In this 20 August edition, a wealth of data analysis papers, with many highly informative graphs. A call for China to better balance recognition for its junior scientists, another call for (US?) universities to treat bullying complaints in-depth rather than as a public relation exercise. The “compulsory” current status of the Trump 2.0 wreckage of US science with the Senate blocking the appointment of politicians for grant reviews. And with the absurd, ungrounded, health threatening split of the MMR vaccine. 
Another “compulsory” entry on climate change with a scary graph on the ocean surface temperatures rising way way above the confidence band represented by the previous measurements over 50 years. An interview (why?) of a CEO of the startup QED Science that claims an ability to automatically rank preprints and select the top 1% (why?!). Coïnciding with me receiving an email with a review by Claude of our Bayesian Adversarial Privacy paper! A report on the (defunct Starmer) UK Government cutting on fundamental physics projects. An article featuring the predicted rise in the use of exoskeletons, which I read on my way back from the lodge on Mount Fudji that was renting an exoskeleton to help with the climb! With an optimistic view on the consequences on people’s health and muscles. A short book review on Slobodian’s and Tarnoff’s Muskism, concluding that Musk(ism) lacks a coherent philosophy. (A Musk-read according to the Economist!) A long comment on the sleepless summer of the heatwaves, which led me clearly more tired than usual at the end of the summer break. (With a lot of should. And a focus on methodology.) Another one on the Middle East prospects as a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) hub, which sounds paradoxical in the current geopolitic situation. It made me wonder how sustainable are these SAFs? True, they recycle oils, gases and biomass, rather than extracting “new” oils, but they still pollute the air. And, true, they can fill empty returning tankers, but they divert investment and research from more renewable and less polluting alternatives. Among the actual scientific articles, a long review on the safety and security of LLMs in healthcare (but useless pictures). 
One on the massive floods that occurred in Europe in 1342-1343, possibly caused by volcanic eruptions plus Arctic sea ice retreat, nothing that could occur today of course! With massive socio-economic consequences. (And a great graph, except I do not see the point for the 2D projections. Or for modern state borders.) 
An analysis of intergenerational mobility in Europe with the unsurprising conclusion that it impacts innovation. (Go, Erasmus!) With a multivariate regression I did not investigate (using NUTS but not Andrew’s NUTS!). And graphs of intergenerational mobility per European country, with too many colours to be readable (and the regression line to make sense?). Another data analysis of the Pakistan Genome Resource, with distinctive traits of the many ethnicities of Pakistan. And the discovery of many clinically relevant genes (with a massive avalanche of p-values!).
Archive for sustainability
ISBA⁴
Posted in Books, pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags AI, BayesComp 2025, Bruno de Finetti, hitsumabushi, Japanese history, jatp, jISBA, Kouign-Aman, Lisieux, Magna Carta, morning run, Nagoya, Nagoya Castle, repulsive mixtures, shinto shrine, sustainability, urban trail on July 3, 2026 by xi'an
After a 5am run in emptied and very humid Nagano, to tour the castle grounds, if not the castle itself, with a rather unpleasant urban route, and a recovery matcha scone at the local French (-inspired) bakery, resisting the kouign aman!, I attended the highly diverse Bayesian non-parametric session (with mentions of Lisieux, near my childhood grounds, if in relation with English history, since the bishop of Lisieux appeared in Geoff Nicholls’ graph analysis. And Gregor Katzner’s repulsive mixtures.)
Then skipped Peter Muller’s de Finetti talk [sorry Peter!] with a few friends to get to nearby Atsuta-jingū (Shinto shrine) and the nearby Bunka-den, with a famous hitsumabushi (eel) restaurant that was alas fully booked. But a slightly less fancy one delivered well enough. This was a nice place, with a large park, full of worshippers clapping and touring the shrines. We even X’ed a group of salarymen in their company uniform welcomed by a Shinto priest.
And I was back in time for the junior Bayesian (jISBA) session. With Deborah Sulem talking on statistical fairness, which I could not fully distinguish from the general issue of missing covariates (corresponding to discriminated categories) or from unbalanced sampling. Jack Jewson (also coauthor of the paper with Deborah) argued about using quasi-likelihoods for consistent model selection, presumably most convincingly but jetlag hit during his talk and I had a fit of micro-naps… And Noirrit Chandra discussed a privacy-preserving Bayesian nonparametric approach through clusters and the release of MCMC outputs, close enough to my own research to fight the naps. The day closed with Emtiyaz Khan talking as at BayesComp last year on acceleration techniques as sustainable AI (although I am afraid this does not tackle the unsustainability of AI as a whole).
have a cuppa! [international tea day]
Posted in Mountains, Wines with tags FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization, health benefits, International Tea Day, sustainability, tea, United Nations on May 21, 2026 by xi'an
which State no longer bans neonicotinoids, farm oversize, water retention mega-basins, and muzzles its biodiversity and food security agencies?
Posted in Kids, Travel, Wines with tags agrobusiness, ANSA, bee killer, biodiversity, biodiversity loss, climate change, FNSEA, French Parliament, French politics, French Senate, intensive agriculture, Laidlaw, lobby, LPO, megabasin, megafarm, neonicotinoïds, OFB, pesticides, regression, sustainability, U-turn on July 24, 2025 by xi'an
Answer: The French State, most sadly. Both chambers voted in favour of a U-turn in environmental and public health protections, aptly named Loi Duplomb (Lead Law!) that sees
- Authorising anew neonicotinoïds, that are proven harmful to biodiversity and human health, which are nearly banned by the EU
- Allowing agents to being simultaneously pesticide advisor and provider
- Removing limitations on megafarm sizes and limiting public consultations on new projects
- Promoting water storage projects (so-called megabasins) that increase water shortage and only benefit intensive agriculture
- Introducing local supervision of the State Biodiversity Office (OFB) and imposing body cameras on its inspectors (some of whom were killed by farmers)
- Increasing political control on the State Food Security Agency (ANSA) about its judgements on phytopharmaceutical products
The new law gets its name of a right-wing senator and farmer, with the heavy support of the agroindustrial lobby (FNSEA). And was voted with the support of the far-right, right and most of the central block parties, catering to their farming voters. Spray, baby, spray….!
OCEAN day
Posted in Kids, pictures, Travel with tags 2025 UN Ocean Conference, CNRS, conservation, deep-sea mining, France, Goal 14, Ifremer, industrial fishing, marine protected areas, Nice, oceans, One Ocean Science Congress, plastic pollution, sustainability, UN, UNOCE 2025 on June 9, 2025 by xi'an
