Archive for European Union

ERC Starting Grants 2025

Posted in Kids, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 13, 2025 by xi'an

Last week, the ERC announced the winners of the Starting Grant campaign for 2025.  Congrats to all recipients!

I am no longer a member of the PE1 (maths & data sciences) panel, hence did not contribute in the least to this selection. I noticed very few statistics and data science in the list (albeit obviously not hinting at any correlation with the previous sentence!), except for a project on computational stats. There is neither no one from my departments, even tough Warwick received one grant, nor from my research circles. The re-emergence of the UK as a strong proponent among the nations submitting projects is clear, while Italian candidates remain highly successful (incl. Bocconi!).

Since the EU States did not manage to unanimously agree on suspending the Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement last summer, despite Israel’s breach of human rights on the Gaza strip, there are also ten Israeli projects supported by EU on this round. (Unless the latest announcement of further sanctions by President Ursula von der Leyen suspending bilateral support to Israel does cover this financing.)

against landmines in the EU

Posted in Kids, pictures, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 26, 2025 by xi'an

and it only gets worse [the return]

Posted in Kids, pictures, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 1, 2025 by xi'an

“The EU has been very tough over the years and was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade through a little bit of a monopoly situation to create a unified force against the United States.” DJ Trump

“We need to get better at treating [deportation] like a business, like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings.” ICE Director Todd Lyons

“The EU make [sic] it so difficult, the standards and the tests as they drop a bowling ball on the top of your car from 20 feet up in the air and if there’s a little dent, they say no, I’m sorry, your car doesn’t qualify.”DJ Trump

“We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture” JD Vance

“I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up kissing my ass.” DJ Trump

“The implications of the [Trump] government’s position [are] that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal. History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor

“I think [the Russian missile bombing of Sumy] was terrible and I was told [the Russian attackers] made a mistake, but I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing. This war would never have started if I were president. That war is a shame.” DJ Trump

and it only gets worse and worse and … [verbatim]

Posted in Books, pictures with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 2, 2025 by xi'an

[Extracts from DT’s unhinged declarations on 19 Feb about Ukraine:]

“But today I heard: ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

“A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine. Well, we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating and where a country has been blown to smithereens. You got most of the cities are laying on their sides.”

“Russia does not intend to destroy Kyiv, if they had wanted to, they would have done it. Russia is capable of wiping out Ukrainian cities 100%, including Kyiv, but right now, they are only attacking at 20%.”

“Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism [sic].”

[And more during the joint session with Emmanuel Macron, on 24 Feb.]

“I don’t use those words lightly [when asked whether or not Putin is a dictator], we’ll see how it all works out.”

“The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it, and they’ve done a good job of it.”

[With the newspeak winner about the January 6 rioters’ pardon]

“I pardoned J6 people who were assaulted by our government. They didn’t assault. They were assaulted, and what I did was a great thing for humanity.”

[All these quotes were recorded before the 28 Feb deliberate ambush of President Zelenskyy set by the boned spurred Agent Orange and his hillbilly Iago, reaching the all-times nadir of US international relations…]

Silarsuaq sikullu kisimi naagalavoq

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 28, 2025 by xi'an