--- title: May 2016 News created: 2016-04-30 status: finished confidence: log css-extension: dropcaps-de-zs backlink: False ... This is the May 2016 edition of [the Gwern.net newsletter](https://gwern.substack.com/ "'Gwern.net newsletter (Substack subscription page)', Gwern 2013"); previous, [April 2016](/newsletter/2016/04 "'April 2016 News', Gwern 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 - Wikipedia article on [Genome-wide complex trait analysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Genome-wide_complex_trait_analysis&oldid=871165308) (GCTA) - [Candy Japan new packaging decision analysis](/candy-japan "Bayesian decision-theoretic analysis of effect of fancier packaging on subscription cancellations") # Media ## Links **Genetics**: - [Everything Is Heritable]{.smallcaps}: - ["Genome-wide association study identifies 74 [162] loci associated with educational attainment"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4883595/ "'Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment', Okbay et al 2016b"), Okbay et al 2016 - *[everything is correlated](/everything)*: - ["Genetic link between family socioeconomic status and children's educational achievement estimated from genome-wide SNPs"](https://www.nature.com/articles/mp20152), Krapohl & Plomin 2016 - ["LD Hub: a centralized database and web interface to perform LD score regression that maximizes the potential of summary level GWAS data for SNP heritability and genetic correlation analysis"](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/051094.full), Zheng et al 2016 (Web interface to scores of GWAS results, allowing combined inference over them all: [LD Hub](https://ldsc.broadinstitute.org/about/). Gets around privacy & scaling problems by using, not GCTA, but [LD regression](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4495769/ "'LD Score regression distinguishes confounding from polygenicity in genome-wide association studies', Bulik-Sullivan et al 2015"){#ldsc} which only needs summary statistics. LD score regression is definitely the wave of the future. GCTA was king for a few years, but the inability to use summary data is killing it; in the modern context of a thousand different funding sources, 'medical ethics', & empire building driving countless genetic silos, a method must be able to work on just summary statistics if it's to have any real uptake and get _n_ into the hundreds of thousands.) - ["Detection and interpretation of shared genetic influences on 42 human traits"](/doc/genetics/heritable/correlation/2016-pickrell.pdf), Pickrell et al 2016 - ["An Atlas of Genetic Correlations across Human Diseases and Traits"](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/014498.full), Bulik-Sullivan et al 2015 - ["Genetic contributions to self-reported tiredness"](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/047290.full), Deary et al 2016 (GCTA estimate is not too impressive, but the pleiotropy is interesting. What do you get when you sum a lot of weakly genetically-correlated variables? A giant difference.) - [Recent Evolution]{.smallcaps}: - ["Detection of human adaptation during the past 2,000 years"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5182071/), Field et al 2016 - ["Population structure of UK Biobank and ancient Eurasians reveals adaptation at genes influencing blood pressure"](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/055855.full), Galinsky et al 2016 (Biobank---the gift that keeps on giving. The genetic revolution continues.) - ["Quantitative Genetics in the Postmodern Family of the Donor Sibling Registry"](/doc/genetics/heritable/adoption/2013-lee-2.pdf), Lee 2013 (maternal selection of sperm donors for height increases offspring height as much as predicted by heritability estimates+breeder's equation) - ["Genetic evidence for natural selection in humans in the contemporary United States"](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/037929.full), Beauchamp 2016 - ["Gene Flow by Selective Emigration as a Possible Cause for Personality Differences Between Small Islands and Mainland Populations"](/doc/genetics/selection/2011-ciani.pdf), Ciani & Cialuppi 2011 - ["Schizophrenia and subsequent neighborhood deprivation: revisiting the social drift hypothesis using population, twin and molecular genetic data"](https://www.nature.com/articles/tp201662), Sariaslan et al 2016 (good use of polygenic scores for confirmation) - ["The phenotypic legacy of admixture between modern humans and Neandertals"](/doc/genetics/selection/2016-simonti.pdf), Simonti et al 2016 - ["The MC1R Gene and Youthful Looks"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2016-liu.pdf), Liu et al 2016 - ["Molecular genetic contributions to self-rated health"](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/029504.full), Harris et al 2016 (I love how you can ask people something as super-vague as 'do you think you're in good health' and you *still* get noticeable heritabilities and disease-related hits with a big enough dataset like Biobank.) - [Engineering]{.smallcaps}: - ["Continuous evolution of _Bacillus thuringiensis_ toxins overcomes insect resistance"](/doc/genetics/selection/artificial/2016-badran.pdf), Badran et al 2016 **Politics/religion**: - ["Gods and Gamma"](https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=6697) on ["'God has sent me to you': Right temporal epilepsy, left prefrontal psychosis"](https://www.rifters.com/real/articles/God-has-sent-me-to-you-Right-temporal-epilepsy-left-prefrontal-psychosis.pdf), Arzy & Schurr 2016 (an EEG recording of a messianic religious conversion experience!) - ["At Tampa Bay farm-to-table restaurants, you're being fed fiction"](https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/restaurants/) (_Qui vult decipi decipiatur._) **AI**: - ["One-shot Learning with Memory-Augmented Neural Networks"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.06065#deepmind), Santoro et al 2016 - ["Programming with a Differentiable Forth Interpreter"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.06640), Riedel et al 2016 - ["FractalNet: Ultra-Deep Neural Networks without Residuals"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.07648), Larsson 2016 - ["Artistic style transfer for videos"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.08610), Ruder et al 2016 ([video demonstration](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQk_Sfl7kSc); I particularly like the inkwash-style footage at the end) - ["Deep Reinforcement Learning: Pong from Pixels"](https://karpathy.github.io/2016/05/31/rl/) - [SSC book review: Robin Hanson's _Age of Em_](https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/05/28/book-review-age-of-em/) **Statistics/meta-science**: - ["What should we learn from past AI forecasts?"](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/what-should-we-learn-from-past-ai-forecasts/) - ["Jeffreys' Substitution Posterior for the Median: A Nice Trick to Non-parametrically Estimate the Median"](https://www.sumsar.net/blog/2014/05/jeffreys-substitution-posterior/) **Psychology/biology**: - ["When Lightning Strikes Twice: Profoundly Gifted, Profoundly Accomplished"](/doc/iq/high/smpy/2016-makel.pdf "'When Lightning Strikes Twice', Makel et al 2016"), Makel et al 2016 (Intelligence increases success as high as it can be measured; diminishing returns ≠ zero returns... This replicates the SMPY results in a separate TIP sample.) - ["Dogs Test Drug [rapamycin] Aimed at Humans' Biggest Killer: Age"](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/us/aging-research-disease-dogs.html) - ["Effect of Calorie Restriction on Mood, Quality of Life, Sleep, and Sexual Function in Healthy Nonobese Adults: The CALERIE 2 Randomized Clinical Trial"](/doc/longevity/2016-martin.pdf), Martin et al 2016 - ["Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor?"](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/055624.full "'Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor?', Jonas & Kording 2016"), Jonas & Kording 2016 (amusing followup to ["Can a biologist fix a radio?"](/doc/biology/2002-lazebnik.pdf), Lazebnik 2002; itself a response to [Gregory 1961](/doc/psychology/neuroscience/1961-gregory.pdf "The brain as an engineering problem")) - ["Physical Activity, Sleep, and Nutrition Do Not Predict Cognitive Performance in Young and Middle-Aged Adults"](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00642/full), Gijselaers et al 2016 - ["A Second Year of Spaced Repetition Software in the Classroom"](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dtCfxYubZgRnEkGpQ/a-second-year-of-spaced-repetition-software-in-the-classroom) **Technology**: - ["Beaver: A Decentralized Anonymous Marketplace with Secure Reputation"](https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/464.pdf), Soska et al 2016 - ["The Mastermind"](https://magazine.atavist.com/an-arrogant-way-of-killing/) (In depth series about international criminal mastermind Paul Le Roux who ran his group online while ordering hits on employees using mercenaries and smuggling drug until he is captured and becomes a USG asset to entrap his employees and assist who knows what covert operations. Oh, and he created TrueCrypt. His story is even wilder than Ross Ulbricht's.) - ["How Harry Brearley's Stubborn Insistence Gave Us Knives That Don't Rust"](https://nautil.us/the-father-of-modern-metal-235939/) (see also [multiple discovery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery)) - ["Have I Been Pwned?"](https://haveibeenpwned.com/) (service for looking up whether email addresses are linked to past hacks, and subscribing to alerts) **Economics**: - ["Going for the Gold: The Economics of the Olympics"](/doc/economics/2016-baade.pdf), Baade & Matheson 2016 (The case against the Olympics. Too late for Brazil, though, but others can learn from that debacle.) - ["Results of an international drug testing service for cryptomarket users"](/doc/darknet-market/silk-road/1/2016-caudevilla-2.pdf), Caudevilla et al 2016 - ["Railway Paradise: How a Fine-Dining Empire Made the Southwest Palatable to Outsiders"](https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/railway-paradise/) (statistical discrimination vs taste discrimination: profiting from sexism) **Fiction**: - ["Spring and Fall"](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44400/spring-and-fall), by [Gerard Manley Hopkins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins) ## Books **Nonfiction**: - [_Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr._](https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-Sr/dp/1400077303), Chernow ([review](/review/book#titan-chernow-2004)) **Fiction**: - [_Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins_](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22403), by Gerard Manley Hopkins ([review](/review/book#the-poems-of-gerard-manley-hopkins-hopkins-1976)) - ["CORDYCEPS: Too clever for their own good"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6178036/chapters/14154868) (SF/horror humor novella on overthinking things; early chapters are best in exploring acausal & amnesiac reasoning, somewhat like [_Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria_](/review/book#the-empty-box-and-the-zeroth-maria-mikage-2009), but goes on perhaps a bit too long and explains too much) **Fanfiction**: - [_Significant Digits_](https://www.anarchyishyperbole.com/p/significant-digits.html) (_Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality_: sequel intended to conclude the story; more action-focused with a literary bent, and much less didactic/"author tract" and Harry-focused than _MoR_. Highly recommended for anyone who liked _MoR_.) ## Film/TV **Live-action**: - [_Father Goose_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Goose_%28film%29) (peculiar Cary Grant WWII comedy-drama; it's unusual to see Grant cast as a misanthropic drunkard and the movie can't quite decide whether to be deadly serious or comedic, but most of the comedic beats are highly predictable) **Anime**: - [_Short Peace_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Peace) ([/review/anime#short-peace)) - [_Death Parade_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Parade) (expansion of _Death Billiards_, as an episodic series; stories remain a bit heavily focused on suicide and murder, but while the dark background story arc ultimately ends in a whimper, the main story arc ends in an emotionally satisfying way) ## Music **Touhou**: - ["無間の鐘 ～ Infinite Nightmare"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUPoqaL-vs4) (xi-on feat.oz_hiro; _Mapleaves_ {C89}) [jazz] - ["Zen～然～ -hybrid remix-"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG36h8Ow04g) (NSY feat. 茶太; _LessExtra_ {C89}) [electronic] - "Monolog -Remix-" (Pastry; 'Plusieurs Fleur' {K8}) [electronic/classical] - ["金木犀"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYyUlY1UW1s) (Ringing Volcano; _Shinmyômaru's Little Adventures_ {C89}) [folk] - ["露時雨"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU7O_EEqXmU) (Ringing Volcano; _Shinmyômaru's Little Adventures_ {C89}) [folk] - "Like the geese" (Escarmew; _Secret Sealing Moratorium_ {K2012}) [Celtic] - ["This apple is bad"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw9bT4LerMY) (thj.quartet; _Jazz Funk Live!_ {C89}) [jazz] - ["Tea Funk"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXrD-AVr0pE&t=302s) (thj.quartet; _Jazz Funk Live!_ {C89}) [jazz] - "俯瞰する蒼然暮色" (とらっしゅ; _秘封サウンドスケープ集III Phantasma Sound Archive No.53_ {TK10}) [orchestral rock] - "還流大洋の原点へ" (とらっしゅ; _秘封サウンドスケープ集III Phantasma Sound Archive No.53_ {TK10}) [orchestral rock] - "飛来する蓬莱物質" (とらっしゅ; _秘封サウンドスケープ集III Phantasma Sound Archive No.53_ {TK10}) [orchestral rock] - "アンラクト・フィリング" (とらっしゅ; _秘封サウンドスケープ集III Phantasma Sound Archive No.53_ {TK10}) [orchestral rock] - "Your World" (はちみつれもんxAftergrow; _TOUHOU SIX STRING 02.封_ {C89}) [instrumental rock] - ["Month of Flowers"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzHb608BOT0) (あいざわ feat. ゆーな; _TOUHOU SIX STRING 02.封_ {C89}) [Jpop/ballad] **Vocaloid**: - ["Autumn Beat"](https://adidkh.bandcamp.com/track/autumn-beat) (Miku; adidkh; _PRE:Days EP_ {2016}) [electronic] **Doujin**: - ["Once Upon A Love"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le-mO-ktiOU) (P\*Light; _Colorful Palette_ {C89}) [hardcore]