Archive for Skye

ISBA³

Posted in pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2026 by xi'an

After another absurdly early run along the Sendai River, in higher humidity than yesterday, I had plenty of time to have breakfast and commute to the conference centre for our privacy section. (“Ours” since I organised and chaired the session, but also all speakers were related with our ERC OCEAN project.) With talks by Antoine Luciano (Dauphine), Shenggang Hu (Warwick) and Joshua Bon (formerly Dauphine), Shenggang presenting his work with Gareth on calibrating a DP, noisy, unbiased, version of Metropolis-Hastings. Given the other sessions highly competing with ours, this 100% OCEAN session was well-attended! My second morning session was the theory & method part of the Savage Award, with unfortunately two of the speakers stuck in the US for visa issues and presenting remotely. There have been years where this session suffered from competition from parallel sessions, but this time showed a quite decent attendance.

As most members of the scientific committee of the BayesComp mirror in Aussois were present, we went out for lunch at a nearby hitsumabushi restaurant to plan registrations and local sessions. Which proved very productive despite enjoying the fantastic eel dishes! If making me miss the beginning of the afternoon session… and then the whole session as the room on predictive Bayes was packed (and some speakers had already delivered on the Isle of Skye). I managed to get to Bottond Szabo’s Foundation lecture, with again common threads with Skye, and then returned to my rental as I was quickly crashing…

a journal of the Hugo year

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, University life, Wines with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2026 by xi'an

Read (over the past months) books I forgot to record in the Journal series namely, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain, by Sofia Samatar, a rather terrible take on Wells’ Time Machine where exploited live in the darkest parts of a space-ship and upper classes in the nicest places. With an unconvincing trio of characters and a paper-thin scenario, including an unconvincing pastiche of academic pettiness. Quite the disappointment! The latest Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London novel, Stone & Sky, a rather nice instalment in the series, if only because it is set in Northern Scotland (where I read it!), but with some weaknesses in the plot and a puzzling two-voice narrative that sounds unbalanced (in favour of Peter vs. Abigail). Plus a wee bit caricaturing Scottish people, methinks! And then, being a Hugo voting member for 2026, several books and short stories that I receive as part of the LACon package, like The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson read first because I love ravens! Especially the fantastic Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr. I had trouble beginning the book, but once the setting was established, I could follow the main character more easily. The character is enticing but the universe building is shaky and the scenario weak on many planes, making the central issues of solving a murder and finding a new emperor/ress more of a summer camp challenge than crucial problems. Plus an all-too-common fixation on meals and drinks consumed by the characters… It is getting worse towards the end. Likely my (first and) last volume in the Eternal Path Trilogy! Not high in my Hugo ranking then. And the (Murderbot) novelette “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells. Frankly disappointing. I do love the Murderbot series, but this short story highly disappointed me. Between feelings of déjà vu and annoyance at the constant bickering between the characters that reminded me of the nadir of the relationship between my two kids! Absolutely worth ignoring! Even in the Hugo ranking.

Due to repeated travel, plus a heat wave, I did not cook much besides salads and fruit purées, but enjoyed a haggis pie on Skye. And two (local versions of) pissaladières in Marseille. I also had to transfer my olives of the (2025) year into new jars as some had started to grow mould. Fortunately. most of them remained edible if somewhat sour. Thanks to Omiros’ expert advice, they are now maturing in olive oil.

Watched Sins of Kujo, inspired from a popular manga series, which is quite puzzling for its moral and ethical ambiguities.

the (In)accessible Pinnacle

Posted in Mountains, Running, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 1, 2026 by xi'an

While I already climbed the three northernmost peaks of the Cuillin ridge in August 2017, the eight other ones remained to be visited, with the most tantalising of them all, the Inaccessible Pinnacle! Also known as Sgùrr Dearg. And The Pin. The ICMS workshop was a unique opportunity for this. Which called for a guide in order to maximise the chances of success and also minimise the weight of my bag. In retrospect, given the wet and windy conditions that day, I could not have climbed the Pin by myself… There was no technical difficulty, plenty of holds for feet and hands, and the two pitches were quite short. But climbing with wet gloves, frozen hands, and hiking boots, under a strong wind,  made it a wee bit challenging, with the protection set midway by the (free-climbing) guide reassuring. The abseil was short (20m) and straightforward, even though the gale was pushing us sideway. It took less than one hour from the bottom of the pinnacle to the top and back to said bottom. Luckily, there was no other team before us, as we passed two of them on the hike up, and thus we did not have to wait in miserable conditions. And, bonus!, we were finished early enough to scramble to the nearby Sgùrr na Banachdaich (with some route finding skills required from Adam, my guide, in the relentless mist) and be back at the car in less than six hours. A terrific experience, fully enjoyed, if sadly missing the views (and hence the pictures!) since we stayed in the cloud the entire day. It is most unlikely that there will be another ICMS workshop to visit the other Skye Munroes before I retire!

Cuillins in majesty [jatp]

Posted in Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , on May 20, 2026 by xi'an

Scottish June

Posted in Mountains, pictures, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 23, 2025 by xi'an

I just found out that three almost consecutive events of academic interest are taking place in Scotland next Spring: first, our very own Approximately Bayes ICMS workshop (on the Isle of Skye, rather than at the Bayes Centre in Edinburgh, where we held ABC in Edinburgh), on 17-22 May

the SIAM Conference on Optimization (OP26) in Edinburgh on 2-5 June

and the Monte Carlo + quasi Monte Carlo (MCqMC 2026) conference in Edinburgh on 8-11 June

While I cannot realistically (!) attend all of these events, this accumulation of meetings is a perfect opportunity to enjoy the Athens of the North (aka Dùn Èideann, from which Dunnedin in New Zealand originates!). And the surrounding mountains.