's our trip when the photo above was taken.
Resources: There are other GPS Loggers out there too, like Sony's GPS-CS1. Here's a great comparison and review of the two products.
Airbus A320-214 Sharklets™
MSN 7235
OE-IVS
easyJet Europe Airline GmbH
EJU EC
operating as
easyJet Airline
EZY U2
Copyright © 2018 A380spotter. All rights reserved.
Prisma, ArtStudio / iPhone Proximity image mix. Three or more layers/images.....chosen primarily by their close proximity to one another on my camera roll
Epcot's Spaceship Earth.
In the mid fifteenth-century, Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press. His new device now makes information available to the masses. In the background of this scene we see pressmen sorting paper and setting type while in the foreground, Gutenberg examines a page from the bible he is currently printing. This sheet is an exact replica from the Gutenberg Bible on display at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
allears.net/2010/01/17/spaceship-earth-epcots-icon-part-2/
Gutenberg in 1439 was the first European to use movable type. Among his many contributions to printing are: the invention of a process for mass-producing movable type; the use of oil-based ink for printing books; adjustable molds; mechanical movable type; and the use of a wooden printing press similar to the agricultural screw presses of the period. His truly epochal invention was the combination of these elements into a practical system that allowed the mass production of printed books and was economically viable for printers and readers alike. Gutenberg's method for making type is traditionally considered to have included a type metal alloy and a hand mould for casting type. The alloy was a mixture of lead, tin, and antimony that melted at a relatively low temperature for faster and more economical casting, cast well, and created a durable type.
This is the most dramatic and elegant doorbell-ringing device I have ever seen. The pull handle is at the bottom of the photo, just left of center. Above that, the handle is connected to an elegant spiral of gold-painted wrought iron flowers and leaves, wrapped around a metal rod. Then the bare rod connects at its top to a grandly decorated hinge mechanism.
From the hinge, a metal actuator extends through the villa wall and jangles the bell inside the entry hall. Kid must love ringing it...and probably lots of grownups too. I could barely resist.
Location: The Villa, Wenken Park, Riehen BS Switzerland.
In my album: Roaming Riehen.
Skink Pinhole Pancake with 100° angle
DSCF0018_1
Fascinating pinhole camera
The principle of the pinhole camera has fascinated and inspired people since ancient times. Certainly chance played a part when someone first saw it in a dark room or in a cave, hence the term camera obscura, who noticed the image of the outside world projected through a small hole. A magical moment ! The Chinese philosopher Mozi (墨子, 470-391 BC) wrote down his observations in this way. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) also reported this phenomenon in connection with a solar eclipse. The Basra-born physicist Alhazen ( ابو علي، حسن بن حسن بن الهيثم 965-1039) eventually built the first pinhole camera, which he called "Quamara" for short, although this device could not yet capture images. It was not until later in the Renaissance that the inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) dealt extensively with the camera obscura. Numerous plans and drawings of "recording devices" have been handed down, which he invented specifically to be able to trace pinhole camera images on the canvas. Many famous works by the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck (1390-1441) were also created with the help of a pinhole camera.
Discover a new perspective with the pinhole camera
It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that images could be permanently recorded on light-sensitive material. Cameras with digital sensors have now been added to the film medium, which are equally suitable for creatively implementing old and new perspectives with the archaic pinhole camera. The longer the exposure, the more space and time seem to flow together in the image. Busy buildings or squares suddenly appear deserted - perhaps a transparent shadow reveals that someone paused long enough for the camera to still capture it. The time factor smoothes the highest surges, water surfaces slowly transform into a still mirror.
Two devices, the critical ones, monitoring activities at the uranium enrichment site were deactivated, though other cameras continue working.
By Associated Press
Iran turned off two surveillance devices Wednesday used by U.N, inspectors to monitor the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment, further escalating the crisis over its atomic program as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers remains in tatters.
The move appeared to be a new pressure technique as Western nations seek to censure Iran at a meeting this week in Vienna at the International Atomic Energy Agency. The censure deals with what the watchdog refers to as Iran’s failure to provide “credible information” over nuclear material found at undeclared sites across the country.
But Iran’s latest move, announced by state television, makes it even more difficult for inspectors to monitor Tehran’s nuclear program. Nonproliferation experts have warned Iran now has enough uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels to pursue an atomic bomb if it chooses to do so.
The state TV report, later repeated by other Iranian media, said authorities deactivated the “beyond-safeguards cameras of the measuring Online Enrichment Monitor … and flowmeter.” That apparently refers to the IAEA’s online monitors that watch the enrichment of uranium gas through piping at enrichment facilities.
In 2016, the IAEA said it installed the device for the first time in Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear facility, its main enrichment site, located some 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. The device allowed for “around-the-clock monitoring” of the facility’s cascades, a series of centrifuges hooked together to rapidly spin uranium gas to enrich it.
“Traditional methods of sampling and analysis can take three weeks or longer, mostly because of the time it takes to ship the sample from Iran to the IAEA’s laboratories in Austria,” the agency said at the time.
Iran is also enriching uranium at its underground Fordo facility, though the IAEA is not known to have installed these devices there.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far had extensive cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency,” state TV said in its report Wednesday. “Unfortunately, the agency, without considering this cooperation … not only did not appreciate this cooperation but also considered it a duty of Iran.”
Tehran said its civilian nuclear arm, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, monitored the shutdown of the cameras. It said 80% of the existing cameras are IAEA “safeguard” cameras and they will continue to operate as before. Safeguards refer to the IAEA’s inspections and monitoring of a country’s nuclear program.
However, an Iranian official warned IAEA officials that Tehran was now considering taking “other measures” as well.
“We hope that they come to their senses and respond to Iran’s cooperation with cooperation,” said Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. “It is not acceptable that they show inappropriate behavior while Iran continues to cooperate.”
The Vienna-based IAEA declined to immediately comment. However, Iran’s move come after IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi criticized Iran for failing to provide “credible information” about unexplained, man-made nuclear material discovered at three undeclared Iranian sites — long a point of contention between the agency and Tehran.
Iran already has been holding footage from IAEA surveillance cameras since February 2021 as a pressure tactic to restore the atomic accord.
Iran and world powers agreed in 2015 to the nuclear deal, which saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, raising tensions across the wider Middle East and sparking a series of attacks and incidents.
Talks in Vienna over Iran’s tattered nuclear deal have been stalled since April. Since the deal’s collapse, Iran runs advanced centrifuges and has a rapidly growing stockpile of enriched uranium. Nonproliferation experts warn Iran has enriched enough up to 60% purity — a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — to make one nuclear weapon should it decide to do so.
Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, though U.N. experts and Western intelligence agencies say Iran had an organized military nuclear program through 2003.
Building a nuclear bomb would still take Iran more time if it pursued a weapon, analysts say, though they warn Tehran’s advances make the program more dangerous. Israel has threatened in the past that it would carry out a preemptive strike to stop Iran — and already is suspected in a series of recent killings targeting Iranian officials.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday and discussed the need to revive the nuclear deal, the Kremlin said.
In a statement on Tuesday to the IAEA, France, Germany and the United Kingdom warned the moves taken by Tehran are “further reducing the time Iran would take to break out towards a first nuclear weapon and it is fueling distrust as to Iran’s intentions.”
“The IAEA has been without crucial access to data on centrifuge and component manufacturing for a year and a half now,” the statement warned. “This means that neither the agency, nor the international community, know how many centrifuges Iran has in its inventory, how many were built, and where they may be located.”
The countries urged Iran “to stop escalating its nuclear program and to urgently conclude (the) deal that is on the table.”
But just before the camera announcement, the head of Iran’s nuclear organization insisted the country has no secret nuclear activity and accused the West of making a “political move” by trying to censure Iran.
”Iran has had maximum cooperation with the IAEA,” said Mohammad Eslami, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
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Creator/Photographer: Unidentified photographer
Medium: Medium unknown
Dimensions: 21.9 cm x 19.7 cm
Date: prior to 1937
Collection: Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology - As a supplement to the Dibner Library for the History of Science and Technology's collection of written works by scientists, engineers, natural philosophers, and inventors, the library also has a collection of thousands of portraits of these individuals. The portraits come in a variety of formats: drawings, woodcuts, engravings, paintings, and photographs, all collected by donor Bern Dibner. Presented here are a few photos from the collection, from the late 19th and early 20th century.
Repository: Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Accession number: SIL14-M001-13
Posey 8118S,M,L,Bildaufnahme aus einem Psychiatriemuseum,Image capture from a psychiatric , Zwangsjacke einer Psychiatrie, Die Zwangsjacke wurde bis in das Jahr 1996 von den Krankenhaus verwendet . Posey straitjacket restraint device for psychiatric emergencies.
Thought For Food: Leveraging 3 Of The Few Cooking Devices I Use - IMRAN®
Microwave Oven. Air Fryer. Slow Cooker. Rice Cooker. Toaster Oven. Barbecue Grill. I use one or two of these on the rare occasion I “cook” something. This time I put three to use in parallel.
Philips Air Fryer, Chicken Parmesan. Toshiba Rice Cooker, pasta. Panasonic Microwave heated pasta sauce. Around 15-20 minutes total with maybe 3-5 minutes total prep time. Anything reaching 10 minutes of prep or cleanup time is not for me!
© 2025 IMRAN®
Location : Al Kout Souq , Fahaheel, Kuwait .
Device : Nikon D300
Note : Best viewed in the large format . better view
More about Al kout Souq : maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=active&um=1&i...
© 2010 Saad Al-Enezi
IR HDR. IR converted Canon Rebel XTi. AEB +/-2 total of 6 exposures processed with Photomatix. Tokina 11-16mm lens
High Dynamic Range (HDR)
High-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI) is a high dynamic range (HDR) technique used in imaging and photography to reproduce a greater dynamic range of luminosity than is possible with standard digital imaging or photographic techniques. The aim is to present a similar range of luminance to that experienced through the human visual system. The human eye, through adaptation of the iris and other methods, adjusts constantly to adapt to a broad range of luminance present in the environment. The brain continuously interprets this information so that a viewer can see in a wide range of light conditions.
HDR images can represent a greater range of luminance levels than can be achieved using more 'traditional' methods, such as many real-world scenes containing very bright, direct sunlight to extreme shade, or very faint nebulae. This is often achieved by capturing and then combining several different, narrower range, exposures of the same subject matter. Non-HDR cameras take photographs with a limited exposure range, referred to as LDR, resulting in the loss of detail in highlights or shadows.
The two primary types of HDR images are computer renderings and images resulting from merging multiple low-dynamic-range (LDR) or standard-dynamic-range (SDR) photographs. HDR images can also be acquired using special image sensors, such as an oversampled binary image sensor.
Due to the limitations of printing and display contrast, the extended luminosity range of an HDR image has to be compressed to be made visible. The method of rendering an HDR image to a standard monitor or printing device is called tone mapping. This method reduces the overall contrast of an HDR image to facilitate display on devices or printouts with lower dynamic range, and can be applied to produce images with preserved local contrast (or exaggerated for artistic effect).
In photography, dynamic range is measured in exposure value (EV) differences (known as stops). An increase of one EV, or 'one stop', represents a doubling of the amount of light. Conversely, a decrease of one EV represents a halving of the amount of light. Therefore, revealing detail in the darkest of shadows requires high exposures, while preserving detail in very bright situations requires very low exposures. Most cameras cannot provide this range of exposure values within a single exposure, due to their low dynamic range. High-dynamic-range photographs are generally achieved by capturing multiple standard-exposure images, often using exposure bracketing, and then later merging them into a single HDR image, usually within a photo manipulation program). Digital images are often encoded in a camera's raw image format, because 8-bit JPEG encoding does not offer a wide enough range of values to allow fine transitions (and regarding HDR, later introduces undesirable effects due to lossy compression).
Any camera that allows manual exposure control can make images for HDR work, although one equipped with auto exposure bracketing (AEB) is far better suited. Images from film cameras are less suitable as they often must first be digitized, so that they can later be processed using software HDR methods.
In most imaging devices, the degree of exposure to light applied to the active element (be it film or CCD) can be altered in one of two ways: by either increasing/decreasing the size of the aperture or by increasing/decreasing the time of each exposure. Exposure variation in an HDR set is only done by altering the exposure time and not the aperture size; this is because altering the aperture size also affects the depth of field and so the resultant multiple images would be quite different, preventing their final combination into a single HDR image.
An important limitation for HDR photography is that any movement between successive images will impede or prevent success in combining them afterwards. Also, as one must create several images (often three or five and sometimes more) to obtain the desired luminance range, such a full 'set' of images takes extra time. HDR photographers have developed calculation methods and techniques to partially overcome these problems, but the use of a sturdy tripod is, at least, advised.
Some cameras have an auto exposure bracketing (AEB) feature with a far greater dynamic range than others, from the 3 EV of the Canon EOS 40D, to the 18 EV of the Canon EOS-1D Mark II. As the popularity of this imaging method grows, several camera manufactures are now offering built-in HDR features. For example, the Pentax K-7 DSLR has an HDR mode that captures an HDR image and outputs (only) a tone mapped JPEG file. The Canon PowerShot G12, Canon PowerShot S95 and Canon PowerShot S100 offer similar features in a smaller format.. Nikon's approach is called 'Active D-Lighting' which applies exposure compensation and tone mapping to the image as it comes from the sensor, with the accent being on retaing a realistic effect . Some smartphones provide HDR modes, and most mobile platforms have apps that provide HDR picture taking.
Camera characteristics such as gamma curves, sensor resolution, noise, photometric calibration and color calibration affect resulting high-dynamic-range images.
Color film negatives and slides consist of multiple film layers that respond to light differently. As a consequence, transparent originals (especially positive slides) feature a very high dynamic range
Tone mapping
Tone mapping reduces the dynamic range, or contrast ratio, of an entire image while retaining localized contrast. Although it is a distinct operation, tone mapping is often applied to HDRI files by the same software package.
Several software applications are available on the PC, Mac and Linux platforms for producing HDR files and tone mapped images. Notable titles include
Adobe Photoshop
Aurora HDR
Dynamic Photo HDR
HDR Efex Pro
HDR PhotoStudio
Luminance HDR
MagicRaw
Oloneo PhotoEngine
Photomatix Pro
PTGui
Information stored in high-dynamic-range images typically corresponds to the physical values of luminance or radiance that can be observed in the real world. This is different from traditional digital images, which represent colors as they should appear on a monitor or a paper print. Therefore, HDR image formats are often called scene-referred, in contrast to traditional digital images, which are device-referred or output-referred. Furthermore, traditional images are usually encoded for the human visual system (maximizing the visual information stored in the fixed number of bits), which is usually called gamma encoding or gamma correction. The values stored for HDR images are often gamma compressed (power law) or logarithmically encoded, or floating-point linear values, since fixed-point linear encodings are increasingly inefficient over higher dynamic ranges.
HDR images often don't use fixed ranges per color channel—other than traditional images—to represent many more colors over a much wider dynamic range. For that purpose, they don't use integer values to represent the single color channels (e.g., 0-255 in an 8 bit per pixel interval for red, green and blue) but instead use a floating point representation. Common are 16-bit (half precision) or 32-bit floating point numbers to represent HDR pixels. However, when the appropriate transfer function is used, HDR pixels for some applications can be represented with a color depth that has as few as 10–12 bits for luminance and 8 bits for chrominance without introducing any visible quantization artifacts.
History of HDR photography
The idea of using several exposures to adequately reproduce a too-extreme range of luminance was pioneered as early as the 1850s by Gustave Le Gray to render seascapes showing both the sky and the sea. Such rendering was impossible at the time using standard methods, as the luminosity range was too extreme. Le Gray used one negative for the sky, and another one with a longer exposure for the sea, and combined the two into one picture in positive.
Mid 20th century
Manual tone mapping was accomplished by dodging and burning – selectively increasing or decreasing the exposure of regions of the photograph to yield better tonality reproduction. This was effective because the dynamic range of the negative is significantly higher than would be available on the finished positive paper print when that is exposed via the negative in a uniform manner. An excellent example is the photograph Schweitzer at the Lamp by W. Eugene Smith, from his 1954 photo essay A Man of Mercy on Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his humanitarian work in French Equatorial Africa. The image took 5 days to reproduce the tonal range of the scene, which ranges from a bright lamp (relative to the scene) to a dark shadow.
Ansel Adams elevated dodging and burning to an art form. Many of his famous prints were manipulated in the darkroom with these two methods. Adams wrote a comprehensive book on producing prints called The Print, which prominently features dodging and burning, in the context of his Zone System.
With the advent of color photography, tone mapping in the darkroom was no longer possible due to the specific timing needed during the developing process of color film. Photographers looked to film manufacturers to design new film stocks with improved response, or continued to shoot in black and white to use tone mapping methods.
Color film capable of directly recording high-dynamic-range images was developed by Charles Wyckoff and EG&G "in the course of a contract with the Department of the Air Force". This XR film had three emulsion layers, an upper layer having an ASA speed rating of 400, a middle layer with an intermediate rating, and a lower layer with an ASA rating of 0.004. The film was processed in a manner similar to color films, and each layer produced a different color. The dynamic range of this extended range film has been estimated as 1:108. It has been used to photograph nuclear explosions, for astronomical photography, for spectrographic research, and for medical imaging. Wyckoff's detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the mid-1950s.
Late 20th century
Georges Cornuéjols and licensees of his patents (Brdi, Hymatom) introduced the principle of HDR video image, in 1986, by interposing a matricial LCD screen in front of the camera's image sensor, increasing the sensors dynamic by five stops. The concept of neighborhood tone mapping was applied to video cameras by a group from the Technion in Israel led by Dr. Oliver Hilsenrath and Prof. Y.Y.Zeevi who filed for a patent on this concept in 1988.
In February and April 1990, Georges Cornuéjols introduced the first real-time HDR camera that combined two images captured by a sensor3435 or simultaneously3637 by two sensors of the camera. This process is known as bracketing used for a video stream.
In 1991, the first commercial video camera was introduced that performed real-time capturing of multiple images with different exposures, and producing an HDR video image, by Hymatom, licensee of Georges Cornuéjols.
Also in 1991, Georges Cornuéjols introduced the HDR+ image principle by non-linear accumulation of images to increase the sensitivity of the camera: for low-light environments, several successive images are accumulated, thus increasing the signal to noise ratio.
In 1993, another commercial medical camera producing an HDR video image, by the Technion.
Modern HDR imaging uses a completely different approach, based on making a high-dynamic-range luminance or light map using only global image operations (across the entire image), and then tone mapping the result. Global HDR was first introduced in 19931 resulting in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995 by Steve Mann and Rosalind Picard.
On October 28, 1998, Ben Sarao created one of the first nighttime HDR+G (High Dynamic Range + Graphic image)of STS-95 on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It consisted of four film images of the shuttle at night that were digitally composited with additional digital graphic elements. The image was first exhibited at NASA Headquarters Great Hall, Washington DC in 1999 and then published in Hasselblad Forum, Issue 3 1993, Volume 35 ISSN 0282-5449.
The advent of consumer digital cameras produced a new demand for HDR imaging to improve the light response of digital camera sensors, which had a much smaller dynamic range than film. Steve Mann developed and patented the global-HDR method for producing digital images having extended dynamic range at the MIT Media Laboratory. Mann's method involved a two-step procedure: (1) generate one floating point image array by global-only image operations (operations that affect all pixels identically, without regard to their local neighborhoods); and then (2) convert this image array, using local neighborhood processing (tone-remapping, etc.), into an HDR image. The image array generated by the first step of Mann's process is called a lightspace image, lightspace picture, or radiance map. Another benefit of global-HDR imaging is that it provides access to the intermediate light or radiance map, which has been used for computer vision, and other image processing operations.
21st century
In 2005, Adobe Systems introduced several new features in Photoshop CS2 including Merge to HDR, 32 bit floating point image support, and HDR tone mapping.
On June 30, 2016, Microsoft added support for the digital compositing of HDR images to Windows 10 using the Universal Windows Platform.
HDR sensors
Modern CMOS image sensors can often capture a high dynamic range from a single exposure. The wide dynamic range of the captured image is non-linearly compressed into a smaller dynamic range electronic representation. However, with proper processing, the information from a single exposure can be used to create an HDR image.
Such HDR imaging is used in extreme dynamic range applications like welding or automotive work. Some other cameras designed for use in security applications can automatically provide two or more images for each frame, with changing exposure. For example, a sensor for 30fps video will give out 60fps with the odd frames at a short exposure time and the even frames at a longer exposure time. Some of the sensor may even combine the two images on-chip so that a wider dynamic range without in-pixel compression is directly available to the user for display or processing.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-dynamic-range_imaging
Infrared Photography
In infrared photography, the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging. Wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about 900 nm. Film is usually sensitive to visible light too, so an infrared-passing filter is used; this lets infrared (IR) light pass through to the camera, but blocks all or most of the visible light spectrum (the filter thus looks black or deep red). ("Infrared filter" may refer either to this type of filter or to one that blocks infrared but passes other wavelengths.)
When these filters are used together with infrared-sensitive film or sensors, "in-camera effects" can be obtained; false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance known as the "Wood Effect," an effect mainly caused by foliage (such as tree leaves and grass) strongly reflecting in the same way visible light is reflected from snow. There is a small contribution from chlorophyll fluorescence, but this is marginal and is not the real cause of the brightness seen in infrared photographs. The effect is named after the infrared photography pioneer Robert W. Wood, and not after the material wood, which does not strongly reflect infrared.
The other attributes of infrared photographs include very dark skies and penetration of atmospheric haze, caused by reduced Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering, respectively, compared to visible light. The dark skies, in turn, result in less infrared light in shadows and dark reflections of those skies from water, and clouds will stand out strongly. These wavelengths also penetrate a few millimeters into skin and give a milky look to portraits, although eyes often look black.
Until the early 20th century, infrared photography was not possible because silver halide emulsions are not sensitive to longer wavelengths than that of blue light (and to a lesser extent, green light) without the addition of a dye to act as a color sensitizer. The first infrared photographs (as distinct from spectrographs) to be published appeared in the February 1910 edition of The Century Magazine and in the October 1910 edition of the Royal Photographic Society Journal to illustrate papers by Robert W. Wood, who discovered the unusual effects that now bear his name. The RPS co-ordinated events to celebrate the centenary of this event in 2010. Wood's photographs were taken on experimental film that required very long exposures; thus, most of his work focused on landscapes. A further set of infrared landscapes taken by Wood in Italy in 1911 used plates provided for him by CEK Mees at Wratten & Wainwright. Mees also took a few infrared photographs in Portugal in 1910, which are now in the Kodak archives.
Infrared-sensitive photographic plates were developed in the United States during World War I for spectroscopic analysis, and infrared sensitizing dyes were investigated for improved haze penetration in aerial photography. After 1930, new emulsions from Kodak and other manufacturers became useful to infrared astronomy.
Infrared photography became popular with photography enthusiasts in the 1930s when suitable film was introduced commercially. The Times regularly published landscape and aerial photographs taken by their staff photographers using Ilford infrared film. By 1937 33 kinds of infrared film were available from five manufacturers including Agfa, Kodak and Ilford. Infrared movie film was also available and was used to create day-for-night effects in motion pictures, a notable example being the pseudo-night aerial sequences in the James Cagney/Bette Davis movie The Bride Came COD.
False-color infrared photography became widely practiced with the introduction of Kodak Ektachrome Infrared Aero Film and Ektachrome Infrared EIR. The first version of this, known as Kodacolor Aero-Reversal-Film, was developed by Clark and others at the Kodak for camouflage detection in the 1940s. The film became more widely available in 35mm form in the 1960s but KODAK AEROCHROME III Infrared Film 1443 has been discontinued.
Infrared photography became popular with a number of 1960s recording artists, because of the unusual results; Jimi Hendrix, Donovan, Frank and a slow shutter speed without focus compensation, however wider apertures like f/2.0 can produce sharp photos only if the lens is meticulously refocused to the infrared index mark, and only if this index mark is the correct one for the filter and film in use. However, it should be noted that diffraction effects inside a camera are greater at infrared wavelengths so that stopping down the lens too far may actually reduce sharpness.
Most apochromatic ('APO') lenses do not have an Infrared index mark and do not need to be refocused for the infrared spectrum because they are already optically corrected into the near-infrared spectrum. Catadioptric lenses do not often require this adjustment because their mirror containing elements do not suffer from chromatic aberration and so the overall aberration is comparably less. Catadioptric lenses do, of course, still contain lenses, and these lenses do still have a dispersive property.
Infrared black-and-white films require special development times but development is usually achieved with standard black-and-white film developers and chemicals (like D-76). Kodak HIE film has a polyester film base that is very stable but extremely easy to scratch, therefore special care must be used in the handling of Kodak HIE throughout the development and printing/scanning process to avoid damage to the film. The Kodak HIE film was sensitive to 900 nm.
As of November 2, 2007, "KODAK is preannouncing the discontinuance" of HIE Infrared 35 mm film stating the reasons that, "Demand for these products has been declining significantly in recent years, and it is no longer practical to continue to manufacture given the low volume, the age of the product formulations and the complexity of the processes involved." At the time of this notice, HIE Infrared 135-36 was available at a street price of around $12.00 a roll at US mail order outlets.
Arguably the greatest obstacle to infrared film photography has been the increasing difficulty of obtaining infrared-sensitive film. However, despite the discontinuance of HIE, other newer infrared sensitive emulsions from EFKE, ROLLEI, and ILFORD are still available, but these formulations have differing sensitivity and specifications from the venerable KODAK HIE that has been around for at least two decades. Some of these infrared films are available in 120 and larger formats as well as 35 mm, which adds flexibility to their application. With the discontinuance of Kodak HIE, Efke's IR820 film has become the only IR film on the marketneeds update with good sensitivity beyond 750 nm, the Rollei film does extend beyond 750 nm but IR sensitivity falls off very rapidly.
Color infrared transparency films have three sensitized layers that, because of the way the dyes are coupled to these layers, reproduce infrared as red, red as green, and green as blue. All three layers are sensitive to blue so the film must be used with a yellow filter, since this will block blue light but allow the remaining colors to reach the film. The health of foliage can be determined from the relative strengths of green and infrared light reflected; this shows in color infrared as a shift from red (healthy) towards magenta (unhealthy). Early color infrared films were developed in the older E-4 process, but Kodak later manufactured a color transparency film that could be developed in standard E-6 chemistry, although more accurate results were obtained by developing using the AR-5 process. In general, color infrared does not need to be refocused to the infrared index mark on the lens.
In 2007 Kodak announced that production of the 35 mm version of their color infrared film (Ektachrome Professional Infrared/EIR) would cease as there was insufficient demand. Since 2011, all formats of color infrared film have been discontinued. Specifically, Aerochrome 1443 and SO-734.
There is no currently available digital camera that will produce the same results as Kodak color infrared film although the equivalent images can be produced by taking two exposures, one infrared and the other full-color, and combining in post-production. The color images produced by digital still cameras using infrared-pass filters are not equivalent to those produced on color infrared film. The colors result from varying amounts of infrared passing through the color filters on the photo sites, further amended by the Bayer filtering. While this makes such images unsuitable for the kind of applications for which the film was used, such as remote sensing of plant health, the resulting color tonality has proved popular artistically.
Color digital infrared, as part of full spectrum photography is gaining popularity. The ease of creating a softly colored photo with infrared characteristics has found interest among hobbyists and professionals.
In 2008, Los Angeles photographer, Dean Bennici started cutting and hand rolling Aerochrome color Infrared film. All Aerochrome medium and large format which exists today came directly from his lab. The trend in infrared photography continues to gain momentum with the success of photographer Richard Mosse and multiple users all around the world.
Digital camera sensors are inherently sensitive to infrared light, which would interfere with the normal photography by confusing the autofocus calculations or softening the image (because infrared light is focused differently from visible light), or oversaturating the red channel. Also, some clothing is transparent in the infrared, leading to unintended (at least to the manufacturer) uses of video cameras. Thus, to improve image quality and protect privacy, many digital cameras employ infrared blockers. Depending on the subject matter, infrared photography may not be practical with these cameras because the exposure times become overly long, often in the range of 30 seconds, creating noise and motion blur in the final image. However, for some subject matter the long exposure does not matter or the motion blur effects actually add to the image. Some lenses will also show a 'hot spot' in the centre of the image as their coatings are optimised for visible light and not for IR.
An alternative method of DSLR infrared photography is to remove the infrared blocker in front of the sensor and replace it with a filter that removes visible light. This filter is behind the mirror, so the camera can be used normally - handheld, normal shutter speeds, normal composition through the viewfinder, and focus, all work like a normal camera. Metering works but is not always accurate because of the difference between visible and infrared refraction. When the IR blocker is removed, many lenses which did display a hotspot cease to do so, and become perfectly usable for infrared photography. Additionally, because the red, green and blue micro-filters remain and have transmissions not only in their respective color but also in the infrared, enhanced infrared color may be recorded.
Since the Bayer filters in most digital cameras absorb a significant fraction of the infrared light, these cameras are sometimes not very sensitive as infrared cameras and can sometimes produce false colors in the images. An alternative approach is to use a Foveon X3 sensor, which does not have absorptive filters on it; the Sigma SD10 DSLR has a removable IR blocking filter and dust protector, which can be simply omitted or replaced by a deep red or complete visible light blocking filter. The Sigma SD14 has an IR/UV blocking filter that can be removed/installed without tools. The result is a very sensitive digital IR camera.
While it is common to use a filter that blocks almost all visible light, the wavelength sensitivity of a digital camera without internal infrared blocking is such that a variety of artistic results can be obtained with more conventional filtration. For example, a very dark neutral density filter can be used (such as the Hoya ND400) which passes a very small amount of visible light compared to the near-infrared it allows through. Wider filtration permits an SLR viewfinder to be used and also passes more varied color information to the sensor without necessarily reducing the Wood effect. Wider filtration is however likely to reduce other infrared artefacts such as haze penetration and darkened skies. This technique mirrors the methods used by infrared film photographers where black-and-white infrared film was often used with a deep red filter rather than a visually opaque one.
Another common technique with near-infrared filters is to swap blue and red channels in software (e.g. photoshop) which retains much of the characteristic 'white foliage' while rendering skies a glorious blue.
Several Sony cameras had the so-called Night Shot facility, which physically moves the blocking filter away from the light path, which makes the cameras very sensitive to infrared light. Soon after its development, this facility was 'restricted' by Sony to make it difficult for people to take photos that saw through clothing. To do this the iris is opened fully and exposure duration is limited to long times of more than 1/30 second or so. It is possible to shoot infrared but neutral density filters must be used to reduce the camera's sensitivity and the long exposure times mean that care must be taken to avoid camera-shake artifacts.
Fuji have produced digital cameras for use in forensic criminology and medicine which have no infrared blocking filter. The first camera, designated the S3 PRO UVIR, also had extended ultraviolet sensitivity (digital sensors are usually less sensitive to UV than to IR). Optimum UV sensitivity requires special lenses, but ordinary lenses usually work well for IR. In 2007, FujiFilm introduced a new version of this camera, based on the Nikon D200/ FujiFilm S5 called the IS Pro, also able to take Nikon lenses. Fuji had earlier introduced a non-SLR infrared camera, the IS-1, a modified version of the FujiFilm FinePix S9100. Unlike the S3 PRO UVIR, the IS-1 does not offer UV sensitivity. FujiFilm restricts the sale of these cameras to professional users with their EULA specifically prohibiting "unethical photographic conduct".
Phase One digital camera backs can be ordered in an infrared modified form.
Remote sensing and thermographic cameras are sensitive to longer wavelengths of infrared (see Infrared spectrum#Commonly used sub-division scheme). They may be multispectral and use a variety of technologies which may not resemble common camera or filter designs. Cameras sensitive to longer infrared wavelengths including those used in infrared astronomy often require cooling to reduce thermally induced dark currents in the sensor (see Dark current (physics)). Lower cost uncooled thermographic digital cameras operate in the Long Wave infrared band (see Thermographic camera#Uncooled infrared detectors). These cameras are generally used for building inspection or preventative maintenance but can be used for artistic pursuits as well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_photography
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Original Caption: Operator's console for the "whole body counter" radiation detection device at EPA's Las Vegas National Environmental Research Center, May 1972
U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-5252
Photographer: O'Rear, Charles, 1941-
Subjects:
Las Vegas (Nevada)
Environmental Protection Agency
Project DOCUMERICA
Persistent URL: research.archives.gov/description/547739
Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.
For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html
Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html
Access Restrictions: Unrestricted
Use Restrictions: Unrestricted
If you are frolicking in the waters of Play La Ropa, its good to have a floatation device handy to assist you getting past the breakers.
Hello Mrs. Taylor, I'd need to sweep your chimney.
Again? Your colleague just was here in October.
I have a colleague? Oh, yes, that one... Uhmm... he missed a spot, and we don't want Santa to get dirty, don't we?
Oh Mister Northe-Pole, I am too old to believe in these old fairytales...
Oh, in that case we'll be going. Elf, put her on the naughty list!
(mumbling) I'll find someone else for that knitted underwear. In pink. 't was such a good idea to put the presents up in the chimney and use that newfangled wireless device to release them on Christmas...
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
For those who don't follow me on a daily basis: This is my take on an Advent Calendar - opening 24 doors in my Lego City.
Toy Project Day 3424
“Women are strange and incomprehensible, a device invented by Providence to keep the wit of man well sharpened by constant employment.”
(Arnold Bennett)
Model: Cátia Mayettes
iss062e103552 (March 20, 2020) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 62 Flight Engineer Jessica Meir works on the Major Constituent Analyzer, a device that measures the orbiting lab’s atmosphere. The life support gear monitors a variety of major constituents, such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapor to ensure a safe breathing environment for the crew.
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael Case, a team leader with the 379th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), defuses simulated unexploded ordnance found in a mock vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), during a VBIED response training exercise Dec. 18, 2018, at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. Training participants utilized an F6A robotic platform, the bomb suit, and other specific tools to disrupt a VBIED during the exercise. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal)
Left behind by people who did some fencing work for us.
uploaded with Uploader for Flickr for Android
#AbFav_The_COLOUR_YELLOW_🍋
#AbFav_PHOTOSTORY
There MUST be a reason why safety devices like buoys and boards for the guards, are YELLOW?
They DO make a jolly accent on beach and sea.
I wish you all the very best, and thank you for all your kind words, time, comments, invites, faves and Awards. Very much appreciated. M, (*_*)
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
beach, sea, buoy, yellow, seagull, boy, surfing board, safety, "Magda indigo", colour, Nikon, horizontal
Click some great pictures and with the Flexible Mini Tripod for Go Pro. Fix the tripod on any surface from a tree bark to a flat surface. The legs are flexible and can be used to hold the camera. It is best suited for the Go Pro, but can also fit any other action cameras.
You need more...
Recent history proves that nothing good ever comes from Despots
This is what it means to be a slave; to be abused and bear it; compelled by violence to suffer wrong.
-- Euripides
Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot turns men into clay
--Eric Hoffer
Love of power more frequently originates in vanity than pride (two qualities, by the way, which are often confounded) and is, consequently, yet more peculiarly the sin of little than of great minds.
-- Frances Wright
The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.
-- Francis Bacon
Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.
-- Frank Herbert
Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.
-- Ezra Pound
The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.
— Euripides
Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous. Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.
-- Erich Fromm
Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. The indications are that such an impairment is brought about not by strengthening the individual and pitting him against the possessors of power, but by distributing and diversifying power and pitting one category or unit of power against the other. Where power is one, the defeated individual, however strong and resourceful, can have no refuge and no recourse.
-- Eric Hoffer
People who grow rich almost always improve their sex life. More people want to have sex with them. That's just the way human beings work. Money is power. Power is an aphrodisiac. Money did not make me happy. But it definitely improved my sex life.
-- Felix Dennis
PS. -{one has to have a sense of humour! the evidence suggests that money makes you fat and impotent, viagra is a band aid solution}
Title:
KEYLEX
Today, I am uploading the opening of my new novel.
This is essentially the final draft. The Japanese version follows in the second half.
今日は、僕の新しい小説の冒頭をアップロードします。
ほぼ、最終稿です。
日本語は、後半です。
日本語のあらすじ等は下の方にあります😃
B♭ ( B - Flat ) ( 8 / 9 ) … [Prologue] 〈Portent〉
Mitsushiro Nakagawa, with ChatGPT 5.2
—The reasons we fall in love differ from person to person, and yet, when you realize afterward that you had already fallen, you don’t really need a reason at all.
I believe that is what true love is.
If only, in that instant, some white, bleeding light had slipped in from somewhere—then it would be easier to understand. A pale light wraps a person up and quietly calls back the memories they had forgotten. It passes through your eyelids and goes on to illuminate the deepest place in your chest.
To meet someone whose name you don’t even know, and to come to know them deeply—sometimes, light is necessary.
That light is so soft, so gentle, and yet afterward it leaves, deep inside your chest, a faint scar. The pain will heal in time, and then it will hold someone else—
— Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York —
A soft light was slanting in through the warehouse’s high windows. It was near noon, and still it had the washed-out whiteness of something not fully awake. On the rough concrete floor, brightness seeped quietly, as if embarrassed by its own presence; seeing it, Anaya, in the middle of unloading, stopped for a moment and looked away.
Between the booths cut out on all sides with white gaffer tape, artists moved back and forth in restless haste. From the half-open loading bay, bass-heavy hip-hop poured in, making the floor and walls tremble in small, constant vibrations. A blade of sunlight speared through the shutter’s gap and set the dust spinning gold.
On the white tape laid along the edge of the aisle, the label read “Sieve.” The booth name Anaya and Mika had reserved.
As Anaya lined the sketch notebooks she’d carried in on the floor, a young man in a suit lowered himself into a crouch beside her. From the carelessly stacked mound, he drew out one notebook and began to turn the pages slowly. Against the brown of his cheek, blue eyes seemed to float. He looked like a man of Middle Eastern descent, like Anaya herself. His calm gaze traveled, unhurried, along the lines of the drawings.
Noticing Anaya’s presence, he smiled.
“Is this yours?”
“Yes. Mine.”
“Why pencil? A rough sketch?”
What he was looking at was the profile of her lover, Arjun—by the window, facing a laptop, earnest eyes fixed on something he could not yet solve. Anaya had always been drawn to that gaze: the way he stared, heated and intent, at a difficult display packed with strings of numbers and geometric patterns, as if will alone could bend them into sense.
The angle of the light that fell in through the window still remained vivid on the inside of her eyelids.
“It isn’t a draft. It’s finished. I just… like familiar tools.”
The man gave a short nod. When he laughed, his eyes laughed first, and the corners of his mouth followed a heartbeat later.
“So this man is…?”
“Yes.”
“I see. That’s a shame.”
He said it lightly, but his eyes had gone hard. He turned the next page.
“And this… your mother?”
Ana stepped closer and looked at her mother’s profile: in the kitchen by the window, her head slightly bowed. The smell of the house from those days rose up, all at once, deep in Ana’s chest—spice, and the hint of oil beginning to brown.
When her mother, Sangeeta, stood in the kitchen, the whole house would fill with spice and the savory fragrance of fenugreek. Undhiyu, the dish she always made in winter, came from a recipe passed down from her grandmother. A traditional home-cooked food from the time they had been Hindu—yet even after conversion, what did not change was this: the memory of a “family circle” held inside that dish refused to vanish.
For Anaya, it was the smell of India’s dry earth itself.
“Yes. My mother.”
At a distance that was almost touching—but not quite—the man slid his index finger along the drawing’s eye.
“…A wonderful eye.”
His voice was hoarse. Something in Ana’s chest stirred, faintly unsettled—as if what she had meant to draw had been received not through his words, but directly, from his gaze, even before he spoke.
Mika came running over, her bright smile intact, a F30 canvas strapped to her small back. It was nearly twice the size of her torso, like a single wing.
“If you like, look at mine too. I’m Mika.”
At Mika’s light voice—she never held back with strangers—the man extended his hand.
“—I’m Amir. Amir Nasser.”
He introduced himself like that, and loosened only his mouth, just slightly. It was still too pale to call a smile.
The instant Ana looked back into those clear blue eyes, somewhere in her chest the sea she’d seen as a child opened—an unruffled, glittering horizon line. A mirage, slipping in from faraway memory.
As the corridor grew busier, another man arrived at a brisk pace, typing into a smartphone as he walked. A dark shadow sat at the base of his throat; he carried the air of someone older. After a quick glance at Ana, he dropped a low voice into Amir’s ear.
“What is it. Trouble?”
“No.”
Amir answered gently, but there was no quiet inside that gentleness.
“Thank you, both of you. See you Saturday.”
Amir returned his smile, said that to the two of them, and turned away. His companion—Rafi—kept staring at Amir with the same rigid eyes, right to the end.
As they left, Ana’s gaze caught, for only an instant, the screen Rafi held in his hand. Numbers were arranged there with a geometric precision. They were not lined in straight rows, but set along arcs—aligned on a curve. In that small string, there seemed to be a rule; angle and distance shone with exactness.
Watching their backs recede, Mika murmured, as if it were nothing:
“Hey… don’t those two smell like money? And not flashy money—chic, expensive.”
“What do you mean?”
“The suits. You don’t even have to touch them. The fabric’s different. —And tonight there’s the national convention at the Garden, right? Maybe they’re involved.”
“Is that so,” Ana said, vaguely, and let it pass.
The exhibition hall’s murmur swelled further. Light and shadow folded over each other, heating the air of the clamor.
And yet, in the midst of that overflowing energy, Ana felt one sensation that would not return. The white light that had been falling from the skylight had thinned since before, as if it had been drawn down and swallowed by the heavy shadow on the floor.
— Penn Plaza, Manhattan, New York —
A little past one in the afternoon, the shadow of a motorcade slid slowly in along Seventh Avenue. Sunlight reflected off the escort car’s hood and, for an instant, washed the windows of the buildings white.
In the passenger seat, Jack Vance checked his watch. The vibration of the second hand traveled from his wrist to his chest as a faint tremor.
Around Madison Square Garden, the constant flow of people and the blinking of signals always formed small eddies. The smell of scorched food and grease rising from street-vendor griddles clung to the damp air. Across the lanes, a thin saxophone note stretched for a single breath and cut off, sharpening the outline of the din. The cluster of tourists’ smartphone screens aimed at the Garden looked, to Jack, more vivid than reality.
On the massive display covering Penn Plaza’s outer wall, a string of text scrolled with steady, insistent calm:
“New 350 Park Avenue Redevelopment Plan—Now Underway.”
Behind the words, steel frames still under construction pierced the sky, standing like a monument to capitalism being assembled in the name of profit and growth. It was a future that would never intersect with Jack’s own living world.
But before the text could complete its loop, a breaking bulletin cut in:
“Next, breaking news. Regarding the North Korea–linked cryptoassets that suffered an illegal intrusion five years ago, state media of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea reports that part of the traced access route passed through the United States. The statement says, ‘We will respond resolutely to criminals who violate our sovereignty.’”
The sidewalk beneath the giant screen felt as if people were moving a little faster than usual. Everyone hurried toward somewhere, and the overlapping footsteps seemed to blur the edges of sound. For Jack—who was about to provide security tonight for the Republican presidential candidate speaking at the Garden—this speed did not look like simple excitement.
Along the fringe of that crowd, a single Gridway vehicle slid forward in time with the light. The autonomous taxi that Gridway Autonomous Mobility had launched last year now crisscrossed Manhattan in roaring popularity. Cheap fares, no bothersome relationship with a driver. On the side of the car, Jack caught sight of a small “G,” and a lattice mark—thin intersecting lines symbolizing Manhattan’s grid. Driverless, the car overtook them and was absorbed into the city as nothing more than part of the scenery.
Above, a small shadow trembled for an instant in the reflection on glass. There was no sound of wings. And still, only the feeling remained—that something was watching.
Without moving his eyes, Jack traced the shadow’s position inside his head. An FBI protective UAS cell. For this detail, several surveillance drones were moving between the buildings. The moment he thought it, the city’s clamor seemed covered by a thin film of relief, retreating to the other side of a single layer.
Jack closed his eyes briefly. He felt the bloodflow behind his ears. Somewhere in the undercurrent beneath silence, the pulse of duty sounded, faintly. Protection was not work done with the eyes. It was work of catching the wrongness—crushing it before it could take shape. In his chest, a thin membrane drew tight, as if tensing to a sting.
When Jack opened his eyes again, his gaze was no longer fixed on the cityscape. It had already set itself on something else.
— Beverly Hills, Los Angeles —
As the sun slipped down the hills, beyond the heavy doors of the members-only restaurant Saffron Court, the air hung quietly, thick with weight. The members leaning in over white-clothed tables let their silverware touch and part, touch again. That faint metallic sound alone repeated slowly, like the pulse of a heart sleeping deep inside the building.
At Majid Hamzah’s table—Majid and his team—conversation was missing. No one let their expression collapse; they did nothing but steady their breathing.
At the center of the table, a compact, black-sheened device—the ghost-voice machine, Whisper-04—had stolen the room’s focus. When Majid’s finger touched the dial, a click’s vibration returned to his palm.
“…0.4 seconds. Without a doubt.”
The whisper did not pass through vocal cords; it disturbed only the surface of the air. What the device released was not sound, but a blade of silence.
“Initiate.”
Before the command could fully become language, it slid down into the night as a tremor of radio.
It did not cross the sea—not directly. It fled first into the sky, ricocheted several times in the heights of the night, and fell into the warehouse shadows of New York as a signal.
On Majid’s tablet, a faint arc of numbers surfaced for a single breath—aligned not in a straight line, but along a curve. He immediately lowered the screen.
At the edge of the table, Samira ran her finger across her smartphone and closed it. A string of numbers and letters vanished, leaving only heat in her fingertips. Her gestures were quiet, almost prayerful. She let one breath drop and moved only her eyes.
Lina, watching the pulse of the signal she had sent to New York by shortwave, sank her phone into the shadow of her glass as if hiding it from the surrounding laughter. The weekend’s waves of laughter were full around them, yet only this table stayed hard, lagging behind the laughter. She returned her gaze to her hands.
Lina’s app was a small consultation room built for one person at a time. A voice that did not deny the other’s words, that held them at the same temperature. It leaned with those who leaned left, nodded with those who leaned right—because it understood that what people wanted was not rebuttal, but affirmation.
The thread of affirmation eventually tied itself into a hard knot deep in the chest, and only deepened a fissure that could not be untied. There was no need even to incite. The moment a thought is accepted, it gains a core, and quietly hardens.
Laughter continued to fill the restaurant—and yet around this table alone, sound had thinned by one degree.
— Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York —
The iron door, rusted with sea salt, trembled faintly. Inside the warehouse it was dark; only the afterglow of a streetlight drew a thin line across the concrete floor. The smell of oil and dust—soaked into the floor by long years—entered the lungs slowly.
In the dimness, Amir Nasser bent one knee and watched the red blinking on the workbench. Its regularity was buried inside a deep silence. The light turning on and off was scooping up his memories.
When Amir rose slowly, he touched the corner of a black casing on the table. The cold sensation sharpened memory. The black housing that caught shortwave—Whisper-04. A thin organ made to receive what the ear cannot.
Touching his homemade device, Amir murmured:
“…Yara.”
His sister’s name slipped out like a prayer, but it did not reach prayer; it was swallowed into the darkness at the edge of the workspace.
Then the air sank, just slightly. Not a sound. Not a smell. And yet there was only the sensation that something had arrived. The red blinking of W-04 delayed by a single beat. The back of Amir’s throat—tensed until now—was painfully dry, raw with sting.
The warehouse door groaned. The footsteps that had slipped in were heavy, but not disordered.
It was Rafi. Metal dust flecked his work clothes; he still carried the day’s clamor on him.
Farther inside the warehouse, Yusuf lit a small lantern. For an instant the flame wavered, raising a thin outline in the dark—then letting it dissolve again.
“You’re late,” Amir said, still watching the red blinking.
“The supervisor wouldn’t let go. But—‘installation’ finished on schedule.”
With a voice stained by fatigue, Rafi glanced at the red blinking Amir was absorbed in.
“And your side?”
“Checked. It’s running. Stable. I rebuilt what I made five years ago. …My hands remember. Majid says ‘Initiate.’ Impatient bastard.”
In the dim at the edge of the bench, one earcup of Leila’s headphones slipped slightly askew, the metal bracket returning a cold glint. Nadeer, arriving from the neighboring warehouse with coffee in hand, offered it back and, without a word, set it right for her. Leila listened again for the “soundless sound,” staring into the red blinking.
The door sounded once more. Rohan entered. Sleeves rolled up, his leather business bag still holding the damp heat of outside.
“…The professor?” Rafi asked.
Before answering, Rohan lowered his eyes. The silence felt unbearably long, and without noticing, Amir and the others held their breath.
“Professor Zakaria—
went straight to the prepared warehouse next door. A message was left:
‘Everything—I entrust to you.’”
A cold needle drove itself into the deep of Amir’s chest. Not only Amir’s—Rafi’s, Yusuf’s, Leila’s, Nadeer’s.
In the corner of the dark, Nadeer opened a small cloth bundle. For an instant, the smell of white gauze and disinfectant rose—then was swallowed by oil and dust.
The lantern’s thin light trembled; shadows stretched long across the floor and overlapped.
W-04’s red blinking continued to mark time—precise, unerrant.
Rafi spoke in a rasping voice.
“…I’ll teach this country the meaning of self-reckoning.”
Amir—and no one else—answered.
That silence drew, with cruel clarity, the outline of the road they had chosen.
Copyright © 2026 Mitsushiro Nakagawa.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.
Trailer
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B♭ (B Flat)
A Novel by Mitsushiro Nakagawa
“Synopsis”
A Palestinian group from Gaza hacks into North Korea’s cryptocurrency system, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. Their true goal is not money—but to recreate the lost homeland of Gaza on American soil.
Amid the backdrop of hardline Republican immigration policies and a growing wave of xenophobia, a quiet plan begins to take shape: the gradual collapse of America from within.
During a speech at Madison Square Garden, Republican presidential candidate Justin Bradford is shot. Almost simultaneously in Los Angeles, former president Owen Reed is attacked at a rally for Democratic hopeful Ryan Bennett.
Two assassinations—mirroring one another—ignite a nation’s deepest divide. Yet, against all odds, Justin survives. His blood type is one in 2.5 million: the Bombay Blood Group.
The only person who can donate such blood is Anaya Patel, a community art facilitator working in Brooklyn. Her blood, stored in the Bellevue Hospital Blood Bank, is used for an emergency transfusion that saves the candidate’s life.
Jack Vance, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service, suspects a Gaza-based network behind the attacks. Together with Cameron Bartlett, the FBI Director of the Los Angeles Field Office, and Veronica Reeves, a senior investigator from New York, he begins to uncover a vast conspiracy.
Their investigation leads them to Rafi Gannam, a former architecture student at the Islamic University of Gaza, who has infiltrated redevelopment sites across Los Angeles and New York—embedding C4 explosives deep within beams and structural cores.
His targets: new residential districts where agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) live—symbols of “the order America built.”
Veronica urges the President to pursue dialogue to prevent further destruction, but President Grant M. Ranford refuses to listen.
Meanwhile, the recovering Justin and his Democratic rival Ryan appear on national television, calling for unity beyond political divisions.
Their words of reason, however, are drowned out when Grant takes the stage in Iowa, defiantly declaring: “We will never bow to terror.”
Among the crowd, Rafi’s operatives have already taken their positions.
As chaos erupts and the stage collapses, Amir Nasser—once Rafi’s comrade, haunted by the memory of his sister’s death in Gaza—tries desperately to halt the chain of destruction.
But Rafi’s conviction remains unshaken.
Under the twilight beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, amid the city’s fading noise, the two men part ways.
It is the boundary between prayer and vengeance, between hope and nothingness.
“Characters”
Anaya Patel – 25, Community Art Facilitator
Arjun Singh – 26, Anaya’s boyfriend, Luminatech Innovations
Mika Sato – 25, Anaya’s friend, Community Art Facilitator
Justin Bradford – 27, Republican Presidential Candidate
Eleanor Blake – 26, Justin’s fiancée
President Grant M. Langford – 61, Incumbent Republican President
Vice President Charles “Chuck” Baines – 64, Incumbent Republican Vice President
Ryan Bennett – 30, Democratic Presidential Candidate
Sophia Bennett – 30, Ryan’s wife
Owen Reed – 65, Former Democratic President
Jack Vance – 45, Secret Service, Former FBI Los Angeles Field Office
Ben Holloway – 30, Jack’s colleague
Darryl Ross – 29, Jack’s colleague
Elijah Kane – 28, Jack’s colleague
Marcus Dane – 45, FBI Los Angeles Field Office
Cameron Bartlett – 55, FBI Los Angeles Field Office, Field Office Director
Tom Caldwell – 38, FBI Technical Unit, Marcus’s subordinate
Veronica Reeves – 41, FBI Special Agent
Alexander Harris – 52, FBI New York Field Office, Field Office Director
Elliot Chen – 36, Technology Unit Chief
Alicia Monroe – 58, FBI Director
Zakaria Haddad – 51, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Engineering Professor, New York Team
Amir Nasser – 23, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Electronics Engineering, New York Team
Rafi Gannam – 32, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team
Rohan Shah – 29, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team
Majid Hamza – 47, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Information Technology, Los Angeles Team
Samira Hammad – 28, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Engineering, Los Angeles Team
Saeed Kabari – 35, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Business Administration, Los Angeles Team
Reem Nasser – 30, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Media Studies, Los Angeles Team
Noah Levi – 55, Israel, residing in Tel Aviv, Jewish
Copyright © 2026 Mitsushiro Nakagawa.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.
B♭ will be released worldwide on February 29, 2026.
Recently, director Ridley Scott remarked that streaming films and series have become dull.
I agree.
If you have two hours to spare for such stories, I ask for only two minutes of your time.
Two minutes with my novel will outlast those two hours.
I am confident of that.
Stay tuned.
Mitsushiro
October 9th, 2025
P.S.
Micchan — the man who challenges Netflix. 😃
( Shot on Fujifilm GFX50R )
Tokyo Station. Around Sobu Line Underground Platforms 1-4. Shot ... 8 / 20
( Since there was a 30-minute wait for the limited express, I decided to take some photos. )
( Today's photo. It is unreleased / unpublished. It is unrelated to the content of the novel. )
Images.
Nosaj Thing - Blue Hour ft Julianna Barwick
youtu.be/IQhwGGarWfI?si=jfBxafBjpEnosCSo
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My new novel:
B♭ (B-flat)
There’s still more to come. 😃
(This is not the final draft.)
Set in New York City.
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:: Soundtrack ::
B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack )
music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...
B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . For Japanese)
music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...
B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . Sweet Summer rain ver.)
music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-sweet-s...
B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . Hard days ver.)
music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-hard-da...
::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note: I gave a brief explanation of this novel in the following video:
youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV
My new novel:
B♭ (B-flat)
Notes
1. "Bombay Blood Type (hh type)"
•Characteristics: A rare blood type that lacks the usual ABO antigens — cannot be classified as A, B, or O.
•Discovery: First identified in 1952 in Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay).
•Prevalence: Roughly 1 in 10,000 people in India; globally, about 1 in 2.5 million.
•Transfusion Compatibility: Only compatible with blood from other Bombay type donors.
2. 2024 Harvard University Valedictorian Speech – The Power of Not Knowing
youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K
3. Shots Fired at Trump Rally
youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT
Mitsushiro Nakagawa belong to Lot No. 402 _.Copyright©︎2026 Lot No.402_ All rights reserved.
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Title:
KEYLEX
今日は、僕の新しい小説の冒頭をアップロードします。
ほぼ、最終稿です。
（日本語のあらすじ等は下の方にあります😃）
B♭ ( B - Flat ) （1／９）【プロローグ】〈予兆〉
Mitsushiro Nakagawa, with ChatGPT 5.2
――恋に落ちる理由は、人によって違うけれど、恋に落ちていたとあとになって気づくことに、理由は要らない。
それを、私はほんとうの恋だと思う。
できればその瞬間、どこかから白く滲んだ光が差し込んでいたら、もっとわかりやすいのに。淡い光は人を包んで、忘れていた記憶をそっと呼び戻す。瞼を透かして、胸の奥まで照らしてしまう。
名も知らない誰かと出会い、その人のことを深く知るために――光は、ときどき必要だ。
その光はとても柔らかくてやさしいのに、あとから胸の奥に、そっと傷跡を残す。痛みはいずれ癒え、誰かを包み込むー
― ウィリアムズバーグ、ブルックリン、ニューヨーク ―
やわらかな光が、倉庫の高窓から差し込んでいた。昼近くだというのに、まだ目を覚ましきれないような淡い白さだ。床のざらついたコンクリートの上に、まばゆさがひっそり滲んでいるのを見て、搬入していたアナヤは一瞬足を止め、目を逸らした。
白いガムテープで四方に切られたブースの合間を、アーティストたちが忙しなく行き交っていた。半開きの搬入口からは低音の効いたヒップホップが流れ込み、床も壁も小さく震えている。シャッターの隙間から射す線のような陽が埃を金色に舞わせていた。
通路際の床に貼られた白いテープには『Sieve（シーヴ）』とある。アナとミカが予約したブース名だ。
アナヤが抱えてきたデッサンのノートを床へ並べていると、若いスーツの男が腰を落とした。無造作に積まれたノートの山から一冊抜き、頁をゆっくり繰っていく。褐色の肌の頬には、青い瞳が浮かんでいた。アナヤと同じ中東系の男性のようだった。彼の穏やかな視線が、描かれた作品の線をゆっくり辿っていた。
男は、アナの気配に気づくと微笑んだ。
「この作品は、君の？」
「ええ、私です」
「どうして鉛筆で？ ラフスケッチ？」
彼が見ていたのは、恋人アルジュンの横顔だった。窓際でノートパソコンに向かい、解けないものを解こうとしている真摯な目。いつも数字の羅列や幾何学模様の並んだプログラムの難しいディスプレイを熱く見つめている彼の眼差しにアナヤは惹かれていた。
窓から差し込んだ光の角度が、いまもアナの瞼の裏に鮮明に残っている。
「下書きじゃなくて、完成です。身近な道具が好きで……」
男は短く頷いた。笑うとき、目だけが先に笑って、口元が少し遅れた。
「男性は彼？」
「はい」
「そうなんだ。少し残念だな」
言い方は軽いのに、視線は硬かった。男は次の頁を繰った。
「こっちは…… 君のお母さん？」
アナは近づき、母の横顔を見た。キッチンの窓辺で、少し俯いている。あの頃の家の匂いが、胸の奥でふっと立ち上がった。スパイスと、焼ける油の気配だ。
母、サンギータがキッチンに立つと、家中がスパイスと香ばしいフェヌグリークの香りに包まれた。冬になると必ず作る「ウンディユ」は、祖母の代から伝わるレシピだった。ヒンドゥー教徒時代の伝統的な家庭料理で、改宗しても変わらなかったのは、この料理に込めた“家族の円”の記憶が消えなかったからだ。
アナヤにとって、それはインドの乾いた土の香りそのものだった。
「ええ、母です」
男は、触れるか触れないかの距離で、人差し指を絵の目元に滑らせた。
「……素晴らしい眼だ」
声は掠れていた。アナの胸がわずかにざわめいた。まるで描いた意図が、彼の発した言葉の前にあった、彼の眼差しから直接感じ取っていたようだった。
ミカが明るい笑顔のまま駆けてきた。小さな背中にF30のキャンバスを背負っている。彼女の背中のほぼ倍の大きさで、一枚の翼のようにも見えた。
「よかったら私のも見て。私はミカ」
人見知りをしないミカの軽やかな声に、男は手を差し出した。
「――僕はアミール。アミール・ナッセル」
彼はそう名乗って、口元だけをわずかに緩めた。笑みと呼ぶにはまだ淡かった。
澄んだ青い瞳を見返した瞬間、アナの胸のどこかで、幼いころに見た海がひらいた。波の立たない、煌めいた水平線――そんな錯覚が、遠い記憶から差し込んできた。
忙しなさが増した通路を、スマートフォンを打ち込みながら、足早にもう一人の男がやってきた。首元に濃い影を抱え、年上の気配が漂っていた。彼はアナを一瞥すると、アミールの耳元へ低い声を落とした。
「どうした。問題か？」
「いや」
アミールは穏やかに答えたが、その“穏やかさ”に静けさはなかった。
「ふたりともありがとう。また土曜日に」
アミールは再び笑顔を戻し、二人へそう言い、背を向けた。連れの男――ラフィが、最後まで固い目でアミールを睨んでいる。
去り際、アナはほんの一瞬だけ手にしていたラフィの画面が目に触れた。数字が幾何学的に並んでいた。数字は直線に並ばず、円弧に沿って整列していた。その小さな羅列には規則性があるようで角度と距離が正確に光っていた。
去っていく後ろ姿を見送りながら、ミカが何気なくつぶやいた。
「ねえ、あの二人…… お金の匂いしない？ しかも“派手”じゃなくて、シックに高価」
「どういう意味？」
「スーツ、触らなくてもわかるわ。生地が違う。――それに、今夜ガーデンで全国大会でしょ。関係者かな」
アナは「そうなんだ」と適当に返した。
展示会場のざわめきが更に増していた。光と影が折り重なる中で、喧騒の空気を熱くしていた。
だが、溢れる熱気の中で、アナにはひとつ戻らない感触があった。天窓から差し込んでいた白い光が、さっきよりも少し薄くなり、床の重い影に吸い込まれたようだった。
― ペン・プラザ、マンハッタン、ニューヨーク ―
午後一時を少し回ったころ、車列の影が第７番街をゆっくり滑り込んできた。警護車のボンネットに反射した陽光が、ビルの窓面を一瞬白く染めた。
助手席のジャック・ヴァンスは腕時計を見た。秒針の振動が、手首から胸へ微かな震えとして伝わってくる。
マジソン・スクエア・ガーデンには、人の流れと信号の点滅で、常に小さな渦ができていた。屋台の鉄板から立つ焦げと脂の匂いが、湿った空気に貼りつく。車線の向こうで、細いサックスが一音だけ伸びては切れ、喧噪の輪郭をいっそう鋭くした。ガーデンを撮影している観光客のスマートフォンの画面の群れが、現実より鮮やかにジャックには思えた。
ペン・プラザの外壁を覆う大型ビジョンには、《新・350 Park Avenue 再開発計画、始動》の文字列が淡々と、執拗に流れていた。背後の映像では建設途上の鉄骨が空を貫き、利益と成長の名のもとに組み上げられる資本主義の記念碑のように屹立している。それは、ジャックの生活圏とは交わらない未来だ。
だが、その文字列が一巡する前に、速報が割り込んだ。
『続いてニュース速報です。五年前に不正アクセスを受けた北朝鮮系の暗号資産をめぐり、追跡されたアクセス経路の一部が米国を経由していたと、朝鮮民主主義人民共和国の国営通信が報じました。声明は、「我が国の主権を侵す犯罪者には毅然として対処する」としています。』
大型ビジョンの下にある歩道は、人の流れがいつもより少し速い気がした。誰もがどこかへ急ぎ、足音だけが重なって、音の輪郭が曖昧になっていくようだった。今夜、ガーデンで演説する共和党大統領候補の警護を控えたジャックには、この速さがただの高揚には見えなかった。
その雑踏の縁を、グリッドウェイが一台、信号の切り替わりに合わせて滑り出した。グリッドウェイ・オートノマス・モビリティ社が昨年投入した自動運転タクシーは現在、マンハッタンを縦横無尽に駆け巡って大盛況だ。料金も安く、煩わしい運転手との関係もない。車体の脇に小さな「G」と、マンハッタンのグリッドを象徴する細い線が交差する格子の印が見えた。無人の車は、ジャックらを追い越し、ただの風景として街に吸い込まれていった。
その上空で、ガラスに反射した小さな影が一瞬揺れた。羽音は聞こえない。それでも、何かが見ている気配だけが残った。
ジャックは視線を動かさずに、影の位置だけを頭の中でなぞった。FBIの警護用UASセルだ。今回の警護のために、監視用ドローンが数台、ビルの合間を行き交っている。そう思った瞬間、街の喧噪が安堵の膜に覆われ、一枚隔てた向こうへ退いた。
ジャックは束の間目を閉じた。耳の裏の血流を感じた。沈黙の底流に潜んでいる任務の鼓動が微かに鳴った。警護は、目で見る仕事ではない。違和感を拾い、形になる前に潰す仕事だ。胸の内で、薄い膜が引きつるように緊張した。
ジャックは目を開くと、眼差しはもう都市の風景ではなく、別の何かを見据えていた。
― ビバリーヒルズ、ロサンゼルス ―
夕陽が丘を滑り落ちるころ、会員制レストラン〈サフロン・コート〉の重厚な扉の向こうで、空気が静かに重くたなびいていた。白布のテーブルに身を寄せた会員たちの銀食器が、触れては離れ、また触れた。その微かな金属音だけが、建物の奥で眠る心臓の鼓動みたいに、ゆっくり反復していく。
マジード・ハムザと彼のチームの卓には会話が欠けていた。誰も表情を崩さず、呼吸だけを整えている。
テーブル中央に置かれた黒光りの小型装置――幽声機《Whisper-04》が、場の中心を奪っていた。マジードがダイヤルに指を触れると、クリックの震えが掌へ返った。
「……0.4秒。間違いなく」
囁きは声帯を通らず、空気の表面だけを揺らした。装置が放ったものは音ではなく、沈黙の刃だった。
「Initiate（始めろ）」
命令は、言葉の形になる前に、電波の震えとなって夜の静寂へ滑り落ちた。
海を越えたのではない――いったん空へ逃げ、夜空の高みで幾度か跳ね返り、ニューヨークの倉庫の暗がりへ落ちていく合図だ。
マジードの手にしたタブレットに、淡い数字の弧がひと息だけ浮かんだ。直線ではなく、円弧に沿って並んでいる。彼はすぐに画面を伏せた。
テーブルの端で、サミラがスマートフォンに指を走らせ、画面を閉じた。数字とアルファベットの列が消え、熱だけが指先に残った。祈りのように静かな手つきだった。彼女は息をひとつ落とし、視線だけを動かした。
リナは、短波でニューヨークへ送った合図の点滅を見つめながら、周囲の歓談の笑い声からスマホを隠すように、グラスの影へ沈めた。週末の笑いの波が満ちているのに、この卓だけが、笑いに遅れたまま硬い。彼女は手元へ視線を戻した。
リナのアプリは、ひとりずつのための小さな相談室だった。相手の言葉を否定せず、同じ温度で抱きしめる声。左へ傾く者には左のまま寄り添い、右へ傾く者には右のまま頷く――誰もが欲しいのは、反論ではなく肯定だと知っている。
肯定の糸は、やがて胸の奥で固く結び目になり、ほどけない溝だけを深くしていった。煽る必要さえない。受け入れられた瞬間、考えは芯を得て、静かに硬化するのだ。
レストランを満たす笑い声は続いているのに、このテーブルの周りだけ、音が一段薄くなっていた。
― レッドフック、ブルックリン、ニューヨーク ―
潮を含んだ錆の鉄扉が、かすかに震えた。倉庫の中は暗く、差し込んだ街灯の残照だけが床のコンクリートに細い線を引いている。長い年月によって床へ染み込んだ油と埃の匂いが、ゆっくりと肺に入ってきた。
アミール・ナッセルは薄闇の中で膝を折り、作業台の赤い点滅を見つめていた。規則正しいそれは、深い沈黙の中に埋もれている。点いては消える光が、彼の記憶を掬い上げていた。
アミールはゆっくり立ち上がると、テーブルにあった黒い筐体の角に触れた。冷たい感触が記憶を鮮明にした。短波を拾う黒い筐体、《Whisper-04》。耳で拾えないものを受け止めるための薄い器官だ。
アミールは自作したそれに触れながら、呟いた。
「……ヤーラ」
妹の名が祈りのようについて出たが、祈りには届かず、作業場の隅の闇へ吸い込まれていった。
そのとき、空気がわずかに沈んだ。音ではない。匂いでもない。だが何かが“届いた”感触だけがあった。W-04の赤い点滅が、一拍だけ遅れた。緊張していたアミールの喉の奥は、ひどく乾き、ひりついていた。
倉庫の扉が軋んだ。忍んできた足音は重く、乱れてはいない。
ラフィだった。作業着には鉄粉が散り、昼の喧噪をまだ抱えていた。
倉庫の奥で、ユスフが小さなランタンに火を灯した。一瞬、炎が揺れ、暗がりに薄い輪郭を浮かせては消えている。
「遅かったな」
アミールが赤い点滅を見やったまま、いった。
「監督がしつこくてな。だが――“設置”は予定通り終えた」
疲れの滲んだ声で、ラフィは、見入っているアミールの赤い点滅を一瞥した。
「そっちは？」
「動作確認は済んだ。動いてる。安定してる。五年前に作ったものを、いま作り直した。……手が覚えてる。マジードは『始めろ』だって。せっかちな奴だ」
作業台の端の暗がりにいたレイラのヘッドホンの片耳がわずかにずれ、金具が冷たい光を返した。コーヒーを手にして隣の倉庫からやってきたナディールがそれを差し出し、無言で掛け直してやった。レイラは“音のない音”に再び耳を澄ませ、じっと赤い点滅に見入っている。
もう一度、扉が鳴った。ロハンが入ってきた。袖をまくり、手にしたビジネスバッグの革に、外の熱がまだじっとりと残っている。
「……教授は？」
ラフィが訊いた。
ロハンは答える前に、視線を伏せた。その沈黙がひどく長く感じられ、アミールらは気づかぬうちに息を止めた。
「ザカリア教授は―― 隣の、準備した倉庫へ直接向かった。言づけだ。“すべてを、お前たちに託す”と」
アミールの胸の奥に、冷たい針が刺さった。もちろんアミールだけではなく、ラフィもユスフもレイラもナディールもだ。
暗がりの隅で、ナディールが小さな布の包みを開いた。白いガーゼと消毒の匂いが一瞬だけ立ち、すぐに油と埃に呑まれた。
薄いライトの火が揺れ、影が床に長く伸びて重なった。
W-04の赤い点滅は、狂うことなく正確に刻んでいる。
ラフィが掠れた声で言った。
「……自戒の意味を教えよう。この国に」
アミールも誰も返答はしなかった。
その沈黙が、選んだ道の輪郭をはっきり描いていた。
【本作品の著作権は Mitsushiro Nakagawa に帰属します。
内容の全部または一部を、著者の許可なく複製・転載・改変することを禁じます。】
予告
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僕の新しい小説
B♭ （ビーフラット） ……. Mitsushiro Nakagawa
“あらすじ”
北朝鮮の仮想通貨システムをハッキングし、数億ドルを奪取したガザ出身のパレスチナ人グループが、アメリカ合衆国へ密かに潜入する。
彼らの目的は、失われた祖国ガザを、アメリカの地に「復元」することだった。
共和党による強硬な移民政策と、国内にくすぶる排外感情を利用し、アメリカ社会を内側から崩壊させる計画が静かに進行していく。
共和党大統領候補ジャスティン・ブラッドフォードがマディソン・スクエア・ガーデンで演説中に狙撃され、ほぼ同時刻、ロサンゼルスでは前大統領オーウェン・リードもまた、民主党候補ライアン・ベネットの集会で撃たれる。
国家を二分する双方向の暗殺。だが、ジャスティンは奇跡的に生還する。
彼の血液型は、世界でわずか250万人に一人といわれる「ボンベイブラッド」。
その希少な血を提供できたのは、ブルックリンで活動するコミュニティアート・ファシリテーター、アナヤ・パテルだった。
彼女の血液はベルビュー病院の血液バンクに保存されており、緊急輸血によって、候補者の命はかろうじて繋がれた。
シークレットサービスのジャック・バンスは、テロの背後にガザ出身の組織が関与していることを察知し、FBIロサンゼルス支局長官キャメロン・バートレット、ニューヨーク支局の特別捜査官ヴェロニカ・リーブスと共に捜査を進める。
やがて彼らは、イスラム大学で建築学を学んだラフィ・ガンナムが、ロサンゼルスやニューヨークの再開発現場に潜入し、梁や構造体の中枢にC4爆薬を仕込んでいた事実に辿り着く。
標的は、ICE（移民・関税執行局）やERO（執行・送還作戦部門）の職員が暮らす新興住宅街——すなわち、「アメリカが築いた秩序」そのものだった。
ヴェロニカは、これ以上の破壊を防ぐため、大統領への対話を進言するが、現職のグラント・ランフォード大統領は耳を貸さない。
一方、命を取り留めたジャスティンと民主党候補ライアンは、テレビを通じて国民に訴えかけ、分断を乗り越えようとする。
だが、その理性の声を嘲笑うかのように、グラントはアイオワ州での演説を強行し、「テロには屈しない」と宣言する。
その会場には、すでにラフィの仲間が率いる工作チームが潜入していた。
崩壊する会場の惨状を前に、仲間の一人アミール・ナッセルは、かつてガザで妹を失った記憶に引き裂かれ、破壊の連鎖を止めようとする。
だが、ラフィの信念は揺るがない。
ウィリアムズバーグ橋の下、夕暮れの喧騒のなか、二人は決別する。
それは、祈りと報復、希望と虚無の境界線だった——。
“登場人物”
アナヤ・パテル ２５歳 コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター
アルジュン・シン ２６歳 アナヤの恋人・ルミナテック・イノベーションズ社
佐藤 ミカ ２５歳 アナの友人・コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター
ジャスティン・ブラッドフォード ２７歳 共和党大統領候補
エリノア・ブレイク ２６歳 ジャスティンの婚約者
グラント・M・ランフォード大統領 ６１歳 共和党大統領現職
チャールズ・ベインズ副大統領 ６４歳 共和党副大統領現職
ライアン・ベネット ３０歳 民主党大統領候補
ソフィア・ベネット ３０歳 ライアンの妻
オーウェン・リード ６５歳 民主党前大統領
ジャック・バンス ４５歳 シークレットサービス 元FBIロサンゼルス支局
ベン・ホロウェイ ３０歳 ジャックの同僚
ダリル・ロス ２９歳 ジャックの同僚
イライジャ・ケイン ２８歳 ジャックの同僚
マーカス・デイン ４５歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局
キャメロン・バートレット ５５歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局 支局長
トム・コールドウェル ３８歳 FBI技術班 マーカスの部下
ヴェロニカ・リーヴス ４１歳 FBI特別捜査官
アレクサンダー・ハリス ５２歳 FBI ニューヨーク支局 支局長
エリオット・チェン ３６歳 テクノロジー班主任
アリシア・モンロー ５８歳 FBI長官
ザカリア・ハッダード ５１歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 工学部教授 ニューヨークチーム
アミール・ナッセル ２３歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 電子工学部 ニューヨークチーム
ラフィ・ガンナム ３２歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム
ロハン・シャー ２９歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム
マジード・ハムザ ４７歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 情報技術学部 ロサンゼルスチーム
サミラ・ハンマド ２８歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 工学部 ロサンゼルスチーム
サイード・カバリ ３５歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 経営学部 ロサンゼルスチーム
リーム・ナセル ３０歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 メディア学部 ロサンゼルスチーム
ノア・レヴィ 55歳 イスラエル テルアビブ在住 ユダヤ人
本作品の著作権は Mitsushiro Nakagawa に帰属します。
内容の全部または一部を、著者の許可なく複製・転載・改変することを禁じます。
僕のこの小説は、来年、２０２６年２月末日に公開します。
先日、リドリースコット監督がサブスクの映画やドラマ群がつまらないと話していたようだけど、同感です。
僕も非常に退屈です。
それらに2時間を要するなら、僕の小説を２分間だけ読んで欲しい。
その2分間は、２時間を越えるでしょう。
僕は自信があります。
ぜひ、期待してお待ちください。
Mitsushiro Nakagawa
09th. Oct . 2025.
追伸
ネトフリに挑戦する男、みっちゃん。😃
( 富士フィルム GFX50R shot )
東京駅。地下 1-4 番線総武線 近辺 shot …. 8 / 20
（特急の出発まで、３０分ほどあったので撮影しました。）
(今日の写真。それは未発表です。小説の内容とは無関係です。）
Images.
Nosaj Thing - Blue Hour ft Julianna Barwick
youtu.be/IQhwGGarWfI?si=jfBxafBjpEnosCSo
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僕の新しい小説。
B♭ （ビーフラット）
舞台はニューヨークです。
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:: Soundtrack ::
B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack )
music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...
B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . For Japanese)
music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...
B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . Sweet Summer rain ver.)
music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-sweet-s...
B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . Hard days ver.)
music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-hard-da...
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Note: I gave a brief explanation of this novel in the following video:
youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV
追記 この小説を多少説明しました。
youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV
メモ
1
「Bombay型（ボンベイ型、hh型）」
•特徴：通常のABO血液型を持たない（A、B、Oに分類されない）特殊な型。
•発見地：1952年、インド・ムンバイ（旧ボンベイ）で初めて確認。
•発生頻度：インドでは1万人に1人程度だが、世界的には約250万人に1人とも。
•輸血制限：同じBombay型しか輸血できない。
2
2024年ハーバード大学首席の卒業式スピーチ『知らないことの力』
youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K
3
Shots fired at Trump rally
youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT
Mitsushiro Nakagawa belong to Lot No. 402 _.Copyright©︎2026 Lot No.402_ All rights reserved.
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Typography featured in the popular Design Blog of Abduzeedo. Check it out here: abduzeedo.com/typography-mania-105
For more Christian inspirational images and Wallpapers for your electronic devices (Ipads, Desktops, Phones) please visit www.wallpapersavenue.com
With a low key filter treatment. The device in the foreground is a Ewbank Treasure mangle for drying clothes and occasionally crushing fingers.
Icons of Sound: Cappella Romana in a virtual Hagia Sophia -
Cherubic Hymn in Mode 1
Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics and the Art & Art History Department
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photo:
Hagia Sophia
Ayasofya, Fatih, Istanbul
Αγία Σοφία (Κωνσταντινούπολη)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia
www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-hagia-sophia
www.byzantium1200.com/hagia.html
www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/a-monumental-struggle-to-pr...
www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/moving-image-collecti...
Translucent cobalt blue; handles in same color.
On shoulder, six palmettes with alternating inward and outward facing leaves at angles, and six recessed semicircular pediments with thick raised rib-like edges on panels, decorated alternately with circular bosses comprising two small concentric circles and a central dot and a plain four-armed cross; on body, six panels, each surrounded by raised lines and each containing a different device: 1) Greek inscription in three lines; 2) palmette with inward facing leaves above suspended tendrils at either side tied into a loop below to support a bunch of grapes; 3) ivy tendrils hanging from top corners supporting a cantharus by one of its handles; 4) palmette with outward facing leaves above suspended tendrils at either side tied into a loop below to support double flutes; 5) ivy tendrils hanging from top corners supporting a fluted oinochoe by its handle; 6) palmette with inward facing leaves above suspended tendrils at either side tied into a loop below to support a set of pipes; on bottom, four concentric raised circles. Broken on body and bottom, with one hole on bottom edge of shoulder, lower part of three panels, and slightly over half of bottom missing; few bubbles and black inclusions; some dulling and faint pitting, patches of creamy brown weathering with faint iridescence.
Shoulder and body blown in a three-part mold; separate mold for bottom. Inscribed in Greek: "Ennion made [me/it]".
Early Imperial, Julio-Claudian, 1st half of 1st century. Said to be from Potamia, near Golgoi, Cyprus.
Met Museum (81.10.224)
Musicians practice with metronomes to improve their timing.
A metronome is a device that produces an audible beat—a click or other sound—at regular intervals that the user can set in beats per minute (BPM).
The BOSS TU-80 brings super-accurate LCD tuning to musicians with features like a built-in metronome and Accu-Pitch. The metronome has 7 rhythms, 10 beats and an LCD display.
From the mean streets of New York, my friend Wendy brought me back a battery-operated bubble maker. I had no idea that bubble-making technology had advanced so far, and I had no idea that what my life, up til now, had been missing was one of these clever devices. You can keep your iPods and -Pads -- just give me my bubble maker.
In honor of the bubble maker, I am declaring this week Bubble Week. Prepare to be awash in a sea of bubbles (while I get this out of my system). Anyone care to join me? Let's all bubble!
Device: Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus
EXIF: samsung SM-G955F
ƒ/1.7
4.2 mm
1/1044
40
Flash (off, did not fire)
The interesting part was that the bicycle was not mine. It was someone else's. I took it and placed it wherever I liked and he had his eyes on me.
However, I and my friend Mezba use to roam around our town whenever we get any chance. In the afternoon, we went to housing project and made this photographic work.