{"id":7360,"date":"2024-01-19T18:27:58","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T02:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7360"},"modified":"2024-01-19T18:27:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T02:27:58","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-436","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2024\/01\/19\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-436","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 436"},"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 436, which isn\u2019t an especially interesting number. It is, apparently, <a href=\"https:\/\/mathworld.wolfram.com\/Nontotient.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/mathworld.wolfram.com\/Nontotient.html\">nontotient<\/a>, but even after reading about totients I remain uninterested.<\/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 href=\"https:\/\/doi-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org\/10.1093\/schbul\/sbad173\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">From Vexing Uncertainty to Intellectual Humility<\/a> (Michael Dickson, Schizophrenia Bulletin):&nbsp; \u201cI am a 55-year-old husband, father, friend, and professional philosopher. In 1992, as a graduate student at Cambridge University, a porter found me amongst the cows in the meadows of King\u2019s College, after being there for 2 or 3 days. I was in bad physical shape, having eaten nothing, and apparently getting water from the river. He asked what I was doing. I replied: \u2018I\u2019m solving a problem about stochastic calculus.\u2019 This statement was true, but did not answer his question. He took me to the hospital, where I remained for some weeks. It wasn\u2019t the first time that I was psychotic, but it was, maybe, the first time that anybody noticed, the first time that I was unable to hide it from others, and therefore from myself.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The author is a professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. A remarkable (and fairly brief) article.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/journals-ala-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org\/index.php\/dttp\/article\/view\/6655\/8939\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GovDocs to the Rescue! Debunking an Immigration Myth<\/a> (Rosemary Meszaros and Katherine Pennavaria, Policy Commons): \u201cNo one\u2019s family name was changed, altered, shortened, butchered, or \u2018written down wrong\u2019 at Ellis Island or any American port. <em>That idea is an urban legend<\/em>. Many names did get changed as immigrants settled into their new American lives, but those changes were made several years after arrival and were done by choice of someone in the family.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/17\/opinion\/taiwan-china-election-war.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A Peaceful Solution on Taiwan Is Slipping Away<\/a> (Michael Beckley, New York Times): \u201c\u2026Taiwan provokes China simply by being what it is: A prosperous and free society. Taiwan\u2019s blooming national identity threatens China with the prospect of permanent territorial dismemberment; and Taiwan\u2019s elections, rule of law and free press make a mockery of Beijing\u2019s claim that Chinese culture is incompatible with democracy. America\u2019s words can\u2019t change any of that. Chinese law explicitly states that Beijing may use force if possibilities for peaceful unification are \u2018completely exhausted.\u2019 Because of politics in Taiwan and the United States, those possibilities are dwindling.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The author is a political scientist at&nbsp;Tufts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/01\/13\/1224576576\/taiwan-choosing-next-president-in-poll-weighing-chinas-threat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Taiwan\u2019s China-skeptic ruling-party candidate wins presidential election<\/a> (Emily Feng, NPR): \u201cFor security reasons, Taiwan does not allow absentee voting, mandating that all voters cast their ballots in-person, on paper only. The physical ballots are then counted by hand at every polling station, a process that is completely open to the public.\u201d The implication being that they are so worried about Chinese meddling that they engage in radical transparency. Wow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2024\/january-web-only\/china-christianity-xi-religion-policy-sinicization.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Xi Jinping Is Not Trying to Make Christianity More Chinese<\/a> (Fenggang Yang, Christianity Today): \u201cThroughout December, the authorities once again tried hard to contain and curb Christmas celebrations inside and outside churches, prohibited students and others from participating in Christmas activities, and detained some house church leaders to prevent them from organizing congregational gatherings. Yet most churches, both the officially sanctioned churches and unregistered house churches, held Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship services. The online evangelistic galas by Beijing Zion Church and other house churches on Zoom and other platforms are of high artistic quality. Christians shared discreetly on social media that church leaders baptized a number of new believers despite the current \u2018bitter winter\u2019 for churches in&nbsp;China.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I found this bit fascinating: \u201cMany people in the West may not know that in the Chinese Communist political system, the party\u2019s policy is superior to state laws and trumps the constitution. The Chinafication policy has led to the promulgation of a series of administrative regulations and measures, including the vastly expanded Regulations of Religious Affairs that took effect in&nbsp;2018.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The author is a professor of sociology at Purdue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/reactionaryfeminist.substack.com\/p\/you-need-to-be-cringemaxxing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">You Need To Be Cringemaxxing<\/a> (Mary Harrington, Substack): \u201cThere is no way in the world to make going to church cool, and the most cringe thing of all is trying. Here\u2019s the thing though: data consistently show that the happiest people \u2014 those who feel that their lives are most filled with purpose and fulfilment \u2014 are not necessarily those with kids \u2014 it\u2019s those who go to church. Those, in other words, who are not just to be indifferent to cool, but actively anti-cool. The first step to a happy and fulfilled life, it appears, is cringemaxxing.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Some other vaguely-related life advice: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freyaindia.co.uk\/p\/risk-aversion-is-killing-romance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Risk-Aversion Is Killing Romance<\/a> (Freya India, Substack): \u201cSometimes it seems to me we\u2019ve become so suspicious of each other\u2019s intentions that we pathologise romance and commitment, and end up psychoanalysing to death behaviour that\u2019s actually decent. Now we take everything that comes with real love\u2014<em>being affected by someone else\u2019s emotions, putting your partner\u2019s needs first, depending on them<\/em>\u2014and call it damage or anxious attachment or trauma<strong>.<\/strong> No! It\u2019s called deep connection! And God, yes, wouldn\u2019t it be much easier if it was a pathology, a disease, one we could diagnose and solve because it\u2019s scary and it comes without guarantees. But it isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desiringgod.org\/interviews\/how-do-i-find-the-main-point-of-a-psalm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cHow Do I Find the Main Point of a Psalm?\u201d<\/a> (John Piper, Desiring God): \u201cSo, the point is to look at the pieces very carefully, to fit them together in midsize units, to jot down the main points of the midsize units until you have them all on a half sheet of paper, and then to think and think, and pray and pray, and think and pray and think and pray, and to organize and draw lines, and to try to fit them all together until they fall into place and you see how these five, six, seven, eight, nine points of the midsize units are in a flow that make one big overarching point. You will be surprised, if you take up pencil and paper and do this, what you will&nbsp;see.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recommended by a student<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/18\/opinion\/american-life-bureaucracy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts<\/a> (David Brooks, The New York Times): \u201c\u2026[sometimes I] find a problem so massive that I can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve ever written about anything else. This latter experience happened as I looked into the growing bureaucratization of American life. It\u2019s not only that growing bureaucracies cost a lot of money; they also enervate American society. They redistribute power from workers to rule makers, and in so doing sap initiative, discretion, creativity and drive. Once you start poking around, the statistics are staggering.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ban-humorous-messages-electronic-highway-signs-3c7b0d11475d2b255f7edd197af771cc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">No joke: Feds are banning humorous electronic messages on highways<\/a> (AP News): \u201cAmong those that will be disappearing are messages such as \u2018Use Yah Blinkah\u2019 in Massachusetts; \u2018Visiting in-laws? Slow down, get there late,\u2019 from Ohio; \u2018Don\u2019t drive Star Spangled Hammered,\u2019 from Pennsylvania; \u2018Hocus pocus, drive with focus\u2019 from New Jersey; and \u2018Hands on the wheel, not your meal\u2019 from Arizona.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You think Stanford hates fun? Try the federal bureaucracy!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/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 href=\"https:\/\/www.gocomics.com\/pearlsbeforeswine\/2024\/01\/18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ethics<\/a> (Pearls Before Swine)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/child-who-dreams-of-being-nfl-referee-gets-devastating-news-that-he-was-born-with-2020-vision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Child Who Dreamt Of Being NFL Referee Gets Devastating News That He Was Born With 20\/20 Vision<\/a> (Babylon Bee) \u2014 I think this is a joke that would be funny about any&nbsp;sport<\/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 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 436, which isn\u2019t an especially interesting number. It is, apparently, nontotient, but even after reading about \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2024\/01\/19\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-436\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 436\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":"Wide-ranging links to help you think shrewdly about the world we inhabit.","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":[220,125,161,127,296,265,247],"class_list":["post-7360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-bible","tag-china","tag-global-christianity","tag-history","tag-mental-health","tag-taiwan","tag-wisdom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1UI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7360","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=7360"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7362,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7360\/revisions\/7362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}