Links

Genetics:

• Everything Is Heritable:

  • “The Fourth Law of Behavior Genetics” (GWAS hits replicate across populations; dominance genetic variation explains little of variation—most continues to be additive.)

• Recent Evolution:

  • “Eight thousand years of [human] natural selection in Europe”, Mathieson et al 2015 (Khan)

Politics/religion:

• “Break-In at Y-12: How a handful of pacifists and nuns exposed the vulnerability of America’s nuclear-weapons sites”

• Breast attitudes in North & South Korea

• “Longevity of popes and artists between the 13th and the 19^th century”, Carrieri & Serraino2005

• The redemption movement

• “The Lesson of Iraq”

• “Different modes of discourse”

• The iron law of oligarchy

Statistics/AI/meta-science:

• “Compliance with Results Reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov”, Anderson et al 2015 (incentives matter)

• “The Mystery Machine: End-to-end Performance Analysis of Large-scale [Facebook] Internet Services”, Chow et al 2014

• “Many Labs 3: Evaluating participant pool quality across the academic semester via replication” (commentary)

• “p Values are not Error Probabilities”, Hubbard & Bayarri2003

• “Most Published Research Findings Are False—But a Little Replication Goes a Long Way”, Moonesinghe2007

• “Understanding Bayes Theorem With Ratios”

• “Mice Fall Short as Test Subjects for Some of Humans’ Deadly Ills”

Psychology/biology:

• “Coincidental killers: We assume that microbes evolved to attack humans when actually we are just civilian casualties in a much older war”

• “The myopia boom: Short-sightedness is reaching epidemic proportions. Some scientists think they have found a reason why” (the bright-light-triggering-less-eye-growth is an appealingly elegant explanation for why near-sightedness spikes so reliably with industrialization & development but continues to strike even those who are physically active & not readers. If it’s true, it also suggests interventions: light boxes such as those used in SAD therapy. One wonders if light box experiments would show reduced near-sightedness in the experimental group should someone go back to check. We might also expect near-sightedness to level off or decrease in the West: with the crashing price of LED lighting, demand for illumination will increase. Even if we never light the interiors of our buildings as brightly as the noon sun, which would interfere with our computer screens, that may still help, and the brightness of computer screens, otherwise a curse in damaging our circadian rhythms & sleep, may also assist.)

• “New Improved Lottery”: the Premium Bond

• Nasal cycle (One thing I find interesting about the nasal cycle is that even though it’s ultra-noticeable when you have a cold or stuffy nose, a lot of people seem to have either never realized that they have a cycle or assume it’s a personal idiosyncrasy of their nose. Sort of the opposite of the typical mind fallacy.)

Technology:

• “Hacking the Papal Election”

• “In High-Tech Japan, the Fax Machines Roll On”

• the qanat/karez irrigation system in Turpan

Economics:

• “What’s Changed about the Standard of Living? It’s Complicated. But Hopeful.”

• “Iceland Looks to Export Power Bubbling From Below”

• “In China, Families Bet It All on College for Their Children”

• “Assembling the Billing Block” (the power struggle behind film credits)

Philosophy:

• “The Great Filter—Are We Almost Past It?”, Hanson1998

• Moral anti-realism

Fiction:

• “The Cambist and Lord Iron”, Abraham 2007_17ya (discussion)

• “Extracts from the Club Diary” (Stross 1998_26ya; Coffee steampunk, Mars, the end of the world) & “It Was All For The Tuna”

• “Unlock your Spock” (Star Trek elegy for Leonard Nimoy)

Books

Nonfiction:

• Sorel’s Reflections on Violence (review)

Fiction:

• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

• Liu’s The Three-Body Problem

• Wildbow’s Pact (review)

• The Accidental Space Spy (Thorsby; an earthling is accidentally impressed into chasing after an anthropologist and thrown into exotic (and deadly) alien cultures, where he struggles to understand their biologies & reproductive strategies & evolutionary pressures while staying alive. He does, most characters don’t. The art is best described as ‘dire but it may grow on you’, and the real joy is just the sheer variety of aliens on offer (a bit like Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker—both works throw away more fascinating alien creatures in one or two chapters than most SF series have in their entirety) and trying to figure out what evo biology scenario has been pushed to the max by the author—costly signaling of fitness, mate guarding, short-term memories, placebo effect etc. Some are pretty cool (I really liked the Invisibility Zone one), others not so much (placebo effect scenario less convincing than Robin Hanson’s).)

• Hitmen for Destiny (Thorsby; TvTropes; this was good but not as good as The Accidental Space Spy, since the art remains as dire, Thorsby again indulges in an overly-long comedy-of-errors, and the monsters aren’t quite as fascinating as the aliens in Space Spy, although on the plus side, it still has everything that I like about Thorsby (eg. I loved the Mexican standoff with 2 possibly-loaded guns towards the end) with a more coherent and meaningful story.)

• Welcome to the N.H.K.

Film/TV

Movie:

• Project Nim (review)

• The King of Kong (review)

Anime:

• Space Dandy (review)

Music

Misc:

• “classique d’amour～愛のクラスィーク” (Yoko Kanno; 「スペース☆ダンディ」O.S.T.2 Boobies Wonderland {2014}) [orchestral]

• “White House” (OGRE YOU ASSHOLE; Space Dandy OST 2 {2014}) [progressive rock]—ep 21 ED

• “Dandy’s Fly” (Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro; 「スペース☆ダンディ」O.S.T.2 Boobies Wonderland {2014}) [brass]

• “金色の玩具” (OGRE YOU ASSHOLE; 「スペース☆ダンディ」O.S.T.2 Boobies Wonderland {2014}) [progressive rock]

• “バブル・オブ・バブル” (OGRE YOU ASSHOLE; 「スペース☆ダンディ」O.S.T.2 Boobies Wonderland {2014}) [progressive rock]

Doujin:

• “Dreaming Shout” (livetune feat. NIRGILIS; 「と」 {2014}) [electronic/dance]

Kantai Collection:

• “飛龍の反撃” (TAMUSIC; 艦これメタル {C87}) [metal]

• “出撃・海原越えて” (TAMUSIC; 艦これメタル {C87}) [metal]

• “工廠ワルツ” (伊藤 翼; Kantai Philharmonic Orchestra {C86}) [orchestral]

• “南方海域を突破せよ” (伊藤 翼; Kantai Philharmonic Orchestra {C86}) [orchestral]

Touhou:

• “恋色マスタースパーク” (TAM×KEIGO KANZAKI; 東方バイオリンロック永-NAGARAE- {C87}) [instrumental rock]

• “竹取飛翔” (TAM×KEIGO KANZAKI; 東方バイオリンロック永-NAGARAE- {C87}) [instrumental rock]

• “月まで届け、不死の煙” (TAM×KEIGO KANZAKI; 東方バイオリンロック永-NAGARAE- {C87}) [instrumental rock]

• “千年幻想郷” (TAM×KEIGO KANZAKI; 東方バイオリンロック永-NAGARAE- {C87}) [instrumental rock]

• “Moonstruck Dance” (Maurits “ZEN” Cornelis, Tim Vegas feat. Chen-U; “Everflowering” Masterpieces of Hatsunetsumiko’s 2011_13ya—2013 {R11}) [bossa nova?]

• “Innocent World” (Maurits “ZEN” Cornelis feat. Vivienne; BOUQUET -Grand Finale- {C84}) [ballad]

• “Silent Story” (Maurits “ZEN” Cornelis, Tim Vegas feat. 陽花; ‘Re:Clockwiser & A Narcissus’ {C81}) [house/Jpop]

• “悠久の舞—Re Arrange -” (siva; Gensokyo St. Patrick’s Day {K10}) [Celtic]

• “幻想郷セントパトリックスデイ” (siva; Gensokyo St. Patrick’s Day {K10}) [Celtic]

• “レジェンドオブマナ” (siva; Gensokyo St. Patrick’s Day {K10}) [Celtic]