I haven't posted in a while, sorry about that. I've been working on the Arts & Language Club website. I'm knee deep in CSS, CMS, HTML, PHP, MySQL and PNGs. My brain hurts and I'm still not done. I'm sure web wizards would finish in hours what's taken me days.
I'm going to flake out and post another video, but it's kind of a special one. (Thanks Barry for passing it on.) You may have heard that Benoit Mandelbrot, the mathematician who discovered/invented/studied "regular roughness" or "fractals, died last week at the age of 85. Now I'm not a mathematician by any stretch of the imagination—I don't think I could pass grade 11 math right now if my life depended on it—but Mandelbrot is still special to me. Way back in *cough, cough* 1987 I read a book called "Chaos; Making A New Science," by James Gleick. It was all about chaos theory and Mandelbrot is pivotal in world of chaos theory.
The book was astonishing to me. This notion of astounding complexity coming from stark simplicity was exciting and invigorating. I loved the book, I loved the excitement of inquiry and learning that welled up in me, which was no small thing. About the only thing my high school diploma had left me with was a grey and whithered imagination, it had bled the joy of learning from me. This book came at a time when, and perhaps was the first step toward, regaining the joy of learning. It was a hugely important transition in my life. A year later I started a Fine Arts Degree and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Mandelbrot set is the lasting iconic image of that book, that time, that awakening. Thank you Dr. Mandelbrot for your work.
So here's the video, it's Dr. Mandelbrot giving a TED talk in February of this year. Enjoy:
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