I have been following the upcoming mid-term elections with great interest. To be honest, I’m not particularly impressed with any of the stories that are being told. I’m sure that the people on the tickets are generally good people, but the stories that both the Republicans and Democrats are telling don’t sound that different to me.

The Democrats seem to be moving away from some of their more progressive policies and are starting to jump onto the low-tax small-government bandwagon that the Republicans and Tea Party members have been promoting this year. The pundits seem to be leaning to the Republicans taking back the House of Representatives. The Senate seems unlikely at this point. I can’t tell one way or the other. I do know that I am going to vote for Meg Whitman for governor of California and Carly Fiorina for senator.

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Mary Ann and Betty have been on a trip to the East Coast this past week. They have made stops in Boston, New York City, and Washington D.C. While in Boston, Mary Ann had business with MIT, and she and Betty also spent time sightseeing.

In New York City, Mary Ann joined Aspen Institute and EOF in acknowledging two PhD candidates on their dissertations regarding Shared Capitalism Through Employee Ownership. I didn’t have any business in those cities, so I stayed home this time.

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Last Friday we had an ocean-sampling expedition with the Venter Institute team. They have two places in the ocean off San Diego where they take samples every month looking for new species of algae. The hope is to find new sources of biofuels among these algae.

We headed out to the ocean and took our first round of samples, then motored up to Oceanside for lunch at the Jolly Roger. We then took a second round of samples on the return trip home.

– Bob