Archive for obituary
Duh?!
Posted in Books, Mountains, pictures with tags Beijing, Canadian Rockies, Chris Jones, Cultural Revolution, George Lowe, Le Monde, Mao Zedong, mass murders, MIT, obituary, Piolet d'Or, Red Guards on October 24, 2024 by xi'an
Pierre Christin (1938-2024)
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures with tags A Suivre, bande dessinée, BD, cover, Ecology, Enki Bilal, fantasy, Franco, graphical models, graphical novel, hunting, hunting lodge, International Brigades, Jean-Claude Mézière, journalism, mai 1968, Métal Hurlant, obituary, Pierre Christin, Pilote, political assassination, science fiction, space opera, Spanish Civil War, University of Bordeaux, USSR, Utah State University, Warsaw Pact on October 15, 2024 by xi'anThe BD-ist Pierre Christin died on 03 October. His heritage is a huge collection of graphical novels he scenarized. Many of them masterpieces, from the political Black Order Phalanges with Enki Bilal, where a group of [very] former International Brigadists (pictured in 1937 on the cover below) reconstitutes to fight to death a parallel group of fascists who fought in Franco’s war against the Spanish Republic and rerouped (circa 1980) againstprogressive forces throughout Europe, followed by a scathing description of the decaying USSR in Hunting Party, again with Bilal, to
the science-fiction series of Valérian (and Laureline) [along with Jean-Claude Mézière] that spans decades and follows societal progress by seeing Laureline becoming the main character (rather than her female partner Valérian), fighting dictators, conglomerates, colonialism, and pollution—more a space social drama than a space opera, as he once stated—, to
the 86-ish ecology cum fantasy trilogy, La Croisière des Oubliés, again with Bilal. Plus other great books that I read and re-read during my (extended!) childhood, mostly in the BD journals that were created over that period, from Pilote to Métal Hurland, À Suivre, &tc. He was also involved in teaching, from a visiting position in contemporary French literature in USU, Salt Lake City, to a professorship in journalism and communication at the University of Bordeaux, where he created the first French public school of journalism, now Institut de journalisme Bordeaux Aquitaine. A great artist, may he now roam forever the deep space landscapes he and Mézière created!
salut, c’est Lenoir !
Posted in Books, Kids, Travel with tags Bernard Lenoir, Black Session, cassette, feedback, France Inter, indie rock, Joy Division, Les Inrockuptibles, memories, nostalgia, obituary, pop culture, Radio France, radio show, souvenirs on January 25, 2024 by xi'an
The death of Claude Villers a few days ago, a mythical radio presenter, reminded me of Feedback, the fabulous rock and pop show of his accomplice Bernard Lenoir on France Inter, to which I listened most evenings while in high school then uni, with live concerts like Joy Division’s and my religiously taping my favourite groups on cassettes. Until it got terminated. He returned to the national public radio for Black Sessions / C’est Lenoir, with a memorable studio concert of The Cure in 2004. Chapeau, Lenoir!
A. K. Md. Ehsanes Saleh (01 Jan 1932 – 03 Sept 2023)
Posted in Books, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags A. K. Md. Ehsanes Saleh, Bangladesh, book reviews, Canada, Carleton University, Cornell University, James-Stein estimator, obituary, Ottawa, Purdue University, ridge regression, SFDS, shrinkage estimation, SSC, West Lafayette on December 10, 2023 by xi'an
Just learned this day that Professor A. K. Md. Ehsanes Saleh passed away in early September. I first met him sometimes in the Fall of 1987, while visiting (from Purdue where I was visiting professor) my wife in Ottawa (where she was pursuing a Master in Electrical Engineering). I knew of his papers on shrinkage and pre-test estimators and dropped by Carleton University, where he taught and worked most of his life, for a casual talk. He was incredibly welcoming and friendly to an unknown junior researcher who had dropped by with no warning on a Friday afternoon. We then kept in touch about research projects and he made me an offer to visit Carleton over the Summer of 1988, with a welcome financial support that allowed us to rent a better lodging by the University of Ottawa (which my wife kept for the following year). This suited me most perfectly as I could spend the summer (May-August) with my wife and work with Professor Saleh on shrinkage topics, which was most enjoyable (if not immensely innovative), although the move involved a non-stop 14h drive from West Lafayette to Ottawa! The whole group of statisticians and probabilists at Carleton was unbelievably friendly as well and contributed, along with the stressless atmosphere of the Canadian capital and the endless nearby parks, to make that summer of 1988 a fabulous one. We renewed the experiment the following summer of 1989, when I left Cornell at the end of their semester, again a great one, when I also met Tatsuya Kubokawa who was visiting Professor Saleh as well. After those two years, I had very few opportunities to visit Ottawa and hence to meet him again, even though I remember having lunch with him at a Franco-Canadian meeting in 2008. I do and will remember him as a humble and selfless man, despite his accomplishments of being the first Bangladeshi statistician in receiving many awards and distinctions, always amicable and full of tolerance and helpful advice.
Natural statistical science [#1]
Posted in Books, pictures, Statistics, University life with tags Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, data science, India, Indian Statistical Institute, International Prize in Statistics, ISI, Kolkata, Nature, obituary, R.A. Fisher, Rao-Blackwellisation, University of Cambridge on November 22, 2023 by xi'an
