This is the December 2014 edition of the Gwern.net newsletter; previous, November.
This is a collation of links and summary of major changes, overlapping with Changelog.
Thanks to my donors on Gratipay!
Writings
Nothing finished this month.
Media
Links
Genetics:
-
Everything Is Heritable:
- “Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies six novel loci associated with habitual coffee consumption”, The Coffee and Caffeine Genetics et al 2014
- “Results of a ‘GWAS Plus’: General Cognitive Ability Is Substantially Heritable and Massively Polygenic”, et al 2014
- “Understanding the Genetics of Intelligence: Can Height Help? Can Corn Oil?”, 2010
- “The impact of neighbourhood deprivation on adolescent violent criminality and substance misuse: A longitudinal, quasi-experimental study of the total Swedish population”, et al 2013
Politics/religion:
- “Why the World Is Not Falling Apart: Never mind the headlines. We’ve never lived in such peaceful times.”, Pinker & Mack; “Good News You May Have Missed in 2014”, Gates
- “Race and Justice: Much More Than You Wanted To Know”
- “The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side”
- “Police, Paramilitaries, Nationalists and Gangsters: The Processes of State Building in Korea”, 2013
- Sacculina parasite
- “Truncated transcript from today’s SCOTUS argument” (parody)
- “Question 94. The relations of the saints towards the damned: Whether the blessed in heaven will see the sufferings of the damned?”
Statistics/AI/meta-science:
- “Contradicted and Initially Stronger Effects in Highly Cited Clinical Research”, 2005
- “A ‘Sham Procedure’ Leads to Disappointing Multiple Sclerosis News”
- The power of placebos: when water feels like LSD.
- “What Went Wrong? Reflections on Science by Observation and The Bell Curve”, 1998 (correlation & causation)
- “Full publication of results initially presented in abstracts (Review)”, et al 2008 (publication bias & incorrect papers)
- “Prisons Are Built With Bricks Of Law And Brothels With Bricks Of Religion, But That Doesn’t Prove A Causal Relationship”
- “Effects of remote, retroactive intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients with bloodstream infection: randomised controlled trial”, 2001 (Norvig comments)
- “What effect size would you expect?”
- “On the distribution of time-to-proof of mathematical conjectures”, 2012
Psychology/biology:
- “Thank you for doing something ambiguously between smoking and not smoking”
- “CBD in Colorado: Seeking a marijuana miracle [for children with severe epilepsy]” (“The question is not whether it is ethical to run a randomized trial, but whether it is ethical to not run a randomized trial”, I found myself thinking again and again in this sad and pitiable story of being fooled by randomness.)
- “Morningness-eveningness and educational outcomes: The lark has an advantage over the owl at high school”, et al 2013
- “What Do You Desire?” (on the porn company Kink.com)
- “Suicide: An Economic Approach”, 2004
- “The Graying of Academia: Will It Reduce Scientific Productivity?”, 2010
- “Can Behavioral Tools Improve Online Student Outcomes? Experimental Evidence from a Massive Open Online Course”, 2014
- “Direct Effect of Sunshine on Suicide”, et al 2014
- “The future of teratology research is in vitro”, et al 2005
- “Spaced Repetition and Mnemonics Enable Recall of Multiple Strong Passwords”, et al 2014
- “Subu Must Die: How a nation of junkies went cold turkey”
- Golden Gate Bridge suicides
Technology:
- “Human Performance”, 2008 JASON
- Spreadsheet mistakes
- “Scholarly Context Not Found: One in Five Articles Suffers from Reference Rot”, et al 2014
- “The Hundred-Year Language”
- M50 Ontos
- Photoacoustic spectroscopy
- “Turing Drawings”: flowing sand
- The NSA copes with a volcano
Economics:
- College major salary premiums
- “What Are Foundations For?” (principal-agent conflicts; against perpetuities)
- “A lucky little fish turns out to be the solution to iron deficiency among women in Cambodia, a problem solved by a University of Guelph researcher.”
- “Should Psychological Neuroscience Research Be Funded?” (discussion)
- Kids for cash scandal
- “Smart companies try to commoditize their products’ complements.” (commoditize your complement)
- “The Coase Theorem is false: contracts depend on tort law”
- “One Kind of Lawlessness: Estimating the Welfare Cost of Somali Piracy”
Philosophy:
- “Bayesian Adjustment Does Not Defeat Existential Risk Charity” (“they strain at the gnat of the prior who swallow the camel of the likelihood”)
- “Transhumanist Fables”
- “Study: Wolf Attacks Still Leading Cause Of Death In U.S.”
- “Even More Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays from Vectors 3.0”, James Richardson
Misc:
Books
Nonfiction:
- Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II, Lowe (review)
- Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose, Thomas & Turner (review; online guide)
Fiction:
- Ra, Sam Hughes (hard SF web serial)
- Un Lun Dun, China Miéville (review)
- Reject Hero, Farmerbob1 (About; superhero web serial, set in a Worm-like universe; somewhat unusual conservative middle-aged perspective as he negotiates his way into the deeper magical universe, culminating in a fun twist Jurassic Park ending with a sting; good fic but not great, and probably goes on too long)
- Perseverance island: or, The Robinson Crusoe of the nineteenth century, by Douglas Frazer (review)
- CVN73 USS George Washington (manga; review)
Music
Touhou:
- “Sixth Movement Dawn of East End” (MORRIGAN feat. 三澤秋; Symphonic Tarantella “Lily” -Illusionary Waltz: Belladonna Lily- {M3-27}) [orchestral]
- “Fifth Movement 9th moon / Pale Indigo Dream” (MORRIGAN feat. 三澤秋; Symphonic Tarantella “Lily” -Illusionary Waltz: Belladonna Lily- {M3-27}) [orchestral]
- “The Black Eyes” (Swing Holic Band; SWING HOLIC VOL.9 {R9}) [jazz]
- “NEMESIS” (Sanokan; SWING HOLIC VOL.9 {R9}) [brass]
- “ON FIRE” (Maurits”禅”Cornelis feat. Vivienne; DANCE with WOLVES {C86}) [house]
- “Fantasia Nightbug” (激戦の人 feat. 迷犬; Summer Festival {C86}) [Rock]
- “Eternal Steam Engine” (Suzumu feat.Sae Tsukiyama; Summer Festival {C86}) [vocal]
- “To the Limit” (あとぐる feat. Mai Kotoge; 悠啼 YU-NARI {C78}) [rock]
Doujin:
- “Prelude (Instrumental)” (Treow; KOLLECTION+OI {2012}) [electronica]
- “A Longing” (yuxuki waga; Evergreen {VM23}) [ambient]
Kantai Collection:
- “ThroBBing (母港BGM)” (W*M; Splash! {C85}) [instrumental]
Vocaloid:
- “Sunrise” (Miku; akayaka; KARENT presents Skylight Theater {Trans city}) [ambient]
- “トウキョウトガリ” (Miku; Kobayashi Onyx; LOG {2010}) [electronic]
- “サイハテ(ver,LOG)” (Miku; Kobayashi Onyx; LOG {2010}) [electronic]
- “Moon Walker” (Gumi & Piko; KTG; FREEZE {2011}) [electronic]
- “Welcome to the Future” (Miku; 青屋夏生; Welcome to the Future {2014}) [Jpop/trance]
- “Light Falls” (Miku; yuxuki waga {2011}) [Jpop]
- “ヒトリの誕生日” (Miku; ため; 7 Kilometer {VM28}) [Jpop]
- “ルッキング・フォー・ザ・ヘヴン” (Yukari; カミウラ, カミウラレコーズ; Lavender and White Rose {2013}) [vocal]