Disparate gems

[nmg]

With the current world political climate being the way it is, I decided to go and cheer myself up by seeing if I could find a copy of that fine Thatcher-era public information pamphlet Protect and Survive, which told us how we were supposed to distract ourselves from the likelihood of dying a nasty lingering death from radiation sickness by constructing jerry-built shelters (sorry, "inner refuges") in our living rooms out of the back door and a few suitcases of earth. I was not disappointed:

You can also get a video of the accompanying public information film from Amazon, for the princely sum of £11.69. Good stuff.

On a rather different (but tangentially related) subject, I was rather galled to learn that there has been a protest against the name of the second Lord of the Rings film. To quote: "We believe that Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema's actions are in fact hate speech. The movie is intentionally being named The Two Towers in order to capitalize on the tragedy of September 11." You can't make stuff like that up...

Maybe JRR should have stuck with his original title - The Treason of Isengard.