Archive for inclusion
Congrats, IOC: discriminatory sex testing, but inclusion of Russian athletes!
Posted in Kids, Running with tags fairness, gender, genetic testing, Geneva, inclusion, International Olympic Committee, IOC, non-discrimination, Olympic ban, privacy, Russian invasion, sent to Coventry, Solidarity with Ukraine, sport, U-turn, UN Human Rights Office on April 6, 2026 by xi'an
What Just Happened in France Is Astounding [reposted]
Posted in Kids, pictures with tags abstention, cohabitation, diversity, Emmanuel Macron, far-right, French parliement, French politics, Frente Popular, Front National, inclusion, National Assembly, national unity, nationalism, NYT, opinion, populism, République, snap elections, snap vote, The New York Times on July 9, 2024 by xi'an
R like racism, H like hate
Posted in Kids, Travel with tags 1315, anti-fascism, Arc de Triomphe, Coco, Emmanuel Macron, Europe Union, exclusion, far-right, France, Fraternité, French elections, inclusion, international treaties, Libé, Louis X, Marine Le Pen, migrants, National Front, nationalism, parli, populism, racism on June 26, 2024 by xi'an
«Les Français d’origine étrangère ou de nationalité étrangère n’ont rien à craindre de la politique que [le RN veut] mettre en œuvre, s’ils travaillent, paient leurs impôts, paient leurs cotisations, respectent la loi, aiment notre pays.” J Bardella, 14 June 2024
«Français d’origine étrangère [enfermés] dans la repentance et la haine de la France, une génération arrivée à l’âge adulte (…) et qui se comporte comme les ressortissants d’un Etat étranger.» J Bardella, December 2022
«la régularisation d’un étranger en situation illégale sera en principe interdite, à l’exception de décisions individuelles (…) à titre exceptionnel et pour un motif supérieur d’intérêt national ou quand l’intéressé a rendu des services éminents à la France ; la priorité nationale sera autorisée, notamment dans l’accès à l’emploi dans le secteur privé ou dans le secteur public et dans l’accès au logement social ; elle constituera un droit constitutionnellement invocable ; la présence des étrangers ne doit plus constituer une charge déraisonnable pour les finances publiques et le système de protection sociale. Le regroupement familial des étrangers pourra être interdit ou limité par la loi et les prestations non‑assurancielles de solidarité (…) être réservées aux nationaux ou soumises à des conditions fixées par loi (…) la conclusion d’engagements internationaux de libre circulation des personnes aux frontières sera subordonnée à la sauvegarde des intérêts nationaux en matière de sécurité intérieure et extérieure, de protection de l’ordre public et de sauvegarde de l’identité française ; la loi pourra désormais réprimer pénalement toute personne qui aura (…) facilité ou tenté de faciliter l’entrée, la circulation, le séjour ou le travail irréguliers d’un étranger en France ou sa soustraction à une mesure d’éloignement. Aucune exemption de peine ne pourra ainsi être accordée, au nom d’un concept détourné de « fraternité », en cas d’aide aux clandestins.» M Le Pen, 25 January 2024
the future of conferences
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel, University life with tags conference picture, conferences, diversity, inclusion, meeting, Nature, NeurIPS, NIPS, online meeting, pros and cons, safeisba@bayesian.org, slides, talk, workshop on January 22, 2019 by xi'an
The last issue of Nature for 2018 offers a stunning collection of science photographs, ten portraits of people who mattered (for the editorial board of Nature), and a collection of journalists’ entries on scientific conferences. The later point leading to interesting questioning on the future of conferences, some of which relate to earlier entries on this blog. Like attempts to make them having a lesser carbon footprint, by only attending focused conferences and workshops, warning about predatory ones, creating local hives on different continents that can partake of all talks but reduce travel and size and still allow for exchanges person to person, multiply the meetings and opportunities around a major conference to induce “only” one major trip (as in the past summer of British conferences, or the incoming geographical combination of BNP and O’Bayes 2019), cut the traditional dreary succession of short talks in parallel in favour of “unconferences” where participants set communally the themes and structure of the meeting (but ware the dangers of bias brought by language, culture, seniority!). Of course, this move towards new formats will meet opposition from several corners, including administrators who too often see conferences as a pretense for paid vacations and refuse supporting costs without a “concrete” proof of work in the form of a presentation.
Another aspect of conference was discussed there, namely the art of delivering great talks. Which is indeed more an art than a science, since the impact will not only depend on the speaker and the slides, but also on the audience and the circumstances. As years pile on, I am getting less stressed and probably too relaxed about giving talks, but still rarely feel I have reached toward enough of the audience. And still falling too easily for the infodump mistake… Which reminds me of a recent column in Significance (although I cannot link to it!), complaining about “finding it hard or impossible to follow many presentations, particularly those that involved a large number of equations.” Which sounds strange to me as on the opposite I quickly loose track in talks with no equations. And as mathematical statistics or probability issues seems to imply the use of maths symbols and equations. (This reminded me of a short course I gave once in a undisclosed location, where a portion of the audience left after the first morning, due to my use of “too many Greek letters”.) Actually, I am always annoyed at apologies for using proper maths notations, since they are the tools of our trade.
Another entry of importance in this issue of Nature is an interview with Katherine Heller and Hal Daumé, as first chairs for diversity and inclusion at N[eur]IPS. Where they discuss the actions taken since the previous NIPS 2017 meeting to address the lack of inclusiveness and the harassment cases exposed there, first by Kristian Lum, Lead Statistician at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), whose blog denunciation set the wheels turning towards a safer and better environment (in stats as well as machine-learning). This included the [last minute] move towards renaming the conference as NeuroIPS to avoid sexual puns on the former acronym (which as a non-native speaker I missed until it was pointed out to me!). Judging from the feedback it seems that the wheels have indeed turned a significant amount and hopefully will continue its progress.
