--- title: July 2015 News created: 2015-07-02 status: finished previous: /newsletter/2015/06 next: /newsletter/2015/08 confidence: log cssExtension: dropcaps-de-zs backlink: False ... This is the July 2015 edition of [the Gwern.net newsletter](https://gwern.substack.com/ "'Gwern.net newsletter (Substack subscription page)', Branwen 2013"); previous, [June 2015](/newsletter/2015/06 "'June 2015 News', Branwen 2015"). This is a collation of links and summary of major changes, overlapping with [Changelog](/changelog); brought to you by my donors on [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/gwern). # Writings - [Dark Net Market archives, 2011--2015](/dnm-archive "Mirrors of Tor-Bitcoin darknet markets & forums 2013-2015, and other material") - A/B tests: finished [metadata test](/ab-test#moving-sidebar-metadata-into-page); [proposal towards](/ab-test#deep-reinforcement-learning) recurrent neural network for reinforcement learning of CSS - [Air conditioner upgrade](/note/statistic#air-conditioner-replacement) cost-benefit analysis - **Gwern.net**: - switched to Patreon for donations - optimized website loading (removed CSE, A/B testing, non-validating XML, outbound link-tracking; simplified Disqus; minified JS, and fully async/deferred JS loading) # Media ## Links **Politics/religion**: - ["The Really Big One: An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when."](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one) - ["Of Malevolent Democracies and Benevolent Autocracies: A Very Short Quantitative History of Political Regimes, Part 1.9325"](https://abandonedfootnotes.blogspot.com/2012/12/of-malevolent-democracies-and.html) - ["Utopian for Beginners: An amateur linguist loses control of the language [Ithkuil] he invented"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/24/utopian-for-beginners?currentPage=all) (where are those Ukrainians now, I wonder?) **Statistics/AI/meta-science**: - [Ch6: "Deep Learning"](http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/chap6.html) (latest in Nielsen's _Neural Networks and Deep Learning_) - ["How One Man Poisoned a City's Water Supply (and Saved Millions of Children's Lives in the Process)"](https://web.archive.org/web/20190813183307/https://www.pbs.org/how-we-got-to-now/blogs/howwegottonext/how-one-man-poisoned-a-citys-water-supply-and-saved-millions-of-childrens-lives-in-the-process/) (on [John L. Leal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Leal) & [water chlorination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_chlorination)) - ["Reanalyses of Randomized Clinical Trial Data"](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1902230), Ebrahim et al 2014 - ["The Aging of Science"](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/25/science) - ["List of 19 Natural Experiments"](https://economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com/2015/06/list-of-19-natural-experiments.html) - ["The Null Ritual: What You Always Wanted to Know About Significance Testing but Were Afraid to Ask"](https://library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/ft/gg/GG_Null_2004.pdf), Gigerenzer et al 2004 **Psychology/biology**: - ["Physics of Wound Healing I: Energy Considerations"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.3778), Apell 2012 - ["The Biodeterminist's Guide to Parenting"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130715010036/http://squid314.livejournal.com/346391.html) - ["A Year of Spaced Repetition Software in the Classroom"](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ww2dxwWpSfkQB4NZb/a-year-of-spaced-repetition-software-in-the-classroom) - ["Whole-personality emulation"](/doc/ai/2012-bainbridge.pdf), Bainbridge 2012 (with enough data, the Big Five personality factors can be replaced with the "Small 100") - ["Does it pay to know your MBTI type?"](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/myers-briggs-does-it-pay-to-know-your-type/2012/12/14/eaed51ae-3fcc-11e2-bca3-aadc9b7e29c5_print.html) - ["Burn-in, bias, and the rationality of anchoring"](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.300.2572&rep=rep1&type=pdf), Lieder et al 2012 **Technology**: - ["The Market for Silver Bullets"](https://iang.org/papers/market_for_silver_bullets.html), Grigg 2008 - ["Invisibility theory"](https://qntm.org/invisibility) **Economics**: - ["Economic Gains Resulting from the Reduction in Children's Exposure to Lead in the United States"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1240871/pdf/ehp0110-000563.pdf "'Economic gains resulting from the reduction in children’s exposure to lead in the United States', Grosse et al 2002"), Grosse et al 2002 - ["When the Doctor Is Not Needed"](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/when-the-doctor-is-not-needed.html) - ["How The Talmud Became A Best Seller in South Korea"](https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-the-talmud-became-a-best-seller-in-south-korea) (no one tell them about signaling or genetics) - ["The Patent Troll You Don't Read About In Bar-Code Inventor's Obituaries"](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2012/12/14/the-patent-troll-you-dont-read-about-in-bar-code-inventors-obituaries/) **Philosophy**: - ["The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics"](/doc/philosophy/ethics/2015-06-24-jai-thecopenhageninterpretationofethics.html) **Fiction**: - ["Quantitative patterns of stylistic influence in the evolution of literature"](https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1115407109), Hughes et al 2012 - ["I Name Thee Annihilator!"](https://alessonislearned.com/index.php?comic=42) ## Books **Fiction**: - [_Still Alice_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_Alice_%28novel%29) (our obituaries) - [_The Martian_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_%28Weir_novel%29) (Weir) - Asimov's _Puzzles of the Black Widowers_ ([review](/review/book#puzzles-of-the-black-widowers-asimov-1991)) **Nonfiction**: - [_Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety_](https://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Damascus-Accident-Illusion/dp/0143125788), Schlosser - [Donald Keene's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Keene) 1984 [_Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era; Poetry, Drama, Criticism_](https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-West-Japanese-Literature-Criticism/dp/0030628164) (Meiji & imperial period) - Boswell's [_Life of Samuel Johnson_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Samuel_Johnson) ([review](/review/book#the-life-of-samuel-johnson-boswell-1993)) ## Film/TV **Live-action**: - [_Woman in Gold_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Adele_Bloch-Bauer_I) ([review](/review/movie#woman-in-gold)) **Anime**: - [_Expelled from Paradise_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expelled_from_Paradise) ([review](/review/anime#expelled-from-paradise)) ## Music **Touhou**: - the latest TLMC has been released: ["Touhou lossless music collection: TLMC v.18 (2015.06.30)"](https://www.tlmc.eu/2015/06/tlmc-v18-20150630_89.html) - ["Fires of Hokkai"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9deVonL3Ns) (くみちょ; _Knights of Round 3_ {C77}) [post-rock] - ["マンドラゴラの庭"](https://www.dropbox.com/s/mi485le47loy1wo/siva-gensokyostpatricksday-%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B4%E3%83%A9%E3%81%AE%E5%BA%AD.ogg) (siva; _Gensokyo St. Patrick's Day_ {K10}) [Celtic] - ["Rince Oiche"](https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2w97h60hpq0tw2/escarmew-gensokyostpatricksday-rinceoiche.ogg) (Escarmew; _Gensokyo St. Patrick's Day_ {K10}) [Celtic] - ["Sleepy Maiden"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdmq-BgQiRU) (Marasy; _幻想遊戲\<眠\>2_ {C86}) [classical] - ["Septette for a Sleepy Princess"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o8h-HgFgB0) (Marasy; _幻想遊戲\<眠\>2_ {C86}) [classical] - ["籠居漏水"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3_04qNCHMo) (PIROPARU; _Kyouon no Ooi Ryouriten_ {Reitaisai SP}) [instrumental] - ["Lotus World"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR9t3_SM9cE) (PIROPARU; _Kyouon no Ooi Ryouriten_ {Reitaisai SP}) [instrumental] - ["Going back to Sleeping Night"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A24ZJz0IUws) (Marasy; _幻想遊戲\<眠\>2_ {C86}) [classical] - ["Drowsy Eyes"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrU6xfbLyRk) (Marasy; _幻想遊戲\<眠\>2_ {C86}) [classical]