Links To Go (May 31, 2019)

Intellectual Humility is a Virtue

Intellectual humility does not prevent one from coming to conclusions and arguing for a specific view. Intellectual humility requires a willingness to listen and to learn. I’ve listened to a number of talks by N.T. Wright and he will sometimes make a comment such as: 20% (or some other percentage higher or lower) of what I’m about to tell you is wrong; the problem is, I don’t know what 20% it is. This certainly doesn’t keep him from making the argument or teaching the class, but it does cultivate intellectual humility to keep it in mind, both in the speaker and in the listener. This is what makes us teachable and allows us to grow.


Lutheran student pastor, husband deported to Colombia weeks after ICE raid at their Chicago home

The family’s current immigration troubles started the morning of May 8 as Hincapie Rendón was driving her daughter to school. She was stopped by an unmarked car and taken into custody by officials she soon learned were federal immigration agents, she told a crowd gathered outside ICE’s Chicago office last week to protest the family’s treatment. Hincapie Rendón said that while she was handcuffed and placed inside another vehicle, ICE agents drove her car — with her daughter still inside — to her parents’ South Side home. She recalled hearing her daughter crying during the ordeal. “They tricked me into thinking they were taking my daughter to my parents’ house. They then detained my parents,” Hincapie Rendón said. “I feel like they violated our rights.”


[digital] xeno-racism — the new form of oppression that keeps me awake at night.

So here is the question — who controls and defines my migrant’s identity? The producers of sensational news stories? The politicians who build their careers by spreading fear and hatred towards migrants? Or perhaps, the oppressive algorithm which knows exactly how to tap into people’s fears with regards to migration?


How Cancer Healed my Dad

When he first heard the diagnosis, he instantly felt God put the words from Hebrews 13:14 in to his mouth, and he heard himself say to the consultant: “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” He described feeling a peace that transcended all understanding, literally guarding his heart and mind. And from then on, he woke up. Christ became everything again. The gospel was all that mattered. He began to seek a different city.


The Peculiar Blindness of Experts

Tetlock, along with his wife and collaborator, the psychologist Barbara Mellers, ran a team named the Good Judgment Project. Rather than recruit decorated experts, they issued an open call for volunteers. After a simple screening, they invited 3,200 people to start forecasting. Among those, they identified a small group of the foxiest forecasters—bright people with extremely wide-ranging interests and unusually expansive reading habits, but no particular relevant background—and weighted team forecasts toward their predictions. They destroyed the competition. Tetlock and Mellers found that not only were the best forecasters foxy as individuals, but they tended to have qualities that made them particularly effective collaborators. They were “curious about, well, really everything,” as one of the top forecasters told me. They crossed disciplines, and viewed their teammates as sources for learning, rather than peers to be convinced. When those foxes were later grouped into much smaller teams—12 members each—they became even more accurate. They outperformed—by a lot—a group of experienced intelligence analysts with access to classified data.


10,000 Steps A Day? How Many You Really Need To Boost Longevity

In fact, women who took 4,400 steps per day, on average, were about 40 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period of about four years compared with women who took 2,700 steps. The findings were published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine. Another surprise: The benefits of walking maxed out at about 7,500 steps. In other words, women who walked more than 7,500 steps per day saw no additional boost in longevity.


People leave nearly $1 million in loose change in TSA bins every year

The most money, naturally enough, comes from busy airports in big cities: According to the agency’s report on the 2017 fiscal year, John F. Kennedy International Airport collected the most money at $72,392. Los Angeles International Airport was a close second at $71,748. Miami International Airport and O’Hare International trailed behind at $50,504 and $49,597.


Cat sparks $7,500 rescue mission after getting stuck on bridge six days; mission fails, pet gets bored and wanders home

But when firefighters had decided to give up for the day, vowing to return Thursday, the cat, who had been missing for two weeks before turning up on the bridge, returned home on Wednesday night, according to the Plymouth Herald. Kirsty Howden, Hatty’s owner, said the cat walked into the garden of her home in Saltash. She said the cat had just “strolled past fire and media crews”.


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