Archive for Paris
death of a benefactor of humanity (Etienne-Emile Baulieu, 1926-2025)
Posted in Kids, pictures, University life with tags abortion pills, abortion rights, Faculté de Médecine de Bicêtre, France, French Academy of Science, Mifepristone, National Academy of Sciences, obituary, Paris, reproductive rights, Roe v. Wade, RU-486 on June 7, 2025 by xi'an
a journal of the chaos and hail year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags Aomori, BBC, Black Plague, book reviews, Brandon Sanderson, buckwheat, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Edward Tufte, France Inter, green peas, hail, Jorge Luis Borges, Journal of the Plague Year, JR East, Paris, Roger Caillois, Russian invasion, Shinkansen, Stand Up To Trump, The Wheel of Time, Three Versions of Judas, Tokyo, Ukraine, USA, Venezia on May 27, 2025 by xi'an 
Read Ponce Pilate, a 1961 (!) short novel by the French writer Roger Caillois, that got (very positively) reviewed by Le Monde at the time. This is an uchrony that follows Pontius Pilate’s train (chariot?!) of thoughts as he considers the request by the Sanhedrin to crucify Jesus. Thanks to the book being mentioned with a morning press survey on France Inter, I went through this alternative history where Pilate dismiss the request and let Jesus free, who then dies of old age, with obvious consequences on the long-term future of Christian sects. The style is very pleasant and the revamping of Pilate as a weak stoic philosopher who eventually shows some (heavy) mettle most enjoyable. The reflection is mostly anachronic in the humanism, religious scepticism, and rationality of the character. There is also very little historical support for this vision of the man (whose end is unknown), but I did enjoy this celebration of free will and the refusal to commit a crime for the “greater good”. Some passages reminded me of Jorge Luis Borgès, whose Three Versions of Judas, published in 1944, presumably inspired Caillois, who also wrote a book on him. Maybe the essay was the final shove that made me give up on Stormlight Archives, by Brandon Sanderson, midway of the 1264 pages of Oathbringer, after I realised the trilogy was in fact a pentalogy! But also because finding myself more and more perturbed by a form of glorification of mass murder in the name of the “greater good”…
Made more “basic” salads with the growing offer from the local market. As well as stir fries of green peas while they last. And planted tomatoes and peppers, just before an hail storm tores through Paris (as shown by the huge volume of green leaves on the bike paths the next day). Fortunately, the storm skipped town and garden. Further dangers may still come to fruition before the plantations deliver, though. Same worry for the 20m² of buckwheat that have started to grow. (Just like last year, when they did not survive my fortnight in Venezia.)
Watched a silly movie around the Shinkansen, The Bullet Train Explosion, on a ride from Shin-Aomori to Tokyo, with a bomb threat that must be handled before arrival. Unrelentingly implausible, with the only appeal being the reproduction of the (antiquated?) General Control Center room. And the equally antiquated (but Tuftesque) timetables.
May¹⁶ it be mostly MCMC
Posted in pictures, Statistics, University life with tags determinantal point process, Issy-les-Moulineaux, MCMC, Monte Carlo methods, Mostly MCMC seminar, multimodal target, nonconvex sampling, Ocean, Paris, PariSanté campus, Porte de Versailles, quantum computer, rejection sampling, seminar on May 16, 2025 by xi'an
The next mostly MCMC seminar is actually happening today and (darn!) I forgot to advertise it! For those who can still make it, it will take place at 3PM (CEST) at the PariSanté Campus (in Room 08). The talks are by
- Rémi Bardenet on “Rejection sampling with quantum tricks: sampling determinantal point processes on a quantum computer”
- Martin Chak on “theoretical guarantees for nonconvex sampling”
a journal of the perpetual chaos year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags Alain Damasio, almond butter, Antilles, antipopes, Auvergne, Avignon, Black Plague, book reviews, bouriols, Brandon Sanderson, buckwheat, car crash, chickpea flour, Chinese artichokes, COVID-19, crêpes, Daniel Defoe, dosa, French West Indes, galettes, Guadeloupe, Journal of the Plague Year, Mistborn, Paris, pope, Provence, Rhône, Russian invasion, Stand Up To Trump, The Wheel of Time, Twingo, Ukraine, USA, whey on May 8, 2025 by xi'an Reading Stormlight Archives, by (Mistborn author) Brandon Sanderson, now (only) halfway, despite finishing the first two books, The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance! with 1264 pages of Oathbringer to go. The second volume is the best so far, except for the final pages that (alas!) announce a very different perspective for the next book. Keeping up with the Wheel of Time tradition (!), the storyline gets much longer and fragmented than necessary with second, third, and fourth level characters that are mostly proxy for infodumps. And repeated descriptions of banquets and meals. The devising of the local universe is interesting in its geography and climatology (with some aspects reminding me of Damasio’s Horde du Contrevent), while the cosmogony is (overly?) complex, but the overgrown role of a very few characters (another common feature in the fantasy literature) is annoying.
Collected the last chrosnes (Chinese artichokes) from my garden and panned them straight away, cleaning the spot for potatoes and tomatoes (and another attempt at growing chili peppers). Kept making roasted almond (before tariffs hit!, as they are already getting harder to find), cashew, peanut, and black sesame butters, more whey buckwheat and chickpea galettes (with a new twist to produce thinner crêpes, if not yet dosas), finding by sheer coïncidence that they qualify as Auvergne (Central France) bourriols!, and non-stop radish salads (picado de rabano) from a recipe I brought back from New York. Did not have much of a culinary experience while visiting Avignon for a weekend, even though the main reason was to recover our 2000 Twingo that our daughter had used during her 18m internship in Marseilles’ hospitals, since she is heading back to the French West Indies for the next internship. Exploring the papal city and especially the papal palace (for the first time) was most pleasant, since they remain unscathed by wars and revolutions since their construction (besides the historical upgrades and downgrades along the centuries). The drive back to Paris in this 25yo car was smooth enough, except for the crash that happened just ahead of us, due to a recklessly fast and tailgating car that ended up hitting another car. Everyone ended up safe, fortunately.
Watched the third season of The Wheel of Time, with some highs (in the Aiel waste and The Three Rivers) and many lows, like the demise of characters who had remained alive and central in the books. The role of the Forsaken is quite reduced when compared with these books. And the costumes are often ridiculous (witness Elaida’s dress!).
MaSeMo: Markov, Semi-Markov Models & Associated Fields [Paris, 1-4 July]
Posted in Statistics, University life with tags French universities, Markov chain, Markov model, MaSeMo, Paris, Paris Sorbonne Université, Place Jussieu, semi-Markov chain, workshop on May 7, 2025 by xi'an
