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September 2017 News

September 2017 Gwern.net newsletter with links on genetics (GWAS, engineering, evolution), intelligence, AI, metformin, lithium; 2 book and 6 movie reviews

This is the September 2017 edition of the Gwern.net newsletter; previous, August 2017 (archives). This is a collation of links and summary of major changes, overlapping with my Changelog; brought to you by my donors on Patreon.

Writings

  • Gwern.net updates: Google AdSense banner ads removed (due to initial analysis of A/B test results); URL scheme changed to replace spaces by hyphens & delete commas/apostrophes (due to persistent user error); footer moved to sidebar; re-tagging pages; font/CSS tweaked for faster loads & wider margins; hosted documents reorganized & expanded with personal archives; began buying & scanning all cited books to provide fulltexts; added sitemap generation to expose fulltexts to search engines

Media

Books

Nonfiction

Fiction

Film/TV

Live-Action

  • Cool Hand Luke (review)

  • The Terminator

  • Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin (much longer than The Gold Rush; like The Gold Rush, it suffers from the transition to comedy & satire to serious drama, in this case, about the Great Depression. The opening factory sequence is great, as is the Little Tramp’s singing performance in the cafe, but everything in between is a slog.)

  • Listen To Me Marlon (review)

  • The Gold Rush (192599ya/194282ya), Charlie Chaplin (holds up better than I expected but still probably not recommended. Comedic timing has changed as a number of scenes I thought should have gone on longer and elaborated more on their theme were too curtailed, and the attempt at introducing halfway in a dramatic arc/love story falls flat as overly sentimental & pompous—the movie should stick to its knitting, the comedy. The best scene by far is the “dance of the bread rolls”.)

Animated

  • Zootopia (Excellently executed, but the worldbuilding is more baffling the longer you think on it so probably better not to—the only things that would make it make sense would also turn it into a 1984-esque dystopia where the ending and The Moral of the Story is akin Winston Smith realizing “I love Big Brother”.)

  • K-On! Movie 201113ya (beautifully animated but hopelessly bland despite a sweet ending; I suppose that’s an apt description of the entire K-On! franchise but I was hoping that the movie could do more.)

Music

Touhou

Doujin

  • “Root of Root” (Harito; Hexe Herz {C92}) [folk]

  • “Feel My Energy” (kors k vs DJ SHIMAMURA feat. Lexi; Battle Royale {C92}) [techno/hardcore]

  • “Fusion Device” (Casual Killer; Back to Summer :again {C92}) [electronic/synthwave]

  • “Blue Lagoon” (Clean Tears; Moments of Passage {C92}) [house]

Vocaloid