Archive for California
no filter [no jatp]
Posted in Kids, Mountains, pictures with tags California, climate change, Concord, forest fires, getty images, global warming, jatp, Limeridge, particle filter, red sun, The New Abnormal, USA on September 14, 2020 by xi'andeadend of the day [no filter]
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags California, climate change, drought, forest fires, getty images, global warming, Kalama, Oregon, sunset, The Guardian, Washington State on September 11, 2020 by xi'anStein’s method in machine learning [workshop]
Posted in pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags California, Charles Stein, ICML 2019, LA, Long Beach, machine learning, Stein's method, Stein's paradox, University of Warwick, USA, workshop on April 5, 2019 by xi'anThere will be an ICML workshop on Stein’s method in machine learning & statistics, next July 14 or 15, located in Long Beach, CA. Organised by François-Xavier Briol (formerly Warwick), Lester Mckey, Chris Oates (formerly Warwick), Qiang Liu, and Larry Golstein. To quote from the webpage of the workshop
Stein’s method is a technique from probability theory for bounding the distance between probability measures using differential and difference operators. Although the method was initially designed as a technique for proving central limit theorems, it has recently caught the attention of the machine learning (ML) community and has been used for a variety of practical tasks. Recent applications include goodness-of-fit testing, generative modeling, global non-convex optimisation, variational inference, de novo sampling, constructing powerful control variates for Monte Carlo variance reduction, and measuring the quality of Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms.
Speakers include Anima Anandkumar, Lawrence Carin, Louis Chen, Andrew Duncan, Arthur Gretton, and Susan Holmes. I am quite sorry to miss two workshops dedicated to Stein’s work in a row, the other one being at NUS, Singapore, around the Stein paradox.
California fires
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags Butte Meadows, California, Chico, climate change, drought, forest fire, Malibu, Neil Young, Paradise on November 17, 2018 by xi'an
“Imagine a leader who defies science, saying these solutions shouldn’t be part of his decision-making on our behalf. Imagine a leader who cares more for his own, convenient option than he does for the people he leads. Imagine an unfit leader. Now imagine a fit one.” Neil Young
Among the many fires that raged and rage throughout the West coast of both US and Canada this year the terrible one that took place in Paradise, near Chico, a few days ago was made much more personal by being the area where we had spent a week on holidays in Lassen National Park. While I think the place escaped the fire, it would be great to hear from the people who hosted us that they are safe… [The quote from Neil Young is related to another fire in Malibu.]