At least for the Metro Area, here. Can we claim the Ravens also?

The Biological Bulletin held its editorial board meeting again this year at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Meeting. It was great to see some excellent talks and sit down to talk about the journal with my colleagues on the Board. There were some really great ideas for future virtual symposia and the possibility of inviting more junior level scientists to join the board in some capacity.

Meanwhile, I’m impressed lately with United Airlines. They really seem to have turned a corner since the merger with Continental. Flights were on-time and the service was excellent.

He passed away today at 91…and yes, he remains one of my favorite jazz artists. Story, here.

Tomorrow is the day, America’s eternally optimistic holiday. We’re on break here at the Institute. In the meantime, I wish all of our readers the very happiest of holidays.

The Krasnow Institute did well during the Storm. And frankly Washington DC did well also. Our concerns go out to our scientific neighbors to the north, especially in New York City.

She’s remarkably asymmetric. But I’m told her wind field is absolutely enormous. Final preparations are complete here at the Institute–we’ll hope for the best. I’m expecting blogging challenges over the next week, depending on how wide spread the power outages are here in the DC area.

Natalie Angier’s piece is here. For the record, my favorite color is green.

Back from Seoul and Beijing–access to Blogger was not so easy from the latter.

Here’s the latest on the fiscal cliff scenario from ScienceInsider. The NIH and NSF cuts are breathtaking. But note the mention of DOD at the end:

The cuts would be somewhat deeper—9.4%—for defense research programs.

Not good…

I’m waiting for a meeting in my all time favorite part of the NIH campus in Bethesda: the slightly dive-like Clinical Center basement cafeteria (now food court).  It was the locus of many an intense conversation during my postdoctoral years here. In those days the food was foul, the cigarette smoke pungent, but the science talk was great!  Well the smoke is gone, but all the rest is  still here.  Here’s hoping that the NIH sees fit to preserve the black socks and sandals atmosphere long into the future.