After a rather extended shelf-life, our paper expectation propagation as a way of life: a framework for Bayesian inference on partitioned data which was started when Andrew visited Paris in… 2014!, and to which I only marginally contributed, has now appeared in JMLR! Which happens to be my very first paper in this journal.
Archive for New York
Expectation Propagation as a Way of Life on-line
Posted in pictures, Statistics, University life with tags Andrew Gelman, Bayesian computation, Bayesian inference, big data, distributed Bayesian inference, Edward Hopper, expectation-propagation, gas, gas station, JMLR, Journal of Machine-Learning, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, way of life on March 18, 2020 by xi'anThe Magicians [book review]
Posted in Books, Kids, Travel, Wines with tags Ben Aaronovitch, Harry Potter, Hudson river, Lev Grossman, Melbourne, New York, Rivers of London, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Magicians, young adult books on September 17, 2016 by xi'an
While in Melbourne, I heard a recommendation for Lev Grossman’s The Magicians and the next day, while checking the Melbourne Writers Festival bookstore, found the book (rather than the Kristoff volume I was seeking), bought it, and read it within a few days.
‘Brakebills will remind readers of Hogwarts, though with more illicit fondling. Grossman has written what could crudely be labeled a Harry Potter for adults.” , NYT
So is this an Harry Potter for adults?! First, I think Harry Potter can be read by adults (if I qualify as adult!). This remark presumably means the book should not be read by young readers, maybe, due to recurrent sex and alcohol consumption, plus some drugs and an overall depressive tone.
Back to Harry Potter, there is the same magical boarding school feeling, even though it is located in upstate New York on the Hudson river. And not in Scotland. With an equivalent to Quidditch, an evil magician, exams, surly teens, one or two love triangles, &tc. If in a more modern and American way. The difference with Harry Potter is that it also doubles as Narnia! A Narnia eventually turned wrong and sour, but nonetheless a strong similarity of stories and ideas. Of course, this parallel could be seen as an attempt at deconstruction, exhibiting the inconsistencies in the original novels, but it is so subtle it does not feel like it. There are the same encounters with sentient animal creatures, who never reappear after, the same call for Kings and Queens, as in Narnia. This lack of depth at exploring the connections between Harry Potter, Narnia and even some aspects of the Wheel of Time is frustrating in that something great could have come of it. And then… then… comes the worst literary trick in my list, the call to a subterranean quest with endless monsters and accidents! (I obviously exclude Tolkien’ Moria episode from this list!!!) Concluding with the evil character dumping information in the last battle to explain missing bits and pieces in the story.
So, in conclusion, not such a magical book, even though I read it within a few days thanks to my 39 hour trip back to Paris. The Magicians remains too teeny for my taste, hearing self-deprecating depressive monologues occurs way too often to make the main character congenial, and the story has not enough depth or structure to be compelling. A reviewer rightly pointed out it feels like fandom fiction. Rather than a universe on its own. (As for instance Aaronovitch’ Rivers of London series.)
Cayuga 1989
Posted in Kids, Travel, Wines with tags American wines, Cayuga Lakes, Cornell University, Finger Lakes, Ithaca, New York on August 20, 2015 by xi'an
George’s dream
Posted in Kids, Travel with tags Auckland, dishwasher, George Casella, Ithaca, New York, New Zealand on April 11, 2015 by xi'an
While I have shared this idea with many of my friends [in both senses that I mentioned it and that they shared the same feeling that it would be a great improvement], the first time I heard of the notion was in George Casella‘s kitchen in Ithaca, New York, in the early 1990’s… We were emptying the dishwasher together and George was reflecting that it would be so convenient to have a double dishwasher and remove the need to empty it altogether! Although, at the moral level, I think that we should do without dishwashers, I found this was a terrific idea and must have told the joke to most of my friends. I was nonetheless quite surprised and very pleased to receive the news from Nicole today that Fisher & Paykel (from Auckland, New Zealand) had gone all the way to produce a double dishwasher, or more exactly a double dishdrawer, perfectly suited to George’s wishes! (Pleased that she remembered the notion after all those years, not pleased with the prospect of buying a double dish washer for more than double the cost of [and a smaller volume than] a regular dishwasher!)
1500th, 3000th, &tc
Posted in Books, R, Statistics, University life with tags Bayesian statistics, blog statistics, book reviews, Brandon Sanderson, Millenium, Mistborn, New York, R, R-bloggers, Ross Ihaka, Stieg Larsson, sudoku, thunderstorm on January 8, 2012 by xi'anAs the ‘Og reached its 1500th post and 3000th comment at exactly the same time, a wee and only mildly interesting Sunday morning foray in what was posted so far and attracted the most attention (using the statistics provided by wordpress). The most visited posts:
| Title | Views |
|---|---|
| Home page | 203,727 |
| In{s}a(ne)!! | 7,422 |
| “simply start over and build something better” | 6,264 |
| Julien on R shortcomings | 2,676 |
| Sudoku via simulated annealing | 2,402 |
| About | 1,876 |
| Of black swans and bleak prospects | 1,768 |
| Solution manual to Bayesian Core on-line | 1,628 |
| Parallel processing of independent Metropolis-Hastings algorithms | 1,625 |
| Bayesian p-values | 1,595 |
| Bayes’ Theorem | 1,537 |
| #2 blog for the statistics geek?! | 1,526 |
| Do we need an integrated Bayesian/likelihood inference? | 1,501 |
| Coincidence in lotteries | 1,396 |
| Solution manual for Introducing Monte Carlo Methods with R | 1,340 |
| Julian Besag 1945-2010 | 1,293 |
| Tornado in Central Park | 1,093 |
| The Search for Certainty | 1,016 |
Hence, three R posts (incl. one by Julien and one by Ross Ihaka), three (critical) book reviews, two solution manuals, two general Bayesian posts, two computational entries, one paper (with Pierre Jacob and Murray Smith), one obituary, and one photograph news report… Altogether in line with the main purpose of the ‘Og. The most commented posts:
Not exactly the same as above! In particular, the posts about ABC model choice and our PNAS paper got into the list. At last, the top search terms:
| Search | Views |
|---|---|
| surfers paradise | 1,050 |
| benidorm | 914 |
| introducing monte carlo methods with r | 514 |
| andrew wyeth | 398 |
| mistborn | 352 |
| abele blanc | 350 |
| nested sampling | 269 |
| particle mcmc | 269 |
| bayesian p-value | 263 |
| julian besag | 257 |
| rites of love and math | 249 |
| millenium | 237 |
| bayesian p value | 222 |
| marie curie | 221 |
| bonsai | 200 |
(out of which I removed the dozens of variations on xian’s blog). I find it rather sad that both top entries are beach towns that are completely unrelated to my lifestyle and to my vacation places. Overall, more than a half of those entries do not strongly relate to the contents of the ‘Og (even though I did post at length about Saunderson’s Mistborn and Larsson’s Millenium trilogies). At last, the most popular clicks are
which include links to my books on Amazon, Andrew Gelman’s, Terry Tao’s, Radford Neal’s and Romain François’s blogs, the CREST stat students collective blog, and a few arXiv papers of mine’s…
