---
title: February 2019 News
description: February 2019 Gwern.net newsletter with 2 essays/projects, site improvements; links on genetics, AI, propaganda, and typography; and 1 opera review.
created: 2019-01-20
status: finished
confidence: log
css-extension: dropcaps-de-zs
backlink: False
...

This is [the February 2019 edition](/newsletter/2019/02 "'February 2019 News', Gwern 2019") of [the Gwern.net newsletter](https://gwern.substack.com/ "'Gwern.net newsletter (Substack subscription page)', Gwern 2013"); previous, [January 2019](/newsletter/2019/01 "'January 2019 News', Gwern 2018") ([archives](/doc/newsletter/index)).
This is a collation of links and summary of major changes, overlapping with my [Changelog](/changelog); brought to you by my donors on [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/gwern).

# Writings

- ["This Waifu Does Not Exist (TWDNE)"](https://www.thiswaifudoesnotexist.net/ "'ThisWaifuDoesNotExist.net', Gwern 2019") ([background & implementation](/twdne "I describe how I made a website displaying random anime faces generated by StyleGAN neural networks, and how it went viral."); [how to train your own StyleGAN](/face "'Making Anime Faces With StyleGAN', Gwern 2019"))
- ["Origin of 'Littlewood’s Law of Miracles'"](/littlewood-origin "Freeman Dyson probably invented what is called 'Littlewood’s Law of Miracles'")
- Gwern.net CSS/HTML/JS changes: click-to-zoom images (using `image-focus.js`); headers are now self-links; [Tufte CSS](https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/#epigraphs)-style epigraph support; Table of Contents: Wikipedia-style section numbering, margin & size tweaks, lightweight subset of [Source Sans Pro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Sans) (for Mac users); nicer diamond list icons; sleeker sidebar (especially nice on mobile); PDF/internal/section links are now annotated with icons; borders on tables, image figures, and blockquotes; [old-style numerals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_figures) in text & tabular numerals in tables; [justified text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_alignment#Justified) (but not in Chrome due to decade-old lack of hyphenation); narrowed maximum body-width in characters & made line-height responsive to body-width (hopefully addresses the perennial complaints that pages are always too wide/too narrow/lines too close); quote highlighting disabled by default; collapsible code-blocks; inline smallcaps support; optimized SVG logo & favicon; page-specific CSS overrides enabled; list paragraph bugs in Pandoc fixed; compressed JPEGs; changed code syntax-highlighting scheme to match overall esthetics better; miscellaneous responsive design/mobile improvements

    - `image-focus.js` ([JS](/static/js/image-focus.js)): release of new, correct, lightweight, dependency-free JS library written by Obormot for implementing "click to zoom" on images (useful for large images/graphs)

# Media
## Links

**Genetics**:

- [Everything Is Heritable]{.smallcaps}:

    - ["Genetics and Crime: Integrating New Genomic Discoveries Into Psychological Research About Antisocial Behavior"](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0956797617744542), Wertz et al 2018 (IQ/EDU PGS predicts juvenile delinquency & crime; previously: [Rautiainen et al 2016](https://www.nature.com/articles/tp2016155 "Genome-wide association study of antisocial personality disorder")/[Tielbeek et al 2017](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6309228/ "Genome-Wide Association Studies of a Broad Spectrum of Antisocial Behavior")/[Tielbeek et al 2018](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/247411.full "Exploring the genetic correlations of antisocial behavior and life history traits"))[^antisocial-behavior]
    - ["Predicting educational achievement from genomic measures and socioeconomic status"](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12925), von Stumm et al 2019
- [Recent Evolution]{.smallcaps}:

    - ["The growth of tea: Genetic studies of today's tea plants are providing clues to how the plant was first domesticated"](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00395-4)
- [Engineering]{.smallcaps}:

    - ["The Death of a Dreamer---Austen Heinz and Cambrian Genomics"](https://quillette.com/2019/01/30/the-death-of-a-dreamer/) (what happened to an early genome synthesis pioneer)
    - ["The DIY designer baby project funded with Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency, biohacking, and the fantastic plan for transgenic humans"](https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/02/01/239624/the-transhumanist-diy-designer-baby-funded-with-bitcoin/) (Bryan Bishop's startup for genetic editing of human embryos/sperm)

[^antisocial-behavior]: Further reading from ["Genomics of human aggression: current state of genome-wide studies and an automated systematic review tool"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2019-odintsova.pdf), Odintsova et al 2019:

    Reviewed papers from [Table 2]{.smallcaps}:

    - Baud 2005, ["Personality traits as intermediary phenotypes in suicidal behavior: genetic issues"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2005-baud.pdf "'Personality traits as intermediary phenotypes in suicidal behavior: Genetic issues', Baud 2005")
    - Moffitt 2005, ["Genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behaviors: evidence from behavioral--genetic research"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2005-moffitt.pdf)
    - Craig & Halton 2009, ["Genetics of human aggressive behavior"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2012-craig.pdf "‘Genetics of human aggressive behavior’, Craig & Halton 2009")
    - Tuvblad & Baker 2012, ["Human aggression across the lifespan: Genetic propensities and environmental moderators"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3696520/ "'Human aggression across the lifespan: genetic propensities and environmental moderators', Tuvblad & Baker 2011")
    - Anholt & McKay 2012, ["Genetics of aggression"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2012-anholt.pdf "'Genetics of Aggression', Anholt & Mackay 2012")
    - Vassos et al 2014, ["Systematic meta-analyses and field synopsis of genetic association studies of violence and aggression"](https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201331)
    - Provencal et al 2015, ["The developmental origins of chronic physical aggression: biological pathways triggered by early life adversity"](https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/218/1/123/13627/The-developmental-origins-of-chronic-physical)
    - Tielbeek et al 2012, ["Unraveling the genetic etiology of adult antisocial behavior: a genome-wide association study"](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0045086 "'Unraveling the Genetic Etiology of Adult Antisocial Behavior: A Genome-Wide Association Study', Tielbeek et al 2012")
    - McGue et al 2013, ["A genome-wide association study of behavioral disinhibition"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3886341/)
    - Tiihonen et al 2015, ["Genetic background of extreme violent behavior"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4776744/)
    - Mick et al 2014, ["Genome-wide association study of proneness to anger"](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0087257 "'Genome-Wide Association Study of Proneness to Anger', Mick et al 2013")
    - Salvatore et al 2015, ["Genome-wide association data suggest _ABCB1_ and immune-related gene sets may be involved in adult antisocial behavior"](https://www.nature.com/articles/tp201536)
    - Zhang-James et al 2016, ["Genetic architecture for human aggression: A study of gene--phenotype relationship in OMIM"](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ajmg.b.32363)
    - Fernàndez-Castillo et al 2016, ["Aggressive Behavior in Humans: Genes and Pathways Identified Through Association Studies"](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ajmg.b.32419)
    - Veroude et al 2016, ["Genetics of aggressive behavior: An overview"](http://biology-web.nmsu.edu/~houde/genetics%20of%20aggression.pdf)
    - Waltes et al 2016, ["The neurobiological basis of human aggression: a review on genetic and epigenetic mechanisms"](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ajmg.b.32388)
    - Manchia & Fanos 2017, ["Targeting aggression in severe mental illness: The predictive role of genetic, epigenetic, and metabolomic markers"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2017-manchia.pdf)
    - Beaver et al 2018, ["On the Genetic and Genomic Basis of Aggression, Violence, and Antisocial Behavior"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2018-beaver.pdf)
    - Tremblay et al 2019, ["Developmental origins of chronic physical aggression: A bio-psycho-social model for the next generation of preventive interventions"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2018-tremblay.pdf "'Developmental Origins of Chronic Physical Aggression: A Bio-Psycho-Social Model for the Next Generation of Preventive Interventions', Tremblay et al 2018")
    - Davydova et al 2018, ["Recent advances in genetics of aggressive behavior"](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b15f/026aadf93744168fe9992cb86002a85647d2.pdf) (Russian)
    - Gard et al 2019, ["Genetic influences on antisocial behavior: Recent advances and future directions"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2019-gard.pdf "'Genetic influences on antisocial behavior: recent advances and future directions', Gard et al 2019")
    - Salvatore & Dick 2018, ["Genetic influences on conduct disorder"](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2cb9/e5fe8009b934faa127778bf6aae028e30b62.pdf)

    Other papers from [Table 3]{.smallcaps}:

    - Sonunga-Barke et al 2008, ["Does parental expressed emotion moderate genetic effects in ADHD? An exploration using a genome wide association scan"](https://duepublico2.uni-due.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/duepublico_derivate_00028060/Oades2008Does.pdf)
    - Anney et al 2008, ["Conduct disorder and ADHD: evaluation of conduct problems as a categorical and quantitative trait in the international multicenter ADHD genetics study"](https://duepublico2.uni-due.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/duepublico_derivate_00028837/Anney_ea_2008.pdf)
    - Viding et al 2010, ["In search of genes associated with risk for psychopathic tendencies in children: a two-stage genome-wide association study of pooled DNA"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2010-viding.pdf)
    - Dick et al 2010, ["Genome-wide association study of conduct disorder symptomatology"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3580835/)
    - Perjonen et al 2011, ["Hostility in adolescents and adults: a genome-wide association study of the Young Finns"](https://www.nature.com/articles/tp201113)
    - Mick et al 2011, ["Genome-wide association study of the child behavior checklist dysregulation profile"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3143361/)
    - Pappa et al 2016, ["A genome-wide approach to children's aggressive behavior: The EAGLE consortium"](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ajmg.b.32333)

    [See also]{.smallcaps}:

    - Barnes et al 2019, ["The propensity for aggressive behavior and lifetime incarceration risk: A test for gene-environment interaction (G×E) using whole-genome data"](https://moffittcaspi.trinity.duke.edu/sites/moffittcaspi.trinity.duke.edu/files/Agression_ViolentBehavior.pdf)

**AI**:

- ["Better Language Models and Their Implications"](https://openai.com/index/better-language-models/ "'Better Language Models and Their Implications: We've trained a large-scale unsupervised language model [GPT-2] which generates coherent paragraphs of text, achieves state-of-the-art performance on many language modeling benchmarks, and performs rudimentary reading comprehension, machine translation, question answering, and summarization—all without task-specific training', Radford et al 2019"), OpenAI (GPT-2, a 10× larger Transformer model [than before](https://openai.com/research/language-unsupervised "GPT-1: Improving Language Understanding with Unsupervised Learning [June 2018]") w/unsupervised learning on 40GB text leads to large gains on natural language generation & high performance on untrained NLP tasks: ["Language Models are Unsupervised Multitask Learners"](/doc/ai/nn/transformer/gpt/2/2019-radford.pdf#openai), Radford et al 2019. Worth pondering: GPT-2 costs only ~\$43k raw compute and is not even fully trained (pg4); OA could afford to scale it 100×, which is still cheaper than their OA5 project. If GPT-2 is *this* good now, what does it look like scaled further, with improvements like limited recurrency?)
- ["Real-time Continuous Transcription with Live Transcribe"](https://research.google/blog/real-time-continuous-transcription-with-live-transcribe/)/["Making audio more accessible with two new apps"](https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/making-audio-more-accessible-two-new-apps/) (NN-powered Android app for live speech-to-text transcription, piloted at Gallaudet University for the deaf; great news for the hard-of-hearing too)
- [StyleGAN source code & models released](https://github.com/NVlabs/stylegan) (I immediately applied it to create [TWDNE](#gwern-twdne))
- [Entendrepreneur: a "Portmanteau & Rhyme Generator" using word embeddings](https://www.punchlinedesign.net/pun_generator), [Simon 2018](https://nips2018creativity.github.io/doc/entendrepreneur.pdf "Entendrepreneur: Generating Humorous Portmanteaus using Word-Embeddings") ([SSC](https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/24/ot122-openne-thread/#comment-724333), [HN](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19241236)<!-- , [/r/gwern](https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/comments/aulo8q/entendrepreneur_a_portmanteau_rhyme_generator/) -->; examples: "cat+rationality=mewtilitarian"; "computer+animation=miyazakistroke"; "the mapping of cats": "geografeline"; see also ["Alpha"](https://llamasandmystegosaurus.blogspot.com/2017/05/alpha.html))
- [ProGAN generation of 128px anime faces, results (~3 weeks training on Danbooru2017)](/face-graveyard#progan)

**Statistics/Meta-Science**:

- ["Most Rigorous Large-Scale Educational RCTs are Uninformative: Should We Be Concerned?"](/doc/sociology/2019-lortieforgues.pdf "'Rigorous Large-Scale Educational RCTs Are Often Uninformative: Should We Be Concerned?', Lortie-Forgues & Inglis 2019"), Lortie-Forgues & Inglis 2019 ([the metallic laws](/doc/sociology/1987-rossi "'The Iron Law Of Evaluation And Other Metallic Rules', Rossi et al 1987") strike again)
- ["Review of Scientific Self-Experimentation: Ethics History, Regulation, Scenarios, And Views Among Ethics Committees And Prominent Scientists"](/doc/nootropic/quantified-self/2019-hanley.pdf "'Review of Scientific Self-experimentation: ethics history, regulation, scenarios, and views among ethics committees and prominent scientists', Hanley et al 2018"), Hanley et al 2018

**Politics/religion**:

- ["The Real War 1939--1945"](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1989/08/the-real-war-1939-1945/306374/), Paul Fussell 1989 ("...he watched in disbelief while fat maggots tumbled out of his muddy dungaree pockets, cartridge belt, legging lacings...too horrible and obscene even for hardened veterans")
- ["Avoid News: Towards a Healthy News Diet"](/doc/culture/2010-dobelli.pdf), Dobelli 2010
- ["Land lotteries, long-term wealth, and political selection"](/doc/sociology/2019-poulos.pdf), Poulos 2019
- ["Nggwal, who travels in structures of fiber and bone atop rivers of blood."](https://traditionsofconflict.com/blog/2019/2/23/notes-on-nggwal "'Notes on Nggwal', Buckner 2019")
- [Suppression of the Society of Jesus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppression_of_the_Society_of_Jesus)
- ["Taxes, Lawyers, and the Decline of Witch Trials in France"](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.708.3217&rep=rep1&type=pdf), Johnson & Koyama 2014
- <span id="abandoned-footnotes">[[Best Of _Abandoned Footnotes_](/doc/sociology/abandoned-footnotes/index "‘Abandoned Footnotes’, Gwern 2021")]{.smallcaps}</span>

**Psychology/biology**:

- ["Deep Intellect": the mind of an octopus](https://orionmagazine.org/article/deep-intellect/ "'Deep Intellect', Montgomery 2011")
- [MEMORIZE](https://learning.mpi-sws.org/memorize/ "'Enhancing human learning via spaced repetition optimization', Tabibian et al 2019") (a randomized spaced-repetition review algorithm derived using principles from control theory)
- ["A Suspense Novelist's Trail of Deceptions"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/11/a-suspense-novelists-trail-of-deceptions "Dan Mallory, who writes under the name A. J. Finn, went to No. 1 with his début thriller, _The Woman in the Window_. His life contains even stranger twists") (psychiatric case study)
- ["Congregations Of Tear-Drinking Bees At Human Eyes: Foraging Strategies For An Invaluable Resource By _Lisotrigona_ In Thailand (Apidae, Meliponini)"](/doc/biology/2018-banziger.pdf "'Congregations of Tear Drinking Bees at Human Eyes: Foraging Strategies for an Invaluable Resource by <em>Lisotrigona</em> in Thailand (Apidae, Meliponini)', Bänziger 2018"), Bänziger 2018

**Technology**:

- ["What Color are your bits?"](https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23)
- ["Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s"](https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming-in-the-1600s/) (pre-greenhouse tech: thick southern-facing walls for passive heating)
- ["Crinkler secrets: 4k-intro executable compression at its best"](https://code4k.blogspot.com/2010/12/crinkler-secrets-4k-intro-executable.html)
- [Typography in _Alien_](https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/12/01/alien/ "'<em>Alien</em> (Typeset In The Future)', Addey 2014")
- [Typography in _Blade Runner_](https://typesetinthefuture.com/2016/06/19/bladerunner/ "'<em>Blade Runner</em> (Typeset In The Future)', Addey 2016")
- ["Scanning a Braille _Playboy_ issue"](https://blog.archive.org/2011/08/17/scanning-a-braille-playboy/), Jason Scott

**Economics**:

- ["The true story of Russia’s weakness [stifled by bad planning, bureaucratic inefficiency, and lack of any real incentive]"](/doc/economics/1957-nutter.pdf), Nutter 1957 (prescient)
- ["The [Great Shift in Japanese Pop Culture]{.smallcaps}---Part One"](https://neojaponisme.com/2011/11/28/the-great-shift-in-japanese-pop-culture-part-one/)/[Part Two](https://neojaponisme.com/2011/11/29/the-great-shift-in-japanese-pop-culture-part-two/ "Part Two: The Implosion of Cultural Markets")/[Part Three](https://neojaponisme.com/2011/11/30/the-great-shift-in-japanese-pop-culture-part-three/ "Part Three: Mainstream Consumers versus Marginal Subcultures")/[Part Four](https://neojaponisme.com/2011/12/01/the-great-shift-in-japanese-pop-culture-part-four/ "Part Four: The Rise of Marginal Subcultures")/[Part Five](https://neojaponisme.com/2011/12/02/the-great-shift-in-japanese-pop-culture-part-five/ "Part Five: The Difficulty of Exporting Marginal Subcultures")
- ["You Say You Want a Devolution? For most of the last century, America's cultural landscape---its fashion, art, music, design, entertainment---changed dramatically every 20 years or so. But these days, even as technological and scientific leaps have continued to revolutionize life, popular style has been stuck on repeat, consuming the past instead of creating the new"](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2012/01/prisoners-of-style-201201)
- ["The Borderlands Gun Collector's Club"](https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2012/03/borderlands-gun-collectors-club.html), Steve Yegge 2012 (emergent token economies in video games)

**Philosophy**:

- ["The Force That Drives the Flower"](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1973/11/the-force-that-drives-the-flower/308963/), Dillard 1973 (existential horror)

**Fiction**:

- ["A Colder War"](https://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm), Charles Stross 2000
- ["The Proverbial Murder Mystery", SSC](https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/13/the-proverbial-murder-mystery/), SSC (see also ["The Study of Anglophysics"](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/03/the-study-of-anglophysics/))
- ["The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld"](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/04/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld.html)

**Misc**:

- [Olbers’ paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olbers%27_paradox)
- [The terribly tragic life of the terrible painter](https://fivebooks.com/best-books/favourite-art-books-andrew-graham-dixon/ "Andrew Graham-Dixon on His Favorite Art Books: _The Diary of Benjamin Robert Haydon_") [Benjamin Haydon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Haydon)
- ["The Gravity Research Foundation"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Research_Foundation) (dedicated to the war on gravity)

## Books

**Nonfiction**:

- [_Practical Typography_](https://practicaltypography.com/), [Matthew Butterick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Butterick) 2013 (a useful if idiosyncratic introduction to typography with a word processor/HTML focus; reading through this was helpful in understanding possible CSS/design improvements while improving Gwern.net this month)

## Film/TV

- <div id="carmen">[_Carmen_ opera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen) ([review](/review/opera#carmen "'Movie Reviews § Carmen</em>', Gwern 2014"))</div>