December 2013 News
This is the inaugural December 201311ya issue of the Gwern.net mailing list; you probably signed up through a link there. If you do not want to receive further monthly emails, there is an unsubscribe link at the bottom.
The purpose of this mailing list is to be a more meaningful and summarized version of the RSS feed (which lists every patch, no matter how small) overlapping with my Changelog page, but in a push/notification medium rather than pull.
While I was at it, I thought I would include some other material like the links I share on Google+. Since this is the first time, I don’t know if people are interested in this or if I omitted anything that people expected; feel free to email me with suggestions or feedback (I believe the reply-to should be set to my address, gwern@gwern.net
, but I am not sure). Without further ado:
Writings
Darknet markets:
-
compiled an updated table of all known darknet markets with lifetimes
-
wrote up an essay on 3 attempts to blackmail/extort/scam
Statistical:
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analyzed a self-experiment about low level laser therapy improving reaction time
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power simulation of the penalty from omitting key covariates in A/B testing
Radiance:
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transcribed novella “Radiance”
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transcribed & annotated the autobiographical essay “Old Legends” by Gregory Benford on his physics career, SF & science, the “Star Wars” program, Edward Teller, etc
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tracked down and scanned a copy of “The Astounding Investigation: The Manhattan Project’s Confrontation with Science Fiction” (Berger 198440ya, Analog )
Personal:
Site:
-
signed up for MailChimp & started a monthly mailing list for Gwern.net updates
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my Gratipay is up to $7.35 a week. I thank all donators.
Media
Links
Technology:
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“Welcome to the Jungle” (CPU design and Moore’s law—your computer can be faster)
-
Debian bug report #217243: “
wget
: Possibility to really reject files on recursive downloads” (serious gotcha everyone needs to know about if they are trying to spider withwget
a site requiring cookies/login, like, for example, a DNM forum) -
“RSA Key Extraction via Low-Bandwidth Acoustic Cryptanalysis”
-
“You advocate a ________ approach to calendar reform” (I always sigh when I have to deal with any date-time programming.)
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“Does Copyright Affect Creative Reuse? Evidence from the Digitization of Baseball Digest”, 2017 (large deadweight losses)
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Baal (Impressive. A ring of child pornographers communicating securely via PGP &
alt.anonymous
maildrops, rotating keys regularly, where the bust only happened because a member was busted for non-ring-related problems and the only busted members were violating the Hushmail lesson by using a third-party service.) -
“How close would you have to be to a supernova to get a lethal dose of neutrino radiation?”
Science/medicine/statistics:
-
“The Intelligent Plant: Scientists debate a new way of understanding flora” (also worth reading: “If a Lion Could Talk: Animal Intelligence and the Evolution of Consciousness”)
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“Embryo Selection for Cognitive Enhancement: Curiosity or Game-changer?”, 2013
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“Were James Bond’s drinks shaken because of alcohol induced tremor?”, et al 2013
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“So depression is an inflammatory disease, but where does the inflammation come from?”, et al 2013
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“Change in Against Malaria Foundation recommendation status (room-for-more-funding-related)”
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“The dangers of zero and one” (Fun example from genetics research of how even extremely weak priors are useful)
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“Do Certain Countries Produce Only Positive Results? A Systematic Review of Controlled Trials”, et al 1998
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“China’s academic scandal: call toll-free hotlines to get your name published”
Writing:
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“Roomlore is the lore anent heavenly bodies such as stars, wanderers, moons, star clouds, star clusters, and starswirls, their bodily workings, and their gathering…” (written in Anglish; an older computer jargon attempt)
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Excerpt from The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien (Atomic theory proves that bicycles are plotting against us.)
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“Lady Yodo-Dono” (poem)
Politics:
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‘Review of “The Rise of China vs. The Logic of Strategy” by Edward Luttwak’
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“Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013” (Bill Gates reviews global health & poverty progress)
General:
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“We Are All MsScribe” (sockpuppeting, fandom wars)
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“An opportunity cost model of subjective effort and task performance”, Kurzban et al 201311ya (willpower; discussion)
-
“Making a kangling for chöd” (An unexpectedly practical discussion by David Chapman of femur-flutes.)
-
“100 Years Later, the Crossword Is Still the King of Puzzles”
Philosophy:
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“Discussions for information” (These are some of the reasons I’ve soured on discussion as a way of exchanging information and evaluating new stuff.)
Film/TV
-
Aku no Hana: dropped after a few episodes, couldn’t stand the rotoscoping
-
A Christmas Story/National Lampoon: Christmas Vacation: watched with family. The former was pretty good. The latter, though, had some good jokes but was generally mediocre and strained, and a product of its time.
Books
Nonfiction
I reread Discovery of France because I liked it so much the first time (review).
Fiction
Descending order of enjoyment:
-
I finished Umineko back in September, finished writing a review
-
New Legends (SF anthology; review)
Music
Giants (recommended if you like Explosions in the Sky or El Ten Eleven; I particularly liked “While the Ages Steal”):
-
“A Near-life Experience” (Demo) [post-rock]
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“Berlin Rooftop” (Demo)
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“Under The New Sun” (They, The Undeserving)
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“Steps In Static Progression” (They, The Undeserving)
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“The Palace Stands In Its Proper Place” (They, The Undeserving)
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“Withered Life- Communal Rhythm” (They, The Undeserving)
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“While The Ages Steal” (Old Stories)
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“At Last, Ashore” (Old Stories)
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“O’ Tide” (Old Stories)
Misc:
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Raiders of the Lost Ark, “End Credits” (John Williams) [orchestral]
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“I Saw Three Ships”, (King’s College Cambridge) [Christmas carol]
Touhou:
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“流体、ライフサイクル instrumental (Fluid, Life Cycle)” (o ben to box; miskyworks {C82}) [instrumental]
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“パンザマスト (instrumental)” (o ben to box; miskyworks {C82}) [instrumental]
Vocaloid:
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“echoes_teha” (声になる; HKGrecords) [trance/vocal]
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“vanishing_しじみ” (声になる; HKGrecords) [electronic/vocal]
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“小規模な世界の私_ぴすた” (声になる; HKGrecords) [Jpop]