Visions of Type
the type of man with the best words
This section celebrates the words of William Shakespeare.
If you love letters in just the right combination, these pages, the art is for you. If you like to delve into the words yourself, use my plain-text annotated version of all his plays.
The posters are available for purchase.
I've decided to remove all punctuation except ampersands in the titles of plays. Because who doesn't love ampersands?
The last line of Henry IV Part II is the one by Lancaster ("Come, will you hence?") instead of the Dancer's epilogue line ("before you; but, indeed, to pray for the queen.").
And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.
— Dromio of Ephesus (A Comedy of Errors)
And Robin shall restore amends.
— Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
We were dissever'd: hastily lead away.
— Leontes (A Winter's Tale)
Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.
— King (All's Well That Ends Well)
High order in this great solemnity.
— Octavius Caesar (Antony and Cleopatra)
kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.
— Rosalind (As You Like It)
Yet he shall have a noble memory. Assist.
— Aufidius (Coriolanus)
Ere bloody hands were wash'd, with such a peace.
— Cymbeline (Cymbeline)
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
— Prince fortinbras (Hamlet)
Let us not leave till all our own be won.
— King Henry IV (Henry IV Part I)
Come, will you hence?
— Lancaster (Henry IV Part II)
In your fair minds let this acceptance take.
— Chorus (Henry V)
If they hold when their ladies bid 'em clap.
— King Henry VIII (Henry VIII)
But I will rule both her, the king and realm.
— Suffolk (Henry VI Part I)
And more such days as these to us befall!
— Warwick (Henry VI Part II)
For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy.
— King Edward IV (Henry VI Part III)
To part the glories of this happy day.
— Octavius (Julius Caesar)
If England to itself do rest but true.
— Bastard (King John)
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
— Albany (King Lear)
Apollo. You that way: we this way.
— Adriano de Armado (Love's Labours Lost)
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
— Malcolm (Macbeth)
What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know.
— Duke Vincentio (Measure for Measure)
So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.
— Gratiano (Merchant of Venice)
For he tonight shall lie with Mistress Ford.
— Ford (Merry Wives of Windsor)
Strike up, pipers.
— Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing)
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.
— Lodovico (Othello)
New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending.
— Gower (Pericles)
In weeping after this untimely bier.
— Henry Bolingbroke (Richard II)
That she may long live here, God say amen!
— Richmond (Richard III)
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
— Prince (Romeo and Juliet)
'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so.
— Lucentio (Taming of the Shrew)
Let your indulgence set me free.
— Prospero (The Tempest)
Let our drums strike.
— Alcibiades (Timon of Athens)
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.
— Lucius (Titus Andronicus)
And at that time bequeathe you my diseases.
— Pandarus (Troilus and Cressida)
And we'll strive to please you every day.
— Clown (Twelfth Night)
One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.
— Valentine (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Using my plain-text annotated version of all of his plays, pulling out the last lines is trivial at the command line.
# last lines in a play are annotated with -p flag > grep -w "\-p" shakespeare.all.plays.plain.text.txt | cut -d "|" -f 1,14 A_Comedy_of_Errors | And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another. A_Midsummer_nights_dream | And Robin shall restore amends. A_Winters_Tale | We were dissever'd: hastily lead away. Alls_well_that_ends_well | Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts. Antony_and_Cleopatra | High order in this great solemnity. As_you_like_it | kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell. Coriolanus | Yet he shall have a noble memory. Assist. Cymbeline | Ere bloody hands were wash'd, with such a peace. Hamlet | Go, bid the soldiers shoot. Henry_IV_Part_1 | Let us not leave till all our own be won. Henry_IV_Part_2 | before you; but, indeed, to pray for the queen. Henry_V | In your fair minds let this acceptance take. Henry_VI_Part_1 | But I will rule both her, the king and realm. Henry_VI_Part_2 | And more such days as these to us befall! Henry_VI_Part_3 | For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy. Henry_VIII | If they hold when their ladies bid 'em clap. Julius_Caesar | To part the glories of this happy day. King_John | If England to itself do rest but true. King_Lear | Shall never see so much, nor live so long. Loves_Labours_Lost | Apollo. You that way: we this way. Macbeth | Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone. Measure_for_measure | What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know. Merchant_of_Venice | So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring. Merry_Wives_of_Windsor | For he tonight shall lie with Mistress Ford. Much_Ado_about_nothing | Strike up, pipers. Othello | This heavy act with heavy heart relate. Pericles | New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending. Richard_II | In weeping after this untimely bier. Richard_III | That she may long live here, God say amen! Romeo_and_Juliet | Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. Taming_of_the_Shrew | 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so. The_Tempest | Let your indulgence set me free. Timon_of_Athens | Let our drums strike. Titus_Andronicus | That like events may ne'er it ruinate. Troilus_and_Cressida | And at that time bequeathe you my diseases. Twelfth_Night | And we'll strive to please you every day. Two_Gentlemen_of_Verona | One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.
Propensity score weighting
It is not certain that everything is uncertain. —Blaise Pascal
We have already explored how we can mitigate bias caused by confounding variables in observational studies using propensity score (PS) matching (PSM) and propensity score weighting (PSW). However, any statistical model is only as good as its assumptions and, if it is specified incorrectly, it can itself produce biased estimates of the treatment effect.
This month, we explore double robustness, a powerful statistical concept that provides a valuable “safety net” against the risk of an incorrect model. It offers two opportunities, instead of just one, to obtain a valid estimate of the treatment effect — making it possible to draw credible causal inferences from observational data without having to depend on a single set of modeling assumptions.
Kurz, C.F., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2026) Points of significance: Double Robustness. Nat. Methods 23:868–869.
Nature Biotechnology cover
My cover design on the 7 April 2026 Nature Biotechnology issue shows the dendrogram that represents a cluster of uniquely expressed (or downregulated) genes in human naive stem cells induced from such cells. Within each dendrogram block, the genomic barcode sequence (sampled from Supplementary Table 1) is depicted with a Code 39 barcode. The highlighted barcode is one of those used for cell isolation.
Ishiguro S. et al. A multi-kingdom genetic barcoding system for precise clone isolation (2026) Nature Biotechnology 44:616–629.
Browse my gallery of cover designs.
Happy 2026 π Day—
Art for the 5%
Celebrate π Day (March 14th) and enjoy the art — but only if you're part of the 5%.
Go ahead, see what you can't see.
Ishihara's Tests for Colour Deficiency
Authentic and accurate images of Ishihara's test plates photographed (and lovingly color-corrected) from the 38-plate Ishihara's Tests for Colour Deficiency.
I also provide the position, size, and color of each circle on each test plate.
Symmetric alternatives to the ordinary least squares regression
What immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry? — William Blake, "The Tyger"
This month, we look at symmetric regression, which, unlike simple linear regression, it is reversible — remaining unaltered when the variables are swapped.
Simple linear regression can summarize the linear relationship between two variables `X` and `Y` — for example, when `Y` is considered the response (dependent) and `X` the predictor (independent) variable.
However, there are times when we are not interested (or able) to distinguish between dependent and independent variables — either because they have the same importance or the same role. This is where symmetric regression can help.
Luca Greco, George Luta, Martin Krzywinski & Naomi Altman (2025) Points of significance: Symmetric alternatives to the ordinary least squares regression. Nat. Methods 22:1610–1612.