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Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of Fractal Geometry, dies

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UndertheOcean Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-16-10 01:36 PM
Original message
Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of Fractal Geometry, dies
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RagAss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-16-10 01:36 PM
Response to Original message
1. Finally.
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UndertheOcean Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-16-10 01:37 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. WHAT ??????????
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RagAss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-16-10 01:40 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. A joke for crissakes... I failed HS geometry...never heard of the man
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Occulus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-17-10 07:17 AM
Response to Reply #2
9. Fractals never end, but Mandelbrot did.
:P

You can zoom in as much as you like, and the details keep being revealed.

Someone with a math background can explain it better, but the joke was on fractals, and more specifically, the Mandelbrot set.
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scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-16-10 01:54 PM
Response to Original message
4. LBN has strict posting rules, but none of them specify that the news must be political.
I think you should go ahead and post it there.

Here are the LBN rules:

1. Do not post opinion pieces, editorials, or other stories that are not news.

2. Do not post news that is more than 12 hours old.

3. Do not post duplicate topics about news events that have already been posted. Please note that we are very strict about duplicates in the Latest Breaking News forum. Multiple discussion threads about the same topic are not permitted. If you would like to share a new article about a news item that is already being discussed, please add it to the thread that is already open on that topic.

4. When posting articles, always use the published title of the article as the title of the discussion thread. Additional information may be included in a thread title (in parentheses) if it helps to make the title more clear.

5. Whenever possible, post excerpts and links from reputable mainstream news sources that are available online. Do not link to blogs, vanity sites, or blatantly biased sources, except in cases where reputable mainstream sources are not available. Please make an effort to link directly to the original source of an article, instead of linking to sites that have re-published someone else's content, or re-packaged someone else's content as their own. The moderators have the authority to decide which websites are appropriate for posting in the Latest Breaking News forum and which are not.

6. Do not post links to polls, petitions, or other action items.

7. Discussion of Israeli/Palestinian issues is not permitted in the Latest Breaking News forum, and instead must be posted in the Israeli/Palestinian Affairs forum. If, however, the news item is primarily about U.S. policy in Israeli/Palestinian affairs, you may post it in the Latest Breaking News forum.

8. Do not post frivolous or off-topic news stories. The moderators of the Latest Breaking News forum have the authority to act as news editors, and may remove news stories that they do not consider appropriate for this forum.

9. All of our other rules for posting apply as well, including copyright rules.


In order to stay within the LBN restrictions regarding mainstream news sources, I suggest you use the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/us/17mandelbrot.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1287249434-sWUzJbp5dXo81OBTFdp6ow which is dated today and therefore falls within the 12 hour limit.

I think this would be of interest to many DUers. I myself have been fascinated by fractals ever since I first came across them. I am sad that Mandelbrot has died.

sw
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Posteritatis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-16-10 02:25 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. I got a thread on this up in LBN off the NYT link a couple hours ago. (nt)
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scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-16-10 02:52 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Cool! I'll go look for it, thanks. (nt)
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Poll_Blind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-16-10 01:56 PM
Response to Original message
5. Aside from fractals, Mandlebrot also worked in understanding the banking system and economies.
Edited on Sat Oct-16-10 01:58 PM by Poll_Blind
And what he and his most famous student have to say about the world economy, how it works, and where they think dangers are is as chilling as it is fascinating:

Interview with Benoit Mandelbrot and Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The "Black Swan" theory among many other relevant points about the fragility of the world economy are discussed.

PB
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caraher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-17-10 10:15 AM
Response to Reply #5
10. I remember attending a talk he gave where economics came up
He was very emphatic about one thing: efforts to "beat" financial markets by sifting for patterns are hopeless.
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aquart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-16-10 02:02 PM
Response to Original message
6. He did good.
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