{"id":6835,"date":"2022-02-18T18:26:38","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T02:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=6835"},"modified":"2022-02-18T18:34:46","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T02:34:46","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-339","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2022\/02\/18\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-339","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 339"},"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 339, which is 3 \u00b7 113. I like numbers with only two factors (technically four, but you know what I mean \u2014 two interesting factors). They\u2019re the silver medalists of the prime olympics. They almost made it, but&nbsp;no.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"things-glen-found-interesting\">Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"simple-list wp-block-list\"><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/richardhanania.substack.com\/p\/womens-tears-win-in-the-marketplace?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzIyMjQyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0NzI3Mjg1OSwiXyI6IldTSUZuIiwiaWF0IjoxNjQ0MjQ0MzU4LCJleHAiOjE2NDQyNDc5NTgsImlzcyI6InB1Yi05ODEwMiIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.0n1vkx71eXQ9pEaReoCuc01Fym3SfuUm-nHQ9-DQb40\" target=\"_blank\">Women\u2019s Tears Win in the Marketplace of Ideas<\/a> (Richard Hanania, Substack): \u201c\u2026the ways in which public debate works when we take steps to make the most emotional and aggressive women comfortable have been overlooked. Things that we talk about as involving \u2018young people,\u2019 \u2018college students,\u2019 and \u2018liberals\u2019 are often gendered issues.\u201d Long, provocative, and worth your&nbsp;time.&nbsp;<\/li><li>The Canadian truckers:<ul><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/theupheaval.substack.com\/p\/reality-honks-back?r=1ke0l\" target=\"_blank\">Reality Honks Back<\/a> (NS Lyons, Substack): \u201cFor our purposes here, let\u2019s call these two classes the Physicals and the Virtuals, respectively.\u2026 That Trudeau\u2019s government would choose to jettison any remaining illusion of Canada still being a liberal democracy just to harm their political class enemies isn\u2019t too surprising. It\u2019s their method of doing so that is particularly striking: control over digital financial assets is pretty much the ultimate leverage now available to the Virtuals. We should expect more use of this tool around the world anywhere the Physicals continue to revolt against their masters. And here the Virtuals have a significant advantage because they are free to use the maximum level of coercive force available in their natural domain, while the Physicals cannot \u2013 because, in the physical world, that would mean violence, which is something the protestors have rightly forsworn.\u201d&nbsp;<ul><li>Full of insight. The Virtual vs Physical framing is getting at something I haven\u2019t seen discussed much elsewhere.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/1010271\/the-plausible-dystopia-of-a-social-credit-system?utm_source=links&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=twitter\" target=\"_blank\">The plausible dystopia of a social credit system<\/a> (Damon Linker, The Week): \u201cFor a recent and especially vivid example from a neighboring democracy, this week\u2019s declaration of a national emergency in Canada has empowered banks to freeze and suspend the accounts of \u2018Freedom Convoy\u2019 protesters without a court order and while enjoying protection from civil liability. That is precisely the kind of thing one would expect to see become normalized with the imposition of a social credit system. Add in facial recognition software that can identify individuals attending \u2018dangerous\u2019 protests and other public events and we\u2019re left with a vision of the near-term future that can look pretty dystopian.\u201d<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/emilyoster.substack.com\/p\/lots-of-studies-are-bad?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzIyMjQyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0ODgxNzkzNiwiXyI6IkdBaFNQIiwiaWF0IjoxNjQ1MTQ4OTMzLCJleHAiOjE2NDUxNTI1MzMsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yOTc3MCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.I7-wPBURcicYX3FUQWtxTp3im2nOL1jeTgG5E1WlS2g&amp;utm_source=url\" target=\"_blank\">Lots of Studies Are Bad<\/a> (Emily Oster, Substack): \u201cMy point isn\u2019t that this paper is wrong in its conclusions, just that it\u2019s largely uninformative. The authors begin with an interesting graph showing a limited relationship between the stringency of COVID restrictions and mortality. That deserved more study, but this paper isn\u2019t helping us understand it&nbsp;much.\u201d<ul><li>Emily Oster, an economist at Brown, is not impressed with the Johns Hopkins study I shared earlier (and offers a similar critique of a pro-mask study).<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2022\/jan\/27\/no-america-is-not-on-the-cusp-of-a-civil-war\" target=\"_blank\">No, America is not on the brink of a civil war<\/a> (Musa al-Gharbi, The Guardian): \u201cOf course, a far more obvious and empirically plausible explanation is that respondents knew perfectly well what the correct answer was. However, they also had a sense of how that answer would be used in the media (\u2018Even Trump\u2019s supporters don\u2019t believe his nonsense!\u2019), so they simply declined to give pollsters the response they seemed to be looking for. As a matter of fact, respondents regularly troll researchers in polling and surveys \u2013 <em>especially <\/em>when they are asked whether or not they subscribe to absurd or fringe beliefs, such as birtherism (a conspiracy that held that Barack Obama was born outside of the US and was legally ineligible to serve as president of the United States).\u201d<ul><li>The author is a sociologist at Columbia. The article is a few weeks old but quite good and not particularly time-sensitive.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/frenchpress.thedispatch.com\/p\/the-seeds-of-political-violence-are?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzIyMjQyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0ODY3MDEzNywiXyI6Ilp3NCs2IiwiaWF0IjoxNjQ0NzYyNTkzLCJleHAiOjE2NDQ3NjYxOTMsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMTc2NSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.4W5VJEHsugEeKSN6OwI3mMF7V8DEUFUcZfWA03DoA2U\" target=\"_blank\">The Seeds of Political Violence Are Being Sown in Church<\/a> (David French, The Dispatch): \u201cPentecostal Christianity,&nbsp;despite its immense size, is about as far from elite American culture as Mercury is from Mars. And this means it\u2019s quite distant from elite&nbsp;<em>Evangelical<\/em>&nbsp;culture as well. Right-wing blue-check theologians and pastors who speak disdainfully of warnings about Christian nationalism because it\u2019s not something&nbsp;<em>they<\/em>&nbsp;see in<em>&nbsp;their&nbsp;<\/em>churches never darken the door of a Pentecostal church.\u201d I think French gets it a little wrong here (there is an important distinction between Pentecostal and charismatic churches, and even more significantly between denominational and nondenominational ones). Still, French used to be an Assemblies of God youth pastor(!) and so he is not speaking of something he doesn\u2019t understand. Recommended.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2022\/02\/why-does-the-us-make-it-so-hard-to-be-a-doctor\/622065\/\" target=\"_blank\">Why America Has So Few Doctors<\/a> (Derek Thompson, The Atlantic): \u201cImagine you were planning a conspiracy to limit the number of doctors in America. Certainly, you\u2019d make sure to have a costly, lengthy credentialing system. You would also tell politicians that America has too many doctors already. That way, you could purposefully constrain the number of medical-school students. You might freeze or slash funding for residencies and medical scholarships. You\u2019d fight proposals to allow nurses to do the work of physicians. And because none of this would stop foreign-trained doctors from slipping into the country and committing the crime of helping sick people get better, you\u2019d throw in some rules that made it onerous for immigrant doctors, especially from neighboring countries Mexico and Canada, to do their job.\u201d The original title was better: Why Does the US Make it so Hard to be a Doctor?<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/what-do-students-beliefs-about-god-have-to-do-with-grades-and-going-to-college-172748\" target=\"_blank\">What do students\u2019 beliefs about God have to do with grades and going to&nbsp;college<\/a>? (Ilana Horwitz, The Conversation): \u201cIn interviews, religious teens over and over mention life goals of parenthood, altruism and serving God \u2013 priorities that I argue make them less intent on attending as highly selective a college as they could. This aligns with previous research showing that conservative Protestant women attend colleges that less selective than other women do because they do not tend to view college\u2019s main purpose as career advancement.\u201d<ul><li>The author is a professor of Jewish studies at Tulane University. Overall interesting, although she doesn\u2019t comment on two factors which I think are quite significant: religious students often view selective colleges as inimical to faith, and students are often torn between prestigious colleges and less selective religious colleges (I have personally spoken to several Stanford students who were torn between Stanford and Wheaton).<\/li><li>Related? <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/12\/opinion\/marriage-career-goals.html\" target=\"_blank\">Marriage Made Me Let Go of My Dreams. Good.<\/a> (Esau McCaulley, New York Times): \u201cMany believe that the purpose of marriage is self-actualization. We find the partner who will come alongside us and help us become what we have always dreamed we would be. Conversely, we may think that a potential spouse who would get in the way of our dreams is the wrong person for us. What if marriage is meant to be something else?\u201d This is very good. Highly recommended.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"less-serious-things-which-also-interested-amused-glen\">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\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gocomics.com\/pearlsbeforeswine\/2022\/02\/13\" target=\"_blank\">Pretty Much<\/a> (Pearls Before Swine)<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/stanforddaily.com\/2022\/02\/13\/nra-only-thing-that-stops-a-bad-cupid-with-a-bow-is-a-good-cupid-with-a-bow\/\" target=\"_blank\">NRA: \u201cOnly thing that stops a bad Cupid with a bow is a good Cupid with a bow\u201d<\/a> (Om Jahagirdar, Stanford Daily)<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theonion.com\/super-bowl-confetti-made-entirely-from-shredded-concuss-1819591572\" target=\"_blank\">Super Bowl Confetti Made Entirely From Shredded Concussion Studies<\/a> (The&nbsp;Onion)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"things-glen-found-interesting-a-while-ago\">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 rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/edwardfeser.blogspot.com\/2019\/03\/artificial-intelligence-and-magical.html\" target=\"_blank\">Artificial Intelligence and Magical Thinking<\/a> (Ed Feser, personal blog): \u201cBuilding a computer is precisely analogous to putting together a bit of magical sleight of hand. It is a clever exercise in simulation, nothing more. And the <em>convincingness <\/em>of the simulation is as completely irrelevant in the one case as it is in the other. Saying \u2018Gee, AI programs can do such amazing things. Maybe it really <em>is <\/em>intelligence!\u2019 is like saying \u2018Gee, Penn and Teller do such amazing things. Maybe it really <em>is <\/em>magic!\u2019\u201d Feser is one of my favorite philosophers. First shared in <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2019\/04\/05\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-197\" target=\"_blank\">volume 197<\/a>. I remember one CS grad student strongly disliking this article when I first shared. I share it again regardless<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"why-do-you-send-this-email\"><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\" id=\"disclaimer\"><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>some of these links are quite spicy \u2014 consume with&nbsp;care<\/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":"Some of these links are quite spicy - consume with care!","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":[174,168,295,195,112,300,137],"class_list":["post-6835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-ambition","tag-america","tag-canada","tag-gender","tag-marriage","tag-medicine","tag-thinking-clearly"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1Mf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835","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=6835"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6838,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835\/revisions\/6838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}