--- title: March 2014 News created: 2014-04-01 status: finished previous: /newsletter/2014/02 next: /newsletter/2014/04 confidence: log cssExtension: dropcaps-de-zs backlink: False ... This is the March 2014 edition of the Gwern.net ML; the previous was [February](/newsletter/2014/02 "'February 2014 News', Branwen 2014"). This is a summarized version of the revision-history RSS feed, overlapping with the [Changelog page](/changelog "'Changelog', Branwen 2013"). It also includes material from my Google+ & LW media threads. # Writings **Bitcoin**: - [Wei Dai/Satoshi Nakamoto emails](/doc/bitcoin/2008-nakamoto "'Wei Dai/Satoshi Nakamoto 2009 Bitcoin emails', Nakamoto & Dai 2014") - [McCaleb email interview on MtGox](/doc/bitcoin/2014-mccaleb "'2014 Jed McCaleb MtGox interview', McCaleb 2014") - [Evolution attempted blackmail](/blackmail#march) **Tech**: - [Spatial locality for better file compression](/sort "'The ‘sort --key’ Trick', Branwen 2014") - [BeeLine Reader A/B test](/ab-test#beeline-reader-text-highlighting) # Media ## Links **Politics/religion**: - ["How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500 BC--1000 AD"](https://michael-hudson.com/2000/03/how-interest-rates-were-set-2500-bc-1000-ad/) - ["How Successful Was Christianity?"](https://infidels.org/library/modern/richard-carrier-improbable-luck/) - ["How is the biomarker ID aid plan going in India?"](https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/03/how-is-the-biomarker-id-aid-plan-going-in-india.html) - ["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"](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2014/04/g4s-global-security-company) - ["Book Review: _A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja_, by Joost R. Hiltermann"](https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/poisonous-affair-america-iraq-and-gassing-halabja-joost-r-hiltermann) **Statistics**: - ["Laplace the Bayesianista and the Mass of Saturn"](https://perfdynamics.blogspot.com/2013/09/laplace-bayesianista-and-mass-of-saturn.html) - ["Why do Phase III Trials of Promising Heart Failure Drugs Often Fail? The Contribution of 'Regression to the Truth'"](/doc/statistics/bias/2003-krum.pdf), Krum & Tonkin 2003 - ["The Efficacy of Psychological, Educational, and Behavioral Treatment: Confirmation From Meta-Analysis"](/doc/psychology/1993-lipsey.pdf "'The Efficacy of Psychological, Educational, and Behavioral Treatment: Confirmation from Meta-Analysis', Lipsey & Wilson 1993"), 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"](https://www.brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/) of fantasy - [Ted Chiang]{.smallcaps}: - ["Understand"](https://web.archive.org/web/20140527121332/https://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/under.htm) - ["72 Letters"](https://web.archive.org/web/20010802144026/http://www.tor.com/72ltrs.html) - ["Hell is the Absence of God"](https://web.archive.org/web/20161021035119/http://www.ibooksonline.com/88/Text/hell.html) - ["Story of Your Life"](https://web.archive.org/web/20131101142206/https://www.ime.usp.br/~jstern/miscellanea/General/Chiang98.pdf) ([interpretation](/story-of-your-life "'‘Story Of Your Life’ Is Not A Time-Travel Story', Branwen 2012")) - ["Liking What You See: A Documentary"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120530143243/http://www.ibooksonline.com/88/Text/liking.html) - ["The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130925172213/http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of_fact_the_truth_of_feeling_by_ted_chiang) **Medicine**: - ["Biomarkers and Long-term Labour Market Outcomes: The Case of Creatine"](https://docs.iza.org/dp8029.pdf), Bockerman et al 2014 - [Caloric restriction, evidence pyramid, and drug risks](http://chronopause.com/chronopause.com/index.php/2011/08/12/interventive-gerontology-101-01-the-basics/index.html) - ["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?"](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0074558), 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"](https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/03/15/the-poor-neglected-gifted-child/rJpv8G4oeawWBBvXVtZyFM/story.html) ([SMPY](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_of_Mathematically_Precocious_Youth)) - ["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"](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/) (Playgrounds, risk, and childrearing.) - [Frederik Pohl & cryonics](http://chronopause.com/chronopause.com/index.php/2012/02/25/three-strikes-and-youre-out/index.html) **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?"](https://www.mikehearn.com/Hosted-Files/Nakamoto-Could-Newsweek-Have-Known/index.html) - ["A Randomized Experimental Study of Censorship in China"](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/experiment_0.pdf), King et al 2014 - [Tweets which are anagrams of each other](https://anagramatron.tumblr.com/) - ["A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names"](https://cs.gmu.edu/~mccoy/papers/imc13.pdf), Meiklejohn et al 2013 **Philosophy**: - ["Searching For One-Sided Tradeoffs"](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/01/searching-for-one-sided-tradeoffs/) (Optimality/equilibrium reasoning.) - ["SCP-988"](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-988) **Business**: - [_Econlolcats_](https://econlolcats.tumblr.com/) - ["The True Story Of The Great Marijuana Crash Of 2011"](https://www.businessinsider.com/the-great-marijuana-crash-of-2011-2013-9) **Misc**: - [Have a nice day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_a_nice_day) - [[Lapham's Quarterly: "Death"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130923210821/https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/magazine/death.php)]{.smallcaps}: