August 2014 News
This is the August 2014 edition of the Gwern.net newsletter (previously July); it is a summary of the revision-history RSS feed, overlapping with Changelog.. I thank my donors on Gratipay.
Writings
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Nootropics: initial results on LLLT, correlates with large increases; began followup randomized experiment
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purchased a North Paw compass belt
Media
Links
Genetics:
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Everything Is Heritable:
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“A Gene That Makes You Need Less Sleep?” (see “Heritability of Performance Deficit Accumulation During Acute Sleep Deprivation in Twins”, “The Transcriptional Repressor DEC2 Regulates Sleep Length in Mammals”, & “A Novel BHLHE41 Variant is Associated with Short Sleep and Resistance to Sleep Deprivation in Humans”)
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How harmful is smoking during pregnancy—after controlling for the sort of people who would do that?
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“On the genetic architecture of intelligence and other quantitative traits”, 2014
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“The Importance of Heritability in Psychological Research: The Case of Attitudes”, 1993
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“Inheritance of migratory direction in a bird species: a cross-breeding experiment with SE- and SW-migrating blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla)”, Helbig 199133ya (“For blackcap warblers, the direction of migration is clearly innate, so crossbreeding a group of blackcaps who flew south for fall migration with a group that oriented westward resulted in offspring who flew in a southwesterly direction.”)
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Statistics/AI/meta-science:
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“Personal reflections on lessons learned from randomized trials involving newborn infants, 1951–16196757ya”, Silverman 200321ya (9 out of 10 dead babies agree: even cherished ‘obvious’ beliefs must be tested by RCTs)
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“Publication bias in the social sciences: Unlocking the file drawer”, et al 2014 ( Nature; Andrew Gelman)
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“Better Estimation When Perfection Is Unlikely: A Bayesian Example”
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“The Lyme Wars: The Lyme-disease infection rate is growing. So is the battle over how to treat it.”, “What Science Needs”
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“On the science and ethics of Ebola treatments”, “Controlled trials: the 194876ya watershed”
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“Academic urban legends”, 2014
Psychology:
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“Metabolic costs and evolutionary implications of human brain development”, et al 2014
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“How are conscientiousness and cognitive ability related to one another? A re-examination of the intelligence compensation hypothesis”, et al 2014 ( Berkson’s paradox)
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“Investigating America’s elite: Cognitive ability, education, and sex differences”, 2013
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“Standard and trace-dose lithium: A systematic review of dementia prevention and other behavioral benefits”, et al 2014
Technology:
Economics:
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“Why Isn’t the Whole World Developed? Lessons from the Cotton Mills”, 1987
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“How the Robots Lost: High-Frequency Trading’s Rise and Fall”
Politics/religion:
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“The Bomb Didn’t Beat Japan… Stalin Did: Have 70 years of nuclear policy been based on a lie?”
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Gombe Chimpanzee War (“For several years I struggled to come to terms with this new knowledge. Often when I woke in the night, horrific pictures sprang unbidden to my mind—Satan [one of the apes], cupping his hand below Sniff’s chin to drink the blood that welled from a great wound on his face; old Rodolf, usually so benign, standing upright to hurl a four-pound rock at Godi’s prostrate body; Jomeo tearing a strip of skin from Dé’s thigh; Figan, charging and hitting, again and again, the stricken, quivering body of Goliath, one of his childhood heroes…”)
Fiction:
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2002 in anime (Overall, not the best year for anime by far; nevertheless, I would happily rewatch Azumanga Daioh, Haibane Renmei, & RahXephon any number of times, and picked up some interesting suggestions for future watching like Tamala 201014ya: A Punk Cat in Space.)
Misc:
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“War in the womb: A ferocious biological struggle between mother and baby belies any sentimental ideas we might have about pregnancy”; “The Pregnancy Pickle: Evolved immune compensation due to pregnancy underlies sex differences in human diseases”, et al 2019
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“A Parable”, Dijkstra 197351ya (Orienting toilets on train cars.)
Books
Fiction:
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Echopraxia, Peter Watts (review)
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Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez (review)
Film/TV
Anime:
Live-action:
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Three Coins in the Fountain (Actually not that bad. Sort of a silly romantic comedy of manners, and when you get bored with that, you can pay attention to post-WWII Italy and note how privileged Americans were, how women smoked back then, etc. It feels weird to see offices without computers in them—just papers. and phones. Oh, and random monks in the background: the camera just pans across them like they’re not there.)
Music
Touhou:
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“廃獄ララバイ” (Toy; 協奏符「拾遺物語」 {R11}) [symphony]
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“おつかいメイドのひといき” (水橋ゆっきー; Kirisame Mahou Yougashiten {C85}) [instrumental]
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“竹取飛翔” (k-wave labs; 幽かのたまゆら {C84}) [Celtic]
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“東方妖々夢” (k-wave labs; 幽かのたまゆら {C84}) [Celtic]
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“幽雅に咲かせ、墨染の桜” (k-waves LAB; 幽かのたまゆら {C84}) [Celtic]
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“ほおずきみたいに紅い魂” (k-wave labs; 幽かのたまゆら {C84}) [Celtic]
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“時間差カルテ” (Tokyo Active NEETs; Touhou Bakuon Jazz 4 {C84}) [jazz]
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“令・瞑コード零” (Tokyo Active NEETs; Touhou Bakuon Jazz 4 {C84}) [jazz]
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“紅星ミゼラブル~廃憶編” (Tokyo Active NEETs; Touhou Bakuon Jazz 4 {C84}) [jazz]
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“感情の摩天楼 ~ Cosmic Mind” (あきやまうに; 暗黒能楽集・心綺楼 東方心綺楼 ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK {C84}) [instrumental]
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“Thawing Realism” (Autoban feat. Senya; Hiding You in the Evening Cherry Trees {C85}) [trance]
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“NEXTLIFE” (隣人 feat. 坂上なち (twinkle* twinkle); THE LEAP NEXTRA {C84}) [electronic]
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“party in the streets of Tokyo” (Renko; a-romatic {C84}) [house]
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“風の向こうへ” (JeetSingh feat. Chia; Serendipity {R10}) [vocal]
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“voyage” (きりん feat 茶々; con spirito {C85}) [vocal]
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“Cherry Ashes” (senya; The Whole World {C84}) [vocal]