{"id":7425,"date":"2024-04-19T21:38:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T04:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7425"},"modified":"2024-04-19T21:38:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T04:38:26","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-449","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2024\/04\/19\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-449","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 449"},"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 449, which is not a super interesting number. It has this going for it: its base 3 representation (121122) begins with the same digits as its base 7 representation (1211).<\/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.nber.org\/papers\/w32334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Religious Worship Attendance in America: Evidence from Cellphone Data<\/a> (Devin G. Pope, NBER): \u201cI establish several key findings. First, 73% of people step into a religious place of worship at least once during the year on the primary day of worship (e.g. Sundays for most Christian churches). However, only 5% of Americans attend services \u2018weekly\u2019, far fewer than the ~22% who report to do so in surveys. The number of occasional vs. frequent attenders varies substantially by religion. I estimate that approximately 45M Americans attend worship services in a typical week of the year, but with large changes around Holidays (e.g. Easter).\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Excerpt is from the abstract. Author is a prof of behavioral science and economics at U Chicago.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also this (somewhat harsh) critique by Lyman Stone: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lymanstoneky\/status\/1779889740260499820\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/lymanstoneky\/status\/1779889740260499820<\/a> (read the whole thread for the critique)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/marginalrevolution.com\/marginalrevolution\/2024\/04\/response-from-devin-pope.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Response from Devin Pope, on religious attendance<\/a> (Devin Pope, Marginal Revolution): \u201cThere are definitely limitations with the cellphone data (I\u2019ve had about 100 people tell me that I\u2019m not doing a good job tracking Orthodox Jews!). I know that these issues exist. But survey data has its own issues. Social desirability bias and other issues could lead to widely incorrect estimates of the number of people who frequently attend services (and surveys are going to have a hard time sampling Orthodox Jews too!). Given the difficulty of measuring some of these questions, I think that a new method \u2013 even with limitations \u2013 is useful.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lymanstoneky\/status\/1781318418223772153\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lyman Stone helpfully replies to Devin Pope<\/a> (Twitter thread)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Extremely interesting throughout. If you don\u2019t have time to dive in then just read the abstract of the initial article and the Stone\u2019s final Twitter thread.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.noahpinion.blog\/p\/americans-are-still-not-worried-enough\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Americans are still not worried enough about the risk of world war<\/a> (Noah Smith, Substack): \u201cSo if you were living at any point in 1931 through 1940, you would already be witnessing conflicts that would eventually turn into the bloodiest, most cataclysmic war that humanity has yet known \u2014 but you might not realize it. You would be standing in the foothills of the Second World War, but unless you were able to make far-sighted predictions, you wouldn\u2019t know what horrors lurked in the near future. In case the parallel isn\u2019t blindingly obvious, we might be standing in the foothills of World War 3 <em>right now<\/em>. If WW3 happens, future bloggers might list the wars in Ukraine and Gaza in a timeline like the one I just&nbsp;gave.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This was published before Iran attacked Israel. btw.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statecraft.pub\/p\/how-to-stop-losing-17500-kidneys\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How to Stop Losing 17,500 Kidneys<\/a> (Santi Ruiz, Substack): \u201cGreg and the researchers that he worked with showed that there are 17,500 kidneys, 7,500 livers, 1,500 hearts, and 1,500 lungs that go untransplanted every year from potential American organ donors. For scale, that means the United States does not need to have a waiting list for livers, hearts, or lungs within three years, and the kidney waiting list should come way down. That data convinced not only the Obama administration, but also the Trump administration. This reform movement has now crossed three administrations, and that almost never happens.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/14\/science\/australia-wildlife-assisted-evolution.html?ugrp=u&amp;unlocked_article_code=1.kk0.G9VR.uLFCtxu3EXG3&amp;smid=url-share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Should We Change Species to Save Them?<\/a> (Emily Anthes, New York Times): \u201cIn some ways, assisted evolution is an argument \u2014 or, perhaps, an acknowledgment \u2014 that there is no stepping back, no future in which humans do not profoundly shape the lives and fates of wild creatures. To Dr. Harley, it has become clear that preventing more extinctions will require human intervention, innovation and effort.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Including partly for the amazing header art. Unlocked.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/stanfordreview.org\/untitled-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Abolish Grades<\/a> (Bethany Lorden, Stanford Review): \u201cI have earned an \u2018A\u2019 on architecture drawings which were not my most careful, on physics problem sets that I did not fully understand, on stories which were not my most creative. Something is broken in the grading system. Feedback on work ought to be in words, not letters, and it should be relative to a student\u2019s best work, not to the performance of the&nbsp;class.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Bethany is a student in Chi&nbsp;Alpha.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/modern-minds\/202403\/mate-poaching-social-taboo-or-healthy-way-to-find-love\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mate Poaching: Social Taboo or Healthy Way to Find Love?<\/a> (Kevin Bennett, Psychology Today): \u201cPsychological research suggests that 10 to 20 percent of new relationships among heterosexual couples are formed directly from mate poaching. One study found that 10 to 15 percent of participants\u2019 current relationships were the result of successful mate poaching. Another study surveyed undergraduate students and found that 20 percent were currently involved in a relationship that began this way.\u2026 Research suggests that mate poachers\u2014and those most susceptible to poaching\u2014share some characteristics. There is a link between narcissism, infidelity, uncommitted sex, and mate poaching, and these findings are not limited to modern industrialized countries.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>That\u2019s a lot of relationships begun on the shady side! A bit of advice from a longtime observer of college romances: if they cheat with you they are likely to cheat on&nbsp;you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doi-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org\/10.1093\/socrel\/srad061\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Switch to Web-Based Surveys During COVID-19 Pandemic Left Out the Most Religious, Creating a False Impression of Rapid Religious Decline<\/a> (Schnabel et al, Sociology of Religion):&nbsp; \u201cAlthough at first glance it appears that intense religion declined dramatically during the pandemic, further investigation reveals how this shift is a function of changes in how the survey was fielded rather than Americans turning away from religion during a time of crisis.\u2026 religion is more persistent than it appears, intensely religious people are less likely to agree to participate in surveys, and data collection efforts like the typical in-person GSS are invaluable for accurately estimating religion and other ideological factors in the United States associated with the likelihood of participating in surveys.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The authors are sociologists at Cornell, Harvard, and NYU. Fascinating.<\/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:\/\/loadingartist.com\/comic\/sticky-situation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sticky Situation<\/a> (Loading Artist) \u2014 there are two kinds of people&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2024\/04\/12\/a-dungeons-dragons-actual-play-show-is-going-to-sell-out-madison-square-garden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A Dungeons &amp; Dragons actual play show is going to sell out Madison Square Garden<\/a> (Amanda Silberling, Tech Crunch): \u201cDropout\u2019s Dungeons &amp; Dragons actual play show, Dimension 20, is getting pretty close to selling out a 19,000-seat venue just hours after ticket sales opened to the general public. To the uninitiated, it may seem absurd to go to a massive sports arena and watch people play D&amp;D. As one Redditor commented, \u2018This boggles my mind. When I was playing D&amp;D in the early eighties, I would have never believed that there was a future where people would watch live D&amp;D at Madison Square Garden. It\u2019s incomprehensible to&nbsp;me.\u2019&nbsp;\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 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 449, which is not a super interesting number. It has this going for it: its base \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2024\/04\/19\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-449\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 449\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":"It's a wild world - read some interesting stuff about it.","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":[160,164,176,135,274],"class_list":["post-7425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-how-the-church-is-perceived","tag-relationships","tag-science","tag-stanford","tag-war"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1VL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7425","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=7425"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7427,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7425\/revisions\/7427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}