Deep Reinforcement Learning: Pong from Pixels
Musings of a Computer Scientist.
Researchers Show Parachutes Don't Work, But There's A Catch
A study found parachutes were no more effective than backpacks in preventing harm to people jumping from aircraft. The researchers' tongue-in-cheek experiment makes a deeper point about science.
Hasnain says:
“But something like this happens in everyday medical research. It's far too easy for scientists who have already anticipated the outcome of their research to cherry-pick patients and circumstances to achieve the results they expect to see. This research paper carried that idea to the ridiculous extreme.”
Posted on 2018-12-23T08:48:21+0000
The Wavefunction Collapse Algorithm explained very clearly | Robert Heaton
The Wavefunction Collapse Algorithm teaches your computer how to riff. The algorithm takes in an archetypical input, and produces procedurally-generated outputs that look like it.
The war over supercooled water
<p>How a hidden coding error fueled a seven-year dispute between two of condensed matter’s top theorists.</p>
Hasnain says:
“Over the next seven years, the perplexing discrepancy would ignite a bitter conflict, with junior scientists caught in the crossfire. At stake were not only the reputations of the two groups but also a peculiar theory that sought to explain some of water’s deepest and most enduring mysteries. Earlier this year, the dispute was finally settled. And as it turns out, the entire ordeal was the result of botched code.”
Posted on 2018-12-23T04:47:28+0000
The Der Spiegel journalist who messed with the wrong small town | Spectator USA
How we unpicked a Der Spiegel reporter’s demonstrably false story about Fergus Falls, Minn. It’s staggering just how much he made up
Hasnain says:
“This week, the star reporter of the German magazine Der Spiegel was fired after it was revealed that he had been fabricating stories for several years. Here, Michele Anderson and Jake Krohn expose the many inaccuracies in his article about their town, Fergus Falls, Minn.”
Posted on 2018-12-23T04:25:01+0000
Big Tongues and Extra Vertebrae: The Unintended Consequences of Animal Gene Editing
Scientists around the world are editing the genes of livestock to create meatier pigs, cashmere goats with longer hair and cold-weather cows that can thrive in the tropics. But amid some successes, disturbing outcomes are surfacing.
Hasnain says:
“But there was another effect on the pigs: One in five offspring who inherited the edited genes had an extra spinal bone known as thoracic vertebrae, Dr. Li found. He doesn’t know why, though he postulates that the MSTN gene somehow contributes to skeletal formation.”
Posted on 2018-12-22T20:26:33+0000
Opinion | Test Your Knowledge of American Incarceration
The First Step Act, signed on Friday by President Trump, will shorten sentences for federal prisoners. It is a bright moment in a highly partisan time.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2018-12-22T19:03:00+0000
Zstandard: How Facebook increased compression speed - Facebook Code
Zstandard, our open source data compression solution, improved compression at scale. How to implement new advanced capabilities for similar benefits.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2018-12-22T09:23:21+0000
Bye bye Mongo, Hello Postgres | Digital blog
In April the Guardian switched off the Mongo DB cluster used to store our content after completing a migration to PostgreSQL on Amazon RDS. This post covers why and how
Searching statically-linked vulnerable library functions in executable code
Helping researchers find 0ld days Posted by Thomas Dullien, Project Zero Executive summary Software supply chains are increasingly ...
Click to view the original at googleprojectzero.blogspot.com