Maybe if we ask really nicely they won't blow us up or cut our heads off.

Jimmy Carter to meet with Hamas

Sometimes when we sojourn through the Objectivist world, it's easy to forget that Objectivism is a radical achievement by a genius who put no life before her own.

I hope everyone is doing well and my best wishes on a terrific 2008!

Jim

I'm a lucky guy! I was just thinking about my wonderful family tonight! Here's a cool picture from last New Years' celenration of my brother, my wife and yours truly .

I just got a notice that my new manager must give permission to keep my old factory computer accounts active. Sarabnes-Oxley legislation mandates that all corporate computer accounts must be audited quarterly. i wonder what else is in there that I don't know about.

There is exciting new research in mammalian metabolism. Hydrogen sulfide has been used by researchers induce a state of hibernation in mice and pigs and then revive them. This avenue of research has tremendous promise in critical care. Possible future treatments have tremendous potential effects on critical care. A company called Ikaria is specializing in gas-induced anesthesia and metabolic treatments. These therapies if developed could usher a new era in critical care where patients with high blood loss can be saved through induced metabolic hibernation.

Dilbert

Here's a nice, funny, personal joint interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

Jim

I'm just starting out on another semiconductor startup so my participation for the next several months on this and other forums will be sporadic. Good luck to everyone in the meantime and good premises!

Sometimes when we sojourn through the Objectivist world, it's easy to forget that Objectivism is a radical achievement by a genius who put no life before her own. You see internecine squabbles between people loyal to this group or that. You see people spend their lives worrying about others' peccadillos and personality faults. I shake my head sometimes because that is not the stuff of greatness.

Hugo Chavez has just shut down the main opposition TV station. He has been consolidating power bit by bit and this is just the latest egregious step in the process.

Chavez

I've just finished applying for a new engineering job in Intel's Fab in Dalian, China. We would be making chipsets for next generation processors. This is a greenfield factory and will be an enormous undertaking. Start date would be 1-2 years from now. Anyway, it will be exciting if it works out !

My brother works in factory capacity planning so he's going to end up in either Sacramento, California or Milan Italy. Either way it'll be a great place to visit, fly-fishing in the Sierras or visiting Italy .I've been lucky to be able to spend 4 years of my working life in the same town as my brother. I'm going to miss that.

Last night I spent 4 hours at Gunther Van Hagens' Body Worlds exhibit at Phoenix's Science Center. Van Hagens has perfected a plastination process. There were anatomically dissected bodies in various different poses and the amazing clarity of detail achieved with the internal organs, blood vessels and nervous system was phenomenal. They also had preserved collections of embryos during every stage of development. An awe-inspiring, enlightening evening. If Body Worlds comes to your city, don't miss a chance to see it!

A revolution is happening in corporate boardrooms that rivals the the LBO's and junk bond financial innovation of the 1980's. With the $17 billion buyout of Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola's semiconductor unit) and the recent $7 billion buyout of Chrysler, the heyday of private equity is in full swing. Expect that greater value will be unlocked from companies disgorging money-losing units to be restructured by private equity outfits.

I could give all to Time except--except
What I myself have held. But why declare
The things forbidden that while the Customs slept
I have crossed to Safety with? For I am There
And what I would not part with I have kept.

Now the stakes of the Peikoff fatwa are becoming clear. Rudy Giuliani is vaulting out of the pack and is well-placed to become the first pro-choice Republican nominee since the 1970's. This, all the while, when theocracy is supposedly looming. This just points up the DIM-witted attempts of many orthodox Objectivists to be too clever by half. We need a strong US President who will stand up to terrorists and Islamofascists. I believe Rudy Giuliani is that man.

Scientists are now working on ways to repair blood vessels with stem cells pointing to a myriad of possible medical applications.

Stem Cell Research

Magnificent!

Nebulae

Jim

Giuliani was the only Republican candidate who acknowledged that a woman should have the right to choose. Although he did not give a spirited defense of Roe v. Wade, he was alone among Republicans in giving some nod to women's reproductive rights.

Last weekend, my wife and I bought a new car. Right after tax time you can get some good bargains from people who don't realize how big their tax bill is going to be. Well we got a great deal on a Honda Accord VP with only 38 miles on it for $1500 less than the original owner paid. Income taxes suck, but sometimes you can make the best of a bad situation.

Finally, a reasonable Supreme Court decision against our runaway civil law system

Supreme Court Decision

Business Week

In a week and a half, I take on my new job: helping start up the Intel Arizona site on 45 nm technology that will power Intel's Core Duo and Quad Core Processors. I can't wait!!

Jim

I just got back from an unforgettable experience. My wife, brother and I drove down to Kitt Peak National Observatory for a night under the stars. Amazing!! The Orion Nebula, Spiral Galaxies, globular star clusters and the company of a bunch of cool people from the MIT Alumni Club. Who could ask for anything more .

Excellent article on what makes Silicon Valley tick.

Silicon Valley Still #1

I really love going to work every day. I have a great group of people to work with, I'm in a niche that makes maximum use of my capabilities, I work 35 hours a week and we get great performance. Intel has a terrific culture for manufacturing excellence and an explicit set of codified values:

Semiconductor companies have now made transistors so small that the gate oxide(the insulator between the gate where the voltage is applied and the channel of the transistor) is only about 5 molecules thick. Now, new materials are being used to prevent current from leaking from the gate to the semiconductor channel. This migration to new high-K materials is the first fundamental change in transistor materials since the 1960's and the most exciting thing in cutting edge semiconductors since copper replaced aluminum in chip interconnects. IBM and Intel made separate announcements of their own development of high-K materials.

Intel forges closer to practical silicon photonics by demonstrating the world's fastest silicon modulator. On the heels of Intel's 2005 demonstration of a silicon-based laser, this milestone is a big step in the development of silicon-based optical interconnect.

IBM models new 3D internet as a beacon to the future:

Second Life Evolution

Jim