Benoît B. Mandelbrot (20 November 1924 – 14 October 2010)

Mathematics is a thing of beauty, and Mandelbrot — best known for his development of fractal geometry; also one of the most important innovators in applied mathematics during the past half-century — should also be remembered as one of our day’s most remarkable writers, and artists.

• Cultural Authoritarianism Breeds Political Authoritarianism. Kevin Carson, Center for a Stateless Society (2010-09-24). Libertarians sometimes tend to focus on political freedom in isolation, and to view cultural authoritarianism (at least as long as the state isn't directly involved) as something libertarianism as such has nothing to say about. I believe this is a mistake.  Cultural authoritarianism — such as occurs in the family,… (Linked Wednesday 2010-10-13.)

• Corvus Editions interview at Making Change. Shawn P. Wilbur, Out of the Libertarian Labyrinth (2010-10-05). Corvus Editions is among the projects featured on the Making Change blog, which covers Etsy artists "who create with a political/environmental/social agenda," and I'm sending some of my bottle-cap pins down to the Making Change store in Santa Monica, California. It's an interesting adjustment, trying to make my projects intelligible in… (Linked Wednesday 2010-10-13.)

• Solomon Burke, RIP. Radley Balko, Radley Balko: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-13). Soul great Solomon Burke died at a Netherlands airport over the weekend. Burke is one of my favorite vocalists, so I'm going to indulge in a bit of appreciation. Depending on whom you believe, Burke was either 70, 72, 74. Given his 400+ pound frame, that he lived that long… (Linked Wednesday 2010-10-13.)

• Fatal Costco shooting: The family's view. Las Vegas Sun Stories: Opinion (2010-09-21). My son, Erik Scott, was shot seven times by three Metro Police officers on July 10. (Linked Wednesday 2010-10-13.)

• Committee Created to Review Coroner's Inquest System. mom_in_las_vegas, Las Vegas Anarchoblogs (2010-10-14). Committee Created to Review Coroner’s Inquest SystemFrom the ACLU:All members of the public are invited to provide input to the committee, and we strongly encourage you make your voices heard.You can provide comments to the committee directly at a public meeting: * Monday, October 18, from 5 pm to 9… (Linked Thursday 2010-10-14.)

• If You're Not an Extremist, You're Not Paying Attention. Kevin Carson, Center for a Stateless Society (2010-10-14). If you follow U.S. cable news and mainstream editorial pages, you've probably learned that some arguments don't have to be answered. They just have to be quoted or paraphrased, with an eye roll, and summarily dismissed. So you get Keith Olbermann treating suggestions that the federal government might become tyrannical,… (Linked Thursday 2010-10-14.)

• Much A-D'oh! About Nothing?: Banksy's opening for The Simpsons. Arturo, Racialicious – the intersection of race and pop culture (2010-10-14). By Arturo R. García Most of the stories we've read about the now-infamous opening sequence prepared for The Simpsons by artist and documentary subject Banksy include a sentence along the lines of: The extended sequence was apparently inspired by reports the show outsources the bulk of their animation to a… (Linked Friday 2010-10-15.)

• Flash Player: Real classy Adobe, bundling trialware with your… Adobe UI Gripes (2010-10-15). Flash Player: Real classy Adobe, bundling trialware with your plugin to make a few measly bucks more off your users. Only companies who have stopped caring about their product and only care about squeezing more dollars out of their customers at all costs pull crap like this. More info on… (Linked Friday 2010-10-15.)

• What's Wrong With Woodrow Wilson? Radley Balko: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-11). A: He was a fucking fascist, that’s what’s wrong. (Linked Monday 2010-10-11.)

• Modesto Police Shoot Francisco Moran and Rita Elias. Modesto Anarcho!'s MySpace Blog (2010-10-04). On Friday night, Rita Elias, 31, died after off-duty sheriff’s detective Kari Abbey, shot and killed her after an hour long argument. Kari Abbey, a 6 year veteran to the force, and a detective of four… (Linked Monday 2010-10-11.)

• Under Surveillance America. Darian Worden, Center for a Stateless Society (2010-09-16). Federal Bureau of Investigation files indicate that Ernest Withers, prominent photographer of 1960s Civil Rights activism, was also a federal informant. According to the Washington Post, he provided photographs, scheduling information and biographical sketches on Civil Rights leaders to the FBI. Whether Withers was trying to cash in on information… (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-12.)

• Nothing new under the sun. John Markley, The Superfluous Man (2010-10-06). Contemporary American politics makes a great deal more sense in light of the realization that Barack Obama’s most devoted fans and fiercest critics are united by a shared delusion: the belief that Obama is really, really interesting.How this manifests among his supporters is apparent enough in the starry-eyed adulation he… (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-12.)

• Homesteading in Haiti: Very Adverse Possession. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-12). Emily Troutman reports from the hills near Port-au-Prince: Six months ago, this land was nothing but crickets in the grass. Now, it's Haiti's new frontier, a landscape of squatters whose greatest hope is a home of their own. Gray and blue shacks and shanties extend for miles. Small gardens and… (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-12.)

• Event: The Prospects and Ethics of Political Reform. justino, DFW Alliance of the Libertarian Left (2010-09-27). What: As we near election time, candidates for office will inevitably present themselves as an alternative to the status quo that plagues us. But what types of reform in practice, if any, are consistent with a libertarian political philosophy? The first article we will study is Ron Paul's "My Plan… (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-12.)

• Event: !!!@@e2;20ac;2dc;For the Bible Tells Me So' Movie. justino, DFW Alliance of the Libertarian Left (2010-09-22). What: 1919 Hemphill, a local DIY collective, is hosting a screening of the documentary For the Bible Tells Me So (2007) as part of its long-time movie series Conscientious Projector. A recipient of numerous international awards, the film documents the turmoil Christian families with a gay child face and "sometimes… (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-12.)

• Grieving Student Suspected of Using Marijuana Reinstated. DFW Alliance of the Libertarian Left (2010-10-12). Narco-Statism Vs. Compassion and Human Decency (Cont’d) (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-12.)

• Getting Away With Murder. Center for a Stateless Society (2010-10-12). Cops are here to keep us safe. (Cont’d) (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-12.)

Proper Treatment. Daily Brickbats (2010-10-11):

Michelle Schreiner is a diabetic and her blood sugar was dangerously low, so a friend called 911. For some reason, dispatch sent a police officer as well as paramedics to her Gresham, Oregon, home. When they got there, Schreiner was holding a syringe filled with insulin and drifting in and…

The police are here to keep you safe.

• Forced to Be Free. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-08). Across Europe, high-minded debates about terrorism, assimilation, and the social effects of Islam have been devolving into disputes over the clothes the government will let people wear, as countries from Switzerland to the U.K. ponder bans on burqas and head scarves. Curiously, legislators and pundits on both sides of the… (Linked Saturday 2010-10-09.)

• 09.23.10: Don't Forget the Motor City. David Byrne, David Byrne's Journal (2010-09-23). I'm here in Detroit to participate in a film directed by Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo). The other day we performed the song "This Must Be The Place" with band and string section while the camera made a complicated move and a living room set rose up and traveled over our… (Linked Saturday 2010-10-09.)

• The Drug War Metaphor: Increasingly Literal. Radley Balko, Radley Balko: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-06). A New Mexico narcotics task force sent a SWAT team and helicopter to raid a school where students "participate in farming as a context for learning mathematics and science." The raid was apparently part of a larger operation involving the task force, the state police, and the National Guard, in… (Linked Saturday 2010-10-09.)

• Nazi Nudges. Will Wilkinson, Will Wilkinson (2010-10-06). Most of you have probably seen this on Marginal Revolution (from Dan Ariely), but the lesson is too good to pass up. When it suits them, Nazis use nudges, too... Nudge-style "choice architecture" techniques are ideologically neutral. We can't count on the guys in charge to have benevolent motives. That's… (Linked Sunday 2010-10-10.)

• Military Keynesians Are the Worst Keynesians of All. Sheldon Richman, Free Association (2010-10-07). From the National Journal this week: Two wars are not enough. America’s economic outlook is so grim, and political solutions are so utterly absent, that only another large-scale war might be enough to lift the nation out of chronic high unemployment and slow growth, two prominent economists, a conservative and… (Linked Sunday 2010-10-10.)

• Feminism. Marja Erwin (2010-08-24). When men consider how they should treat other men, it is moral philosophy. When womyn consider how we should treat other womyn, it is feminism. It has taken feminism to separate the were-centered moral philosophies from the human-centered ones. It will take feminism-in-practice to discover the full potential of feminism-in-theory.What… (Linked Monday 2010-10-11.)

• American schools are killing children. Marja Erwin (2010-10-10). Through bullying, through high workloads, and through indifference to the needs of different children. Classrooms may be a good teaching environment for some kids, mediocre for other, and downright destructive for some. Bullying was an epidemic when I was in school, and I understand it has grown worse yet. Calling… (Linked Monday 2010-10-11.)