March 28, 2025

spencergreenhalgh.com posts digest for Mar 28 2025

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Here are long-form blog posts I published this week:

• Jacques Ellul and the value of research

• the bronze serpent as anti-universalism and religious exclusivism in the Book of Mormon

• Jacques Ellul's technique and Brian Daley's Alderaan

Here are microblog posts that I published this week:

• Kiddo enjoys sending me messages encrypted in runes, and I enjoy brute forcing an interpretation like that scene in Cryptonomicon.

• Really wishing Jesus had told a converse version of the parable of the laborers in the vineyard that I could use for theological arguments against generative AI. You know: Bunch of volunteers make a beautiful community garden that a rich dude takes over to further his wealth.

• Whatever gets kids to read, I guess, but I have never encountered a less sympathetic protagonist than Greg in “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”

• Tfw you’re running late and your first meeting is running early, so his first impression of you is of someone bundled up in warm, neon clothes awkwardly carrying an ebike up the stairs because the elevator is out.

• C’est fou combien ça provoque de la nostalgie, voir la gare d’Aigle (VS) pendant quelques secondes dans un « cabride » sur YouTube. J’ai passé peu de temps à Aigle, et c’était il y a 15 ans ; je ne connais pas du tout la ville et pourtant…

• Unlike LDS General Conferences, Community of Christ World Conferences involve debate and voting, so you can’t just stream it. A European friend of mine has told me how panicked they and some other int’l delegates are feeling about travel to the U.S. right now. This all sucks.

Here are photos that I published this week (or at least their descriptions):

• Look, I don’t have experience running an academic publishing company, but I don’t know if I’d activate the experimental AI summarizer on an article exploring the ethics of generative AI.

• I was excited about the prospect of a Mirror Universe good guy Khan in this comic, but it sure seems like they put a Benedict Cumberbatch drawing in brownface, and ugh.

• Comics are an undervalued medium capable of telling powerful stories with great beauty—and also they let you do dumb-but-fun franchise crossovers like this one here.

Here are news articles and podcasts I commented on this week:

• 🔗 linkblog: No DEI allowed for US mergers and acquisitions, says the new FCC chair

• 🔗 linkblog: Humming along in an old church, the Internet Archive is more relevant than ever

• 🔗 linkblog: Palestinian deaths in Gaza rise above 50,000 as Israel expands its military campaign

• 🔗 linkblog: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans

• 🔗 linkblog: How the Ph.D. Project, and 45 colleges, became a target of the Trump administration

• 🔗 linkblog: How ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ rewrote the indie movie marketing playbook

• 🔗 linkblog: Beshear vetoes bill Kentucky professors say erodes academic tenure at public universities • Kentucky Lantern

• 🔗 linkblog: OpenAI's viral Studio Ghibli moment highlights AI copyright concerns | TechCrunch

• 🔗 linkblog: Nintendo’s new system for sharing digital Switch games, explained

• 🔗 linkblog: Trump’s Secret Police Are Now Disappearing Students For Their Op-Eds

Here are my reviews of books and other media I consumed this week:

• 📚 bookblog: Star Trek 2011-2016, Volume 10 (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

• 📚 bookblog: Queen & Country, Definitive Edition, Volume 03 (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

• 📚 bookblog: Star Trek 2011-2016, Volume 11 (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

• 📚 bookblog: Star Trek 2011-2016, Volume 12 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

• 📚 bookblog: Star Trek 2011-2016, Volume 13 (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

• 📚 bookblog: The Primate Directive (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

• 📚 bookblog: The Technological Society (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

• 📚 bookblog: Queen & Country, Definitive Edition Volume 04 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

• 🎙️ radioblog: Night Watch (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

• 🎙️ radioblog: Only You Can Save Mankind (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

• 📚 bookblog: Star Trek: Waypoint, issues 1-6 (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

• 📚 bookblog: Star Trek: Waypoint, Special #1 (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

• 📚 bookblog: Star Trek: Deviations (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

If you have thoughts about anything I've posted, feel free to comment directly on my website through Hypothesis or to reply to this email with what you have to say.

Thanks for reading!

Spencer