Archive for Vichy régime
entre ici, Marc Bloch!
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, University life with tags Alsace, André Malraux, Annales d’histoire économique et sociale, antisemitism, Dunkerque, Franc-Tireurs et Partisans, France, French history, French resistance, Gestapo, historian, L’Étrange Défaite, medieval historian, Panthéon, Sorbonne, Troisième République, Vichy régime, WW I, WW II on June 24, 2026 by xi'an
Borel and Langevin jailed [in 1941]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Statistics, University life with tags Abwehr, Académie des Sciences, anti-fascism, Camille Marbo, collaboration, Collège de France, Emile Borel, French Navy, French resistance, IHP, Institut Henri Poincaré, Jacques Solomon, Lucien Le Cam, Nazi occupation, Paul Langevin, Pétain, Vichy régime, WW II on December 1, 2024 by xi'an
When attending the Le Cam 100th anniversary day at IHP, I learned from Laurent Mazliak’s talk that Émile Borel Borel (then in his 70’s and a member of the French Académie des Sciences) was arrested and jailed for a few weeks in 1941, as well as Paul Langevin (both in 1940 and 1941), for political (left-wing) reasons (?), by German security services (Abwehr), with no involvement of the French collaborationist authorities who rather intervened towards their release (along with the German Navy!, unlikely connected with Borel being the minister of the French Navy in 1924!!). Possibly from denunciations sent to German forces. Possibly as a show of power by the occupying forces towards the Vichy government and Philippe Pétain. The fact that Borel and his wife, Camille Marbo, were actually engaged in the French Resistance at least from 1942 fortunately did not come to the knowledge of French police or German security. (Langevin was one of the founders of the 1934 Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes. In 1941, his son-in-law, Jacques Solomon, a physicist, got arrested and executed for founding a clandestine newspaper, l’Université libre. His daughter Hélène Solomon-Langevin got deported but survived several deportation camps.)
Nature snapshots
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Statistics, University life with tags AI, Bank of Sweden, computer-based proof, conjecture, cows, Daniel Kahneman, Emmanuel Macron, French politics, mathematics, Nature, Paris-Saclay campus, Pink Floyd, religious persecutions, SARS-CoV-2, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, Vichy régime, WW II on July 13, 2024 by xi'an
- One of the editorials is about AI-assisted design of mathematical conjectures. Reminding me of grant panels I took part in where candidates in pure maths were often focussing on solving one or many conjectures, as opposed to more applied branches (like statistics).
- Two entries about France, one about Macron’s idea of a European DARPA, unlikely to convince European partners after his calling most unnecessarily an election and bringing the extreme-right to its apex since the Vichy régime. Another one about the super mega campus Paris-Saclay unable to settle on a form of leadership and hence elect a president. Federalist versus centralised… Once again, thanks to Macron’s reckless gamble, his current Ministry for Higher Education may be in need of a position next month and could return to heading the campus.
- Worrying coverage of bird flu in US cows (not yet pigs on the wing but worrying enough) and of zombie cells that should have died and that new treatments can fight way better.
- A reflection on coming up with a treaty against AI weapons with autonomous kill decisions but isn’t it too late?!
- Building design that would avoid total collapse of a failing building, as in South Florida four years ago. But solely for new ones, unfortunately. (And the connection with lizards escapes me, except for managing to escape by loosing a tail…)
- A biography of Daniel Kahneman, decision-theorist, 2002 Nobel economics (aka Bank of Sweden) Prize, author of Thinking, Slow and Fast, and spending the WW II in occupied France hiding from round-ups by the Vichy police.
No!
Posted in Kids with tags abstention, cohabitation, cover, Emmanuel Macron, far-right, French parliement, French politics, Front National, Libé, National Assembly, national unity, nationalism, populism, snap vote, Vichy régime on July 7, 2024 by xi'an
France is headed for disaster [reposted]
Posted in Books, Kids, Travel with tags abstention, cohabitation, Emmanuel Macron, far-right, French parliement, French politics, Front National, National Assembly, national unity, nationalism, NYT, opinion, populism, snap vote, The New York Times, University College London, Vichy régime on July 2, 2024 by xi'an
