Archive for USA

Vive les Nations unies ! Merci

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 5, 2026 by xi'an

On his last year of the French Presidency, Emmanuel Macron delivered a marathon speech at the UN General Assembly (which he could attend, contrary to the Palestinian delegation). Here it is, verbatim, and en français. The principles stated therein are commendable and aligned with the fundamentals of a progressive, multilateralist, integral democracy.  Unfortunately, the EU and even more France on its own are mostly unable to make progress on the directions highlighted in this discourse…  (It does not help that the French government caved in on Russian sanctions a few days earlier to free hostages in Azerbaïdjan. Or that a stress test published the previous day shoes France is poorly protected against reactionary, illiberal drifts à la Trump or à la Orban.)

Depuis ce matin, ici se succèdent les discours qui disent l’état du monde. Et j’ai peur de manquer d’originalité en le décrivant. Chacun décrit en effet le retour de l’impérialisme, de l’arrogance, du retour à la force sans règle ni retenue. Un monde au fond de concentration du pouvoir où quelques-uns pensent qu’on peut battre en brèche l’ordre international pour élargir ses frontières, où d’autres pensent qu’on peut fouler au pied la souveraineté des peuples pour en disposer soi-même, et où quelques-uns pensent pouvoir décider de l’avenir de la planète, qu’il s’agisse du climat ou de l’intelligence artificielle. Au fond, la question qui nous est posée de manière très simple consiste à savoir si nous voulons vivre dans cet état de nature, avec une forme de retour de la loi de la jungle ou dans une société internationale civilisée. Notre devoir, plus que jamais, est de nous tenir droit aux côtés des Nations unies pour décider précisément ensemble de l’intérêt commun, c’est-à-dire du côté de ceux qui veulent choisir librement leur destin, leurs alliances, leurs modèles de développement, leur avenir, du côté de ceux qui refusent que leur souveraineté soit confisquée par la force injuste ou par la peur, et du côté de l’espoir. C’est la raison d’être de notre organisation, cette maison commune qui réunit les peuples libres, égaux, qui est fondée sur l’égalité souveraine de chacun de ses membres. C’est notre charte qui empêche que la puissance des uns leur permette de décider pour les autres. C’est elle surtout qui nous oblige à faire ensemble la démonstration de notre engagement et de notre capacité d’agir utilement.
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off to Durham

Posted in Kids, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2026 by xi'an

invited sessions for BayesComp 2027

Posted in pictures, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 12, 2026 by xi'an

BayesComp 2027, ISBA computational conference (and successor to the MCMski series) will take place in Texas A&M University, College Station, on 18-20 May 2027. The scientific committee has launched a call for invited session proposals, with deadline 15 Aug 2026. For those unable to get to Texas, a mirror meeting is planned in Aussois, French Alps, on the same week. (Details to follow.)

how to qualify a State where…

Posted in Kids, pictures, Statistics, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 8, 2026 by xi'an
  • death penalty by firing squads is being reinstated
  • foreign, extra-judiciary, State killings are praised by the highest levels of the administration
  • counter-powers and political opponents are threatened with legal action
  • local and national bodies are actively and aggressively pursuing voter suppression tactics
  • scientific bodies are silenced to cater to anti-vaxers and anti-abortion organisations
  • avoidable mortality rose from 2009 to 2021, while it declined in most other high-income countries
  • the judiciary and the legislature are silenced
  • a former F.B.I. director is indicted for a Instagram image of seashells
  • the President pushes for a personality cult (e.g., posting his picture on passports, creating an gallery of presidential portraits demeaning his predecessors and extolling himself, and broadcasting images of himself as an healing Christ),
  • threatens to destroy a millenial civilization,
  • and intends to build an triumphal arch that competes with Napoléon’s Arc de Triomphe
  • the Vice President gives theology lessons to the Pope
  • the Defence Department is renamed the Department of War
  • and its secretary is invoking divine sanction for illegal, criminal, military actions, if confusing quotes from the bible with quotes from Pulp Fiction

Strikingly, Mother Jones draws a strong parallel between the grievances against King George III in the Declaration of Independence and the above…

Nature likes official statistics

Posted in Books, Statistics, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2026 by xi'an

Nature is (rightly!) concerned about official statistics around the World and ran a feature article on the topic in its issue of 12 March 2026. It stresses the multiple reasons for supporting a sound, independent, trustworthy national statistic office. The article explores the issues with four national statistic bureaux, for the US, the UK, India, and Argentina. (As my whole career has been associated with the French official statistics institute, INSEE, first as a student, then as a researcher, I would have liked to hear some external views on this institute, albei methinks the situation is not as dire here, despite a permanent reduction in staff over the past decade, to the point the landmark INSEE building in Malakoff has now been dismantled.)

The issue with the US system is predictably mixing political interference à la Trump and budget cuts again à la Trump. Referring to a 2025 ASA report. Longitudinal surveys have been terminated after running 30 years. While preserving its famous independence, the UK Office for National Statistics is facing mistrust from the public that in turn reduces the reliability of its labour survey, with a response rate of 13% in 2023! The UK Government has responded by creating a  National Statistician…. Concerning India, well-known for its love of official statistics, the concern is again with the government interventions against NSC, and Argentina suffers from the same woes, Milei refusing an update of the way inflation is calculated by the national institute NDEC, leading to the departure of the current director (whose remote predecessor was put on trial by an earlier government!)

“Decisions based on incomplete or incorrect knowledge are invariably bad, even harmful. That is why the statistics that governments collect need to be as accurate and as verifiable as possible.”

In what appears (now?) as a common trend in Nature, a tribune on the same topic appeared in the following edition of 19 March 2026. With the call to “fix surveys”, in part battered by systemic underfunding and sapped by low answer rates. And the somewhat paradoxical complaint that private philanthropies like the Gates Foundation is supporting less worldwide surveys like the Demographic and Health Survey Program, which should be the responsibility of governments.