I didn't realise it, but the Protocols was based on an otherwise unrelated older book: "Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu", written as an attack on Napoleon III. Since it involves lots of despicably evil muttering between the infernal duo, parts of it were reused by the author of the Protocols. Allegedly the minutes of a meeting of Jewish conspirators, the book has been an astonishingly successful anti-semitic hoax. The comic covers its history from "Dialogue in Hell" to the present day, with Eisner himself turning up at the end.

While it's well-drawn with flowing lines and nice characterization, I'm not sure comics are really the medium for it. Most of the pictures are just people talking in rooms, reciting a lot of as-you-know-Bob dialogue to set the scene. However, the side-by-side extracts from Dialogue and Protocols, with drawn-figures commenting beneath, work pretty well.

So, while it's interesting, informative and convincing, not really something to rush out and buy.

Wikipedia on the Protocols.

What I'm Re-Reading
The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian was the first Aubrey/Maturin book I read, back in 2003, shortly before I saw the movie. Definitely works a lot better when you know what's going on.

Maturin finally makes it South America after several books' worth of shipwreck and hardship and completely fails to achieve his mission after an apparent idiot sneaks ashore to out him. The irony of this wasn't apparent the first time. Has a couple of sea actions, and some decent naturalism.

Ealing Central Library
After two years and multiple delays, they've finally re-opened Ealing Central Library. Not as bad as I feared, though I think it's a little worse than the previous version. While they've reduced the floor space allocated to mere books, they don't seem to have cut the number much, cramming the shelves closer together instead. They've moved the Children's and Local History section downstairs into former adult-books space, and as threatened put in a mini-cafe. I've no idea why: there are several coffee shops in the Ealing Broadway Centre, and the private sector seems pretty effective in that sector.

They've crammed a kind of mezzanine floor in by lowering the ceiling in non-fiction: feels a bit claustrophobic now I can reach up and touch it, and it was unpleasantly hot. However, they have added a huge number of computer terminals and quite a bit of study space. There's a sealed-off "silent study" room too.

Best feature: they've put in self-checkout (and check-in) desks. You put your card under a bar-code reader and stick your books on a grey plate, which identifies them from the anti-theft RFID tag. There was still a slight queue, but it's nice to cut down on the human interaction.

What I'm Watching
Watched The Replacement Killers on TV, but wasn't really in the mood and couldn't really get into it. Liked the car-wash gunfight though.

MLP
YouTube: Sidewinder omnidirectional fork-lift truck .

This demented article was linked from marginal revolution the other day. It reminds me a bit of ladder theory: while it descends into ranting misogyny, I think there is a kernel of truth in the initial bit about women being "hypergamous" by inclination.

I think he's missing one obvious conclusion though. Female hypergamy can be pretty workable: every woman marries a man from a higher caste, and every man marries a woman from a lower caste. The only people who have a problem are women in the very highest caste, and men in the very lowest. Now tell me about your problem again...?