Filler post: Countdown to 10,000,000!

While we’re waiting for the news…

We’re about 11,000 hits away from 10,000,000, Conflucians!  We should have a party.  Got any ideas?  Post them below.  Mine include: a radio show, cocktail party, fundraiser thingy.

I heard a very interesting podcast from the BBC History magazine for the month of November.  The first part had to do with Lincoln and the issue of slavery that lead to the Civil War.  It will give you a new perspective on Republicans, Democrats, Whigs, and a couple of other parties that were viable at the time, as well as a different take on which party was the one supporting entrepreneurial expansion in the west.  The second part is about the origins of Mischief Night, which, by the way, roughly corresponds to The Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear that Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are throwing on the National Mall on October 30, 2010.  Coincidence?  Hmmm, I wonder.  Are they planning to soap the windows at the White House and festoon the cherry trees on the mall?  Sounds like fun!  I want to be there.

In case you hadn’t heard, Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician estraordinaire discoverer of Chaos theory, the Mandelbrot Set and Fractal fame, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer.  Think of him the next time you see a butterfly, a feather or pick up a cauliflower in your produce department.

Here’s a musical tribute to Mandelbrot courtesy of Jonathan Coulton.  Yep, that was one badass f^&(ing fractal.

And here’s a piece on Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan, and Benoit Mandelbrot on the financial crisis of 2008.  Short take: They were scared $@!^less.

Nitecap- I’m so much cooler online

hey, guys, I went to see a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion the other day and it was just as good as you’re thinking it is. Garrison Keillor runs around in a suit and red sneakers over a stage covered with oriental carpets. The sound effects guy wears a pair of wooden lasts around his neck and the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band is nothing short of perfection. Last week’s guests were Jean Redpath, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and her husband Brad Paisley. I only knew him by name and hadn’t heard any of his songs. But he has to be the funniest country singer around. Some of my new favorites are his song about how he shows his wife he loves her by putting the toilet seat down. And there’s one about being a guy that didn’t take it too seriously. One of my favorites was this one about suddenly being cool online. I can relate. Er, not to the Mazerati and the three way, of course. Just to the concept of being the latest cool thing. We hit 200,000 hits yesterday. Thanks to Katiebird, Bostonboomer, RonKSeattle, Tucsonlynn, Shainzona, Ghost2, MABlue, UpstateNY, Ufa, campshunk, and all of the other fellow travellers, we are tres cool. Here’s the video…

Set’em up, Joe. I’ll have a Knob Creek OTR. Hey, you wanna see some cool pics? (fun with photobooth. I love soft focus)

fun with photo booth