September 2015 Media Thread

• A History of Life Extensionism, Stambler 2014 (review)
• Haikai Poet Yosa Buson and the Basho Revival, Crowley 2006 (review)
• Structural Equation Modeling: A Bayesian Approach, Sik-Yum Lee 2007 (review)

Human Learning and Memory, by Dadid A. Lieberman (2012)

A well-written overview of current knowledge about human learning and memory. Of special interest:

• the use of reinforcement as a teacher, parent, pet-owner or for self-improvement
• for me personally: strategy to combat insomnia (results pending)
• implications of memory research for study strategies

Just finished reading Happiness: A Very Short Introduction by Daniel M. Haybron. It was an excellent read, and well worth my time.

Everything is heritable:

• "Polygenic Influence on Educational Attainment: New Evidence From the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health", Domingue et al 2015 (rarely are the analyst's choices so much more informative than the results)
• "The Genetic Architecture & Natural History of Pigmentation"

Politics/religion:

• "Proving communal warfare among hunter-gatherers: The quasi-Rousseau-an error", Gat 2015
• the invention of the lawn: "How America’s Most Useless Crop Also Became Its Most Commonly Grown One"

Statistics/AI/meta-science:

• "Deep Reinforcement Learning" (Comprehensive overview of recent work on deep methods for reinforcement learning, culminating in the Atari player, with additional comments on extending to continuous games, Go, and why 'deep models', the apparent third member of the reinforcement learning trinity of value/policy/model learning, has failed & may be redundant. Gradient descent is magic.)
• "Efficient experimentation and the multi-armed bandit"; "Can you beat the bandit?"
• "Composing Music With Recurrent Neural Networks"
• "The Inspection Paradox is Everywhere"

Psychology/biology:

• "Eugenics, Ready or Not"
• "Should Anyone Be Given a Blood Transfusion?"
• "Canaries in the coal mine: a cross-species analysis of the plurality of obesity epidemics", Klimentidis et al 2011

Astronomy:

• "On The History and Future of Cosmic Planet Formation"
• Isaac Newton on how God stabilizes the solar system & the fate of mankind

Economics:

• "Measuring the Longitudinal Evolution of the Online Anonymous Marketplace Ecosystem", Soska & Christin 2015 (excerpts)
• "Costs and benefits of iodine supplementation for pregnant women in a mildly to moderately iodine-deficient population: a modelling analysis" (excerpts)

Philosophy:

• "Do Artificial Reinforcement-Learning Agents Matter Morally?", Tomasik 2014

Fiction:

• "RING THEORY: The Hidden Artistry of the Star Wars Prequels"

Misc:

• "One Hundred Years of arm bars: A family epic spanning the Gracie jiu-jitsu dynasty’s generations of combat and betrayal, from the Amazon to Hollywood to the UFC"

Via HN: How an 18th-Century Philosopher Helped Solve My Midlife Crisis

Kickstarter Economics-- details about how to estimate what you need for your project, how to manage perks, etc.

I'm fascinated by short online text by GiveWell explaining their theory of 'Sequence v.s. cluster thinking' [described here). Sequence in this context doens't refer to sequences, but rather working from a common unit of measurement like money, or a DALY to value something. To illustrate, $5 USD can get me 20 minutes of sex in Bolivia. A subject theory of value is based off that value thought in 'sequence' would be: If I can get more pleasure for less money then some thing is worth it, if I can get less pleasure with more money only then it's overpriced. Cluster thinking, in contrast, appears to be an informal version of multicretion decision making where knightian uncertainty is handled as uncertain without connotations of risk (thereby falling privy to critiques like pascal's mugging, if I'm correct).

GiveWell reimagines dynamic programming as a general cognitive principle

the australian welfare system is financially sustainable

Why Jackie Chan's Fight Scenes Are So Good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA

Richard Feynman gives a lecture on how computers work. The target audience is the average person. He uses the analogy of a filing system to describe what computers do.

Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. I thought the space opera genre was dead. I spoke too soon (though some would call it literary scifi instead). Most enjoyable science fiction I've read in years, blasted through it in two days.

The main character is the last remaining fragment of a troop transport ship from the expansionist imperial Radch, which has absorbed a large fraction of the human diaspora at a time in which most people think about the home world of humanity the way most people think about the finer points of australopith ecology today. Troop transports transport 'ancillaries' - Human bodies under their control. There is wireless hardware in their heads that moves information but that's not really the mode of control. Ancillaries have also undergone what can be called an 'ego transplant' such that their sense of self is the same as that of the (intelligent) ship. The ship and all its ancillaries share an 'I' and act accordingly even when communication is cut off and coordination is difficult, much like split brain patients. A ship is nearly completely destroyed in an act of treachery, leaving only one living ancillary bearing its identity.

Things I loved (which may or may not do it for others):

Mythology and religion and culture galore, from many long separated worlds and from societies that have lived in space for just as long (to quote a friend, "i love how the book manages to get across how simultaneously pretty and ugly Radch culture is").

Playing with language, with different things differently able to be expressed with different connotations in different languages and the main language spoken not having gendered pronouns (all being shown in English as 'she' when that language is spoken, and the main character having trouble with gendered languages and gender in general).

One of the strongest evocations of place and setting I have seen in scifi.

A narrator that doesn't understand their own mind that well and is frequently in denial, forcing a show don't tell style and reading between the lines.

All characters with rather extended sensoriums and communication options compared to humans today via various enhancements and implants as a matter of course.

The Lord of the Radch, a being using ancillary-style ego manipulation and wireless connectivity to maintain thousands of bodies across the empire in an asynchronous, yet still remarkably unified self for thousands of years despite any one body lasting only 200 or so. Identity is played with extensively throughout.

The ending is a bit rushed. Here's hoping the sequel is good, it just arrived in the mail.

• RED: Bruce Willis action movie; too incoherent and unimaginative to be worth watching as an action-movie, too serious and too grim to work as a parody. (For the former: in the intro scene where Willis is attacked by a hit squad late at night, he walks into a kitchen to get a drink, and they bust in; then he starts killing them from behind, having somehow learned about them and teleported behind them. Apparently he's psychic.) As far as the latter goes, the movie is only funny perhaps once every 30 minutes as its various rape innuendos turn out to not be hilarious at all, and it only truly embraces the satire at the very end as an epilogue, which is far too little far too late. It's completely mediocre an action-movie, so naturally, there are two sequels. Wouldn't you rather rewatch Die Hard?
• Lady Jane: a costume drama romance which tries to cast the 9-day puppet as a Protestant martyr-heroine doomed by her utopian reformist tendencies and tragically forced to be executed when her father leads a revolt to try to restore her to the throne. Needless to say, you've never heard of Queen Jane the Reformer because there was no such thing: while she was maneuvered onto the throne somewhat as described, she did seem to have genuinely loved her husband, and Queen Mary did try to spare her life, almost the rest of it is a tissue of romantic absurdity. Her husband was a fine young man, not a dreamer driven to drink by the injustices of Henry's expropriation of the monasteries; the debasing of the coinage was not the work of some unspecified malign and corrupt politicians but driven by English exigencies and global economic forces whose solution is not so simple-minded as 'order the Mint to make coins with higher silver content' and was hardly a concern of Jane's at the time and for that matter, the two of them were well-educated enough that it's impossible to believe for even a second that they didn't know what was going on, which the movie tries to make into a huge dramatic arc in setting them up to elope into exile right before she is crowned; her father's revolt did contribute to her death but I'm not clear it was intended to put her back on the throne; etc. The anachronistic posturing is so over the top that I expected by the end to hear Jane advocate for separation of church & state and for representative democracy. Even Captain Picard can't rescue this movie. Toward the end, our main amusement was debating whether the actor playing Dudley was the same one who played Wesley in The Princess Bride since from some angles, he looked the same, but he otherwise looked chubbier and had a fatter face and fluffier hair; turned out he was.

(I wish my relatives had better taste in movies.)

Mr. Robot: USA show about a team of computer hackers trying to overthrow an evil corporation's dominance of the economy. The show tries to depict hacking realistically, without resorting to much Hollywood Hacking. It's as much about the main character's delusions, paranoia, and depression as it is about the central plot. Strongly recommended, don't let the network it airs on discourage you from giving it a shot.

X-men, Frankenstein's monster allegory

Another tranche of shows watched with my group, though they don't really end up as recommendations:

Blood Blockade Battlefront: Started with some fun action, and a very cool-looking setting, but decayed rapidly - the plot arc it tried to set up towards the end was just dull. Avoid

Knights of Sidonia (season 2): Shifts much more towards the harem antics than the serious sci-fi; also some massive power inflation which could easily have been thematic but... isn't. I greatly enjoyed it, but only recommended to people who enjoy light comedy/romance.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works: Had its moments, and definitely has the production values; when it's good, it's very good. But massively wordy (arguably too faithful an adaptation), slow and self-indulgent. Again only for fans of the genre.

Kyousougiga: This I do recommend. A show that respects the viewer's intelligence; the depths are there if you want to peer into them, but it keeps things interesting - or at least active - on the surface level too. And it's got some wonderfully creative visuals.

Your Lie in April: Romance/melodrama, done reasonably well, and with beautiful visuals and sound - I particularly like the fact that this show is willing to make you sit and listen to a musical performance for minutes at a time. But has no ambition beyond its genre; you know whether you're the target audience for this or not.

Madoka Rebellion: Fun for fans, but far too self-indulgent for anyone else. The plot is awkward and undermines some of the series. I enjoyed seeing beloved characters at play, and there's one very fun fight, but it's all fanservice.

motivation video: rise and shine

Marina and the Diamond's Sex yeah

Emilie Simon's Roses never fall in love

A lovely song I discovered posted by a popular poster on a curious forum called sociopath world.

I tried to organise a community meetup. Despite much interest and claims to the contrary, no one turned up. I suppose they weren't so brave without a screen in front of them.

Lady Gaga's discography

Dutch band BLOF.

Postrock: El Ten Eleven's Fast Forward:

• "Battle Aves"
• "Be Kind, Rewind"
• "Fast Forward"
• "Three Sides of a Coin"
• "JD"
• "Peter and Jack"
• "Point Breeze"

Touhou:

• "Awakening of the Earth Spirits" (江口孝宏 feat.Satomi Ishikawa; Touhou Gensou Shiten 6 "Grimoire" {R8}) [trance]
• "La strada pastello" (街角麻婆豆; Where shall we go dancing? {R12}) [folk]
• "Reach for the Dream, Immortal Smoke" (Marasy; 幻想遊戲<眠>2 {C86}) [classical]
• "上海紅茶館 ～ Chinese Tea" (zunba; Touhou Gensou Shiten 6 "Grimoire"; {R8}) [jazz]
• "8番目の路地" (アサヒ feat. emaru; 864 {R12}) [trance]
• "Septette for the Dead Princess" (Eru; Knights of Round 3 {C77}) [instrumental rock]
• "Sleeping Asia" (Marasy; 幻想遊戲<眠>2 {C86}) [classical]
• "Temptation of the Eternal Night" (Marasy; 幻想遊戲<眠>2 {C86}) [classical]
• "A Maiden's Quiet Sleep" (Marasy; 幻想遊戲<眠>2 {C86}) [classical]
• "X-TREME DECISION" (激戦の人; sm23047550 {8 March 2014}) [instrumental rock]
• "夢に抱かれて眠る" (O-Life Japan; 積極懐古団 {R12}) [instrumental]
• "三千大世界の聖火" (Fox Factory; 東方幻想界 ～星蓮船の音 {R12}) [orchestral]

Hardcore punk band HedPe's Killing time

Sanjay Bakshi: "The Prejudices of Mr. Market" Google Talk, one hour.

Finding good investments by identifying systematic undervaluation by the market-- for example, the market tends to overreact to CEOs who make big mistakes, but some CEOs learn from their mistakes. There may be one extremely competent company who's selling what generally looks like a commodity.

Prejudices are shortcuts in order to avoid handling large amounts of information, but if you can pay attention to actual information, you can do better than most people.

Stand Still, Stay Silent, a webcomic about a post-apocalyptic Northern Europe with very nice art.

There is a catalog of genome wide association studies with a great search interface. You can see an example of the search's output for Age Related Macular Degeneration here

Buying gf 29 gp

I wrote a tool to help you resort your media ratings, in case you find yourself rating everything either '4' or '5' on Goodreads: http://www.gwern.net/Resorter