On Some Recent Ideas on the Proton Radius Puzzle and Lepton Anomalous Magnetic Moments

We discuss recent suggestions on the resolution of the proton radius puzzle put forward in [1,2] and discovery of a nonperturbative quantum-electrodynamic contribution of order $(\alpha/\pi)^5$ to lepton anomalous magnetic moments announced in [3,4]. We demonstrate that the ideas of [1, 2] do not resolve the proton radius puzzle. We explain why the nonperturbative correction calculated in [3,4] does not exist.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

On statistics, computation and scalability

How should statistical procedures be designed so as to be scalable computationally to the massive datasets that are increasingly the norm? When coupled with the requirement that an answer to an inferential question be delivered within a certain time budget, this question has significant repercussions for the field of statistics. With the goal of identifying "time-data tradeoffs," we investigate some of the statistical consequences of computational perspectives on scability, in particular divide-and-conquer methodology and hierarchies of convex relaxations.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/12-BEJSP17 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm