‘Caution! The Bread is Poisoned’: The Hong Kong Mass Poisoning of January 1857

This article examines the Hong Kong mass poisoning of 15 January 1857, in which bread from a Chinese bakery that supplied the colonial community was adulterated with arsenic. Even though there is a wealth of printed and manuscript documentation available many vital aspects of the poisoning remain unclear. What kind of incident was it: an act of terrorism and attempted mass murder, a war crime, a criminal conspiracy, an act of commercial sabotage, an accident or even an imagined or imaginary event? Throughout, our focus remains firmly fixed on the central act of the poisoning itself and on what it reveals about the precarious nature of early colonial Hong Kong. Interpretations have swarmed over the available ‘facts'. Equally ironic is what happened to the afterlife of how the event was understood. This article seeks to rescue the Hong Kong poisoning from being a freakish and isolated footnote of only local interest. Accepting this historical verdict would be a mistake as it is of significance not only at a local level, but geopolitically in Britain and across the empire

Review of Intrinsic Motivation in Simulation-based Game Testing

This paper presents a review of intrinsic motivation in player modeling, with a focus on simulation-based game testing. Modern AI agents can learn to win many games; from a game testing perspective, a remaining research problem is how to model the aspects of human player behavior not explained by purely rational and goal-driven decision making. A major piece of this puzzle is constituted by intrinsic motivations, i.e., psychological needs that drive behavior without extrinsic reinforcement such as game score. We first review the common intrinsic motivations discussed in player psychology research and artificial intelligence, and then proceed to systematically review how the various motivations have been implemented in simulated player agents. Our work reveals that although motivations such as competence and curiosity have been studied in AI, work on utilizing them in simulation-based game testing is sparse, and other motivations such as social relatedness, immersion, and domination appear particularly underexplored

One Mathematician Looks at the Classification of Mathematics

At the very outset I want to warn you that I am here in the role of a mathematician who is interested in books and that I am entirely innocent of library procedures and terminology, the theory of classification, or the actual classification of anything but mathematical books. I am not sure that words of wisdom have ever come from the mouths of infants, but I am very strongly relying on that possibility. If this hope proves wrong, then I can only apologize and point out that every carnival should have a freak show and that I am only trying to do my duty. I am also aware of the extensive use of the vertical pronoun in my talk, but I know of no alternative. I have spoken with a number of my mathematical colleagues, but I do not pretend that my remarks are really an accurate statement of the ideas of the mathematical community. I shall be more than satisfied if I can act as a gadfly and provoke some discussion. Many of my remarks are very frankly critical. However, it is my earnest hope that they will not be taken offensively, but that they might be turned to constructive use. If this can be done, I shall be most pleased. MATHEMATICAL TERMINOLOGY AND THE RESULTING CONFUSIONpublished or submitted for publicatio

The Elements of Integration and lebesgue Meansure

x.;ill.;179 hal.; 25 c

The Elements of Real Analysis

xv;ill.;480hal.;21c

The Elements of Real Analysis

xiv.;ill.;480 hal.; 25 c

Elements of real analysis

XV, 480 p. : 23 cm

The Elements of Real Analysis

X, 480 tr.; 23 cm

The elements of real analysis

xv, 480 p.; 23 cm