{"id":6528,"date":"2021-03-19T19:15:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T03:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=6528"},"modified":"2021-03-19T19:15:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T03:15:53","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-293","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2021\/03\/19\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-293","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 293"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" 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 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>     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<p>This is volume 293 \u2014 a prime number.<\/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>Article related to violence against Asian-Americans:<ul><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/edstetzer\/2021\/march\/religion-race-and-atlanta-murders-untangling-multiple-layer.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+christianitytoday%2Fctmag+%28CT+Magazine%29\">Religion, Race, and the Atlanta Murders<\/a> (Ed Stetzer, Christianity Today): \u201cThere are so many threads to this knot that need to be slowly untangled. There are elements related to pornography, sex trafficking, religion, evangelicalism, Southern Baptists, and many others just outside our periphery. But neither the complexity of this event nor the tribalism of our cultural discourse must not allow us to avoid self-reflection and scrutiny. We must confront the reality that something is horribly wrong in our midst when a person kills to \u2018eliminate\u2019 temptation.\u201d<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/06\/opinion\/asian-american-violence-race.html\">We Need to Put a Name to This Violence<\/a> (Jay Caspian Kang, New York Times): \u201cThere is no shared history between, say, Thai immigrants who saw images of one of their own attacked in San Francisco, and the Chinese-American population of Oakland alarmed by the assault in Chinatown.Asian-American identity is fractured and often incoherent because it assumes kinship between people who do not speak the same language, and, in many cases, dislike one another.\u201d This was written before the Atlanta murders and is discussing the trend wave of violence more generally.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/cultural-comment\/the-muddled-history-of-anti-asian-violence\">The Muddled History of Anti-Asian Violence<\/a> (Hua Hsu, New Yorker): \u201cSome have wondered if these horrific, viral videos constitute a wave, or if they were just random incidents. When your concerns have gone unrecognized for decades, it\u2019s understandable why some within the Asian-American community remain so invested in using these highly visible moments as an opportunity to call attention to hate, even if the incidents seem more varied than that. The wave in question isn\u2019t just two or three incidents.\u201d Also written before the Atlanta shootings.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/dreher\/racializing-atlanta-massage-parlor-killings\/\">Racializing The Atlanta Massage Parlor Killings<\/a> (Rod Dreher, The American Conservative): \u201cIt is striking to see how quickly our media has racialized the narrative of the horrific murders at the Georgia massage parlors. From what we know so far, the alleged murderer was a young man tormented by his compulsive sexual desires. He visited massage parlors in the past, and went to this one to kill the women he once depended on to gratify his desires. From all the available evidence, these killings were the misogynistic act of a sexually depraved man.\u201d As is often the case with Dreher, some of the best material is in the updates at the end (usually a comment from a reader that Dreher thought significant).<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/andrewsullivan.substack.com\/p\/when-the-narrative-replaces-the-news-9ea\">When The Narrative Replaces The News<\/a> (Andrew Sullivan, Substack): \u201cMass killers, if they are motivated by bigotry or hate, tend to let the world know\u2026 This mass murderer in Atlanta actually denied any such motive, and, to repeat myself, <em>there is no evidence for it<\/em> \u2014 and that has been true from the very&nbsp;start.\u201d<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2021\/03\/19\/aaron-robert-long-spa-killer-atlanta-jay-baker-cop-bad-day\/\">The Media Got It Wrong: Police Captain Didn\u2019t Say the Atlanta Spa Killer Was Having a \u2018Bad Day\u2019<\/a> (Robby Soave, Reason): \u201cA police officer excusing Long\u2019s actions as merely the result of him having a \u2018bad day\u2019 would indeed be contemptible. But that\u2019s not what Baker did. In fact, many of the people so infuriated about the quote were misled by Rupar\u2019s edit of the video. The full video (the relevant section starts at about 13:50) makes clear that Baker was not providing his own commentary, but rather summarizing what Long had told the investigators.\u201d<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mereorthodoxy.com\/third-places-horizons-male-friendships\/\">Third Places and the Horizons of Male Friendships<\/a> (Ryan McCormick, Mere Orthodoxy): \u201cGenerally speaking, typical male friendship is different from typical, contemporary female friendship. A failure to recognize the different ways that men and women form intimate bonds in friendship is what breeds so much confusion and leads to the misdiagnosis of \u2018toxic masculinity.\u2019\u201d I will add one extra layer of diagnosis that the author didn\u2019t address: many in our culture have a horror of male-only spaces. How are we surprised to discover a dearth of male friendships when we view the very existence of masculine communities as evidence of something amiss?<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/greenwald.substack.com\/p\/the-false-and-exaggerated-claims\">The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot<\/a> (Glenn Greenwald, Substack): \u201cDespite this alleged brutal murder taking place in one of the most surveilled buildings on the planet, filled that day with hundreds of cellphones taping the events, nobody saw video of it. No photographs depicted it. To this day, no autopsy report has been released. No details from any official source have been provided.\u201d<ul><li>Follow-up: <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/greenwald.substack.com\/p\/as-the-insurrection-narrative-crumbles\">As the Insurrection Narrative Crumbles, Democrats Cling to it More Desperately Than Ever<\/a> (Glenn Greenwald, Substack): \u201cAs I detailed several weeks ago, so many of the most harrowing and widespread media claims about the January 6 riot proved to be total fabrications. A pro-Trump mob did not bash Office Brian Sicknick\u2019s skull in with a fire extinguisher. No protester brought zip-ties with them as some premeditated plot to kidnap members of Congress (two rioters found them on a table inside). There\u2019s no evidence anyone intended to assassinate Mike Pence, Mitt Romney or anyone else.\u201d<\/li><li>Related: <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/15\/us\/politics\/brian-sicknick-jan-6-capitol-police.html?campaign_id=60&amp;emc=edit_na_20210315&amp;instance_id=0&amp;nl=breaking-news&amp;ref=cta&amp;regi_id=59635643&amp;segment_id=53446&amp;user_id=82bd71d01fd70886e97df691aa12c777\">Two are charged in the assault of a Capitol Police officer who died after the Jan. 6 riot.<\/a> (Katie Benner&nbsp;and&nbsp;Adam Goldman, New York Times): \u201cThe Justice Department has charged two men in the assault on Brian D. Sicknick, a&nbsp;Capitol Police&nbsp;officer who died the day after he fought rioters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the case and court documents.\u2026 It is not clear whether Officer Sicknick died because of his exposure to the&nbsp;spray.\u201d<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/18\/briefing\/atlanta-shootings-kamala-harris-tax-deadline-2021.html\">Covid\u2019s Partisan Errors<\/a> (David Leonhardt, New York Times): \u201c&nbsp;\u2018Republicans consistently underestimate risks, while Democrats consistently overestimate them.\u2019&nbsp; \u2026The reasons for these ideological biases aren\u2019t completely clear, but they are not shocking. Conservatives tend to be more hostile to behavior restrictions and to scientific research. And liberals sometimes overreact to social problems.\u201d<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/early\/2021\/03\/17\/science.abf8003\">Timing the SARS-CoV\u20112 index case in Hubei province<\/a> (Science, Jonathan Pekar et al):&nbsp; \u201cEmpirical observation throughout the SARS-CoV\u20112 pandemic has shown the outsized role of superspreading events in the propagation of SARS-CoV\u20112, wherein the average infected person does not transmit the virus. Our results suggest the same dynamics likely influenced the initial establishment of SARS-CoV\u20112 in humans, as only 29.7% of simulated epidemics from the primary analysis went on to establish self-sustaining epidemics. The remaining 70.3% of epidemics went extinct.\u2026 Furthermore, the large and highly connected contact networks characterizing urban areas seem critical to the establishment of SARS-CoV\u20112. When we simulated epidemics where the number of connections was reduced by 50% or 75% (without rescaling per-contact transmissibility), to reflect emergence in a rural community, the epidemics went extinct 94.5% or 99.6% of the time, respectively.\u201d<ul><li>This is really interesting. The researchers are largely at UCSD. One implication is that there are a LOT more animal-to-human COVID-like infections that simply never make the leap to becoming widespread. Kind of like music: there are a ton of great musicians who just never catch their big break. Without superspreaders, this kind of pandemic appears unlikely. I hope researchers can find a way to address whatever causes someone to be a superspreader.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/quillette.com\/2021\/03\/19\/raising-beef-cattle\/\">Raising Beef Cattle<\/a> (Tom Blanton, Quillette): \u201cIt is by cherry-picking images of the times of confinement from around the world that the gruesome image of \u2018factory farms\u2019 is created. Often the images are taken from countries that don\u2019t have the humanitarian regulations that most Western nations have.\u2026 If those genuinely concerned for the suffering of animals could find it within themselves to recognize that it is not immoral to slaughter animals humanely for food, they would find many allies for the cause of reducing animal suffering amongst the people who raise and work with these animals on a daily&nbsp;basis.\u201d<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/freddiedeboer.substack.com\/p\/could-it-be-genes?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzIyMjQyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjozMzgzNzYzMywiXyI6Ii8zeUl6IiwiaWF0IjoxNjE2MDgxNDE5LCJleHAiOjE2MTYwODUwMTksImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yOTU5MzciLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.hIjpDpl0mQfuNY71YUFPnC4c-k3BpWS648_Jh5sj4X0\">Could It Be\u2026 Genes?<\/a> (Freddie deBoer, Substack): \u201cThis is an article about how family influences children without a consideration of the most direct and powerful way. The words \u2018gene\u2019 and \u2018genes\u2019 and \u2018genetic\u2019 do not appear in this paper. Neither do \u2018heritable\u2019 or \u2018heredity\u2019 or \u2018hereditary.\u2019 The concept of the transfer of genetic information from parent to offspring simply does not exist in this mental space\u2026 in a paper about how families influence the characteristics of their children. I would call this odd, but it\u2019s par for the course in social science research.\u201d<\/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 rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EWX0bbGAd0k\">A Geography of Who Hates Who<\/a> (The Daily Show, YouTube): three minutes. Not entirely accurate, but fairly amusing.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wHr02U1OYVk\">St. Patrick: The Musical<\/a> (Lutheran Satire, YouTube): six minutes, recommended by an alumnus<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/in-edgy-grammys-performance-fully-clothed-woman-sings-beautiful-song\/\">In Edgy Grammys Performance, Fully Clothed Woman Sings Beautiful Song<\/a> (Babylon Bee)<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/dilbert.com\/strip\/2021-03-19?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DilbertDailyStrip+%28Dilbert+Daily+Strip%29\">Mask During Zoom<\/a> (Dilbert): it actually does feel like this sometimes<\/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=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/27538479\">On Obstinacy In Belief<\/a> (C.S. Lewis, The Sewanee Review): this is a rewarding essay from way back in 1955. (first shared in <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2015\/07\/03\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-6\">volume 6<\/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>featuring several perspectives about the murders in Atlanta<\/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":"My weekly roundup, with lots about Atlanta, violence against Asian-Americans in general, and a variety of other interesting articles.","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":[208,195,275,117,172,176,198],"class_list":["post-6528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-environmentalism","tag-gender","tag-pandemic","tag-politics","tag-racism","tag-science","tag-vegetarianism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1Hi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528","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=6528"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6530,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528\/revisions\/6530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}