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 In the Carreers section, a story from a geography researcher whose job offer was rescinded at the last moment, a scary thing that is alas not so rare.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 Roman Empire
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'ana journal of the Aregenua years
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, University life, Wines with tags affogato al caffè, archeology, Black Plague, boarding school, book reviews, Caen, Channel, conspiracy theories, Courseulle, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Dark Ages, FBI, Gallo-Roman culture, ghost story, gothic novels, half-marathon, Iranian regime, Islamic Republic of Iran, Journal of the Plague Year, museum, Roman Empire, Russian invasion, Stand Up To Trump, thriller, Ukraine, Vieux-la-Romain, Vieux-la-Romaine on May 10, 2026 by xi'an
Read The Moth Diaries, by Rachel Klein, presumably following a recommendation in The Guardian or on Tor’s Reactor blog. This is a 2002 book, labelled as gothic horror by the review I read then. However, there is little horror in the novel and much more of a diffracted snapshot of a perturbed pupil at a US boarding school, traumatised by the suicide of her father. As the story is told through and only through the diary of that pupil, most facts being reported second-hand and not always coherently, it becomes quickly impossible to separate truth from fantasy, especially the veracity of another pupil being a vampire. Or just the new best friend of the narrator’s former best friend. Which makes the book much more interesting, if unsettling. (Especially regarding how a sexual assault by a teacher on the pupil is not reported by her as such.)
During a May 01 trip to Caen, if not for the half-marathon, next month!, I visited the nearby fish market in Courseulle, where I tasted fantastic, local, oysters, possibly at the height of their growth, despite the warning to avoid oysters in months without R’s! I also taught a restaurant waiter how to make affogato! And visited the amazing archaeological site of Aregenua, in the tiny village of Vieux, of which I had never heard. This Gallo-Roman city was the centre of local power in the early centuries, when Caen hardly existed, with 5000 inhabitants, temples, a forum and a theatre. All of which gradually vanished in the Dark Ages… The site is now protected from pilfering, but a large fraction remains un-escavated. (Too bad the museum boutique was not selling garum!)
Watched some episodes of The Night Agent (2), rather efficient copycat of the Bourne movies, but also requiring a huge suspension of belief in its accumulation of coincidences and the ability of the agents to operate in completely new environments. With a completely implausible reception at the Iranian Embassy. (And a DGSE agent with an awful French.) But the tension in the cat & mouse “game” is there, to the point I had to split episodes when it got too intense!
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Posted in Books, Travel with tags Calibry, censoring, DEIA, Department of State, diversity, fonts, Newspeak, reactionaries, Roman Empire, The New York Times, Times New Roman, Trump administration, US politics on December 27, 2025 by xi'an
a Ostia antica [jatp]
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags jatp, kings of Rome, Ostia, Ostia Antica, River Tiber, Roma, Roman Empire, ruins, Tarquins on May 18, 2019 by xi'an
in the Pantheon [jatp]
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags Augustus, Catholic Church, Hadrian, jatp, Panthéon, Raphael, Roma, Roman Empire, Santa Maria Rotonda on May 15, 2019 by xi'an
