#SFRA

[postcard-from-the-past]

Sand dunes by Aïn Séfra, Algeria

French vintage postcard

[luninosity]

Not a friend/follower/mutual and I haven't lived in Tartu in years but I spent my youth there and adore the town!

I used to spend all my time at Ruunipizza (restaurant), which is very close to the town hall and university and used to be decent, cheap and have plenty vegetarian options. But that was years ago and very much a place for students to go and hang out at, so Idk if that's something

Me and my American friends also liked La Dolce Vita for pizza back then. There's also a great place for cake opposite the university called Werner and the Gunpowder Cellar is a pretty cool pub.

In my opinion, the most important attraction in Tartu is the giant wooden swing (külakiik) in Supilinn but that might be personal preference. I am also a big fan of the AHAA keskus (science exhibition with planetarium) and I believe the museum of toys (mänguasjamuuseum) is a hidden gem if you have some time to spare. There is also a botanical garden in Tartu that I liked to hang out at. Sometimes they even have special activities; I remember building a bird house for winter there once :)

Definitely try to catch some folk music and/or dancing performance while you're in Estonia, they're really special!

I am taking notes about food recommendations! Cake is always good! And the Gunpowder Cellar looks fascinating! (Who wouldn't want to have a drink in, well, an ancient gunpowder cellar? Sign this history nerd up :D :D )

We have managed to get ballet tickets, as well! I am hoping I will have some time around conference panels to go exploring; the weather should be nice enough in May, right? Not too cold? Awesome Husband will probably also do some exploring without me, too. (He likes sci-fi, but he is not an academic - an engineer, instead! - so being in a room full of scholars Loudly Discussing the scholarship of science fiction is not entirely his thing, at least not for four days worth! He'll come to my panel though.)

For anyone wondering, we shall be in Tartu, Estonia in early May - around the 7th-11th! For the International Science Fiction Research Association Conference, at the university.

We've never been to Estonia, so we are excited! We're actually flying into Helsinki a day (and a night) early and spending a day in Finland, because we have also not been there, and then taking the ferry over. :D :D

[getoncrm]

Time for a digital makeover! Understand why eCommerce brands are migrating from SiteGenesis to SFRA! Our comprehensive guide outlines the benefits, challenges, and a detailed migration process.

Let's navigate the digital evolution together!

[quasi-normalcy]

Distressing number of academics at this conference seem to be active users on Tumblr.

[mltmdgci]

Makale Çağrısı: Pandora’nın Kutusu’ndan Güneş Ülkesi’ne: Türk BilimkurguEdebiyatında Ütopya ve Distopya

Ütopyalar, idealize edilmiş vizyonları içeren ve alternatif güç ilişkileri sunan hayali cennetlerdir. Distopyalar ise tahakküm, ceza ve baskıcı uygulamalarla şekillenen olumsuz bir dünya görüşünü ifade eder. Ütopya ve distopya, politik düşünmenin, tekno-bilimsel anlatıların ve doğakültürlerin edebi, politik ve felsefi bir sentezini sunar. Distopyalar, yer altı toplumlarını, sınıf ilişkilerini,…

[rhk111sblog]

The Army Artillery Regiment (AAR), Army Aviation Regiment (AAvnR) and Special Forces Regiment (Airborne) SFR(A) recently conducted their first Interoperability Exercise (IOX) in Nueva Ecija, which included the live-firing of the Philippine Army’s (PA) newest Artillery Asset, the Autonomous Truck MOunted-howitzer System (ATMOS)

SOURCES:

Army Artillery "King of Battle" Regiment, Philippine Army Facebook Page Post, 09/23/23 – 1119H {Archived Link}

Army Artillery "King of Battle" Regiment, Philippine Army Facebook Page Post, 09/22/23 – 2105H {Archived Link}

Check out the Links to my other Social Media Accounts at https://linktr.ee/rhk111

If you like my Work, buy me a Coffee to help support it at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rhk111

[kellyvela]

The hate for Sansa is genuinely so depressing. I was browsing the HotD subreddit and the topic was favourite queens. Not only was Sansa barely mentioned by anyone, but the usual hateful comments like "fuck Sansa" and "better not catch anyone saying Sansa" finished it off. I find the hatred to be so vicious and vile. Why can't they just stop being so obsessed with her? It's a legit fandom ruiner for me.

The saddest thing is, that by hating Sansa, they are hating GRRM:

And more ; more ; more ; more ; more & more . . . .

[georgescitadel]

Interviewer: Let's talk about Lord Stark. At first he appears to be a classic hero, the Heinlein-style competent man. He's the guy who knows how to do things, but eventually he screws up. He underestimates the enemy. Your heroes make mistakes too.

George: Yes, they do. Stark is a character who is very concerned about his honor. He's a good man and an honorable man, but in some ways that is a drawback. He's in his element when he's in his own land, the North, where he rules as almost a king without a crown. He's not in his element in the pit of political intrigue and infighting and the complex network of alliances and betrayals that's going on at King's Landing. But history is full of people like that, honorable men who wanted to do right, but weren't quite up to it. That doesn't necessarily mean they were stupid, sometimes the very virtues that we admire in men make them less able to be politically astute.

- George R.R. Martin, SFRA Review (1997)

[blamothegreat]

Made another reference sheet, this time of one of the big bads; Lilian!

She's the first of the three crime lords introduced in SFRA, and also the oldest! Cause she's like, a gazillion years old.

Her whole thing is gaining power metaphorically and literally through controlling others. She mainly does this through planting insecurities in others while implying she knows how to 'fix' them at the same time. Of course, I use this as a way to talk about and deconstruct work place sexism and how Lilian specifically is both a victim, and origin of said sexism. Shes largely exempt from it through basically controlling what is and isn't the 'ideal' stature for a woman in crime. Though occasionally she'll unintentionally turn it on herself, giving details about that would be spoilers though.

Beyond that she also has a huge god complex, however she knows how to control herself from throwing a tantrum unless the right buttons are pushed. That's mainly because, origin or not, she is still facing sexism and must always stay composed to maintain her status.

But enough of that for now, I still have to keep my secrets about her of course!

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@hot-claws

"In early Claremont issues, Wolverine repeatedly refers to women, like Mariko, as “frails,” a hilariously misogynistic and demeaning term based on rhyming slang (frail frame rhymes with dame) popularized in the underworld circles of the 1940s and noir fiction. Where some heroes fly or shoot concussive beams from their eyes, Wolverine is superhumanly “masculine” and traffics in a very insistent and aggressive form of white male exceptionalism.

Claremont clearly fetishizes Asian cultures and the level of respect varies between stories. In this mini-series, both he and co-writer/artist Frank Miller are obviously fascinated with what they believe Japanese culture to be. Despite perhaps beginning from a point of admiration, Claremont and Miller aren’t particularly concerned with accuracy. The Japan of this series (and many future Marvel stories) is a largely stereotypical and tropey approximation of the country cobbled together from martial arts films and exploitative pulp novels."

Essayist Eric Sobel writes that Wolverine, “A hero armed with the privilege and invisibility whiteness affords…unlike the foreign characters he encounters, is able to easily move between different identities without placing his whiteness and the agency it bestows in any real jeopardy.”

(Eric Sobel, “The Whitest There Is at What I Do: Japanese Identity and the Unmarked Hero in Wolverine (1982).”)

"In “The Whitest There is At What I Do” scholar Eric Sobel takes a hard look at the stereotypes of Japanese culture and society that inform the first Wolverine mini-series and subsequently become embedded in Logan’s mythology."

"Sean Guynes is a cultural historian, critic, and writer who lives in Ann Arbor, MI. He is co-author of the forthcoming book Whiteness (MIT Press), co-editor of the Encapsulations: Critical Comics Studies book series for University of Nebraska Press, two journal special issues, and several books—including Unstable Masks: Whiteness and American Superhero Comics (Ohio State University Press, 2020)—and editor of SFRA Review. His shorter writing has appeared in public and academic venues, including Los Angeles Review of Books, American Quarterly, World Literature Today, Utopian Studies, American Book Review, PopMatters, and Strange Horizons.

Martin Lund is a comics scholar who specializes in studying the intersections of religions and comics, comics and identity, and comics and urban life. Recent and forthcoming publications includes Re-Constructing the Man of Steel: Superman 1938–1941, Jewish American History, and the Invention of the Jewish–Comics Connection (Palgrave 2016), Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Islam, and Representation (Harvard University Press/ILEX Foundation; co-edited with A. David Lewis), and Unstable Masks: Whiteness and the American Superhero (forthcoming from Ohio State University Press). He is currently a senior lecturer in the history of religions at Malmö University in Sweden and desperately hoping to carve out some research time."

"I often say I don’t care about Wolverine, but that’s not really true. There are Wolverines that I love. This includes the one named Laura, the James Howlett one who loves Hercules, and the ones in fanfiction and fanart who are various kinds of queer. Sometimes, I also love ones named Logan who appear in licensed comics, cartoons, and films. The Wolverines that I love challenge stereotypes related to masculinity and violence and the supposed inseparability of the two. These Wolverines struggle, heroically, against what a bad world wants them to be or else don’t give a fuck about stereotypes, because they’ve seen it all and know who they are.

Then there are Wolverines I don’t love. This includes the ones mired in white savior tropes and cultural appropriation and especially the ones who uncritically glorify violence, graphically murdering untold scores of people who are usually bad people but still, nonetheless, people. These Wolverines never change yet always demand forgiveness through their enduring popularity and the seemingly boundless acceptance of their less-murderous friends.

But despite knowing which Wolverines I love and don’t love, I frequently struggle to decide how I feel about specific stories starring Wolverine.

"I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know why I often say I don’t care about Wolverine. It’s because I care too much about Wolverine, and often wish I didn’t.

Ironically, I think Logan would understand this very well. Which is precisely why I care about him. And why I continue to hope he can do better, or at least try to try—for his friends, for me, and for himself."

"Part of that is the many writers he goes through. For some he’s a killer, when at his core a lot of fans and writers prefer to see Logan as a protector."

(Discord message board)

[postcard-from-the-past]

Artillery barracks in Aïn Séfra, Algeria

French vintage postcard

[nmpositive]

Near the end of this excellent 'Cyberpunk as Clothes' article there is some insightful stuff about the FALN techwear that Cuno wears (but the whole thing is worth a read):

I feel very seen / somewhat skewered by that particular section of the piece :o

i loveee the clothing design in disco elysium so much it's honestly the aspect of the game im most directly artistically inspired by because I've never before seen a (somewhat) realistic media in which every rando still serves cunt. kim k's perfect form that came seemingly just god himself on the first try. all the outfits are believable but often a bit *weird* in cut and size, like evrart's huge ass shirt collar or klaasje wearing a bolero rather than a normal length cardigan. whatever the fuck the ravers have going on. the characters like renè who use flashy pieces to prop up their own egos, and on the opposite side, joyce, who's dressed in modest looking and desaturated pieces made out of silks the average man will never be able to afford. or SF/charles, dressed the most boringly formal and with nothing to say other than diplomat babble. mrrr tequila sunset's snakeskin shoes and bellbottom pants in general. the green goes well with the orange. the fact that harry and Kim also juxtapose eachother in the silhouette (harrys clothes taper out in straight lines, kim's clothes are bunched up and round and his ankles/wrists are left narrow). it's half an hour past midnight I just like clothes

[rideordie-type]

Maku sfra this summer?

no bs winter

[mekengineers12]

Comprehensive Transformer & Substation Testing Services in Vadodara

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Insulation Resistance (IR) Testing

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 Transformer Turns Ratio (TTR) Testing

TTR testing compares the ratio of primary to secondary windings. Deviations from expected values can indicate internal faults or winding damage.

 Winding Resistance Test

This test checks for resistance imbalances in transformer windings. High resistance may point to loose connections or damaged conductors.

Sweep Frequency Response Analysis (SFRA)

SFRA is a powerful diagnostic tool for detecting core displacement, winding deformation, and other internal changes.

Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA)

A critical chemical test that analyzes gases dissolved in transformer oil. It helps identify incipient faults like arcing, overheating, or corona.

 Power Factor Testing (Tan Delta)

This evaluates the insulation condition of bushings and windings. Transformer testing Vadodara A higher tan delta indicates aging or contaminated insulation.

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[mltmdgci]

SFRA - Cilt 54, No. 3 (Yaz 2024)