Friday, October 22, 2010

Nice archaeology blog

Stumbled upon and enjoyed this archaeology blog http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/ by Colleen Morgan.

Her photostream on Flickr is impressive too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/colleenmorgan/

I particularly enjoyed this little video clip:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/colleenmorgan/2944551291/

What do you think?

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Benoit Mandelbrot

It has been reported in the press that Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of fractal mathematics, died on October 14th. This is a sad loss not only for math, but for all the sciences and even the arts and humanities. Mandelbrot was a visionary who made substantive contributions to the broadest conceivable array of fields. Even a short list would have to include art, astronomy, computing, cosmology, economics, education, geography, geology, geophysics, hydrology, linguistics, and materials science, as well as mathematics. I found in his work evidence of a courageous and novel mind that was inspiring to me as a novice. I was thrilled when he once called me to ask about my work. He will undoubtedly be missed by innumerable students, friends, and colleagues.