He was a great man in every sense of the word. Despite his enormous accomplishments and being a historical figure, he still took time to address his emails personally and answered every reasonable request. I was his assistant of sorts during a period in Cambridge, MA, and one time he got this request from a person asking him to write to his HS math teacher because this teacher had inspired him to go into math. Well Prof Mandelbrot wrote him a beautiful letter that still chokes me up when I remember it. After he dictated it to me, I told him that at that moment and from then on, that I would be glad to take a bullet for him. He chuckled, thanked me in a very modest tone and proceeded to the next topic. He was always polite and pleasant and full of energy. May he rest in peace.

My Favorite Martian! I loved Uncle Martin's flying saucer.

I'm a scientist (male, divorced, 2 spawned processes) at a government lab, and though at least 40-50% of my coworkers are female, I still have a hard time meeting more of them. My suggestions: get your behind to the nearest community center and take and non-tech-related class such as cooking or dancing. Just get out of your comfort zone and get into any situation that will involve meeting people.

I'm completely with you on the Steve Reich part (Different Trains, followed by Tehillim) but with a cigar (Montecristo No. 3) and a mug of Earl Grey.

An online petition is already available, with signees agreeing to either move to a cheaper plan, put their account on hold, or cancel their accounts entirely. Netflix must be banking that the improvements to its web site will offset the ill will and lost subscribers that this news has engendered. Let's get our derrieres in gear and sign this petition. So far there are only 462 signatures collected. I'm sure that we can do better than that.