Links

Everything is heritable:

• “Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies six novel loci associated with habitual coffee consumption”, The Coffee and Caffeine Genetics Consortium et al 2014 (excerpts)
• “Results of a ‘GWAS Plus’: General Cognitive Ability Is Substantially Heritable and Massively Polygenic”, Kirkpatrick et al 2014
• “Understanding the Genetics of Intelligence: Can Height Help? Can Corn Oil?”, Johnson 2010 (excerpts)
• “The impact of neighbourhood deprivation on adolescent violent criminality and substance misuse: A longitudinal, quasi-experimental study of the total Swedish population”, Sariaslan et al 2013 (excerpts)

Politics/religion:

• “Why the World Is Not Falling Apart: Never mind the headlines. We’ve never lived in such peaceful times.”, Pinker & Mack; “Good News You May Have Missed in 2014”, Gates
• “Race and Justice: Much More Than You Wanted To Know”
• “The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side”
• “Police, Paramilitaries, Nationalists and Gangsters: The Processes of State Building in Korea”, Porteux 2013 (excerpts)
• Sacculina parasite
• “Truncated transcript from today’s SCOTUS argument” (parody)
• “Question 94. The relations of the saints towards the damned: Whether the blessed in heaven will see the sufferings of the damned?”

Statistics/AI/meta-science:

• “Contradicted and Initially Stronger Effects in Highly Cited Clinical Research”, Ioannidis 2005 (excerpts)
• “A ‘Sham Procedure’ Leads to Disappointing Multiple Sclerosis News”
• The power of placebos: when water feels like LSD.
• “What Went Wrong? Reflections on Science by Observation and The Bell Curve”, Glymour 1998 (correlation & causation)
• “Full publication of results initially presented in abstracts (Review)”, Scherer et al 2008 (publication bias & incorrect papers; excerpts)
• “Prisons Are Built With Bricks Of Law And Brothels With Bricks Of Religion, But That Doesn’t Prove A Causal Relationship”
• “Effects of remote, retroactive intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients with bloodstream infection: randomised controlled trial”, Leibovici 2001 (Norvig comments)
• “What effect size would you expect?”
• “On the distribution of time-to-proof of mathematical conjectures”, Hisano & Sornette 2012

Psychology/biology:

• “Thank you for doing something ambiguously between smoking and not smoking”
• “CBD in Colorado: Seeking a marijuana miracle [for children with severe epilepsy]” (“The question is not whether it is ethical to run a randomized trial, but whether it is ethical to not run a randomized trial”, I found myself thinking again and again in this sad and pitiable story of being fooled by randomness.)
• “Morningness-eveningness and educational outcomes: The lark has an advantage over the owl at high school”, Preckel et al 2013
• “What Do You Desire?” (on the porn company Kink.com)
• “Suicide: An Economic Approach”, Becker & Posner 2004 (excerpts)
• “The Graying of Academia: Will It Reduce Scientific Productivity?”, Stroebe 2010 (excerpts)
• “Can Behavioral Tools Improve Online Student Outcomes? Experimental Evidence from a Massive Open Online Course”, Patterson 2014 (excerpts)
• “Direct Effect of Sunshine on Suicide”, Vyssoki et al 2014
• “The future of teratology research is in vitro”, Bailey et al 2005
• “Spaced Repetition and Mnemonics Enable Recall of Multiple Strong Passwords”, Blocki et al 2014 (excerpts)
• “Subu Must Die: How a nation of junkies went cold turkey”
• Golden Gate Bridge suicides

Technology:

• “Human Performance”, 2008 JASON (excerpts)
• Spreadsheet mistakes
• “Scholarly Context Not Found: One in Five Articles Suffers from Reference Rot”, Klein et al 2014
• “The Hundred-Year Language”
• M50 Ontos
• Photoacoustic spectroscopy
• “Turing Drawings”: flowing sand
• The NSA copes with a volcano

Economics:

• College major salary premiums
• “What Are Foundations For?” (principal-agent conflicts; against perpetuities)
• “A lucky little fish turns out to be the solution to iron deficiency among women in Cambodia, a problem solved by a University of Guelph researcher.”
• “Should Psychological Neuroscience Research Be Funded?” (discussion)
• Kids for cash scandal
• “Smart companies try to commoditize their products’ complements.”
• “The Coase Theorem is false: contracts depend on tort law”
• “One Kind of Lawlessness: Estimating the Welfare Cost of Somali Piracy”

Philosophy:

• “Bayesian Adjustment Does Not Defeat Existential Risk Charity” (“they strain at the gnat of the prior who swallow the camel of the likelihood”)
• “Transhumanist Fables”
• “Study: Wolf Attacks Still Leading Cause Of Death In U.S.”
• “Even More Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays from Vectors 3.0”, James Richardson

Misc:

• “Limits”, Jorge Luis Borges
• Great mistakes in history: the scuttling of the German navy
• Hollywood Archaeology: The Super Mario Bros. Movie; Unearthing a major disaster to learn the lessons held within
• “On Pins and Needles: Stylist Turns Ancient Hairdo Debate on Its Head”

Books

Nonfiction:

• Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II, Lowe (review)
• Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose, Thomas & Turner (review; online guide)

Fiction:

• Ra, Sam Hughes (hard SF web serial; Goodreads)
• Un Lun Dun, China Miéville (review)
• Reject Hero, Farmerbob1 (About; superhero web serial, set in a Worm-like universe; somewhat unusual conservative middle-aged perspective as he negotiates his way into the deeper magical universe, culminating in a fun twist Jurassic Park ending with a sting; good fic but not great, and probably goes on too long)
• Perseverance island: or, The Robinson Crusoe of the nineteenth century, by Douglas Frazer (review)
• CVN73 USS George Washington (manga; review)

Music

Touhou:

• “Sixth Movement Dawn of East End” (MORRIGAN feat. 三澤秋; Symphonic Tarantella “Lily” -Illusionary Waltz: Belladonna Lily- {M3-27}) [orchestral]
• “Fifth Movement 9th moon / Pale Indigo Dream” (MORRIGAN feat. 三澤秋; Symphonic Tarantella “Lily” -Illusionary Waltz: Belladonna Lily- {M3-27}) [orchestral]
• “The Black Eyes” (Swing Holic Band; SWING HOLIC VOL.9 {R9}) [jazz]
• “NEMESIS” (Sanokan; SWING HOLIC VOL.9 {R9}) [brass]
• “ON FIRE” (Maurits“禅”Cornelis feat. Vivienne; DANCE with WOLVES {C86}) [house]
• “Fantasia Nightbug” (激戦の人 feat. 迷犬; Summer Festival {C86}) [Rock]
• “Eternal Steam Engine” (Suzumu feat.Sae Tsukiyama; Summer Festival {C86}) [vocal]
• “To the Limit” (あとぐる feat. Mai Kotoge; 悠啼 YU-NARI {C78}) [rock]

Doujin:

• “Prelude (Instrumental)” (Treow; KOLLECTION+OI {2012}) [electronica]
• “A Longing” (yuxuki waga; Evergreen {VM23}) [ambient]

Kantai Collection:

• “ThroBBing (母港BGM)” (W*M; Splash! {C85}) [instrumental]

Vocaloid:

• “Sunrise” (Miku; akayaka; KARENT presents Skylight Theater {Trans city}) [ambient]
• “トウキョウトガリ” (Miku; Kobayashi Onyx; LOG {2010}) [electronic]
• “サイハテ(ver,LOG)” (Miku; Kobayashi Onyx; LOG {2010}) [electronic]
• “Moon Walker” (Gumi & Piko; KTG; FREEZE {2011}) [electronic]
• “Welcome to the Future” (Miku; 青屋夏生; Welcome to the Future {2014}) [Jpop/trance]
• “Light Falls” (Miku; yuxuki waga {2011}) [Jpop]
• “ヒトリの誕生日” (Miku; ため; 7 Kilometer {VM28}) [Jpop]
• “ルッキング・フォー・ザ・ヘヴン” (Yukari; カミウラ, カミウラレコーズ; Lavender and White Rose {2013}) [vocal]