{"id":6062,"date":"2020-06-05T22:17:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T06:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=6062"},"modified":"2020-06-05T22:17:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T06:17:45","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-253","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2020\/06\/05\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-253","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 253"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4396\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?w=1680&amp;ssl=1 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\"><\/a>\n\n    On Fridays I share articles\/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions. If you read something fascinating please pass it my&nbsp;way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"simple-list wp-block-list\"><li>On the racial division in America:&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@BarackObama\/how-to-make-this-moment-the-turning-point-for-real-change-9fa209806067\">How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change<\/a> (Barack Obama, Medium): \u201cFinally, <em>the more specific we can make demands for criminal justice and police reform, the harder it will be for elected officials to just offer lip service to the cause and then fall back into business as usual once protests have gone away<\/em>. The content of that reform agenda will be different for various communities.\u201d Emphasis in original.<\/li>\n<li>Some specific policy proposals: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/samswey\/status\/1180655701271732224\">\u201cFor those who are interested in research-based solutions to stop police violence, here\u2019s what you need to know \u2014 based on the facts and data. A thread. (1\/x)\u201d<\/a> (Samuel Sinyangwe, Twitter)<\/li>\n<li>More specific policy proposals: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/06\/how-actually-fix-americas-police\/612520\/\">How to Actually Fix America\u2019s Police<\/a> (Seth W. Stoughton, Jeffrey J. Noble &amp; Geoffrey P. Alpert, The Atlantic): \u201c\u2018Overcriminalization\u2019 has been broadly discussed; there are so many laws that violations are ubiquitous. If everyone is a criminal, officers have almost unfettered discretion to pick and choose which laws to enforce and whom to stop, frisk, search, or arrest.\u201d The authors have an interesting combination of expertise (a law prof, a criminology prof, and a former officer).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/brown-university-letter-racism\">I Must Object: A Rebuttal to Brown Univ.\u2019s Letter Decrying Pervasive Racism in US<\/a> (Glenn C. Loury, City Journal): \u201cI deeply resented the letter. First of all, what makes an administrator (even a highly paid one, with an exalted title) a \u2018leader\u2019 of this university? We, the faculty, are the only \u2018leaders\u2019 worthy of mention when it comes to the realm of ideas. Who cares what some paper-pushing apparatchik thinks? It\u2019s all a bit creepy and unsettling. Why must this university\u2019s senior administration declare, on behalf of the institution as a whole and with one voice, that they unanimously\u2014without any subtle differences of emphasis or nuance\u2014interpret contentious current events through a single lens?\u201d Loury, who is black, is an econ professor at Brown. He did not come to&nbsp;play.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2020\/june\/efrem-smith-george-floyd-minneapolis-evangelicals-response.html\">Efrem Smith: White Evangelicals Need to Humble Themselves<\/a> (Bob Smietana, Christianity Today): \u201cI\u2019ve been encouraged, especially in the evangelical wing of the church, to see more pastors speaking out, being brokenhearted, calling for change. But then there\u2019s also a significant segment of evangelicalism that is either silent or late to the party when it comes to the church calling for justice.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2020\/june-web-only\/george-floyd-protests-racism-nation-on-fire-needs-spirit.html\">A Nation on Fire Needs the Flames of the Spirit<\/a> (Esau McCaulley, Christianity Today): \u201cThere is no other world in which to talk about Jesus than a world in which black men can have their necks stepped on for nine minutes.\u201d The author is an Anglican priest and a professor of New Testament at Wheaton.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/opinion\/story\/2020-05-30\/dont-understand-the-protests-what-youre-seeing-is-people-pushed-to-the-edge\">Don\u2019t understand the protests? What you\u2019re seeing is people pushed to the edge<\/a> (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LA Times): \u201c\u2026even though we do all the conventional things to raise public and political awareness \u2014 write articulate and insightful pieces in the Atlantic, explain the continued devastation on CNN, support candidates who promise change \u2014 the needle hardly budges.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/scholars-stage.blogspot.com\/2020\/05\/on-days-of-disorder.html\">On Days of Disorder<\/a> (Tanner Greer, personal blog): \u201cNotice that this schema is value neutral: it describes both the football hooligan and the race rioter, 19th century Russian pogroms and 21st century Hong Kong street battles. In all of these a certain percentage of the participants plays the game for fairly mundane reasons: to revel in excitement or terror, lose themselves in a rare sense of solidarity, belonging, or power, or to simply gain the monetary rewards that come with theft and looting. The proportion of the population willing to join a riot to attain these things likely reflects the proportion of the population otherwise cut off from them in normal times. Few rioters are married men who must be at work at 8:00 AM the next morning.\u201d This was quite good. Recommended.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/thebulwark\/how-many-bad-apples-are-there?e=4dca68488e\">Simplicity Is The Enemy &amp; Bad Apples<\/a> (Jonathan Last, The Bulwark): \u201cWhat\u2019s happening in America right now is large and complicated. We have a series of problems, some of which overlap, some of which do not. And attempts to solve them have, historically, been stymied by conflating them and believing that they are simple and connected.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li><li>On the pandemic:&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/gfile.thedispatch.com\/p\/the-treason-of-epidemiologists\">The Treason of Epidemiologists<\/a> (Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch): \u201cThe simple fact is that whatever legislation we\u2019re going to get, we\u2019d still get if the protests stopped this morning. In fact, a reasonable person would conclude we\u2019d be more likely to get it if they stopped now, because the more these things go on, the more opposition and resentment will&nbsp;grow.\u201d&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MattWalshBlog\/status\/1267281387486412801\">\u201cA thread about how protesting during a pandemic was described when conservatives were doing it\u201d<\/a> (Matt Walsh, Twitter)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/jun\/03\/covid-19-surgisphere-who-world-health-organization-hydroxychloroquine\">Surgisphere: governments and WHO changed Covid-19 policy based on suspect data from tiny US company<\/a> (Melissa Davey, Stephanie Kirchgaessner &amp; Sarah Boseley, The Guardian): \u201cThe World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world\u2019s most prestigious medical journals. A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology.\u201d This is actually nuts.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/03\/us\/cdc-coronavirus.html?action=click&amp;module=Top%20Stories&amp;pgtype=Homepage\">The C.D.C. Waited \u2018Its Entire Existence for This Moment.\u2019 What Went Wrong?<\/a> (Eric Lipton, Abby Goodnough, Michael D. Shear, Megan Twohey, Apoorva Mandavilli,Sheri Fink &amp; Mark Walker, New York Times): \u201c\u2026the C.D.C. is risk-averse, perfectionist and ill suited to improvising in a quickly evolving crisis \u2014 particularly one that shuts down the country and paralyzes the economy.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/magazine\/2020\/06\/01\/museum-bible-is-winning-over-some-its-biggest-critics-jewish-scholars\/\">The Museum of the Bible is winning over some of its biggest critics: Jewish scholars<\/a> (Menachem Wecker, Washington Post): \u201cMintz believes Jewish scholars who denounced evangelical tones in the museum may have done so because they don\u2019t see eye-to-eye with its politically conservative owners. But, she notes, the museum itself caters to Jews. She cites a time when it arranged kosher food for an event in which her husband, an Orthodox rabbi, participated. \u2018They were just nice about it,\u2019 she&nbsp;says.\u201d<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/religionunplugged.com\/news\/2020\/5\/28\/christian-tiktok-content-is-often-censored-and-deleted-creators-say\">Christian TikTok videos are censored and deleted in the US, creators say<\/a> (Liza Vandenboom, Religion Unplugged): \u201cChristian content is often censored and removed from TikTok, according to several creators on the platform. The China-based social media app hosts short, snippy videos ranging from inspirational mini-speeches to musical and dance performances and is popular with teenagers and young adults. The platform reports over 800 million active users, with 30 million active users in the U.S. Researchers have grown concerned over the app\u2019s reach and the possibility of it bringing Chinese-style censorship to mainstream U.S. audiences.\u201d&nbsp;<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.ayjay.org\/technocracy-is-impossible\/\">Technocracy Is Impossible<\/a> (Alan Jacobs, personal blog): \u201cLeaders should <em>pay attention to scientists<\/em>, dramatically more than the current Presidential administration does, but an immunologist will say one thing, an epidemiologist something slightly different, an economist something altogether other. The various sciences and academic disciplines will not speak with a single voice, indeed <em>will not speak at all<\/em>: individual scholars will speak, and what they say will arise from a combination of their scholarly expertise and their beliefs (derived from non-scientific sources) about what matters most in life, and a good political leader will have the general intelligence and moral discernment to sift the various messages he or she receives and make a decision based on <em>all<\/em> the relevant input.\u201d<\/li><li>There was a fight at the New York Times this week. I\u2019m not actually that interested in the op-ed that provoked it, but I am quite interested in how the fight is playing out. The New York Times occupies a special place in the American media ecosystem and fights like this illuminate some of what is happening beneath the surface.&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2020\/06\/04\/new-york-times-journalists-scared-to-have-an-op-ed-page\/\">New York Times Journalists Scared To Have an Op-Ed Page<\/a> (Matt Welch, Reason): \u201cThis publishing flap, which in comparative importance is a sputtering match next to the hell-inferno of spring 2020, is nonetheless symbolic of a shift bearing more tectonic heft. Our liberal institutions, not unlike our conservative intellectuals, are noisily abandoning liberalism.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2020\/06\/tom-cotton-new-york-times-op-ed-inside-story\/\">The Inside Story of the Tom Cotton Op-Ed that Rocked the New York Times<\/a> (Rich Lowry, National Review): \u201cThis process, with back and forth over phone, email, and text, extended through the morning and afternoon on Wednesday. Cotton and his team then signed off on the final version around 2:30 p.m. It was posted shortly after. Then, all hell broke&nbsp;loose.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>A Twitter thread from NY Times opinion columnist Bari Weiss: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bariweiss\/status\/1268628680797978625\">\u201cThe civil war inside The New York Times between the (mostly young) wokes the (mostly 40+) liberals is the same one raging inside other publications and companies across the country. The dynamic is always the same. (Thread.)\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/bv8n3z\/new-york-times-staffers-grill-leadership-over-tom-cotton-op-ed-during-all-hands?utm_campaign=sharebutton\">\u2018New York Times\u2019 Staffers Grill Leadership Over Tom Cotton Op-Ed During All-Hands<\/a> (Laura Wagner, Vice): \u201c\u2026the most informative parts of the meeting came from the lengthy question-and-answer portion. Staffers asked for an autopsy of the piece and how it was published; if company leaders were planning to address James Bennet\u2019s leadership of the opinion section, which has had \u2018several misfires\u2019; whether Opinion staff editor and writer Bari Weiss would be fired for \u2018openly bad mouth[ing] younger news colleagues on a platform where they, because of strict company policy, could not defend themselves\u2019; whether the opinion section had suggested the topic of the op-ed to Cotton; and what the <em>Times<\/em> would do to help retain and support Black employees.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/media\/2020\/06\/03\/new-york-times-tom-cotton\/\">After staff uproar, New York Times says Sen. Tom Cotton op-ed urging military incursion into U.S. cities \u2018did not meet our standards\u2019<\/a> (Elahe Izadi, Paul Farhi and Sarah Ellison, Washington Post): \u201cBecause of its prominence, the Times\u2019s op-ed page and columnists often generate controversy, though rarely from within the newspaper itself. There was widespread criticism in February, for example, when the Times published an op-ed from a member of Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban, particularly because the paper failed to identify the author\u2019s history of involvement in terrorist activities. There was little internal opposition to the column, however, at least none that spilled into public view.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2020\/06\/04\/new-york-times-publisher-doubles-down-tom-cotton-op-ed\/\">New York Times has stopped defending its Tom Cotton op-ed<\/a> (Erik Wemple, Washington Post): \u201cAs Jack Shafer has noted, the Times opinion page exists to provoke. It has run op-eds by Moammar Gaddafi, Vladimir Putin and others. In a December 2017 staff meeting, Bennet addressed the difficulties of judging when a piece goes too far: \u2018We\u2019ve published Vladimir Putin,\u2019 Bennet said in the meeting. \u2018Should we not allow Vladimir Putin into our pages? It\u2019s hard to say. It\u2019s hard to say that that would be doing a service to our readers. But as you can see, I mean, I struggle to articulate what those boundaries are.\u2019\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Less Serious Things Which Also Interested\/Amused Glen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"simple-list wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/nation-wishes-god-would-send-someone-who-could-unify-people-across-all-races-classes-genders-tribes-tongues\">Nation Wishes God Would Send Someone Who Could Unify People Across Races, Classes, Genders, Tribes, Tongues<\/a> (Babylon Bee)<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mZv8GQX8E1I\">Malcolm Corden Teaches Donald Trump How To Hold the Bible<\/a> (The Late Late Show With James Corden, YouTube): six minutes.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ttd4985R0FQ\">A Few Bad Apples<\/a> (Chris Rock, YouTube): one and a half minutes, mild language warning<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Things Glen Found Interesting A While&nbsp;Ago<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Every week I\u2019ll highlight an older link still worth your consideration. This week we have <a href=\"https:\/\/marginalrevolution.com\/marginalrevolution\/2018\/05\/one-parameter-equation-can-exactly-fit-scatter-plot.html\">A One Parameter Equation That Can Exactly Fit Any Scatter Plot<\/a> (Alex Tabarrok, Marginal Revolution): \u201cOverfitting is possible with just one parameter and so models with fewer parameters are not necessarily preferable even if they fit the data as well or better than models with more parameters.\u201d Researchers take note. The underlying mathematics paper is well\u2010written and interesting: <a href=\"https:\/\/colala.bcs.rochester.edu\/papers\/piantadosi2018one.pdf\">One Parameter Is Always Enough<\/a> (Steven T. Piantadosi) \u2014 among other things, it points out that you can smuggle in arbitrarily large amounts of data into an equation through a single parameter because a number can have infinite digits. Obvious once stated, but I don\u2019t know that it ever would have occurred to me. First shared in <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/06\/01\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-154\">volume 154<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Why Do You Send This&nbsp;Email?<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the time of King David, the tribe of Issachar produced shrewd warriors \u201cwho understood the times and knew what Israel should do\u201d (1 Chron 12:32). In a similar way, we need to become wise people whose faith interacts with the world. I pray this email gives you greater insight, so that you may continue the tradition of Issachar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Disclaimer<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Chi Alpha is not a partisan organization. To paraphrase another minister: we are not about the donkey\u2019s agenda and we are not about the elephant\u2019s agenda \u2014 we are about the Lamb\u2019s agenda. Having said that, I read widely (in part because I believe we should aspire to pass <a href=\"http:\/\/econlog.econlib.org\/archives\/2011\/06\/the_ideological.html\">the ideological Turing test<\/a> and in part because I do not believe I can fairly say \u201cI agree\u201d or \u201cI disagree\u201d until I can say \u201cI understand\u201d) and may at times share articles that have a strong partisan bias simply because I find the article stimulating. The upshot: you should not assume I agree with everything an author says in an article I mention, much less things the author has said in other articles (although if I strongly disagree with something in the article I\u2019ll usually mention it). And to the extent you can discern my opinions, please understand that they are my own and not necessarily those of Chi Alpha or any other organization I may be perceived to represent.\n\nAlso, remember that I\u2019m not reporting news \u2014 I\u2019m giving you a selection of things I found interesting. There\u2019s a lot happening in the world that\u2019s not making an appearance here because I haven\u2019t found stimulating articles written about it.\n\nIf this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/\">here<\/a>. You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/category\/links\">view the archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Specific suggestions for police reform, various explainers and opinion pieces, and some weird news about TikTok and Christianity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Specific policy proposals for police reform, weird news about TikTok and Christianity, and a whole pile of op-eds and explainers.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[131,125,279,221,177,275,117,172,260],"class_list":["post-6062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-academia","tag-china","tag-criminal-justice","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-pandemic","tag-politics","tag-racism","tag-social-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1zM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6062"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6071,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6062\/revisions\/6071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}