--- title: April 2016 News created: 2016-03-15 status: finished previous: /newsletter/2016/03 next: /newsletter/2016/05 confidence: log cssExtension: dropcaps-de-zs backlink: False ... This is the April 2016 edition of [the Gwern.net newsletter](https://gwern.substack.com/ "'Gwern.net newsletter (Substack subscription page)', Branwen 2013"); previous, [March 2016](/newsletter/2016/03 "'March 2016 News', Branwen 2016"). 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 - Nothing completed # Media ## Links **Genetics**: - [Everything Is Heritable]{.smallcaps}: - ["Genome-wide association study of cognitive functions and educational attainment in UK Biobank (_n_ = 112151)"](https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201645 "'Genome-wide association study of cognitive functions and educational attainment in UK Biobank (n = 112 151)', Davies et al 2016"), Davies et al 2016 - ["Variants near CHRNA3/5 and APOE have age- and sex-related effects on human lifespan"](https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11174), Joshi et al 2016 - ["National Happiness and Genetic Distance: A Cautious Exploration"](/doc/genetics/selection/2015-proto.pdf), Proto & Oswald 2015 (dubious) - [Friends are as genetically similar as fourth cousins](https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1400825111 "'Friendship and natural selection', Christakis & Fowler 2014") ([media](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/research-human-friendships-based-on-genetic-similarities-beyond-the-superficial/2014/07/14/8aea04fe-0ab5-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23_story.html "Research: Human friendships based on genetic similarities beyond the superficial")) - *[everything is correlated](/everything)*: Continuation of the recent phenome theme of inter-correlations of negative traits and inter-correlation of positive traits: - ["Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6097237/), Anttila et al 2016 - ["Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses"](/doc/genetics/heritable/correlation/2016-okbay.pdf), Okbay et al 2016 - ["Physical and neurobehavioral determinants of reproductive onset and success"](/doc/genetics/heritable/correlation/mendelian-randomization/2016-day.pdf), Day et al 2016 - ["Association between stressful life events and psychotic experiences in adolescence: evidence for gene--environment correlations"](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/association-between-stressful-life-events-and-psychotic-experiences-in-adolescence-evidence-for-geneenvironment-correlations/CE3ED05F234F3FB5F48B7E66B8004D94), Shakoor et al 2016 - [Engineering]{.smallcaps}: - ["Introducing precise genetic modifications into human 3PN embryos by CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome editing"](/doc/genetics/editing/2016-kang.pdf), Kang et al 2016 (see also Liang et al 2015; both describe the CRISPR state-of-the-art as of early 2014, 2+ years ago) - ["Monkey kingdom: China is positioning itself as a world leader in primate research"](https://www.nature.com/articles/532300a) **Politics/religion**: - [Book Review: _Albion's Seed_](https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/27/book-review-albions-seed/) - ["Peer review: Troubled from the start"](https://www.nature.com/articles/532306a) - ["My Year in San Francisco's \$2 Million Secret Society Startup"](https://www.vice.com/en/article/xygykj/my-year-in-san-franciscos-2-million-secret-society-startup) **AI**: - ["Deep Networks with Stochastic Depth"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.09382), Huang et al 2016 (dropout of random *layers*, which does not just work, but works better and enables >1200-layer residual networks. This [might be related](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/4fgk8k/160403640v1_bridging_the_gaps_between_residual/d29ezsc/) to [Liao & Poggio 2016](https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.03640 "Bridging the Gaps Between Residual Learning, Recurrent Neural Networks and Visual Cortex") claim that deep residual nets are effectively unrolled RNNs which apply slight variants of an algorithm to many timesteps.) - ["Generating Large Images from Latent Vectors"](https://blog.otoro.net/2016/04/01/generating-large-images-from-latent-vectors/) - ["Foveation-based Mechanisms Alleviate Adversarial Examples"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.06292), Luo et al 2016 - ["Convolutional Networks for Fast, Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Computing"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.08270), Esser et al 2016 **Statistics/meta-science**: - ["A Comparison of Approaches to Advertising Measurement: Evidence from Big Field Experiments at Facebook"](/doc/statistics/causality/2019-gordon.pdf), Gordon et al 2019 ([How often](/correlation "'How Often Does Correlation=Causality?', Branwen 2014") does correlation=causation? <50% of the time in Internet advertising, with gross over/underestimates even with detailed covariate & advanced modeling.) - ["The Bitter Fight Over the Benefits of Bilingualism"](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/the-battle-over-bilingualism/462114/) (So Bialystok is refusing a collaboration because a pre-registered protocol is unscientific *and* she refuses to work with someone so 'biased' that they would damage the non-pre-registered results, and besides, publication bias doesn't exist---"there is absolutely no evidence". I see...) - ["Why the National Institutes of Health Should Replace Peer Review With a Lottery: A new study shows that peer-review scores for grant proposals are random anyway"](https://psmag.com/news/why-the-national-institutes-of-health-should-replace-peer-review-with-a-lottery) - ["Bandit based Monte-Carlo planning"](https://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~afern/classes/cs533/notes/uct.pdf), Kocsis & Szepesvári 2006 - ["How Kalman Filters Work, Part 1"](https://www.anuncommonlab.com/articles/how-kalman-filters-work/)/[part 2](https://www.anuncommonlab.com/articles/how-kalman-filters-work/part2.html)/[part 3](https://www.anuncommonlab.com/articles/how-kalman-filters-work/part3.html) - ["The importance of 'gold standard' studies for consumers of research"](https://blog.givewell.org/2016/01/19/the-importance-of-gold-standard-studies-for-consumers-of-research/) **Psychology/biology**: - ["The Production of Human Capital in Developed Countries: Evidence from 196 Randomized Field Experiments"](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryer/files/handbook_fryer_03.25.2016.pdf), Fryer 2016 (education; lots of small effects) - ["A Meta-Analysis of Blood Glucose Effects on Human Decision Making"](/doc/psychology/willpower/2016-orquin.pdf), Orquin & Kurzban 2016 - ["Is Ego-Depletion a Replicable Effect? A Forensic Meta-Analysis of 165 Ego Depletion Articles"](https://replicationindex.com/2016/04/18/is-replicability-report-ego-depletionreplicability-report-of-165-ego-depletion-articles/) - ["Indoor air quality and academic performance"](/doc/co2/2015-stafford.pdf), Stafford 2015 (???; apropos of [harms of CO2 discussion](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pPZ27eZdBXtGuLqZC/what-is-up-with-carbon-dioxide-and-cognition-an-offer "What is up with carbon dioxide and cognition? An offer")) - ["Seven Pervasive Statistical Flaws in Cognitive Training Interventions"](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00153/full), Moreau et al 2016 - ["The Voyeur's Motel"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/11/gay-talese-the-voyeurs-motel) **Technology**: - ["What the game 'Werewolf' teaches us about Trust & Security"](https://eaves.ca/2013/11/07/what-werewolf-teaches-us-about-trust-security/) - [The Raising of Chicago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago) **Economics**: - ["Demographic Consequences of Defeating Aging"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3192186/), Gavrilov & Gavrilova 2010 - [Interview with short seller Jim Chanos](https://web.archive.org/web/20161021040312/https://ftalphaville-cdn.ft.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Alphachatterbox-Chanos-transcript.pdf) (Short sellers are always so interesting. Few people are so motivated to see through the miasma of lies and bias and self-serving optimism in the business and finance world.) ## Books **Nonfiction**: - [_A Life of Sir Francis Galton_](https://www.amazon.com/Life-Sir-Francis-Galton-Exploration/dp/0195143655) ([review](/review/book#a-life-of-sir-francis-galton-gillham-2001)) - [_On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine_](https://www.amazon.com/Speed-Many-Lives-Amphetamine/dp/0814776396), Rasmussen 2008 (particularly interesting for the inside information about how early American pharmacorps & drug development worked, but much weaker past the '70s; at least, if you can get past Rasmussen's huge bias against amphetamines and blind support for the disastrous War on Drugs) ## Film/TV **Live-action**: - [_Pirates of Silicon Valley_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_Silicon_Valley) ([review](/review/movie#pirates-of-silicon-valley)) **Anime**: - [_Megazone 23_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megazone_23) (a strange relict. It's as if _Macross_ cuckolded _Streets of Fire_ with _Akira_ while Miyazaki perved at the window and the Gainax boys took notes. Episode 1 in particular crosses so many genres and does so much in so little time that even non-fans of 1980s anime might find it worthwhile.) - [_Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro:_Supernatural_Detective) ([review](/review/anime#majin-tantei-nougami-neuro)) ## Music **Touhou**: - ["音の瓶詰---河童の里"](https://www.dropbox.com/s/6rtjgo76begffsp/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%A0-separationofspirit-%E9%9F%B3%E3%81%AE%E7%93%B6%E8%A9%B0%E6%B2%B3%E7%AB%A5%E3%81%AE%E9%87%8C.ogg) (ジャム; _守矢幻燈録 ~ Separation of Spirit_ {R12}) [classical] - ["Reincarnation"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baIb72Klcio) (Mitty; _Imitation Circus_ {C89}) [classical] - ["Anois --"](https://www.dropbox.com/s/6o10gcnvsqjus9g/casket-%E5%B9%BB%E6%83%B3%E3%83%91%E3%83%96%E5%8D%88%E5%BE%8C11%E6%99%8223%E5%88%8658%E7%A7%92-anois.ogg) (Casket/Escarmew; _幻想パブ:午後11時23分58秒_ {科学世紀のカフェテラス6}) [Celtic] - ["デザイアドライブ"](https://www.dropbox.com/s/k9puqk4ae3giv5k/marasy-%E5%B9%BB%E6%83%B3%E9%81%8A%E6%88%AF%EF%BC%9C%E7%A5%9E%EF%BC%9E-%E3%83%87%E3%82%B6%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A2%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%96.ogg) (Marasy; _幻想遊戯<神> ~ Museum of marasy_ {R12}) [classical] - ["古きユアンシェン"](https://www.dropbox.com/s/pme31ntlg30n96k/marasy-%E5%B9%BB%E6%83%B3%E9%81%8A%E6%88%AF%EF%BC%9C%E7%A5%9E%EF%BC%9E-%E5%8F%A4%E3%81%8D%E3%83%A6%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B7%E3%82%A7%E3%83%B3.ogg) (Marasy; _幻想遊戯<神> ~ Museum of marasy_ {R12}) [classical] - ["聖徳伝説 ~ True Administrator"](https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rpp3pzsfo0cj7v/marasy-%E5%B9%BB%E6%83%B3%E9%81%8A%E6%88%AF%EF%BC%9C%E7%A5%9E%EF%BC%9E-%E8%81%96%E5%BE%B3%E4%BC%9D%E8%AA%AC%EF%BD%9Etrueadministrator.ogg) (Marasy; _幻想遊戯<神> ~ Museum of marasy_ {R12}) [classical] - ["欲深き霊魂"](https://www.dropbox.com/s/gajpzajn4tdz9sk/marasy-%E5%B9%BB%E6%83%B3%E9%81%8A%E6%88%AF%EF%BC%9C%E7%A5%9E%EF%BC%9E-%E6%AC%B2%E6%B7%B1%E3%81%8D%E9%9C%8A%E9%AD%82.ogg) (Marasy; _幻想遊戯<神> ~ Museum of marasy_ {R12}) [classical]