When I slid out of my weekly group meeting and logged into my Zoom call with Professor Yinyu Ye, I was surprised to find him in a classroom just like me—likely at a university in Hong Kong (HK Tech, perhaps?). All three of us had just logged off other meetings to hopped into this interview, which really feel casually—profound. The interview is a project for my “Modern Chinese History” class. It centered on exploring China’s “opening up” era from 1978 to today—a transformative period spurred by Deng Xiaoping’s market reforms....

La Bayadère is a classical ballet set in ancient India, telling a story rich in love, betrayal, and mystique. One of its iconic female characters is Gamzatti, the princess—a role often performed by the prima ballerina. Marianela Núñez’s portrayal of Gamzatti’s entrance—known as the “Gamzatti Variation"—perfectly embodies the princess’s pride and beauty. While a coarse version of this performance can be found on YouTube here, ballet lovers seeking higher-resolution gems might find BiliBili a surprisingly rich trove of treasures....

The Ph.D. application deadlines are coming—some music for luck and a bit of release: One of the lyrics is thought-provoking, see if you agree: Celebrated heads of state, or specially great communicators—did they have brains or knowledge? Don’t make me laugh! They were popular!

Built in the 12th century, modified in the 18th century, and restored in the 19th century, it is the symbol of Christian worship in Paris through the centuries. Source. Five years after the catastrophic fire that left the world mourning one of its most iconic landmarks (April 15, 2019), Notre-Dame de Paris is officially back. The grand reopening on December 8, 2024, feels like the perfect metaphor for our times—fragile yet determined, scarred but standing tall, and impatient: check out this snappy YouTube reel of remarkable 50-second storytelling....

This could be adapted into a movie: the intern who sabotaged Bytedance (TikTok)’s AI, sued by ByteDance for 8 Million, wins Best Paper awards at NeurIPS 2024. The full coverage of the previous drama can be found here. Here’s a reprise: An intern at ByteDance, resentful over perceived unfair resource distribution within the company, launched a covert operation to disrupt the training of machine learning models. This technical team experienced significant setbacks due to the intern’s malicious actions, which were aimed directly at the core of their model training tasks....

Story from the New York Times: How Google Spent 15 Years Creating a Culture of Concealment https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/technology/google-antitrust-employee-messages.html?unlocked_article_code=1.fk4.ERJz.hFVObsP-n_Cv&smid=url-share “Trying to avoid antitrust suits, Google systematically told employees to destroy messages, avoid certain words and copy the lawyers as often as possible."—for example, as dug up in DOJ’s lawsuit evidence: source The New York Time’s story dug down into how Google build and maintained its “What happens in Vegas” culture, and how it has annoyed the judges during the lawsuit....

The debate is over—now it’s time for everyone to sit back and wait for the results. Long story short: the Justice Department sued Google for monopolizing Ad Tech (a complaint filed January 2023). The trail began 2024 Sept.9 and lasted for two weeks at the Eastern District of Virginia, seating Judge Brinkema. After a three-month pause, the Justice Department and Google made their final closing argument on the hearing which took place Nov....

The U.S. Supreme Court adopted its first-ever ethics code in 2023. Following public trust concerns and controversies over Supreme Court justices’ financial disclosures (eg private trips sponsored by rich business man who benefited from rulings), summer 2023 saw Supreme Court justices swapping memos like secret agents—after which, the nine justices unanimously agreed on a first-ever code of ethics. However, behind the scenes, the court was divided on a critical issue: enforcement....

Here’s a collection of lecture notes from the Online Algorithm Seminar co-taught by Professors Hu Fu and Gavin Tang at SHUFE during Fall 2024. These courses explore cutting-edge topics in algorithmic game theory and theoretical computer science—truly exceptional material. For a brief overview and additional links, check out Prof. Hu Fu’s homepage. Introduction to online algorithms, competitive ratio for worst-case analysis, randomization and motivating example online learning, “the expert setting” and no-regret online matching: deterministic online matching online matching: randomized algorithm, primal-dual analysis bonus episode: “batched” online matching PENDING: random arrival model....

I’ve recently come across two impressive Chinese articles on education and school choice: How Many Crossroads Does It Take to Go from the First Year of Primary School to a Top University (FDU or SJTU). Link Do Students Perform Better If They Are Admitted to Middle School by Lottery? Link These articles form a quasi-series studying Shanghai’s education ecosystem. The first examines factors influencing university enrollment—specifically at Shanghai’s top two universities, SJTU and FDU....