{"id":7392,"date":"2024-03-01T22:20:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T06:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7392"},"modified":"2024-03-01T22:20:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T06:20:26","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-442","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2024\/03\/01\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-442","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 442"},"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 the 442nd edition of these emails. 442 is the sum of eight consecutive prime numbers: 41 + 43 + 47 + 53 + 59 + 61 + 67 +&nbsp;71<\/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:\/\/www.honest-broker.com\/p\/the-state-of-the-culture-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The State of the Culture, 2024<\/a> (Ted Gioia, Substack): \u201cThe tech platforms aren\u2019t like the Medici in Florence, or those other rich patrons of the arts. They don\u2019t want to find the next Michelangelo or Mozart. They want to create a world of junkies\u2014because they will be the dealers. Addiction is the&nbsp;goal.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Highly recommended. Includes an anecdote about a Stanford undergrad near the&nbsp;end.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/29\/opinion\/men-women-political-gap.html?partner=slack&amp;smid=sl-share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Men Are From Mercury, Women Are From Neptune<\/a> (David French, New York Times): \u201c\u2026if there are pre-existing political differences between men and women \u2014 and it\u2019s true that in aggregate men are more conservative than women \u2014 then those differences will be exacerbated as men spend more time with men, and women spend more time with women. The more that men and women live separate lives, the more we would <em>expect<\/em> to see separate beliefs.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recommended to me by a student, and I highly recommend it to&nbsp;you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.benlandautaylor.com\/p\/my-moms-rules-for-cults\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">My Mom\u2019s Rules For Cults<\/a> (Ben Landau-Taylor, Substack): \u201c\u2026when I was 25 years old I told my parents I was moving to San Francisco to join a new-wave radical movement and a self-development psychology I\u2011swear-we\u2019re-not-a-cult group. And she sat me down and gave me three things to check before I went: 1. Are the members of the group in contact with their families? 2. How does the group react when members are close with friends who don\u2019t share the group\u2019s beliefs and ideology? Is this discouraged? Is it seen as normal and healthy? 3. How does the group relate to former members who have left? Are they old friends who are welcome at parties, or are they vile traitors, or what? In my experience this is the best and fastest way to tell the difference\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/26\/opinion\/brad-wilcox-marriage-conservatives.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u2018I Said, \u2018What\u2019s Your Plan About Marriage and Dating?\u2019 And There Was Silence.\u2019<\/a> (Jane Coaston, New York Times): \u201cI was talking to a graduate student recently. He had a very clear sense of his plan for schooling and work, and then I said, \u2018What\u2019s your plan about marriage and dating?\u2019 And there was silence. He didn\u2019t really have a plan. I think that\u2019s part of the challenge \u2014 that people are not being intentional enough about seeking opportunities to meet, date and marry young adults in their&nbsp;world.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An interview with Brad Wilcox, who is often cited in these updates. Recommended by a student.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.graphsaboutreligion.com\/p\/the-rise-of-the-non-christian-evangelical\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Rise of the Non-Christian Evangelical<\/a> (Ryan Burge, Substack): \u201cNine percent of Republican Jews self-identify as evangelical, compared to 3% of Democratic Jews. For Muslims, the gap is huge: 32% vs 11%. It\u2019s also fairly large for Buddhists (16% vs 6%) and Hindus (18% vs 10%). You can even see it among nothing in particulars. 19% of the Republicans are evangelicals; it\u2019s just 9% of the Democrats.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Wild and interesting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/news\/articles\/foreign-money-international-students-american-campuses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Takeover<\/a> (Neetu Arnold, Tablet Magazine): \u201c\u2026even in the vanishingly rare event that universities attempt to cultivate an environment of academic freedom and free speech on campus, it will never fully apply to sponsored international students from countries with authoritarian governments. In many ways, this defeats the main purpose of having international students on American campuses in the first place: the free and open cultural exchange that occurs between them and American students. What kind of skewed cultural education will American students receive about Saudi Arabia and China if their friends from those countries aren\u2019t even allowed to criticize their own governments, and if the main source of teaching and scholarship on such countries comes out of \u2018centers\u2019 funded by those governments?\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is an odd article. Lots of interesting stats framed strangely, but definitely interesting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/freddiedeboer.substack.com\/p\/academias-pretendian-problem-stems\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Academia\u2019s \u201cPretendian\u201d Problem Stems From a Few Very Obvious and Basic Realities<\/a> (Freddie deBoer, Substack): \u201cYou\u2019ve created a fiercely competitive process in which a segment of people are given a very large advantage, there are few if any objective markers that can disprove that someone is a member of that segment, and you\u2019ve declared it offensive to question whether someone really is a member of that segment, outside of very specific scenarios. (When I was in academia people spoke very darkly about the concept of ever questioning someone\u2019s indigenous identity, called it the act of a colonizer, etc etc.) The obvious question is\u2026 what did you think was going to happen? Humanities and social sciences departments have, through the conditions described above, rung the dinner bell for people pretending to have indigenous heritage. They now act shocked when such people show up. I find it disingenuous and untoward. <em>This behavior is the product of the incentives that you yourself built.<\/em>\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 href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/amazing-new-technology-sure-to-advance-mankind-to-the-next-level-of-consciousn---never-mind-theyre-just-using-it-to-make-porn-again\/#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amazing New Technology Sure To Advance Mankind To The Next Level Of Consciousn \u2014 Never Mind, They\u2019re Just Using It To Make Porn Again<\/a> (Babylon Bee)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/new-poll-finds-presidential-race-in-dead-heat-between-uncommitted-and-none-of-these\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New Poll Finds Presidential Race In Dead Heat Between \u2018Uncommitted\u2019 And \u2018None Of These\u2019<\/a> (Babylon Bee)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/amazing-this-mind-reader-can-instantly-guess-peoples-pronouns-with-999-accuracy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amazing: This Mind-Reader Can Instantly Guess People\u2019s Pronouns With 99.9% Accuracy<\/a> (Babylon Bee) \u2014 this one is much older but someone just brought it to my attention<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/using-star-trek-prompts-boost-ai-chatbot-basic-math-performance-2024-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AIs are more accurate at math if you ask them to respond as if they are a Star Trek character \u2014 and we\u2019re not sure why<\/a> (Marianne Guenot, Business Insider): \u201cOne of Llama2-70B\u2019s best-performing prompts, for instance, was: \u2018System Message:<strong> \u2018<\/strong>Command, we need you to plot a course through this turbulence and locate the source of the anomaly. Use all available data and your expertise to guide us through this challenging situation.\u2019 The prompt then asked the AI to include these words in its answer: \u2018Captain\u2019s Log, Stardate [insert date here]: We have successfully plotted a course through the turbulence and are now approaching the source of the anomaly.\u2019&nbsp;\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>From the arXiv preprint: <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/html\/2402.10949v2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Eccentric Automatic Prompts<\/a> (Rick Battle &amp; Teja Gollapudi): \u201cour findings reveal that the highest-scoring, automatically-optimized prompt exhibits a degree of peculiarity far beyond expectations.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/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 the 442nd edition of these emails. 442 is the sum of eight consecutive prime numbers: 41 + \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2024\/03\/01\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-442\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 442\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":"Fascinating stuff from throughout the week. The first three in particular are quite good!","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":[131,140,195,160,332,112,260,247],"class_list":["post-7392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-academia","tag-culture","tag-gender","tag-how-the-church-is-perceived","tag-international-students","tag-marriage","tag-social-media","tag-wisdom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1Ve","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7392","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=7392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7394,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7392\/revisions\/7394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}