ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online
/Jaime Putnam, a mom in Georgia, said she has started to be more mindful of the fact that many of her kids’ friends don’t yet know how much information about themselves is out there. Recently she saw on social media that one of her child’s friends got a puppy. She brought it up when she next saw him, and he looked at her, horrified. He had no idea how she had learned that seemingly private information. “It made me realize these kids don’t know what’s being posted all the time,” she said. Now she’s careful about what she reveals. “It kind of feels like you’re maybe crossing a line telling them everything you know about them.”
Taylor Lorenz writing in The Atlantic
Around the Corner
/There are many points in life when we cannot see what awaits us around the corner, and it is precisely at such times, when our path forward is unclear, that we must bravely keep our nerve, resolutely putting one foot before the other as we march blindly into the dark.
Richard C. Morais, The Hundred-Foot Journey
articles of interest - Feb 25
/***JOURNALISM
An Arizona cop threatened to arrest a 12-year-old journalist: She wasn’t backing down Washington Post
Private employers: You can’t forbid your workers from talking to journalists Poynter
Coaching for women in journalism Digital Women Leaders
Five myths about journalism The Washington Post
RCFP receives $10 million investment from the Knight Foundation Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Chart: How the definition of “journalist” is changing Recode
***JOURNALISM OUTSIDE THE U.S.
Rethinking foreign reporting at the AP Columbia Journalism Review
Economic woes hurt Chinese journalists as much as censorship does Economist
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Knight Foundation putting $300 million toward rebuilding local news Poynter
Google May Employ More People Than the Entire U.S. Newspaper Industry Bloomberg
23 Million Patrons of California's Public Libraries Can Now Read The New York Times for Free Online Open Culture
National Enquirer’s biggest investors include California taxpayers and state workers Los Angeles Times
***FAKE NEWS
Liberals and Conservatives Are Both Susceptible to Fake News, but for Different Reasons Scientific American Blog Network
Students with ADHD less likely to enroll in post-secondary education, study says CTV News
The Imperfect Truth About Finding Facts in a World of Fakes Wired
It will take more than NewsGuard’s team of journalists to stop the spread of fake news Recode
***TECHNOLOGY
Apple is prioritizing AR — and that’s a good thing VentureBeat
***BIG DATA & AI
A philosopher argues that an AI can’t be an artist MIT Tech Review
Two satellites almost crashed—here’s how they dodged it Wired
Treat Failure like a Scientist
Can We Trust Scientific Discoveries Made Using Machine Learning? Technology Networks
***SOCIAL MEDIA
Pinterest is blocking search results about vaccines to protect users from misinformation Washington Post
Snapchat is in the middle of an identity crisis Engadget
How to catch a catfisher The Guardian
America’s cops take an interest in social media Economist
Japanese teen's aborted bid to hitchhike across the United States divides social media Japan Times
***YOUTUBE
50 Amazing Skills You Can Learn on YouTube Mental Floss
A pediatrician exposes suicide tips for children hidden in videos on YouTube and YouTube Kids Washington Post
Facebook decided which users are interested in Nazis — and let advertisers target them directly LA Times
Facebook's content moderation a mess, employees outraged, contractors have PTSD: Reports BongBong
The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America The Verge
***PRIVACY & SECURITY
ATM Hacking Has Gotten So Easy, the Malware's a Game Wired
California Data Privacy Proposal May Give Law Tough New Teeth Bloomberg
Google 'sorry' for hiding SECRET microphone in home camera – and says it 'forgot' to tell everyone The Sun
Android is helping kill passwords on a billion devices Wired
***PRODUCING MEDIA
National Geographic hit 100 million Instagram followers: To celebrate, it wants your images for free Vox
***INTERNET
Millions of websites threatened by highly critical code-execution bug in Drupal Ars Technica
Heartbreaking: This Man Works For A Website Clickhole
Google Updates Test My Site Speed Tool Media Post
***PERSONAL GROWTH
The most important factor in a relationship Becoming (my blog)
The Good-Enough Life: The desire for greatness can be an obstacle to our own potential (opinion) New York Times
***TEACHING
Students have better educational outcomes in courses taught by those who have "growth mind-sets" than those who believe intelligence is fixed Inside Higher Ed
How One Professor Made Her Assignments More Relevant The Chronicle of Higher Education
***WRITING & READING
I stopped using exclamation points and lost all my friends Wired
The Philosophy of Creative Writing Los Angeles Review of Books
***LANGUAGE
The surprising revival of the Hawaiian language Economist
More children around the world are being taught in English, often badly Economist
***LITERATURE
The myth of Pandora’s box (YouTube) TEDx
23 of the most unforgettable final sentences in fiction Washington Post
***GENDER
The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2019 Women’s Media Center
Women now more educated than men, but lag in workforce Axios
How a women-led news organization is holding the powerful to account in Brazil International Consortium of Investigative Journalist
***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES
Alabama newspaper editor calls on KKK to lynch Democrats BBC
Man shouts Nazi slogans, flashes gun at local coffee shop The Plainsman
Athletes and activists who modeled themselves off Colin Kaepernick have continued their campaigns Inside Higher Ed
Should White Boys Still Be Allowed to Talk?’ Student's essay sets off intense debate Inside Higher Ed
Americans Remain Deeply Ambivalent About Diversity The Atlantic
In 'Won Over,' Judge Chronicles His Evolution on Questions of Race After Growing Up in Jim Crow Mississippi (free registration req.’ed) Law.com
NPR host Lulu-Garcia Navarro on racial and gender diversity in news Vox
Doctors and Racial Bias: Still a Long Way to Go New York Times
***LEGAL ISSUES
Justice Clarence Thomas calls for reconsideration of landmark libel case CNN
Copyright Office Refuses Registration for 'Fresh Prince' Star Alfonso Ribeiro's "Carlton Dance" Hollywood Reporter
Emoji are showing up in court cases exponentially, and courts aren’t prepared The Verge
Justice Thomas Assails Landmark US Libel Ruling That Protects Media Voice of America
US Supreme Court to interpret FOIA Exemption on Trade Secrets Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Judge decides that twin son of binational gay couple entitled to birthright U.S. citizenship LA Times
***RELIGION
Harvest Bible Chapel founder's sons resign as pastors Daily Herald
United Methodists’ LGBT Vote Will Reshape the Denomination Christianity Today
Why a centuries-old religious dispute over Ukraine's Orthodox Church matters today The Conversation
Are Christian leaders more likely to commit sexual sin? (opinion) Christianity Today
***RELIGION & SEXUAL ABUSE
Southern Baptist churches hired dozens of leaders previously accused of sex offenses Houston Chronicle
Southern Baptists Announce Plans to Address Sexual Abuse New York Times
***RELIGION AND THE LAW
***GOOD NEWS
N.J. cop’s $100 tip, touching note for pregnant diner waitress brought her to tears NewJersey.com
D.C. restaurant feeds the poor and homeless every single day WJLA-TV
103-year-old sworn in as junior ranger at Grand Canyon National Park Good Morning America
24-year-old woman becomes first openly autistic person to practice law in Florida WFLA
***ART & DESIGN
The Artist Behind the Famous Bathroom Selfies The Cut
Never forget David Bowie masterminded "the biggest art hoax in history" Salon
Graphic Novels in the Age of Trump New York Times
***MUSIC
Yesterday Trailer (video)
Reporter Jim DeRogatis On R. Kelly Charges NPR
Why Musicians Are Starting Their Own Podcasts — And Why The Podcast Industry Should Pay Attention Bello Collective
***FILM
What's Up, Documentary? An 'Undeniable Golden Age' For Filmmakers NPR
The Oscars and the Illusion of Perfect Representation Images can falsify as well as depict reality; they can mislead as well as inspire New York Times
***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA
Fornite’s January Revenue Dropped 48% in January but the lull likely won’t last long TechCrunch
***JOBS/INTERNSHIPS
This Is the Fastest Growing Job in America Right Now Money
Resume Issues? This Organization Helps Young Adults Land Internships NPR
Advice for student journalists applying to internships the SF Chronicle EIC
***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
Sex trafficking, prostitution is anything but a 'victimless crime,' experts say USA Today
48% of Female Undergrads at Duke Say They Were Sexually Assaulted While Enrolled The Chronicle of Higher Education
***SOCIAL ISSUES
Record High # of Americans Name Government as Most Important Problem Gallup
How to Create a Social Media Content Strategy Social Media Today
Robert Kraft prostitution scandal exposes depth of modern slavery, sex trafficking industry USA Today
***BUSINESS & FINANCE
6 stats that should surprise companies when dealing with office romances Forbes
A New Benefit: Some Companies Help Workers Pay Down Student Loans NPR
***HEALTH
Extreme fasting: how Silicon Valley is rebranding eating disorders The Guardian
The Devastating Allure of Medical Miracles Wired
Anaesthetists say patients at risk after flawed oxygen guidelines The Guardian
The most effective form of exercise isn’t “exercise” at all Quartz
***VACCINES
High risk: anti-vaxxers in the delivery ward The Guardian
YouTube Just Demonetized Anti-Vax Channels BuzzFeed News
Why women are leading the anti-vaxx movement Medium
How One Woman Is Working To Educate Parents On Vaccinations NPR
***TRAVEL
Grand Canyon tourists exposed to radiation, safety manager says AzCentral
China bars millions from travel for 'social credit' offenses SFGate
***FOOD
The Chicken Is Local, But Was It Happy? GPS Now Tells The Life Story Of Your Poultry NPR
***CHILDREN
How to Grant Your Child an Inner Life New Yorker
When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online: Googling yourself has become a rite of passage The Atlantic
What I Gave My Kid Instead of a Smartphone Human Parts
***ANIMALS
Man suffering ‘widow maker’ heart attack says dog saved his life Fox-5
Dog's emotional reaction to 'The Lion King' movie (video) ABC-11
Florida Church Offers Dog-Friendly Service (audio) NPR
***PSYCHOLOGY
Anger Can Be Contagious: Here's How To Stop The Spread NPR
The Psychiatrist Who Believed People Could Tell the Future The New Yorker
***PHILOSOPHY
How the World Thinks (podcast) History Extra
***HISTORY
Americans’ ignorance of history is a national scandal New York Times
***RESEARCH
Ways to Detect p-hacking Quora
There’s not really a culture of strong criticism of bad science that happens through peer review NPR
***HIGHER ED
How the US government created a fake university to snare immigrant students The Guardian
Amherst College goes 5 days without the internet Inside Higher Ed
On Campuses, Electric Scooters Meet Speed Bumps The Chronicle of Higher Education
What Single Moms Need to Succeed in College Inside Higher Ed
New study finds “important deficiencies” in university reports of misconduct Retraction Watch
Revolt at USC Over Dean’s Ouster Inside Higher Ed
Most Americans say colleges should not consider race or ethnicity in admissions Pew Research Center
Judges side with Missouri Baptist Convention in its long-running legal battle with Missouri Baptist University News Tribune
***ACADEMIC LIFE
A Vanderbilt faculty member struggles to gain tenure bec of her MeToo activism Inside Higher Ed
UC Berkeley suspends prominent professor accused of sexual harassment SF Chronicle
The most important factor in a relationship
/Communication, no matter how open, transparent and disciplined, will always break down at some point. Conflicts are ultimately unavoidable, and feelings will always be hurt.
And the only thing that can save you and your partner, that can cushion you both to the hard landing of human fallibility, is an unerring respect for one another, the fact that you hold each other in high esteem, believe in one another — often more than you each believe in yourselves — and trust that your partner is doing his/her best with what they’ve got.
Without that bedrock of respect underneath you, you will doubt each other’s intentions. You will judge their choices and encroach on their independence. You will feel the need to hide things from one another for fear of criticism. And this is when the cracks in the edifice begin to appear.
You must also respect yourself. Because without that self-respect, you will not feel worthy of the respect afforded by your partner. You will be unwilling to accept it and you will find ways to undermine it. You will constantly feel the need to compensate and prove yourself worthy of love, which will just backfire.
Respect for your partner and respect for yourself are intertwined. As a reader named Olov put it, “Respect yourself and your wife. Never talk badly to or about her. If you don’t respect your wife, you don’t respect yourself. You chose her – live up to that choice.”
Mark Manson writing in Business Insider
Connecting the Dots
/You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. -Steve Jobs (born Feb. 24, 1955)
Treat Failure like a Scientist
/When a scientist runs an experiment, there are all sorts of results that could happen. Some results are positive and some are negative, but all of them are data points. Each result is a piece of data that can ultimately lead to an answer.
And that’s exactly how a scientist treats failure: as another data point.
This is much different than how society often talks about failure. For most of us, failure feels like an indication of who we are as a person.
Failing a test means you’re not smart enough. Failing to get fit means you’re undesirable. Failing in business means you don’t have what it takes. Failing at art means you’re not creative. And so on.
But for the scientist, a negative result is not an indication that they are a bad scientist. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Proving a hypothesis wrong is often just as useful as proving it right because you learned something along the way.
Your failures are simply data points that can help lead you to the right answer.
An expert on human blind spots gives advice on how to think
/A lot of the issues or problems we get into, we get into because we’re doing it all by ourselves. We’re relying on ourselves. We’re making decisions as our own island, if you will. And if we consult, chat, schmooze with other people, often we learn things or get different perspectives that can be quite helpful.
An active social life, active social bonds, in many different ways tends to be something that’s healthy for people. Social bonds can also be informationally healthy as well. So that’s more on a top, more abstract level, if you will. That is, don’t try to do it yourself. Doing it yourself is when you get into trouble.
David Dunning quoted in Vox
Articles of Interest - week of Feb 18
/***BIG DATA & AI
IBM's AI loses debate to a human Cnet
Update on that study of p-hacking Stat Modeling
7 things we’ve learned about computer algorithms Pew Research Center
Major predictive policing algorithm is fundamentally flawed Motherboard
A look under the hood of an automated fake-news detection system MIT
Some ideas on how to make use of Kaggle to get the data science ball rolling Toward Data Science
***TECHNOLOGY
16% of US adults now own smartwatches Tech Crunch
How Should Self-Driving Cars Choose Who Not to Kill? Medium
***SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook’s Future Is Private Groups, for Better and Worse Bloomberg
Why Mark Zuckerberg's Writing Style Erodes Our Trust in Facebook The Blog of Slab
The Tinder algorithm, explained Vox
Teenage journalists memorialize hundreds of gun-violence victims Columbia Journalism Review
***MOBILE
US iPhone users spent, on average, $79 on apps last year, up 36% from 2017 Tech Crunch
***PRIVACY & SECURITY
Welcome to the age of surveillance capitalism The Guardian
Electric scooter reportedly vulnerable to hijacking hack Cnet
***PRODUCING MEDIA
The best WordPress hosting 2019 Tech Radar
***INTERNET
Ads 'slows down' browsing speeds BBC
How badly is Google Books search broken, and why? Sapping Attention
No, You Can’t Ignore Email: It’s Rude New York Times
Think I’ve Identified Email’s Fundamental Flaw The Cut
“Are you available for a quick task?” – Keep an eye out for the latest phishing scam hitting inboxes TechRadar
***JOURNALISM
A Crackdown On Journalism In The Philippines NPR
Journalists Can't Now Use A Database Of People's Phone Numbers And Addresses Buzzfeed News
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
The New York Times quietly paused its Snapchat channel Digiday
Media Layoffs Hit Peak Since 2009 Great Recession The Wrap
Findings from our national study on reinventing local TV News Storybench
Newsrooms are finally focusing on loyalty over pageviews: Here’s how to actually measure it Poynter
***FAKE NEWS
An Apocalyptic Preacher And QAnon Followers Made A Fake Pope Francis Quote Go Viral Buzzfeed News
Most Canadians trust media, but a similar share worry about fake news being weaponized: survey Global News
Russian Trolls Promoted Anti-Vaccination Propaganda That May Have Caused Measles Outbreak Researcher Claims Newsweek
Why Misinformation Is About Who You Trust, Not What You Think Nautil.us
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was seen in public Monday: Conspiracy theorists still insist she’s dead Washington Post
***PERSONAL GROWTH
Surviving the brain-dissolving internet Becoming (my blog)
Treat Failure Like a Scientist James Clear Blog
I’d like to tell you about the life-changing magic of not getting rid of things Washington Post
What’s all this fuss about “digital detox” — and does it really work? Recode
There's A Gap Between Perception And Reality When It Comes To Learning NPR
***WRITING & READING
The Newest Way To Check Out Library Books In Houston? Vending Machines Houston Public Media Houston Public Media
The Hardest Part of Writing Is Restarting Chronicle of Higher Education Chronicle of Higher Ed
5-Year-Old Logan Brinson Couldn't Find a Library Near Him—So He Opened One Himself Mental Floss
Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction The Paris Review
***LANGUAGE
Slang by state: Words only locals know USA Today
American parents say their children are speaking in British accent after watching too much Peppa Pig iTV
***LITERATURE
Tolkien’s World: An Exhibition Transports Us to Middle-earth New York Times
How an Italian Writer’s Imaginary Garden Became a Place of Literary Pilgrimage Atlas Obscura
***GENDER
The Women Who Contributed to Science but Were Buried in Footnotes The Atlantic
***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES
11-year-old arrested after refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Bay News 9
After Black Student Is Kept Out of Class Discussion, NYU School Acknowledges ‘Institutional Racism’ Chronicle of Higher Ed
US border agency sued for detaining two Spanish speakers BBC
When Fred Rogers and Francois Clemmons Broke Down Race Barriers on a Historic Episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1969) Open Culture
***FREE SPEECH
10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech: 2019 (including Liberty University) The FIRE
What is ‘auditing,’ and why did a YouTuber get shot for doing it? Washington Post
Another Politician Probably Violated the First Amendment By Blocking a Constituent on Twitter Technology & Marketing Law Blog
Federal Judge Thinks The Best Fix For An Accidentally Unsealed Court Doc Is Prior Restraint TechDirt
***LEGAL ISSUES
Fortnite's Appropriation Issue Isn't About Copyright Law, It's About Ethics Waypoint
CNN, Dish Fight This Question in Court: Is The Weather Channel a News Network? Hollywood Reporter
Copyrighting a dance step? Between a Hard (Milly) Rock and a Copyright Office The 1709 Blog
***RELIGION
I was hospitalized for depression. Faith helped me remember how to live Washington Post
Producer of ‘Silent Scream’ anti-abortion film dies Miami Herald
Founder Of Harvest Bible Chapel Fired For Misconduct And ‘Highly Inappropriate Comments’ Chicago CBS
***RELIGION OUTSIDE THE U.S.
Missionaries and nurses trapped in Haiti as protests sweep country CNN
Once a majority, Protestants now account for fewer than a third of Germans Pew Research Center
***RELIGION & SEXUAL ABUSE
Southern Baptist seminary chief regrets embrace of religious leader accused of hiding sex abuse Courier-Journal
More than 100 Southern Baptist youth pastors convicted or charged in sex crimes Houston Chronicle
***RELIGION & CELEBRITIES
Evangelicals claim Justin Bieber, but he won’t claim them Washington Examiner
Hillsong: Is this celeb-filled, Instagram-friendly church the new face of evangelicalism? NBC News
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
A law beloved by evangelicals could stand in the way of Trump’s wall Yahoo News
Wyoming Senate rejects death penalty repeal, one senator citing Jesus' crucifixion as her rationale The Week
***GOOD NEWS
UPS driver’s instincts lead to rescue of elderly man Fox 8
CNY Taco Bell worker writes a feel-good message in each take-out order; customers love it Syracuse.com
Inmates help police rescue Florida baby accidentally locked in car USA Today
Doctors Said His Daughter Might Never Walk (video) Digg
***MUSIC
"Rest in Vinyl” - A Company Will Press Your Ashes into a Working Vinyl Album The Vintage News
***FILM
A Peerless ‘War and Peace’ Film Is Restored to Its Former Glory New York Times
Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Crackpot Theories’ on How Moviegoing Has Changed The Atlantic
‘Office Space’ Turns 20 Variety
***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA
How the growth and evolution of the over-the-air tv home fits into today’s viewing landscape Nielsen
eSports Joins the Big Leagues Goldman Sachs
***JOBS: FREELANCING
Where to pitch, based on data from the website, Who Pays Writers? Columbia Journalism Review
What do freelance writers make? Storybench
Why Freelancing Creates Anxiety About Money The Cut
***SOCIAL ISSUES
Climate Change Still Seen as the Top Global Threat, but Cyberattacks a Rising Concern Pew Research Center
America’s gun problem, explained in 5 facts Vox
Facebook's security team tracks posts and keeps a possible threat list CNBC
***BUSINESS & FINANCE
What Happens To A Small Town After Walmart Leaves It (video) PBS
The GDP Of Each State, Matched To An Equivalent Country Digg
The Biggest Economic Divides Aren’t Regional—They’re Local New York Times
***ENVIRONMENT
Bold Plan? Replace the Border Wall with an Energy–Water Corridor Scientific American
From marine biology to gallery walls: At Lux, artist Courtney Mattison draws attention to the fragility of our oceans Union-Tribune
Key West bans sunscreens that harm coral reefs CNN
Why polar bears invaded a Russian village The Verge
Massive starfish die-off tied to warming seas Axios
This Scary Map Shows How Climate Change Will Transform Your City Wired
Scientist who resisted censorship of climate report lost her job Reveal News
***HEALTH: PREVENTION
Sneezed-In Tissues For Sale (video) Stephen Colbert
Children are using an unhealthy amount of toothpaste, CDC warns USA Today
Poor sleep could clog your arteries. A mouse study shows how that might happen Science Magazine
***HEALTH: VACCINES
Facebook under pressure to halt rise of anti-vaccination groups The Guardian
Anti-vaxxers are spreading conspiracy theories on Facebook, and the company is struggling to stop them Washington Post
In anti-vaccine rant, wife of top Trump aide says it's time to 'bring back our childhood diseases' The Week
***TRAVEL
Where Not to Travel in 2019, or Ever: Another take on the Christian Missionary who tried to Sentinelese (opinion) The Walrus
***FOOD
The official fast food French fry power rankings LA Times
***RELATIONSHIPS
About 40% of American couples now meet each other online Quartz
Sharing Netflix, Spotify Accounts After Couples Break Up NPR
Dating App Scams Vox
The Cities With the Most Singles Citylab
8 facts about love and marriage in America Pew Research Center
***SCIENCE
How Many Creationists Are There in America? Scientific American Blog Network
Ph.D. Student Breaks Down Electron Physics Into A Swinging Musical NPR
Does scientist immigration harm US science? An examination of the knowledge spillover channel ScienceDirect
Essential elements for high-impact scientific writing Nature
New NASA Mission Will Create Maps of the Sky Like Never Before Popular Mechanics
***NEUROSCIENCE
Depression speeds aging in the brain, a new study shows Quartz
How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past Quanta Magazine
***PHILOSOPHY
Why so many men online love to use “logic” to win an argument, and then disappear before they can find out they're wrong (opinion) The Outline
Google Translate is a manifestation of Wittgenstein’s theory of language Quartz
A global history of philosophy (podcast) BBC
***PRODUCTIVITY
Emotional burnout is fueled by envy The Outline
***HISTORY
How the US has hidden its empire The Guardian
***RESEARCH
Editorial Independence and Journal Ownership in the Age of Open Science The Scholarly Kitchen
Be cautious, skeptical with comprehensive reviews of evidence Association of Health Care Journalists Health Journalism
Study suggests that making reviewers’ reports freely readable doesn’t compromise peer-review process Nature
Replication is on the Rise Arnold Ventures
Major medical journals don’t follow their own rules for reporting results from clinical trials Science Magazine
The Fraud Finder: A conversation with Elisabeth Bik The Last Word On Nothing
***STUDENT MEDIA
As student journalists, how do you report on rape allegations? Pretty much the same way you report on anything else Dynamics of Writing
Student journalists hold power to account, with fewer protections Columbia Journalism Review
Loyola’s Media Policy is designed to hinder student reporting (opinion) Loyola Phoenix
Loyola Student Newspaper Accuses University of 'Trump' Tactics, Dodging Reporters NBC Chicago
***STUDENT LIFE
Historic black church pays off loans of Howard University students The Hill
Tobacco use is soaring among U.S. kids, driven by e-cigarettes Axios
College grads expect to earn $60,000 in their first job—here's how much they actually make CNBC
***ACADEMIC LIFE
College fires longtime professor of English when he asked too many questions about accreditation Inside Higher Ed
Is Email Making Professors Stupid? It used to simplify crucial tasks. Now it’s strangling scholars’ ability to think Chronicle of Higher Ed
Lessons learned from the Wright State strike: professors Inside Higher Ed
***ACADEMICS & PLAGIARISM
Current Policy, Past Investigations Offer Window Into Harvard’s Next Steps In Abramson Plagiarism Case The Harvard Crimson
***HIGHER ED
A Guide to the Changing Number of U.S. Universities US News
Judge says University of Texas at Austin can't revoke a former student's Ph.D. on its own, outside a court of law Inside Higher Ed
Mega-Universities Are On the Rise: They Could Reshape Higher Ed as We Know It Chronicle of Higher Ed
***HUMANITIES
Study documents economic gains from liberal arts education Inside Higher Ed
7 Things You Can Do With Your Humanities Degree Thrive Global
***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Louisiana College quits CCCU over LGBT policy Baptist Message
Why Bob Jones University hosted a gender and sexuality conference Greenville Online
Azusa Pacific University: Is a Faculty Purge Imminent? (opinion) Rewire
Surviving the brain-dissolving internet
/I’ve been a technology journalist for nearly 20 years and a tech devotee even longer. Over that time, I’ve been obsessed with how the digital experience scrambles how we make sense of the real world.
Technology may have liberated us from the old gatekeepers, but it also created a culture of choose-your-own-fact niches, elevated conspiracy thinking to the center of public consciousness and brought the incessant nightmare of high-school-clique drama to every human endeavor. It also skewed our experience of daily reality.
Objectively, the world today is better than ever, but the digital world inevitably makes everyone feel worse. It isn’t just the substance of daily news that unmoors you, but also the speed and volume and oversaturated fakery of it all.
And so, to survive the brain-dissolving internet, I turned to meditation.
The fad is backed by reams of scientific research showing the benefits of mindfulness for your physical and mental health — how even short-term stints improve your attention span and your ability to focus, your memory, and other cognitive functions.
Farhad Manjoo writing in the New York Times
Daily Rituals
/Here’s the true secret of life: We mostly do everything over and over. In the morning, we let the dogs out, make coffee, read the paper, help whoever is around get ready for the day. We do our work. In the afternoon, if we have left, we come home, put down our keys and satchels, let the dogs out, take off constrictive clothing, make a drink or put water on for tea, toast the leftover bit of scone. I love ritual and repetition. Without them, I would be a balloon with a slow leak.
Daily rituals, especially walks, even forced marches around the neighborhood, and schedules, whether work or meals with non-awful people, can be the knots you hold on to when you’ve run out of rope.
Anne Lamott, Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair
face and explore
/We have to face and explore directly our inner restlessness, our mixed feelings towards others, and our deep-seated suspicions about the absence of God. -Henri J. M. Nouwen
A one-way ticket to a toxic relationship
/Many people are addicted to the ups and downs of romantic love. They are in it for the feels, so to speak. And when the feels run out, so do they. Many people get into a relationship as a way to compensate for something they lack or hate within themselves. This is a one-way ticket to a toxic relationship because it makes your love conditional — you will love your partner as long as they help you feel better about yourself. You will give to them as long as they give to you. You will make them happy as long as they make you happy. This conditionality prevents any true, deep-level intimacy from emerging and chains the relationship to the bucking throes of each person’s internal dramas.
Moral Hypocrisy
/It pays to be wary of those who are the quickest and loudest in condemning the moral failings of others – the chances are that moral preachers are as guilty themselves, but take a far lighter view of their own transgressions. In one study, researchers found that people rated the exact same selfish behaviour (giving themselves the quicker and easier of two experimental tasks on offer) as being far less fair when perpetuated by others. Similarly, there is a long-studied phenomenon known as actor-observer asymmetry, which in part describes our tendency to attribute other people’s bad deeds, such as our partner’s infidelities, to their character, while attributing the same deeds performed by ourselves to the situation at hand. These self-serving double standards could even explain the common feeling that incivility is on the increase – recent research shows that we view the same acts of rudeness far more harshly when they are committed by strangers than by our friends or ourselves.
Christian Jarrett writing in The British Psychological Society’s Research Digest
Articles of Interest - Feb 11
/***TECHNOLOGY
Scientists connect a human brain and 'rat cyborg' brain together CNET
The Fortnite Marshmello event represents something different by many orders of magnitude Wired
The future of lawn care? This Dallas company's robots mow the yard for you WFAA
***SOCIAL MEDIA
15 Instagram Feeds That Help Make the World More Wondrous Atlas Obscura
How Many Hashtags Should I Use On Instagram In 2019? This Is What The Experts Recommend Bustle
An early Facebook investor throws up his hands: We’ve been ‘Zucked’ Washington Post
Twitter discloses daily active user count for first time Axios
Snapchat, no longer bleeding users, tests Android app redesign Mashable
***MOBILE
How does photography (& taking selfies) affect you? We tried to find out (video) Wired
All 230 New Emojis for 2019 (video) Emojipedia
***JOURNALISM
Mass. legislator proposes government commission to examine journalism industry Boston Globe
The Rise of the Robot Reporter New York Times
Craigslist founder donates $15 million for journalism ethics San Francisco Gate
Former 'NYT' Executive Editor Jill Abramson Responds To Plagiarism Allegations NPR
Did A Robot Write This? How AI Is Impacting Journalism Forbes
Lessons for Journalists from conflict mediation training The Whole Story
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Which platforms are driving more traffic to news websites? Harvard’s Nieman Lab
Amid Layoffs, McClatchy News CEO Got a $900,000 Bonus in 2017 Miami New Times
The alternative to your dying local paper is written by one person, a robot, and you Recode
This TV News Anchor Says Her Boss Called Her Natural Hair Too "Unprofessional" For Broadcast Buzzfeed News
***FAKE NEWS
Facebook adds new fact-checking partner Axios
Peering under the hood of fake-news detectors MIT Technology Review
***PRIVACY & SECURITY
Extension will detect your unsafe passwords Wired
Big Telecom Sold Highly Sensitive Customer GPS Data Typically Used for 911 Calls Motherboard
Many Popular iPhone Apps Secretly Record your Screen Tech Crunch
***PRODUCING MEDIA
Is it time for every publisher to “pivot to podcasts”? What’s News in Publishing
LinkedIn Debuts LinkedIn Live, a new video broadcast Service Tech Crunch
***INTERNET
Each State’s Most-Googled Relationship Question Century Link Quote
What happens when you try to live without the big five (Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple) Subtraction
Russia Is Considering An Experiment To Disconnect From The Internet NPR
***BIG DATA & AI
MIT Tech: machine learning is now witnessing a downfall Analytics Insights
Startups help companies track their competition with spy satellites Seattle Times
Top 10 Machine Learning Programming Languages Analytics Insights
***PERSONAL GROWTH
Do you understand a thing or only its definition? Becoming (my blog)
How To Sound Smart CollegeHumor
3 simple habits that can protect your brain from cognitive decline Fast Company
***WRITING & READING
The Atlas of Endangered Alphabets: A Free Online Atlas That Helps Preserve Writing Systems That May Soon Disappear Open Culture
A Patron Returned a Book to a Maryland Library Nearly 75 Years After It Was Due Mental Floss
***LANGUAGE
A College Lost Its Languages One by One. Can 3 Professors Save Spanish? Chronicle of Higher Ed
Entertainment Studios Will Launch Spanish-Language Weather Channel In 2020 Deadline
***LITERATURE
T.S.Eliot's Cat The Daily Star
J.D. Salinger’s Family To Publish Trove Of Secret Works The Guardian
McDonald’s Happy Meals Now Come With Roald Dahl Books Instead of Toys in New Zealand Mental Floss
Welcome to the Bold and Blocky Instagram Era of Book Covers Vulture
The 50 Best One-Star Amazon Reviews of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury Literary Hub
***GENDER
Over a Third of Generation Z Knows a Non-Binary Person The Daily Beast
***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES
When school dress codes depend on the color of your skin Washington Post
A class of Black 6th grade students recreated famous book covers for Black History Month Hello Giggles
Black Farmers Once Comprised 14% Of America's Farmers. Today, It's Less Than 2%. What Happened? Digg
The Conversation the Press Isn’t Having: Even when people of color do very American things, they still aren’t seen as being members of American culture (opinion) The Atlantic
***BLACKFACE
Photos of blackface, KKK robes and nooses lurk alongside portraits in old college yearbooks Washington Post
VCU and predecessors yearbooks show racist imagery as late as 1989, students held “Slave Sale” fundraiser Commonwealth Times (VCU student newspaper)
More Anger Over Blackface Yearbook Photos Inside Higher Ed
About a third of Americans say blackface in a Halloween costume is acceptable at least sometimes Pew Research Center
The complicated, always racist history of blackface Vox
***FREE SPEECH
Boy, 10, takes knee during pledge of allegiance at NC city council meeting WMCA-TV
Michigan RAs told not to remove racist or other offensive language from dormitory doors: Officials say they can't suppress free expression Inside Higher Ed
When Colleges Confine Free Speech to a ‘Zone,’ It Isn’t Free ACLU
***LEGAL ISSUES
Wave of concussion lawsuits to test NCAA's liability Associated Press
Too Many Graduates at some Law Schools Fail to pass the Bar USA Today
What’s New With Emoji Law? Technology & Marketing Law Blog
***CRIME
Why Thieves Target Gun Stores The New Yorker
***REALLY?!
For $20, Wildlife Images will put your ex's name on a salmon and feed it to a bear KTVL
Man Wanted By Police for Selling Fake Super Bowl Tickets to His Own Family (He made nearly $1 million) Fatherly
***RELIGION
How highly religious Americans view evolution depends on how they’re asked about it Pew Research Center
Chris Pratt, Justin Bieber, and the rise of the “cool” Christian celebrity Vox
Cross washed ashore in FL may have floated from NC memorial Miami Herald
The Church With the $6 Billion Portfolio New York Times
Half of Millennial Christians Say It’s Wrong to Evangelize Christianity Today
***RELIGION OUTSIDE THE U.S.
The life and death of John Chau, the man who tried to convert his killers The Guardian
***RELIGION & LGBTQ
United Methodists face vote on LGBTQ issues. Will it rip the church apart? Chicago Tribune
Win for Christian Group at Iowa: Judge says university cannot deny recognition because of antigay rules Inside Higher Ed
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
Trump emerges as an unexpected champion in the White House for evangelicals ABC News
When Christian Evangelicals Loved Socialism Jstor
***GOOD NEWS
My disabled son’s amazing gaming life in the World of Warcraft BBC
When a Newton family welcomed a baby who is deaf, 20 neighbors learned sign language Boston Globe
Father organises heavy metal festival for his music-loving son Mason, who has cerebral palsy My Good Planet
Two hundred strangers attended Holocaust survivor’s funeral Washington Post
This 92-year-old Wayne firefighter has been battling blazes since WWII NorthJersey.com
Snowball fight! Hundreds show up for epic battle at Tacoma park Q-13
***ART & DESIGN
How artists with disabilities are re-imagining art and tech Immerse
The Secret Lives of Color 99% Invisible
10 Insights on the State of Visual Storytelling in 2019 Aetka
***MUSIC
How Focus Music Hacks Your Brain Cheddar
How To Find The Right Musical Instrument For You Infographic
***FILM
11 Facts About Blazing Saddles on Its 45th Anniversary Metal Floss
Steven Soderbergh’s ‘High Flying Bird’ and the Rise of iPhone Films The Ringer
***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms Houston Chronicle
New Tribes Missions Covered up sexual abuse, say missionary kids NBC News
Leavenworth judge blames children in Kansas sex abuse case The Kansas City Star
***BUSINESS & FINANCE
Why You Should Work Less and Spend More Time on Hobbies Harvard Business Review
How much you'll need to retire at 55 in every state Digg
***FAMILY
Ultimate Guide To Teen Slang For Parents Daily Infographic
***ENVIRONMENT
The magnetic field near the Arctic is acting weird The Verge
Are We Watching the End of the Monarch Butterfly? New York Times
***HEALTH
Higher education won't prevent mental decline, study finds NBC News
Five-year survival rates for nearly all cancers are on the rise Our World in Data
How it feels to be obese The Atlantic
Hospital Mergers Improve Health? Evidence Shows the Opposite New York Times
***HEALTH & VACCINES
Why measles is back, in five charts Popular Science
Hundreds rally to preserve right not to vaccinate children amid measles outbreak WCTV
Measles outbreaks are everywhere: Here's what you need to know Popular Science
***HEALTH TECHNOLOGY
New disease surveillance tool helps detect any human virus Broad Institute
Self-charging pacemakers are powered by patients' heartbeats Engadget
First dexterous hand prosthesis implanted Chalmers
First-ever in-body gene editing of a live patient Associated Press
Defying Parents, A Teen Decides To Get Vaccinated NPR
***TRAVEL
Travel Tips from a Guy Who Travels Kinda Often Subtraction
5 best trips for solo travelers CNN
Southwest's Plan to Launch Flights to Hawaii Could Start a Fare War to the Aloha State Fortune
***FOOD
8 Foods You've Been Eating All Wrong Metal Floss
Incorrect things We Believed About Food 25 Years Ago (video)
Map Shows the Most Popular Girl Scout Cookie in Each State Fatherly
***ANIMALS
Colorado Runner Kills Mountain Lion In Self-Defense NPR
Scientists Are Totally Rethinking Animal Cognition The Atlantic
***SCIENCE
19 Common Things Science Hasn’t Figured Out Mental Floss
Harvard's top astronomer says an alien ship may be among us Boston.com
For Darwin Day, 6 facts about the evolution debate Pew Research Center
***PSYCHOLOGY
Why keeping secrets may be damaging your mental health Scientific American
The myth of Ted Bundy as a charming guy The Outline
How to Talk to a Friend Struggling With Their Mental Health Life Hacker
Laughter is a uniquely human – and collective – activity Aeon
***PHILOSOPHY
Aristotle’s Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life The Week
3 philosophers set up a booth on a street corner – here’s what people asked The Conversation
***HISTORY
The deadly race to the South Pole (video)
***RESEARCH
Call for retraction of 400 scientific papers amid fears organs came from Chinese prisoners The Guardian
Reflections on Citation Mania ACS Energy Letters ACS
NIH asks federal watchdog to investigate 12 allegations related to foreign influence of biomedical research Science Magazine
What is the single major threat to research integrity?” Experts weigh in Clinical Chemistry
***HIGHER ED
Large donation to a small community college changes the outlook on fund-raising by two-year institutions Inside Higher Ed
Most evangelical college students appreciate LGBT people even if trustees don’t (opinion) Religious News Service
***HUMANITIES
Can larger liberal arts colleges learn from the successes and missteps of small art schools? Inside Higher Ed
As STEM majors soar at UW, interest in humanities shrinks — a potentially costly loss Seattle Times
***TEACHING
Should You Allow Laptops in Class? Here’s What the Latest Study Adds to That Debate Chronicle of Higher Ed
Do Racial Epithets Have Any Place in the Classroom? A Professor’s Suspension Fuels That Debate Chronicle of Higher Ed
***STUDENT LIFE
Towson University police warn of a woman on the loose, looking for a date for her son Baltimore Sun
Teens don't use Facebook, but they can't escape it, either Wired
Colleges tracking online interaction NEWS-5
Here’s Why So Many Americans Feel Cheated By Their Student Loans BuzzFeed News
The Silly Stereotypes That Elite-College Students Have About Other Campuses The Atlantic
The Sexualized Messages Dress Codes are Sending to Students Pudding
Tuition or food? How college kids use food pantries to help food insecurity USA Today
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Tenure is again at risk in Iowa Inside Higher Ed
Why left and right both get the meaning of academic freedom wrong Washington Post
Do you understand a thing or only its definition?
/We take other men’s knowledge and opinions upon trust; which is an idle and superficial learning. We must make them our own. We are just like a man who, needing fire, went to a neighbor’s house to fetch it, and finding a very good one there, sat down to warm himself without remembering to carry any back home. What good does it do us to have our belly full of meat if it is not digested, if it is not transformed into us, if it does not nourish and support us?
Montaigne