I was surprised like many of you that Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize so early in his tenure as the president. Hopefully he will live up to the expectations of the Nobel committee and they won’t be disappointed.

On our ongoing military operations in Asia, I am concerned that our current approach in Afghanistan is not working very well. This may have the effect of discouraging Congress from continuing our progress in the region, which in my opinion would be bad. Pakistan is becoming increasingly volatile, and that country — with its nuclear weapons — is a powder keg waiting to explode.

Last week was a reasonably routine one for me. I had an interesting meeting on Tuesday with Jack White, the former head of an investment fund here in La Jolla that is currently interested in China. Over the last few years they have made a series of investments in Chinese industries. I am a small investor in one of his funds. The fund is making slow but sure progress despite being perturbed by the financial situation in the United States and the rest of the world. All in all I’m satisfied, and look forward to further success.

We took the boat to Oceanside on Friday, but did not do any ocean sampling this time for Craig Venter. We will begin our sampling program in earnest later this month.

– Bob