Reading about the terrible news coming in from Bangladesh this morning regarding the earthquake. Always have this phobia of the tremblement de terre. Hoping the best for people affected by the tragedy.

Y a-t-il une chance que LFI remporte les élections municipales de mars à Paris ?

Violences policières : un ex-policier de la brigade de proximité Quatre-Chemins de Pantin condamné à un an de prison pour violences, trois agents relaxés ➡️ https://l.humanite.fr/dJN

I tend to forget how shocked many I know (including moi) were on discovering how weak liberté is in France. Sweeping rights of police to contrôle & shoot, no dedicated freedom of information law, and even things like restrictive naming laws. Hoping that true liberté comes in the 6e république.

J'adore les trains de nuit. Il est regrettable que ces alternatives écologiques - les trains de nuit - disparaissent de France en raison de la fin des subventions accordées par le gouvernement français. Veuillez consulter cette page. sciences404.fr

L'ANEF est une honte. Tous les doctorants et post-doctorants étrangers que je connais ont été confrontés à cette situation et sont toujours choqués par cette incroyable incompétence. www.france24.com/fr/france/20...

Bergeaud-Blackler en train d'imploser depuis la nouvelle que Mamdani est maire de NY.

Le premier mois après mon arrivée en France, je cherchais des moyens de cuisiner à moindre coût à Paris. J'ai trouvé le compte insta d'une étudiante qui publiait des recettes, mais le compte a été désactivé en quelques jours. Devinez pourquoi ? And we dare speak of Mamdani.

📣[PÉTITION ATER] Depuis les revalorisations successives des salaires des doctorant·es contractuel·les entre 2021 et 2023, jusqu'à 2 300 euros bruts mensuels (sans charge de cours), les ATER sont moins payé·es que leurs collègues ayant pourtant moins d’ancienneté Pétition : openpetition.eu/!zpbxv ⬇️

Calling aspiring group leaders! We've just opened applications for group leader fellowship sponsorship to start a lab in UCL NPP. Deadline 5 Jan. @uclnpp.bsky.social tinyurl.com/3h33dvev

UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.

It should be obvious to French commentators that both the following facts are true : (1) a Zohran Mamdani could not be elected in France because of the lower acceptance and integration of minorities and (2) his economic agenda is pretty normal and not at all radical for France.

What would be the percentage of non-citizen (hence, non-voting) residents of New York City? I see data for foreign-born residents, immigrant residents, but not non-citizen residents. It is not the same, as immigrant and foreign-born might be naturalised US citizens, right?

Alors en quoi consiste exactement le grand « examen civique » requis pour obtenir une carte de séjour pluriannuelle (pour tous les doctorants et post-doctorants non-ressortissants de l'UE) à partir du 01.01.2026, qui résoudra tous les problèmes auxquels la France est confrontée ?

I had always wanted to post this clip from a weird movie on my first trip to the USA, so now that I am here for the first time in my life, here it is!

আমি তো ভীতু, বেশি জ্ঞানও নেই, থাকিও বিদেশে, আর “পলিটিকাল স্টেটমেন্ট” দেওয়ায় বারণ আছে, কিন্তু সত্যি বলছি, এই এক দশক পৃথিবীর এত জায়গায় এত লোক দেখলাম, কিন্তু মায় বাঙালির মত আত্মঘাতী, আত্মবিদ্বেষী, অন্ধ গাধাস্বগাধা জাতি দেখিনি, তা সে সীমান্তের এপারে হোক বা ওপার।

People of the USA, what scam is it that to save 30 minutes on a somewhat faster Amtrak Acela train from Washington DC to New York City, one has to pay four times as much as the North East Regional or Vermonter train? Vande Yuktrashtra?

I have not taken the RER B for 2 weeks now but have been commuting with the bus of my workplace. Not screaming, crying, shaking, throwing up nowadays. What is this new energy?!

The successor to Cardinal Richelieu, the Prime Minister of the French Kingdom, was known to feel cold and appreciate Indian Chinese food. He was Chilly Mazarin.

Getting bits & pieces back from a dream I saw last night. Involved attending a Giorgio Parisi lecture in Paris, & on the bus back with cool air on my face, watching cars on rainy roads speed by, spraying aerosol while humidity forces a bead of sweat to form slowly on my forearm.

Is there any French university that is *not* under administrative strain, thus delaying things even more so than usual, due to cyberattacks a few months to a few ago?

If any journal wants you to upload the figures of your academic paper separately from the text AND the figure legends separately from the paper, and that’s how you upload on bioRxiv, may the Lord of the Flies have mercy on you if we ever meet.

Syed Mujtaba Ali was probably the last Bengali litterateur who lived in, knew of, and was appreciated by Bengalis across modern borders. Born in what is now Assam (Sylhet), lived in Kolkata, Kabul, Cairo, and Dhaka - in British India, Indian Republic, East Pakistan, & Bangladesh.

I would love to read a book, Alok Rai Hindi Nationalism style, focusing on Bengal and on Bengalis, talking about their relationship to Hindustani, be it Hindi (India) or Urdu (Pakistan). Would be an interesting book.

Given my recent interests, it is crazy how dopamine is only called the 'pleasure molecule' in popular media, while it has such substantial effects on movement. Even Parkinson's Disease implicates issues in dopamine (substantia nigra). Why didn't I think more of this before?

This is the worst waste disposal bin design I’ve seen (this one’s on Avenue d’Italie). Completely malfunctioning with the slightest of wind. Wonder who came up with it!

125th birthday of Ligne 1 (and hence of Paris Métro) today! Here’s the newly inaugurated plaque at Porte Maillot.

Apparently Paris’s first place that claims to serve Indian Chinese, and it didn’t disappoint! The Chicken Manchurian was really good! Shera, Paris 17e.

Wait, the RER C is also not working?! I was supposed to go to Issy from Paris 13. They completely cut off Massy-Palaiseau from Paris? Because they had to hold the Olympics last summer ? Amazing!

What is exactly 'inclusive' in having a satellite meeting of NeurIPS in ... Copenhagen (EurIPS) again? Please tell me about how visas for the Schengen Area via the Kingdom of Denmark are easier to obtain than visas for the United States of America?

Instagram unironically helping solve doomscrolling by forcing one to pause with “ad breaks” while scrolling if you choose to have non-personalised ads and also don’t want to pay 7.99€ a month.

If you didn't hate cars on Indian roads enough yet, here's all the more reason to. indianexpress.com/article/citi...

Happy national day to the French Republic, and happy last day before the RER B starts going bonkers for 2 months and essentially cuts off the Saclay plateau from Paris, asking people to ... postpone their work ... for 2 months. Amazing productivity expectations.

Heart skipped a beat when I saw a 'correction' on a beautiful and famous paper - Dung beetles use the Milky Way for orientation - 12 years after its appearance, but it's just a reporting error of units, which does not change the conclusions. Thank the Milky Way!

Things I learnt today that I can use to get out of situations : - Did you call me a DORK? - No, I meant Drosophila open-rectifier K+ channel

As I wait again for ANEF to literally just *do their one job*, I read - « Ils attendent, souvent dans le silence, un ­renouvellement de titre de séjour qui n'arrive pas, un récépissé qui tarde, une réponse qui ne vient jamais. » www.latribune.fr/la-tribune-d...

Il est minuit à Delhi Il est cinq heures au Mali Quelle heure est-il au Paradis ?

Looking at what architectural marvels to visit in Mumbai and - what's the grey-brown-beige colour that's on most of the colonial-era architecture of Mumbai from? Sandstone and limestone with added pollution? Looks good!

It's 'scientific refugees' if it's from the USAmerique region of France, else it's sparkling economic immigrants who are, & I quote, joining a program, which aims to woo researchers who have experienced or fear funding cuts. www.politico.eu/article/meet...

OMG, I just tasted Japanese Karamucho hot chilli chips in Paris and they are almost exactly like the Lays Magic Masala ones!

It will never not be funny about how much the French used to hate the British, so much so that they funded the then colonial separatists (« Americans ») in the 18th century, leading to economic ruin and eventually the French Revolution.

The air is cool, the sky is overcast, the city is getting back home, heaving a sigh of relief. Paris 13e.

New month, new courriel to the préfecture de Paris, asking them to reimburse 180€ that they wrongly charged me 9 months ago, while I read about how they paid 15,000€ in legal fees for the kind policeman who executed a teenager for the crime of ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶A̶r̶a̶b̶ speeding.

L’État qui aime la police ! 🥰😘 www.liberation.fr/societe/poli...

I thought that the fake Bourbon of India guy was from Bhopal, but I’m seeing this tacky fake Versailles chateau with gold switches and dozens of luxury cars in … Indore, owned by a … government contractor? Look to the Pays-Central, Jacques Necker.

I try to take the only bus back from work (it’s usually too early for me) on days like this (heatwave) as the bus has an AC. However, I had to walk 10 minutes to the bus-stop and OMG. Zero tree-cover, almost melting hot concrete, desiccating air, hell. Got a heat-headache.

WOW, WE'RE DOING TARDIGRADE NEUROSCIENCE? Noice! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Seeing clueless online children on this site go - this foreign-born person (e.g. Zohran Mamdani) lived in the USA for 20 years, why did they wait so long as a foreigner and not naturalize, strange! - and I just can't. They ... don't know *anything* about naturalization, eh?