"Facts" about printing and book-design

Cory Doctorow 7:39 pm Sat May 24, 2003

Teresa Nielsen Hayden has innumerable likable qualities, but certainly one of her finest traits is her penchant for finding laughably misinformed information on the interweb and then gently, throughly and lovingly correcting it in a way that is funny enough to provoke milk-in-your-sinuses-and-on-your-keyboard laughter. In today's installment, she takes apart a webpage that "describes" how printing and book-design work.

They call themselves Back Yard Publisher, but I prefer the page's title tag: Publishing Your Manuescript. Their motto is good, too: Remember! There's A Publisher in You're Own Back Yard.

Most of their page is given over to explaining hitherto-unknown
Alternate Facts about book design, typography, and printing. For
instance:

In gravure printing the letters are etched
into a plate (usually Copper), then ink is forced into the letters,
scraped from the area around the letters and paper is forced onto the
ink at extremely high pressure. The ink is then transferred to the
paper. This is what the song "In Your Easter Bonnet" is all about.

You know– "In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it, / You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade …" Bet you never suspected.

Amazon used a China firm on U.S. blacklist for thermal cameras to monitor workers for COVID-19 fever

• Amazon's new Chinese thermal spycam vendor was blacklisted by U.S. over allegations it helped China detain and monitor Uighurs and other Muslim minorities READ THE REST
Financial Times journalist Mark Di Stefano accused of accessing private Zoom meetings, then publishing the information

Mark Di Stefano of the Financial Times is accused by The Independent of accessing private Zoom meetings held by The Independent and The Evening Standard as journalists were learning how… READ THE REST
Hackers tried to break into WHO, which faces more than two-fold increase in cyberattacks

Hackers tried to break into the World Health Organization earlier in March, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, Reuters reports. Security experts blame an advanced cyber-espionage hacker group known as DarkHotel.… READ THE REST
Short Post, just one paragraph

Dessert cheesecake wafer bear claw fruitcake. Fruitcake chupa chups donut candy canes marzipan. Apple pie sweet roll tart chocolate cake macaroon marshmallow carrot cake gummi bears sweet. Pastry sugar plum… READ THE REST
Save 50% on a 1-year subscription to Dashlane's premium password manager

We all know vital information about ourselves and our private digital accounts can be compromised by cybercriminals. However, many would be frightened to know just how compromised they and their… READ THE REST
The Bite Helper removes the itch of a mosquito bite in seconds

While mosquitoes have certainly earned their title as the deadliest animal on earth, their impact on most of our lives is usually a lot less consequential. But even though they… READ THE REST