morganism

Karma: 545

morganism 9 May 2016 21:12 UTC
15 points
on: Open Thread May 9 - May 15 2016
The swarm intel community picked the Superfecta at the Kentucky Derby, turned 20 bucks into 11k

http://unu.ai/blog/

morganism 30 Jan 2017 23:54 UTC
10 points
on: A century of research following gifted kids.
study titled:

From Terman to today: A century of findings on intellectual precocity/

“In 1916, the predominant view of the gifted child was “early to ripe, early to rot,” including the idea that gifted kids were physically weak and emotionally unstable. However, Terman’s findings by the 1930’s had already shown this to be incorrect. Findings from SMPY indicate that, broadly, gifted youth grow up to be highly accomplished adults, achieving doctorates, a higher income, patents, publications, university tenure and other creative achievements at very high rates relative to the general population. Gifted youth also grow up to be no different from their same age peers in terms of reported broad life satisfaction regarding personal and family life.”

morganism 29 Aug 2016 21:58 UTC
9 points
on: Open Thread, Aug 29. - Sept 5. 2016
Academic Torrents site, for large scale database transfers

http://academictorrents.com/
What links here?
- hg00's comment on Scholarship: How to Do It Efficiently by lukeprog (2 Sep 2016 11:11 UTC; 0 points)

morganism 24 Jan 2017 23:24 UTC
8 points
on: Funding the Reproducibility Crises as effective giving
Good article in Wired

″ Laura and John Arnold didn’t start the movement to reform science, but they have done more than anyone else to amplify its capabilities—typically by approaching researchers out of the blue and asking whether they might be able to do more with more money. “The Arnold Foundation has been the Medici of meta-research,” Ioannidis says. All told, the foundation’s Research Integrity initiative has given more than $80 million to science critics and reformers in the past five years alone.”

morganism 1 Feb 2017 23:13 UTC
7 points
in reply to: ArisKatsaris’s comment on: February 2017 Media Thread
Leaked video shows new ‘nightmare-inducing’ wheeled robot from Boston Dynamics”

“experiment in combining wheels with legs, with a very dynamic system that is balancing itself all the time and has a lot of knowledge of how to throw its weight around.” He adds that using wheels is more efficient than legs, although there’s obviously a trade-off in terms of maneuvering over uneven ground.

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/2/1/14468126/boston-dynamics-new-wheeled-robot-handle?href=

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h5qpXO3isM&feature=youtu.be&t=3m45s

morganism 31 Oct 2016 23:30 UTC
7 points
on: Open thread, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2016
new hypothesis claims to solve 5 of the biggest problems in physics

Physicists have come up with a new model that they say solves five of the biggest unanswered questions in modern physics, explaining the weirdness of dark matter, neutrino oscillations, baryogenesis, cosmic inflation, and the strong CP problem all at once.

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-new-hypothesis-claims-to-have-solved-5-of-the-biggest-problems-in-physics\

Unifying inflation with the axion, dark matter, baryogenesis and the seesaw mechanism

We add to the SM three right-handed SM-singlet neutrinos, a new vector-like color triplet fermion and a complex SM singlet scalar

https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.05414v1

morganism 23 Feb 2017 6:38 UTC
5 points
on: David Chalmers on LessWrong and the rationalist community (from his reddit AMA)
I like this, bout halfway down in the AMA

“Some would argue that in order for the universe to be simulated, it would have to be computed or, basically, be mathematical. Is there a way to prove this by searching for concrete evidence of computation in nature? If so, how>

[–]davidchalmers

i’d say that to be simulated it would have to be computed, almost by definition. if it’s a perfect simulation, it may be impossible to get concrete evidence, since the evidence one gets in a perfect simulation will be the same as in the non-simulated universe that it’s a simulation of. if it’s an imperfect simuilation there may be all sorts of potential evidence: everything from red pills or finding the source code to subtle evidence of imperfect approximations. zohreh davoudi and colleagues at MIT have a nice paper on certain ways in which approximations can show up empirically, which they use to suggest at least a potential source of evidence that we are living in an approximating simulation. there also are various ways that we could get evidence that the physics of our world is digital, which is an idea that is at least connected to the idea of a simulation (though physics could be digital without being simulated, and could be simulated without being digital).

and the theory that our observations , set the physical constraints of the sim.

morganism 13 Sep 2016 21:56 UTC
5 points
on: Open thread, Sep. 12 - Sep. 18, 2016
Transposon Theory Of Aging, some more support.

“As cells get older, prior studies have shown, tightly wound heterochromatin wrapping that typically imprisons transposons becomes looser, allowing them to slip out of their positions in chromosomes and move to new ones, disrupting normal cell function. Meanwhile, scientists have shown that potentially related interventions, such as restricting calories or manipulating certain genes, can demonstrably lengthen lifespans in laboratory animals.”

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/a_transposon_theory_of_aging-180287

report at PNAS, but link not provided.

morganism 8 Aug 2016 22:17 UTC
5 points
on: Open Thread, Aug. 8 - Aug 14. 2016
AMA: We are the Google Brain team. We’d love to answer your questions about machine learning.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/4w6tsv/ama_we_are_the_google_brain_team_wed_love_to/

i missed this, even while reading askscience then...

morganism 11 Jul 2016 23:32 UTC
5 points
on: Open thread, Jul. 11 - Jul. 17, 2016
Growing and interlinking neurons

First ever optic nerves regrown in a mammal.

http://sciencebulletin.org/archives/3026.html

and neurons bathed in IGF interconnect denser and more often

http://www.kurzweilai.net/neurons-grown-from-stem-cells-in-a-dish-reveal-clues-about-autism

Texting changes brain waves to new pattern

http://sciencebulletin.org/archives/2623.html

morganism 17 May 2016 22:07 UTC
5 points
on: Welcome to Less Wrong! (9th thread, May 2016)
I’m here because of the AI and SETI info and debates.

I am throwing links into the open threads that have some info related to these things, and am interested in seeing if there ends up being other discussions on them.

Pretty sure that there isn’t any biological aliens out there at this time, and am pretty spooked by the idea of a machine intelligence running around the galaxy. Looking at some of those dense star clusters, it occurs to me that those would be the only places to put a civ , that was protected from hyper-velocity attacks. Am kinda concerned that the way we find out we aren’t alone is a bunch of rocks coming in at a hefty chunk of “c”.

Have read most of the background sequences by EY, and most of the discussion posts each week, but don’t like getting caught up in arguments that are all about syntax.

morganism 31 Aug 2017 8:37 UTC
4 points
on: Is life worth living?
High school again.… Does that count as infinite suffering ?

morganism 29 May 2017 20:33 UTC
4 points
in reply to: turchin’s comment on: Open thread, May 29 - June 4, 2017
I know the surface of gold actually fluctuates. Prob titanium coated with iridium would be most stable. There are also ongoing studies of using lattice vacancies in diamonds that are pretty far advanced.

This always brings us back to the “communicating with aliens” problem too. Most settle on visual cues, and write it in binary. I still like to think of spectral lines as the most basic communication technique.

Have a story idea about finding an alien vessel that had a catastrophic fire inside, and all the instrumentation and computing storage has been destroyed. All we find inside is a book with iridium pages, that has fantastic theories on cosmology, planetary and stellar mechanics, etc. Turns out it is a childs book, made to be durable!

morganism 10 Apr 2017 23:40 UTC
4 points
on: Open thread, Apr. 03 - Apr. 09, 2017
“Modafinil-Induced Changes in Functional Connectivity in the Cortex and Cerebellum of Healthy Elderly Subjects”

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00085/full

“CEDs may also help to maintain optimal brain functioning or compensate for subtle and or subclinical deficits associated with brain aging or early-stage dementia.”

“In the modafinil group, in the post-drug period, we found an increase of centrality that occurred bilaterally in the BA17, thereby suggesting an increase of the FC of the visual cortex with other brain regions due to drug action.” FC analysis revealed connectivity increase within the cerebellar Crus I, Crus II areas, and VIIIa lobule, the right inferior frontal sulcus (IFS), and the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG).”

“These frontal areas are known to modulate attention levels and some core processes associated with executive functions, and, specifically, inhibitory control and working memory (WM). These functions depend on each other and co-activate frontal areas along with the posterior visual cortex to re-orient attention toward visual stimuli and also enhance cognitive efficiency.

Data on behavioral effects of modafinil administration in our study group are missing and, at this stage, we can only provide theoretical speculations for the functional correlates of the regional activations that we have found to be promoted by the drug.”

morganism 8 Apr 2017 23:05 UTC
4 points
in reply to: turchin’s comment on: Open thread, Apr. 03 - Apr. 09, 2017
Back when SeaSteading forum was going, one of the folks was working on building cement submarines, as a pre-design to growing them like coral.

morganism 3 Apr 2017 21:16 UTC
4 points
in reply to: ArisKatsaris’s comment on: April 2017 Media Thread
The F35 fighter program is shaping up much worse than even the detractors thought. Many, many problems here, not least:

“Whenever a squadron deploys, it must establish an ALIS hub wherever the F-35 is deployed. Crews set up an ALIS Standard Operating Unit (SOU), which consists of several cases of computer equipment. Technicians will use these to set up a small mainframe which must then be plugged into the world-wide ALIS network. It took several days for the crews to get ALIS working on the local base network. After extensive troubleshooting, IT personnel figured out they had to change several settings on Internet Explorer so ALIS users could log into the system. This included lowering security settings, which DOT&E noted with commendable understatement was “an action that may not be compatible with required cybersecurity and network protection standards.”

The ALIS data must go wherever a squadron goes. Crews must transfer the data from the squadron’s main ALIS computers at the home station to the deployed ALIS SOU before the aircraft are permitted to fly missions. This process took three days during the Mountain Home deployment. This was faster than in earlier demonstrations, but Lockheed Martin provided eight extra ALIS administrators for the exercise. It is unclear if the contractor or the Air Force will include this level of support in future deployments. When the squadron redeployed back to Edwards at the end of the exercise, it took administrators four days to transfer all the data back to the main ALIS computer. Delays of this kind will limit the F-35’s ability to rapidly deploy in times of crisis. Even if the jets can be positioned in enough time to respond to a crisis, problems like lengthy uploading times could keep them on the ground when they are needed in the sky. An aircraft immobilized on the ground is a target, not an asset.

Another time-consuming process involves adding new aircraft to each ALIS standard operating unit. Every time an F-35 is moved from one base to another where ALIS is already up, it must be inducted into that system. It takes 24 hours. Thus, when an F-35 deploys to a new base, an entire day is lost as the data is processed. And only one plane at a time can upload. If an entire squadron, typically 12 aircraft, needed to be inducted, the entire process would take nearly two weeks, forcing a commander to slowly roll out his F-35 aircraft into combat.”

www.pogo.org/straus/issues/weapons/2017/f35-continues-to-stumble.html

morganism 17 Feb 2017 22:42 UTC
4 points
on: Now is the time to eliminate mosquitoes
Nature news

“Gene drives thwarted by emergence of resistant organisms”

“The Target Malaria team has developed a second generation of gene-drive mosquitoes, hoping to slow the development of resistance, says Andrea Crisanti, a molecular parasitologist at Imperial College London. The researchers plan to test them in their new Italian facility later this year to get a sense of how the mosquitoes might fare in the wild. But molecular biologist Tony Nolan, also at Imperial, expects evolution to throw up some surprises. He says that his greatest worry about gene drives is that they simply won’t work.”

http://www.nature.com/news/gene-drives-thwarted-by-emergence-of-resistant-organisms-1.21397

morganism 30 Jan 2017 23:52 UTC
4 points
on: Open thread, Jan. 30 - Feb. 05, 2017
If there is no anti-gravity force, then how can an galactic scale empty section be “pushing” us toward the Great Attractors....

“Discovery of the “Dipole Repeller” confirms that both attraction and repulsion are at play in our extragalactic neighborhood”

http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/33403

Some decent visualizations linked, and an original one on Utube from a French team is one of the coolest large scale animations i’ve ever seen...

Edit: and there it is, linked at bottom of viz page! http://irfu.cea.fr/cosmography

morganism 23 Jan 2017 22:56 UTC
4 points
in reply to: dglukhov’s comment on: Open thread, Jan. 23 - Jan. 29, 2017
A blog list of bogus journals just went down too...

http://ottawacitizen.com/storyline/worlds-main-list-of-science-predators-vanishes-with-no-warning

“Beall, who became an assistant professor, drew up a list of the known and suspected bad apples, known simply as Beall’s List. Since 2012, this list has been world’s main source of information on journals that publish conspiracy theories and incompetent research, making them appear real.”

morganism 17 Dec 2016 3:18 UTC
4 points
on: Frequent sauna bathing protects men against dementia
“The more frequently saunas were taken, the lower was the risk of dementia. Among those taking a sauna 4-7 times a week, the risk of any form of dementia was 66% lower and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease 65% lower than among those taking a sauna just once a week. ”

that seems more effective than any single medical intervention i have seen, even the sonogram and strobe light tech were less efficacious than this.