For example, have we heard anything about that big embezzlement?

Does Chapter “You Just Ask Them” in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman count as academic research? :-)

Good link, typo in title, have a good day, thank you for posting on Lesswrong.

How much payment are you offering for how much work?

Machine learning (in particular, graphical models), more general AI, philosophy, game theory, algorithmic complexity, cognitive science, neuroscience seem to be mostly useless (beyond the basics) for attacking friendliness content problem. Pure mathematics seems potentially useful.

How much fun should one have?

I thought I specified this with "as often as you need".

Although, after reading your comment it now occurs to me that it could be possible that others might not know how much fun they need. Is that true?

If so, I recommend you explore having an "unlimited" amount of fun without ceasing for days on end (think cliches of "spring break") until you can naturally feel the inflection point at which adding more hedonistic experiences on top of your current pleasure no longer improves your happiness and you long for "relief from recreation". If I'm remembering correctly, this is how I actually calibrated how much fun I need. Once you know this point, you can more naturally feel the bend of your own hedonistic pleasure curve and keep yourself in a state of content, disciplined happiness or slide yourself up towards bliss or down towards more subdued states depending on what's appropriate for the situation.

What kind of fun should one have?

Sex is indeed the correct answer. In some ways, I feel like a chicken-shit for not finding the right way to say this directly in my article. I guess I didn't want to point out sex as an ideal form of recreation since, based on reading comments here on LW, I perceive it as being relatively scarce among some readers. Now that I think of it, my mind actually estimates it as so low that it effectively rounds it down to zero unless I think it through consciously and realize that it can't possibly be that divergent from any other community. Still, I know the pain of being someone who has had sex before, and then being reminded of how awesome sex is without having an outlet for it at the time, and having it leave me feeling unbelievably miserable. I didn't want to leave even a single person reading my article in a place like that.

[ OTOH, if they're down here reading the comments, sorry about that. ]

I guess normally just avoid mentioning sex to people unless I know they're in an abundant sexual situation in life. This heuristic is probably overkill. How do other people deal with this?

Also mentioned in the email that went out to the SIAI mailing list, a pledge of monthly donations for the next 12 months counts at the full year's value for purposes of matching.

If you're interested in how your body works, I recommend Gerald Cizadlo's lectures. They are biology classes for nursing students at an American religious college. Because of his pathophysiology and physiology podcasts, I'm now able to explain the way nerves transmit signals (for example).

(Edited; I originally called nerves insane.)

I just put in 5100 USD, the current balance of my bank account, and I'll find some way to put in more by the end of the challenge.

Large air-conditioned living space, healthy food, both for 2 people (myself and girlfriend). My salary is at rough equilibrium with my spending; I am not saving for retirement. The Bay Area is, generally speaking, expensive.