The G20 summit was still in session in Washington, D.C., as I came out through Reagan National Airport.  Had to fly to Detroit before heading across to London, but trip made widly worth while by conversation on the plane with Alicia Diaz, a lawyer, who I started talking to because she had a copy of David McCulloch's wonderful biography of John Adams.  I continue to work my way through Mrs Lincoln, which I am enjoying hugely.... more >

Knock, knock
65 years ago, I would have had the FBI at my door

Flew into Washington, DC, earlier today - having come via Detroit.  The taxi driver from Ronald Reagan/National Airport proved to be a delightful Palestinian, born in Jerusalem in 1959, the only year I ever visited that beautiful, blighted city.  ... more >

Jet-lag, cataracts and tinnitus
The body protests

Having always said that I don't get jet-lag, the latest trip has had me on my knees, almost.  Maybe it was the combination of the travel with having to prepare presentations as I went, but it's also possible that I've managed to delude myself all these years - a matter of mind over matter, as I have often said. Perhaps, too, it has been the additional strain of the cataracts I have been nurturing for a while, with the left eye now fairly blurred, and of the tinnitus that affects both ears - and is like a receiver left open to the distant radio signals of the galaxy.  Perhaps something significant will come through at some point?  I live in hope.... more >

Crichton, Picard & Terkel

That may sound like a law firm, but it isn't.  Wading through the cuttings Elaine had done for me while I was doing my around-the-world-in-around-8-days trip, I came across three obituaries that struck home.  One was of a writer whose work I sometimes enjoyed, but whose views on environmentalism I found uncomfortably Bushian.  Michael Crichton first came to fame with The Andromeda Strain, published in 1969, was based on a threat that returned with a space probe to Earth.  Many of his books had to do with the sort of issues that environmentalists tend to raise, from the side-effects of genetic engineering to those of nanoscience, but he surely didn't like environmentalists.... more >

44
And so it came to pass

Extraordinary day spent at annual Environmental Advisory Meeting of Nissan, with many of the top brass in attendance, but with we visitors - and many of the younger Nissan people - barely able to keep our minds off the results of the US election.  Cell phones and laptops were being passed around at various junctures, with people debating the signifciance of the mapped results.  When the news finally went solid, there was applause across the room, twice. ... more >

Excuse us while we reboot the plane
Dreamliner almost becomes a Nightmareliner

[NOTE: I thought this was a Dreamliner already, but subsequently found that the Dreamliner hasn't been launched yet ...]... more >

In a Washington state

Feeling utterly exhausted after flying in to San Francisco a few days back for a session with Physic Ventures - and then heading on up to Seattle for a session yesterday with Microsoft.  I kicked off a special session of the Microsoft US CIO Summit, focusing on green IT.  Today I only briefly ventured out of my hotel In Bellevue to visit the nearby Apple Store, which Chris Guenther (who was with me at Microsoft) had pinpointed for me.  Had scallops when he and I had dinner last night - and have had an attack of food poisoning today. ... more >