Following in the Elven footsteps of Google Earth, “the globe that fits inside your PC”, comes Google Middle Earth, the new lord of the satellite imagery-based mapping products. Google Middle Earth is a free, full-featured download that lets you explore the topographical majesty of the lands of Gondor, Rohan, and Mordor. Google Middle Earth’s impressive geographic mapping software is definitely the one product to rule them all. [More]

Just a note to say that this is a joke, sadly there is no Google Middle-earth -Xo

From the Oneclick website: To help launch King Kong the game, Natalie got to chat with Philippa Boyens, screenwriter on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and King Kong the movie – and also the woman responsible for the drama of this game. Philippa works side by side with director Peter Jackson and his wife/creative partner Fran Walsh on all these projects and road-tested King Kong’s gaming action on set in New Zealand – she also let slip she listened to Radio 1 when she was based in the UK doing post-production on Return of the King. [More]

DeeDee writes: I just got my new issue of Giant magazine yesterday, and it features Andy Serkis as #10 in the “50 most important people and trends in entertainment right now.” [More]

Sûlien writes: This has little to do with Tolkien, except for the fact that he loved trees and forests. However, I think many in the Tolkien community will find this of interest! Apparently, logging rights for some areas of giant sequoias in the Giant Sequioa National Monument were sold before the monument status took effect. A judge has placed a temporary injunction stopping the logging, but it is only a matter of time before the Forest Service and the logging companies try to overturn this. [More]