{"id":7254,"date":"2023-08-12T08:12:37","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T15:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7254"},"modified":"2023-08-12T08:12:37","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T15:12:37","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-415","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2023\/08\/12\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-415","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 415"},"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>     On Fridays (or later when I\u2019m busy) 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 415, which is the sum of successive squares (7<sup>2<\/sup> + 8<sup>2<\/sup> + 9<sup>2<\/sup> + 10<sup>2<\/sup> + 11<sup>2<\/sup>).<\/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\">\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2023\/08\/08\/age-law-online-porn-00110148\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A Simple Law Is Doing the Impossible. It\u2019s Making the Online Porn Industry Retreat<\/a>. (Marc Novicoff, Politico): \u201cThough the first of its kind, Louisiana\u2019s age-verification bill was not the last. Nearly identical bills have passed in six other states \u2014 Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi, Utah, Virginia and Texas \u2014 by similarly lopsided margins. In Utah and Arkansas, the bills passed unanimously. The laws were passed by overwhelming margins in legislatures controlled by both parties and signed into law by Democratic and Republican governors alike. In just over a year, age-verification laws have become perhaps the most bipartisan policy in the country, and they are creating havoc in a porn industry that many had considered all but impossible to actually regulate.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2023\/july-web-only\/ai-chatgpt-exegetical-tool-bible-scripture-sermon-mount.html?share=3uB5sFv0SInAx5PURCiKiPAOmc5po6WX\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Misreading Scripture with Artificial Eyes<\/a> (John Boyles, Christianity Today): \u201cFirst, ChatGPT metaphorizes and individualizes Scripture without a clear method for when and why, without warrant, and often in direct contradiction to the text itself. Second, the bot\u2019s interpretations are ignorant of the interpretive traditions that produce them. Third, because the bot is disembodied, its interpretations are necessarily disembodied\u2014and thus a bot is unable to recognize the realities of Scripture and interpretation. Each of the above tendencies present in AI\u2019s responses is in some way a reflection of historic weaknesses in our own human interpretation.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Unlocked.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/chinas-latest-problem-people-dont-want-to-go-there-7d17a83a\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">China\u2019s Latest Problem: People Don\u2019t Want to Go There<\/a> (Wenxin Fan, Wall Street Journal): \u201cNationwide, just 52,000 people arrived to mainland China from overseas on trips organized by travel agencies during the first quarter, the latest period for which national data is available, compared with 3.7 million in the first quarter of 2019. As in past years, nearly half of the visitors came from the self-ruled island of Taiwan and the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, rather than farther-away places like the U.S. or Europe.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>That\u2019s almost a 99% drop in numbers!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/02\/opinion\/trump-meritocracy-educated.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What if We\u2019re the Bad Guys Here<\/a>? (David Brooks, New York Times): \u201cDoes this mean that I think the people in my class are vicious and evil? No. Most of us are earnest, kind and public-spirited. But we take for granted and benefit from systems that have become oppressive. Elite institutions have become so politically progressive in part because the people in them want to feel good about themselves as they take part in systems that exclude and reject. It\u2019s easy to understand why people in less-educated classes would conclude that they are under economic, political, cultural and moral assault \u2014 and why they\u2019ve rallied around Trump as their best warrior against the educated class. He understood that it\u2019s not the entrepreneurs who seem most threatening to workers; it\u2019s the professional class.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/danieldrezner.substack.com\/p\/david-brooks-means-well-but?utm_source=%2Finbox&amp;utm_medium=reader2\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">David Brooks Means Well, But\u2026<\/a> (Dan Drezner, Substack): \u201cAt a superficial level this is a quasi-plausible analysis of what happened in 2016, even if some of his evidence does not quite show what he thinks it shows. If this had been published seven years ago, it would have been trenchant. In 2023, there\u2019s so much to pick apart. The most important point is that the general correlations Brooks takes for granted are not necessarily true, as the 2020 election demonstrated.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eddieyang.net\/research\/DDD.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Digital Dictator\u2019s Dilemma<\/a> (Eddie Yang, PDF hosted on his website): \u201cI suggest that autocrats suffer from a \u2018Digital Dictator\u2019s Dilemma,\u2019 a repression-information trade-off in which citizens\u2019 strategic behavior in the face of repression diminishes the amount of useful information in the data for training AI. This trade-off poses a fundamental limitation in AI\u2019s usefulness for serving as a tool of authoritarian control \u2014 the more repression there is, the less information there will be in AI\u2019s training data, and the worse AI will perform. I illustrate this argument using an AI experiment and a unique dataset on censorship in China. I show that AI\u2019s accuracy in censorship decreases with more pre-existing censorship and repression. The drop in AI\u2019s performance is larger during times of crisis, when people reveal their true preferences. I further show that this problem cannot be easily fixed with more data. Ironically, however, the existence of the free world can help boost AI\u2019s ability to censor.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>From the abstract. I have skimmed but not read the whole article. The author is a PhD candidate at UC San&nbsp;Diego.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/arts-letters\/articles\/david-garrow-interview-obama\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Obama Factor<\/a> (David Samuels, Tablet Magazine): \u201cSo the conclusion I\u2019ve come to in time is that that best way to understand Barack Obama is that he is a literary creation of Barack Obama, the writer, who authored the novel of his own life and then proceeded to live out this fictional character that he created for himself on the page. Which is remarkable.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is super long but utterly fascinating if you remember Obama\u2019s presidency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/28\/opinion\/uyghur-china-internment-authoritarian.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Let the Tragedy in My Homeland Be a Lesson<\/a> (Tahir Hamut Izgil, The New York Times): \u201cLittle attention was paid as, in the early 2010s, surveillance cameras were installed in every nook and cranny of our cities. When the police began random cellphone checks on the street, people were alarmed at first, but gradually grew used to it. Not long after, when highway checkpoints expanded and multiplied, folks privately expressed concern but ground their teeth and bore it. When, in 2016,police posts were constructed every 200 meters along city streets, people ignored them and hurried past. As time passed, we adapted to these changes and to this new, more authoritarian way of&nbsp;life.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/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\">\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gocomics.com\/pearlsbeforeswine\/2023\/08\/05\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Airport Discrimination<\/a> (Pearls Before Swine)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-66446697\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Texas woman injured after hawk drops snake on her<\/a> (Max Matza, BBC News): \u201cThe snake wrapped itself around her arm and began striking her face as the bird sunk its talons deep into her&nbsp;flesh.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\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:\/\/theglendavis.substack.com\/\">here<\/a>. You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/category\/links\">view the archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Fridays (or later when I\u2019m busy) 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. This is volume 415, which is the sum of successive squares (72 + 82 \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2023\/08\/12\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-415\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 415\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/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":"Need fascinating things to read? Have I got good news for you...","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":[219,125,136],"class_list":["post-7254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-china","tag-pornography"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1T0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7254","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=7254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7256,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7254\/revisions\/7256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}