I went to SPX (indie comics press event) last September, which had mandatory masking, and the place was crowded and I believe had sold out tables. Nearly everyone did, in fact, wear a mask. https://masto.machlis.com/@smach/112462436451472935
@glennf#SFZineFest was masks required and it was absolutely packed. There were maybe 1,000 people there on Saturday afternoon. I only saw one person ignoring the indoor-masking policy the whole time.
I hope they have that same policy at this year's event https://www.sfzinefest.org/
@docpop I have heard cartoonists particularly talk about not coming back from cons with the “yuck” if it was a mask-required event or they optionally masked. That was a thing for so many years!
Just acquired what I believe is the oldest extant flong (paper-like printing mold used to cast metal plates) of a newspaper comic strip—or any comic strip. This is from 1912. My research has found an earlier illustration (1891, alerted by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston) and plate (1896, Billy Ireland Museum at the OSU). It’s an early gag comic, just a few years after daily strips start (1903) and Sundays (1896 for sequential stories).
@bucknam Very welcome! It is an absurdly complicated process. One of many! I have dug deep to find photos and examples…it's coming together very nicely!
I should also note that this page was in a stack of 1911 and 1912 full-page molds (flongs/mats) for the San Francisco Bulletin. They are the oldest in my collection and the oldest full-page flongs I’m aware of anywhere, but I am sure there are others that are older that aren’t well surfaced in public and private archives.
Saw a clip of the Agatha series actors bragging that the show has very little CG. The magic was all…practical. Who cares? What is this obsession? CG is only an issue for the director and creative people on the movie and accountants, and if it distracts by looking unreal while watching a TV show or movie. An unhealthy focus that feels anti-VFX worker, when there’s so much VFX in media that nobody realizes. This series captures the issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ttG90raCNo&t=937s
I understand that for actors and post-production, having more real and in-camera elements makes their job easier? But it feels like an agenda by producers to have a drumbeat of "no CG, no VFX" for some reason—because of the toxic masculine social media film criticism culture’s weird VFX stance, which parallels the misogyny of that culture.
@stewf It’s weird: I go back and there's nothing there. A handful of people I know post. Most of the feed is garbage. Most of the people posting get garbage or spam replies.
Thanks to Clarence Thomas (!!) and 6 other justices, the CFPB's role was upheld—and my older kid, whose debit card was stolen from a gym locker a couple days ago, may pay $50 at most of > $3,000 stolen.
The credit union (BECU) messed up: no alerts about multiple ATM charges, even though he had alerts turned on. Since he rarely uses physical cards, he only found out by accident (the thief stole 3 cards, left wallet undisturbed…)
@glennf BECU's transaction alerts are lousy — last I checked still SMS-only, delayed by hours, possibly duplicated at settlement — but I don't know how they would fail to send them, unless they were too slow to be helpful. Did the thief do something special?
@irons I don't know. We checked his settings, and he had $100 threshold on his various accounts for alerts and had gotten some but nothing in the last week as they did 7 transactions. When he went into BECU this morning and said, I never wrote my PIN down, how did they get it? The person said, they can hack it somehow. it's very common!!!
For How Comics Were Made, there are still four “executive producer”-style credits available for the book—a key underwriter position.
You get:
• Thanks in a special patron section
• Appear in one of the comics drawn especially for the book
• Two print copies and a license for 100 ebooks
• Two signed bookplates
• A 60–90 minute Zoom presentation—you can even charge admission, such as for a fundraiser
Big props to Vornado. I had compact, quiet space heater I bought from them just under a year ago. It failed, contacted the company, they agreed immediately to replace under warranty. They were out of the model I had and it wasn't due in for months—so they said they would simply send me a higher-end unit. Which has been great! I like it even more!
This is actually quite sensible. There was a zoning agreement that the strip mall would exclude fast food but sandwich shops were ok. The court said, tacos and burritos meet the definition of how sandwich shops were described. Particularly like this:
"the original Written Commitment does not restrict potential restaurants to only American cuisine-style sandwiches”
The puzzle company The New York Times shows stories on the main page of its app that I, as a subscriber, have to pay extra to read without any marking until I tap on the story. Great strategy.
@jsnell Weirdly, no. Wirecutter, I know there's a monthly limit, but I don't seem to hit it. Cooking, yes, but again, some Cooking stories/recipes are free, too. Baffling—not a consistent experience in notification or use.
@glennf They don't even let you see the writer's name or the sub-title. With the NYT penchant for shitty title writing that makes it even more egregious. It's even stripped out of reader mode. Ah well. I'm not inclined to give them a dime under their current ownership, management, and modus oprandi anyway.
Listen, I know the universe doesn’t work this way. But I’m listening to a podcast and someone on the podcast says the word “mat” at the moment I am filling in the word “mat” in the crossword puzzle, it just feels weird! Yes, yes, every other word in the crossword puzzle, they didn’t say.
No matter what you think of Thomas as a jurist, it is clear he is telling the truth when he believes he has done nothing wrong and that everyone else is the problem. He is delusional. Great attribute for his position. https://mastodon.social/@indivisibleteam/112440656178031628
Industry-wide anti-stalking alerts for low-power, long-life Bluetooth trackers now available in iOS 17.5 and rolling out to Android 6.0 and later. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/05/apple-and-google-deliver-support-for-unwanted-tracking-alerts-in-ios-and-android/ This cross-platform approach provides alerts when any tracker, just not ones from the native ecosystem of AirTags/Find My Network (Apple) or Find My Device (Google). Some companies offering non-iOS/Android tracking—Chipolo, eufy, Jio, Motorola, and Pebblebee—have committed to the standard, too.