and it only gets worse [verbatim]

“Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy” M. Menezes, US Secretary of Energy

“NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part)” DT,, 7 June

“I just met with the Queen of England (U.K.) [sic], the Prince of Whales [re-sic]” DT, 13 June

“[Sarah Sanders] is going to be leaving the service of her country and she’s going to be going  (…) She’s a very special person, a very, very fine woman, she has been so great, she has such heart, she’s strong but with great, great heart, and I want to thank you for an outstanding job.” DT, 13 June

“…when I asked, ‘How many will die?’ ‘150 people, sir’, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not … proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.” DT, 21 June

“The reason we have tragedies like that on the border is because that father didn’t wait to go through the asylum process in the legal fashion and decided to cross the river and not only died but his daughter died tragically as well,” K. Cuccinelli, head of US Immigration and Citizenship Services, 28 June

“If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. But if we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television.” DT, 24 June

5,000,883 signatures later…

put it to the people [last chance?!]

Meltdown expected, engines stop running…

BNP12

The next BNP (Bayesian nonparametric) conference is taking place in Oxford (UK), prior to the O’Bayes 2019 conference in Warwick, in June 24-28 and June 29-July 2, respectively. At this stage, the Scientific Committee of BNP12 invites submissions for possible contributed talks. The deadline for submitting a title/abstract is 15th December 2018. And the submission of applications for travel support closes on 15th December 2018. Currently, there are 35 awards that could be either travel awards or accommodation awards. The support is for junior researchers (students currently enrolled in a Dphil (PhD) programme or having graduated after 1st October 2015). The applicant agrees to present her/his work at the conference as a poster or oraly if awarded the travel support.

As for O’Bayes 2019, we are currently composing the programme, following the 20 years tradition of these O’Bayes meetings of having the Scientific Committee (Marilena Barbieri, Ed George, Brunero Liseo, Luis Pericchi, Judith Rousseau and myself) inviting about 25 speakers to present their recent work and 25 discussants to… discuss these works. With a first day of introductory tutorials to Bayes, O’Bayes and beyond. I (successfully) proposed this date and location to the O’Bayes board to take advantage of the nonparametric Bayes community present in the vicinity so that they could attend both meetings at limited cost and carbon impact.

dead as a dodo!

another tee-shirt issue

I bought this burgundy mountain equipment tee-shirt last time I was in Coventry as I found the play on the seam as a crack rather clever. (As if I needed new tee shirts!) I later reflected that the posture of the climber is quite wrong as this climber should not be holding the rope when falling: as I became rather painfully aware a few years, ropes can become dangerous when stretched in the vicinity of fingers… So I dropped a line to the company, which kindly replied to my email that they had digitised an actual picture of a falling climber, hoping no one would take this tee-shirt as a recommendation for lead falls! (Their site actually opens with a great picture of a climber on the iconic Totem Pole, Tasmania.)