Una qüestió ètica (obra en un acte)

Riu Mekong, a poques milles d'haver travessat la frontera entre el Vietnam i Cambodja, una barca de línia transporta un grup de turistes fins Phnom Penh. La barca és de fibra de vidre i a les butaques, destinades als passatgers, hi fa una calor terrible. El trajecte dura cinc hores, de les quals ja n'han invertit tres. Gairebé tothom dorm. A la popa, en uns bancs de fusta i fugint de la calor, en Banquer, n'Advocat i na Secretària. Els dos primers duen càmeres de fotografiar digitals tipus reflex amb objectius que van provant, ara i adés, amb tot allò que troben. Secretària duu una petita càmera automàtica, està ajaguda al damunt d'un dels bancs, al davant dels altres dos personatges.

ADVOCAT: Mira! Un porc! (es gira, enfoca i comença a fotografiar el cos inflat d'un porc mort que baixa riu avall seguint la corrent).

BANQUER: (que estava enfocant) Collons! No l'he enganxat, duc un objectiu massa curt.

(L'Advocat li ensenya a en Banquer la fotografia que li ha fet al porc i s'embranquen en una conversa sobre objectius i càmeres. Secretària, entretant, s'aixeca i intenta trobar un racó on fugir del sol que li crema la pell.

La barca redueix la marxa i tots tres es miren estranyats, estan al mig del no res. Pel riu, surant corrent avall, i en la trajectòria de la barca, es veu una massa fosca. La gent de dins dorm, algú llegeix. Tots tres personatges miren com el timoner i el tripulant comencen a parlar en veu baixa, nerviosament.

L'Advocat, en Banquer i na Secretària observen allò que sura a estribord, just a un metre del casc de la nau.)

SECRETÀRIA: Sembla un maniquí.

(L'Advocat no articula paraula, en Banquer acciona el botó de la càmera i fa tres fotografies al cos que passa.)

SECRETÀRIA:(amb sorpresa) És un mort! Un home mort!

ADVOCAT: (mirant desficiat el riu i els tripulants) I no paren! Diguem-los que parin!

BANQUER: Merda, l'he fotografiat. (mira a Secretària, interrogant) Què faig, l'esborro?

SECRETÀRIA: (s'ha tranquil·litzat) Per què?

BANQUER: És un mort, em sembla malament.

ADVOCAT: (esverat) Hòstia! No paren els tios! Haurien de cridar a la policia! Hem de fer alguna cosa!

SECRETÀRIA: (mirant a l'Advocat) Per què?

BANQUER: (mirant alternativament el cadàver que segueix, impertorbable, riu avall i la càmera de fer fotos) És que fer fotos d'un mort és repugnant, no trobes?

ADVOCAT: (mirant a Secretària amb cara d'estupor) Que per què? Collons! Aquest home deu tenir família no? Cal que vingui la policia i reculli el cos!

SECRETÀRIA: (a en Banquer) Bé, no l'has fet expressament (remarca aquest expressament), ell passava i tu has disparat. No cal que l'ensenyis si no vols, però no l'has d'esborrar.

(La barca comença a moure's amb més velocitat, se sent com puja el soroll del motor)

ADVOCAT: (mirant cap on hi ha el pilot de la nau, mantenint la indignació) I ara acceleren aquest parell! Com se'n poden desdir? eh! mister! mister! (la veu li queda ofegada pel soroll del motor en accelerar)

SECRETÀRIA: (amb paciència, aixecant la veu pel soroll del motor, i sense deixar de mirar en Banquer) Tranquil, potser han telefonat.

ADVOCAT: (se la mira indignat) I una merda! No han fet res!

SECRETÀRIA: (es gira cap a ell i mantenint el to tranquil li parla com si fos un nen) Bé, potser si, no ho saps, i tampoc es poden parar amb una barca plena de turistes. Al cap i a la fi, l'home ja és mort.

(N'Advocat mira a Secretària i a en Banquer amb cara de no entendre res. En Banquer, entretant, ha apagat la càmera i la desa a la funda)

SECRETÀRIA: (Intentant ser didàctica amb l'Advocat) Mira, aquesta gent té un concepte de la vida i la mort una mica diferent del nostre. En el Tercer Món la vida val ben poca cosa. A més, aquesta gent duu turistes i els turistes som sagrats, no poden muntar un pollastre aquí per un mort que ves a saber d'on ve. Mira, veus (li assenyala la guia) el riu aquest té 4,880 kilòmetres de llargària i travessa uns quants països. Aquest home mort fa tot l'efecte de dur un parell de dies al riu, ves a saber de quin país és!

(L'Advocat esbufega, no hi està d'acord, però veu que no se'n sortirà i que ningú no hi farà res. Es gira d'esquena a Secretària i mira, insistentment i amb cara de pomes agres, riu amunt, com volent esborrar tot el que ha passat)

BANQUER: (en veu alta per a ell mateix) Desaré la fotografia en una carpeta de l'ordinador i no la posaré a cap àlbum.

SECRETÀRIA: (Tornant-se a ajeure al damunt del banc de fusta i posant-se el barret al damunt de la cara) Faràs bé.

(Teló)

Mekong. Fotografia arxiu personal

Wimpy Kid joins Macy's Thanksgiving parade

Wimpy Kid Balloon Joins Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
By Sally Lodge
Sep 30, 2010

...as a reminder, Kinney was a University of Maryland cartoonist prior to hitting it big with his Wimpy Kid.

Waking Sleeping Beauty reviewed in City Paper

Fincher's hyper, fictionalized Facebook flick; Disney's dysfunctional family
By Tricia Olszewski
Washington City Paper October 1, 2010

I guess the Disney documentary is playing here somewhere, but it's not on the City Paper's movie site yet.

WebP, a new image format for the Web

Cross-posted from the Chromium Blog

As part of Google’s initiative to make the web faster, over the past few months we have released a number of tools to help site owners speed up their websites. We launched the Page Speed Firefox extension to evaluate the performance of web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them, we introduced the Speed Tracer Chrome extension to help identify and fix performance problems in web applications, and we released a set of closure tools to help build rich web applications with fully optimized JavaScript code. While these tools have been incredibly successful in helping developers optimize their sites, as we’ve evaluated our progress, we continue to notice a single component of web pages is consistently responsible for the majority of the latency on pages across the web: images.

Most of the common image formats on the web today were established over a decade ago and are based on technology from around that time. Some engineers at Google decided to figure out if there was a way to further compress lossy images like JPEG to make them load faster, while still preserving quality and resolution. As part of this effort, we are releasing a developer preview of a new image format, WebP, that promises to significantly reduce the byte size of photos on the web, allowing web sites to load faster than before.

Images and photos make up about 65% of the bytes transmitted per web page today. They can significantly slow down a user’s web experience, especially on bandwidth-constrained networks such as a mobile network. Images on the web consist primarily of lossy formats such as JPEG, and to a lesser extent lossless formats such as PNG and GIF. Our team focused on improving compression of the lossy images, which constitute the larger percentage of images on the web today.

To improve on the compression that JPEG provides, we used an image compressor based on the VP8 codec that Google open-sourced in May 2010. We applied the techniques from VP8 video intra frame coding to push the envelope in still image coding. We also adapted a very lightweight container based on RIFF. While this container format contributes a minimal overhead of only 20 bytes per image, it is extensible to allow authors to save meta-data they would like to store.

While the benefits of a VP8 based image format were clear in theory, we needed to test them in the real world. In order to gauge the effectiveness of our efforts, we randomly picked about 1,000,000 images from the web (mostly JPEGs and some PNGs and GIFs) and re-encoded them to WebP without perceptibly compromising visual quality. This resulted in an average 39% reduction in file size. We expect that developers will achieve in practice even better file size reduction with WebP when starting from an uncompressed image.

To help you assess WebP’s performance with other formats, we have shared a selection of open-source and classic images along with file sizes so you can visually compare them on this site. We are also releasing a conversion tool that you can use to convert images to the WebP format. We’re looking forward to working with the browser and web developer community on the WebP spec and on adding native support for WebP. While WebP images can’t be viewed until browsers support the format, we are developing a patch for WebKit to provide native support for WebP in an upcoming release of Google Chrome. We plan to add support for a transparency layer, also known as alpha channel in a future update.

We’re excited to hear feedback from the developer community on our discussion group, so download the conversion tool, try it out on your favorite set of images, and let us know what you think.

By Richard Rabbat, WebP Team

A galaxy of your own

(Cross-posted with the Official Google Blog)

Last December, we wrote about our immersive Google Earth environment, Liquid Galaxy: eight 55-inch LCD screens showing Google Earth in a unified, surround view.

Liquid Galaxy at TED 2010

Since then, we’ve taken it to a lot of conferences, built Liquid Galaxies in Google offices all over the world and even put one in the Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif. We love watching people try it for the first time. Almost everybody wants to see their own house first; but then they start to explore, and we can never guess where they’ll choose to go next.

But we just couldn’t bring it to enough people—we could only go to so many conferences, and only friends and family of Googlers could try out the Liquid Galaxies in our offices.

So we decided to put the features that make Liquid Galaxy possible into the latest release of Google Earth, and open-source all the supporting work, from our Ubuntu sysadmin scripts to the mechanical design of our custom frames.



Not everyone will have the know-how to network computers together and get view synchronization working, but we tried to make it as easy as possible. If you think you’re up to the challenge, check out our Quick Start page. You can also contact our supplier End Point if you’d rather buy than build (or just need some professional assistance). Here’s a video they made that shows Liquid Galaxy in action:



Liquid Galaxies don’t have to be made from eight big LCD screens; the view sync features scale just fine from two to dozens of screens. And they can run more than just Google Earth; we’ve had success playing video in sync in our Liquid Galaxies, and even modified a Free Software video game for after-hours fun. We’ve daydreamed about making panoramic movies, head tracking or even real-time video from distant panoramic cameras. Read more on the Liquid Galaxy page at earth.google.com, and show off your creations in the liquid-galaxy discussion group. We’re excited to see what you come up with!


Posted by Jason Holt, Software Engineer, Liquid Galaxy 20% Team

Cellulite e Celluloide - Il podcast

Il consueto podcast settimanale della trasmissione in onda su RadioRock (106.600 FM) ogni venerdì alle 20.30, che vede ai microfoni oltre a Prince Faster anche il sottoscritto sotto lo pseudonimo di Gabriele Vasquez assieme al prode Francesco Alò.

Solo tre film questa settimana ma attesi e di peso. Si parte affrontando la delusione data da La Passione di Mazzacurati, poi dividendoci subito su L'Ultimo Dominatore Dell'Aria per chiudere con il botto con il totale conflitto di pareri su Inception. In chiusura trionfo di consigli in pillole e segnalazioni televisive.


LA PUNTATA DEL 24/09/10
Pur non essendo di Roma o dintorni potete godere anche voi di queste perle radiofoniche sottoscrivendo i podcast come più vi aggrada. O consultare l'archivio e l'archivione storico.

Explore the world with Street View, now on all seven continents

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

Update 12:01PM: To clarify, the Street View imagery for Antarctica includes panoramas of an area called Half Moon Island – such as this view of penguins and this one of the landscape. The blue dots you see throughout the continent when dragging the pegman are user-contributed photos.

We introduced Street View back in May 2007, enabling people to explore street-level imagery in five U.S. cities. We were excited to share a virtual reflection of the real world to enable armchair exploration. Since then, we’ve expanded our 360-degree panoramic views to many more places, allowing you to check out a restaurant before dining there, to explore a neighborhood before moving there and to find landmarks along the route of your driving directions.

Three years later, we’re happy to announce that you can now explore Street View imagery on all seven continents, with the addition today of Brazil, Ireland and Antarctica. You can now see images from around the world spanning from the beaches of Brazil, to the moors of Ireland, to the icy terrain in Antarctica.

We often consider Street View to be the last zoom layer on the map, and a way to show you what a place looks like as if you were there in person—whether you’re checking out a coffee shop across town or planning a vacation across the globe. We hope this new imagery will help people in Ireland, Brazil, and even the penguins of Antarctica to navigate nearby, as well as enable people around the world to learn more about these areas.

For example, as summer winds down here in Mountain View, Calif., the famous beaches of Copacabana, Brazil are an enticing virtual travel destination.


The Ring of Kerry in Ireland, with its picturesque rolling landscape, is another favorite new place in Street View.


Speaking of travel, my wife BethEllyn and I embarked on the Minerva for an expedition to Antarctica in late January. We enjoyed stunning vistas, and I found that any minute not spent on deck was a spectacular view missed. Fortunately, we’d planned to take some Street View photos, and are now able to share with you the incredible visuals from Half Moon Island, Antarctica.

Here is a group of Chinstrap penguins we saw on the island.


And this is one of my favorite views. You can see part of the crescent shape that gives the island its name.


I’m very proud of the worldwide Street View team and thrilled that everyone can now see places from all seven continents, including the amazing landscapes and natural beauty I saw in Antarctica, through the street-level images in Google Maps and Google Earth. To see more highlights from Street View around the world, visit the Street View gallery and start exploring!

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps

Oct 2: Peanuts at National Portrait Gallery

On October 2, the National Portrait Gallery will host a family-and-friends day with events for all ages: cartooning workshops; a screening of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; and guest appearances from Snoopy and Schulz friend Lee Mendelson, executive producer of all the classic PEANUTS specials.

Wertham article in print City Paper; longer version online

The online version has many more quotes from people about WHAT IT ALL MEANS.

A Comics Villain Revisited: What Will the Opening of Fredric Wertham's
Papers Mean for Comic-Book Scholarship?
Posted by Mike Rhode on Sep. 30, 2010
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2010/09/30/a-comics-villain-revisited-what-will-the-opening-of-fredric-werthams-papers-mean-for-comic-book-scholarship/

Thru Oct 17: Peanuts play in town

Tickets are $25 from No Rules Theater at the H Street Playhouse -

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Book, Music & Lyrics by Clark Gesner
Additional Dialogue by Micael Mayer
Additional Music & Lyrics by Andrew Lippa

Directed by Matt Cowart
Choreographed by Pauline Grossman
Musically Directed by Taylor Williams

Cast
Lucy - Carolyn Cole
Snoopy - Chris French
Sally - Kristen Garaffo
Schroeder - Sean Maurice Lynch
Linus - Joshua Morgan
Charlie Brown - Augie Praley

WASHINGTON DC TICKETS
H Street Playhouse - Washington, DC
Theatre Mania Box Office: 866-811-4111
9/30 - 8pm | 10/1 - 8pm | 10/2 - 2pm & 8pm | 10/3 - 2pm
10/7 - 8pm | 10/8 - 8pm | 10/9 - 2pm & 8pm | 10/10 - 2pm
10/14 - 8pm | 10/15 - 8pm | 10/16 - 2pm & 8pm | 10/17 - 2pm

Un weekend da bamboccioni (Grown Ups, 2010)di Dennis Dugan

POSTATO SU

Sull'uso e l'accezione che viene dato al termine "bamboccioni" nella titolazione di questo film ci sarebbe da scrivere un saggio di 500 pagine. Invece per gentilezza nei confronti del lettore non verrà spesa nemmeno una parola.
Grown Ups è l'ennesima collaborazione tra Adam Sandler (anche sceneggiatore) e Dennis Dugan (Vi dichiaro marito e marito, Zohan ma soprattutto il folgorante Happy Gilmore), coppia dai risultati talmente altalenanti che fa venire il sospetto di azzeccare il colpo solo per caso.

Se infatti Happy Gilmore era un esordio col botto, dinamico, esilarante e violento, Vi dichiaro marito e marito un'insopportabile pastrocchio maschilista e Zohan una satira divertente, estrema e audace nel suo (autentico) politicamente scorretto, Grown Ups è un film per famiglie nell'accezione più dispregiativa del termine. Un film che mette in scena famiglie e dinamiche da famiglia ad uso e consumo di un pubblico identico a chi viene rappresentato, che ne fruisce più in tv (in famglia) che al cinema. Ancora peggio il film dà libero sfogo alla piega peggiore dello stile-Sandler ovvero il passatismo "americana", cioè il ricordo e la nostalgia dei veri valori tradizionalmente bianchi e east coast.

Storia di un gruppo di amici affiatati che, una volta adulti, si incontrano nuovamente dopo anni di lontananza a causa della morte del loro coach di pallacanestro. Il funerale è l'occasione per loro e per le loro famiglie di trascorrere di nuovo del tempo insieme in una baita nel bosco, luogo in cui si confronteranno, risolveranno i loro problemi (causati dalla vita di città) e riscopriranno una dimensione panica a contatto con la natura e tutti quei pregi dell'american way of life apertamente contrapposti alla frenesia di questa vita moderna.
La scarsità di spunti comici (nonostante il profluvio di attori interessanti) è forse l'aspetto meno irritante di questa lunga parabola buonista autoincensatoria, dove addirittura in chiusura i belli, ricchi e ora anche felici protagonisti concedono ai brutti, cattivi e stupidi outsider di provincia il privilegio di una vittoria a pallacanestro (l'unica vittoria della loro vita lascia intuire il film), perdendo appositamente. Anche quella vittoria per gli outsider dunque è un regalo pietoso di chi ha tutto nei confronti di chi non ha niente e non una conquista personale.

Truitt on Stephen King's comic writing

Stephen King learns in and outs of comics with 'American Vampire'
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY September 29 2010

A couple of SPX interviews from Comixtalk

Interviews with Sara Turner and Jerzy Drozd
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 14, 2010

XX's website Comixtalk is another local one that I've been shamefully behind in realizing was local as it largely focuses on webcomics.

Post interviews Guisewite on body issues

I mentioned a Post blog post on the Cathy comic strip with accompanying body image poll a couple of days ago.

Tomorrow they go right to the source and interview cartoonist Cathy Guisewite -

Cathy Guisewite, creator of 'Cathy' comic, on weight
Jennifer LaRue Huget
Washington Post September 30, 2010; GZ12

Hey, people who aren't me are reviewing comics at the City Paper?!

That Martell guy who did the book on Calvin and Hobbes is poaching in my territory!

Reviewed: Krazy & Ignatz in Tiger Tea by George Herriman
by Nevin Martell on Sep. 28, 2010

He's lucky I like him. Otherwise...

Oct 2: Crafty Bastards arts fair downtown

The City Paper's Crafty Bastards fair is coming up this Saturday. Here's some information pulled from their website:

Now in its 7th year, Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair is an exhibition and sale of handmade alternative arts and crafts from independent artists presented by the Washington City Paper. The fair is all-day, outdoors, free to attend, and will offer goods for sale, food, entertainment, prizes, and more! Crafty Bastards will take place Saturday, October 2, 2010 in Washington, DC.

Saturday, October 2, 2010, 10am-5pm at the Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th & Wyoming in the hip Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Of local cartoonists, so far Carolyn Belefski's Curls Studio will be there at Tent 80.

Google Map Maker and UNITAR Collaboration Shines at Shanghai World Expo

This past weekend at the 2010 World Expo, UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and Google gave a joint presentation and informational session about their recent work together in global humanitarian mapping.

Illustrating his remarks with information about the Pakistan 2010 flood relief efforts, UNITAR Geospatial Analyst Josh Lyons explained how Google Map Maker helps his organization quickly and accurately produce geospatial products and emergency response maps. By leveraging the high quality, up-to-date information provided by users in Google Map Maker, UNITAR is able to produce and distribute helpful composite map products using tools such as UNITAR’S Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). These products played a key role in facilitating modern humanitarian relief for the recent disaster in Pakistan.

UNITAR/UNOSAT map for Pakistan flood analysis, with transport data from Google Map Maker

Dr. Carlos Lopes, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNITAR, expressed his excitement both to work with Google and that UNITAR/UNOSAT resources that had previously been spent on mapping data collection could now be invested directly into analysis. He remarked that users and beneficiaries aided by this collaborative effort include operational UN agencies, international NGOs and national entities from government and civil societies, and of course, the people directly affected by disasters and other crises.

We hope that the interest and increased awareness that the Shanghai World Expo event generated about Google Map Maker helps to build an even stronger user community. It’s the online mapping contributions of volunteers across the globe that enable Map Maker to be a valuable tool for humanitarian activities like this as well as a source of quality maps in the developing world. Let’s continue mapping the world together!

Posted by Andrea Fang Chu, Google Maps Software Engineer

Minor bits by Arlingtonians in new books

Richard Thompson has a 1-page cartoon introduction to the new Barney Google book from Craig Yoe.

Meanwhile I'm thanked in Daniel Clowes: Conversations (Conversations With Comics Artists Series) by Ken Parille (Editor) and Isaac Cates (Editor), for suggesting to Isaac that he do a Conversations book. The book was already finished when I interviewed Clowes, so print out “Likable Characters Are for Weak-Minded Narcissists”: A Chat with Daniel Clowes" and glue it in the back of the book. In the book trade, they call that 'tipping-in' and I'll autograph it for you to increase the value.

The return of W.E.L.D.O.N.

In which Glen examines the Iron Man villain who probably won't ever be in one of the big movies -

 

In Praise of M.O.D.O.K: Why Gleefully Goofy Beats Broodingly Brutal

by Glen Weldon

September 29, 2010

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/09/28/130190679/in-praise-of-m-o-d-o-k-why-gleefully-goofy-beats-broodingly-bad-ass

 

 

Poesia assagística V: Clementina Abelló

Des de menut, sempre havia cregut que la poesia assagística moderna era un mite. Sort que, en ple estiu, Alietes, el del Corralot, va encetar la noble tasca de fer visibles a una sèrie de poetes assagístics moderns. Gràcies a ell, coneguem, ara, els versos de Laureto Cavalcanti, de Bramah Xoto o de William Johnson Fry. A esta encomiable labor també es va unir Davit, el del carré Blanc, descobrint-nos a Josif Maria de Pila Màster. Fa un parell de setmanes, o així, vaig vore una pel·lícula que em va fer vindre al cap el nom de Clementina Abelló. Seria ella una poetessa assagística?

Clementina, era una bella jove radiotelegrafista d’una família saforenca que amava la literatura estatunidenca de principis del segle XX, tant com la riquesa dels aristòcrates europeus de l’època. En 1908, a l’edat de vint-i-un anys, es va traslladar a viure a Paris per estar en contacte amb l’escriptora Edith Wharton, a qui admirava més enllà del seu treball literari.

Amb l'assessorament de Wharton, a finals de 1911, Clementina va publicar els seu primer (i únic) poemari sota el títol de Nàufraga del Sena. Els seus poemes tractaven els paisatges d’este riu com objecte estètic i afectiu. La natura recollida en els seus versos reflectia l’esperit d'una poetessa captiva del llit del Sena.

A un dels diversos recitals del poemari que va fer Clementina a Paris va acudir Edmond Blanchot, comte de Cherbourg i gran enamorat de la poesia paisatgística, com la que conreava la nostra poetessa. Edmond s’enamorà de Clementina i de la naturalitat dels seus versos, en la mateixa mesura que ella quedava enlluernada per l’escandalosa sonoritat de les butxaques d’ell.

El diumenge, 7 d’abril de 1912, van contraure matrimoni en l’església de Cherbourg i la vesprada del dimecres, 10 d’abril, partiren de viatge de noces cap a Nova York embarcant-se al Titanic, que va fer escala al port d'esta localitat de la Baixa Normandia, a posta, per a recollir als novençans i a uns pocs passatgers més que van aprofitar l’avinentesa.

La intenció de Clementina era escriure el seu segon poemari paisatgístic, que duria per títol Nàufraga de l’Atlàntic i en què traslladaria a versos l’experiència del creuer. Com podeu imaginar, tot es va afonar la nit del diumenge, 14 d’abril. Però en esta desgràcia, és on trobem l'aportació de la Comtessa de Cherbourg a la poesia assagística.

Com es conegut, l’impacte del Titanic amb l’iceberg va tindre lloc a les 23:40h. A les 0:10h., els dos operadors de ràdio del vaixell, Jack Philips i Harold Bride, van començar a enviar missatges d’auxili a altres transatlàntics propers, mentre el Titanic s’anava enfonsant a poc a poc. A les 2:10h., el capità Smith els diu a Philips i a Bride que ja havien complit amb el seu deure i els ordena que abandonen la sala de comunicacions. Durant estes dues hores van aconseguir contactar amb el Carpathia, que es trobava a unes seixanta milles de distància. Però Philips encara es va quedar uns minuts més, intentant contactar amb el Californian que estava més a prop d’ells. No ho va aconseguir. A les 2:20h. del dilluns, 15 d’abril, el Titanic se submergia per complet. Bride va poder arribar a un bot salvavides i va ser un dels supervivents rescatats durant la matinada pel Carpathia. Philips, encara que va tindre temps d’eixir del vaixell, no va aconseguir pujar a cap bot i el seu cos no va resistir la gelor de l’aigua. I a partir d’ací entrem en la llegenda.

Als pocs dies de l’enfonsament, un dels supervivents va dir en el seu testimoni que va arribar a parlar amb Philips en l’aigua i que este li va contar que, quan va abandonar la sala de ràdio, va vore entrar en ella a una jove d’uns vint-i-cinc anys. El supervivent pensava que Philips estava delirant. Este testimoni va passar desapercebut fins que el radioperador del Californian, Cyril Evans, va declarar poc abans de morir, anys després, que aquella fatídica nit li va entrar un missatge a les 2:25h. del Titanic que era una poesia en codi morse que transcrita seria:

Mala sort!
Com la del meu consort,
ma vida arriba a port:
l’engul la mort.

Dins d’este transport,
on ja no trobe reconfort,
ni cap tipus de suport,
he trobat el seu passaport.

A ma vida se li cau el sostre
dins d’este monstre...
Ja no cal amargar el rostre,
ni resar cap Parenostre.

Si este últim alé m’escolteu:
no exclameu,
no s’alarmeu,
no es desanimeu,
no es desplomeu
i no s’arrimeu...
Fiqueu-vos a la gatameu
i gemegueu en arameu.

Un exemple de poesia assagística davant la mort? Sí, per a uns, i no, per a altres. És Clementina Abelló l'autora del poema o va ser Cyril Evans? A la llegenda de la poesia assagística radiotelegrafiada en codi morse contribueix que els cosos dels comtes de Cherbourg mai s'han trobat i el que es més increïble encara: no consten com viatgers en cap dels llistats del Titanic. Com siga, l'elaboració d'este post m'ha portat a descobrir que la poesia assagística en morse va ser conreada, poteriorment, per alguns joves radiotelegrafistes de la kriegsmarine durant la II Guerra Mundial. Qui sap si algun dia es parlarà, més profusament, sobre este apasionant tema a El Penjoll?

Truitt on Stephen King's comics

Stephen King bites back with 'American Vampire' comic book

By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2010-09-29-stephenking29_ST_N.htm

'Cathy' body image poll at Post

Aack! Has comic-strip 'Cathy' shaped your body image?
By Jennifer LaRue Huget 
Washington Post's The Checkup blog September 28, 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/09/aack_has_comic-strip_cathy_sha.html

As of this writing, sadly, "yes" is winning.

It's Banned Books Week...

... and this cartoon is working its way through the comics blogosphere. It's from the Library of Congress

* Title: Books are weapons in the war of ideas / S. Broder.
* Date Created/Published: [Washington, D.C.] : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1942.
* Medium: 1 print (poster) : color.
* Summary: Poster showing Nazis burning books, with quotation by Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Books cannot be killed by fire ...."
* Reproduction Number: LC-USZC4-4267 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZ62-121473 (b&w film copy neg.)
* Call Number: POS - US .B761, no. 1 (C size) [P&P] [P&P] [P&P]
* Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
* Notes:
o GPO no. 1942-O-487131.
o OWI no. 7.
o Promotional goal: U.S. J49. 1942.
* Subjects:
o Book Burning--Germany--1940-1950.
o World War, 1939-1945--Communications--United States.
* Format:
o Posters--American--1940-1950.
o Prints--Color--1940-1950.
* Collections:
o Posters: Artist Posters
* Bookmark This Record:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96502725/

Beeler appears in paper of record

For the record, on this past Sunday (9/26), Nate Beeler's cartoon The GOP Evolution appeared in the NY Times op-ed section.

Revamping the Photo Layer in Google Maps

Here at Google, we love the experience of browsing photos on a map, and today it just got a lot easier. We have launched an update to the design of the Photo layer in Google Maps to provide you with a better experience when browsing your favorite places:


There are three main improvements in this latest update:

Firstly, we have made improvements to the density of the photos on the map, making it easier to see clusters of photos in popular locations. On the screenshot above, you can now well see that there are a lot more photos taken on the coast than there are inland.

Secondly, we’ve made the small thumbnails partially transparent, making it easier to see the underlying map, and helping you to stay oriented. On the screenshot above, the city and neighborhood labels are now more legible.

Finally, we are showing more information when you hover over a photo. Now, you can see a large thumbnail and the title of each image, so you can get a fast preview of what any photo looks like.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the new layer, so feel free to leave us your comments in the Panoramio forum.

Jonah Jones, User Experience Designer, Google Maps

Paciència

Després del pati, la Beth ha tornat amb el portaviandes de l’esmorzar ple de caragols, de closques enormes, i intente enraonar amb ella perquè els hi torne al lloc on haurien de ser. Faig servir una mena de discurs que puga entendrir la seua “resolució-d’apropiament-justificat-per-la-dèria-de-col·leccionar-éssers-vius”, per fer-la canviar d’actitud. Vull suposar que, fins i tot sa mare, m’ho agrairà. Però després que les meues paraules no puguen aconseguir ni que siga clivellar mínimament la capseta del seu cor, li demane, per favor, que torne al pati i els aboque al lloc d’on els hi ha trobat. Obeeix perquè sap que no té més remei (la qual cosa vol dir que l’autoritat encara funciona, que ja és prou) i surt abraçada al portaviandes com si hagués de desfer-se del tresor més preuat. Supose que, en certa manera, així és. Jo l’espere a la porta d’eixida. La resta dels alumnes s’han repartit els tres finestrals de l’aula que aboquen al pati, per veure l’escena de primera mà. Hi ha una gran (i insòlita) expectació. La Beth es perd rere un parell de cotxes que no han pogut encabir-se dintre de l’aparcament i encara no han entrat a l’ordre de l’administrador. No veig el que està fent. Sembla que està ajupida. Els minuts passen i no torna. A les finestres se sent una remor creixent de xiquets que comencen a disputar-se els llocs d’observació. Olore la tempesta. Cride la Beth i no obtinc contestació. Preocupat, decideixo apropar-me per veure què està fent realment. A l’avançar unes passes veig que ella ja és de tornada, el portaviandes buit en una mà. Li pregunte perquè ha tardat tant en deixar-los. Ella em mira i molt seriosament em rebla: "Estava mirant que s'allunyaren en la bona direcció". Tornem a l’aula abans que es produeixin les primeres descàrregues elèctriques.

Meet a Visiting Cartoonist: A Quick Chat with Jeff Smith

Now at the City Paper -

 

Meet a Visiting Cartoonist: A Quick Chat with Jeff Smith
by Mike Rhode on Sep. 28, 2010
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2010/09/28/meet-a-visiting-cartoonist-a-quick-chat-with-jeff-smith/

Benvenuti al Sud (2010)di Luca Miniero

POSTATO SU

Che dire? Abbiamo rifatto Giù al Nord cioè Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, il film di maggiore incasso della storia del cinema francese, uscito l'anno scorso. Ed è strano come uno dei rarissimi adattamenti italiani di soggetti originali stranieri sembri davvero un film più adatto a noi che a loro, cioè una storia di stereotipi regionali smentiti.
Nella versione italiana un uomo del nord è costretto ad andare a lavorare al sud come punizione per la sua smania di fare carriera, la vive come un dramma perchè teme tutte quelle cose che si dicono del meridione (mafia, violenza, furti, ostilità, distanza culturale e lassismo). Ovviamente si troverà quasi subito a confronto con la realtà dei fatti, l'azzeramento dei pregiudizi e anzi la preferenza della dimensione di vita meridionale su quella settentrionale. Così la commedia, da che è incentrata sul contrasto idea-del-meridione/realtà-del-meridione, diventa una commedia degli equivoci tesa a mentenere nella moglie meridionale l'idea pericolosa del sud dissimulando la realtà dei fatti.

Ecco perchè sembra un film più da un paese come il nostro, cinematograficamente molto legato alle differenze tra settentrione e meridione e interessato a conciliarle sempre e comunque. Così con un comico del nord e uno del sud, una sceneggiatura ripresa alla lettera e una serie di invenzioni comiche che, si sentono, vengono dal bagaglio delle individualità (Bisio e Siani), il film arriva in porto e strappa qualche risata.

Si potrebbe dire anche missione compiuta, se non fosse che Benvenuti al sud, anche rispetto all'insipido originale, non ha nessuna idea autonoma di sceneggiatura, nessuna trovata comica che sia indipendente dai suoi attori nè una visione autonoma e originale del conflitto regionale. Stupisce in questo senso leggere la firma di Massimo Gaudioso, che altrove non teme le conflittualità e raramente si preoccupa di ignorare differenze e attriti come in questo caso, predigiligendo invece la più complessa esposizione dei problemi e delle dialettiche, non necessariamente da risolvere.
Ma tant'è. Piacerà.

America's Next Great Cartoonist and Comic Riffs blogger on Tall Tale Radio

Episode 100 – Olivia Walch and Michael Cavna
By Tom Racine
Tall Tale Radio September 27th, 2010
http://talltalefeatures.com/2010/09/27/episode-100-olivia-walch-and-michael-cavna/

Ted Rall in town and interview up at City Paper blog

Ted's going to be at Busboys and Poets on 14th and V, NW at 6:30 tonight. I'm planning on being there. Here's an interview about his new prose book:

Meet a Visiting Cartoonist: A Chat with Ted Rall

Posted by Mike Rhode on Sep. 27, 2010

 

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2010/09/27/meet-a-visiting-cartoonist-a-chat-with-ted-rall/

Etimologia lliure (7)

agnòstic: descregut que, quan vas a buscar-lo per anar a missa, sempre fa la mateixa broma.

cocatedral: pa beneït tou que sol repartir-se a l’eixida de les esglésies (monumentals)*

*Apunt afegit amb l'encert d'Alietes.

New OAuth support for Google Apps APIs

Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog

Google Apps is designed to provide a secure and reliable platform for your data. Until today, Google Apps administrators had to sign requests for calls to Google Apps APIs using their username and password (this is called ClientLogin Authorization).

Yet sharing passwords across sites can pose security risks. Furthering our commitment to make the cloud more secure for our users, today we are pleased to announce support for OAuth authorization on Google Apps APIs.

There are several advantages to using OAuth instead of the username/password model:

• OAuth is more secure: OAuth tokens can be scoped and set to expire by a certain date, making them more secure than using the ClientLogin mechanism.
• OAuth is customizable: Using OAuth, you can create tokens that scripts may only use to access data of a particular scope when calling Google Apps APIs. For instance, a token set to call the Email Migration API would not be able to use your login credentials to access the Google Apps Provisioning API.
• OAuth is an open standard: OAuth is an open source standard, making it a familiar choice for developers to work with.

The Google Apps APIs that support the OAuth signing mechanism are:

1. Provisioning API
2. Email Migration API
3. Admin Settings API
4. Calendar Resource API
5. Email Settings API
6. Audit API

OAuth support for Google Apps APIs is another step towards making Google Apps the most secure, reliable cloud based computing environment for organizations. To learn more about OAuth support and other administrative capacities launched in Google Apps this quarter, join us for a live webinar on Wednesday, September 29th at 9am PT / 12pm EST / 5pm GMT.

Administrators for Google Apps Premier, Education, and Government Editions can use OAuth authorization for Google Apps APIs starting today.For more information about the OAuth standard, visit http://oauth.net.

By Ankur Jain, Google Apps Team

All'improvviso l'incoscienza rivelatrice

Max Giusti con la massima ingenuità a proposito del doppiaggio di Cattivissimo Me

Il giorno migliore è stato il primo, quando Gru è nato. Il punto è che doveva nascere indipendentemente da quello americano, ero lì con Fiamma [Izzo] e buttavamo giù molte cose e se poi notavamo che in certi passaggi il personaggio non quadrava più tornavamo indietro per ripensarlo. Gli abbiamo dato una sua piccola anima.

Il doppiaggio di Steve Carrel praticamente non l'ho sentito, ne avrò sentito si e no un minutino giusto per rendermi conto di come fosse stato quel lavoro. Ma era proprio una cosa diversa all'americana, cioè con un background statunitense, lui usa un accento russo, per fare il cattivo ma noi in Italia non abbiamo gli immigrati russi per cui non funzionerebbe bene, non siamo così smaliziati con gli accenti stranieri.

Beeler sneaks into Examiner

Nate Beeler doesn't usually do a cartoon for Monday's Examiner, which instead relies on the Cagle Syndicate, but he's got one on page 23 today. It's an homage to Gulliver's Travels that illustrates an editorial.

Jeff Smith at Library of Congress National Book Festival

I got to talk to Jeff Smith for a few minutes at the National Book Festival of the Library of Congress. The interview should appear at the Washington City Paper site this week, but here's my Book Festival pictures.

Friend of ComicsDC Dustin Harbin featured in paper

Dustin's a friend of mine and Richard Thompson -- he's the guy who invited Richard down to HeroesCon, opening a whole new world to us.

Fine-tooning his passion: Local cartoonist Dustin Harbin has turned talent, luck and hard work into burgeoning career success.
By April Denee Baker
Charlotte Observer Sep. 26, 2010

Desconcerts

Ileana i Vasile estaven desconcertats. Havien arribat a Catalunya a primeries del nou segle i, de seguida, aconseguiren de trencar el cercle secular en què roman bona part del seu poble, el rom. Es van establir a Badalona, amb els seus fills Alexandru i Mădălina. Gràcies a les gestions de la Fundació Secretariat Gitano, no calgué que el matrimoni s’instal·lés a cap campament de barraques; van trobar un pis de lloguer al barri de La Salut. L’hagueren de compartir amb altre matrimoni de gitanos romanesos, Florin i Nadia. Vasile va trobar feina com a manobre; Ileana començà a netejar pisos i escales al centre de Badalona.

Un cop establerts a la nova llar, decidiren de matricular els dos xiquets a l’escola de primària del barri; com que estaven disposats a encetar una nova vida, volien que els seus fills tingueren educació i aprengueren els idiomes de la nova pàtria. Moltes nits, en acabar de sopar, Ileana i Vasile parlaven amb orgull de la seua bona estrella: havien fugit de la misèria i el racisme; s’estaven integrant perfectament al barri; a poc a poc, anaven coneixent els veïns d’escala; Ileana no tenia cap problema a les botigues; tot semblava idíl·lic... Però ja se sap: la felicitat dura poc a casa del pobre. Arribà la crisi i Vasile es quedà sense feina. Començaren els problemes amb el lloguer, el forn... Això no obstant, Ileana seguia netejant pisos i escales, i els petits Alexandru i Mădălina continuaven anant a escola.

Un dia, s’escoltaren al telediari notícies un xic estremidores: França estava expulsant milers de gitanos romanesos. Poc després, arribà al barri un enorme seguici de polítics i periodistes. La comitiva estava encapçalada per dues dones. A Vasile li feren gràcia dos detalls: ambdues s’anomenaven Sánchez i, segons que havia sentit dir a un natural del país, les dues eren xarnegues. Les polítiques, una d’elles eurodiputada, natural de Perpinyà, buscaven a Badalona campaments de barraques habitades per gitanos romanesos. No en trobaren cap ni un, però aparegueren, això sí, diferents i pintorescos personatges: una veïna amb un carro de la compra i dos jubilats que protestaven de la brutícia; una gitana catalana farta dels gitanos romanesos; una gitana romanesa —que Ileana no sabia d’on podia haver sortit; no l’havia vista mai en la vida— queixant-se de la delinqüència dels seus compatriotes; un home mostrant uns papers del cens i denunciant irat que, sense la seua autorització, sis romanesos s'havien aposentat en el seu pis («Nosaltres també en som sis?», pensà Vasile)... Finalment, un jove proclamava en veu alta, davant les càmeres: Son de otro planeta. Y luego nos llaman racistas!

Ileana, Vasile, Florin i Nadia no sortien del desconcert. «Veure per a creure! Els pobres protestant dels més pobres! Els immigrants exigint l’expulsió d’altres immigrants!» La guinda la va posar el regidor Xavier García Albiol —sí, el del lema No queremos rumanos— amb aquestes declaracions: «Badalona està pitjor que moltes ciutats de França. Allà, els gitanos viuen separats en campaments; ací, viuen mesclats entre nosaltres.» Definitivament, Vasile estava sumit en una gran confusió. «Doncs, no havíem quedat que érem ciutadans de la Unió Europea?», s’interrogava Ileana. «No ens diuen a l’escola que els gitanos s’han d’integrar?», es demanava bocabada la petita Mădălina.

That darn Toles! (continued)

Witches are your neighbors and acquaintances

Washington Post Saturday, September 25, 2010; A11

What is a witch? The Tea Party's Senate candidate in Delaware, Christine O'Donnell, said that she dabbled in witchcraft. Post columnist Richard Cohen ["Republicans, bewitched," op-ed, Sept. 21] and cartoonist Tom Toles [Sept. 21] commented on it. I wonder if either knows what a witch is? Is it the Hollywood version from "Snow White" or "The Wizard of Oz?" If not, then what?

A witch could be standing in line behind you at the checkout counter or sitting next to you on the Metro. And he or she probably does not cackle or have a wart on her nose or carry a broom. There are several thousand of them in America. They are hard to tell from Episcopalians or anyone else.

If The Post is going to write about them, perhaps you should invite one or two to talk to your staff to provide some background and answer questions.

John B. Holway, Springfield

El preu

Imaginem que només hi ha un poeta al món.
Imaginem que el poeta és vosté;
sí, vosté.

Quina seria la primera paraula que escriuria?

Audio online for Graphic Content: A Conversation with Five DC Area Graphic Storytellers

I'm afraid I gave up on waiting for the DC Public Library to post the audio for this and have put it up on the Internet Archive.

Graphic Content: A Conversation with Five DC Area Graphic Storytellers

A panel discussion with local talent on creating comics, cartoons and graphic novels in the D.C. area. The panelists are Ben Claassen (DIRTFARM), Andrew Cohen (DC Conspiracy/Trickster), SL Gallant (DC/Marvel/IDW), Evan Keeling (DC Conspiracy/Trickster), and Matt Wuerker (Politico). The talk will be moderated by Washington City Paper's Mike Rhode. Sponsored by the DC Public Library, Northwest One Neighborhood Library, 155 L St, NW @ New Jersey Avenue, Washington, DC.

2nd local editorial on Molly Norris and Draw Mohammad Day

The Satanic toonist? Molly Norris is in hiding. Why?
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star 9/24/2010

Comic Riffs on Draw Mohammad Day and Muslims

MOLLY NORRIS UPDATE: American Muslim petition defends 'Draw Muhammad Day' cartoonist
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 24, 2010

Lynn Brudon's World War 2 malaria posters

Here's all 12 of Lynn Brudon's World War 2 anti-malaria posters that I was able to find in the National Museum of Health and Medicine's photo collections.



Malaria prevention. Charts. "Why bother to send out invitation. Sloppy Joe cordially invites you. Unhappy mess call. Hiroskito in person. Honorable down beat. Most unworthy bunion. Prevent malaria shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Cartoon, Mosquitoes. Insect pests, Control. Sanitation. Preventive medicine, Propaganda.] Reeve 88456-1



Malaria prevention. Charts. "Presenting tonight and every night. 'The 4 Freedoms From Malaria.' Featuring the Soldiers Chorus. Better than Faust. Prevent Malaria! Shorten the war! All star cast. Repellent, atabrine, malaria, d.d.t.[Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane?], bed net. Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.][Propaganda.] REEVE 088546-2



Malaria prevention. Charts. "Don't be a damn fool. You wouldn't bed down with a boa or slug it out with a sling shot. Why hang out your old caboose for bayonet practice? Hiroskito. Prevent malaria! Shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.] [Propaganda.] REEVE 088546-3



Malaria prevention. Charts. "G.I bedtime story. Control malaria. Shorten the war. Bug heaven, here comes Hiroskito. Damn that d.d.t.[Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane] Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.] [Propaganda. Cartoon by Lynn Brudon.] REEVE 088546-4



Malaria prevention. Charts. "Sloppy Joe 'You can't fool him - he's too ignorant.' Don't bathe outdoors after dark. Hiroskito. Honorable blood bank. Prevent malaria! Shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.][Propaganda.] REEVE 088546-5



Malaria prevention. Charts. "Hiroskito speaking. Japan expects every saboteur to do his duty. Are you listnin [listening]? Brave American soldier are not care damn for chills and fever. Never mind do strong Japanese. Let honorable buddy do all the work. Take your atabrine. Keep on your feet! A man on his back can't fight. Prevent malaria! Shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.][Propaganda.] REEVE 088546-6



Malaria prevention. Charts. "When the Japs stole the world's supply of quinine they were sure of a successful jungle war with malaria fighting on their side. But you can help the Mikado bite his nails! Take a tablet of atabrine every day... It's the ace in the hole the Japs forgot. Prevent malaria! Shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.] [Propaganda.] REEVE 088546-7



Malaria prevention. Charts. "Some things are hard to understand. For instance, the Japanese train of thought and their big idea of world domination, all those cabinets they keep forming that fall apart, and the G.I who scoffs at necessary precautions to prevent malaria! Shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.] REEVE 088546-8



Malaria prevention. Charts. "Atabrine. Commando of the blood stream. He can only do his duty if you do yours. Ignorant rumors about atabrine are as groundless as Jap propaganda. Don't leave a gap in the line by refusing to cooperate! Prevent malaria! Shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.][Propaganda.] REEVE 088546-9



Malaria prevention. Charts. "Sure it makes a difference. Prevent malaria! Shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Mosquitoes. Insect pests, Control. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.][Propaganda.] REEVE 088546-10



Malaria prevention. Charts. "The champ. Keep fit! Take atabrine daily... malaria is no match for this heavyweight! Prevent malaria! Shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist]." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.][Propaganda.] REEVE 088546-11



Malaria prevention. Charts. "Sloppy Joe. One man army in his own mind. Now retired. Prevent malaria! Shorten the war! Lynn Brudon [artist], 1945." [Posters. Illustration. Insect pests, Control. Mosquitoes. Sanitation. Preventive medicine.][Propaganda.] REEVE 088546-12

Coming Monday - a big Ted Rall interview

I interviewed Ted Rall last night for the Washington City Paper, about his new book, An Anti-American Manifesto. The interview should run at the City Paper on Monday morning and you can read Ted's statements like, "I would say that I'm an idealist, and anyone who's not an idealist is a bad citizen."

 

Then you can go to Busboys and Poets on 14th and V St, NW at 6:30 pm (September 27th) and debate him. Fun for all!

Oct 3 Capicons Comics Show

 Please note the DC-area talent we have scheduled to join us, including 2010 Lulu Nominee Carolyn Belefski, Matt Dembicki and members of DC Conspiracy.

......
Capicons Comic Book & Pop Culture Con
Sun, Oct. 3, 2010
10 am - 3 pm

Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Hall, 2148 Gallows Rd, Dunn Loring, Virginia

Admission $3 - Kids FREE!
FREE Admission for those in Costume (Costume Contest at 1 PM)

Open to the public from 10 am - 3 pm. Buy, sell & trade: Gold, Silver, Bronze Age comics; Indie & Modern comics, Publishers & Creators, TV & Movie Collectibles. Non-sport cards; Videos & DVDs; Horror/Sci-Fi; figures, toys; Star Wars & Star Trek memorabilia; original artwork, posters and other comic-related collectibles.

FEATURING:
2010 Lulu Nominee Carolyn Belefski, Curls Studio
Matt Dembicki, Artist/Publisher and Editor of Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection
D.C. Conspiracy--a collective of DC comic creators, writers, publishers & artists

Directions to DLVFRD: Take I-495 (DC/Capital Beltway) to Exit 47A (Rt. 7 West). Go 1/2 Mile, Left on Gallows Rd. 1 mile to 2148 Gallows Rd.

--
Laura Daugherty
Capicons
PO Box 2488
Merrifield, VA 22116
http://capicons.com

Lauren Affe, comic book colorist in DC

My co-blogger Randy T just sent me a link to the blog of Lauren Affe, a comic book colorist in DC. The redhead is a GI Joe cover (lifted from her blog) that's she's colored. She's also worked on the book A Friendly Game, out now from SLG.

9 ispirazioni + 1 plagio totale di Inception

Chi pensa di essere originale dimostra solo di non conoscere sufficientemente bene ciò che c'è stato prima di sè. Christopher Nolan l'ha ammesso da più parti che in Inception sono confluite molte fonti di ispirazione diverse, molte cose che ha amato e che lo hanno colpito. Eppure il gioco artistico e concettuale messo in piedi dal regista di Il Cavaliere Oscuro è talmente complesso, ben organizzato e affascinante, che alla fine i riferimenti a ciò che è stato già fatto nel campo dell'arte e della rappresentazione dei sogni, sono molti di più di quanti lo stesso regista riesca ad ammettere. Come James Cameron con Avatar, anche Christopher Nolan è riuscito a operare una fusione perfetta di diverse mitologie, simboli e idee della cultura pop moderna, unendo in un unico universo le suggestioni degli ultimi anni. Noi abbiamo individuato 10 fonti più o meno esplicite (senza mai assolutamente fare spoiler!), consci che il bagaglio del film non si esaurisce certo qui. Vi sfidiamo a fare di più.

continua su Wired.it

Comics Creators at the 2010 National Book Festival

This is tomorrow, so make your plans now.

Comics Creators at the 2010 National Book Festival

Posted by Mike Rhode on Sep. 24, 2010

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2010/09/24/comics-creators-at-the-2010-national-book-festival/

Comic Riffs on DC's partial LA move

PUTTING THE 'L.A.' in 'JLA': How might DC superheroes fare in their new California digs?
By Michael Cavna 
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 23, 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/09/putting_the_la_in_jla_how_migh.html

Noted animated historian Charles Solomon likes Cul de Sac

Book review: 'Cul de Sac Golden Treasury'
Richard Thompson manages to preserve a little kid's sense of wonder and fear and mischief in his delightfully quirky comic strip.
By Charles Solomon Special to the Los Angeles Times September 26, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-cul-de-sac-20100926,0,5377445.story

Imagery Update - Week of September 20th

Our latest imagery update is now live and ready for your viewing pleasure. This time around we’ve included high-resolution imagery of locations from more than one hundred countries! Check out some of my favorites from our latest batch below:

The Fountain of Diana the Huntress, one of the most representative sculptures of Mexican art, and main parade route location for the recent bicentennial celebration in Mexico City, Mexico.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

The recently completed Raleigh Convention Center and site of this weekend’s Mojo Musical Supply Southeastern Guitar & Amp Show in Raleigh, North Carolina. Turn it up to 11!

High Resolution Aerial Updates:
USA: Cincinnati, Denver, Greensboro, Raleigh, Miami, Monterey (CA), Portland (OR), San Diego, San Francisco, Sioux Falls (SD)
Mexico: Mexico City
Brazil: Rio De Jeaneiro
Sweden: Skara

Countries receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:
Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, People's Republic of the Congo, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

These updates are currently only available in Google Earth, but they'll also be in Google Maps soon. To get a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.

Posted by Eric Kolb, Geo Data Strategist