N/A
2015-10-31–2021-01-04
finished
certainty: log
importance: 0
This is the November 2015 edition of the Gwern.net newsletter; previous, October 2015. This is a summary of the revision-history RSS feed, overlapping with Changelog & /
Writings
- Nothing completed (due to work on researching Craig Wright for Wired)
Media
Links
Genetics:
Everything Is Heritable:
- “Genome-wide analysis of over 106,000 individuals identifies 9 neuroticism-associated loci”, Smith et al 2016
- “Signaling and Productivity in the Private Financial Returns to Schooling”, Bingley et al 2015 (highly unusual design)
- “Childhood Autism and Assortative Mating”, Golden 2013
- pervasive cross-correlations of polygenic scores for various traits: particularly Krapohl et al 2015
Recent Evolution:
- “Genome-wide patterns of selection in 230 ancient Eurasians”, Mathieson et al 2015 (media)
Politics/
- “The American Robber Barons Who Stole Medieval Europe”
- “Book Review: Empire of the Summer Moon”
- “Little to Show for Cash Flood by Big Donors”
- “Why Our Kind Can’t Cooperate”
- on mood affiliation
- Proper procedures for stoning an adulterer
Statistics/
- converting all-cause mortality reductions to life-expectancy increases
- “How to visualize data with cartoonish faces a la Chernoff” (on Chernoff faces)
Psychology/
- The girl who feels no pain
- “Insecticide Resistance and Malaria Control”
- “Cochrane findings that will help you”
- Rubber duck debugging
- “Species-characteristic Responses to Catnip by Undomesticated Felids”, Hill et al 1976
- “Meditation and Its Regulatory Role on Sleep”, Nagendra et al 2012
Technology:
- “Carnegie Mellon Denies FBI Paid for Tor-Breaking Research” (If the FBI is harvesting any de-anonymizing data security researchers collect using subpoenas, this seems like a serious attack on academic freedom and research integrity.)
- “DagCoin: a cryptocurrency without blocks”; in an entirely different direction, Bitcoin-NG splits blocks from mining (Bitcoin is just the first, not necessarily the universally ideal. We’re in a Cambrian explosion of financial cryptography and should be open to new approaches.)
- “Air Force cadet sentenced to 3 years after buying modafinil, molly, & LSD on Silk Road 2”
- ‘man sort’: ‘–random-sort’ misleading (use
shuf
if you need random sorts on the CLI)
Economics:
- “As Coasts Rebuild and U.S. Pays, Repeatedly, the Critics Ask Why”/
“Should the Northeast Bury its Power Lines to Prevent Outages?”/ “Having your cake and eating it too: The maturity structure of US debt” - “Ricardo’s Difficult Idea”/
“The Real Winners and Losers of Globalization: Globalization has radically changed global income dynamics. So who has won and who has lost?” - “Cosmic Commodities: How much is a new planet worth?”
- “The Goethe Auction”
Philosophy:
Books
Fiction:
- A Perfect Vacuum, Lem (review)
Nonfiction:
- Do No Harm, Marsh (elegantly written and moving neurosurgeon memoir on the theme of iatrogenics; I did disagree with his comments on the cost-benefit of operating in one case, though)
- Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money, Popper (review)
- The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers, MacGregor
- Drop Dead Healthy, Jacob (review)
Film/TV
Anime:
- Hanamonogatari/
Tsukimonogatari (disappointments, coming after Second Season. Neither had a particularly compelling story—Hana was interesting but could not support that many episodes and Tsuki’s ending with Tadatsuru was bafflingly idiotic and incompetent an anticlimax with apparently the whole thing being mostly wasted time on developing yet another one of the worst & overused archetypes in anime)
Music
Touhou:
- “Night Sakura of Dead Spirits” (彩音 〜xi-on〜; Quartet -カルテット- {C88}) [classical]
- “Desire Drive” (あかみ/彩音 〜xi-on〜; Quartet -カルテット- {C88}) [classical]
- “敢闘 -little bravery-” (漉餡; 水古譚 -suikotan- {C88}) [orchestral]
- “蒼月夜 (Instrumental ver)” (漉餡; 水古譚 -suikotan- {C88}) [orchestral]
- “夕暮れ色のカップ” (夕暮れ色のカップ; 喫茶白玉楼 {C88}) [classical]
Doujin:
- “City Cycle” (tigerlily; AD:PIANO VIVACE {C88}) [classical/
instrumental] - “‘Love’” (en;Dolphin Records; 夏と原稿用紙 {C88}) [acoustic]
- “You again my love” (CYO Style feat. henohenomoheji; CY {2013}) [pop]
- “Shoulda Known Better” (DJ Noriken; HARDCORE SYNDROME 9 {C88}) [hardcore]
Vocaloid:
- “NEW YEARS[Long Version]” (Miku; ATOLS; ATOLS/
MIKU 0 {VM28}) [trance] - “YUMEGIWA LAST BOY” (Ia; FLARE; VOCALO COVERS {2013}) [electronica/
Jpop]
Link Bibliography
Bibliography of page links in reading order (with annotations when available):
“October 2015 News”, (2015-09-23):
N/A
“Changelog”, (2013-09-15):
This page is a changelog for Gwern.net: a monthly reverse chronological list of recent major writings/
changes/ additions. Following my writing can be a little difficult because it is often so incremental. So every month, in addition to my regular /
r/ subreddit submissions, I write up reasonably-interesting changes and send it out to the mailing list in addition to a compilation of links & reviews (archives).Gwern “/r/gwern subreddit”, (2018-10-01):
A subreddit for posting links of interest and also for announcing updates to gwern.net (which can be used as a RSS feed). Submissions are categorized similar to the monthly newsletter and typically will be collated there.
“Genome-wide analysis of over 106 000 individuals identifies 9 neuroticism-associated loci”, (2016):
Neuroticism is a personality trait of fundamental importance for psychological well-being and public health. It is strongly associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) and several other psychiatric conditions. Although neuroticism is heritable, attempts to identify the alleles involved in previous studies have been limited by relatively small sample sizes. Here we report a combined meta-analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) of neuroticism that includes 91 370 participants from the UK Biobank cohort, 6659 participants from the Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS) and 8687 participants from a QIMR (Queensland Institute of Medical Research) Berghofer Medical Research Institute (QIMR) cohort. All participants were assessed using the same neuroticism instrument, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R-S) Short Form’s Neuroticism scale. We found a single-nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability estimate for neuroticism of ~15% (s.e.=0.7%). Meta-analysis identified nine novel loci associated with neuroticism. The strongest evidence for association was at a locus on chromosome 8 (P=1.5 × 10−15) spanning 4 Mb and containing at least 36 genes. Other associated loci included interesting candidate genes on chromosome 1 (GRIK3 (glutamate receptor ionotropic kainate 3)), chromosome 4 (KLHL2 (Kelch-like protein 2)), chromosome 17 (CRHR1 (corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1) and MAPT (microtubule-associated protein Tau)) and on chromosome 18 (CELF4 (CUGBP elav-like family member 4)). We found no evidence for genetic differences in the common allelic architecture of neuroticism by sex. By comparing our findings with those of the Psychiatric Genetics Consortia, we identified a strong genetic correlation between neuroticism and MDD and a less strong but significant genetic correlation with schizophrenia, although not with bipolar disorder. Polygenic risk scores derived from the primary UK Biobank sample captured ~1% of the variance in neuroticism in the GS:SFHS and QIMR samples, although most of the genome-wide significant alleles identified within a UK Biobank-only GWAS of neuroticism were not independently replicated within these cohorts. The identification of nine novel neuroticism-associated loci will drive forward future work on the neurobiology of neuroticism and related phenotypes.
http:/
/ citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/ viewdoc/ download?doi=10.1.1.422.4232&rep=rep1&type=pdf http:/
/ drjamesthompson.blogspot.com/ 2015/ 11/ genetic-story-jumps-ahead.html http:/
/ www.nytimes.com/ 2015/ 11/ 24/ science/ agriculture-linked-to-dna-changes-in-ancient-europe.html /
docs/ history/ 2012-11-13-yvain-bookreviewempireofthesummermoon.html http:/
/ joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/ 2012/ 11/ 10/ mortality-and-life-expectancy/ http:/
/ flowingdata.com/ 2010/ 08/ 31/ how-to-visualize-data-with-cartoonish-faces/ “Chernoff face”, (2020-12-28):
Chernoff faces, invented by Herman Chernoff in 1973, display multivariate data in the shape of a human face. The individual parts, such as eyes, ears, mouth and nose represent values of the variables by their shape, size, placement and orientation. The idea behind using faces is that humans easily recognize faces and notice small changes without difficulty. Chernoff faces handle each variable differently. Because the features of the faces vary in perceived importance, the way in which variables are mapped to the features should be carefully chosen.
http:/
/ www.nytimes.com/ 2012/ 11/ 18/ magazine/ ashlyn-blocker-feels-no-pain.html?pagewanted=all http:/
/ blog.givewell.org/ 2012/ 11/ 09/ insecticide-resistance-and-malaria-control/ https:/
/ docs.google.com/ spreadsheets/ d/ 19D8JUgf95t-f-oUAHqh8Nn2G90KO3gUiua9yAjBSSqI/ edit “Rubber duck debugging”, (2020-12-28):
In software engineering, rubber duck debugging is a method of debugging code. The name is a reference to a story in the book The Pragmatic Programmer in which a programmer would carry around a rubber duck and debug their code by forcing themselves to explain it, line-by-line, to the duck. Many other terms exist for this technique, often involving different (usually) inanimate objects, or pets such as a dog or a cat.
“Meditation and its regulatory role on sleep”, (2012):
Intense meditation practices help to achieve a harmony between body and mind. Meditation practices influence brain functions, induce various intrinsic neural plasticity events, modulate autonomic, metabolic, endocrine, and immune functions and thus mediate global regulatory changes in various behavioral states including sleep. This brief review focuses on the effect of meditation as a self regulatory phenomenon on sleep.
http:/
/ www.wired.com/ 2015/ 11/ carnegie-mellon-denies-fbi-paid-for-tor-breaking-research/ https:/
/ old.reddit.com/ r/ afinil/ comments/ 3sgb9o/ air_force_cadet_sentenced_to_3_years_after_buying/ http:/
/ johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/ 2012/ 11/ debt-maturity.html http:/
/ www.theglobalist.com/ the-real-winners-and-losers-of-globalization/ “A Perfect Vacuum”, (2020-12-28):
A Perfect Vacuum is a 1971 book by Polish author Stanisław Lem, the largest and best known collection of Stanislaw Lem's fictitious criticism of nonexisting books. It was translated into English by Michael Kandel. Some of the reviews remind the reader of drafts of his science fiction novels, some read like philosophical pieces across scientific topics, from cosmology to the pervasiveness of computers, finally others satirize and parody everything from the nouveau roman to pornography, Ulysses, authorless writing, and Dostoevsky.
http:/
/ www.amazon.com/ Do-No-Harm-Stories-Surgery/ dp/ 125006581X http:/
/ www.amazon.com/ Digital-Gold-Bitcoin-Millionaires-Reinvent/ dp/ 0062362496 “The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers”, (2020-12-28):
The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers is a book written by Richard McGregor, a former bureau chief of the Financial Times in China. It was published by Penguin Books on June 25, 2010. The traditional Chinese version 《中國共產黨不可說的秘密》 was published by Linking Publishing Company (聯經出版) in Taiwan, Republic of China on September 16, 2011.
https:/
/ www.dropbox.com/ s/ g5d1d29f69lbjs5/ cyostyle-cy-youagainmylove.ogg https:/
/ www.dropbox.com/ s/ z4trtsf4xyyrrpv/ atols-atolsmiku0-newyearslong.ogg “Gwern.net newsletter (Substack subscription page)”, (2013-12-01):
Subscription page for the monthly gwern.net newsletter. There are monthly updates, which will include summaries of projects I’ve worked on that month (the same as the changelog), collations of links or discussions from my subreddit, and book/movie reviews. You can also browse the archives since December 2013.
“Gwern.net newsletter archives”, (2013-12-01):
Newsletter tag: archive of all issues back to 2013 for the gwern.net newsletter (monthly updates, which will include summaries of projects I’ve worked on that month (the same as the changelog), collations of links or discussions from my subreddit, and book/movie reviews.)