Archive for swimming pool
di ritorno a Venezia, nella privacy oceanica
Posted in pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags #ERCSyG, Bayesian privacy, Campo Sant'Alviso, canals, differential privacy, ERC, ERC Synergy Grant, Italia, laguna, Les Houches, Ocean, San Giobbe, swimming pool, uncertainty quantification, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Venezia, visiting position, workshop on March 15, 2026 by xi'an
[H]ouch[es]!
Posted in Running, Travel with tags #ERCSyG, Behaviours Invertebrates, Chamonix, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, ERC Synergy Grant, half-marathon, indoor swimming, Kandahar, Les Houches, MRI, Ocean, road running, running injuries, sciatic nerve, sciatica, spine, swimming pool on February 16, 2025 by xi'an
While the workshop schedule in Les Houches was rather tight and exhausting, I managed to squeeze in early morning runs as well as one (and only one) later morning ski session on the Kandahar run of Les Houches. Run that was quite nice due both to the quality of the snow and to the low occupancy, as French school vacations were not yet underway. Actually this Alpine week was my first week of steady running since Xmas, as my sciatica re-awoke on the very morning we were leaving for India, as I found out then during a 5am fast & furious run before heading to CDG Airport. It had been years since my sciatic nerve hurt that much and it took me up to my arrival in Chamonix to feel okay enough when running more than 4km at once. To compensate for the loss I turned through January to pool training most mornings but this proved more complicated, both timewise and locationwise, since very few nearby pools open at 7am at least once a week. And they are relatively nearby, meaning an extra 10km of extra biking at the very least each day. Henceforth a significant part of the morn having evaporated by the time I am heading to work. Still this daily training improved my swimming to some extent, mostly my endurance to get over 2km, as my speed only improved at most 10%! As I am preparing for another half-marathon at the end of March, I hope I can get back to the speed and volume reached the past Fall, tant pis for the swimming! (Unless I run to and from the pools.)
the incredible shrinking pools
Posted in Kids, Running, Travel with tags England, Milano, NHS, Oaxaca, Oxford, Paris, Public Health England, swimming pool, The Guardian on February 10, 2023 by xi'an
I was reading an opinion piece in The Guardian about the sorry state of public pools in England. With more and more closing for lack of proper funding, this being aggravated by the explosion in heating costs, as pools are excluded from governmental help. And the resulting impact on public health (and the NHS), since providing one less opportunity for exercising. And on general safety, since nowadays less children can swim… Which reminded me of the difficulty to find a pool in Oxford and Oaxaca. And of the cost of entering one in Roma and Milano. And of the relative accessibility of French pools, at least in cities, as shown by the estimation that 95% of the French high school students can swim to some extent.
a passage to & from India
Posted in pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bangalore, Bengaluru, Flybus, IISA, Indian Institute of Science, International Indian Statistical Association, jatp, Karnataka, Mysore, Mysuru, poster session, Restore, RJMCMC, swimming pool, Tata Institute, train travel on January 10, 2023 by xi'an
Our trip from Paris (CDG) to Bengaluru got a wee bit (!) perturbed by 2x bad luck, with a first plane grounded for damages to a wing and a second plane flashing an alarm signal just as it was accelerating to take off, which induced an extra hour of tests, plus an unexpected long wait to get the e-visa at the Bengalore airport, resulting in an arrival in town at 5:30 am! A good thing that my talk was only the next day.
I was glad to be back at the (Tata) Indian Institute of Science and its wonderful campus for the IISA meeting (taking place alternately in India and in the US). The conference program was rich and with a large Bayesian component, but being sleep deprived and slightly sick did not help with my concentration during the talks… Had however nice discussions during the poster session, including one on a most unusual RJMCMC where the model-to-model transform was the identity. In a sense this voided (?) the need for RJMCMC, but it allowed for a fast & valid exploration of the different models.
Quite a contrast in my local lodging conditions, when compared with my previous visit, since, rather than staying in the ideal visitors’ lodge located at the centre of the campus, I took the (bargain) offer (from IISA) of the nearby Sheraton (!) as the conference hotel with five star conditions, including a proper, outside, empty and non-heated swimming pool.
The (touristy) train trip to Mysore was most pleasant, on an air-conditioned carriage with food vendors proposing their wares all along the journey, great views of the countryside and an arrival sharp on time. The reverse trip to the airport was less successful as the FlyBus we took was crawling rather than flying, with heavy traffic all the way because/despite being New Year Eve’ning. At some point, a truck carrying what looked like kindling was stuck in a pothole, blocking the highway, and a crane was brought on site to push the truck out of the hole, a strategy that surprisingly worked. But we managed to reach the airport just before midnight, when absolutely nothing happened in relation with the entry into 2023! 
where to save [no gas & no nuke]
Posted in Books, pictures, Statistics, Travel with tags bad graph, cold water swimming, energy savings, French government, home heating, infographics, Libé, nuclear energy, Russian sanctions, swimming pool on October 18, 2022 by xi'an
Xi'an's Og 