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Commandant Lassard wants to train normal citizens to become police auxilliaries, in the hope to strengthen the bond between police officers and citizens. While he's off to an international Police congress in London, Captain Harris replaces him as head of the academy. But Harris hates the idea, and does his best to discourage the new recruits. On their first assignment on the field, the Citizens On Patrol foil an undercover police job, Harris is more than happy to cancel the program. But when his aid is tricked into lets a bunch of crimninals out of the jail of the precinct, the citizens on patrol help the police catching them. The program is then considered a success by the representatives of the foreign police forces invited by Lassard to visit the academy and the city.

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Lorsque les Vikings apprennent que la peur donne des ailes, ils partent, sur les indications de Cryptograf leur shaman, en campagne en Gaule chercher un champion de la peur. En même temps, Goudurix, neveu d'Abraracourix, est envoyé par son père dans le village d'Astérix afin de devenir un homme, un vrai. Malgré l'enseignement d'Astérix et d'Obélix, Goudurix ne parvient pas à surmonter sa peur, et les Vikings l'enlèvent, voyant en lui le champion qui leur apprendra à voler. Astérix et Obélix partent à sa recherche, mais Goudurix s'amuse bien chez les Vikings, et tombe amoureux d'Abba, la fille de leur chef Grosbaf. Il refuse de repartir avec les deux gaulois. Cryptograf en revanche cherche à marier son fils idiot avec Abba afin de prendre le pouvoir derrière cet homme de paille. Le chef veut d'abord voir une démonstration de vol de Goudurix, que Cryptograf procure au moyent d'un trucage, et le mariage a lieu le jour suivant. À l'aide de potion magique volée à Astérix, Goudurix sauve Abba, Astérix dénonce à Grosbaf les manipulations de Cryptograf, et tous les quatre repartent en Gaule. Ils sont poursuivis par les Vikings, mais ces derniers sont mis en fuite par un chant d'Assurancetourix qui leur a enfin appris la peur.

Life food chocolate, chocolat cru 80%, : goût léger, vaguement d'orange, inhabituel, chocolat peu dense. Fait de fèves non torréfiées.

Organic Meltdown, dark chocolate 71%: me rappelle un peu la cerise, et le pruneau en arrière goût.

Bonvita, Premium dark chocolate 71%: goût de fruits secs (amandes surtout).

“three coloured malts and additional roasted barley… bittered with choices East Kent hops.”

Classic stout. Smells and tastes of roasted something (barley, it seems). Contains barley malt.

Shepherd Neame, Faversham, Kent, England. 4.0% alcohol.

“hoppy pale golden ale… aroma and bitterness from English Malted Barley and Choicest fresh whole English Hops”

I can't put a name on the aroma, but it's a bit unusual. The aftertaste is typical of the lagers I don't like much. Contains malted barley.

Hogs Back Brewery Limited, Tongham, Surrey, England. 4.6% alcohol.

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Ari Mackenzie est un analyste de la DCRI en congé maladie pour dépression après que ses supérieurs aient brutalement classé l'affaire sur laquelle il travaillait (voir volume précédent que je n'ai pas lu). Ari décide de reprendre l'enquête après que son appartement et celui de deux de ses collègues et amis aient été cambriolés, dans le but évident de mettre la main sur des documents trouvés lors de l'enquête précédente. Ari part à la recherche du mystérieux Docteur Weldon, féru d'esotérisme et d'hermétisme, impliqué dans l'enquête précédente. En fouillant une résidence présumée de Weldon, Ari rencontre la fille d'un géologue disparu, qui travaille pour une organisation dirigée par Weldon. Cette organisation discrète appartient à une agence internationale de protection de l'environnement, et son but précis est inconnu. L'agence en revanche est accusée d'acheter d'immenses territoires dans le but d'y protéger la nature, mais accorde en même temps, de façon cachée, des permis d'expoitation minière sur ces territoires. Au cours de son enquête, Mackenzie découvre que Weldon est à la recherche d'un minerai fabuleux découvert par Nicolas Flamel en déchiffrant d'anciens parchemins, les mêmes que Mackenzie a retrouvés au cours de la précédente enquête, minerai qui permettrait d'augmenter énormément le rendement des panneaux solaires. Grâce à deux employés de Weldon qui se sont échappés du centre de recherches où ils etaient littéralement prisonniers et qui ont averti la fille du géologue disparu, Mackenzie et ses deux collègues partent pour l'Amazonie. Ils trouvent la cachette de Weldon vide, mais finissent par retrouver sa trace un peu plus loin. Weldon parvient à mettre la main sur le gisement original du minerai, mais meurt brûlé par celui-ci. En retrant en Europe, Mackenzie aidé d'un collègue du renseignement de l'Union Européenne met à jour la trahison du secrétaire général adjoint du conseil de l'Europe et du ministre de l'intérieur Français, qui avaient retiré leur soutien à Weldon après avoir passé un accord secret avec des membres de l'OPEP, ces derniers voulant conserver le contrôle de l'énergie dans le monde.

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The gorvernor wants to close one of the two police academies, based on the verdict of an evaluation comity. Commandant Lassard asks Mahoney and his friends to come back and train the new recruits. Commandant Mauser (the antagonist from the previous installment), head of the other academy, tries to get Lassard to lose by sending two of his own staff to Lassard's academy. The cadets are quite hopeless, and earn many negative points to Lassard's academy. Eventually, the governor askes representative cadets of both academies to accompany him to a party at the marina, where they are attacked by gangsters disguised as waiters. Lassard's cadet manages to call Mahoney for help, the new recruits come with him to the rescue, and save the governor from kidnapping. Lassard's academy is finally kept running.

“Kentish hops and barley… citrus (and gapefruit) nose and flavour, sharing its name with an ancient hop”

Citrusy, flowery, and quite bitter. Contains barley malt.

Shepherd Neame, Faversham, Kent, England. 4.0% alcohol.

This is driving me crazy. To the left (click the image for a bigger version), you can see a basic differential amplifier based on a LM324AN op amp. If the op amp is perfect and the resistors are be exactly 10 kΩ, the potential V_out (on point 3) would be equal to the difference of potential between V₊ and V_- (on points 2 and 1, respectively). In other words, V_out = V₊ - V_-.

When working with a real op amp, the things are not that simple, but they should remain quite close to the ideal case. In fact, if we set V₄ to GND, we get reasonnable values. However, if we se V₄ to +5.05V (which is also the positive supply of the op amp), the values don't make sense to me anymore.

Here's what I measured (the millivolt values are at least ±0.1 mV, but the volt values should be reasonnably accurate):

When V₄ is set to 0 V, the values of V_- and V₊ seem to be consistent with the specs of the chip regarding input offset current and input bias current (input current of 100 nA accross a 10 kΩ resistor is 1 mV).

When V₄ is set to 5.05 V however, I really don't understand what laws of physics makes the difference between V₊ and V_- so large (0.32 V, which just happens to be half of V_out. But that's maybe just a coincidence). Further experiments have shown that V_out remains constant at 0.65 V when 2.7 V < V₄ < 5.05 V, but decreases when V₄ < 2.7 V.

The goal of the device is to measure the voltage across a 0.05 Ω shunt which would be placed at point 4, with 5 V applied on its R4 side and the load (a low-power electric motor) between the shunt's R2 side and the ground.

Any comment on the subject will be appreciated.

This schematics of a current monitor can be found in many datasheets as examples of applications of an op amp. I wanted to find out the relationships between R_S (the shunt), R₁ and R₂. Here's how it goes:

• V₁ = A·(V₊ - V_-) (1) (A is the open-loop gain of the op amp)
• V₊ = V_SS - V·R₁/R₂ (2) (Common emitter transistor setup, see more particularly this image)
• V_- = V_SS - R_S·i_load (3)
• V = V₁ - 0.65 (4) (voltage drop between the base and the emitter of a common transistor)

Combining (2), (3) and (4) into (1), we get

V + 0.65 = A·(V_SS - V·R₁/R₂ - V_SS + R_S·i_load),

from which follows

V·(1 + A·R₁/R₂) + 0.65 = A·R_S·i_load.

We assume A is very large, therefore A·R₁/R₂ >> 1, so it simplifies into

V·R₁/R₂ + 0.65/A = R_S·i_load.

We assume A is very large, and thus 0.65/A << V·R₁/R₂, leading to

i_load = V·R₁/(R₂·R_S).

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Captain Lassard, of the 16th precinct, cannot restore the peace in his area since the neighborhood has been taken over by a mysterious gang. The chief of police gives him 30 days to cleanup and allows him 6 new men, whom Lassard gets from his brother, the Commandant of the Police Academy. The chief also promisses Lieutenant Mauser that if Lassard fails, he would become the new Captain. The new recruits are at first causing trouble, but finally manage to arrest a large number of gangsters. Mauser gets them released under false pretenses. Lassard's brother suggest to organize a fair in the area to strenghthen the bond between the inhabitants and the police, but the fair is raided by the gangsters, Lassard is suspended and Mauser becomes the new Captain. He then suspends Mahoney, who had played several tricks on him. Lassard then convinces Mahoney to infiltrate the gang to discover their hinding place. The operation is a success and the gang is finally arrested.

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Mahoney, always causing trouble, is given a choice by the friend of his late father who promised to watch over him: either the prison, or the police academy (which has recently opened to anyone). He chooses the latter, hoping to be expelled. Lieutenant Harris, the instructor, who disapproves of allowing anyone to enter the academy, tries to get Mahoney to quit, but the latter cannot quit, otherwise he is thrown in jail. After being the source of much trouble, he is finally expelled, just before a major riot starts in town. He then joins the other cadets, saves the life of Harris (along with another cadet that Harris hates) and eventually graduates, with honors.

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Masada is a planet controlled by the Theocracy, a religious, totalitarian regime. With the help of the Polity, a pan-planetary empire, the rebels overthrow the Theocracy and Masada joins the Polity. During the final days of the rebellion, a Theocracy proctor named Tombs is attacked by the Technician, a gigantic predatory lifeform called a hooder, one of the strange and few lifeforms on Masada. The Technician skins Tombs alive, but leaves something in his mind. Polity scientists repair Tombs body, and then wait twenty years for his mind to recover. Two million of years ago, Masada was the home to the Atheter, a species that committed global suicide to escape the Jain technology, a technological virus that was taking over their society. The humans on Masada step by step discover that the gabbleducks, large pyramid-shaped animals, are what is left of the Atheter species. The latter had built a Device, currently hiding somewhere in space, that erases intelligence, and the gabbleducks are thus dumbed-down Atheters. The hooders are war machines, and the Technician was used by one Atheter known as the Weaver as a way to safekeep his mind (not all Atheters agreed to commit suicide). When the Device detects again the presence of intelligence on Masada, it comes back to erase it again, but the Polity people organize to fight it, with little success. The Weaver's mind leaves Tombs' brain and enters the one of a gabbleduck, reviving the Atheter race, and directs the Technician in a (successful) attempt at destroying the Device, thus saving the planet.

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London, 1895. Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful undersecretary of the Foreign Office, and his marriage is one of the few truly happy ones in the political class. Laura Chevely starts blackmailing Chiltern, threatening to reveal that he had become wealthy after delivering inside information to her former husband (who thenbecame immensly whealthy), in exchange for his recommendation at the Parliament to support of a financial scheme in Argentina where she had invested a lot of money. To motivate him, Laura Chevely reveals Chiltern's secret to his rigorously honnest wife, Lady Gertrude, before Chiltern has resolved to do it himself. Chiltern then visits his friend, the idle Lord Arthur Goring, for advice. But Lady Gertrude had sent a letter to the same Lord Goring for the same reason. Laura Cheveley then pays a visit to Lord Goring, but she is mistaken for Lady Gertrude by the butler, who was told to expected “a lady”. Laura Cheveley, seeing the letter from Lady Gertrude, uses the opportunity to steals yet another embarassing document. When Sir Robert discovers the presence of Laura Cheveley, he leaves the house in rage. The same evening, Lord Robert delivers his speech to the parliament, and his wife, accompanied by her sister in law Mabel, hears him speak against the Argentinan scheme. Laura Cheveley then sends to Sir Robert the letter Lady Gertrude had written to Lord Goring. When Sir Robert discovers the letter, Lady Gertrude is forced to lie to preserve her marriage. Soon after, Lord Goring proposes to Mabel. Sir Robert refuses, because of Lord Goring apparent involvement with Laura Cheveley. But Lady Gertrude then tells the truth about the letter and explains Laura Cheveley's presence in Lord Goring's home that evening. Sir Robert then accepts and all is well that ends well.

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“fruit and malt aromas… hop flavours”

Kind of fruity, otherwise just another ale. Contains barley malt.

Wadworth & Co. Ltd., Devizes, Wiltshire, England. 4.3% alcohol.