The Blog of Rob

This weekend I've been reading Jennifer Government by Max Barry, a satirical look at a near future world dominated by free markets and corporate greed. It was a highly entertaining and not overly heavy way to pass the time, the main characters were engaging and the plot was gripping enough to keep things moving along. Overall a recommended read. I should add, the only reason I bought the book was because I started playing Max's online game - Nation States - a few months ago, a cunning marketing strategy by the authour I think.

I read this phrase quite a lot in the last week. I don't think it really means what people who're saying think it means, though. Is the world really more uncertain than it was, say, 90 years ago? Not really (and you know I picked that particular figure because it landed right in the middle of WWI), with advances across all areas of life people (in this country) now live longer and have far better medical support than they did then. Communication has improved to the level where the speed of light is the principal limit to how fast you can find out what is going on elsewhere in the world - there is more certainty now than there has ever been in the past. the problem is that what has replaced ignorance is the certainty that there are many things and people around the world that can threaten us.

Not posted for a while, not that anyone's reading, but just to keep things ticking over I thought I'd mention that I've been thoroughly enjoying listening to Manda and the Marbles recently. Sort of like a smoother Transvision Vamp, I downloaded the whole album from Emusic.com.