On the 25 June edition, an editorial calling Europe to lead on free and open science, while boosting industrial consequences. (By the way, Japan just joined Horizon Europe! While the UK will rejoin Erasmus in 2027, under the headline “Brexit tore apart European science — now the research rifts are healing“, mentioning the financial and visa unsolved issues.) A news article continuing the investigation of how AI impacts or will impact mathematical research, with a FirstProof test evaluating AIs solving new, research-level, maths problems. (But missing Claude Mythos and Google’s Aletheia.) A “comment” from a Chinese academic that science needs humanities, at a time when universities in the UK are closing some humanities departments. And a discussion of the exceptional discovery of a whale necropolis, 7km deep, with fossil remains dating back to 5M years mixed with recent ones. Plus another exciting 10 page paper about genetic sleuthing on population changes at the collapse of the Roman empire, in the Danube-Isar and Rhein-Main areas of present-day Germany. (The attached picture representing posterior estimates of life expectancies of some individuals, obtained by MCMC.) In the Carreers section, a story from a geography researcher whose job offer was rescinded at the last moment, a scary thing that is alas not so rare.
Archive for Britain
Nature tidbits
Posted in Books, Statistics, University life with tags AI, Brexit, Britain, Danube, fossils, Genetics, Germany, Horizon Europe, humanities, Isar, Japan, LLMs, Main, MCMC, Nature, Rhein, Roman Empire, whales on August 29, 2026 by xi'anМагучіх синій та золотий [B’ham European Athletics 2026]
Posted in pictures, Running with tags 10000m, Birmingham, Britain, Слава Україні, European Athletics Championships, French TV, high jump, marathon race walk, Rome, UK, Ukraine, Walsall on August 17, 2026 by xi'an
Over the past two days, I watched some events at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham (if on TV). Partly due to the heat that hugely reduced my range of options. And partly in reminiscence of the 2024 Championships in Rome. Among the amazing feats, Jimmy Gressier’s lead on most of the 5,000m, if not particularly strategic with Jakob Ingebrigsten in his flow, and Gressier’s sprint in the 10,000m. And Nadia Battocletti winning again both 5,000m and 10,000m races, very tactically with a extraordinary burst on the last lap. And Aurélien Quinion finishing third on the marathon race walk, under 3h, so exhausted he turned back after the finish line. And Gianmarco Tamberi repeating his antics and gold medal in the high jump (reaching to his family rather the Italian President this time!). And the much more serene victory of Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the current World and Olympic champion in the high jump. Слава Україні!
[fa]rage against the mankind
Posted in Books, Kids, Statistics, Travel with tags anti-immigrant mob, Brexit, Brexit Party, Britain, councillors, England, Enoch Powell, Europe, far-right, far-right ideology, local elections, Nigel Farage, rage against the machine, The Guardian, UK, UK politics, UKIP, xenophobia on May 11, 2026 by xi'an
London Meeting on Computational Statistics 28-29 April 2026, plus a UCL lecture by Lester Mackey
Posted in Books, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Augustus de Morgan, Britain, computational statistical physics, gradient flows, London, London Mathematical Society, Monte Carlo methods, Monte Carlo Statistical Methods, simulation-based inference, The Shard, UCL, UCL Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, United Kingdom, University College London, variational inference on February 6, 2026 by xi'an
statistics summer school at Warwick (July 2026)
Posted in Statistics, Travel, University life with tags algorithmic robustness, Britain, conformal prediction, course, Coventry, CRiSM, data contamination, data privacy, differential privacy, distribution-free inference, London Mathematical Society, on robust statistics, plenary speaker, reliable algorithms, summer course, University of Warwick on November 26, 2025 by xi'an
