Website Update and New Book

Previous visitors to this site will have noticed that we've updated it to coincide with the upcoming release of my second book: 'Embracing the Wide Sky - A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind'. You can read the synopsis and Publishers Weekly's starred review for the book here: http://www.optimnem.co.uk/book.php

I'll be posting regular chapter extracts here over the coming weeks on several of the main ideas/topics discussed in the book. A short promotional video is also in production and will appear here at the start of December.

America is Changing

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama! The Democrats have transformed the US's electoral landscape, winning in states such as Indiana and Virginia that have not voted blue in decades.

Impressive too is the list of states where the Democrats came remarkably close: Missouri (less than 6,000 votes separating the two candidates with 2.9 million ballots cast); Montana (50% McCain - 47% Obama); and Georgia (52% McCain - 47% Obama).

Elsewhere too, Obama's Democrats made impressive challenges on their opponents' home turf, such as in North and South Dakota (winning 45% in both - by way of contrast, Clinton won no more than 40% in ND back in 1996); Texas (44%); South Carolina (45%) and Arizona (45%). Several of these may well become swing states in four years time.