Nick Gibbins

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… Read More »Disparate gems

For those that haven’t seen them, there’s a truly inspired series of Photoshopped WWII propaganda posters doing the rounds – full resolution copies available in the slideshow (opens new window).

…and other such traditional Cockney songs (from a Hollywood perspective). Yes, we’re now within twenty-four hours of the wedding and a relatively mild-mannered chaos is reigning in Gark Towers, what with the large numbers of parents and friends within its walls. (what is the collective noun for parents? a good intention of parents?) Most of the stuff for the reception tomorrow has gone down to the Guildhall – all the table centres and drink – and the remainder has been dealt with (our fudge is, as they say, packed). Enough for now – more jobs to go and do.

I thought we’d had all the stress we were going to have about the wedding: histrionic relatives, cloth samples going astray, delays in clothes-making, cost overruns for drink, but… We just got confirmation from the council for our hire of the Guildhall on the 29th (for the reception) and the Assembly Rooms on the 28th (for the wedding itself). Several panicked phonecalls on ‘ part later, it turns out that the room hire department of the council had got it wrong, but that the Assembly Rooms had noticed the error, queried it, and had it corected. Not that anyone told… Read More »Wedding Stress, Part 583 of many

While casting about the web last night for information on the correct usage of the ‘long s’ in English typography of the 18th century (it’s for the wedding, naturally), I came across the website of the chap who designed the font I’ve been using for the wedding (which he has graciously made available as freeware – and it’s a good font as well!). Also on his website is a marvellous collection of 16th century jokes, which proves that most Christmas cracker jokes really are upwards of four hundred years old: A Passenger at sea feeling his stomacke rise, sayd to… Read More »Old, but still good

Students for an Orwellian Society (whose subtitle reads: “because 2002 is 18 years too late”) is an organisation that is dedicated to upholding the most basic principles of Ingsoc (“war is peace”, “freedom is slavery”, “ignorance is strength”), and to supporting GWB BB through a campaign of reporting thoughtcrime. This organisation is sure to help bring about a glorious victory for Oceania against the wretched Eurasia Eastasia. doubleplusgood. On a not unrelated note, the War Blogging site carries a wealth of information on Total Information Awareness.

I’ve been meaning to vent my spleen on this for a while. Those of you who are US citizens or who have an interest in privacy-related matters will probably have heard of the Information Awareness Office. For those that don’t fit either of the above categories, the IAO is a department of the US defence research agency (DARPA) that has been set up to investigate revolutionary techniques for analysing data to provide advanced warning of potential terrorist attacks, which they call Total Information Awareness. So far so good. What this means in practice, however, is that the fruits of this… Read More »Semiotics in action