October 2017 Media Thread
This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you’ve found that you enjoy. Post what you’re reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.
Rules:
Please avoid downvoting recommendations just because you don’t personally like the recommended material; remember that liking is a two-place word. If you can point out a specific flaw in a person’s recommendation, consider posting a comment to that effect.
If you want to post something that (you know) has been recommended before, but have another recommendation to add, please link to the original, so that the reader has both recommendations.
Please post only under one of the already created subthreads, and never directly under the parent media thread.
Use the “Other Media” thread if you believe the piece of media you want to discuss doesn’t fit under any of the established categories.
Use the “Meta” thread if you want to discuss about the monthly media thread itself (e.g. to propose adding/removing/splitting/merging subthreads, or to discuss the type of content properly belonging to each subthread) or for any other question or issue you may have about the thread or the rules.
Suicide molecules kill any cancer cell (in mice)
“Peter found that a large number of these small RNAs derived from certain genes did not, as expected, only suppress the gene they were designed against. They also killed all cancer cells. His team discovered these special sequences are distributed throughout the human genome, embedded in multiple genes as shown in the study in Cell Cycle.
When converted to siRNAs, these sequences all act as highly trained super assassins. They kill the cells by simultaneously eliminating the genes required for cell survival. By taking out these survivor genes, the assassin molecule activates multiple death cell pathways in parallel.”
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.29702
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/nu-smk101917.php
America Has a Monopoly Problem—and It’s Huge
https://www.thenation.com/article/america-has-a-monopoly-problem-and-its-huge/?print=1
“This increase in market power helps explain simultaneously the slowdown in productivity growth, the sluggishness of the economy, and the growth of inequality—in short, the poor performance of the American economy”
http://rooseveltinstitute.org/rewriting-rules-report/
confirmation of a disappearing star, search for failed supernovae
http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/action/bhsanssupernova.cfm
“The researchers used new observations made with HST, shown above, which shows that N6946-BH1 is no longer there in the visible spectrum, but a faint signal in the near-infrared is present.
Based on the data and models, the scientists believe the data points toward the formation of a black hole, with the thermal emission being created by accretion material entering the black hole.”
Peace Processes and Durable Returns
″ What the Balkans can teach other states in conflict
Research at the University of Kent into how areas like the Balkans have developed ways to address the challenges of their past—including ethnic cleansing—offers a toolkit for others facing similar conflict”
pdf
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.unhcr.org%2F47e912ae2.pdf
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imig.2017.55
Chaos reigns even in simple electronics
“Chaotic behavior is so complex that to this day there are no methods to effectively design electronic circuits of this type.” Even in electronic circuits containing only one or two transistors, chaos is ubiquitous! The predictable and always the same reactions of electronic devices that we all use on an everyday basis do not reflect the nature of electronics but the efforts of designers”
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/thni-cre101917.php
http://press.ifj.edu.pl/en/news/2017/10/18/
Of particular interest was one of the found oscillators, which generated voltage spikes resembling stimuli typical for neurons. The similarity of impulses was striking here, but not complete.
“Our artificial neuron analogue proved to be much faster than its biological counterpart: pulses were produced thousands of times more often! If it were not for the lack of criticality and multi-fractality, the speed of operation of this circuit would justify talking about an electronic super-neuron. Perhaps such a circuit exists, only we have not found it yet. At the moment, we have to be satisfied with our ‘almost super-neuron’,” comments Dr. Minati, with a smile.
Short Online Texts Thread
Eocene thermal spike, CO2 was only 1000ppm
Burial-induced oxygen-isotope re-equilibration of fossil foraminifera explains ocean paleotemperature paradoxes
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01225-9
This may mean most climate models are at the low end of speed of warming increase
GSA meeting- Journey Into The Chicxulub Crater
http://astrobiology.com/2017/10/moment-of-impact-a-journey-into-the-chicxulub-crater.html
Session Link: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2017AM/webprogram/Session43180.html
Outer Planets Assessment Group—meeting Sept 2017 presentations
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/meetings/sep2017/presentations/
Allen Stern update on New Horizons interesting.
Physically active white men at high risk for plaque buildup in arteries
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/uoia-paw101617.php
“When these findings were stratified by race and gender, they found that white men were at the highest risk-they were 86 percent more likely to have CAC. There was no higher odds of CAC for black participants who exercised at this level, and while there was a similar trend for white women it was not statistically significant.”
“High levels of exercise over time may cause stress on the arteries leading to higher CAC,” said Rana, “however this plaque buildup may well be of the more stable kind, and thus less likely to rupture and causes heart attack, which was not evaluated in this study.”
Bummer.
Glucosamine dampens the brain hyperexcitability seen in seizures or epilepsy
http://www.sciencecodex.com/dietary-supplement-dampens-brain-hyperexcitability-seen-seizures-or-epilepsy-615985
Since neural excitability in the hippocampus is a key feature of seizures and epilepsy, they hypothesized that acutely increasing protein O-GlcNAcylation might dampen the pathological hyperexcitability associated with these brain disorders.
NIST cautions of using bayes for weighting in legal forensics
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/nios-nuc101217.php
“Bayesian theory does not support using an expert’s opinion, even when expressed numerically, as a universal weight of evidence. Among different ways of presenting information, it has not been shown that LR is most appropriate.”
Well, yeah.
Machine Learning for Investors: A Primer
https://alphaarchitect.com/2017/09/27/machine-learning-investors-primer/
“We’ll review the following items in this piece:
Online Videos Thread
Hurricane Maria Damage Assessment—PR NWS—drone footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFCwFZtaQHE&feature=youtu.be
and the US weather service is losing personell
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/10/26/down-hundreds-of-staff-weather-service-teetering-on-the-brink-of-failure-labor-union-says/?utm_term=.28628bdad950
Fanfiction Thread
Nonfiction Books Thread
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, 2016
The Mating Mind by Geoffrey Miller, 2000
Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, 2010
Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior by Geoffrey Miller, 2009
Fiction Books Thread
Neuropath by R. Scott Bakker. A crazy neurosurgeon dissects people’s selfhood while the good guys discuss evolutionary psychology and why the whole concept of crime may be misguided. The author keeps a blog on the same ideas (https://rsbakker.wordpress.com).
autonomous
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28209634-autonomous
wonderful descriptions of environments, interesting ideas on bio-printing and big pharma, with IP having its own intl police force.
The Bobiverse Series by Dennis E. Taylor
A fun book series with good pacing that explores a lot of interesting ideas (cryonics, mind uploading, AI, etc). Highly recommended.
TV and Movies (Animation) Thread
TV and Movies (Live Action) Thread
Games Thread
Lung Collapses Are A Surprisingly Common Esports Injury
https://compete.kotaku.com/lung-collapses-are-a-surprisingly-common-esports-injury-1795731971
“Over the last seven years, at least six high-profile esports players have been struck with a debilitating and serious medical condition called spontaneous pneumothorax—a collapsed lung. Some had to withdraw from matches. A couple kept playing, even though it probably wasn’t a great idea. Why is this, of all injuries, common in esports?
Music Thread
Podcasts Thread
Other Media Thread
Notepad and scheduling app, tiddlywiki
http://tiddlywiki.com/
http://tobibeer.github.io/tb5/#Solutions
A gallery of Dashi Namdakov’s sculptures and stuff
Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia
“Google, Twitter and Facebook workers who helped make technology so addictive are disconnecting themselves from the internet.”
There is growing concern that as well as addicting users, technology is contributing toward so-called “continuous partial attention”, severely limiting people’s ability to focus, and possibly lowering IQ.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia
and this on ads and graphics
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/north-korea-graphic-design-book-phaidon/
Meta Thread
https://www.gwern.net/newsletter/2017/09