Filed under: Humor, NASA, Science, Space, tech | Tags: blogging, GRAIL, humor, jim downey, Moon, NASA, science, space, technology, video
I love the sense of humor:
GRAIL’s Gravity Tour of the Moon
This movie shows the variations in the lunar gravity field as measured by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) during the primary mapping mission from March to May 2012. Very precise microwave measurements between two spacecraft, named Ebb and Flow, were used to map gravity with high precision and high spatial resolution.
There’s more, including images and vid, at the link.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Book Conservation, Music, U of Iowa Ctr for the Book, YouTube | Tags: blogging, book conservation, bookbinding, jim downey, Kozo, music, Reemay, The Beatles
Just a quick follow-up to my post about the incunable legal text.
After spending most of last week cleaning up the edges of the sheets, I’ve been working on re-joining the folios. The trick with this is to make sure all the pages wind up being the same size when they’re folded and ready to be sewn — because I don’t want to trim the text block to get a clean fore-edge.
The solution is to make up a simple jig on my workbench:
Lines drawn on the benchtop, some bookboard mounted to the edge. This will help me keep everything the right size and aligned correctly.
Down the center is some Reemay polyester fabric, which will not adhere to the Kozo repair strips.
The book originally had sections of four folios (folded sheets) per section. I can tell this because of the printing conventions of the time, which had a small counter at the bottom of each page indicating where it went in the book. Very handy. For my work, I only need to rejoin the innermost pair of sheets from each section — then the other sheets will be attached to that new center folio. This will keep everything positioned correctly, and make for a strong sewing structure.
Here’s a pic showing the positioning of a pair of sheets:
Notice the gap in the center.
And here’s one with a shot of the Kozo repair strip applied. It’s a heavyweight Kozo (Japanese ‘mulberry’ paper), with a strong wheatpaste applied. Makes a great repair, but is completely reversible with a little water if anyone needs to re-do my repairs later. See:
The next step is to iron the strip down with a small tacking iron on moderate heat. This is done with another layer of Reemay between the iron and the Kozo. This gives a clean, flat edge to mount the other sheets.
Which will be my next step.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, humor, jim downey, Kickstarter, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction
A couple weeks ago, I wrote this:
If I wanted to, I could actually bind the book so as to read ‘backwards’ like a Hebrew Bible, though the page numbers are all in the wrong location for that.
I must admit, I’m tempted, just for giggles.
And as I posted yesterday, I gave in to the temptation. Yup, I made a ‘backwards book’, one which has the spine on the right side, and in which you turn the pages from left to right. And I’m going to make a few more.
Why? Well, for the fun of it, mostly. But also because when things like this happen, I’ve learned to roll with it. It’s like a little surprise, something special the universe gives you — serendipitous art.
And for some people, such things are quite collectible. Think of philately or numismatics, where errors of one sort or another make for highly-valued stamps and coins.
Errors are part of the handmade process. In this case, the error wasn’t mine, but came from the printer. Whoever set up the print run managed to load the pages backwards, and in the process opened an unexpected door.
Now, this isn’t something that appeals to a lot of people. So I’m only going to make 15 of these books — thirteen ‘lettered’ copies (A – M), and two artist’s/author’s proofs, all covered in book cloth as shown. Those who have opted to get one of the “archive” sets will have it included in the set at no additional charge as long as the copies last. Others may opt to buy a single copy for $150.00. But there are only 13 copies, and of those four are already reserved. Meaning that there are only nine remaining, and are first-come, first served.
So, there ya go.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What follows is a little photo-essay showing the process by which I bound the first book (and will bind the rest). This will also be the same process for binding the ‘normal’ hardcover cloth edition.
Sheets gathered into sections, then folded.
Sections punched for sewing.
Starting the sewing onto linen tapes.
Sewing complete.
Text block trimmed, ready for adhesive & spine liners.
Gluing up the text block.
Checking fit of the boards.
Making the cloth-bound case (hardcover).
Case done, checking fit with text block.
Cover sheet next to case.
Me cutting the cover sheet to size.
Cutting the cover sheet – this is how it would normally be laid out for a conventional book.
Re-arranging the cover for this ‘backwards’ book.
Cover completed.
It’s a backwards book!
Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Science Fiction
Remember how I said that I was “Tempted”?
Well, have a sneak peek at what I just finished:
It’s a backwards book!
I’ll have a full post, along with a lot of images of making the book, up later today or tomorrow.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing | Tags: Amazon, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Kindle, promotion
Just a quick note — as part of a holiday promotion to get people to buy Kindle devices, Amazon is giving authors who participate in the Kindle Select program a bonus for each of their books which is ‘borrowed’ through the Amazon Prime program. Basically, they’re doubling the payment authors get — meaning that many authors will make more off such a borrowing than they would off of an outright sale.
So, *if* you have a Kindle device, and *if* you have Amazon Prime, be sure to “borrow” a book this month from your favorite author — it costs you nothing extra, and means a nice payment to them.
Jim Downey
PS: I hope to have some interesting pics and a bit of news in a couple of days — watch this space! Better yet, subscribe/follow!
Filed under: Art, NPR, Science, Science Fiction, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: anamorphosis, art, blogging, Brusspup, jim downey, NPR, perspective, Robert Krulwich, science, Science Fiction, video, writing, www youtube
This is not unlike the tricks that a good story-teller uses, though manifest in a brilliant visual form:
From NPR’s Robert Krulwich, who has this to say:
These illusions were created by an artist who calls himself Brusspup.What he does is an exercise in anamorphosis, a conjuring trick that takes advantage of how our brains make sense of the world. If you know how, you can create an image which makes no sense until the viewer happens onto a particular — and it’s a very particular — spot. Once the viewer finds the right angle — the only place where he or she can see what the artist intended — suddenly, boom!- the drawing leaps into three dimensions.
Getting a reader to that precise point of view in a novel is the hard part. Willing suspension of disbelief is a kindness all readers give any author.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Writing stuff | Tags: blogging, Communion of Dreams, jim downey, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, writing
Interesting. I noticed this morning that a shift has occurred in my thinking about St. Cybi’s Well over the last day or two. Oh, I’m still thinking about plotting and scenes, but now I find myself increasing working through bits of dialogue. *How* one character or another would phrase something, how the pattern of sounds with another would play out.
Meaning that I’m reaching some kind of saturation point, the moment when things, er, “gel”.*
And meaning, based on my previous experience, that I’m about to shift from spending the majority of my energy from making notes/plans/plots to actually constructing sentences and paragraphs, perhaps even chapters.
Interesting.
Jim Downey
(*Those who have read Communion of Dreams will get the joke. If you haven’t — why the hell not?)
Filed under: Health, Science Fiction | Tags: Bene Gesserit, blogging, Dune, Frank Herbert, health, jim downey, pain, Science Fiction
There is no pain.
Pain is the mind-killer.
Pain is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my pain.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the pain has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
Jim Downey
*With apologies to Frank Herbert, for all my friends who suffer chronic pain of any sort.
Filed under: Augmented Reality, Expert systems, Predictions, Privacy, Science Fiction, Society, tech | Tags: augmented reality, blogging, jim downey, photography, predictions, Science Fiction, technology
In something of a follow-up/companion piece to my earlier post about FaceWatch, I offer this:
Porn companies adopt facial-recognition technology, encourage Instagram photos
Two porn companies are courting web surfers to upload photos they find online to the companies’ free facial-recognition, face-matching database services.
With SexFaceFinder.com and Naughty America’s “Face” anyone can upload an image and have the services match it with images and faces in image databases.
SexFaceFinder positions its service as a way for users to find a performer that looks like a specific person.
Not only does this have the potential to be a privacy nightmare … eeew. Just … eeew.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Civil Rights, Connections, General Musings, Government, Predictions, Privacy, RFID, Science, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Travel, Writing stuff | Tags: blogging, cell phone, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, predictions, privacy, science, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, technology, tracking, travel
So, as I am constantly blathering about, I’m spending a lot of time thinking through various aspects of St. Cybi’s Well. Things like characters, plotting, fitting in the storyline with what is already established in Communion of Dreams (while still making sure that the book can stand on its own, without someone having read Communion). Well, one of those things concerns an instance where someone wants to not be readily located. Which is a little harder in today’s world than most people realize, given two things: general surveillance, and the homing-device you’re probably carrying in your pocket.
Yeah, I’m talking about your cell phone/mobile device/tablet. Anything which can connect to a cell network or GPS is probably also capable of being used to track you. And chances are, it will do so even if it is ostensibly “turned off.” About the only good way to be certain to stop this use is to pull the battery out of the thing.
And that’s a PITA, if you want to be able to actually use it without a delay and hassle of installing the battery then booting the thing up.
So the other day I sent a note to a good buddy of mine who has a lot more physics/technical knowledge than I do:
Second, a thought I had: since privacy is a concern, and your cell phone is a tracking device even when ‘off’ (but it’s a hassle to have to pull out the battery and then reboot the damned thing if you need it), why not go with a simple solution to isolate it? To wit: turn the phone off (or put it into ‘airplane mode’), drop it into a small Faraday cage. Just a simple bag or wallet with the right construction would do it. I know there are such things for use with passports/credit cards (I use a wallet for such when traveling overseas), so why not just extend the design a bit to accommodate a phone/tablet?
I got back a response which indicated that it should work, though you may need to tweak the construction specifics to be sure to block out the proper wavelengths most effectively.
And today, just for grins, I went to look for something like this. Guess what I found, which is just now available (actually, it won’t ship for a couple weeks):
Go Completely Off the GridThis cleverly designed, superslim pouch for your wallet and phone blocks transmissions, as well as cell-tower and GPS tracking, and protects personal information from RFID readers. Ripstop nylon. Imported.
Bingo. Like an invisibility cloak for your phone.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 