View allAll Photos Tagged intercom
sur la ligne 9 à destination de Champs Plaisants (Sens), arrêt Gare SNCF, rue Émile Zola, Sens (Yonne (89), Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, FR)
This power station was built by the Intercom (now Electrabel) in 1921. Monceau sur Sambre was still an independent municipality and the new coal plant was one of the largest in Belgium. In the 50's and 60's, the plant was expanded and after Monceau sur Sambre in 1977 was added to the town of Charleroi this was the main supplier of energy in the region. Originally coal fired, the newer part ran on gas and stood for years standby for any emergencies. It was closed in 2007.
Es el viejo intercomunicador de mi casa... sonaba escandalosamente. Aqui en el edificio se les ocurrió cambiar el sistema. Ahora suena en el telefono y cuando suena se me va el internet, aparte es un codigo raro para cada apartamento... yo vivo en el apart 91 y el código es 34 (hay una lista en el tablero) pero la gente que va pal 34 siempre toca aquí... Lelos
De 140 843 in de richting Venlo op 22 juli 1997 ten oosten van Boisheim bij een een 'Rufschranke', een uitstervend fenomeen. Wie de normaal gesloten overweg wil passeren, vaak een boer met zijn trekker, neemt via een intercom (de gele kastjes) contact op met de seinhuiswachter. Als de kust veilig is, zal hij de bomen op afstand openen.
“Seedy - looking and bearded, Michael J. Vaccaro and Haydon Y. Grubbs Thursday emerged grinning from the confines of the tiny “moon rover” after 18 cramped days.
A moment before a Honeywell engineer had clicked on the intercom and told them, “Congratulations, it’s been a very successful test. You can egress now.”
“Roger, that’s the best news I’ve heard in 18 days,” shot back Grubbs.
Both of the NASA scientist - engineers were flabbergasted to find their boss, Dr. Wernher von Braun, and their wives waiting to greet them as they stepped out.”
Dr. von Braun, partially obscured by Mr. Vaccaro’s head (on the right), can be seen in the background.
Who knew? Did you? I didn’t!
Speaking of Lyn Grubbs - what a full wonderful life:
www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nwfdailynews/name/lyn-grubbs...
Credit: Legacy website
The following are pertinent extracts from an interim technical report entitled “MAN SYSTEM CRITERIA FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL ROVING VEHICLES, Phase IB—The LUNEX II Simulation”:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Mssrs. Haydon Y. Grubbs and Michael J. Vaccaro of the Systems Engineering Branch, Propulsion and Vehicle Engineering Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA, served as subjects during the experiment described herein. The pressure suits used during the experiments were provided by the Crew Systems Division, Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA. The cooperation and close support of these two centers was extremely helpful in the planning and conduct of the study…
ABSTRACT
An 18-day lunar surface mission was simulated under laboratory conditions with two NASA engineers as test subjects. The purpose of the simulation was to validate a minimum-volume cabin design for a lunar roving vehicle. The cabin contained a free volume of 3.26 cubic meters (i15. 3 cubic feet) in the main living space and 36 cubic meters (48 cubic feet) in the airlock. The cabin had a maximum floor-to-ceiling height of 166.0 centimeters (65.4 inches). The cabin was evaluated with subjects performing representative scientific and mission-oriented tasks in accordance with crew mission timelines developed in connection with this study. A 16-hour on and 8-hour off work-rest schedule was used. Subjects were given a 3000-calorie per day diet provided in four meals per day.
The subjects were evaluated by performance and physiological measures. Driving, monitoring, navigation, sample measurement and audio balancing tasks were performed. Selected geophysical tasks requiring simple but realistic measures contributed to simulation realism. Subjects' maximum oxygen capacity and the associated heart and respiratory rates were obtained before and immediately after the simulation by measuring oxygen consumption during graded treadmill runs. By this means, each subject was physiologically calibrated and pre- and post-simulation physical fitness evaluated. Throughout the simulation heart and respiratory rates were also taken continuously via a biotelemetry system.
Water balance and urine analyses were performed. Selected simulated emergencies were performed to evaluate the interaction of the subjects in pressurized state-of-the-art Apollo suits with the vehicle interior volumes and workspace layout. Subjects performed daily extravehicular activities while wearing inflated pressure suits. Representative physiological stresses were obtained during extravehicular activities by performing walks up to 4.15 kilometers per hour (2.6 miles per hour) on a treadmill while wearing inflated pressure suits. All simulated tasks were performed at 1 atmosphere pressure. The performance data was analyzed by simple statistics, daily means and standard deviations being calculated by computer for each principal task. Graphical analysis was used to evaluate trends or irregularities in the task data.
No adverse trends or marked irregularities were noted in the performance data of either subject throughout the 18-day simulation. Both subjects maintained satisfactory performance levels and physical condition throughout the simulation with no adverse effects attributable to the extended period of living and working in the vehicle simulator being observed.”
At:
ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19660028019/downloads/1966002...
Additional photos/information:
www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum27/HTML/004950.html
Credit: collectSPACE website
Lots of COOL stuff:
caseantiques.com/item/lot-633-large-nasa-related-archive-...
Credit: Case Antiques website
Detail of unusual permanent coupling, including the intercom, of the DMU 592 series of five cars (9-592-025 + 8-592-014 + 9-592-026 + 8-592-021 + 9-592-031 ). It was formed by permanent attachment of a motor car and an intermediate trailer remaining of an DMU who had an accident with another normal DMU with three cars. You can see the entire train in www.flickr.com/photos/47704640@N02/8312848373/in/photostr.... (Image scanned from an original paper).
Detalle del inhabitual acoplamiento permanente, incluída la intercomunicación, de la UT diésel de cinco coches de la serie 592 (9-592-025 + 8-592-014 + 9-592-026 + 8-592-021 + 9-592-031). Se formó por acoplamiento permanente de un coche motor y un remolque intermedio restantes de una UT que sufrió un accidente con otra UT normal de tres coches. El tren entero puede verse en www.flickr.com/photos/47704640@N02/8312848373/in/photostr.... (Foto escaneada de un original de papel).
Construite en 1921, cette centrale thermique d'Electrabel (originalement Intercom) située en région wallonne produisait d’énormes quantités d’énergie à partir de charbon. Responsable de 10% des émissions de CO2 de Belgique à elle-seule, l’usine a été fermée définitivement en 2007. Étendue sur une dizaine d'hectares, cette centrale est notamment formée d'un bâtiment principal et d'une tour de refroidissement, auxquels se rajoutent des bâtiments administratifs et une annexe munie d'une turbine de secours construits dans les années 60. Aujourd'hui la propriété de la société WANTY, cette centrale et surtout sa tour de refroidissement sont la proie d'urbexeurs venant du monde entier.
sur la ligne 10 à destination de Porte de Bourgogne (Sens), rue de l’Écrivain, Sens (Yonne (89), Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, FR)
sur la ligne 1 à destination de Paron – Collège, avenue de la Gare, Sens (Yonne (89), Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, FR)
After the power plant and the cooling tower, here come pictures of the offices, including the baths, cafeteria as well as workshops. And, a little farther, a former Intercom coal distributor (big metallic structure).
Après la centrale thermique à proprement parler et la tour de refroidissement, voici un album sur les bureaux de la centrale, comprenant les bains-douches, la cafétéria ainsi que des ateliers. Et, un peu plus loin, un ancien distributeur à charbon d'Intercom (grande structure métallique).
After the power plant and the cooling tower, here come pictures of the offices, including the baths, cafeteria as well as workshops. And, a little farther, a former Intercom coal distributor (big metallic structure).
Après la centrale thermique à proprement parler et la tour de refroidissement, voici un album sur les bureaux de la centrale, comprenant les bains-douches, la cafétéria ainsi que des ateliers. Et, un peu plus loin, un ancien distributeur à charbon d'Intercom (grande structure métallique).
Futuristische Gegensprechanlage an den Häusern von J.J.F. Oud in der Weißenhofsiedlung/Stuttgart.
I appreciate every comment on my photos, but please do not add invites with gaudy images bigger than thumbnail-size or any animated gifs - thank you!
sur la ligne 1 à destination de Paron – Collège, rue Émile Zola, Sens (Yonne (89), Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, FR)
Fredricks: (Intercom) "It's not enough to simply show humility. We will continue to push our limits and demonstrate our ability to adapt to new challenges and new horizons. When this Galactic Alliance is forged, it will be the dawn of a new day for us all. So please, bear with me in this lengthy address. For now, as the only representatives of the Federation, I expect each and every one of you to give me your all, and I promise the same in return."
Shi'fah: "I hope you don't mind my dropping in. The red outfit suits you. Congratulations."
Frankie: "Thanks Princey. I'm just doing a little light maintenance on my gear what can I do you for?"
Shi'fah: "Interesting speech the Captain's giving. He's quite the visionary."
Frankie: Fredricks is a good guy and will be a great Captain. I mean hey, you guys got your moon base right? Seems like the universe is pretty square."
Shi'fah: "The universe may be square Frankie, but Blacktron has not forgotten what is due. I brought you a little gift, you know, in the name of peace. Enjoy."
Intercom: Attention! The mandatory STD warning has taken effect. Institute scientists, coursers and synths are required to remove all articles of clothing until the offended parties are isolated. Children are not required to participate. Suspicion will be levied against you if you ignore this warning, or lock yourselves in your quarters.
P5-C4: Is this some kind of prank?
R4-04: Nope! I'll bet you it was one of those damn Coursers. They're the only ones coming back from the surface.
Without the keypad, this would have held an intercom's handset. If you are of a certain age, are keeping score, and want this thing rattling around in your head for a few hours, it was The Orlons, in 1962. One of three gold records for the group.
Fredricks: (Intercom) "Attention everyone. I'd like to take a moment to personally address all of you, the crew of the USF Gallus. I have no doubt you may have questions as to the recent events that have occurred. Lay your doubts to rest, I have a clear vision as to how we shall proceed in the future. The peace we have started with the Viridian Empire is but the first step in what I would like to call the Galactic Alliance."
Dr. Weathers: "Alright the nanomites are 87% finished repairing the fractures in your rib cage. The plasmoid gel has done wonders for healing your burns."
Cade: "I feel good as new thanks to your healing hands."
Dr. Weathers: "At ease soldier. Now, get plenty of rest for another seven days and you should be good as new. The nanomites will flush themselves out of your system on their own."
Cade: "So I'm going to pee tiny robots? Excellent. Gotta love technology huh?"
Jett: "Sir, if you're done flirting, we have to be going."
Cade: "So how long is the Gallus expected to be out of the area?"
Dr. Weathers: "No idea. The new Captain didn't give a timetable."
Cade: "Well you have my number."
ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 was a regularly scheduled flight from Miami to Atlanta in the United States. On May 11, 1996, the ValuJet Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9 (N904VJ) operating the route crashed into the Florida Everglades about 10 minutes after departing Miami due to a fire in the cargo compartment. The fire was caused by mislabeled and improperly stored hazardous cargo (oxygen generators). All 110 people on board were killed.
ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 was a regularly scheduled flight from Miami to Atlanta in the United States. On May 11, 1996, the ValuJet Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the route crashed into the Florida Everglades about 10 minutes after departing Miami due to a fire in the cargo compartment. The fire was caused by mislabeled and improperly stored hazardous cargo (oxygen generators). All 110 people on board were killed.
On the afternoon of May 11, 1996, Flight 592 left Gate G2 in Miami after a delay of one hour and four minutes because of electrical problems.[1] There were 110 people on board: 105 passengers, mainly from Florida and Georgia, and a crew of two pilots and three flight attendants. At 2:04 p.m. EDT, the DC-9 departed from Runway 9L (now Runway 8R) and began a normal climb.
At 2:10 p.m., the passengers began to smell smoke. At the same time, the pilots heard a loud bang in their headsets and noticed that the plane was losing electrical power. The sag in electrical power and the banging sound were eventually determined to be the result of an explosion of a tire in the cargo hold. Seconds later, a flight attendant entered the cockpit and informed the flight crew of a fire in the passenger cabin. Passengers' shouts of "fire, fire, fire" were recorded on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) when the cockpit door was opened. Although ValuJet's flight-attendant training manual stated that the cockpit door should not be opened when smoke or other harmful gases might be present in the cabin, the intercom was not functional and there was no other way to alert the pilots. The flight data recorder (FDR) indicated a progressive failure of the DC-9's electrical and flight control systems resulting from the spreading fire.
Kubeck and Hazen immediately asked air traffic control to return to Miami and were given instructions for a return to the airport. One minute later, Hazen requested the nearest available airport. Kubeck began to turn the plane left in preparation for the return to Miami.
Flight 592 disappeared from radar when it crashed at 2:13:42 p.m., about ten minutes after takeoff.
Eyewitnesses watched as the plane banked sharply, rolled onto its side and nosedived into the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area in the Everglades, a few miles west of Miami, at a speed in excess of 507 miles per hour (441 kn; 816 km/h). According to the NTSB's report, two witnesses fishing nearby testified that "they saw a low-flying airplane in a steep right bank. According to these witnesses, as the right bank angle increased, the nose of the airplane dropped and continued downward. The airplane struck the ground in a nearly vertical attitude."[1]: 4 They reported seeing no external damage nor any sign of fire or smoke other than the engine exhaust. A group of sightseers in a small private plane also witnessed the crash and provided a nearly identical account, stating that Flight 592 seemed to "disappear" after hitting the swamp and that they could see nothing but scattered small debris, part of an engine and a large pool of jet fuel near the crash site.
Kubeck had lost control of the plane less than 10 seconds before impact. Examination of debris suggested that the fire had burned through the floorboards in the cabin, resulting in structural failure and damage to cables underneath the instrument panels. The NTSB report on the accident stated that "the Safety Board cannot rule out the possibility that the flightcrew was incapacitated by smoke or heat in the cockpit during the last 7 seconds of the flight."[1]: 107 Interruptions in the cockpit voice recorder occurred on two occasions, one of which was one minute and 12 seconds in length.[1]: 174 The aircraft hit the water at 2:13:42 p.m. EDT, about 10 minutes after takeoff. The impact site was on the eastern edge of Florida Water Conservation Area 3B, between two levees, in an area known as the L-67 Pocket.[1]: 4 [10]
All on board were killed in the crash. Recovery of the aircraft and victims was severely complicated by the location of the crash. The nearest road of any kind was more than a quarter of a mile (400 m) away from the crash scene, and the location of the crash itself was a deep-water swamp with a floor of solid limestone. The aircraft was destroyed on impact, with no large pieces of the fuselage remaining. Sawgrass, alligators and risk of bacterial infection from cuts plagued searchers involved in the recovery effort.
At the end of a 15-month investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the fire had developed in a cargo compartment below the passenger cabin.[1] The cargo compartment was of a Class D design, in which fire suppression is accomplished by sealing the hold from outside air. Any fire in such an airtight compartment would quickly exhaust all available oxidizers and then extinguish itself. As the fire suppression can be accomplished without any intervention by the crew, such holds are not equipped with smoke detectors.
The NTSB determined that just before takeoff, 144 expired chemical oxygen generators, each slightly larger than the size of a tennis-ball can, had been placed in the cargo compartment in five boxes marked COMAT (company material) by ValuJet's maintenance contractor SabreTech.[14] This violated Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations forbidding the transport of hazardous materials in passenger-aircraft cargo holds.[a] Failure to cover the generators' firing pins with the prescribed plastic caps made accidental activation much more likely. The investigation revealed that rather than covering the pins, maintenance personnel simply cut the cords attached to the pins or applied duct tape around the cans, and consumer-grade adhesive tape was also used to secure the ends. SabreTech employees indicated on the cargo manifest that the "oxy canisters", which were loosely packed in boxes that were each sealed with tape and bubble wrap, were "empty." ValuJet workers then loaded the boxes in the cargo hold in the mistaken belief that the devices were simply empty canisters that would be safe and legal to transport on a passenger aircraft.[15]
Chemical oxygen generators, when activated, produce oxygen for passengers if the plane suffers a decompression. However, they also produce a great quantity of heat because of the exothermic nature of the chemical reaction involved. Therefore, not only could the heat and generated oxygen start a fire, but the oxygen could also keep the fire burning.
Investigators determined that one of the oxygen generators was likely triggered when the plane experienced a slight jolt while taxiing. As the aircraft taxied and took off, the generator began releasing heat that caused other canisters to activate. Each activation created more heat, which rapidly caused all of the generators to activate. The intense heat ignited a fire in the other materials in the cargo hold. The fire was worsened by the presence of two main aircraft tires, one of them mounted on a main wheel, and a nose tire and wheel that were also included in the list of materials shipped as COMAT.
Laboratory testing showed that canisters of the same type could heat nearby materials up to 500 °F (260 °C). The oxygen from the generators fed the resulting fire in the cargo hold without any need for outside air, defeating the cargo hold's airtight design. A pop and jolt heard on the cockpit voice recording and correlated with a brief and dramatic spike in the altimeter reading in the flight data recording were attributed to the sudden cabin-pressure change caused by one of the wheels in the cargo hold exploding from the heat.[15] Investigators also determined that in this process, the fire began to destroy control cables that ran to the back of the aircraft, which explained why the pilots began losing control before the plane crashed. The NTSB concluded that the aircraft was under positive control by the pilots until the time of the sharp right turn and dive immediately prior to impact.[1]
Regulatory change
Smoke detectors in the cargo holds can alert the flight crew of a fire long before the problem becomes apparent in the cabin, and a fire-suppression system buys valuable time to land the plane safely. This would prevent a scenario similar to Flight 592 in which the emergency had escalated well beyond the flight crew's ability to respond by the time that the problem had become apparent. In February 1998, the FAA issued revised standards requiring all Class D cargo holds to be converted by early 2001 to Class C or E; these types of holds have additional fire-detection and fire-suppression equipment.
8/9 My Novel Unforgettable'
_________________________________
_________________________________
My Novel >> Unforgettable'
(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
Mitsushiro Nakagawa
All Translated by Yumi Ikeda .
images.
U2 - No Line On The Horizon Live in Dublin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related
It was a little past twelve when Kei arrived at Rika’s apartment in Meguro. Signs of life faded completely though the light was still left in the street. Kei who rushed up the stairs of the subway at a stretch put the cellular phone into the pocket and regained his breath leaning
against the door of her room on the 2nd floor, and then pushed the intercom after repeating deep breathing a few times.
“You are late....”
Rika’s hair was wet. She shot Kei a look like feeling out on Kei’s mind. For a while, Kei leaned against the door, exhaled the rest of the breath to the darkness downstairs trying to make Rika unconscious.
“Anything?”
“Nothing...”
Kei gazed at Rika. He smelled the rinse in the chill. A meaningless list of English letters on T- shirt bulged softly and made a dim shade with the light from the kitchen.
Rika wiped the sweat on Kei’s forehead with her hand. She went up to him, stared fixedly at his eyes and said uneasily.
“What‘s wrong with you?”
Kei went to her back without answering it and took a breath of a sweet smell of her wet hair. The distorted pain throbbing in his chest faded away a little. Then he slowly held her shoulders in his arms. Her body was all cold due to the air-conditioner.
“I don’t mind....”
Kei tried to reach his right hand toward around her lower part. Her warmth softly waved on his palm. Then Kei wanted the warmth again. Her breasts did not refuse his fingers. Kei forgot himself in her sweet, soft warmth. Kei noticed her shoulders tremble at the moment he touched the top of her breasts. The shiver slowly descended from the shoulders to the waist and then the knees. Rika threw out the word at a white wall which is ahead of her downcast eyes.
“I don’t care substitute for Kaori.....”
Rika turned around and tears overflowed in her eyes. It went along over and over again in the cheek slightly dyed in red and dispersed from the tip of the trembling chin. The tears split many times along the lines of tears drawn once and the teardrops absorbed tranquility around shining on the cold floor.
"I'll hold you if you feel hard and sad... like Kaori does."
Rika drew Kei’s back that sank down to her breast quietly. She wiped her tears with her palm and whispered in his ear.
“Kei, we can go to college together and enjoy the so-called campus life. Isn’t that great? Parties with the club members every week. How about living together after graduation? I don’t say “marriage”. I won’t rush you. If we live together, I can go to bakery with you every Sunday morning. Breads are hot straight from the oven! Must be nice. I’m sure you will be gentle.”
Kei looked up hearing her voice. Rika slowly lipped Kei’s cheek and kissed.
Rika was waiting for Kei against the soft morning sun. She took a hamburger out of a paper bag that Kei bought at a fast-food shop in the station, and then smiled with pure eyes saying, “Thank you.”
They went to Kei’s room biting a hamburger. On the way, Rika tried to talk to Kei gazing at his profile a couple of times, but withdrew her eyes immediately and kept on eating in silence.
Kei also tried to talk to Rika something and searched words, but found nothing new. He just said, “This is good”, setting Rika’s untidy hair on her ear. For a second, Rika stopped, gazed at Kei and opened her mouth thinly. But she began to walk in silence again. Perhaps she didn’t find right words.
When a shed with Ken’s room appeared on the right after going up a gentle slope, Kei stopped holding Rika’s shoulder. There were two shadows of squatting figures with legs stretched in the shade of the entrance against the morning sun.
Rika’s eyes fell on them, following Kei’s eyes. Rika lost her words for a while because she noticed who they were. She gasped biting her lips and cried lowering her sobs. Then, she whispered in Kei’s ear standing on tiptoe.
“Kei, don’t go.....Please....Let’s go back ....” Kei gazed at Rika firmly.
“I’ll be right back.”
Rika shook her head desperately stifling a sob. “No, never....Kei, don’t go.....”
Kaori’s ankles moved slightly when a light sound of bicycle which slid down from the top of the slope. Once it disappeared in the shade of the shed and Kaori’s shadow appeared in the morning sun.
“Kei?”
At the moment Kei tried to call her name, Rika dropped her voice. It was a small voice, but carried well to Kaori.
"That's not fair ...Really sly... Something wrong with you... Kaori-san has a boyfriend, right? Why do you run after her? ... All is over between two of you...Already over..."
On the concrete road, a belt of light that came through leaves of roadside tree became complicated making mesh. In the transparent light, dry pebbles were scattered sparsely.
Kaori approached slowly and said to Rika. Kaori’s shadow became bigger and her hair swayed from side to side on her shoulder.
"Whether it has ended or not...I don’t think it's your business."
"Stop it!"
Kei suddenly spoke in a rough voice. Kaori glared at Kei. There was a flow of tears from her piercing eyes like Rika.
"She was great? Much fresher than me, right?"
She began to run leaving the words. The sound of the heel reflected on the road. The squeaking sounds rocked Key. Kei ran out and Rika’s voice scattered widely over his back. "Not fair! Kaori-san just pretends to be adult! She is just a wheedling girl. Don't go!"
For a second Kei stopped to look back to Rika who fell down to the spot, but ran after Kaori soon.
Kaori shook away Kei’s hands forcefully when he caught her by the shoulder before the station. Commuting businessmen and students turned around to see the events. Kaori leaned herself against the show window turning her back to Kei. And she concealed her eyes with the back of a small right hand. Her lips moved lifelessly feeling indication that Kei stood slowly sideward.
"It's all right. ...You do as you like. You are always running away ... You would depend on anyone who can accept you ... You would kiss anyone, even make love."
Her knees trembled faintly. Kei kept silent looking at it. The bustle flowing toward the station became remote.
“Kaori, I didn’t sleep with Rika.”
“Do you want me to believe it?”
Kaori smiled faintly.
“How about you,Kaori? Actually you slept with him, right?”
"Never."
“Me, neither. Do you want me to believe it?”
“Why does a man dwell on it?”...You are the same as other guys...”
Kaori squeezed the word firmly from her thin body. Then, she added a few words.
“But, maybe...yeah, maybe... I love Osawa-san.”
Kei lost his strength from his whole body as if various things were spilling from the tip of
fingers that trembled faintly.
Kei finally opened his mouth after a while.
“Why do you want to hold back Osawa desperately? I don’t need the existence of “Osawa”.” “Kei, why don’t you understand me?...I want you to struggle your way upward...I just want you to do it...”
Kaori’s shoulders trembled feebly. A line of light reflected by a pane came on Kaori’s wet cheeks.
“You don’t understand it. You don’t know the machinery og society yet. How many sacrifices I made to meet Osawa-san...”
Kei nodded. Kaori might be right. Kei muttered in his mind, but what he uttered was totally different.
“That guy knows everything about me. Why did you talk to him?”
“Don’t you understand that I wanted you to be connected with him? To make Osawa-san know about you, everything is necessary.”
Kei asked all question left.
“You could have left him any moment at that time..... But you didn’t intend to leave him....”
“I couldn’t move because I lost the strength....that’s all....”
The noise of train was swollen gradually. The heavy sound passed over the thick crowd many times and swept away the silence between two. There was a long silence for a while.
Kaori looked up the sun above the bridge as if she averted her glance from Kei. Her red eyelids showed how many hours shed had waited for Kei. Then Kaori slowly fixed her eyes on Kei’s eyes and stared. Kei thought that Kaori looked another person.
“But I can do anything for my beloved person.....I’m sure.”
Kaori said it to Kei and began to walk slowly to the stairs at the station flooded with people. Kei saw Kaori off and looked fixedly at her who was slowly swallowed up by the quiet crowd with slight expectations that she might look back.
Kei went back to the slope rapidly, but found Rika nowhere. He called her cellular phone hastily and sent a mail, too. But no reply returned.
Kei thought it is no wonder. As soon as he opened the door of his room, he felt the fatigue from last night at once.
Kei spread himself on the bed and looked at a record rack. He recalled Kaori who was excited when she came to the room. He sat up and erased it with the strong sunshine through the curtain. Then, he rested his gaze on the floor. Baby's-breath was utterly yellow and dried. White petals fell from the bunch and smashed into tiny pieces.
Kei slowly got up and threw them into the sink, and lay down on the bed again.
Kei fell asleep without notice.
Kei woke up in the strong sunshine of the afternoon. He took a quick shower, got dressed and went to Rika’s apartment.
He pushed the intercom on the door of Rika’s room and knocked the door a couple of times, but the no sign of life returned. At the moment he turned back and looked up the sky with no clouds, his cellular phone rang. It was Rika. Kei leaned against the rails of the corridor and opened it hastily.
Kei wondered about Rika’s voice from the cellular phone. It was low, heavy and cool. “Kei, we made a detour too much.”
At the same time, number 3 appeared and a conference call flashed on the upper right of the display and Rika’s eyes were imaged on the monitor. Kei lost his words looking at Rika’s cold eyes which were more transparent than the clear blue sky in the background. Rika’s smile which should had been on her face this morning died and a cold smile appeared on her lips instead.
“I’ll tell you where I am now.....to two of you, OK?”
Kei’s mouth froze with Rika’s words. Then Kei gazed at the display rotating slowly over there. At the same time, Kei doubted the third number shown on the corner.
“Rika, Is another one Kaori? Joking? You can’t know Kaori’s phone number.”
Kei said to Rika in a light voice as if he laughed it away somewhat, but the name shown on the monitor was actually her name. Rika didn’t look away and smiled at Kei who gave a bitter smile.
“I backed up whole when I copied your mail address and phone number. To my notebook PC.”
Kei’ eyes fell on outside the passage. On the right, a series of countless roofs of apparently used cars which was out of sight at night, were stuffed uncomfortably to the other side of the avenue which looked narrow. A sheaf of dazzling heat which bounced on the hood made Kei’s pupils contract. Kei withdrew his gaze from the sultry reflected heat at last and ran down the stairs in a hurry. The sweaty palm which grasped the rails was caked with reddish brown rust and the rust didn’t come off even though he tried to dust it off.
When Kei turned left at the alley, buildings competing with each other came into Kei’s view. Kei ran to the entrance to the subway at the intersection.
“I’m here, Yoga, a quiet area. Kaori-san, can you hear me? Are you with Osawa-san, right?” The noise of the sudden brake on the street died away in the distance. The cellular phone he held looked like a hard, chilled ice. Kei strained to hear Rika’s excited voice, losing his breath in silence
“Kei, do you know where they are now? You don’t know..., in Kaori-san’s room.
But I guess you don’t admit this even if I say so. You are submissive to Kaori-san, though. I‘ve looked up Kaori-san’s act and how Osawa-san’s wife spent the time. Well, let’s bring this to an end. All is over...”
The end of central reservation looked warped with afternoon heat. The heat haze shimmered and flapped the circumference widely.
“Rika, calm down. You just hurt yourself. Kaori, can you hear me? Are you really on line? Answer me.”
“Kei, Kaori-san never answers you. You are too easy, Kei. A person who expects me most is Kaori-san. Kaori-san was waiting for this moment. Is that right? Kaori-san.”
Rika was right. If Kaori is concerned about Osawa, Kaori should want to know about Osawa right now, here. Kei forgot himself running to the stairs of subway breathlessly. Once Kei looked away from the display and looked around
The town was dancing with busy signals in the heat of midsummer. As Kei’s legs got gradually heavy, the outline of scenery became loose and motionless. Various things around Kei looked bare and floating in the space. Kei stopped and went into the narrow alley.
Kei looked down at the image again with Rika’s voice, leaning against the wall of building. “I got to the middle of condominium. Whose kid is that playing there now?”
The front of slide appeared the moment that the hard, clear blue sky flew in a line with one color. The moment Kei looked away from the silver setting sun with a strong brightness closing down straight. The small head appeared over the light. It went up the stairs shaking right and left. Kei thought it was a boy because it romped about holding the fence on the top
of the stairs.
The boy slid down splitting the sunlight and then, the back of a woman appeared suddenly. The tip of hair which grew to the back glowed on her white T-shirt and swayed. She looked like Osawa’s wife
“This is live. Listen carefully....”
The darkness fell with the dull sound of unzipping Rika’s bag. The soft light sometimes got in through the opening of her bag and the image altered into blue.
“Are you Ryou Osawa’s wife?”
There seems to be no response. It made Kei’s imagination swell more. If Kaori heard this, she would feel in the same way. If Rika’s guess was right, Osawa who was supposed to be there together should feel so.
After a short silence, she said in a transparent voice, “Yes.....” She looked like asking mysteriously.
“I’m a girl friend of a guy, Kei Kitami. He was deceived by a girl, Kaori Uemura and doesn’t face the reality.”
“I don’t understand it.” The calm voice came to his ears. Then, Rika’s slow voice sounded. “I mean, a girl, Kaori Uemura is a hindrance to me because she has been going out with my boyfriend and your husband.”
“What?”
“Your husband has been dating with Kaori Uemura. Well, I could say Kaori has been dating with your husband. Anyway, it doesn’t matter which is which.”
There was a long silence. Sometimes children’s yell floated over the darkness and died away in the distance.
Kei looked up into space vertically along the wall of a building. The snow-white cloud swam low on the tip of his eyes and drifted far.
Osawa’ wife finally opened her mouth. Her voice was much calmer than Kei thought regardless of the fantastic appearance of Rika.
“Well, I vaguely noticed ...”
“So, why do you ask him? My boyfriend loves the girl. They should have broken up, but he was still chasing her. He can’t put his feelings in order.”
Kei didn’t hear Rika’s answer. Perhaps Rika nodded. Kei wiped the sweat on his eyelids and strained his ears. Kei peered into the image which made a light shade, but there was still the darkness. In the deep darkness, the chain of swing squeaked high.
“I don’t doubt you, but I’ve experienced this kind of harassment so far. Suppose your story is right and I can ask him to reform him, I could feel easy...”
“I didn’t come here all the way to tell a lie. Everything is true.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Silence fell again. The yell of children came back and sounded big, but cracked and went away. Kei lowered his breath under the heat got in.
“I was one year older than him. When he joined the same company where I worked for now, I thought I don’t have to be there. I’ve worked frantically until then. There were many trashy programs and stupid guys besides. I thought I don’t want to be outdone by anyone. But I was outdone by him from the first. Though connection is necessary in this world, he refused most of them and attracted the artists one after another, composing his inner elements concretely to appeal the artists who he regards. On the other hand, I was pregnant....but had an abortion. I felt that he doesn’t need a child at present and we could not get along if a baby is born....
Rika said raising her voice.
“I’m not interested in your husband’s success story and I have nothing to do with a sad story
all the more. I want to stop everything.”
“Yea, I know....Sorry...”
Kei stared upon the image. A long silence continued and there seemed to have been a pause in the call. The darkness took on a dash of blue again and a calm voice of Osawa’s wife rose. Her next words aroused Kei’s interest, too.
“But the girl likes him, right? There are not such cool guys in the world now. They desperately brush only the appearance. There are many guys who are off the point. The girl, maybe, had the same feeling as me. Think about it well...The girl dared to choose the married man, my husband, right? Of cause, I’m not happy hearing he is loved by the girl. I’m disturbed, too....because I was suddenly informed by you.”
“Don’t you want them to break up?”
“How?”
“....don‘t know”
“She will give up with your act like this?”
Rika kept silent. The cellular phone made noise in her bag.
“You are a very obedient, brave girl. You wavered much before you came here, right?”
Kei saw a light came from the darkness in her bag. For a while, the silence went on, and then Rika’s feeble sob followed. Kei held his cellular phone tight, visualizing the trembling image of Rika.
“If you have courage to come here, you should be a more wonderful girl. Don’t you think so? Maybe you could be a strong, smart, beautiful lady. I feel so....
I don’t want you to spend your time on this kind of matter now...”
Rika’s sob cracked. She cried. Kei held his breath and closed his eyes looking up into space. Kei kept his mouth shut tight. Various expressions of Rika silhouetted in his eyes and flitted through.
“I think it’s very hard to change a person’s feeling. So we had better leave it in peace for a while? OK?”
The voice of Osawa’s wife got larger and Rika’s bag shook again. Maybe Osawa’s wife approached Rika. A dash of deep blue increased in the image and Kei heard Rika’s shaking cry quietly from the image. Kei thought that Rika’s tears flew more as the image swayed delicately.
“Let’s go home, Taichi.”
Kei heard dry footsteps on the ground, and the sound gradually became larger .Kei strained to hear the sound. Then he heard a sweet voice of the boy.
“That girl was bullied by mom?”
A laugh that sounded like lulling him dropped.
“She accidentally fell over something. She can stand by herself, so let’s go home, OK? You wanna eat cookies?”
“Yeah! “ Kei heard a lively voice and her voice of collecting herself together, and the voice sounded large. Kei also heard a mumble in the voice of Osawa’s wife that died away in the distance.
“I’m indifferent to my makeup, maybe...”
Kei heard Rika’s sob that got larger from the back of image waving faintly. He said gazing at a short shadow at his feet.
“Rika, I’ll go there. Don’t go away. I’ll be right there.”
“Yeah....I’m OK....No problem, really...Thank you....Kei...”
Kei kept silent for a while hearing Rika’s words discharged barely. Then “3” on the display disappeared like being swallowed up. A normal call of two persons returned. Kei didn’t know whether it is Rika or Kaori.
“Kaori, can you hear me? Is that you?”
Kei asked so, going down the stairs to a subway, but the darkness of image kept quiet and
just increased. After a while, there was a pause in the call.
Kaori is with Osawa now as Rika said? Kei didn’t think that Rika’s action was a fake. No, he should trust her action. In fact, Kei heard a reply from Osawa’s wife and a voice of a little child, so Kei should have believed Rika’s words. Kei tried to recall and arrange Rika’s words passing through a ticket gate of subway, but he had to accept the reality presented by Rika as far as she chased two persons. But Kaori’s behavior and her warmth still flitted through his mind and never went away.
Kei idly looked at the light of express train leaving, leaning against a post at the subway platform.
It was Thursday, four days later from a day Kei located Osawa. Kei met Osawa at a coffee shop on the first floor of a building at Omotesando. It was already past 2:00 at midnight. Kei hesitated to contact Kaori and brooded over words to Rika, who had been absent from the prep school, for a few days. But Kei thought that he should meet Osawa directly and wants to meet him some day. Kei felt out words that Kaori left and found the way from that.
Omotesando was almost deserted at night, different from Shinjuku. But as it was just next to Aoyama, a few foreign girls who looked like models passed on bare foot, swinging golden hair widely and scattering merry voice.
On the counter of the shop a guy who looked like a clerk in a boutique was mortally drunk and lay on his face taking off his glasses on the side of an ashtray. In the back, a waiter with a thick beard turned a record.
It was Bill Evans who refused to be hospitalized and died at live at the Keystone Korner. There was always a kind of impatience in his tune. Perhaps that’s because he was told that he could not live long. Kei did not like him.
Osawa noticed Kei who was looking out of the window idly at the inmost table, and then sat at the same table. Kei had a moment of confusion because his behavior was too natural, but strangely he didn’t feel tension which he had felt from Osawa before. Kei was never affected by Osawa’s action of opening his notebook nor his cool eyes through deep blue lenses.
“I thought you will come here someday. What do you want?”
Osawa laid his hand on the rim of sunglasses. Then he looked down at Kei’s empty cup and said. Ice in a glass of iced coffee melted all and stagnated.
A waiter came and Osawa said, “Regular.” And he cast Kei a glance.
“Coffee, hot”
Osawa laughed a little and said.
“There are more than 50 kinds of coffee beans here. If combinations of blends are added, there would be over 1000. Would you like the same blend as mine?”
Kei kept silent and blushed. Kei trusted Osawa a little because Osawa’s voice sounded calm like relieving the tension Kei felt. It was one side of Osawa which Kei had not felt. Kei was puzzled about that.
Osawa told Kei resting his gaze on the display opened.
“You might hear a little from Kaori, but I will tell you about me. Perhaps we could come to an arrangement with my story and it is also for your own sake.”
Osawa’s clear eyes fell on Kei for a second. Kei was confused at Osawa’s calm look with large pupils and looked away from him. One taxi passed through a red signal that had just changed, and then disappeared on the other side of the crossing.
“I graduated from K University. It is no too much to say that’s one of top 3 in Japan, it depends on college, though. But even in such a university, everyone searched desperately for a company at job hunting. People who entered a university from outside like me and
easygoing people who went on with his or her father‘s occupation data scrutinized from early childhood are totally different. People from inside spent day and night in parties as usual because they had certain connections, but other people spent the desperate time.
Osawa stopped tapping keys and looked out of the window. The eyes looked like recalling his memory. A waiter gave a cup with a saucer to each of two and left.
“I thought at that time. Everything was settled from the beginning. So I found employment at the small production company of my own free will. And now I’m here like this.”
Kei took a sip of coffee. He took a peep into the cup of bitter coffee. Osawa’s forelock reflected on the bottom of the cup swayed and blurred.
“Do you respect my work some? Without thinking of Kaori.”
Osawa fixed his eyes on Kei with a low voice. Kei did not answer it, but his eyes fell on the floor for a second. Osawa seemed to have understood looking at Key’s look.
“Look out of the window.”
Office workers who are seldom seen in Aoyama caught Key’s eyes. They seemed to have tried to call a taxi and stood on the road shoulder staggering and pulling each other’s tie “They are shit. They deceive themselves to varnish the reality that confronted them, using drinks, appearance and various things. Not others, you know, themselves.”
Kei felt that Osawa’s voice shook with anger. Kei cast Osawa a glance quietly. Kei was deeply distressed to see Osawa’s eyes fallen on outside. His eyes did not show anger, even not pity with kind of contempt. They were just clear pupils like those of boys. Kei peeped Osawa’s look from his long forelock. His eyes looked as if he will never be an adult who shattered his dream that he had in his childhood.
Osawa sipped a cup of coffee and said.
“And to me you just look like them. Perhaps Kaori who has seen you has the same feeling as mine. That’s why she worries about you. She hopes you will not be one of them.”
Kei searched his memory for some of her words. There were some he could recall clearly, but some words had already become vague and were going out of his memory. A kind of sound was lost in the image of Kaori who came across Key’s mind.
Osawa shifted his eyes to the display again. And then the quiet, intermittent noise of touching the keys correctly sounded delicately like raindrops and fell on the corner of the table.
“My father was just an officer of a town hall. I went to the hall with my friend to see how he works. At the counter, my father was contending with an old man, who was so called “a claimer” today. I still remember that my father constantly tapped the counter with his fingertips, irritated by a stream of abuse.
The busy movement of his fingers irritated even me. My father was irritated because he could not answer well. He reacted endlessly to the problem, which didn’t seem to be agreed, at the window and there was no air of showing to the claimer to another room. I couldn’t understand what they were arguing, but a trifling matter, I guess. I thought that not only my farther but also the claimer was stupid. Their talk was a kind of faultfinding each other. It was like going on adding 0 to 0 without end. It never totals to 1. Nothing is born by just knocking each other. There was no positive passion for opening up something.
I was disillusioned with my father’s service. He hoped to make me an officer and live in security, but it was obvious that I would not obey him as I was still young. In fact, it seemed to me that my father’s consideration was just trying to secure his life exactly. “Get out of here!” my father bawled at me for falling short of his expectations. So I left my house. When I was in my third year of high school, I came to Tokyo with a little money from my mother. And my father died of heart attack. It was just a year before drawing his pension.”
Osawa’s mouth was closed lightly and his eyes flashed. It was the cool gaze that Kei had seen before. Osawa looked out of the window. In the back of the eyes, a red neon lamp on the street sparkled for a moment. He blinked the eyelids lightly and looked at the display again. “I had a favorite music program which I had loved since a pupil. I had been tied up listening to music through a radio. I still remember a radio program that I listened to those days, and the boss at that time and I work together now. He was, so to speak, my father. He closely cautioned me about that on-air. It is society. I was called by the board and roared repeatedly, but all of them were a matter of principle. On the night when we apologized in public, we went to Roppongi right away to drink. What I did was just a new topic for them. It will be forgotten in three days. Actually that was right. Nobody talks about that now. In fact, the artists who I took charge of laughed and said, “That was really exciting.”
The stiff mood broadened into Osawa’s laughter. Kei was amused, too. Kei thought that he would have been delighted if he was on that occasion. But Osawa drowned out his smile immediately and said. It was a strong tone like demanding himself.
“And a total of listeners for my program never drop to “0”. If a number close to “0” was left, the listeners were actual listeners. We make programs and broadcast for them.”
Osawa’s eyes fell on the display again. A meaningless list of English letters appeared on the display was reflected clearly in the sunglasses. Kei sat down again and asked a question prepared. Kei noticed that his voice was trembling.
“What about your wife and child?”
“Why do you stick at that? If I were a normal office worker, this will end to a normal, trashy story. But I’m different. I am in the business with artists who steered music scenes in Japan. Their sense was totally different from general sense. That’s why I was attracted, and I must keep on supporting it. Do you understand what I want to say?”
Oaswa’s right forefinger pushed up the sunglasses on his nose. In the back of glasses, the cold light sparkled again.
“I need the existence of Kaori for my business.”
Osawa said quietly like adding words.
“Why on earth does my home have to do with you? It’s only Kaori’s business, right?”
“Did you hear that call, didn’t you?”
Osawa drew his chin in silence. Kei’s tense feeling changed to a sigh in a matter of seconds. Kei murmured “Kaori” in his mind, thinking of Rika’s right sense.
Kei swallowed lightly. And moreover, he asked Osawa. Kei’s voice cracked a little. “Your wife had an abortion for you, thinking of you....”
“That’s what she decided.”
The sound of tapping the keys stopped. And Osawa stared at Kei sharply and said. The silence in the shop closed in over the table like being condensed.
“That’s why I’m here.”
Osawa rested his chin on hid hand shifting his eyes to the display and kept on talking. “Others might think it’s a showy work, but just a fifteen minutes program. Even if other two programs are added, the total per a week will be less than 10 hours.
People who don’t listen to the program are much more than people who listen to it.
When I chose this field, I lost control of a future meaning of myself as I knew various realities. You have your father, right?”
Osawa’s eyes became gentle again and sounded Kei out. Kei looked for the answer for a while with Osawa’s gentle eyes and immediately remembered Kaori. For Kei, first, he should talk about Kaori now.
Kei took a cup, looking away from Osawa. Coffee became lukewarm and stronger. “What for is Kaori here?”
“Kaori? What for? Did you hear the story?”
Osawa’s voice rose. Kei took the cup to his mouth again.
“Kaori is not particularly here for me. She is with me for herself. She hopes to stay with me because she can get something from me. And I want her to stay beside me.
That’s all.”
Osawa rolled lightly up his sleeves of a white shirt and drank coffee. He cast outside a glance and said quietly. The rough tone faded away.
“In future, major FM will be driven away more by radio on the Net. If my ability dies someday, I will be deserted by various things, not only Kaori. And I might lose everything I treasured. But I don’t hope to live life being afraid of losing something.”
Kei bit the lower lip. He bent his head and gazed at his 501 jeans. A fair skin looked pale from the lap fallen out. Kei felt that the skin got still whiter with Osawa’s words.
“What do you want to do with Kaori? You still want her to stay beside you?”
Osawa told gently and Kei shut the mouth tight. Osawa’s voice gradually got thinner, and swelled with tenderness, too.
“Have you thought like this? Just imagine you are so worthwhile that I am jealous of and I have such status and talent. Why didn’t Kaori leave you soon? Why didn’t Kaori try to leave you? I was jealous of you....”
Kei tolerated Osawa’s words biting his back teeth. His shoulder stiffened, and he was ashamed of himself with annoyance because on one hand he regretted coming here somewhat; on the other hand, he got a feeling of contentment somewhere. A lump in his throat was just one thing. Kei wanted to meet Kaori.
“Do you have something to ask me?”
Kei shook his head bending his head.
“I have something to ask you. No. I beg you a favor. I’m not talking about you.
A girl who was with you.”
Osawa said so and gave a deep sigh. Kei looked up at Osawa. Osawa was looking at cold street lamps in Omotesando where stillness had fallen.
“Perhaps you love Kaori, but you must not forget that girl. And I want you to apologize to her. On that day I’ve gone a little too far. I should not ask you this, but we will not meet again....”
Kei stood up to search his pocket. When the coins tinkled, Osawa who rested his gaze on the other side of the window murmured, “No.”, and said, “You have money for a taxi?”
Kei ignored the word and took a step forward, but stopped just next to Osawa. Kei’s eyes fell on Osawa’s profile. With sharp eyes Osawa searched something shimmering in the display like searching something that was still a long way off a shape. Kei glanced at a waiter in the back of the counter and started to walk to the exit.
Kei opened the door and breathed deeply in the uncomfortably warm night air. The dry scent of a shower beating the heated asphalt floated over the river of light that was formed on the road.
Kei threw a few of T-shirts and underwear into a bag and left the room.
The subway at past five was flooded with people like rush hour in the morning and people crushed. Their shoulders touched each other every time they swayed from side to side along the tube of subway and the odor of sweat oozed in the chill also swayed.
Kei thought that he will meet Kaori once more before he goes back to his parents’ home. He felt that the day when he saw the port by night with Kaori was a long time ago. The night view Kei had seen once did not move him deeply like his first view.
The view before his eyes was just a fiction of artificial light sending out with someone’s
intention. It was too factitious to color artificially for the best possible look. The color scheme was so commonplace and false, so Kei thought that it was too empty to crash soon. The temporary beauty with direction was an eyesore for Ken.
It must be a symbol of someone’s silly greed.....
Kei went to the exit for staff in the back of the event hall. He decided to go back at once if he waits for Kaori for one hour, but can’t see her and one hour passes. He sat down at the bench. Sometimes a security guard stared at Kei, but he spent time making a pretense to gaze the night view
After a while, Kaori appeared with Saki, among a group of girls. They smile peacefully each other and go to the platform of subway where Kei came out of.
Kaori stopped to open her handbag. Then she took a cellular phone and gazed at it for a while. And Kaori slowly reversed her steps with saying good-bye, maybe. Turning round, Kaori busily tapped keys on the cellular phone and quickly closed it. Kei saw how they are going being couched in the shade of ever green grown over.
Kei left the spot before Kaori’s figure became small and disappeared into the lights on the street. Kei didn’t look back to Kaori any more. Kei’s bag on his back appeared to get heavier.
The cellular phone in his 501 jeans did not vibrate though two minutes passed.
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Fin.
images.
U2 - No Line On The Horizon Live in Dublin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related
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Profile.
In November 2014, we caught the attention of the party selected to undertake the publicity for a mobile phone that changed the face of the world with just a single model, and will conclude a confidentiality agreement with them.
steal-a.way-nifty.com/stealaway/2015/03/profile-march20.html
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e
Date: January 2018
Location: Novara
Model: Giovanni Riccioni
ph: Giovanni Riccioni
Shutter release: Phottix Plato
Strobe: Speedlight 430EX II Canon, off camera| Power 1/4
Trigger: Pixel King Wireless E-TTL Flash for Canon
Fredricks: (Intercom) "Peace is something that doesn't just happen. It has to be sought out. It has to be battled for and won. The enemies of the Federation are many due to the corruption of our predecessors. We must show them that we have evolved. We must show them that we will not be trampled over. But most of all, we must show them compassion."
Sanders: "Are you telling me the team sharpshooter can't nail a little ball with a club?"
Rico: "Is it like baseball?"
Sanders: "No, you... Just put the damn ball on the deck and swing. It's all in the hips."
Rico: "Whatever."
Sanders: "Hey, just be glad this ship even has a rec room. Remember the old drop ships chugging out of Mars Base? Half the cryo pods didn't have proper sleep monitors. I knew a guy who went from Mars to Jupiter on ice wide awake."
Rico: "Serious?"
Sanders: "Guy went out of his mind. When they unfroze him he thought everything was really a dream. Started seeing visions and became violent. In the end Sarge wound up putting a hole in his skull. Poor bastard."
Rico: "Yah, things have come a long way."
Sanders: "Amen to that brothah. So put the ball down and I'll show you how this game works."
La iconica sala de visites penitenciaries (en aquest cas, de La Model) que tots hem vist en pel·licules i series on surten presons. Abans les reixes metal·liques permetien cert contacte, especialment rellevant per a parelles, pares i fills. Però ara tot s'ha blindat amb vidres gruixuts i interfons. Ho saben prou els presoners politics que formaren el gobern de la Generalitat fins el 2017!
La presó model s’inaugurà el 1904 i va tancar el 2017. Prácticament d’inici ja va perdre aquesta caracteristica de model amb el que fou disenyada (primer motí ja al 1906), i la sobrepoblació de presoners fou constant, així com unes condicions generalment deplorables. Disenyada per a 1000 presos, al 1940 arribà als 13.000! No només és un punt historic per la historia criminal de Catalunya, sino també com a element esencial en la represió política, molt en especialment per part del regim feixista. Nombroses persones foren executades o partiren cap a la seva execució des de la Model (unes 1600). El més famós executat de tots, el darrer, Salvador Puig Antich.
Ara s’ha obert al public i es pot visitar lliurement. Cal aprofitar-ho ja que es preveu que aviat es començaran a tirar a terra el mur perimetral i bona part dels edificis secundaris. La part central, el panoptic i la majoria de galeries es conservaran, però perdran la pàtina original (ronya, de fet), i fotogràficament no serà el mateix.
ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pres%C3%B3_Model_de_Barcelona
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All of us has see this kind of room in prisons in movies or series, the famous visitors room. Initially the barrier between inmates and visitors was a fence, so it was possible somehow to have phisical contact, specially valuable with the family. But afterwards all was caged in security glass & intercomes.
La Model entered service in 1904 and was closed in 2017, after decades of public demands of closure due to the deplorable condition of the inmates and the bad image for the surroundings. As the name suggests, it was intented to be a modelic prison, but although it was a modern design in early XX Century, soon the conditions deteriorated, and the first mutiny was just in 1906. Designed for 1000 inmates, in 1940 it reached a peak of 13.000 inmates, mostly political prisoners of the fascist Franco regime. Hundres left this place in their way to their execution. The last political victim was Salvador Puig Antich, executed in La Model in 1974. In fact La Model is a very important place to understand the history of the political represion in Catalonia, specially by the fascist regime between 1939 and 1978 (and beyond). Also it reflected the criminal and social problems of Barcelona in the XX Century.
Now the former prison is open to the public, but soon will be partly demolished (the surrounding wall and secondary buildings) to made parks, and the main building redeveloped for civic activities and also a history museum. So the time to take pictures is now or never.
A short movie of the incident. Bilge water pours from the hole in the hull as the aircraft climbs away.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu2qxgtFvW8&t=1s
10 Jan 2007 Copilot, Pilot Officer Robin Klitscher, now AVM Retired, recounts the incident:
"Sunday 25 October 1959. Go back in space to Wellington's new pride and joy, the virgin runway fortified at each end against the sea at Rongotai. Go back in events to the air show staged to mark the opening thereof.
The show was supposed to have been on the Saturday, but Wellington's weather was in one of its more sullen tempers on that day. The Sunday dawned better, but not much. No rain or significant cloud, but a very strong, very gusty nor'westerly gale swinging twenty degrees misaligned with the runway.
Sunderland flying-boat NZ4113 was charged with a flypast along the runway to open the show, thence to patrol Cook Strait as search-and-rescue picket for the rest of the afternoon (inelegantly, the callsign assigned for the latter purpose was Duckbutt).
My log book reads copilot and, with tactful understatement, records the manoeuvre as "Touch and Go, Rongotai". The planing hull was breached in the process. Having become a casualty itself, the aircraft was obliged to abandon the duckbutt duty in favour of a duckscuttle back home to Hobsonville.
As the Sunderland sullied the spotless new seal, the sensation from the cockpit was just a brief couple of mild bumps - rather like a car negotiating a double speed hump. From the lower deck, however, the sandpapering noises were louder, more prolonged, and much more alarming.
The hole was a couple of feet long or thereabouts and about half that in width. It was big enough to be a worry, shaped like an isosceles triangle with the pointy end forward. Trapped bilge water sprayed out. The lowest point of the keel, right at the "step" in the planing surface, had been ground away. The void was at a junction of several compound curves in the frames and aircraft skin, and was both too large and too irregular to plug satisfactorily in the air. (It was also a bitch to repair later.)
As it happened, the aircraft was rigged for a return passenger run to the Chathams. At the time, these flights plied about once a month between Evans Bay and the Te Whanga Lagoon by direction of the Government; the Member for Lyttelton (which included the Chathams) was the burly, bluff and highly engaging Norman Kirk. For students of the history of the New Zealand coastal shipping trade, these flights were conducted under charter to the then famed Holm Shipping Company.
The substantial land airfield that's now near Waitangi came later. Meantime the Sunderlands provided an air bridge. (As an aside, a couple of weeks or so after the events related here we lost a Sunderland in the lagoon. Whilst taxying where it was thought to be safe on the line of the lead-in markers, there was an argument with a submerged and uncharted rock. The rock won. There were no casualties but the aircraft was kaput; sunk; gone to Davy Jones.)
The significance of the Chathams rig in the context of the runway touchdown was that the wardroom and another compartment further aft were converted for passengers. Ordinary airliner seats were installed. Needs must; their squabs were put to a use their designer could never have intended nor even envisaged. They were stuffed into the hole and shored into place from the inside. The array of rubber leak stoppers, coir mats and Plasticene (yes) that the Sunderland carried for such eventualities was unequal to the occasion.
The flight engineer who accomplished this work during the flight back to Hobsonville was later decorated for his troubles. To do it he had hung precariously for hours by his heels - literally - from the decking support cross-members, upside down in the bilges, packing whatever was to hand into the hole and surrounds. It wasn't sufficient only to try to reduce the inflow of water that was inevitable when the aircraft touched down on the seaway at Hobsonville. What could not be assessed with confidence was the possibility that the hydraulic force of the water on touchdown at 80 knots might rip the weakened structure wide open. Thus the engineer had to do whatever he could to shore it all up.
The duty crew at Hobsonville and anyone else who happened to be standing around on that Sunday were called out. Several seaplane tenders - flat-bottomed barges with lowish freeboard - were prepared. Aboard was the beaching gear and high-capacity powered Climax water pumps. The beaching gear was a pair of wheeled bogies mounted on substantial girders that fitted onto a hard point in the armpit of each wing and were then snibbed to the respective side of the fuselage. There were no modern labour-saving devices or other niceties to this. Heavy pushme-pullyou functionality was the watchword.
When fitted the wheels projected below the lowest point of the hull so the aircraft could be winched up the slipway. They were hauled up the ramp backwards by a wire hawser bolted through a ring under the tail. As they rose out of the water onto land in such an undignified manner the persona of these great things, whose elegance in either of the two elements for which they were designed was unsurpassed, seemed invariably to shrink into embarrassment.
The Sunderland carried two water pumps as part of its standard internal kit. One was powered by the auxiliary power unit (APU), a small petrol engine that lived in the starboard leading-edge wing root. The other was a hand pump stowed in the bow compartment. The latter looked like a vehicle tyre pump, except that the working stroke was the pull not the push. It was exceedingly hard work. For other than the most trivial of tasks, using it called for approximately the same optimism as baling out Lake Taupo with a bucket.
The APU pump was scarcely any better. The APU could not be started until the aircraft came to rest because its housing in the wing root had to be opened from the outside to allow the engine to breathe and the exhaust to escape overboard. To accomplish that task one had to climb out of a hatch in the fuselage roof, step from the curved top surface of the fuselage onto the wing, undo the Dzus fasteners that held everything closed, and open the hatch in the leading edge; all of this proximate to the inboard engine nacelle and propeller. It was not a manoeuvre to be recommended if the aircraft was in significant motion including lumpiness in the seaway - unless of course one wished to go swimming involutarily (having taken one's chances through the propeller arc).
The capacity of the APU pump was greater than the hand pump of course, but its reliability was awful. Bilge water generally is not pretty stuff. Not only does it smell bad, but to varying degrees it accumulates oil and other contaminants, both fluid and solid. To protect the pump mechanism (and the APU itself from overload, for it had other uses) the associated plumbing was filtered. The filters choked quickly on a diet of bilge soup. Memory dims a little, but recollection is that two or three minutes was a respectable run; five minutes or ten was exceptional.
Out of these considerations, prudence called for the supplementary barge-mounted Climax pumps to be available. This was high-capacity equipment, in the class of the average fire hose. The units had been started and tested ashore before the aircraft alighted. All was as ready as it was likely to be.
The aircraft touched down in the channel. The hull was not further breached. But the water did come in - and fast.
Then intervened Sod's Law. Not Murphy's; Sod's. The two are different, though often they are confused with each other. In aviation at least, Murphy states that if any important component is designed with the potential to be assembled wrongly, someone some day will manage to gratify the potential. Sod is simpler; if something can go
wrong, it will.
The plan was that the supplementary pumps would at least hold the flow while the beaching gear was strapped on. It should have worked. What went wrong, however, was that the Climax pumps so recently tested would not start. The onboard APU pump quickly expired, as expected - it could not cope with the flow anyway. The hand pump was useless. The aircraft started to sink.
The space beneath the lower deck of a Sunderland - the bilge - was compartmentalised into watertight sections. The deck itself, however, was close to or below the static waterline. Above the deck in the doorways between compartments, therefore, and aligned with the lateral bulkheads beneath the decking, there were low doors that could be dogged shut. Called swash doors, they stood three feet or so high, and they carried the watertight compartmentalisation on up to the level of their tops.
On this occasion the waters rose inside and began to lap over the swash doors. Re-starting the main engines and simply running the aircraft onto the mud flats under power started to become a serious option.
Then one of the Climaxes cleared its throat and decided to behave; then another. With the whole interior now awash to well above the tops of the swash doors, these pumps were able to stabilise the water level.
Now came a final difficulty. The aircraft of course had settled well down. Both wing floats were in the water. Indeed their buoyancy was helping prevent matters getting worse. The hull was now so low, however, that the very high buoyancy of the big pneumatic tyres made it impossible to force the beaching gear far enough under the surface to engage the tops of the legs into the sockets under the wings.
So, further delay ensued while air was let out of the tyres. Eventually the aircraft was inched up the slipway on the rims of the wheels, which became easier and easier as the goodly part of the inner harbour then inside the aircraft spilled out of the hole through which it had entered. No fish, though.
Some air show indeed.......
Most tales have a moral, and this one is no exception. It is not a tale cautionary about Tail Number 13, however. Nor is it that landing a seaplane on a runway is a bad idea - which is not a moral but a self-evident truth. The real moral is about plans. The train of events after the touchdown suggests there is another rule that ranks alongside Murphy and Sod. No matter how well-conceived a plan may be to take us from the known to the unknown, expecting its execution from start to finish to follow the pattern prescribed for it is the really bad idea. The best any plan can do is provide a point for considered departure when the unexpected happens, as happen it will. A larger Lesson for Life, perhaps?
In a nutshell, stay flexible.
If I recall correctly, the captain did receive a letter from the (then) Air Board advising him that he had incurred their displeasure. Also if I recall correctly, however, another important theorem was soon to be borne out. That's the one saying that keeping one's file at the top of the pile never did any harm - aka there's no such thing as bad publicity. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted.
At the time of the Rongotai incident, I was a lowly Pilot Officer fresh off the conversion course. My Captain was a Squadron Leader - in my eyes very elevated. Sunderlands had appeared at a number of air shows over the preceding months, but none had received mention in the newspapers. As we climbed away leaking bilge water all over the place, the atmospherics in the cockpit were thick. I thought I'd lighten things up a bit by remarking on intercom "Well at least we'll make the newspapers this time, Sir".
The Sunderland of course was the child of Short Brothers and Harland Limited, of Rochester; a company founded on designing and building ships rather than aircraft. Consequently some compartments of the interior (though not all) were generously proportioned in the maritime manner. The cockpit (or "bridge" as some called it) was one such. My attempt at humour wasn't well timed, and I had reason to thank the designers for their foresight in placing the copilot's seat just enough out of reach of the pilot's."
Robin Klitsher 10 & 15 Jan 2007
Courtesy of "The Wings over New Zealand Aviation Forum"
rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/18188/blast-past
Three near disasters at Wellington Airport Opening Airshow in 1959.
This Mercedes 600 was sold originally to Nigeria, from where this has been purchased and bought to UK. The interior has very upscale velour trim, fully air-condition, and privacy divider glass between the passenger and driver, and an intercom phone to speak to the driver from the back seat. Unfortunately the bonnet cable was broken so no engine pictures
The vehicle details for HNH 600 are:
Date of First Registration13 10 1975
Year of Manufacture1975
Cylinder Capacity (cc)6332cc
CO₂ EmissionsNot Available
Fuel TypePETROL
Export MarkerN
Vehicle StatusSORN in place
Vehicle ColourBLUE
After the power plant and the cooling tower, here come pictures of the offices, including the baths, cafeteria as well as workshops. And, a little farther, a former Intercom coal distributor (big metallic structure).
Après la centrale thermique à proprement parler et la tour de refroidissement, voici un album sur les bureaux de la centrale, comprenant les bains-douches, la cafétéria ainsi que des ateliers. Et, un peu plus loin, un ancien distributeur à charbon d'Intercom (grande structure métallique).
On floor: WEVO shifter, Peltor intercom unit and fire extinguisher. The transmission moved around quite a bit on bumps, and the WEVO effectively prevented selecting a wrong gear.
On far side, the ball-jointed arm attached to the cage holds two rally computers (Coralba Giant and Rally). The driver's display is just to the right of the tach. When running a stage, it shows how much time you're early or late, based on the target average speed you've set. (Coralba's Pilot feature). Having this continuous readout for the driver greatly reduced the amount of cockpit dialogue during a stage.
With the 911 speedometer long gone, we dash-mounted a large-display Garmin GPS unit for use as a last-resort odometer - not shown. (Murphy was a frequent lurker on our events, who for several Targas took a special interest in messing-up our rally computers and speed sensors. Changing to Coralbas helped greatly).
One pitfall we found was that starting/restarting the engine could drop the voltage enough to reset the rally computers. Installing a second smaller battery dedicated to just the navigation equipment fixed this. This battery charged through a diode so it would be unaffected by the current drawn by the starter motor.
On the far side floor, the braided hoses are oil lines between front-mounted oil cooler and a milk-churn sized NASCAR oil tank behind the seat. These keep the navigator warm ;-) And on one occasion liberally lubricated his footwell. Emergency triangles mount beside the seat. Hidden by the steering wheel hub is a very large red oil-pressure warning light.
The new tach is needed for the modified 3.2L engine in this car (power band: 5,000-8,500 rpm). Reprofiled camshafts produce more torque, with gear ratios adjusted to match. First gear is good for 100 kph/62 mph. On town stages, this eliminates several shifts on every short straight - a significant time-saver. In 2006, our actual times on town stages equalled or came within a few seconds of the factory Subaru STI.
To allow driving transits on regular grade fuel and rally stages on high octane, the car has two fuel cells and fuel pumps and can switch between engine management maps. (The switches and fuel gauges are just ahead of the gearshift lever). For engine management it uses a proprietary unit developed by the driver's company.
This car competed in the One Lap of America and Targa Newfoundland five times each, winning the latter event outright in 2006.
There's a short video clip of the car on a town stage in this same album.
After the power plant and the cooling tower, here come pictures of the offices, including the baths, cafeteria as well as workshops. And, a little farther, a former Intercom coal distributor (big metallic structure).
Après la centrale thermique à proprement parler et la tour de refroidissement, voici un album sur les bureaux de la centrale, comprenant les bains-douches, la cafétéria ainsi que des ateliers. Et, un peu plus loin, un ancien distributeur à charbon d'Intercom (grande structure métallique).