Dr. Mandelbrot traced his work on fractals to a question he first encountered as a young researcher: how long is the coast of Britain? The answer, he was surprised to discover, depends on how closely one looks. On a map an island may appear smooth, but zooming in will reveal jagged edges that add up to a longer coast. Zooming in further will reveal even more coastline.

“Here is a question, a staple of grade-school geometry that, if you think about it, is impossible,” Dr. Mandelbrot told The New York Times earlier this year in an interview. “The length of the coastline, in a sense, is infinite.”

Death of a legend.

Fantastic!

Must watch now. Interesting stuff on risk and decisions.

Great story about a great ingredient!

No, nothing to see here unless you happen to be interested in what's wrong with New Jersey.

This is just one piece of the puzzle - public officials who get paid with tax dollars and then reap windfalls in back room deals while milking their residents, residents who pay the highest property taxes in the country. Where do those tax dollars go? To support upstanding folks like the multi-millionaire school superintendent pictured above.

It's shameful and it needs to change.

Sweet sound!