This is an article about Prof. El Karoui from way back in March 2006:
Lately, Ms. El Karoui has been vocal in warning students to use derivatives carefully. She says she is perturbed that an instrument that began primarily as a hedge for banks and financial firms against market risk is increasingly being used as a way to make a profit. Investors can profit, for example, by betting that the prices of stocks or bonds will increase. Ms. El Karoui worries that those looking for quick speculative gains could ramp up their bets on derivatives, but lose sight of the underlying financial instruments on which they're based, actually increasing their risk exposure.
"Some clients aren't mature enough to understand the risks of products that are too complex," she says. "It's better to do business with those people responsibly, either taking the time to teach them or selling them a less complex product."
Her daughter is an assistant professor in the department here - hopefully her course on empirical processes and non-parametric statistics in the spring will be as insightful as her mother is!
x
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Smug
Hiya, your homework for this week is to watch this, its very relevant. Please note that this is probably the last weekly update - I'm gonna switch to fortnightly updating after this.
I went to a day long music festival thing yesterday, much like some of the one day london festivals that happen. Highlights include watching a washed up Mike Skinner miserably failing to work the U.S. crowd whilst completely fucked on coke and really stoned, discovering the amazing Dan Deacon, and meeting the most retarded American so far. The following conversation took place after him guessing that I was from Australia:
RETARD: (to my friend) Oh, so your from Norway - do they, like, all have blond hair there?
I point to her clearly brown hair.
RETARD: Oh, okay, except for her.
NON-RETARD (person next to us): Yeh, like when we go to Europe and people ask us if Americans are all fat.
ME: Fair enough.
RETARD: Yeh, its like that steriotype that everyone in Portland is a lesbian.
ME: Is that a district in San Francisco - because there really are a lot of lesbians here you know.
RETARD: (looking outraged) WHAT! You don't know where Portland is? Its in Oregon. You do know where Oregon is don' you?
ME: Er, yeh, its near here right?
RETARD: (interupting me telling him that its just north of California) It's just North of California dude! How thew FUCK could you not know that? I learnt that in second grade! God, you retard.
ME: Er, okay, do you know where Manchester and Liverpool are?
RETARD: I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR INSIGNIFICANT SHITTY LITTLE ISLAND!
He's definately letting the side down. Most people I've met have been quite bright, and very welcoming, and do not fit the steriotype that americans assume their county is by far and away the most important thing in the world, so that if they learnt all the states is second grade, so must everyone else have.
Anyway, on a personal note, I've had a lot of fun this week (mainly laughing at Alex who cracked his rib in a drunken play fight with his scottish friend, but also going to bars and such, and meeting some people from outside of the now claustrophobic I-House), and I am just about beginning to feel at home.
Truck on keepin'
x
I went to a day long music festival thing yesterday, much like some of the one day london festivals that happen. Highlights include watching a washed up Mike Skinner miserably failing to work the U.S. crowd whilst completely fucked on coke and really stoned, discovering the amazing Dan Deacon, and meeting the most retarded American so far. The following conversation took place after him guessing that I was from Australia:
RETARD: (to my friend) Oh, so your from Norway - do they, like, all have blond hair there?
I point to her clearly brown hair.
RETARD: Oh, okay, except for her.
NON-RETARD (person next to us): Yeh, like when we go to Europe and people ask us if Americans are all fat.
ME: Fair enough.
RETARD: Yeh, its like that steriotype that everyone in Portland is a lesbian.
ME: Is that a district in San Francisco - because there really are a lot of lesbians here you know.
RETARD: (looking outraged) WHAT! You don't know where Portland is? Its in Oregon. You do know where Oregon is don' you?
ME: Er, yeh, its near here right?
RETARD: (interupting me telling him that its just north of California) It's just North of California dude! How thew FUCK could you not know that? I learnt that in second grade! God, you retard.
ME: Er, okay, do you know where Manchester and Liverpool are?
RETARD: I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR INSIGNIFICANT SHITTY LITTLE ISLAND!
He's definately letting the side down. Most people I've met have been quite bright, and very welcoming, and do not fit the steriotype that americans assume their county is by far and away the most important thing in the world, so that if they learnt all the states is second grade, so must everyone else have.
Anyway, on a personal note, I've had a lot of fun this week (mainly laughing at Alex who cracked his rib in a drunken play fight with his scottish friend, but also going to bars and such, and meeting some people from outside of the now claustrophobic I-House), and I am just about beginning to feel at home.
Truck on keepin'
x
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Okay, as promised here is a feast of audio visual entertainment:
It's not as good as on a boat, but it has a catchy main quote: Like a Boss.
Space greatness. No explanation needed.
Nest up, do you remember that song Cotton Eye Joe? (Here's a quick reminder if you don't). Well, ever wonder what they did next? A massive artistic step forward for sure.
Whilst we're thinking about 90's classics, how about this one?
Okay, now some science. Have you heard of the Mandelbrot Set? It is a picture constructed using an incredibly simple rule, and yet this picture is infinitely complex. The rule is, take any point c in the 2 dimensional plane (i.e. a flat surface with some point designated as zero), then square it (according to complex multiplication - don't worry, it isn't actually 'complex' in the normal sense) and add on c. Do the same with the new number, then again, then again, and so on. Give a colour to that point according on how fast this moves off to infinity, or whether it stays finite. You get the following thing!
That gives you an idea of the general structure, now this should show you how deeply complex this shape is - this video is always zooming in, even when it looks like it is zooming out. By the time it finishes, if the original shape was drawn on the final scale, it would probably be way larger than the universe. Watch it here.
Now think for a minute. What does this tell you? Infinite, beautiful and varied complexity. Form beyond imagination and the symmetry of the gods. All from a one mind blowingly simple equation. It is fundamentally awesome.
One last thing, if you didn't watch this yet, do. Even if you did watch it last week, the latest version is in HD.
x
It's not as good as on a boat, but it has a catchy main quote: Like a Boss.
Space greatness. No explanation needed.
Nest up, do you remember that song Cotton Eye Joe? (Here's a quick reminder if you don't). Well, ever wonder what they did next? A massive artistic step forward for sure.
Whilst we're thinking about 90's classics, how about this one?
Okay, now some science. Have you heard of the Mandelbrot Set? It is a picture constructed using an incredibly simple rule, and yet this picture is infinitely complex. The rule is, take any point c in the 2 dimensional plane (i.e. a flat surface with some point designated as zero), then square it (according to complex multiplication - don't worry, it isn't actually 'complex' in the normal sense) and add on c. Do the same with the new number, then again, then again, and so on. Give a colour to that point according on how fast this moves off to infinity, or whether it stays finite. You get the following thing!
That gives you an idea of the general structure, now this should show you how deeply complex this shape is - this video is always zooming in, even when it looks like it is zooming out. By the time it finishes, if the original shape was drawn on the final scale, it would probably be way larger than the universe. Watch it here.
Now think for a minute. What does this tell you? Infinite, beautiful and varied complexity. Form beyond imagination and the symmetry of the gods. All from a one mind blowingly simple equation. It is fundamentally awesome.
One last thing, if you didn't watch this yet, do. Even if you did watch it last week, the latest version is in HD.
x
Monday, October 5, 2009
A Birthday Present
It's my birthday, and I have a present for all of you.
Please be as mash-up as possible before watching this. Then watch it. Repeatedly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ICcz6kXP0
x
Please be as mash-up as possible before watching this. Then watch it. Repeatedly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ICcz6kXP0
x
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Liber und liber
It's rare to say right or left wing here, mostly people are categorised as liberal or conservative, and The Bay Area (San Francisco and its environs) is the liberal capital of America. I don't need to tell the history - the beat poets, the acid waves, the student riots, the gay culture, and so on - it is the history of our time, the time of freedom.
People here care passionately about liberal values - I was at the physio the other day to try and get some exercises for my back, and the first conversation she struck up whilst investigating the inner workig of my spine was about healthcare and climate change. It took me aback a bit, politics is not even for the dinner table let alone the doctors office.
It's not just the residents though - you have to consider the type of people that Berkeley attracts (yes, including me). A short anecdote should illustrate this: one sunny Sunday I went to sit outside and have brunch. I joined a table of people, most of whom I had met before, and all of whom were continental European (tight jeans, nice scarfs, crossed legs, etc.). It emerged that they were talking about 9/11. Fully 5 out of 7 people there thought that there was more to it than just Al Qaeda, with various reasons (I was not one of the 6). There was a political science student who said that it was come up with in a think tank. There was an architecture student whose professor had said that they couldn't believe that the buildings would have collapsed in the way they did without explosives. Some thought that Bush was involved, others not. Thankfully another statistician arrived after a few minutes and started to back up my argument that the probability of everyone involved keeping it secret was almost zero. Anyway, that tells you what we're dealing with here.
The university campus is open to the public because it is in effect owned by the public. This means that on the main 'street' you get lots of crazy preachers rabbiting on about loads of shit, and this definitely includes anti-capitalist nutjobs. What makes them so crazy is that everyone only every hears one or two sentences of their two hour shpeil. They are not, however, as crazy as this guy, who I am yet to see in real life but apparently he is there pretty regularly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J94_C-8Q9ao
There was the LoveFest yesterday, which rammed home this liberal thing - a dance music party in the middle of the city, in front of the civic centre, with tens of thousands of people and twenty different stages. Huge volumes of extacy and lots of nudity. Imagine the notting hill carnival but in trafalgar square and better music. That makes it sound like London is as liberal as here for allowing the carnival, but the attitude here is different - it feels like the city supports it, wants it, loves it. There were no policemen inside, and when the queue at the gates got too busy, they started letting people in for free. The atmosphere was, as the name suggests, full of love (the actual name was Lovelution, but I prefer the original name).
I am yet to visit Haight-Ashbury, but it has definitely left its mark - there is no taboo to start talking about psychedelics with the locals, they seem to be part of the fabric of growing up here.
One last thing - the student body is still very active. Last week, in protest to recent fee increases and funding cuts, thousands of students marched through campus and tried to get the governing powers to reconsider their approach to higher education - the claim being that the ideals of public education were being destroyed. They were not alone, most of the faculty and university staff went on strike as well, and very few classes took place. The whole university became connected, and for one day everyone was talking about the same thing - how to save the University of California. This may effect me too... watch this space.
Well done if you made it to the end of this, next time it'll be more fun, I'm gonna do some visual media hits.
Keep on truckin'
x
People here care passionately about liberal values - I was at the physio the other day to try and get some exercises for my back, and the first conversation she struck up whilst investigating the inner workig of my spine was about healthcare and climate change. It took me aback a bit, politics is not even for the dinner table let alone the doctors office.
It's not just the residents though - you have to consider the type of people that Berkeley attracts (yes, including me). A short anecdote should illustrate this: one sunny Sunday I went to sit outside and have brunch. I joined a table of people, most of whom I had met before, and all of whom were continental European (tight jeans, nice scarfs, crossed legs, etc.). It emerged that they were talking about 9/11. Fully 5 out of 7 people there thought that there was more to it than just Al Qaeda, with various reasons (I was not one of the 6). There was a political science student who said that it was come up with in a think tank. There was an architecture student whose professor had said that they couldn't believe that the buildings would have collapsed in the way they did without explosives. Some thought that Bush was involved, others not. Thankfully another statistician arrived after a few minutes and started to back up my argument that the probability of everyone involved keeping it secret was almost zero. Anyway, that tells you what we're dealing with here.
The university campus is open to the public because it is in effect owned by the public. This means that on the main 'street' you get lots of crazy preachers rabbiting on about loads of shit, and this definitely includes anti-capitalist nutjobs. What makes them so crazy is that everyone only every hears one or two sentences of their two hour shpeil. They are not, however, as crazy as this guy, who I am yet to see in real life but apparently he is there pretty regularly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J94_C-8Q9ao
There was the LoveFest yesterday, which rammed home this liberal thing - a dance music party in the middle of the city, in front of the civic centre, with tens of thousands of people and twenty different stages. Huge volumes of extacy and lots of nudity. Imagine the notting hill carnival but in trafalgar square and better music. That makes it sound like London is as liberal as here for allowing the carnival, but the attitude here is different - it feels like the city supports it, wants it, loves it. There were no policemen inside, and when the queue at the gates got too busy, they started letting people in for free. The atmosphere was, as the name suggests, full of love (the actual name was Lovelution, but I prefer the original name).
I am yet to visit Haight-Ashbury, but it has definitely left its mark - there is no taboo to start talking about psychedelics with the locals, they seem to be part of the fabric of growing up here.
One last thing - the student body is still very active. Last week, in protest to recent fee increases and funding cuts, thousands of students marched through campus and tried to get the governing powers to reconsider their approach to higher education - the claim being that the ideals of public education were being destroyed. They were not alone, most of the faculty and university staff went on strike as well, and very few classes took place. The whole university became connected, and for one day everyone was talking about the same thing - how to save the University of California. This may effect me too... watch this space.
Well done if you made it to the end of this, next time it'll be more fun, I'm gonna do some visual media hits.
Keep on truckin'
x
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Our own will to nothingness
"The quest is to be liberated from the negative, which is really our own will to nothingness. And, once having said yes to the instant, the affirmation is contagious. It bursts into a chain of affirmations that knows no limit. To say yes to one instant, is to say yes to all of existence."
- Waking Life -
The phrase "our own will to nothingness" often floats into my conscious stream of thought, and must linger ever present behind that. It means different things at different times, but right now it is all about blissful abandon, a state of being so fully in the present that there is nothing else, no thought, just love. The ego removed, the layers stripped away until there is nothing but your soul standing there, naked and bare.
In other words, I got drunk last night.
There was what I can only describe as a bop in the I-House cafe, followed by an afterparty in the games room. Both had huge speakers and incredibly good electro house. Everyone was in their finest neon outfits, there were red cups a plenty, and the good times rolled. I had to lend out my room to someone for some nefarious purpose and whilst waiting for them to finish and get out I fell asleep in the corridor and had to be woken up by someone at about 6am suggesting that maybe I should go to bed. I also woke up this morning to discover that I had completely fucked my ankle. It was all very classy. Not quite as classy as one of the first parties here when I dropped an almost full bottle of wine so that it smashed and most of it went over the jeans of a very unimpressed girl.
Drinking is different here. The majority of English university students would be classed as alcoholics - drinking every day is a strange and scary notion to most at I-House, and probably rightly so. I might be getting a skewed view, I'm sure the frats are a different story. Under 21s can't go to bars so they go to frats and get older people to buy the drinks, but it means that a lot of people are pretty new to proper boozing. There is something puritan still about the states, even here in California. It is one of the main contributors to the feeling that despite being an incredibly advanced country, these guys are 50 years behind us. Take healthcare for example. Our battle for universal healthcare took place 50 years ago. Theirs is being fought right now. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONKxGko-JNI - So different from anything you will ever see in UK politics. Also note how at some point Obama throws in the idea of the social state and makes it so apparent that it is the only reasonable option. It really is a big deal what he's doing here.)
More things that are fucking archaic: banks charge you to use their cash machines if your account is not with them; pay as you go phones are only just getting popular; you have to pay to receive texts as well as send them; electric kettles are a rarity - most people just have coffee brewing machines; and techno is minimal here (in terms of how many people have heard of it as a distinct thing from house).
There is a latin party downstairs tonight. And no, not the kind where we sit around and conjugate.
"We are nihilists. We believe in nothing, Lebowski. Nothing."
x
- Waking Life -
The phrase "our own will to nothingness" often floats into my conscious stream of thought, and must linger ever present behind that. It means different things at different times, but right now it is all about blissful abandon, a state of being so fully in the present that there is nothing else, no thought, just love. The ego removed, the layers stripped away until there is nothing but your soul standing there, naked and bare.
In other words, I got drunk last night.
There was what I can only describe as a bop in the I-House cafe, followed by an afterparty in the games room. Both had huge speakers and incredibly good electro house. Everyone was in their finest neon outfits, there were red cups a plenty, and the good times rolled. I had to lend out my room to someone for some nefarious purpose and whilst waiting for them to finish and get out I fell asleep in the corridor and had to be woken up by someone at about 6am suggesting that maybe I should go to bed. I also woke up this morning to discover that I had completely fucked my ankle. It was all very classy. Not quite as classy as one of the first parties here when I dropped an almost full bottle of wine so that it smashed and most of it went over the jeans of a very unimpressed girl.
Drinking is different here. The majority of English university students would be classed as alcoholics - drinking every day is a strange and scary notion to most at I-House, and probably rightly so. I might be getting a skewed view, I'm sure the frats are a different story. Under 21s can't go to bars so they go to frats and get older people to buy the drinks, but it means that a lot of people are pretty new to proper boozing. There is something puritan still about the states, even here in California. It is one of the main contributors to the feeling that despite being an incredibly advanced country, these guys are 50 years behind us. Take healthcare for example. Our battle for universal healthcare took place 50 years ago. Theirs is being fought right now. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONKxGko-JNI - So different from anything you will ever see in UK politics. Also note how at some point Obama throws in the idea of the social state and makes it so apparent that it is the only reasonable option. It really is a big deal what he's doing here.)
More things that are fucking archaic: banks charge you to use their cash machines if your account is not with them; pay as you go phones are only just getting popular; you have to pay to receive texts as well as send them; electric kettles are a rarity - most people just have coffee brewing machines; and techno is minimal here (in terms of how many people have heard of it as a distinct thing from house).
There is a latin party downstairs tonight. And no, not the kind where we sit around and conjugate.
"We are nihilists. We believe in nothing, Lebowski. Nothing."
x
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