There is something very luxurious about spending a weekend reading a book from cover to cover (in between watching the world cup, which is another story). This weekend just past was the rather enjoyable Parallel Lines by Ian Marchant a dialogue and discourse about the nations railways past and present.

The development of standard time in the middle of the nineteenth century is fascinating - created by the railway companies to agree on exact timings (the reasons for this in terms of running a railway should be obvious). Before this, different parts of the country had their own local time. In Bristol, there is still a clock which shows Bristol time and GMT.

So - the introduction of new technologies (in this instance the railways and steam trains) had a direct impact on the understanding, conceptualisation and measurement of time. Now however this continues. The development of always on digital networks (interconnected around the world) creates an always on culture. Except biologically we need to sleep and rest.