Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

[Moksha]

https://voxnostra.blog/an-idea-for-a-co ... out-there/

It seems there is still interest in a way to convert matter into Mormonism.

[Tom]

The Proprietor writes:

I’m also pleased to report (although it hasn’t yet been formally announced) that Interpreter will now be included in BYU’s ScholarsArchive, which officially describes itself as

“Brigham Young University’s institutional repository for the scholarly and creative content produced by the University. ScholarsArchive makes research, publications, data, and journals produced by BYU faculty and students available to a global research audience.”

I confess that I fail to understand how Interpreter qualifies as “scholarly and creative content produced by the University.” I had the impression that the Foundation was an independent organization.

In any case, I am now inclined to donate my collection of Electronic Journal of Jaredite Studies volumes to BYU for inclusion in the ScholarsArchive.

[Tom]

I’m pleased to report that the Foundation has now posted quarterly expense reports for the first three quarters of 2024. https://interpreterfoundation.org/foundation/expenses/

A few notes:

Sadly, the volunteer hours section of the report, which included monetary equivalents of time donations, has apparently been eliminated. I suppose we’ll never know if the Foundation adopted my suggestion to create a challenge: “if the members of the Board of Editors collectively give 3,000 hours or more of service during the third quarter of 2024, they get to dump a plate of Hungarian goulash on the Proprietor’s head during a live-streamed devotional.”

It appears that the Foundation set a quarterly spending record in the third quarter of 2024. Total account disbursements were $93,098.66. Operating expenses alone for the quarter were $70,314.58. No details are provided about the types of operating expenses.

The link to the report for the second quarter of 2024 is mistakenly labeled “Second Quarter 2043.”

I’m pleased to see that the name of the link has been corrected.

[Tom]

Lindsay writes more here about his resignation as Executive Editor. He doesn't air any grievances, or anything, but mentions a number of obviously competing demands on his time.

His overall take on the role of Executive Editor is worth noting.

I recently told a granddaughter that serving in that role was like being a bishop over a large ward of numerous papers, almost all in need of some repentance and many of which needed excommunication ... .

Thank you for the link. I wonder whether the Foundation has considered naming the Proprietor and Richard Nygren as additional managing editors to lift up Brother Wyatt’s arms which hang down and strengthen his feeble knees.

[Physics Guy]

Hey, I thought Lindsay's description of his role at Interpreter spoke well for Interpreter. I'm pretty sure that Physical Review gets a lot of garbage submissions from crackpots, because earlier in my career I had to referee some of them.

I once got one paper to review by an author whose institutional affiliation was simply their home address. That was fine; I now know some distinguished retired colleagues who publish that way. This author, however, thought that they could provide profound insights into quantum non-locality by solving some simple equations on their desktop computer, while being careful to ensure that the floppy disks on which their data was stored never came close to each other. I wrote my report on the paper as politely as possible, but I wrote separately to the journal editors. I said that I expected them to reject automatically papers written in crayon on shopping bag paper, but that I accepted that they would send papers out for review that were above a certain minimal threshold of plausibility. I acknowledged that this paper had probably been above that triage threshold, at least on a quick reading, but I mentioned that I would be happy if I didn't get many such papers in future. I never got one quite that bad again.

The kind of Mormon studies that Interpreter tries to report is a fuzzier discipline than theoretical physics. There's nothing wrong with that in itself. Most disciplines are fuzzier than physics, because physics is the study of simple things. Plenty of vitally worthwhile subjects, from chemistry on up to philosophy, are unavoidably less rigorous than physics; that's the price they pay for addressing questions that are more important to humans than the fifth decimal place of the third energy level of an isolated Hydrogen atom.

At some point and in some directions, for sure, unavoidable fuzziness fades into entirely subjective speculation, and we get closer to a hobbyist message board than to a journal of natural science. I bet, though, that long before you've moved along that spectrum all the way from physics to hobby club, you'll already be dealing with a lot of unsalvageable papers from amateur authors. The scenario that Jeff Lindsay has described is no whit worse than I'd expect from a journal of Mormon studies that was absolutely respectable academically.

Maybe Interpreter is far from that, and Lindsay has done well to extract himself gracefully from a miserable situation. If that's so, though, I think he has pulled off that graceful exit. I don't see how his comments really say anything bad about Interpreter even if we peer closely between the lines.

[Tom]

https://voxnostra.blog/an-idea-for-a-co ... out-there/

It seems there is still interest in a way to convert matter into Mormonism.

I had forgotten about that respectable blog. I hope the Proprietor resumes posting there and, more importantly, convenes a conference next year for believing scientists to speak on how their science and their faith and their Mopologetics can not only co-exist but be circumscribed into one great hole.

I hope the Proprietor invites the author of The Kolob Theorem: A Mormon's View of God's Starry Universe as the conference’s keynote speaker. I would also like to hear a paper on how Universal Model science supports Joseph Fielding Smith’s magnum opus, Man, His Origin and Destiny and a presentation from Dean W. Sessions, discoverer of the Universal Model and founder of the New Millennial Science Website: https://universalmodel.com.

[Moksha]

I hope the Proprietor invites the author of The Kolob Theorem: A Mormon's View of God's Starry Universe as the conference’s keynote speaker. I would also like to hear a paper on how Universal Model science supports Joseph Fielding Smith’s magnum opus, Man, His Origin and Destiny, and a presentation from Dean W. Sessions, discoverer of the Universal Model and founder of the New Millennial Science Website: https://universalmodel.com.

That would be a wonderful thing. The Executive Producer of the Interpreter Foundation could make a marvelous video of it for YouTube to showcase the Science of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Newsweek, Time, and Fox and Friends could present the highlights of The Hydroplanet and how it explained the worldwide flood. Put the Interpreter front and center.

[Tom]

Hey, I thought Lindsay's description of his role at Interpreter spoke well for Interpreter. I'm pretty sure that Physical Review gets a lot of garbage submissions from crackpots, because earlier in my career I had to referee some of them.

I once got one paper to review by an author whose institutional affiliation was simply their home address. That was fine; I now know some distinguished retired colleagues who publish that way. This author, however, thought that they could provide profound insights into quantum non-locality by solving some simple equations on their desktop computer, while being careful to ensure that the floppy disks on which their data was stored never came close to each other. I wrote my report on the paper as politely as possible, but I wrote separately to the journal editors. I said that I expected them to reject automatically papers written in crayon on shopping bag paper, but that I accepted that they would send papers out for review that were above a certain minimal threshold of plausibility. I acknowledged that this paper had probably been above that triage threshold, at least on a quick reading, but I mentioned that I would be happy if I didn't get many such papers in future. I never got one quite that bad again.

The kind of Mormon studies that Interpreter tries to report is a fuzzier discipline than theoretical physics. There's nothing wrong with that in itself. Most disciplines are fuzzier than physics, because physics is the study of simple things. Plenty of vitally worthwhile subjects, from chemistry on up to philosophy, are unavoidably less rigorous than physics; that's the price they pay for addressing questions that are more important to humans than the fifth decimal place of the third energy level of an isolated Hydrogen atom.

At some point and in some directions, for sure, unavoidable fuzziness fades into entirely subjective speculation, and we get closer to a hobbyist message board than to a journal of natural science. I bet, though, that long before you've moved along that spectrum all the way from physics to hobby club, you'll already be dealing with a lot of unsalvageable papers from amateur authors. The scenario that Jeff Lindsay has described is no whit worse than I'd expect from a journal of Mormon studies that was absolutely respectable academically.

Maybe Interpreter is far from that, and Lindsay has done well to extract himself gracefully from a miserable situation. If that's so, though, I think he has pulled off that graceful exit. I don't see how his comments really say anything bad about Interpreter even if we peer closely between the lines.

As always, you offer some interesting thoughts here, PG. I must wonder how many papers are submitted to Interpreter each year and how many are “excommunicated” each year. I know President Oaks would like to see more excommunications. I assume that he, as an ardent supporter of the Interpreter Foundation, would support more “excommunications” of submissions to Interpreter as well. (I should ask him if he thought the Proprietor’s Easter-themed sacrament meeting talk/blog post should have been “excommunicated” or even “disfellowshipped” or “placed on formal probation” by Brother Wyatt rather than been published by Interpreter for Easter this year.)

You mention a scientist who “thought that they could provide profound insights into quantum non-locality by solving some simple equations on their desktop computer, while being careful to ensure that the floppy disks on which their data was stored never came close to each other.” That leads me to wonder if there is a Gospel application here. Is it possible that father Abraham (see Abraham 3) and other ancient prophets learned the principles of Kolob-centric astronomy thousands of years ago by ensuring that the Urim and the Thummim were carefully separated by several rows in their breastplate? https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org ... braham.pdf

[Tom]

I hope the Proprietor invites the author of The Kolob Theorem: A Mormon's View of God's Starry Universe as the conference’s keynote speaker. I would also like to hear a paper on how Universal Model science supports Joseph Fielding Smith’s magnum opus, Man, His Origin and Destiny, and a presentation from Dean W. Sessions, discoverer of the Universal Model and founder of the New Millennial Science Website: https://universalmodel.com.

That would be a wonderful thing. The Executive Producer of the Interpreter Foundation could make a marvelous video of it for YouTube to showcase the Science of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Newsweek, Time, and Fox and Friends could present the highlights of The Hydroplanet and how it explained the worldwide flood. Put the Interpreter front and center.

Amen. The Proprietor could find a number of excellent conference presenters by simply looking through the FIRM Foundation’s speaker list.

[Moksha]

The Proprietor could find a number of excellent conference presenters by simply looking through the FIRM Foundation’s speaker list.

What about the Dez Nat Club roster at BYU or the BYU religion department?