Sevilla have appointed Pablo Machin as manager after the Spaniard led newly-promoted Girona to a 10th-place finish in La Liga.

Source: http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11388498/sevilla-appoint-pablo-machin-as-new-manager-after-girona-success

We present StarSpace, a general-purpose neural embedding model that can solve
a wide variety of problems: labeling tasks such as text classification, ranking
tasks such as information retrieval/web search, collaborative filtering-based
or content-based recommendation, embedding of multi-relational graphs, and
learning word, sentence or document level embeddings. In each case the model
works by embedding those entities comprised of discrete features and comparing
them against each other — learning similarities dependent on the task.
Empirical results on a number of tasks show that StarSpace is highly
competitive with existing methods, whilst also being generally applicable to
new cases where those methods are not.

Source: http://arxiv.org/abs/1709.03856v5

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a press release yesterday denouncing China’s increasing crackdown on Uighur Muslims.  It said in part:In addition to longstanding restrictions on Uighur Muslims’ religious practice during Ramadan—such as preventing Uighurs from fasting and praying—the Chinese government has instituted a multifaceted security grid throughout Xinjiang comprised of both personnel and advanced technology, including armed checkpoints, facial and iris recognition software, and cell phone monitoring. Moreover, the Chinese government seeks to stymie the growth of the next generation of Uighur Muslims by banning Uighur language instruction in schools, prohibiting children from attending mosque, and proscribing Islamic baby names considered “extreme.”Meanwhile yesterday the State Department issued a press release denouncing harassment of Baha’is by the Houthi leaders in Yemen.

Source: http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2018/05/uscirf-denounces-chinas-crackdown-on.html

Press Association reported yesterday on the trial in Britain of musician Alison Chabloz who is charged with sending grossly offensive Holocaust Revisionist material on a public communications network.  Chabloz, who is being tried in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, is charged with 5 counts growing out of her posting on YouTube of videos of three songs she wrote.  Chaboz’s attorney is raising a free speech defense. The judge’s verdict will be handed down on May 25.  Meanwhile Chaboz is out on bail.

Source: http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2018/05/british-musician-on-trial-for-holocaust.html

Last week, a Louisiana federal district court approved a consent decree (full text) in Cole v. Webster Parish School Board, (WD LA, May 11, 2018).  The suit charged that the school district extensively promoted Christianity in its schools. (See prior posting.)  The consent decree bars prayers at school events, bars religious baccalaureate services, prohibits holding school events at religious venues and bars school officials from promoting their personal religious beliefs to students in class or at school events.  ACLU issued a press release announcing the consent decree.

Source: http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2018/05/consent-decree-settles-louisiana.html

This Was March

Buy Clotilde’s latest book, The French Market Cookbook!

So.
March decided to take me and send me flying high, with a national ad campaign featuring my podcast in the metro and on television, and the release of my new cookbook, TASTING PARIS: 100 Recipes to Eat Like a Local, which has been received so warmly I am filled with gratitude and pride.

And then March decided it would sink me low, and my father died.
If you’ve been following Chocolate