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 & Tonkin2003

• “The Efficacy of Psychological, Educational, and Behavioral Treatment: Confirmation From Meta-Analysis”, Lipsey & Wilson1993 (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these meta-meta-analyses, since they let you say things like ‘Published studies yield mean effects 0.14 SDs larger than unpublished studies.’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” (interpretation)

  • “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”, Bockerman et al 2014

• 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”, King et al 2014

• Tweets which are anagrams of each other

• “A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names”, Meiklejohn et al 2013

Philosophy:

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

• “SCP-988”

Business:

• Econlolcats

• “The True Story Of The Great Marijuana Crash Of2011”

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; note@L-tone; 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]