Miscellaneous

@MartineBotany posted this tweet earlier today.

All I can say is “Thank you for the kind words. I have been fortunate to be associated with many talented young scientists. They make me look much more talented than I really am.”

I wish my countrymen to consider, that whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it. A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length even become the laughing-stock of the world.

Today is election day in the United States. The polls opened in Connecticut 2 hours ago, and there was a long line at my polling place by the time I arrived at 6:15.

If you are a registered voter and you aren’t one of the 41 million who have already cast a ballot in early voting, please vote today. If you don’t know where to vote, the League of Women Voters Education Fund has compiled information on the location of polling places at Vote411.org. All you need to do is put in your home address, and you’ll get a street address, hours of operation, and a Google map showing where to go. In addition to the Presidential race, there are important state and local races around the country. Please take the time to make your voice heard. Representative government works only if we select representatives who reflect our values. Voting is how we express those values.

Duarte Design Halloween competition

It’s Halloween, and that means it’s time for the annual Duarte Design Halloween design competition. (Click on the image above to see all of the designs and to vote for your favorite.) According to the website, the winner will be announced at 1:00pm. (Presumably that is 1:00pm Pacific Daylight Time. PDT is UTC-7.) I don’t know how long voting is open, but you’ll clearly need to vote before then for your vote to count.

I didn’t vote for the design at the left. I voted for one called “The Race.” I think it’s very creative, but it is slightly risque, and since this site is on a university server, I didn’t think I should display that image here. You may not think it’s as clever as I do, but if you need a little fun this morning, head over to Duarte Design and check all of them out. If you’re there in time, vote for your favorite. If you’re not, just enjoy all of them (and see whether I picked a winner).

The PC on which darwin was running blew up a couple of weeks ago. I’m in the process of reconstructing what I can, but it’s going to take a while. I’m not likely to recover old posts. Sorry about that.