The Year in Review

The first lesson to be drawn from the year 2007 is quite simple: nobody want to know you when you are offline.

I spent most of last week in a distressed state following failure to connect ot the Internet for a variety of reasons which I can't bring myself to go over here. But it did bring home to me just how dependent we are today not just on the computer but also on the web. Without it, life as we know it, and certainly in our time, comes to a screeching halt. The halt is particularly screeching if, as in my case, you depend on the net to earn your living (otherwise it's merely an out and out case of addiction, to be dealt with in the normal way). (Incidentally, if you are an evil person intent on inflicting the maximum amount of damage on the western economy, may I respectfully suggest that you take enemy action against Cisco and, while you're at it, bomb the data farms of Google and Microsoft into smithereens? I know I shouldn't be putting these ideas into people's heads, but on the other hand nobody reads this blog anyway...)

As for the year in review, I'm afraid this is going to be a very puny thing, as work seems to require an ever greater commitment from my rapidly diminishing brain (sorry Julia!). But basically it's been a very good year, hasn't it?

• After a rather shaky start, global warming seems here to stay, so that's one thing less to worry about.
• Both Time Magazine and I agree on the Man of the Year - Vladimir Putin - though perhaps not for quite the same reasons. Mr P gets my vote on the strength of his extraordinary 150 press-ups before breakfast. I don't think George Bush, with his rather forlorn mountain-bike search for brush wood, really hacks it. But I think Mr P could do something about his suits as his strenuous body-building efforts give him a vague and wholly inappropriate Mafiosi look.
• The threat to our livelihoods from China and India has completely fizzled out, and we can now look forward to several more years of unfettered prosperity.
• It's all systems go on the economic front, with growth in excess of 0% confidently predicted on all fronts