Links

Politics/religion:

• “How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500 BC - 1000 AD”
• “How Successful Was Christianity?”
• “How is the biomarker ID aid plan going in India?”
• “The Chaos Company: Wherever governments can’t - or won’t - maintain order, from oil fields in Africa to airports in Britain and nuclear facilities in America, the London-based”global security" behemoth G4S has been filling the void“
• “Book Review: A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja, by Joost R. Hiltermann”

Statistics:

• “Laplace the Bayesianista and the Mass of Saturn”
• “Why do Phase III Trials of Promising Heart Failure Drugs Often Fail? The Contribution of ‘Regression to the Truth’”, Krum & Tonkin 2003 (excerpts)
• “The Efficacy of Psychological, Educational, and Behavioral Treatment: Confirmation From Meta-Analysis”, Lipsey & Wilson 1993 (I love these meta-meta-analyses, since they let you say things like ‘Published studies yield mean effects 0.14 SDs larger than unpublished studies.’ Isn’t that useful to know?)

Literature:

• “Sanderson’s First Law” of fantasy

• Ted Chiang:

  • “Understand”
  • “72 Letters”
  • “Hell is the Absence of God”
  • “Story of Your Life” (see also Lagrangians, Principle of Least Action, Greg Egan’s “Infinite Assassins”, and Qualia the Purple)
  • “Liking What You See: A Documentary”
  • “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling”

Medicine:

• “Biomarkers and Long-term Labour Market Outcomes: The Case of Creatine”
• Caloric restriction, evidence pyramid, and drug risks
• “Meta-Regression Analyses, Meta-Analyses, and Trial Sequential Analyses of the Effects of Supplementation with Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A, and Vitamin E Singly or in Different Combinations on All-Cause Mortality: Do We Have Evidence for Lack of Harm?”, Bjelakovic et al 2013

Psychology:

• “The poor neglected gifted child: Precocious kids do seem to become high-achieving adults. Why that makes some educators worried about America’s future” (SMPY)
• “The Overprotected Kid: A preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery-without making it safer. A new kind of playground points to a better solution.” (Playgrounds, risk, and childrearing.)
• Frederik Pohl & cryonics

Science/technology:

• “Dorian Nakamoto has vehemently denied being Bitcoin’s creator. Did Newsweek act irresponsibly in pursuit of a scoop? Could they have known, prior to the denials, that Dorian wasn’t Satoshi?”
• “A Randomized Experimental Study of Censorship in China”
• Tweets which are anagrams of each other
• “A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names”, Meiklejohn et al 2013 (excerpts)

Philosophy:

• “Searching For One-Sided Tradeoffs” (Optimality/equilibrium reasoning.)
• “SCP-988”

Business:

• Econlolcats
• “The True Story Of The Great Marijuana Crash Of 2011”

Misc:

• Have a nice day

• Lapham’s Quarterly: “Death”:

  • “Longing for His Son Furuhi” (Yamanoue no Okura mourns)
  • Gensen’s death poems
  • “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
  • Heraclitus
  • Montaigne, “To Philosophize Is to Learn to Die”
  • “The Masque of the Red Death”
  • “Gertrude Bell Survives a Plague”
  • John Stuart Mill’s diary
  • Macaulay letter on Wilberforce’s death
  • Egyptian rites

Books

Fiction:

• reread R.A. Lafferty’s Fourth Mansions
• Harrison’s Light (review)

Nonfiction:

• Levenson’s Newton and the Counterfeiter (review)

Film/TV

Anime:

• Shin Sekai Yori (review)
• Attack on Titan
• Kyousougiga

Music

Touhou:

• “A Queen Of The Sixteenth Night” (Yuri Yuzriha; TOHO R&B HOUSE Party Vol.2 {C85}) [instrumental/electronic]
• “Hello Aliens” feat. emaru (アサヒ; デジハロ NEXUS {C84}) [electro pop]
• “Einsamkeit” feat. 綾倉 盟 (spctrm, Syrufit; Sensitive Moment {C76})
• “Ska or RED” (水橋ゆっきー; Brass Quartet {C80}) [brass]
• “気だるい図書館” (水橋ゆっきー; Brass Quartet {C80}) [brass]
• “銀河と恋色魔法” (水橋ゆっきー; Brass Quartet {C80}) [brass]
• “NEXUS WiNG” feat. peЯoco. (katsu; DiGiHalo NEXUS {C84}) [pop]

Vocaloid:

• “ウィリウィリ (Wiliwili)” (Rin; takamatt, East End Pandemonium) [trance]
• “girls’ afternoon appointments” (Miku? leggysalad; Amber {VM23}) [electronic]
• “Swim Through The Air” (Miku; leggysalad; Amber {VM23}) [electronic]
• “2AM Dreamy Wonderland (CY Short Mix)” (Miku; MJQ, CY) [Progressive House]
• “パンデミックの掃除” (Rin; [email protected]; かがみね★ふぇすた 2013) [J-pop]
• “Bling Bling★Brighten Every Days” (SeeU; Team StarRoid; On You) [house]
• “Now Here” (SeeU; Team StarRoid, On You) [house]