James and the Giant Corn Genetics: Studying the Source Code of Nature

It’s 1:30 in the morning as a write this. Obama’s electoral vote total stands at 338 with leads in Indiana and North Carolina, and a Missouri race that looks headed for a recount. The reaction here in Berkeley has been ecstatic. I started following the race at 3:45 local time. It was eight o’clock here when McCain called to concede, and we watched both his speech and Obama’s before heading out into the night. Wandered down Shattuck and into south Berkeley were we were caught up in a giant wave of celebrating students, with drums, people climbing streetlights, crowd surfing, shouting and chanting. Even as I write this I can still hear cars honking and people cheering.
But don’t take my word for it:

 

Walked to my polling location in the building quite literally next door, voting at 8:05 in the morning as voter #64. In less than twelve hours we should know who the next president will be.

“Kisumu [the city where Obama’s father was born], a relatively big city along the muggy, green, hippo-infested shores of Lake Victoria.”

-NYtimes

I drove to the western end of I-80 yesterday. In total I’ve driven across 2,700 miles of the country on that highway. (Far more counting my repeated round trips to Ithaca.)

Got to see my little cousins, aunt and uncle and grandmother.

The election is in two more days!