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What I bought – 16 May 2012
It is demonstrably plain that, were the whole matter of victualling the world on a non-national footing taken right out of the hands of the strutting male and handed over to a dozen sensible women who do not want to have their children killed, politics, which are nothing but a glorified form of housekeeping, would long since have been deflated to the problem of running a canteen. (William Gerhardie, from God's Fifth Column)
Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures #2 by Brian Clevinger (writer), Matt Speroni (colorist), Jeff Powell (letterer), Ryan Cody (artist, "To Kill a Sparrow Part 2"), Rob Reilly (artist, "Monster Hunters"), John Broglia (artist, "Leaping Metal Dragon Part 2"), and Zack Finfrock (artist/colorist, "Atomic Robo Vs. Rasputin"). $2.75, 21 pgs, FC, Red 5 Comics.
The biggest problem I have with the first two issues of the new anthology series starring Mr. Robo is that there are too many stories in them. Both have featured reprints from earlier issues, and that's fine, but the two serials running in the issues are each four pages long, and it's really hard to get any momentum going with only four pages of story. Both "To Kill a Sparrow" and "Leaping Metal Dragon" feel slight so far, and that's too bad, because the Sparrow is a cool character and Robo hanging out with Bruce Lee ought to be awesome. "Monster Hunters" features the bad guys from Majestic, which means Clevinger is fitting it into the bigger plot, but it's a bit confusing. If you've read the story (Bill Reed, I'm looking at you), is Robo in the story at all? If so, why does Majestic care about fooling the Monster Hunters? If not, what the heck? It's kind of strange.
I like that Clevinger is telling us these nifty short stories that don't fit into the main mini-series, but I do wish that he'd use his space a bit more wisely. If the Sparrow and Bruce Lee stories are only going to be 24 pages long (6 chapters of 4 pages each), couldn't we get 8 pages an issue and finish them up in 3 issues instead of 6? This issue is 21 pages long, but couldn't it be 24 pages with three 8-page stories and no reprint? I don't know – I'm just spitballing. But this is a frustrating issue, and it doesn't really have anything to do with the quality of the stories, just the length.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Avengers Academy #30 ("Protective Services Part 2") by Christos Gage (writer), Tom Grummett (penciler), Cory Hamscher (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), and Joe Caramagna (letterer). $2.99, 20 pgs, FC, Marvel.
Noted Bendis Hater Steven R. Stahl mentioned in regard to last issue that the way Sebastian Shaw got enough energy to escape from Madison Jeffries was way stupid, and I had some fun with him, because it's comics, after all. Here's the thing about Stahl, though: he's right, but should we care? What I find very interesting about comics is that writers are often writing about difficult subjects, and should we forgive them for not knowing everything about physics or thermodynamics or chemistry? And why does this only apply to the sciences? I've noticed over the years that a comic book writer can get savaged for not knowing physics, yet when I complained about Paul Cornell's lackadaisical attitude toward history in Demon Knights #1, a bunch of people told me that it's just comics and why should I worry about it? How much should we expect comic book writers to know, after all? I've often wondered about this when it comes to writers writing people like Reed Richards and Tony Stark, who are supposed to be geniuses. Are any comic book writers geniuses in physics? No, they're not – not even Warren Ellis or Grant Morrison, because if they were, they'd be motherfucking physicists. So I admit that Stahl is right, even though I'm willing to give Gage a pass, because the way Shaw escaped was clever enough. Sure, if you think about it, it falls apart, but guess what? If you think about a lot of superhero comics too much, they fall apart.
This ties into something that has been bugging me for a few issues now, and that's the Iron Giant on the Academy's grounds. In the Airwolf panel below, Dust says that the Sentinel is "built to kill mutants." Again, I point out that it's a robot. Surge even says it has a metal brain. Hasn't it been reprogrammed yet? Is it that hard to reprogram a Sentinel? I don't know, but I wish Gage would address it, because it seems like it's such a crucial part of the story these days, as everyone keeps freaking out when they see the Sentinel. I'm just curious. I know some other writer has probably addressed this already in that mini-series where Juston hangs out with the robot, but nobody read that, did they?
This was an okay issue, although the fight between Hercules and Shaw points out how unbelievably stupid superhero fights often are. Hercules has the advantage of being invisible, but he speaks so Shaw can find him (when Phineas and Ferb makes fun of that specific problem in an episode in which Dr. Doofenschmirtz is invisible yet keeps talking so Perry can find him, it's probably past the point where you can use it in a serious setting). When he starts to show him the Shield of Perseus (the one with Medusa's face on it), he tells Shaw what he's doing, allowing Shaw to close his eyes. Then he cuts him with a sword that can cut anything … except someone who can absorb energy. Shaw has been around for a long time – hasn't anyone figured out yet that you could stab him with a plastic spork and that would be more effective than all this fancy crap? This is another reason why thought balloons are awesome – Gage is trying to let the reader know what weapons Herc has, but because thought balloons are déclassé, he has to have Herc speak, so Shaw hears him. It's just d-u-m.
So. I enjoy ranting, don't I? It's not a great issue of AA, but it's okay. It'll get better, right?
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Batwoman #9 ("To Drown the World Part Four") by J. H. Williams III (writer), W. Haden Blackman (writer), Trevor McCarthy (artist), Guy Major (colorist), and Todd Klein (letterer). $2.99, 20 pgs, FC, DC.
On 11 January, Batwoman #5 came out. This was the cover. On 16 May, Batwoman #9 came out, and we got this Ben Oliver abomination as the cover. I mean, I know that Williams drew that first one, and Williams is very good, and that cover might not be passed for best cover of the year, but really, Ben Oliver? What the fucking fuck? I mean, the image of Batwoman herself is terrible, and then we have … a moray eel? Really? What the hell is a moray eel doing there? Nothing in this story suggest eels, nor does a majority of this story take place underwater (it does take place near water, so there's that). I just don't get how anyone, seeing this cover, would think it's good. I mean, I guess some people like that computer-generated look for Batwoman, so maybe that would get a pass from editors, but didn't anyone call Ben Oliver and say, "Hey, dude, what the fuck is up with the fucking eel?" If they did, did he have a good reason for it? "I like eels" is not a good reason, by the way. Jeebus.
McCarthy takes over on art, and there's a noticeable improvement. McCarthy inks himself, which is always a plus, and his line is miles more confident than Amy Reeder's (start inking yourself, Ms. Reeder – it will be better for everyone!). Williams isn't credited with layouts, but I have to assume he has a lot to do with it, and McCarthy uses bolder layouts quite a bit more than Reeder was. Either McCarthy or Major is using the modern equivalent of Zip-A-Tone, giving more definition to the artwork, and McCarthy apes Williams' style shifts from Batwoman to the non-superhero parts of the book better than Reeder did. I like Reeder's art, but based on this one issue, McCarthy is a better choice as the fill-in artist while we wait for Williams to return.
The story moves forward with some humorous bits – Batwoman tells Sune that she (Sune, that is) can't kill Falchion, but then she (Batwoman, that is) shoves an arrow right into his eye and into his brain, which seems to kill him. Um, Kate? Did you forget something? And then Batwoman doesn't want Sune to know her secret identity, even though I'm still not sure how Maggie Sawyer herself hasn't figured it out yet – it seems even more obvious than Bruce as Batman, and that's pretty obvious. But then we get to the end, and I got angry. I hate stuff like that, because it introduces false drama into a situation. I don't want to spoil anything, but if Kate doesn't stop what's happening on the first page of the next issue, I'll be very disappointed in Williams and Blackman. This kind of crap is just dumb.
However, I do like McCarthy's art, and I think the story is working fairly well, so that's something. We'll see how I feel after the fallout next issue, but until the last page, this was a pretty good comic!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Glory #26 ("Destroyer Part One: Real Weapons") by Joe Keatinge (writer), Ross Campbell (artist), Joseph Bergin III (colorist), and Douglas E. Sherwood (letterer). $2.99, 20 pgs, FC, Image.
The second story arc of Glory begins with a fair amount of violence, which is always fun to see. Glory is training Riley in weapons use because she's going to need to know these things, but it turns out the timetable for the bad guy's (Glory's father, that is) attack has been moved up, so Riley is going to have to deal with it. We meet a new cast member, Henry (well, we've already seen him, but we meet him properly here), and aliens attack Glory because she tumbled on their plans. It's a good set-up issue, with some brutal stuff but not so much it's overwhelming, and a good sense of foreboding. As usual, Campbell is superb at almost everything in the art department – the final page is really stunning – and annoying at one thing, as Riley still looks like a 10-year-old and I don't think she's supposed to be 10 years old. Ross doesn't read this blog unless Kelly's talking about him (I'm not bitter!), but maybe Kelly can ask him nicely to make Riley look a bit older. It's freaky. How cool-looking is Adelle when we first see her, though?
The one thing that bugged me about Keatinge's script is just the delayed satisfaction that I'm sure is coming, and I don't want to wait! On page 18, Henry tells Riley, "You're about to see some things you won't like seeing. You're going to see a side of me I don't like sharing." Now, as Henry is a fairly benign-looking fellow (an alien, sure, but he still looks fairly cuddly), I'm sure he's going to go apeshit, but Keatinge has him say this on page 18, and of course the book is only 20 pages long. So we have to wait until next issue to see what he means, and I don't want to wait! It seems like this would be a good thing to have Henry say early in the next issue, so we can see what he means soon after he says it. That is, the pacing of this story is a bit strange. He and Riley go outside, and the invasion has barely started. It seems that Henry would have time to say it next issue. That's just a personal preference, of course, but what else are these things?
So, Glory. Yeah. It's good. Even though Campbell hates me and loves Kelly. I will try to type through the tears!!!!!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Hellblazer #291 ("Another Season in Hell Epilogue: Dark Magic") by Peter Milligan (writer), Gael Bertrand (artist), Brian Buccellato (colorist), and Sal Cipriano (letterer). $2.99, 20 pgs, FC, DC/Vertigo.
On one page of issue #291 of Hellblazer, John Constantine kills a man with a hammer and fucks a whore. Yeah, none of that will come back to haunt him, I'm sure.
In this issue, John and Gemma decide to have some revenge on Constantine's evil twin ("I'd get no shame, and feel no blame, 'cause evil's not my cup of tea"), so John has to get some really bad magic working, hence the killing and fucking. I'm not sure if Epiphany will think it's such a good idea, but we'll see. Then they have to lure the evil twin ("he would stink of sex appeal") onto this plane so they can have their revenge. It works, of course, but also of course, it doesn't end well for John, as it appears that Gemma no longer wants anything to do with him. Well, I mean, he is kind of a douchebag, but she seems kind of harsh on him, doesn't she?
"Another Season in Hell" was a bit of a shambling mess, but Milligan did resolve the whole "Gemma raped by John's evil twin" ("he'd send the pretty ones to me, and they would think that I was he") story, so that's something. Even with it being a bit of a mess, I still dig the comic, because Milligan has done such a good job with the characters. They're interesting even when the plot isn't great, and that's why this remains a very good title.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
The Manhattan Projects #3 by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Nick Pitarra (artist), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), and Rus Wooton (letterer). $3.50, 20 pgs, FC, Image.
The Manhattan Projects continues gleefully on its way, as in this issue, F. D. Roosevelt drops dead, but that's not a problem for our group of crazy scientists! Meanwhile, the Secret Service finds Truman in the middle of a Masonic ritual, where they tell him he's now the president, and an agent carries him off like he's a sack of potatoes. Oh, and Oppenheimer has a sit-down with Truman, who doesn't quite get what the hell is going on. This is reinforced when he speaks to General Groves, who's about to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. The conversation between the general and the president is both hilarious and a bit terrifying, but that's what makes this book so very cool – it's insane, sure, but it also has this undercurrent of terror to it. Meanwhile, the first two pages feature Albert Einstein, and Chris Sims, with that way that he has, has decided that Einstein is the "Wolverine" of the book, which is absolutely brilliant.
Pitarra and new colorist Bellaire do fine work, too. The two pages with the flashback to Groves' childhood is wonderful, with everything colored blue except the Bible, which is a deep, rich red. The green situation room from which Groves calls Truman is a good choice, as it contrasts with the more realistic coloring of the Oval Office and Oppenheimer's visions. Pitarra draws a wild and very funny Masonic ritual, with Truman's headdress a highlight.
So far, Manhattan Projects is a stew of a lot of weird shit, and obviously Hickman needs to pull it together a bit more (which it seems he does with the climax of this issue). When I jumped ship on his Fantastic Four*, I did it because while there was some weird shit, the pace was so glacial that even the nifty ideas couldn't keep me around. I've heard that he's gotten better at that on that title, but it's nice to see this kind of book, where he jumps right in with both feet. It makes three issues of this better than the two long arcs of Fantastic Four I bought.
* Speaking of Fantastic Four, did anyone check out the ".1" issue that came out this week? Mike Choi, whose work I haven't loved in the past, does the art, and it's superb. I'm sure he's doing something different with the pencils, but also, Sonia Oback doesn't color him. I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of the way Oback colors a book (even though she's pretty good at that style), and Cris Peter, who colors Choi on the .1 issue, is much more to my liking. Choi with Peter is a very good artist, while Choi with Oback is someone who I don't hate but don't really like, either. Colorists: give them some love!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Mondo #2 ("B'gok No More!") by Ted McKeever (writer/artist). $4.99, 32 pgs, FC, Image/Shadowline.
I think the trade of Mondo was already supposed to be out, so its tardiness is kind of funny. I don't really care, because it's such a wacky and fun comic and as it's only three issues, I can live with the long stretches between issues because I know it will be over soon. In this issue, we get quite a lot of exposition in the form of that tried-and-true expositioney trope, the newscaster (McKeever puts his own clever and vicious spin on it, though), as we learn about a satellite that will apparently hit Venice Beach pretty soon. Meanwhile, the evil mayor of Venice is trying to turn it from a kooky, funky arty place to a high-end condo kind of place, so there's that. The psychotic girl in the roller skates shows up and does psychotic things, while our hero Mondo is still battling the giant chicken from issue #1. It's … kind of hard to explain.
But that doesn't matter! McKeever isn't being so weird as to be impenetrable – the story is strange and features a lot of different characters, but it's still fairly focused. Meanwhile, the art remains excellent – McKeever obviously drops in some Photoshopped elements, but because he's very good, they look like they belong, and his pencil work is amazing. The story is fun, but the glory of this book is McKeever's art.
I hope the last issue comes out soon, but I'm content to wait. This series is so COMICS! that it's almost ridiculous, but that's why we love them, right?
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Saga #3 by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist), and Fonografiks (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Image.
So the review of The Avengers that I linked to a few weeks ago – the one by the woman who gave it 3 out of 5 stars and got called all sorts of names for daring to not love it completely – points out something that I should think is obvious and is pertinent to Saga: some things just click for some people. As you might recall, Ms. Kelly Thompson loves Saga (or at least the first two issues; I can't imagine she wouldn't like this one too), while I have been lukewarm about the first two issues … and this one, too. You know what? That's okay. There's no reason to hate Kelly for loving this or me for not loving this. Part of the fun of reading reviews, for me, is seeing what various people with various points of view think about things. I've often liked things and then read a scathing review about it and thought, "Well, I can see that, but I like it for this reason, and apparently that person didn't." I think Saga is pretty good – it's certainly not terrible – but something just isn't clicking for me. For the most part, it's the way Vaughan is writing these characters as if they're trendy Earthlings. It just doesn't work for me. I know it works for Kelly, because she's said as much. So it has nothing to do with the story or the artwork, which could get better. Vaughan has chosen this way to write his characters, and for me, other parts of the book are going to have to be much better for me to keep reading the book. But I'm still willing to give it a chance.
To wit: The ghosts are snotty teenagers. They're snotty teenagers who speak like every snotty teenager you've ever imagined, but they're not from Earth, so why should they? The ghost on the cover there even uses air quotes, which makes them snotty First World (if not purely American) teenagers. I don't mind the fact that romance novels exist in this section of the galaxy, but it's still part of this problem. Now, there are some cool things about the comic – the fact that Hazel calls Izabel her "first babysitter" sounds kind of portentous, and the big twist at the end is okay, I guess. But the reason the typical slang and the romance novels don't work is because it feels lazy. Truly great science fiction and fantasy writers invent stuff – languages, slang, entertainment – and Vaughan doesn't do that. Obviously, a lot of that stuff is based on Earthly things, but at least the writers are making the effort. Vaughan is, presumably, trying to make things more comfortable for the readers so we accept things like robots with television heads and dudes with horns and naked spider women, but let's be honest – if you're going to read a comic book, you probably already accept a lot of weird shit. My point is – teenagers are snotty all over. Why couldn't Vaughan make them snotty in their own customs and ways, rather than making them sound like they're hanging out at a California mall?
As for the twist … I got in a bit of an argument when the first issue came out, because I didn't think Marko and Alana were in love. I don't think that's proven by the last two pages, but I do wonder if we're going to see this play out as stupidly as we often do in fiction, where the people in a relationship think they're the only ones the other one has ever loved/fucked/crushed on. Marko is delirious, Alana – deal with it. I hope I'm wrong and they don't have a huge argument, but I fear I'm not. We shall see.
So that's why I don't love Saga yet. Unlike some comics that came out this week (which shall remain nameless to protect their reputations), I'm willing to give Vaughan some time. I'm curious enough about the big plot to overlook some of the nagging issues.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Scalped #58 ("Trail's End Part Three") by Jason Aaron (writer), R. M. Guéra (artist), Giulia Brusco (colorist), and Sal Cipriano (letterer). $2.99, 20 pgs, FC, DC/Vertigo.
Let's be honest – it's Scalped, it has two issues after this one to go, and it's been one of the best comics of the past five years. At this point, is there really anything else to say?
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
The Secret History of D. B. Cooper #3 by Brian Churilla (writer/artist) and Ed Brisson (letterer). $3.99, 22 pgs, FC, Oni Press.
Secrets are revealed in the latest issue of TSHODBC, as we find out why the doctor and Saunders are so interested in Cooper. It's for totally different reasons, but Churilla does a nice job doling out the information rather organically as we go along. There's still a lot of techobabble in this comic, but it's convincing, and that's all that matter, right? Churilla has yet to disappoint on the monster front, as we see perhaps his most twisted design yet (see below). This isn't quite as emotionally resonant as it should be (yet, that is), but it's a goofy ride, and that's pretty neat. Churilla paces it very well, so each issue, so far, has had some interesting revelations and ends with something horrific and surprising. That's certainly the case here! I do like how Churilla doesn't waste time with a ton of explanations – once again, it's COMICS!, and we're expected to just go along. I imagine that the actual plot will have to become more compelling as time goes on, but when you have so many cool monsters to look at, you can forgive a lot. Luckily, it is an interesting story, just not as powerful, emotionally, as it should be. Now that we've learned a bit more about Cooper's family, maybe that will change.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
The Shadow #2 ("The Fire of Creation Part Two") by Garth Ennis (writer), Aaron Campbell (artist), Carlos Lopez (colorist), and Rob Steen (letterer). $3.99, 22 pgs, FC, Dynamite Entertainment.
This may be heretical, but Campbell's art has gotten so much better that I feel comfortable comparing it to John Paul Leon's. It's definitely not as good, but it's closer than you might expect, and the art on this book is better than that on a lot of Dynamite comics (not all of them, of course, but a lot). I'm also liking the fact that Ennis is using restraint – not only in the language and graphic violence, of course, but in the use of the Shadow. Lamont Cranston is in this issue quite a bit, and although the Shadow does put in an appearance, it feels like Ennis is going to try to use him sparingly – I could be completely wrong in that regard, but that's what it feels like he's doing. I like the "real-world" stuff in here, too, as this first arc ties into Japan's aggression in China during the 1930s. This isn't quite the great Ennis that I loved back in the 1990s, but so far, I do like that the necessities of the title mean he needs to rein things in a bit and concentrate on the storytelling rather than the shock value. That's always nice.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
The Sixth Gun #22 ("A Town Called Penance Part Five") by Cullen Bunn (writer), Brian Hurtt (artist), Bill Crabtree (colorist), and Douglas E. Sherwood (letterer). $3.99, 22 pgs, FC, Oni Press.
After last month's wordless issue, Bunn writes some dialogue this time around, as Becky and Drake manage to get out of the bad guy's lair but don't quite escape. Jesup, the main evil dude, hunts them down and there's a big ol' fight, which gives Hurtt more chances to show how awesome he is. Bunn does a very nice job showing the weird relationship that Becky and Drake have – they obviously dig each other, but Bunn shows us that Drake remains completely untrustworthy, something that will have to come to a head eventually. Bunn and Hurtt are doing it fairly subtly, too, which is nice. We don't know if Drake gets so angry when Becky is grazed by a bullet because he thinks she's dead or because he wants to use her for his own nefarious purposes. It's a nice dynamic.
The big problem I have with this issue is the tired pop-culture ending Bunn uses. How many times have you been watching a television show or a movie and someone – it could be the bad guy or the good guy, it doesn't matter – declines to shoot his adversary in the head and watch them die because "leaving them to suffer" would be so much worse? And how many times does that person left to die get rescued at the last minute and seek his revenge? Yeah, I thought so. I was actually yelling at the page when this happens at the end of this issue. Come on, Mr. Bunn! That's just dull. The fight was very cool, but the resolution … not so much. Oh well. I'm still liking this arc very much!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
X-Factor #236 ("X-Treme Measures Part 2 of 2") by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk (artist), Matt Milla (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer). $2.99, 20 pgs, FC, Marvel.
First, there was Longshot. Good ol' Longshot. Everyone liked him, right? Got himself drawn by Arthur Adams, hung out with Spider-Man and She-Hulk, fell in love with a chick who got turned into figurehead (unless I'm misremembering). Then came Shatterstar. Okay, kind of dumb. Liefeldian head piece and lots of 'roid rage. But he kind of grows on you, doesn't he? Well, what could be better than those two dudes from Mojoworld? Another dude from Mojoworld named … Scattershot! It's an unholy amalgam of the first two names (sort of)! I really can't decide if Peter David is taking the piss or not, but Scattershot is kind of ridiculous, even though he enjoys kicking ass. I mean, come on – he has that big-ass ponytail (so Nineties!) and at least seven (7) pouches on his belts (so, SO NINETIES!) and he has big-ass armored shoulder pads and a giant gun and face tattoos (so, SO, SOOOO NINETIES!!!!). David and Leonard Kirk can't be serious with him, can they? David had to say to Kirk, "Okay, here's the design. Take everything that made the Nineties the Nineties and kick it up a notch. DO IT!!!!"
Anyway, this is basically a big fight issue, as Shatterstar fights Scattershot. Yes, only in glorious, glorious comics can I write something like "Shatterstar fights Scattershot" and it sounds perfectly reasonable in context. You can't even say that about Chad Nevett's sweet mistress, pro wrestling, because those dudes at least try to sound tough when they come up with names. I know both "Shatterstar" and "Scattershot" are supposed to sound tough, but they really don't, do they? So the fight goes on, but David continues to weave in both humor (Lord Defender's conversation with the kid at the end) and the deadly serious (see below). He's rather good at that.
Man, the Nineties. What an awesome decade.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel (writer/artist). $22.00, 289 pgs, BRW, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Yay! A new book by Alison Bechdel! She skipped the Basin on her latest book tour, but maybe she'll come back around and she can pick on me again. That was, no joke, quite a highlight for me, when I got her to sign Fun Home and she picked on me because she read what I wrote about it. Ms. Bechdel is all right.
The Coldest City by Antony Johnston (writer), Sam Hart (artist), and Ed Brisson (letterer). $19.99, 171 pgs, BW, Oni Press.
Cold War spy thriller? HELL YES!!!!!
Crogan's Loyalty by Chris Schweizer (writer/artist). $14.99, 176 pgs, FC, Oni Press.
Honestly, if you're not reading Schweizer's series about the Crogan family, I don't know what we're going to do with you. Do you hate good things? Why, oh why do you hate good things?
Princeless: Save Yourself by Jeremy Whitley (writer), M. Goodwin (artist), Jung-Ha Kim (letterer), and Dave Dwonch (letterer). $14.95, 106 pgs, FC, Action Lab Comics.
Some of the pages in this collection were stuck together, and they ripped a little when I pulled them apart (even though I was careful). I'm not someone who cares about the condition of his comics too much, but I do get vexed when that happens. Anyway, Kelly loves this comic, and I'm eager to read it … in about two months, which is how far behind I am. Damn you, comics, for producing so many good things!
All these famous people dying recently – Adam Yauch and Donna Summer in the larger celebrity world, Ernie Chan and Tony DeZuniga in the comic book world – brings up an interesting phenomenon. How much do you really care? I'm not asking to be a jerk, but because I'm fascinated by this idea of being sad when someone you don't know dies. Greg H. mentioned that he had spoken to DeZuniga at a con, so he actually had met him, but whenever a celebrity dies, I imagine most people didn't ever actually meet them, much less know them. Maybe I'm an evil bastard, but when I heard that MCA died, I thought, "Oh, well, that sucks" and then I really didn't think about it too much again. It's not that I don't like the Beastie Boys or hated Yauch and all he stood for or didn't think it was sad that he was only 47, it's just that he was never really a person to me, not like people I know and love. In the same way, I'd be sadder if someone in comics that I had met and spoken to died, but not to the point that I'd feel like I lost a family member. I suppose I'm lucky – the only people I've ever been close to that have died are my grandparents, and they were all pretty old and had had good lives, so it wasn't too tragic. I'm not trying to criticize or mock anyone who feels sad that Donna Summer or Ernie Chan died, because everyone responds to death differently, but I am very puzzled by it. I just don't get it, I guess. I never have.
This past week the Arizona Republic had two fascinating stories about water rights on the large Navajo/Hopi reservation in the northeast corner of the state (the Hopi reservation is completely surrounded by the Navajo one). Part One is here and Part Two is here. They're a bit long, but very interesting. Water rights in the West are a major battle, and there are a lot of moving parts. It's complicated because it's very hard to find a villain, even if someone like John Kyl (one of our Republican senators) fits the part.
In funner things, here's a ranking of every episode of Community so far. I still haven't watched the final three of this season, but it's been an odd one, to be sure. What I do like about it is that it's not ridiculously funny, but the show does try a lot of interesting things that are weird and wry if not laugh-out-loud funny.
It's been taken down already, but some dude wrote up Kim Kardashian's IMDb page in wonderfully caustic fashion. He was disciplined, I'm sure, but he's not wrong.
I know it seems like Nicolas Cage is in every movie, but he's not really. Or is he … One of the better ones is The Avengers poster with Cage as every character.
For this week's list, I thought I'd list my ten favorite fiction books, alphabetically by author (I've tried to rank them before, and it's too hard, so deal with it). Fiction and non-fiction are such different things I didn't think stacking them up together would work. So here they are, always subject to change, obviously, as I read new fiction!
1. If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. Calvino's surreal masterpiece is partly written in second person, which ought to annoy me because, well, second person is annoying. But in this case, his wordplay is superb, and this book, about reading and literature and how it transforms people, is a marvel. It's also wildly funny (he lampoons the publishing industry in general throughout), and the way Calvino shifts genres in the chapters that aren't in second person is amazing. Calvino often experiments with the way to write books, and for me, this is his most successful experiment.
2. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I love re-reading this book, and I've done it several times because I used to teach it (to high-schoolers, which is quite … interesting). It's ahead of its time, it influenced politics, and it's a very interesting adventure story as well as being a grand allegory. Some people think Nostromo is better, but I give this the slight edge.
3. White Noise by Don DeLillo. This is probably my favorite book of fiction, if I had to choose one. Every time I read it I am struck by its insight into the human and American condition, its satire of pop culture, and its biting humor. DeLillo is one of my favorite authors, and he's written good books before and since this one, but this is a perfect distillation of his ideas on history and conspiracy, as well as what binds us together. Excellent stuff.
4. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. This book apparently divides families and causes friends to fight because opinions on it are so mixed. I think it's fantastic – creepy, scary, and funny all at the same time. Eco obviously had a blast putting together this conspiracy, and it satirizes all the weird beliefs people hold about the history of the world. The Illuminatus! Trilogy did this well, too, but I like Eco's book more.
5. Smile on the Void by Stuart Gordon. This book is out of print, but I remember reading it more than once in the mid- to late-1980s, when I used to check it out of my local library (I have since found it at a used book store, so I can read it again!). It's a biography of a legendary figure named Ralph M'Botu Kitaj, who was born in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 and became a strange shamanistic figure deep in the heart of Africa. This book is his story, but also the story of his biographer, and the story becomes how these two men change and how Kitaj tries to transform himself and others into something greater than human. It's a very weird book, but strangely moving and more than a bit trippy. If you're at your local library or at some used book sale, look for it. It's neat.
6. Picture This by Joseph Heller. As much as I love Catch-22, I like this book a little more. It's not as funny as Heller's first book, nor does it have a visceral scene like when Yossarian comes upon the bombadier, but it's more deeply moving and wry, plus it offers very excellent social and political commentary that's more subtle than Catch-22. Heller deftly compares Aristotle's Greece, Rembrandt's Holland, and contemporary America, showing the tragic similarities among them. He does this through Rembrandt's painting "Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer," which hangs in the Met – I saw it a few years ago, and it's pretty keen.
7. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. I keep meaning to read this again, because the first time I did I was astonished by how beautiful it was. It's a modern fairy tale, and Helprin's dreamy prose evokes a long-lost world that still feels familiar. It takes place in a New York of fantasies, and the love story in this book is so powerful and compelling you wish this world existed.
8. The Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić. This might be the weirdest book I've ever read, but it's still excellent. It is literally in the form of a dictionary, with hundreds of entries that tell a strange tale of the Khazars, a tribe that lived around the Caspian Sea at the end of the first millennium and converted to Judaism. It's a dreamlike book, with bizarre folktales and modern murders, and it's fun to read, because you're never sure what's going on. There's a male version and a female version, identical except for one sentence. I have the male version, and I have never discovered what is different about the female one.
9. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. Interestingly, I don't really like the other Robbins books I've read, but this one is very good. It's a meditation on immortality and love that stretches across the centuries, but it's also quite ribald and very funny. Plus, Robbins gives us plenty of information on how to make perfume, and don't we need more of that kind of esoteric knowledge?
10. Sinai Tapestry by Edward Whittemore. This is another long out-of-print book, unfortunately. It was re-released about a decade ago, but once again went out of print, consarnit! This is the first book in a four-part series by Whittemore, and it's the best one. It's a story about several weird characters in the Middle East at the end of the 19th and through the beginning of the 20th century, including Plantagenet Strongbow, who wrote a 33-volume history of sex in Victorian England before disappearing into the Egyptian desert, Joe O'Sullivan Beare, who fought the English in Ireland during the 1916 uprising before heading to the Holy Land and eventually playing a 12-year poker game for control of Jerusalem (which is the subject of the second book of the quartet), and Haj Haroun, an antiquities dealer in Jerusalem who is as old as the city itself. In this book, a Trappist monk finds the secret original Bible and spends the rest of his life forging another one, and at the end of the book several characters end up in Smyrna in 1922, which is some of the most tragic stuff I've ever read. I love this book and I wish Whittemore got more acclaim for all four of the ones in this series.
Some honorable mentions: The two Dirk Gently books by Douglas Adams plus the Hitchhiker "trilogy" (the Dirk Gently books are better written if not as wildly funny); Vox by Nicholson Baker (a story about a man and a woman on a phone-sex line and the 200-page conversation they have – very dirty but brilliant, and written before Baker became a raving pervert, apparently); Imajica by Clive Barker; The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley; Possession by A. S. Byatt; House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski (the scariest book I've ever read); Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold; Pontius Pilate by Paul Maier; The Lord of the Rings (sorry, I'm a geek); Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut.
So there you have it. Feel free to list your own!
Anyway, sorry this post is later than it's been for a while. Friday mornings are always busy for me, so if my Thursdays get a bit busy, I get late, and yesterday was a bit busier than usual. Life intrudes sometimes, you know. Anyway, have a wonderful weekend!
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text:
Welcome to the CADFEM UK CAE Ltd. Help File archive. Where applicable we have given you links to download sample files as well as video demonstrations, images and animations where needed. For more information please contact us on +44 (0)844 212 5900 or email: email@example.com
Repositioning Analysis Systems in Workbench
Here we have a quick ANSYS technical tip. ANSYS users can now reorganise the boxes in their Project Schematic to group together particular components when constructing their analyses. By default, ANSYS groups the boxes in a way of it's own choosing.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
From the season's outset, Roseau coach Kelsey Didrikson knew running the table was a real possibility for her Rams' team.
"But it's another thing to actually accomplish that," she said.
Sure, there's the injuries and illnesses and various tests that pop up throughout a season, and navigating all of that without a blemish is a challenge — one top-seeded Roseau completed Saturday with its 75-64 win over Sauk Centre in the Class 2A state title game at Williams Arena.
"Personally, I didn't really feel like we were undefeated," said senior Kiley Borowicz. "I just thought about last year so we didn't get too cocky, (when) we had like three or four losses. Everything doesn't feel real this year."
Second-seeded Sauk Centre (31-2) provided one last stout challenge Saturday, but the Mainstreeters had no answer for Roseau's depth. Sauk Centre coach Scott Bergman said you simply have to "pick your poison" with the Rams (32-0). Sauk Centre did all it could to limit Kylie Borowicz — the Rams star forward — in the first half, holding her to just four points. But the Rams still led by 10 points at the break.
Kacie Borowicz, Kylie's younger sister, had 11 points in the first half.
"We feel like if we get a lead, we can be really tough to play with for a 36-minute game," Didrikson said, "because we have so many weapons."
Sauk Centre made a push in the second half, hitting its first seven shots, but only cut the deficit to six, because every time the Mainstreeters scored, Roseau had an answer.
This was Roseau's third-straight state tournament appearance, but Kiley Borowicz said anything less than a state title this season wouldn't have been enough.
"I knew we were the best team, I just wished we would play like it, and we did," she said. "If we would have lost that game, we never would have forgot it."
Now that they've won it, this group of Rams likely won't be forgotten. Kacie Borowicz said there are a lot of younger girls actually interested in basketball now because of this team's success.
So, does that mean basketball has officially overtaken hockey as the sport of choice in Roseau?
"No, not quite," Kacie said.
"It'll get better," Kylie said.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: New London-Spicer — Shea Oman. New Richland-H-E-G — Marnie Wagner. Roseau — Kacie Borowicz, Kylie Borowicz and Victoria Johnson. Sauk Centre — Jill Klaphake, Tori Peschel and Maesyn Thiesen. Watertown-Mayer — Claire Killian and Kirstin Klitzke.


text:
Despite this being harvest season, I've been pestering farmers with theoretical questions about food and agriculture labels.
Here's something I've learned: If there's one thing to guarantee a lengthy conversation with an ag-minded person, regardless of his or her crop harvesting schedule, it might be on the farm labels.
I've also learned that there comes a point when slapping a pithy saying on an agricultural method is a detriment to understanding just how a farmer does his job.
For example, I talked to a farmer in Michigan who says people call him "Big Ag" at least once a week, and he admitted this to me with an odd mix of guilt and braggadocio. The thing is, this farmer told me, he's not the bad guy the "Big Ag" label makes him out to be, and he wishes people could see this for themselves — but they often don't give him a chance. So the consumer may never know that a "Big Ag" farmer, like Jeff VanderWerff from Michigan, conservatively — not flagrantly — sprays his field, or that he treats his animals with respect and care, not like chattel.
Meanwhile, other farmers live and die by the Certified Organic stamp because it sets them apart from the conventional growing crowd. At my local farmers market, there are so many vendors who are "spray-free," and few who can legally sell their food as organic. It makes it more difficult for those who have gone through the certification process to sell their specialty product. And as we blogged last week, the organic label may be a touch passe these days. Some progressive farmers think the heavily regulated moniker doesn't go far enough and want to go "Beyond Organic."
Beyond organic, indeed. There's another term that describes a more comprehensive list of farmers. It's not as easy to dismiss as hollow or fatigued; perhaps you could call it organic's more open-minded sidekick. It's "sustainable agriculture."
And although sustainability might seem as ambiguous as "all-natural" (listen to our recent Field Notes podcast), the term was at least provided some clarity in 1990 when Congress approved a definition. In brief, sustainable agriculture is an operation that creates food, provides jobs, is not wasteful and provides for the future.
Now that's quite open-ended.
Defining 'sustainable'
According to the the legal definition approved by Congress and used by the USDA, Sustainable Agriculture is an "integrated system of plant and animal production practices" that will:
- Satisfy human food and fiber needs.
- Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agriculture economy depends.
- Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls.
- Sustain the economic viability of farm operations.
- Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.
In 2010, the federal government's Board on Agricultural and Natural Resources put it this way:
"The definition of sustainable farming does not accept a sharp dichotomy between unsustainable or sustainable farming systems because all types of farming can potentially contribute to achieving different sustainability goals and objectives."
I asked Robert Hedberg for clarification. He is in charge of sustainability programs for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"For me, sustainability is a working principle," he said, "I like the idea of thinking about sustainability as not a 'this person is and that person isn't,' but all of us are involved in the system constantly trying to improve it."
It's always surprising to me when polemical agriculture ideas are brought to light with fairness and room for contradictions. Sustainability is one of those ideas. It's not alienating to conventional producers like "organic" tends to be. It's also easy to interpret based on the individual farmer's needs. This doesn't happen very often.
Because of this, farming methods that were originally presented in the spirit of sustainability, and were subsequently considered alternative, have gone mainstream: no-till farming, cover crop planting and integrated pest management, for example. I've met farmers in seed caps who boast a no-till planting style – and behind them are thousands of acres of soybeans as far as the eye can see.
Still, 20 years after sustainable agriculture garnered that open-ended legal definition, it does remain more strongly associated with small, progressive farmers.
So, who are the farmers that make up this bright, new, inclusive sustainable future? And, how do they connect sustainability to agriculture?
Let's start with someone who's met a more diverse group of farmers than I ever will. His name is Daniel Klein, and his mission is to seek out meaning in sustainable farming with his project "Perennial Plate: Adventurous and Sustainable Eating." In addition to sampling regional cuisine, Klein has visited farmers from coast to coast on his "Real Food Road Trip."
"We don't know the answer to what sustainable means, so we are out to discover and take our viewers on that journey," Klein said. "So we can each develop our own perspective. It is a learning process by which people are trying to figure out the best way to harvest food in an economically and environmentally conscious way."
Sounds open ended enough, though I was still interested in his notion of sustainability. On what sort of farmer does he see this label placed?
"Organic, biodynamic, Community Supported Agriculture, smaller," Klein said.
Now, Klein's not pulling this out of thin air. Sustainability has been co-opted by the organic community, and it's a more common to see a Certified Organic badge alongside claims of sustainable on-farm practices, than on a can of pre-made spaghetti, for example. Though, if you check back with the legal definition, and treat USDA's final word on the term as truth, you'll find no mention of favor toward certified organic producers.
What does Sustainable Agriculture mean to you?
We posed that question to our Harvest Network. Farmer William Powers of Ceresco, Neb., said Sustainable Agriculture is more than just farming methods.
"To me and my wife sustainable agriculture is a journey. It includes providing an economic opportunity for us to survive on the farm, while also providing a quality, healthy product for our family and our community and also enhancing and nurturing the environment we farm in."
Hedberg, from the USDA, said the reason the two camps might be linked comes from the overlap in organic rules and sustainable practice guidelines.
"We do not have a USDA sustainable certification program," he said, "The only certification program that I know of that is most similar is the national organic certification program."
So, what's good for organic producers, might also be sustainable. That could be as simple as creating "food and fiber for human consumption," or as detailed as "making the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources."
Onto the conventional farmer, who perhaps in 1990 would've scoffed at the idea of sustainability as a fringe idea. It's been awhile, and now our example — Bill Graff a grain and cattle farmer in Springfield, Ill. — has had time to think about sustainability, and he knows it well.
"Sustainable is a word that has been "captured" by many people who want it to mean what they want it to mean," Graff told me. "In many cases it means not big, but small farmers, who find it very hard to compete in the world of commodities where the efficiencies of scale work in a big way."
Graff went on to ask, with skepticism: Can any production practice really be completely sustainable?
"Anytime you remove food from a farm you remove a product that has some minerals, water, sunlight used for energy," Graff said, "So whether it is grown organically or with conventional means, can what you as a farmer continue to do, be done forever?"
A good question and perhaps one that can be answered by adopting a willingness to accept the contradictions sustainability and agriculture present. Try circumventing the need for an all-or-nothing understanding of the word. After all, the legal definition of sustainability is mutable enough to be molded to each farm.
Dairy farmer James Bosma, from Abbotsford, British Columbia in Canada, might have the right idea.
"To me, the word sustainable has become a buzz word, synonymous with terms such as eco-friendly or green revolution," Bosma said. "As an all-encompassing management practice, I prefer the term stewardship."
Bosma said a sustainable future for his farm means also providing a future for his family.
"Stewardship is respecting the privilege I have to farm, and employing the best welfare and management practices I can," he explained, "I farm with the mindset of ensuring that my children have the same opportunity."
Bosma might be the type of farmer who would fare best working within the sustainable guidelines laid out in the definition — a description that's decidedly not out to make anyone strictly conform.
And that might be the key in leading a sustainable life on the farm.
"Remembering it's process, not an endpoint," the USDA's Hedberg mused toward the end of our conversation.
Less conformity and more diverse farming techniques, and the willingness to change as needed. Unlike the food labels that are governed by a checklist and inspectors, "sustainable agriculture" is more like the label of the people.
Dairy farmer Bosma keeps his family's future in mind as he farms, and that's what sustains him. For Graff, it's getting the most of out of the smallest piece of land possible.
So, if you're a farmer looking for the right way to choose, you might look no further than the last point in the official definition of sustainable agriculture: "Enhance the quality of life for farmer and society as a whole." Perhaps it's easier to make a decision for profitability and what to plant next, when the consequences of these actions are measured on the same plane as family, environment and what can best sustain your rows of corn or stalls of cows into the future.


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Treasures of Armenia & Georgia | 29 Oct - 09 Nov 2018
The Caucasus mountain range lies between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and is considered part of the natural boundary between Europe and Asia. Its isolated and ancient lands are one of the world's most ethnically diverse regions, containing more than 60 languages from five distinct language families, giving the region an astounding cultural diversity.
This trip takes you to Armenia & Georgia. Armenia is an ancient and proud millennia-old civilization in a remote mountain landscape, the first state to adopt Christianity as an official religion; Georgia, the lush green heart of the Caucasus, followed not long after. With its fabulous cuisine and culture, diverse landscapes and a wealth of ancient churches, cathedrals, monasteries and cave cities, this is a part of the world truly like no other.
For those who have time, you may wish to extend the trip to Azerbaijan. The capital, Baku boasts a UNESCO World Heritage old city while the countryside is where time really stood still.
Signature Departures Exclusives:
- Private lectures by specialist in Stalin Museum and Armenian History Museum regarding Armenian Genocide;
- Private lunch at Chateau Mukhrany winery with international award-winning wine
- Special private concert by Rustavi Ensemble at Elene Akhvlediani House Museum.
- All meals included with 1 glass of juice/beer/wine;
- Small group size of maximum 16 people;
- Accompanied by Country Holidays Travel Concierge
- Tipping to Guide, Driver and Porter included;
- Comprehensive Travel Insurance included
|Land Tour Price
|Twin Sharing HK$36,880/-;
Single Supplement HK$8,550/-
|Economy from HK$5,417/-
Business from HK$24,307/-
|HK$ 10,000/- per person
|Closing Date
|20 Jul 2018 or when tour is fully subscribed.
|Early Bird Special
|First 5 room bookings enjoy complimentary room upgrade to Junior Suite in Avan Dzoraget Hotel.
This departure is part of an Epic Silk Road odyssey which was once braved by Marco Polo, Alexander the Great and Zhang Qian. By combining this trip with other Epic Silk Road departures, you can retrace the footsteps of the world's greatest explorers more in-depth while enjoying the following privileges:
Epic Silk Road Multi-Trip Privileges
Combine this trip with other Epic Silk Road departures:
- Epic Silk Road Part 1: Gansu [Sep 8 - 18, 2018]
- Epic Silk Road Part 2: Xinjiang [Sep 16 - 26, 2018]
- Epic Silk Road Part 3: Uzbekistan & Turkmenistan [Sep 27 - Oct 08, 2018]
- Epic Silk Road Part 4: Classic Iran [Oct 10 - Oct 21, 2018]
- Epic Silk Road Part 5: Western Iran & Armenia [Oct 22 - Nov 02, 2018]
- Epic Silk Road Part 6: Armenia & Georgia [Oct 30 - Nov 8, 2018]


text:
Report NEP-MIC-2007-02-03This is the archive for NEP-MIC, a report on new working papers in the area of Microeconomics. Joao Carlos Correia Leitao issued this report. It is usually issued weekly.
Subscribe to this report: email, RSS or Twitter.
Other reports in NEP-MIC
The following items were announced in this report:
- Luis M.B. Cabral & Thomas Ross, 2006. "Are Sunk Costs A Barrier To Entry?," Working Papers 06-09, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
- Kevin Alavy & Alison Gaskell & Stephanie Leach & Stefan Szymanski, 2006. "On the Edge of Your Seat: Demand for Football on Television and the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis," Working Papers 0631, International Association of Sports Economists;North American Association of Sports Economists.
- Michael A. Arnold & Thierry Pénard, 2007. "Bargaining and posted prices: what does the Internet change ?," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes 1 & University of Caen) 200704, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes 1, University of Caen and CNRS.
- Stennek, Johan, 2007. "Exclusive Quality - Why Exclusive Distribution May Benefit the TV Viewers," CEPR Discussion Papers 6072, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Kubo, Koji, 2004. "Imperfect Competition and Costly Screening in the Credit Market under Conditions of Asymmetric Information," IDE Discussion Papers 15, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
- Heski Bar-Isaac & Guillermo Caruana & Vicente Cunat, 2006. "Diversity and demand externalities: How cheap information can reduce welfare," Working Papers 06-08, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.


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Winter gradually ended, and spring arrived.
Collecting comrades.
I discussed that with Orsted and we came up with 3 courses of action.
The first is to construct an organization for intelligence & random duties that's focused on intelligence gathering.
For that, we'll use the Rudo Mercenary Company that Aisha and the others created.
Have it collaborate in every way with Orsted behind the scenes, then expand the organization globally.
Link them all and gather each country's information in the main office.
Even if you don't go to the main office, if you go to the branch office you'll be able to find out in detail what's happened around there.
Rather than supporting Orsted, that's more of a system that supports my actions directly.
The second is people with political power.
Or perhaps, people who seem like they'll have political power later on. And winning them over as comrades.
Orsted said that Laplace will start a war when he's revived.
Thinking about it properly, he ought to wage war on each of the human nations.
At that time, how well each country is able to respond should depend on whether or not they know that will happen.
Thus, we'll make sure that influential people are informed in advance that there will be a war, arouse their caution, lend them our meager support, and gradually set things up for 80 years in the future.
When waging war against Laplace, whether the Rudo Mercenary Company can take action effectively should depend on whether or not each country is cooperating.
The third is a group of warriors who will be focused on battle.
Tentatively speaking, they'll be focused around Orsted.
We'll gather comrades who will fight Laplace in place of Orsted.
We'll have them fight Laplace in place of Orsted.
If the curse is lifted and they work together with Orsted, it would be nice to have them accompany him in the decisive battle against Hitogami too.
Who'd be good... is something that was decided after consulting with Orsted.
"People who already had the fate of fighting Laplace, and who won't easily become Hitogami's disciples."
That was the conclusion.
People like the Ogre God and the Dwarf God, who don't have a relation to Laplace in the present era but will confront him later. 1
The Water God Style and the Sword God Style don't have a relation to him in this era either, but their disciples will confront him.
Also, we plan to contact North God Karuman III and Death God Randolph who are long-lived.
There's also people who have personal grudges against Laplace.
Ruijerd is one of them.
For people whose whereabouts are unknown, the Rudo Mercenary Company searches for them, then I go there directly and use kowtow diplomacy.
Depending on the case, there's a possibility I might need to help them out and then pressure them into returning the favor.
For now, the plan is to contact every single strong-seeming person.
Now then, even when we gather those people, there's an existence which serves as a bottleneck.
Knowing him, he'll probably use his disciples to interfere.
Hitogami's disciples are basically impossible to identify in advance.
According to Orsted, it seems there are people with a low or high possibility.
But in this loop, it seems like people with a low likelihood have become disciples, and it's difficult to distinguish them.
With all the actions I'll be taking, people outside of Orsted's expectations will end up becoming disciples.
As for a countermeasure against that... honestly, I couldn't come up with one.
So I'll just stop thinking about it.
In the first place, I don't know what kind of standard Hitogami uses to decide on disciples.
Orsted said, "He has a tendency to choose people with strong fates."
However, in recent times, people with weak fates have also become disciples.
To begin with, I don't really understand what determines the strength of a person's fate.
It seems like a rule that only Orsted and Hitogami know.
Even if I consult with Orsted about each and every rule, I get the feeling that I'll just gather unnecessary anxiety and that just thinking about it is pointless.
For beginners to a game, there's a way of conducting yourself suited to beginners.
For now, I'll establish the motto "Don't believe in revelations from dreams" among the guys who become our comrades.
But even so, disciples will appear.
When someone seems suspicious, check if they're a disciple, and in each case, kill them.
It's a tough job, but I'll do it to the best of my ability.
Aside from me having it tough, there's no problem with just continually increasing our numbers from now on.
After all, Hitogami only has 3 disciples.
When it comes to increasing our numbers, the more we do the more we'll be at an advantage.
For example, if we have only 5 people, and one of them becomes a disciple and betrays us, our military strength goes down 20%.
The enemy's strength also increases, and the battle becomes risky.
But if we have 10 people, or 20.
Or 100, or 1000.
We won't become unsteady if just 1 or 2 people betray us.
If 1000 people manipulated by a leader became enemies, that would be bad,
but I'm basically the leader, so it's fine.
I'm a little worried about what happens after I die, but there are many people more excellent and capable than I am.
Someone capable of entrusting things to should appear.
Even now, there's Roxy and such.
Also, aside from gathering comrades, there are many things I need to do or obtain.
The first is securing a method of contacting Orsted.
In the previous incident's fight, Pax was allowed to die because of a lack of communication.
Of course, there were many causes besides a lack of communication.
But... If I'd had a secret method of contacting Orsted, I should've been able to avoid it.
I'm not thinking about completely relying on Orsted.
But from now on, I'll be taking action separately from him even more often than now.
For that reason, a method of contacting him is indispensable.
When the situation is important, there ought to be more cases where it would be better to act after consulting with someone rather than acting based on my own judgment.
If you know about the other person's dilemma, you can also rapidly take action.
Although I can't imagine a scene in which I save Orsted.
In any case, as I thought, a cell phone is essential.
Even if it's not a phone, it would be fine if it can send information one-way.
With all this in mind, I tried consulting with Orsted about it.
While explaining about the existence of something that can make phone calls, I asked if a similar thing existed or could be constructed.
"So it's a magic item that can send voices or writing."
"Even just writing would be good, but basically I was just thinking it might be good to be able to exchange information even when we're far away, or have a discussion when we're having trouble deciding something. It can't be done, right?"
I figured it would be impossible.
Society isn't that convenient.
"There are similar magic items among those of the dragon race. If those are reproduced, it would probably be possible."
That's what I'd been thinking, but Orsted's answer was unexpectedly optimistic.
"Ooh, so there are things like that."
"Yeah, you should have seen them too."
Where was there something like that?
If so, I should have thought "That's convenient, I want one too."
"The Seven Great World Powers stone monuments, and the adventurer guild cards."
I see.
Now that he mentions it, that's true.
The adventurer guild cards had voice input, and the Seven Great World Powers stone monuments have the same words but are scattered throughout the world.
I see.
So the the adventurer guild card was a rip-off of the dragon race's creations.
Come to think of it, it did give off an "overtechnology" vibe...
"A bit of improvement is necessary, but I'll try making it."
"Eh? Orsted-sama will be personally making it?"
"At any rate, since you've appeared, my schedule keeps getting thrown out of order. If there's a need for it, it would be good to make it... I'll make use of it in the next loop, too."
And thus, it was decided that Orsted would be personally manufacturing it.
It was a happy miscalculation.
Since it seems like Orsted is thinking about recruiting me to be his comrade in the next loop too, I'm truly happy.
"It's possible I won't be able to make it, so keep that in mind."
"Yessir, boss!"
And so the telecommunications business was approved.
One more thing.
Looking back at the failure last time, there's something I need to create.
A method of transporting the magic armor.
Last time, the Magic Armor MK-I that we went to great lengths to bring ended up only being used for transportation.
It took a lot of time to transport it from the city to the fort.
It wasn't brought into the castle, and wasn't even made use of during the battle with the Death God Randolph.
From now on, I don't expect to fight with Death God-level people very often.
But there still ought to be a lot of enemies I can't face with the MK-II Revised.
I want to do something about it.
Of course, to resolve that, we're advancing development of the MK-III which is small and has good performance.
But it will still take a lot of time to produce the MK-III.
Zanoba is all-out collaborating on it, but it's not something that will be complete in 1 or 2 years.
And so, I came up with an idea.
Regarding whether it would be possible to summon the MK-I as-is.
According to the lessons I had with Sylvaril before, it seems like I can't summon inorganic matter, but...
Well, you know, if I just do a little more of this or that, or change my way of thinking, I get the feeling I can summon inorganic matter.
This is something I intend to personally test out a little.
If it's no good, then I'm okay with that.
Well then, the course of action regarding gathering comrades has been set.
For the time being, we'll expand the Rudo Mercenary Company while establishing connections with each country's powerful people and making them comrades.
At present, it should be fine to act so as to make each country's powerful people into our comrades.
First of all, Cliff and Ariel.
The relative of the Pope of the Milis religious order, the next queen of the Asura Kingdom.
Those two who are like half-comrades will officially be incorporated into Orsted's faction.
Which of the two will be first?
Of course, Cliff who lives close by.
If Cliff becomes a comrade, I can form a connection to the Milis religious order.
The Holy Kingdom of Milis is a strong nation.
When it comes to the war against Laplace, they'll become an extremely strong military power.
Battles are about money and numbers, after all.
When the time comes, it won't be bad to have a connection.
I could say a lot about Cliff, but let me just say that he's my true friend.
He's been cooperating regarding Orsted's curse, so it should be fine to just get a verbal commitment from him.
I can imagine him immediately saying "Okay."
Thinking that, I headed toward the apartment where Cliff lives, but unfortunately it was the usual "that".
I heard Elinalise's carnal voice and immediately turned away.
The walls of that house are thin.
What's with that "You can't, Cliff! Clive is watching!"
Then do it when Clive is sleeping, sheesh...
For now, I just left him a note saying "I'll come by in the evening."
I decided to go to Zanoba's house.
Zanoba is no longer a prince.
He sold off his royal things to raise money and took up residence near my house.
It was a snug two-story house.
It was created so that he'd be able to manufacture dolls, so the first floor is wide open like a garage.
The living space is mostly on the second floor.
It seems like he's living there with Ginger and Julie.
It has plenty of space for three people to live in.
Although I don't know what'll happen between these three people from now on...
Maybe they'll get married or something.
Anyhow, for the time being he has savings, or rather the money he received as royalty, so he's fine,
but from now on it's just going to decrease, so we decided to pay him a salary for working on the production of the magic armor.
It's research and development costs.
Zanoba took it, but he didn't have a very pleased expression.
"I didn't make it on my own, so for me alone to receive money somehow feels wrong."
He said that with his eyebrows in the shape of a ハ.
It's not like I don't understand what he's saying.
The magic armor is something that myself, Zanoba, and Cliff made together.
Zanoba alone is receiving the R&D funding for it.
It doesn't seem reasonable.
But be that as it may, if he says that, the most unreasonable person is me.
I wear the magic armor, go to work, and receive compensation for it.
In other words, up until now only I've been getting money.
With the magic armor that all of us made.
The magic armor isn't something that we made to earn money.
But even so, humans are living things who kill each other for the sake of money.
If he says that we should be fair, then we should pay Cliff too.
Then again, Cliff doesn't lack money, so it's questionable if he'd accept it.
Well, enough of that.
At the very least, if someone needs money, there's enough to pay them.
There isn't anyone among my acquaintances who's greedy enough to overcharge to get an obviously excessive amount of money.
I personally also have enough flexibility when it comes to money to give it to someone who needs it.
Humans really need to treat one another well when they have enough money to comfortably do so.
Well, the magic armor is necessary, and Zanoba's figure manufacturing craft is also necessary.
You pay money for what's necessary.
That's natural.
That's the way it is, so for now you could say that Zanoba has a steady livelihood.
But when entering, I properly knock.
That's called courtesy between close friends.
"Zanoba, it's me! Open up!"
I rang the bell a few times while calling out to Zanoba.
"Ooh, Shishou. Please, please, come in."
The response was extremely quick.
But I'll be extra considerate.
"Really? It's okay to open it? I'm really opening it? If you want to stop me, now's the time? When I start to move, it's too late to stop me?"
Last time, I wasn't careful enough and it was a really close shave.
"I don't really understand, but I will not stop you, so please enter."
"Really? There's no woman changing clothes next to you or anything?"
"I'm saying that it's okay."
I believed in him.
I believed in Zanoba.
Even if the world turns upside down, I'll believe in Zanoba.
"All right, pardon my intrusion."
When I opened the door and took a step forward, I was already in Zanoba's workshop.
In the spacious room, two manufacturing desks had been placed, and wooden boxes and dolls were scattered here and there.
Zanoba sat at one of the desks.
Julie was with him.
If I just say that, then it's like usual, but the atmosphere was a little different today.
Specifically, the place Julie was sitting was a problem.
Usually, Julie sits at a desk that's placed a little ways off from Zanoba, and makes figures.
But today, she wasn't sitting at that desk.
Julie sat on Zanoba's lap.
While sitting on his lap, she applied color to a figure with a serious expression.
As for Zanoba, he was prudently shaving down one of the the parts of the magic armor above her.
Shaving dregs were falling onto Julie's head, but she didn't seem to mind.
"Zanoba...... When I wasn't looking, you sure got close to Julie, didn't you?"
"Fumu, is that bad?"
When you combine Julie's shortness with Zanoba's tallness, they look like brother and sister.
Well, this is in the safe zone. If it's just at the level of sitting on his lap and making dolls together...
It should be fine to conclude there's no suspicion of obscenity.
No, it's not like it's "out" if they do it, either.
There's no laws about age of consent in this world, so I won't find fault with him.
But it's kinda, you know.
I made such an effort to be considerate, so I wish they'd separated.
"No, it's endearing."
Saying that, I dragged over a stool from the corner of the workshop and sat on it.
"So, Shishou, what brings you here today?"
Of course, I didn't visit Zanoba just to chat with him.
I've entrusted Zanoba with the production of the magic armor, but there's one other job I'd like to entrust to him alongside that.
"Actually, Zanoba, today I came to deliver to you a notice of personnel change."
"Haah... A notice of personnel change?"
"Yes, a notice of personnel change."
While saying that, I took out a piece of paper from my chest pocket.
I held it out to Zanoba reverently with both hands.
"Oops, excuse me."
Zanoba hastily set aside Julie, brushed off the shaving dregs from his chest, and respectfully received it.
He's a man of etiquette.
"Fumu... 'Zanoba Shirone has been appointed to the position of marketing supervisor for the Ruijerd figures' is written here."
"Umu, accept it modestly."
"I'm fine with accepting it, but...... wasn't that project postponed?"
In brief, this notice signifies the start of the project to sell Ruijerd dolls that has been planned for some time.
You might ask why now, at this particular time.
But the current circumstances are exactly why we must do it.
To elaborate.
From now on, we'll be winning over powerful people from each nation,
and at the same time gathering comrades to fight against Laplace.
But there are several people whose whereabouts we don't know.
For example, that's right, Ruijerd.
In the original history, he'd be in the demon continent,
but in this loop he traveled together with me to the central continent.
Recently there haven't been any letters, and I don't know where he is.
Since it's him, I don't believe that the unthinkable happened to him, but he's in a situation where I can't immediately meet him and request his help.
Well, it's not like he's in hiding,
so while searching around, we might find him.
But to be frank, he's the first person that I want to ask, "Please cooperate with us to defeat Laplace."
That's how I feel.
I want to do whatever it takes to find him and directly ask him.
I want to give him the chance to exact his revenge on Laplace...
That's the public half of it.
I simply want to meet Ruijerd after a long time.
It would be nice to meet him and once again work together toward the same goal.
That's the other half.
They're basically selfish reasons, but that's how I ended up deciding to begin the sale of the Ruijerd figures.
Instead of a simple search, this plan will speed things up.
And creating a better image for the Supard tribe has been the plan for some time.
I've tentatively set up other public justifications too.
For example, regarding the magic armor.
It's true that Zanoba, Cliff, and I have felt like we're at an impasse with just the three of us working on the weapon called the magic armor.
At this rate, there's a possibility that the MK-III won't be made.
Hence we'll begin large-scale figure sales.
As we scale up our business, we'll solicit help from craftsmen and train them.
Specialists who are familiar with Zanoba's and Cliff's techniques will increase, and if each one repeats trial and error, there will be a higher possibility that some innovative idea will be produced.
No matter what world you're in, it's important to cultivate your engineers.
"...So that's how it is."
I explained the above in detail to Zanoba.
"It's true that it's just something I want to do, but I also want to improve our development of the magic armor and figures from now on. I want to entrust the management to you who understands it better than anyone else."
"To support you, I'll give you members of the Rudo Mercenary Company who I've had my eye on for a while. Of course, Aisha or I will assist you with setting up the first shop...... Will you do it?"
"Yes, leave it to me."
Zanoba readily nodded and kneeled respectfully.
Julie who was watching from the side quickly went down on her knees too.
"Grandmaster! What would it be best for me to do?"
"Julie, stick with Zanoba and follow his instructions."
I'll be having Julie take on a lot of work, too.
From now on, she'll be entering the mass production structure for the early line of Ruijerd figures.
Earning money for Zanoba's sake.
If she hears that, she'll probably be motivated.
"Well, we'll leave the details for a later day. That's it for today."
For the time being, the project has taken a step forward.
Evening arrived as I approached Cliff's love nest.
It seems that their liaison has ended, as the apartment has fallen silent.
You know, with them doing that every day, their neighbors probably can't live in peace...
No, normally they do it in the school's laboratory, so it should be just at night.
"Hey, Rudeus......"
When I stepped into the room, a haggard Cliff greeted me.
He seemed energetic from the time she was pregnant until shortly after the child was born, but recently he always has a pale face.
I'm worried that his internal organs will fail soon.
"Ara, Rudeus. It's rare to see you."
In contrast, Elinalise was gleaming.
She offered her breast to the baby with a satisfied look on her face.
She was naked above the waist, and wore just panties below it.
It might be that they're taking a short break now, and after the feeding is over they'll continue.
"Yeah, there was just something I want to take care of."
All things considered, an oujo-sama type blonde beauty breastfeeding a baby while half-naked makes for a prettier picture than I'd imagined.
Since she's an elf, her entire body is slenderly well-proportioned.
Her usually slutty attitude, and her current Virgin Mary-like manner.
This might also be a kind of gap.
When I look at Sylphy and Roxy, I also sense a kind of gap.
Recently, I sense a gap with Eris too.
When that Eris cradles an infant, she just stands still and lets her breasts get sucked without raising her voice or punching the person sucking them.
The appearance of a woman who has become a mother is truly mysterious.
"Rudeus, would you not look at her so intently?"
"Eh? Ah, I'm sorry."
Since I was thinking about this and that, I got a warning from Cliff.
Sorry, sorry.
It's not like I was looking at her with a dirty mind.
"Lize, too. There's a guest, so at least put on some clothes."
"Ara, Cliff...... Are you jealous?"
"Yes, I am. Although Rudeus might be something like family to you......"
"I understand."
Elinalise shrugged while withdrawing to another room, still embracing the baby.
"Rudeus, you too. You have three wives, so would you not look lustfully at someone else's wife?"
"Lustfully? I......"
Wasn't doing that.
Is what I wanted to retort with, but it's true that I was watching her.
Even I don't want Sylphy and the others to be seen naked.
I'll apologize.
"No, I'm sorry. I'll be careful next time."
Cliff sighed and sunk back into the sofa.
He looks tired, but he also seems like he's kind of in a bad mood.
I wonder if there's some problem with his sex life.
"So, what's up today?"
"Right, well, I have a little favor, or maybe I should call it an invitation......"
Cliff looked at me with glazed eyes.
It feels hard to speak.
Maybe I should come again.
No, before doing that, how about I at least hear the reason.
"......Did something happen?"
"Nothing in particular......"
Cliff started to say something, then shook his head.
"No, this is a good time. Since it's something I'll have to tell you about anyway......"
That's a very profound lead-in.
It reminds me of the previous incident with Zanoba.
"The truth is, I got a letter from my grandfather in the Holy Kingdom of Milis."
The pattern's the same too.
In which case, maybe this is a trap to lure out Cliff.
Maybe another war.
Maybe another of Hitogami's traps.
No, either way, I'd been thinking of asking Cliff to be an intermediary with the Holy Kingdom of Milis.
The person himself seems to have that intention, too.
I won't tell him something half-baked like "I'll bring you back."
Of course, I certainly want him to stay in Sharia, but I'm focused on my objective.
Cliff stood up and took out a letter from a shelf.
This also gives me a strong sense of deja vu.
I'm sure that in that letter,
Cliff's grandfather talks to him about how much money has been spent raising him.
And why that money was spent.
For the sake of him aiding his family's faction.
When will you help us?
Now, right!
Something like that is probably written there.
I must read it with caution.
"Oh, it's not that serious a problem."
Cliff scratched his cheek while saying that.
He has an uncomfortable expression.
"We already talked long ago about how I'd return once I graduated. He's just concerned about the cost of travel and the journey back."
Told that, I looked at the letter.
It started off with words of concern for Cliff's body.
After that, advice about how if the travel costs are too much, to show the enclosed Milis religious order leadership insignia to the Milis church.
A stern part about how the conflict is in an unfavorable situation, and he should resolve himself if he returns, and that if he's not resolved he doesn't have to return.
Lastly, he closes with words about how although he'd written some severe things, he wants to see Cliff's face again and looks forward to his return.
Overall, it was a heartwarming letter full of concern for Cliff.
I've never met Cliff's grandfather, but he seems like a nice guy.
I wonder what part of this is a problem.
"To be honest, I'm hesitating."
When he says hesitating, I suppose he's referring to that stuff about resolving himself.
"My intention was to immediately return to Milis after graduating. I've been training for that, and up to now that was always my intention. I had the confidence that I could fight my way through the scheming within the Milis religious order and win."
"I thought so."
Cliff has always been going on and on about that.
He said that after graduating, he'd return to the Holy Kingdom of Milis, and succeed his grandfather...
Although recently, he'd appreciated how difficult it is to become the successor to the Pope, and had been steadily training as a priest.
Cliff sat in the sofa with his head in his hands.
"I've gotten married, and have a child now."
With just that, I understood his worries.
In short, it's the same type of thing that I'm always worrying about.
"The Milis religious order readily targets the weak... the enemy's family."
"Lize is one thing. She has the ability to protect herself. But Clive can't even stand on his own feet yet. I....... don't have the confidence that I can protect him."
I understand his feelings of worry.
You always want the people who are important to you to be in a safe place.
"First of all, I haven't even told my grandfather that I've married. If it's known that the Milis Pope's grandson married an elf, an unexpected scandal might occur. He might be dragged down by that and get overthrown."
The Milis religion has strong feelings toward other races.
The elves are a people of the Great Forest, so they aren't rejected that much,
but some of the radical factions persecute anyone who isn't human.
And Elinalise isn't looked upon that well by other elves, either.
"When I keep going in circles thinking about this, I no longer know whether I should return or not, and I just let Lize spoil me...... Recently, that's been repeating...... Only now do I finally understand why Zanoba acted so stubborn back then......"
Cliff himself probably wants to return, and thinks that he needs to do so.
But he'd be exposing his wife and child to danger.
Furthermore, because of his wife, his grandfather might even become in danger.
In this situation, is it okay to continue on your own path?
He doesn't know.
I don't know either.
But today, I came here to talk with him about this issue too.
The current me is capable of sending him a rescue boat.
"Would you be willing to officially join Orsted-sama's faction?"
Cliff looked at me with a puzzled expression.
My way of phrasing it may have been poor.
But I don't want to say "become my comrade" and have him misunderstand.
It would be better to say it clearly.
"What do you mean by that?"
"If you become Orsted-sama's subordinate, Orsted-sama and I can go all-out to back you up. It would be possible to protect Elinalise and Clive while guiding Cliff-senpai's faction to victory."
Cliff furrowed his brow.
"If I receive that backup, what should I do?"
"Mainly, we'd have you prepare for Laplace's revival."
Saying that, I then spoke about the plan.
The plan 80 years later with Orsted playing the leading part.
I had already talked to Cliff about Hitogami, but I thoroughly talked about everything starting from the basics.
After finishing talking about everything, Cliff had a complicated expression.
"What do you think?"
When I asked that, Cliff was silent for a while.
He folded his arms, shut his eyes, and groaned languishingly.
It shouldn't be a bad deal.
Cliff also knows that Orsted's radiated fear is from a curse.
Although he doesn't know the disposition of Orsted without the curse...
Even so, I won't betray Cliff.
If he doubts me, I'd be sad.
"Would you...... give me some more time?"
At the end of his pondering, Cliff squeezed out that response.
"The graduation ceremony will be happening soon. I'll decide by then."
When one decides is a personal decision, so I had no choice but to nod my head.
I wondered why he couldn't just simply agree.
But Cliff himself might not even know why he's hesitating.
"If you're so inclined, please consult with Elinalise-san too. Because there's no worry you need to bear on your own."
"Eh? Yeah, that's right. Thank you."
This time, Cliff nodded meekly, expressing a frail smile.
Elinalise heard our conversation just now.
From a while now, I've been noticing blonde hair flickering through the crack in the doorway.
If it's her, she'll be able to skillfully guide Cliff.
That result might not go the way I think it will, but......
If so, that's fine.
"Then, I'll come again."
"Yeah. Sorry about all this."
"No, I also have times when I'm worrying or troubled."
Saying that, I left Cliff's room.
At the end, I didn't forget to wink at Elinalise.
For now, I'll hear Cliff's response at the graduation ceremony.
There are about 2 months left before the graduation ceremony.
In the meantime, how about I advance the creation of Zanoba's Ruijerd figure shop?


text:
21 years ago it was a joint idea with Hans Rottenkolber to organize a workshop dedicated to the discussion of the latest results in the automatic processing of fringe patterns. This idea was promoted by the insight that automatic and high precision phase measurement techniques will play a key role in all future industrial and scientific applications of optical metrology. A couple of months later more than 50 specialists from East and West met in East Berlin, the capital of the former GDR, to spend 3 days with the discussion of new principles of fringe processing. In the stimulating atmoshere the idea was born to repeat the workshop and to organize the meeting in an olympic schedule. And thus meanwhile 20 years have been passed and we have today Fringe number six. However, such a workshop takes place in a dynamic environment. Therefore the main topics of the previous events were always adapted to the most interesting subjects of the new period. In 1993 the workshop took place in Bremen and was dedicated to new principles of optical shape measurement, setup calibration, phase unwrapping and nondestructive testing, while in 1997 new approaches in multi-sensor metrology, active measurement strategies and hybrid processing technologies played a central role. 2001, the first meeting in the 21st century, was focused to optical methods for micromeasurements, hybrid measurement technologies and new sensor solutions for industrial inspection.6th International Workshop on Advanced Optical Metrology Wolfgang Osten, Malgorzata Kujawinska ... powerful technique for CD and profile metrology and has established itself as one of the mainly applied methods for CD metrology besides CD-SEM [1]. ... Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 2 Analysed structure types and simulation basis We started our 184484_1_En_101_Chapter_OnlinePDF.pdf.
|Fringe 2009
|Wolfgang Osten, Malgorzata Kujawinska
|Springer Science & Business Media - 2010-04-28
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Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
If I understand you right, Kronos, I think yes. Syria, for example is deeper into supporting terrorism. But that would be a political quagmire and would cause the entire middle-east to turn against us.
Kind of cowardly and hipocritical to skip the tough jobs, don't you think?
Originally posted by Fantastic_Damage
Do u know that Russian troops have been torturing Chechen civilians for information? Do u know that Russian troops have been raping Chechen women? even (reportedly) dead ones.
For such a generalised statement as this, where is your evidence to prove it? Ohh... that's right there is none. Silly me.
Did u know that Israel is breaking international law by occupying Palestinian land. These settlements are subsidised by the Israeli government, which makes the government criminal. Criminal actions are hardly the actions of somrthing described as sane.


text:
On my first visit to Mariza, I ran into three different sets of New Orleans friends. They span three generations and (educated guess) just as many tax brackets. They do not know one another. Two of the three groups, upon discovering it was our first visit to the restaurant, insisted we order the chocolate terrine for dessert.
The one data point uniting every one of these groups of New Orleanians: None lives in Bywater. The reason I'm pointing this out: Bywater didn't used to be like this. And by "this" I mean flush with pilgrims drawn by meals of a type previously the near-exclusive domain of restaurants on the other side of Esplanade Avenue.
Meals that begin with icy Aperol spritzes and boards of spicy coppa slices, seasonal fruit mostarada and headcheese balls that look to be impersonating chocolate truffles. Meals where business cards enter into the bar-side mating dance and the red snapper crudo is so gloriously restrained that the whiff of cucumber registers as a spice.
Mariza opened early this year on the bottom floor of the Rice Mill Lofts, an upscale apartment complex that is also a flashpoint in so many debates over the pros and cons of Bywater's gentrification. Inasmuch as there is a battle for the neighborhood's heart and soul, Mariza enters the fray shooting for our stomachs.
The people taking aim here are chef Ian Schnoebelen and wife-partner-general manager Laurie Casebonne. They're New Orleans restaurant veterans whose first restaurant, Iris, smuggled what could be called a proto Bywater aesthetic – pan-ethnic cooking, insouciantly professional service, MFA-caliber cocktails – into a fancy French Quarter hotel dining room.
Mariza is every bit as good as Iris. It is also at once more ambitious and more modest – ambitious by virtue of it setting up shop where modern Italian restaurants had previously never tread, modest when you consider how popular modern Italian cuisine has proven to be with American diners. And the restaurant deserves extra credit for pulling it all off at a lower price point than most restaurants of comparable quality.
At Mariza, Italian cooking inspires a personal strain of refined comfort food. It's both erudite and rustic; the addictive lamb meatballs, touched by the broken yolk of a poached duck egg, are just the thing to snack on with one of the affordable glasses of food-friendly red wines from Sicily or Piedmont.
The sensibility harmonizes nicely with a stark dining room where details provide human, earthy counterpoint to the building's industrial past: long communal wood tables that draw the eye downward from high ceilings; half-stripped vertical beams bisecting your view of jarred preserves and a spread of iced oysters; chalkboard cursive announcing the day's salumi; original artwork hung over raw brick. Taking it all in is a little like stepping into a Pinterest board called Stylish But Practical Design Ideas.
Mariza is a restaurant that could only come from restaurateurs who are current on American restaurant fashions. Eating there is to feel the satisfaction of obtaining a table everyone seems to want – a sensation enhanced by the wait that commonly precedes your seating. (Mariza doesn't take reservations.) But the biggest reward is Schnoebelen's food.
The chef's signature light touch is particularly beguiling in pastas that stick to your ribs without weighing you down. Black linguine tangled with crab and shrimp tastes as shellfish pasta should: like a bite of the sea, steeped with garlic. Pickled peppers folded into the tagliatelle guanciale have the same, palate-soothing effect as the half sour pickle that tames a pastrami sandwich's salt. Even the duck ragout pappardelle, richly fortified by liver mousse, was an occasion to admire subtlety, in this case the gentle tug of the delicate noodles and the floral notes of smoke in each bite of the sliced duck breast.
Mariza's pizza is based on similarly deft pairings. A crowning arugula and shaved fennel salad is just as good a reason to order Mariza's version of a margherita as the fresh mozzarella. My problem with Mariza's pizzas is their crusts. The dough on all the pies I tried had risen high around the edges, taking on so much air the crusts took on ciabatta properties. Which is fine if you don't mind ballooning crust pushing toppings to the center of your pie.
A fan of bready pizza may argue Mariza's are perfect, even authentic. I'd argue there is plenty of perfection elsewhere on the restaurant's menu, particularly where no starch is involved, as in the flawless duck confit or the tender, pancetta-wrapped quail riding a tuft of julienned butter lettuce.
If you believe, as I do, that you can't trust an omnivorous person who claims not to love both pepperoni and meatballs, you will regard Schnoebelen's pepperoni meatball soup as I do: a brothy, unfairly delicious ploy to enter your mind every time the temperature drops below 54 degrees. And as long as you're having your mind blown by pepperoni soup, go ahead and order the pig ear salad. The crisp-fried ears taste like lardon French fries and play the role of slender croutons on a plate with meaty anchovies, greens and pickled leeks.
That neither dish is hijacked by its main ingredient - a reasonable fear when making soup out of pepperoni and salad out of pig parts -- is evidence of Schnoebelen's impressive knack for locating a dish's natural balance. I still occasionally wished the chef were capable of more grandiose gestures. Certainly the hanger steak, sliced to show off its blood-rare center and sturdy crust, deserves company more interesting than a slice of toast. And the vegetable lasagna was way too precisely what it sounds like. Compared to everything else on the table, it looked like dressed up leftovers.
Granted, in almost every other instance, Schnoebelen's sensitive palate, which always seems to be reminding his brain that less-is-more, is a reliable guide. It's true of the whole snapper, exquisite despite being embellished by little more than a crisping and a squirt of lemon, and of the chocolate terrine, also precisely what it sounds like - and impossible not to finish.
Both dishes appeared to be on every other table that first night at Mariza. Decide for yourself whether the restaurant is a product of change or an agent of it. The crowd came to Bywater from all over town because Mariza is giving them good reason to come together.
Beans: (Excellent)
2900 Chartres St., 504.598.5700
Open: Dinner Tu-Sa.
Reservations: No.
Parking: Lot in front of warehouse across the street.
Food: Excellent. Chef Ian Schnoebelen proves himself to be a serious student of Italian cooking, which inspires him to create a personal strain of refined comfort food. The pastas trump the pizzas. There is otherwise perfection on all corners of the menu. Mariza gets extra credit for delivering at a lower price point than restaurants of comparable quality.
Ambiance: Very good to excellent. Warm details add earthy, human counterpoint to the stark space's industrial past. Taking all of this in is a little like stepping into a Pinterest board called Stylish But Practical Design Ideas.
Service: Very good. The staff can get rattled by the commotion of busy nights – which at Mariza seems to be most nights. But even when harried our servers were informed advocates of the food.
Best Bets: Red snapper crudo ($12); pepperoni soup ($7); anchovy and pig ear salad ($8); green tagliatelle guanciale ($8 small portion, $14 large); black linguine with shrimp and crab ($12 and $18); whole fish of the day ($20); chocolate terrine ($6)